Musings on an ordinary life...

A peek at moi?

2011-09-14T15:23:00.002+10:00

One of the things that brings people to my blog, seems to be a picture of David Tennant from the Roflrazzi site. This is the post I mean.

Well there's a new site for Doctor Who fans (that would be me!) - For the Whovians - and I'm loving it! I found this one a moment ago:

I can't link directly to the page unfortunately. Check out the site though, some quite funny captions there.

Another site I've found recently is Kondoot.com - a site that lets you broadcast your videos. It seems to be a little like Facebook and You Tube mixed in. Anyways... if you'd like to see what I look like, go here! The video is not great quality unfortunately - my webcam is just an el cheapo.

oops

2011-09-01T22:27:00.002+10:00

Have I seriously not updated this blog since July? Naughty me...

I've been setting up Bloglines again, to make it easier to catch up with my favourites. I had it set up years ago but it's quite different now. Does anyone use another setup to keep up with their blogs?

I'll update soon - have been busy with a trip to Queensland and then home again to get sick for two weeks (still not completely well). Plus it appears I generously shared my illness with Chickie and J. Oh the angst of trying to explain to a 9 year old, that having some Ventolin might help him a little.

I will update soon... I promise!

The things you see...

2011-07-19T21:37:00.003+10:00

I went grocery shopping today.

I'm still annoyed about actually doing the shopping to be honest. You see, I discovered the joys of online shopping back in February this year. It was great to be able to log on, click a bunch of things and have them delivered to my door a day or so later. I didn't get everything online - I preferred picking out my fruit and veg personally, and some things were never on special online (Coke Zero for example). All in all though, I was very satisfied.

Then they changed the available delivery time slots. The supermarket, I was going through, had a range of delivery slots costing between $13 and $5. I'm no longer working so I'm enthusiastically embracing the inner cheapskate (whilst trying to placate my inner lazy sod), therefore I always chose the $5 slot. Suited me beautifully - until the supermarket removed that time slot. They still had a couple of $5 slots but both clashed with school pickup or dropoffs. Colour me very disappointed.

I looked into a competitor but they didn't have any cheapie delivery slots either. They did have an option to choose your groceries online and then you pick it up. My inner cheapskate cheered! Unfortunately, it turned out the closest place that did this was really too far to make it worthwhile (at about this point my inner lazy sod cheered - well all right, she would have if she had the energy for it).

What it left me with though, was a return to the weekly trudge to the supermarket. And what I saw today...

Wild Krill Oil.

Wild Krill Oil.

It got me to thinking - is there such a thing as Tame Krill Oil and if so, how the heck do you tame krill?

Not the most hated mother on the planet!

2011-06-24T14:41:00.006+10:00

I've managed to escape being 'hated' by Chickie this week. You see, a month or so back, he'd brought home two notes from school. One for swimming and one for dancesport. I merrily signed both and sent in the required cash and thought all was good. Oh boy was I wrong!

A couple of weeks ago, I picked him up from school and he had an absolutely thunderous face. He took one look at me and said "I hate you* - you made me go to dance. I had to dance with GIRLS!". Turns out, the dancesport note wasn't compulsory - just an 'if you're interested' type of thing. Silly me didn't realise that, and had condemned my long suffering 9 year old boy to dancing with a girl. For four weeks...

Last week was the same - he hated me again and not only did he have to dance with all the girls, but he had to hold their hands (oh, the horror!).

This week I was pleasantly suprised to find he liked dancesport. Turned out that, this week, they were taught how to moonwalk. Not only did he enjoy himself but he and a friend discussed how cool they were for being able to get the idea of how to do it, when their teacher told them it took her several months to perfect it herself. All the while I was trying very very hard to keep a straight face.

I heaved a huge sigh of relief though. It was nice not to be the most hated mother this week.

* I know some people have an issue with their kids telling them they hate them. I don't personally, as I feel it's just a way of Chickie dealing with his emotions. I see it as a learning curve and sometime will tell him that it's a way of knowing I'm doing my job as a mother and not giving in to everything he wants. Other times I'll tell him that I might dislike his behaviour but never him. He normally calms down soon after then comes and apologises for saying it anyway.

Chickie is 9!

2011-06-01T20:51:00.002+10:00

Hard to believe my little baby is growing up. It's his 9th birthday today!

Bit of a coincidence but he woke up earlier this morning - at 12.45am exactly, which just so happens to be the moment he was actually born. He was quite tickled by the fact that he woke up at the exact moment. I thought it was funny that he woke up then as well.

I wasn't quite as happy that he then woke up at about 4am - ready to start the day. J and I sent him back to bed, only to be woken up again at 6.15am! We gave up and gave him his pressie. At least he had plenty of time to play with his new stuff before school. I suppose I can't be too surprised at his eagerness.

Discworld convention was awesome!

2011-04-28T19:25:00.004+10:00

Well, I had a fantastic time at the convention. There were lots of cool events ranging from Viking armour displays (yes I did get to wear a chain mail shirt, Viking helmet and brandish a sword) to more Discworld flavoured stuff like a mock trial of Lord Vetinari (for being a tyrant), plays based on Discworld characters, costume parades, games of Thud (Chickie loved this game) and much much more. I also got a book signed by Sir Terry himself (yes that's me in the photo), and after the closing ceremony I was able to get a photo of Chickie and me with Sir Terry, we also had a very quick chat.

We stayed in the hotel that is sort of attached to the convention centre, which happened to be where Terry, and his assistant Rob, also stayed. We saw him around quite a lot - breakfasting at the table next to him etc. Some friends and I had a quick chat with his assistant Rob one evening as well. They both seem like such lovely people. You can see that Terry's Alzheimers is affecting him - during his speech at the closing ceremony he seemed to lose track of what he was saying and mentioned that he has problems with short term memory loss. Quite sad to see this in one of my favourite authors.

There were quite a lot of people there but thankfully there were some cafe's and restaurants downstairs so getting some chillout time wasn't too hard.

After the convention we also went to Jenolan Caves. Talk about stunning! I have a thing for caves and the various formations, and the two caves we visited did not disappoint one bit! We saw the Lucas cave and the Temple of Baal cave. This pic is from the Lucas cave. This photo - and the others we took, have made us realise that we really need a better camera. This is a pretty basic camera and it's getting on in years too. I'm thinking a basic DSLR might be nice, but really have no idea where to start! So, a question - if you have a DSLR, what do you have and what do you like/dislike about it?

excited but also freaking out a bit

2011-04-04T20:32:00.002+10:00

This weekend J, Chickie and I are heading to Sydney for the Terry Pratchett convention Nullus Anxietas 3 and I am so excited!

Terry Pratchett is one of my all time favourite authors. I just love the Discworld series. The list of events sounds like so much fun and having the actual Terry Pratchett there as well.. icing on the cake!

On the other hand, I'm also dreading it a bit. One of the reasons I left work, was that my supervisor moved me to a different desk and I discovered that I have a bit of a phobia of being surrounded, or being in a crowd. I found I can manage for a while but the thought of being in that mindset 8 hours a day, 5 days a week was just a teensy bit overwhelming.

For years I sat at a desk on the outside edge of the room - windows behind me and most of the time no one in the desk next to me (with barriers between the other desks around me). I also found that I have hearing loss in the upper and lower registers that made it difficult to hear when there is a lot of noise around me (and in my old position the barriers, and having windows behind me meant I didn't notice it so much). I asked to be moved back, that request was declined, so that (and several other reasons) gave me the impetus to leave after eleven years.

I always had a problem with Christmas crowds and tended to do it in dribs and drabs (and then having to courier presents to my family because I took too long to send via Aus Post!). Not sure why I never did more online shopping (I think I will this year). Anyway, last weekend we went into the city centre to check out Angus and Robertson and Borders (to see if they had any good closure sales) and it only took a couple of hours until I started feeling a bit antsy. That was a couple of hours in a crowd, the convention is three days with heaven knows how many people (I'm thinking a lot!).

Anyone deal with similar issues? Any tips on how to deal with feeling freaked out?

Almost forgotten how this stuff works!

2011-03-26T21:56:00.002+11:00

It's been so long that navigating around Blogger's settings requires a bit of thinking, but I do believe I'm getting there.

I've gone through my links and deleted those that are gone or blogs that have been made private. There are a lot of bloggers that have just stopped (like I did), but since they're still up, I'll leave them in my list for now.

If you'd like to be linked, feel free to let me know. If you know a blog that I absolutely *have* to read, then also let me know!

I'm hoping to update a bit more regularly (well more than once or twice, every 18 months), and since I'm now a stay at home mum I should have time. Having a computer to do it on, is another thing... mine died last night! It was probably the shock of me blogging again, to be honest. Anyway, long story short - because it is a long story, trust me! - a Dell tech is coming out sometime next week to try to resurrect it. In the meantime I've commandeered Chickie's computer. His keyboard has a slight configuration difference though and, well put it this way - the backspace key is getting a good old workout (as is the key directly to the left of it, since I keep hitting that one by accident too!).

Caramaena who??

2011-03-25T14:44:00.002+11:00

Hi there! I have no idea if anyone ever visits any more but I thought I'd post anyway.

I don't know if you noticed, but I pretty much stopped blogging. No real reason why. Things got busy and you say to yourself "oh I'll post something tomorrow" and the next thing you know, it's a year and a half later.

A fair bit has happened since I last blogged, but I won't put everything here in detail since I'm sure I'll need topics later!

Short story, Chickie has had braces, but now has a plate/retainer instead and I've quit my job to be a stay at home mum. J's still at the same job, we have new nieces and nephews, his sister got married and his brother may be posted to *very dangerous place* overseas (he's in the armed forces) and my family's all (mostly) well.

So, if anyone's still reading my blog, feel free to catch me up with your life in the comments. I haven't had the chance yet to go through my links etc.

Smile restored

2009-09-08T22:35:00.002+10:00

Chickie's chipped tooth has been repaired but the dentist has decided to send him off to the orthodontist early. Since he's chipped that same tooth twice now (and being a kid there's a high chance he'll fall over again at some stage in his life...), the dentist thinks it might be beneficial to start evening out his teeth a bit sooner than they usually do.

Particularly since Chickie has expressed a desire to learn to play basketball. On hearing this, the dentist (unsurprisingly) suggested a mouthguard.

Chickie looks like he's probably going to have the height for basketball. I've stood him next to some 9 year olds and he's about the same height. So, now I'm looking around for a place/team for him to learn. He's completely lost interest in karate though J and I still go. J will probably go for his orange belt in the next few weeks. Due to my knee problems, the physio suggests I wait until October to try for my orange belt. I will have to admit I'm a bit frustrated by this knee. I want to get in there and really push myself. I want to do more than one session a week. Not to mention I need to lose some of this weight I've put back on (*sigh*). Ahh patience... perhaps one day I'll be familiar with the concept.

Oh and I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't bother to unpack the suitcase whilst on holidays. For a while there I was thinking I must be the laziest person ever.

Home again

2009-08-25T15:40:00.008+10:00

Ahh it was a lovely holiday. New Zealand is such a lovely place.

We flew into Christchurch and stayed the night. Then drove to Aoraki Mt Cook and had a night there. Explored the Sir Edmund Hillary Museum and Planetarium, after waking up to a spectacular view of the mountains (this is the view from our balcony).

The next day we drove to Queenstown and spent 5 days there. We did so many touristy things - visited a Kiwi park, went on jet boat rides, horse riding, explored an old gold mining town, took scenic helicopter flights to see glaciers (and landed on top of a mountain!), and of course, we visited the snow fields a couple of times. My knee has been playing up again so the physio recommended I skip the skiing unfortunately but it was fun playing in the snow anyway.

Plus I got to watch Chickie learn to snowboard (that's him in the picture, during his lesson). He's technically a bit young still, we were told. The instructors said kids' muscles don't really develop enough until they're at least 8 years old, but since he's tall for his age and it was fairly quiet they let him take a day long lesson. He did struggle a bit with his balance but we got some shots of him snowboarding on his own (even if it was just for a few seconds heheh). He really enjoyed it though.

After Queenstown we drove on to Dunedin. There we explored Lanarch Castle - apparently the only castle in New Zealand. It was a lovely place with amazing views over the harbour.

From Dunedin we drove back to Christchurch and spent the night and half the last day there looking around. J's mum particularly wanted to see the Cathedral there.

Last but not least was a looooong flight home again. It always seems like such a long trip when you're heading home - whether it actually is or not!! We thought it might end up much much longer when our last flight home was delayed because of the awful weather. So we sat down in the airport for a bite to eat thinking we'd be sitting about for ages but just as we finished eating the announcement came to say they'd been given permission to fly faster to make up the time. I guess it never occurred to me that there'd be speed limits for flights but I suppose there'd have to be.

In the end the landing here at home was a bit hairy. Stormy outside and a lot of turbulence. I will admit to grabbing the armrest a few times - all the while trying to look cheerful for Chickie's sake (he was looking a little nervous).

Travelling with the inlaws can be interesting. I think we get on great but there were a few things that struck me as so different to what I'm used to. One of them is that J's dad is very very organised. On occasion I found myself perplexed at the level of organisation. It made things run very smoothly but it's more regimented than I'm used to.

The other thing I found odd is that J's mum unpacked Chickie's suitcase and put all his clothes into the drawers in his room (we were staying at these apartments for 5 days or so). I probably found this odd because I've never actually done that myself - I can't think of anytime I've ever used the drawers at a holiday destination. I don't think my family's ever done that in the past either. At most I've hung up my jacket but, more often than not, I just live out of a suitcase. It made me wonder how many people do this (I'm wondering if I've been massively lazy all these years lol!) - so a question... when on holidays for more than a day or so, do you unpack your suitcase?

Greetings from New Zealand... again!

2009-08-16T20:42:00.002+10:00

Yes, we're back in New Zealand. J and I loved it so much last year, we wanted to come back and this time bring the family. So, this year it's Chickie, J and I, as well as J's mum (M) and dad (P).

We arrived a few days ago - into Christchurch like last year. This time though, we've hired a car and we took a leisurely drive to Aoraki Mt Cook. Our hotel room there had a balcony that looked out onto the mountains and waking up to the view of the snow topped mountains, with a bit of low cloud, crowned by a sliver of a crescent moon was just awe-inspiring.

Today we drove to Queenstown. P is a keen skier so will be off to the slopes (probably Coronet Peaks) early in the morning. J wants to do a bit of skiing - and wants Chickie to give it a try (not sure when though). M isn't really into skiing and as for me... well I found out the knee problems I've been having are damage to my cartlege and my physio says I should skip the skiing for now. We're working on getting back into karate safely - hopefully to get my orange belt in September or October. I'm disappointed I won't get to ski this time, but at least my focus this year has always been more sightseeing and relaxing. I'm really hoping that this trip I'll get to see a glacier (would love to do one of the glacier landing tours too). Provided all goes well, that will be my expensive 'thing' this trip.

Unfortunately the trip has had it's downside already. Chickie has been full of beans so far and climbing on everything he's allowed. Yesterday it was a wet rock and (I think you might know where this might be heading...) he slipped. He ended up cutting his lips (top and bottom) and unbelieveably - he chipped that same damn tooth that he chipped last year.

My heart just sunk when he finally stopped crying enough to show me his mouth. A chunk missing from the bottom of his front (adult) tooth. I'm hoping like crazy that he's just lost the cap that fixed up the last mishap - but, for the life of me, I can't recall which corner of the tooth was chipped last time. If I'm honest with myself, I've got a horrible feeling that it's not the same corner. We haven't been able to check with a dentist yet at all - I'm hoping we can talk to one tomorrow. Heaven knows how much it will cost - I hope the travel insurance covers some of it.

Chickie himself seems fine though. He's not in any pain and aside from the chunk missing, the tooth looks like it always has. Amazingly he was wanting to climb stuff again today - this was quietly discouraged...

super school?

2009-07-02T21:03:00.003+10:00

At the moment, J and I are faced with the possibility of Chickie's school closing and his (as well as a few other schools) combining to make a 'super school' located at the local high school around the corner. I have mixed feelings about this really.

On one hand there'll be newer, better facilities and the opportunity to do stuff his current school can't offer (eg: his current school really has nothing in the way of music/drama options) - not to mention that numbers are shrinking all over the area so funding for maintenance is barely keeping up.

On the other hand, I think Chickie's temperament suits a smaller school - I wonder how he'd manage with a really large school. I also wonder if having all the kids together means earlier exposure to things that he wouldn't normally see until he actually gets to high school (smoking for example). Not that he hasn't been exposed to smoking already but, as far as I know, he's only seen adults smoke (or am I being naive here?).

Then there's the traffic problem. The high school is around the corner and where my street is, is quite close to the traffic lights to get onto a main road here. This means its normally an absolute nightmare to get in and out of that end of the street between 3-4pm now - having the 'super school' up the road will only make it worse I'm sure (there isn't a lot of choice with main road access in this area). At least I can get home via the other end of the street - but it means driving through a bit of a maze to get there.

We had to put in a vote on whether we were interested in going ahead and it looks like the vote was in favour. At the meetings about it, they said if we do vote yes, then it will probably be 2-3 years before it starts to happen.

Has anyone had any experience with these 'super schools'? Can you pass on any thoughts or impressions you've gathered? This is one of those times I really wish I could see the future!

Errmmm...

2009-07-02T18:15:00.003+10:00

Should I be concerned? At work there's been three people diagnosed with swine flu - two of them in my team and one of those two sits at the desk next to me.

The first team member to be diagnosed found out last Friday, I think, and then the guy who sits near me let us know this afternoon (he's been off work the last two days). I've done some reading up and it sounds like there's a good possibility I've been exposed. I have a bit of a sore throat at the moment, but there's every chance that its just my inner hypochondriac escaping!

In other news, Chickie had his 7th birthday party and it went well. I had an initial panic with the RSVP's - only having a couple by the date I'd asked for replies. So I invited four extra kids (from our mum's group), one of those was a maybe due to a netball game (she ended up not coming) and another got sick the day before. All except one of the school friends that were invited ended up RSVP'ing yes. The one that didn't had his own birthday party at pretty much the same time (Chickie and at least one other of our guests were invited to that one too). Then at the party itself we had one that had RSVP'd yes, do a no-show. Not a problem in the end though, as one of the mums had brought her other child and they were going to go do some bowling while the party was going. So I invited her to be part of the party too. The kids had a great time I think.

Next year though - a maximum of three friends over for a sleepover I think. Or am I mad for thinking that I can handle four 8 year olds overnight?

More Chickie-isms

2009-05-21T17:50:00.002+10:00

Driving home from getting Chickie's hair cut (finally! He didn't want it cut before as he wanted Anakin hair), we were listening to the radio. We heard a snippet of an interview the breakky crew did with Kevin Rudd (Australian Prime Minister) where he was talking about Twitter.

Chickie was asking what they were talking about and I explained how some politicians liked to use Twitter and our Prime Minister was one of them. Chickie made a surprised noise and said...

"Wait... you're telling me our Prime Minister is a politician???"

--
Thanks for your kind comments about our break-in too. We have the insurance almost sorted and should have a new TV and the games replaced soon. We also now have a (very very loud) alarm system in the house. I'm concerned about Chickie a little though. He's having nightmares a bit and is resisting going to bed - often not going to sleep until several hours after he's put to bed (which I'm sure doesn't help with the nightmares). Anyone have any suggestions for relieving some of the anxiety about it all?

Violated

2009-04-27T20:42:00.002+10:00

From dictionary.com:

–verb (used with object), -lat⋅ed, -lat⋅ing.

1.	to break, infringe, or transgress (a law, rule, agreement, promise, instructions, etc.).

2.	to break in upon or disturb rudely; interfere thoughtlessly with: to violate his privacy.

3.	to break through or pass by force or without right: to violate a frontier.

In my world it means our house got broken into and our TV and Wii/Xbox games got pinched.

As things go it was a relatively minor burglary. Only the TV, games and a few Wii related items were taken. The computers are all here, Chickie's DS was still in it's docking station and it looks like it was a quick in, rustle around lounge room, computer room and my bedroom - then out again. Insurance will likely cover what was taken.

On the other hand, when they were in the bedroom they went through my drawers. My underwear drawers... ick. That feels like a real violation. I suppose they were looking for jewellery, but the light in the bedroom doesn't work and my beside chest of drawers is probably the only place they could really see properly. So, lucky me, got her knickers strewn around the bedroom.

One thing I'm quite nervous about is the fact that they didn't take any of the computers or laptops. We're computer people - we have a lot of computer stuff. While they may have thought the TV was the best option for now, what if they want to come back for the other bits and pieces that they couldn't carry? When J suggested he stay home tomorrow and get the paperwork and other bits and pieces sorted out, I was thrilled. I thought I'd sound silly suggesting it, but obviously J was thinking the same thing. The police officer who came round said she's done this job for 3 years and has only seen repeat break-ins about 3 times, so it's not a common thing. I still feel a lot more comfortable with J staying home tomorrow though.

One thing I'm angry about though, is Chickie's lost a bit of his sense of security. He went to bed saying he was scared, so I lay in his bed with him just cuddling him and talking about nice things. He then started talking about how his tummy didn't feel good, so I got J to take over and sit with him. He's asleep now, which is good. TV's and games can be replaced - I'm more angry they've scared my son.

Grrr... thieving bastards...

Oh my aching shoulders...

2009-04-17T15:08:00.002+10:00

J, Chickie and I have been doing karate for a while now. We all have our yellow belts (J and I have our orange tips even) and I'm only a month or so from grading for my orange belt. J's a little behind me because unfortunately he's been sick a couple of times. I'll probably hold off grading until he's able to go too - not only because it's fun to practice together, but I'm not the most coordinated person on the planet, so a few extra lessons for me will definitely be useful!

During the school holidays GKR Karate often has special lessons and other fun events on. This week they've opened up the Sensei (teacher) classes to everyone. I went along to one last night and omg! Those guys are fit!! The Sensei from our dojo was there and she barely broke a sweat - she looked as cool as a cucumber while I was a puddle of sweat. The class went for an hour and a half - though it felt like I'd been there for 5 hours before we got a drink break. I think I downed about a litre and a half of water during and after the class (mostly after).

It was a lot of fun though. Seeing how well the moves can be performed, when the black belts do it, is amazing. It was also good to see that even the teachers mess up some of the moves sometimes (it warms my little uncoordinated heart hehe). The Sensei taking the class also performed one of the black belt katas. That was so cool to watch. I wonder if I'll ever be able to reach that level. It's certainly a looooong way from here though.

Anyway, I think my poor little achy shoulders deserve some TLC - so I'm off for a massage :)

Crisis averted

2009-04-09T16:31:00.002+10:00

Well ok, I'm being dramatic - but I'm relieved.

Chickie's in first grade at school, in a grade 1/2 combined class. He's supposed to have one teacher on Mondays - Miss S, and then Mrs D teaches the rest of the week. Well, since school started in January, he's had Miss S a total of once. Every other Monday has been a substitute - and usually a different one each week. It's not really Miss S' fault though - she's also the Junior Primary Principal so she's very busy with that.

The last few weeks though, I've been wondering how the heck he can get any consistency with an arrangement like that. I've no real idea how it's impacting the class to have someone different every Monday (if you ask Chickie what he does at school, it's either 'craft day' or they sat at their desks and stared at each other for several hours lol!)

I've talked to another parent (she and her son do karate with us too) and she's been quite concerned about the effect on her son - she says he gets very naughty on Monday afternoons. I haven't noticed that with Chickie specifically, but since this parent often volunteers in the classroom, I'm inclined to think her concern is valid.

I was getting to the stage where I thought it was time to talk to Mrs D or someone! - but today Chickie came home with a note saying that Miss S would be replaced by Mrs P, from next term. I'm glad. Nothing against Miss S of course, it's just that I can't see how effective it can be to have a team teaching arrangement with one member being different every week!

Oh and in other good news - I won third prize in the easter raffle at work yesterday. The box of chocolate is huge!!

lolcats strike again!

2009-03-19T00:15:00.003+11:00

From icanhascheezburger.com...

I start work at 7am, so this is me when the alarm goes off:

Chickie did it!!

2009-03-16T20:34:00.002+11:00

Woohoo! My little boy is officially a yellow belt! We're so proud of him.

He concentrated pretty well during the grading (his concentration is not normally great so I was a bit worried about that). He did get a little over-excited at times and had to be reminded to wait for the count, but overall I was very impressed.

We went out to dinner to celebrate last night and had a Viennetta (ice cream 'cake') for dessert. He's very pleased about it all (well that and the various ships he's made out of Lego). He seems to be a little excited about learning some new moves.

So we're all yellow belts now... though J and I are halfway to our orange belts (but we have a lot of work ahead of us!).

Oh my aching back...

2009-03-12T18:20:00.003+11:00

I have spent ages on the floor, with Chickie, putting together a Lego Star Wars Hyena Droid Bomber ship. I'm really not Lego oriented. Really really not...

Chickie's earned it as part of our push to work on his reading. We had a parent - teacher conference a week or so back and Chickie's reading is really not where it should be. I figured he wasn't great at it but I thought it was ok. Turns out... no.

We were doing his readers and his 'word walls' but good grief, it was a struggle some days. Focus is really not an area he excels in sometimes. So we worked out a reward system. The Lego ship was an immediate reward to get to the next level. He'll have smaller rewards for each level and then another larger one when he gets up to where he should be.

I'm hoping that focusing on his reading might also help with his focusing at karate. He's actually going to try for his yellow belt this weekend. I have no idea if he'll get it or not, but I have to say I'm very proud that he's prepared to try. He could have actually tried when J and I got our yellow belts last year, but I think he was afraid to give it a go. He's often reluctant to try new things. Believe it or not, he finally tried jam for the first time last week - and decided he loves strawberry jam sandwiches!

Wish us luck for Sunday. I really don't care if he gets his belt or not, but I have to say it would be a huge boost to his confidence if he does.

Too... hot... to... think...

2009-01-28T17:43:00.002+11:00

Today it got to 45.6 degrees people! That's 114 degrees F.

And some parts of the state got to 47.5 (117.5F)!!!

What is going on?

The a/c at work did a beautiful job - it's always too cold in there but today - perfection! Chickie's school, on the other hand, isn't coping so well. Here they are, 2 days into the new school year and they're being advised to either stay home the next few days or only come in the mornings, as their a/c isn't coping. Luckily J has tomorrow off anyway and I'll have my usual Friday off, so that won't be too difficult to manage.

Anyone in the North Hemisphere want some heat? Would be more than happy to pass some on to you!

OK

2009-01-17T10:05:00.003+11:00

I'm no longer the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. I am now greater than that :)

For those of you who like lolcats...

2009-01-16T13:33:00.004+11:00

This from roflrazzi.com cracks me up:

PS: Zazzy, if you're thinking of getting a Roomba - go for it. Frogdancer's comment on that post was pretty close to how I feel about it!

Oh and Stomper - it appears the Lego-less floor means I now have Lego-full lounge... but at least there's no stepping on it in the middle of the night - sounds like Phos has done his fair share of that!

Another year...

2009-01-05T16:23:00.002+11:00

Happy new year everyone. Hope you all had a lovely holiday season.

Ours was nice and quiet - a good thing after Christmas 2007's busy one with all my family here (way too hectic for me). New year's was pretty quiet too - I had to work at 7am new year's day.

I received some lovely pressies too - one big surprise from J and Chickie was a robot vacuum cleaner - a Roomba (looks like the third generation one shown in the link there). Normally I am not the person to appreciate whitegoods or household items as personal gifts. This however is like the best thing evah!! It cleans the floors - without me doing a thing (I don't even have to press the button since J and Chickie will be setting it off when they leave in the morning. So I can come home to a nice clean floor!

An added benefit is that all Lego has to be off the floor before they leave (cos it won't care what it picks up!). So not only do I get clean floors but I get Lego-less floors - bonus!

It's almost here...

2008-12-24T20:46:00.003+11:00

I swear the pre-Christmas period gets crazier and crazier! I feel like I've been going flat out, but I don't think I've been doing very much.

The last week and a half I've had annual leave and basically I've been spending the time with Chickie and trying to get my Christmas shopping done. I finally got the shopping done, but I have a sinking feeling I didn't post things away in time. I'm not game to inquire with my family just in case they didn't make it in time. I'll just sit here, cross my fingers and hope like crazy they made it!

Christmas, for us this year, will be relatively quiet - J's family for lunch. Boxing day we're going for a picnic in the Botanical Gardens and then the day after we'll visit J's Grandmother. Next year I'll have to be more organised as we're most likely going to spend Christmas with my Mum and Dad (3 states away!). I hope I can manage it hehehe.

Well, at the moment all is sorted and Chickie is in bed awaiting a visit from a certain jolly fat fellow. Oh and by awaiting, I mean he's laying in bed staring out the window into the sky. I can't seem to convince him that the quicker he falls asleep, the quicker Santa (and Christmas day) will be here. I'd guess this is happening all over though!

I hope you and yours have a very happy Christmas and holiday season. May 2009 bring all the joy and happiness you could wish for.

I'm an aunty again!!

2008-12-04T06:44:00.003+11:00

I just got a phone call - J's sister (A) has had her little baby girl!

Apparently A was swearing enough to make a trooper blush but mum and baby (P) are just fine.

Stats from J's dad are:

Weight: 7 pounds, 12 ounces
Length: 50 cm
Head circumference: 35 cm

I wonder why we still give out birth weight in imperial but go metric for the other measurements? The doctors and nurses normally give out weight in metric but every time I've heard people ask for details, they give out (and ask for) weight in pounds etc.

Oh and as for details regarding the last post...

Yes, J's mum is still talking to us (we're supposed to go out to dinner tonight - will have to see how that goes now), no we didn't have enough to share (normally we make just enough for us without leftovers) but J's mum refused all offers of anything. She also told me how she did a very similar thing to her own mum years ago so had a good laugh about it!

Ok, I'm terrible!

2008-11-26T16:42:00.006+11:00

J's dad is currently away on a business trip so we thought it would be nice if we took J's mum out to dinner. Chickie's been asking to go out to a restaurant for a few weeks too (he loves eating out).

Arrangements were made for last night - J's mum would come round at 6 and we'd all head down to the restaurant.

Well, J's mum came around, but we were just sitting down to dinner - we totally forgot! I felt so bad about it (still do!). Seriously I have a mind like swiss cheese sometimes.

How embarrassing...

Grrrr!

2008-11-06T08:13:00.003+11:00

I am so angry right now.

On my way to work today, I heard that Chickie's school has had a fire in a storage shed. The police suspect arson. This is the second fire in less than a month. A few weeks ago their art room and adjoining classrooms were destroyed.

The fire a few weeks ago caused so much heartache for the staff and teachers. There were irreplaceable personal items lost, as well as a heap of school equipment. Then there's the loss of the rooms themselves. Thousands and thousands of dollars worth of damage - and Chickie's teacher says they don't know if they can use the buildings again. Last I heard they'd probably have to be demolished.

Now another building - this time a storage shed. I've no idea what's in it but I can't imagine there'd be too many empty storage sheds around. They'll have lost stuff I'm sure.

Now Chickie's school is not a big one. In fact enrollments are shrinking in this particular school. It's just a local junior primary/primary school, tucked into a well established family area. It's not rich but it's a lovely school. With the exception of stupid vandals who think it's funny to break windows, spray paint on the buildings and smash glass on the oval (what a mean thing that is to do to a school - the kids couldn't use it for ages), it's well cared for and the school itself has a lovely community feel.

Why do people do this?

It's amazing...

2008-10-19T19:30:00.003+11:00

what a bit of exercise and achievement will do for you.

Lately I've been up and down a bit but right now I feel like I'm on the top of the world. The reason? Well, today was the grading for karate. J, Chickie and I have been going for a while now and probably should have gone to grading months ago - but tournaments, New Zealand trips and various other things got in the way. So, today was it.

I was so nervous yesterday and today (well ok I've been a little nervous about it for ages). I was positive I wasn't going to make it - but guess what? I DID!! J and I officially have our yellow belts in GKR Karate.

Chickie didn't want to do the grading so we didn't push him, but we'd still like him to go to the classes. I don't really blame him to be honest, it was quite tough. Usually we'd have a lesson for about an hour but grading was for two hours. Talk about exhausting too! At one stage I thought I'd have to excuse myself to go throw up! Luckily I got that under control though.

So, right now I'm tired and my feet are a bit sore but I'm over the moon!

2008-10-08T11:53:00.002+11:00

You know those times when all you want to do is crawl back into bed and pull the blanket over your head - and then stay there a few years? Yeah, that's me at the moment.

I don't know why exactly, there's no real reason for it. I've had some interesting experiences I could have written about (meeting up with a couple of friends from World of Warcraft, attending a wedding of a friend where one of the groom's family tried to sabotage things, completely forgetting daylight saving started on the weekend when I start at 7am on a Sunday etc) but I don't know... I just don't feel inspired to write about them.

I feel... deflated (?) I guess. Flat and uninspired. Sorry...

Thanks!

2008-09-23T23:37:00.003+10:00

Ok, your 'boring week' vibes have obviously helped. Thanks!

It didn't start out so well, but the majority was relatively quiet and peaceful. I started off by banging my car door on the side of the car parked next to me - there was a huge gust of wind as I opened the door and it ripped the handle out of my fingers. I felt so bad about it but they haven't called (I left my number) so perhaps it wasn't too bad.

The major 'highlights' for the rest of the week included lots of hayfever (bad this year, probably because it's been so windy) and Chickie drawing a picture, of the two of us, with a broken heart between us. He wasn't very happy that day. He rarely eats his sandwich at school and J and I have said he can have a snack after school - as long as his lunch has been eaten first (either at school or at home afterwards). He didn't want it that day so chucked a small tanty when I wouldn't give in.

I can handle that though - and he apologised later and said he shouldn't have drawn it. Then he drew a picture of us with a couple of unbroken hearts in between us. That's got pride of place here at my desk now!

What a week...

2008-09-12T17:18:00.002+10:00

Ok, so last week Chickie chips his tooth - massive self-inflicted guilt trips over that.

I forget to ring my nephew on his birthday and then forget to call dad on father's day. I suck at being a daughter and an aunt.

Early this week he gets a virus. Fever and then starts complaining of a sore neck and sore eyes. Massive (internal) freak outs because you're always told to watch out for symptoms like that. 24 hour health line advises us of what to look out for and to take Chickie to the doctor's in the morning. Doctor says it's a virus and that he should be fine but tells us what to watch out for if it gets worse. Massive amounts of relief after that!

Today J's sister called. She's pregnant and had the 1 hour test for gestational diabetes this week. Unfortunately it came back high (8.5 for those in the know) - so massive reassurances over the phone for her. She's terrified of needles and the only person she knows who's had GD was me - who had to have insulin injections twice a day. She'll be fine I'm sure, but she'll need some emotional support to get there, I think. She goes in for the 2 hour test this week. Please send vibes that if she definitely does have GD, that it's mild and she can control it with diet and exercise.

And now, Chickie and I are just back from the Dentist's. The dentist said we could just even it up if the chip was smaller, but we'd lose about 2mm in size and it would be quite noticeable. So, a filling of sorts was added. Chickie was afraid they'd give him robot teeth (amalgam fillings) but the dentist reassured him it would be the same colour as his teeth. Chickie didn't do too badly - didn't really want to open his mouth most of the time and then trying to talk through it the rest of the time (I'm sure this kid could talk underwater sometimes). He looked a bit shaky at the end, but then he's never had more than just a normal checkup before, so I expected it. I'm just glad he didn't need to have a needle to numb anything. I have no idea how he'd react to that.

Next week, will be calm, peaceful and dare I say it - boring. It will, I tell you! (If it knows what's good for it...)

Accidents happen...

2008-09-03T07:47:00.003+10:00

but geez, I wish they'd leave poor Chickie's teeth alone!

When he was little and just learning to walk, he lost his balance a little and banged his chin on a chair. We think this was the cause of one of his baby teeth turning grey. The dentist said he might lose it if the tooth had been too traumatised, but we were lucky and it went back to mainly whitish and it stuck around. This was one of the two big top front teeth.

Later just before losing his other big tooth at the front, he managed to chip it. Not badly and we weren't too concerned as it was loose anyway.

Now, he has his two top front adult teeth and yesterday managed to chip one. I feel terrible about it as I couldn't catch him in time to stop it.

I took him to the small playground a block from our house and he started playing on the flying fox there. He loved that thing, so it was always the first thing he'd head for. This time was no different. Unfortunately on one go he fell or let go and went head first into the metal step on one end. There was a little bit of blood as he'd also hit his lip and there it was - the adult tooth chipped.

I've been mentally beating myself up about it because I just wasn't able to catch him in time. Hopefully the dentist will be able to cap it or something so I can assuage myself of this awful guilt!

Home again

2008-08-25T08:15:00.002+10:00

Sad for the holiday to be over as it was a lot of fun, but it's good to be home.

The last couple of days were pretty good. J had caught a cold though so we took it pretty easy. He managed skiing on Thursday (lots of fun going up and down the carpet rides - which is so much easier than walking sideways up the hill to ski down) and Friday was a day of rest and luxury. It was raining in the morning so J took the opportunity to get some much needed rest. I read and watched a movie on tv. Then we walked down to the town to get some lunch and then came back to let J go back to bed. Unfortunately the walk to the town was downhill and back was up a quite steep hill and just the walk tired him out a fair bit.

Late in the afternoon he was feeling a lot better so we went off for a 30 minute float in a floatation tank and then had a 60 minute massage. That massage felt so good! Just what I needed to get rid of the last aches from the skiing (my calves and knees were killing me from the stance you need to use wearing the ski boots).

After some home-made pizzas for dinner with the rest of the group, J and I, as well as two others headed to a place that had lovely hot tubs. They messed up our booking but were still able to squeeze us in after a bit of a wait. These hot tubs were just the perfect way to finish off the holiday. They were big wooden ones (can hold 4 people but we had one to ourselves) and the private room you're in has a retractable wall and ceiling. During the day you get a gorgeous view of the Remarkables mountain range. At night it was mainly the stars with a little of the mountains in there as well. It was just beautiful! And even though there was snow on the ground just outside, you were warm because of the water and steam from the tub. So relaxing.

Saturday we had an afternoon bus ride back to Christchurch, so in the morning J and I saw a movie. Some of the other guys spent the morning walking through the area or having fun on the luge up on Bob's Peak, but J was still quite tired from his cold so we thought it best to take it easy (and stay warm - was still very cold outside!).

Sunday morning we got up and had breakfast in the hotel we stayed at (delicious!) and then most of us headed to the Antarctic Centre just next door. Unfortunately Steve, we didn't get to go on the Haaglund ride, though it looked like fun. There was 10 of us (the other 5 went off sightseeing) and the centre said they'd give us a discount if we all did the same thing and most of the others didn't want to go on the ride. It was a good way to spend the morning though. The penguins were cute (though rather smelly) and the Antarctic storm was an experience. This was a room of snow and ice - kept at -8 C (17.6 F) and then after a 'radio warning' of a storm, they turned on the wind machines so we could experience the wind chill temperature you'd get at the Antarctic. 45 km winds (28 mph) which gave us a wind chill temperature of -18 C (0.4 F). Brrr!

The afternoon and evening was spent in airports and the air. The only disappointment I have with that is that New Zealand doesn't stamp your passport (not sure if that's only because we're from Australia), so my passport pages are still empty. Ah well - will just have to make sure we fill them in someday!

It was too late to pick up Chickie last night so we'll pick him up from school today. I cannot wait to see my little boy! We missed him so much, but it sounded like he had a great time at his grandparent's place, so that's a bit of a relief.

The last few days in Queenstown

2008-08-22T07:13:00.004+10:00

The Lord of the Rings tour was pretty cool. We saw lots of places where scenes were shot and it's amazing how much was re-used and altered. Many scenes from the movies used pieces of scenery from one area, added to another and then had digitally added bits and pieces. A lot of the scenery was flipped so they could use the same area more than once and also to give the impression of a long journey. Apparently that also meant the actors had to often use their other hand to hold swords, axes, bows etc (so use their left hand if they're right-handed etc). It was all quite interesting.

Part of the tour was a bit of a trek through the snow on top of this mountain. Some of the snow came halfway up to my knee so the new boots I bought were very handy! Got some great scenery shots though.

Yesterday J and I went skiing again. We went to Coronet Peak again, instead of Cardrona. Some of the other guys went to Cardrona and said for the long drive to get there it wasn't really worth it. Mind you a lot of them are snow-boarding rather than skiing and it sounds like Cardrona is more suited for skiiers (though for us it doesn't matter since we'd only use the beginner slopes anyway). So we went to Coronet Peak again and J and I went up and down the beginner areas using the carpet ride. So much easier than trekking up the hill on your own and skiing back down.

I crashed into a few people but got better as the day went on. A couple of collisions weren't really my fault at least. One of them was with a girl who got off the carpet ride and just stopped to pick up snow. At the end of the carpet, there's really a bit of a deep sort of trail (from so many people coming off the end) so I wasn't physically able to just go around her. The guys running the carpet kept telling people to make sure they moved away so I figure it happened a lot.

Main thing is - I didn't get hurt and I didn't hurt anyone either (beginners all go pretty slow so crashes almost seem graceful!).

Last night we had dinner in the Skyline Gondola restaurant. Buffet and the food was amazing! The views over Queenstown were great too.

Today is our last day here and it's raining. Plus J's caught a cold. Time for a relaxing day I think. We're thinking of going to a spa in town and have a half hour in a floatation tank and then a massage. We still have a ski pass we can use and this is one of the places we can hand it in to. Hopefully they'll have an open spot for us.

A nice relaxed day

2008-08-19T20:27:00.002+10:00

Today most of the rest of the group went skiing again (Coronet Peak again). One guy went skydiving, J and I went up the gondolas to the top of Bob's Peak (that's the name of the mountain we can see from our window). We had a good look around and took lots of photos - particularly of the people paragliding from the top of the mountain. I'll bet the views are awesome during the paragliding trip, they were fantastic just from the top where we were.

While up there, we had a go at the Luge track. So much fun!! We only did one ride for now but I'd love to go back again. J didn't bring his gloves though and his fingers were freezing after one go.

While up there we had a look at the restaurant we'll be dining at on Thursday night. It's called the Skyline Gondola Restaurant and it sounds so nice. Eating with the views over the mountains and the town should be lovely. Apparently there's also an option to see a Haka before dinner. I think we'll have to see that, if we can.

Tomorrow is the Lord of the Rings tour. It sounds pretty comprehensive - 20 locations and props from the actual movies. It goes for 7 hours too! Hopefully I'll have some nice photos from that. Some of the rest of the group are thinking of doing a horse riding tour tomorrow, while the others would like to try Cardrona for more skiing. Thursday will probably be at Cardrona for the rest of us and Friday, who knows - though it sounds like it might involve hot tubs!

I'm no ski bunny

2008-08-18T16:39:00.002+10:00

Ok, first day of skiing down.

It turns out that I'm as good at skiing, as I am at other sports (which is to say... not very good!). J, me and one other of our group (call her C) were all newbies to skiing, having never skied before, so we got a private lesson. I was the first to fall over - sliding backwards, having no idea how to stop (hadn't got to that part yet). It was quite funny really.

We were taught the basics - particularly how to stop and then we had a go by ourselves. J and C were ok'd to go on the rope tow (to take them to the top of the beginner's slope) but the instructor suggested I practice from about halfway for a bit more yet.

J's first stack was one of the times he went up the rope tow. Apparently it jerks your arm quite a bit so I figure it will take me a bit to get used to it too! C seemed to get the hang of it quite quickly and 'graduated' to the carpet ride. I think J would have no problems on that as well, but he very chivalrously stayed with me.

After a bite to eat we had a bit more of a go, but we didn't stay out too long as it was starting to snow a bit harder and it was really quite hard to see well. It snowed pretty much the whole time we were there actually. The other reason I wanted to stop earlier than the others was the fact that I was tired and my boots were killing my legs.

Some observations on my skiing fun today...

Coronet Peaks at Queenstown is just lovely. Everyone should try it!

If you have to park in the 3rd carpark down, don't walk up in your ski boots. It might save you time but they are heavy to wear and very hard to walk in (let alone hike up a hill - while you're also wrangling a set of skis and poles).

Speaking of ski boots - my legs and knees are aching from wearing them today.

Chains (for your tyres) can be tricky to fit - it helps to have someone around who's put them on before (particularly if the rental company gives you two lots of dodgy sets).

Snow is wet and cold but LOTS of fun in a snowball fight (J won hehe).

Pictures as promised

2008-08-17T20:52:00.007+10:00

Ok, here's some pictures of it snowing. Two are out our front windows - the apartment has a fantastic view of the mountain and the gondolas going up.

There's some not so pretty electricity cables but just ignore those.

The other is the garden/courtyard area. You can just see a little snowman in the corner. I don't know who made it - it was there when we got here. We're going skiing tomorrow so hopefully, at some stage during the day, I'll be able to make my own!

On the helicopter decision front, I'm now leaning towards doing an all day Lord of the Rings tour. The one I'm looking at says you can even handle items from the sets as well as see 20 locations used in the movies.

Decisions, decisions!

snow!

2008-08-17T09:22:00.003+10:00

It was snowing when we woke up this morning! So pretty. J's taken a pic from our apartment window so I'll upload it later when we get it off the camera.

J and 3 others have gone for a jetboat ride. When they come back, one of the other three wants to possibly go bungy jumping. I'm not so sure of that myself. I know I've done the skydiving thing before, but the thought of bungy jumping makes me nervous!

What I'd love to do is take a helicopter ride to see a glacier. I think that would just be brilliant. It's about $500 or so dollars though and that's a lot of money. Perhaps I'll compromise and go for the $300 or so flight that does a landing somewhere. It doesn't say where exactly, it just says 'take your photo seemingly on top of the world' in the brochure, so I figure it's one of the mountains around the area (there's plenty here!). How cool would that be!

We're going to go get our ski gear hire today. So hopefully by this time tomorrow, I'll be taking lessons on how not to fall over in a big heap while wearing great big long planks of wood on your feet. Wish me luck!

First glimpses of New Zealand

2008-08-16T22:02:00.003+10:00

We're here - and loving it!

The plane ride over was pretty uneventful, with the only real stand-out moment being the first glimpse of New Zealand peeking through the clouds. Just beautiful! Once we sort out all the photos, I'll put them up on Flickr - I'm sure I'll have many many shots of breath-taking scenery to show you.

We landed in Christchurch mid afternoon on Friday and had a quick look around. We didn't get to see very much of the area unfortunately (it was getting dark) but after a quick couple of pics we went and had something to eat. Christchurch actually seems a lot like home - but with a slight accent. Apparently Christchurch was designed by the same person that did Adelaide, so I guess that's why it felt so familiar.

Next up was another early night and early morning, and we caught a bus to Queenstown - arriving at about 2.30 this afternoon. The group we're travelling with has 3 serviced apartments and J and I lucked out and ended up with the only 1 bedroom apartment in the group. It's nice to have a bit of privacy!

Most of our group (there's 15 of us altogether) went to get fitted for boots and snow boards today, but J and I, along with 3 others have decided to do some sight-seeing first and get our boots and skis fitted tomorrow. We're not completely sure what we want to do tomorrow but J and the others may go have a jet boat ride (boats aren't my thing though) and most likely we'll take a drive around the area to see what's about.

The photo here was taken along the way to Queenstown. We could see the alps for most of the trip and the views were just spectactular. I've barely seen snow before so the scenery is just gorgeous. The view from our apartment is spectacular too. It looks out towards one of the mountains (I'm not sure which one) and it looks like it has a restaurant at the top. We're thinking of eating there on our last night here if possible. I'll have to take a pic of the view from our window, so you can see what I mean - it's amazing.

Apparently there's been quite a bit of snow here lately and there's quite a bit of slush around the town. I can't wait to get out into the snow a bit more and build a snowman (not to mention toss a snowball at someone!).

tag-a-palooza

2008-08-14T21:06:00.002+10:00

Ok, freakout is intensifying...

The plane to New Zealand takes off tomorrow morning (6am - have I mentioned how insanely early, that is??), packing is done and Chickie is safely ensconced in bed at his grandparent's place (I miss him already!). All that's really left to do is put a few movies on the laptop we're taking and relax before bed.

So, time for a meme or two that I owe.

On re-reading, KindaBlue has tagged me for 6 quirky things about me, and Aprill tagged me for 6 random things. I'm going to make them the same meme though. Also, Steve asked me to name some of the practical jokes that have occurred at work. So here goes!

6 random/quirky things about me:

1. I have absolutely no sense of direction. I've lived in this city for 10 years now and I still get lost. Regularly. I get lost in World of Warcraft (even when I have a map with co-ordinates!). I couldn't tell you which direction was north, if my life depended on it. When I first mentioned to friends that I needed a new phone and asked for suggestions on what would be good - everyone said to get one with maps/gps on it.

2. I point with my 'rude finger' (as Chickie calls it). I never realised this until a year or so back when J pointed it out. Apparently I've passed this habit/trait on to Chickie too.

3. I used to be a radio announcer but I'm absolutely terrified by public speaking. People seem confused by this but I think it's simple - if I can't see people listening to me speak - they're not really there!

4. I completely lost my taste for chocolate in the early stages of pregnancy with Chickie. That's. Just. Wrong.

5. I have a big scar behind my left ear and lots of smaller scars over my scalp. I was in a car accident when I was a kid. The car flipped and I was thrown through the back windscreen (no seatbelts in the back then). I still don't remember any of it and don't think I ever will - it was over 30 years ago now.

6. I'm a fussy eater. My mum and dad think I'm weird because I don't like the taste of raw onion in salads or like the taste of mushrooms (and fish and pumpkin and a million other things). Oh and they think I'm weird because I can taste the difference between green and red capsicum. They insist there's no difference - I say if the raw onion in their salads didn't overpower the flavour of everything else, they'd be able to taste the difference too!

Practical jokes at work:

We desk share so location based practical jokes aren't really possible. The longest running joke a few years back was an email that went round our centre. It was a sound file that said 'Hey, I'm watching porno over here!' when you opened the email. It went round and round (because it always looked like an innocent email) but eventually management 'suggested' we stop.

There's always the usual ones where your team-mates call in and pretend to be a very bizarre customer. There were a couple of guys that called in and were so good at it that they were believed. That one doesn't happen these days since we have a centre in India and they just wouldn't get it.

Lately in our team, on a person's last day, we'll nominate an unusual word for them to work into their calls. It's not really an unusual word, as such, just unusual for tech support. One guy had the word 'fishing' for example and had to use that word somewhere in each call of the day. Points are always given if the word is made relevant to the troubleshooting. Not really a practical joke, but it gives us a laugh.

Sounds pretty tame really. Got any good practical jokes you can spare??

clothes purchasing freakout ebbing...

2008-08-13T16:40:00.002+10:00

Ok, I think I'm nearly there. I believe I have the clothing situation sorted (via large amounts of shopping!). If needed I can dress in about 3 bazillion layers (ok, perhaps I'm exaggerating - make it 2 bazillion hehe).

I've tried stuff on and it should all be ok. I'm a little doubtful about the ski pants I have. They're borrowed from J's dad and they're a teensy bit snug around the tummy/hips area - I've put a kilo or two, back on, over the last few months (not enough exercise unfortunately - lazy will do that for you). J thinks I'll be fine and if I just can't stand it, apparently I'm able to hire that sort of thing there anyway.

Next freakout will be the packing. We're doing that tonight. I think we should be fine there though. So long as the backpack we borrowed from J's dad is ok as carry on (J's dad used it as carry on for his trip to Canada last year so I'm presuming it will be fine).

So that just leaves Thursday for last minute bits and pieces and an insanely early night to compensate for the plane leaving at 6am on Friday (arrrggh shoot me now!). Oh and there will be a post on Thursday since I owe a couple of people memes now too!

Actually I might be able to post while over in NZ too. J's bought himself a itty bitty laptop (a little Acer Aspire Netbook) and there's supposed to be wireless in the apartments where we're staying. So stay tuned peoples!

Minor freakout

2008-07-29T09:04:00.003+10:00

Ok, I'm having a minor freakout about what to wear on our trip to New Zealand. I know people have been saying thermals are the go, but I'm not certain what to wear on top of the thermals!

I don't consider it to be cold where I live. It doesn't snow in my area (well ok, perhaps a teensy bit on top of the local mountain) and yesterday we had the coldest morning in over 20 years (0.7 degrees C or 33 F). It was a little chilly but nothing a nice jacket couldn't handle. Our maximum, during the day lately, seems to be be around the 14-15 degree mark (57-59 F). What all this means is I live in jeans and essentially a long sleeve t-shirt (no singlets or undershirts etc) with a jacket. I don't really have any fleecy type clothing and not a great deal of my clothes are really suitable to wear with thermals - I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be able to wear thermals under my jeans (there's not a lot of excess space in them at the moment).

I have snow/ski pants from J's dad and a couple of proper snow jackets from J's sister (lucky we're approximately the same size), but what about every day wear? If I'm sight seeing around the place, I presume I don't want to wear snow pants. Are jeans enough if I buy a larger pair and team them with thermals? Should there be some other types of pants I should look into? If I look around for some fleecy type tops to wear over the thermals and under the jacket, will that be enough?

Any suggestions? Any websites with clothing that you like? I doubt I'll be able to order online but if I can get an idea of the types of things needed, I can go shopping (/rubs hands in glee!)

17 days to go!!

Umm hi

2008-07-27T18:14:00.002+10:00

Sorry... I am here - just being very boring really.

Work's flat out. We have a new note system that has my team duplicating our notes, but handy to everyone else (well, it will be eventually - when we learn how to use it properly - I hope!). I'd love to tell you about some of our funnier customers but work does frown on that sort of thing. I will say that it does give us a bit of a chuckle when our customers tell us they can't figure out whether to use the 'ethanol' or the 'ubs' cable for their 'dls' modem.

Karate's moving on, though I haven't done much the last two weeks as my ankle has been playing up (I twisted it years ago and it gets a bit sore every now and then). I did get some of the group's dvds to try to practice with (I cannot get the hang of the kata and I need to if I want to ever get my yellow belt). I just did an hour's practice now and all I've learned is how truly uncoordinated I am. (Insert big sigh here...)

Our New Zealand trip is only a couple of weeks away (omg! How did that sneak up so quickly?). I think we're all organised. I hope we're all organised. Anyone got any last minute advice for someone who's barely seen it snow before?

I really need to catch up with everyone's blogs. My bloglines has a million unread posts. Plenty of saved ones too, so one of these days I'll come comment on those. Don't be surprised if you see some comments from a post you made weeks ago.... eventually!

Um... really there's not a lot happening here lately. Told you I was boring. At least the holiday soon will mean I'll have something to talk about.

Pretty pretty, shiny shiny

2008-06-23T09:03:00.002+10:00

Well ok, perhaps they're not shiny, but I think they're rather pretty. Do you like them? These are my new boots for when we visit New Zealand. I thought a good pair of walking boots might be a good idea for tromping* around in. They're very comfortable, though I'm not used to the high ankle bits. The sales assistant suggested I wear them in gradually so I can get used to how they feel (even though I'd love to wear them to work and show them off!).

I ended up taking pity on J and Chickie over the weekend too. I went makeup shopping and sent them off to spend some of Chickie's birthday money. He ended up getting more Star Wars lego (surprise, surprise). I went to Myer's and chose the very scientific method of checking out the makeup on the sales assistants. Due to this I ended up at the Clinique counter, asked the advice of the lady there and she tried out a few things on me. I quite liked some of them (particularly the lipstick - Clinique Long Last in the colour called Merlot) but just as we'd finished the makeover the power to the centre went out. It came back on, went out again and stayed out. So... no buying stuff for me right then!

It looked like the middle part of the shopping centre had power so I said I'd go do my grocery shopping and come back afterwards to pick up what I'd chosen. Unfortunately, when I came back they had power but their registers still weren't working. I picked up the lipstick later from another store but I'll bet the store manager wasn't too pleased about things. This was a very busy Saturday afternoon.

* I love the word 'tromping'. I wonder if I can work it into a conversation (not connected to my new shoes) somewhere this week.

So... makeup

2008-06-20T10:19:00.003+10:00

Where I work has a casual dress policy. Jeans and a t-shirt is normal to see (along with a jacket since the air conditioning is set so low). Combine this with the fact that I start work at 7am, means I normally could not be bothered wearing makeup. I really only wear it when going out somewhere.

So, I don't really need a lot, but that said - I can't remember the last time I actually bought makeup for myself. I've been given stuff here and there (J's mum is an Avon lady). I haven't actually done the buying myself though. Plus most of what I've been given is in those bigger sets. Great for getting different colours to wear with different things but not so handy if you just want to throw a lipstick in your (teensy tiny) evening bag!

Work, has paid us our yearly bonus now, so I figured I'd treat myself to some new stuff. I'd like to go somewhere that can suggest colours etc. Particularly lipstick - as I have a couple of red things (dress, top) and no actual lipstick that complements it. I do have a red lipstick that looks great in the tube, but unfortunately on me it turns orange (and looks hideous!). What I've been doing is blending a few colours from what I have and it looks pretty good. Unfortunately touch ups are impossible though, so I need to do something about it.

Tomorrow J, Chickie and I are going to head into the city and check out a few places and see what's out there. Does anyone have any suggestions on brands they like? Are there certain stores to avoid (Do the makeup ladies in Myers go beserk if you even suggest you're going to buy something, for example)? Should I avoid David Jones if I'm not dressed to the nines?

Throw some suggestions at me please. I feel like a reborn makeup virgin here!

Photo Mosaic

2008-06-09T19:59:00.002+10:00

This is a cute thing I saw on Stomper's blog. I figured I'd have a go as well (even though I have a long outstanding meme from when I was tagged by Every Generation!).

The concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favourite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favourite colour?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favourite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favourite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name

By the way, none of these pictures are of me and number 12 is actually a contraction of my flickr name as my full one didn't get any hits at all.

Happy Birthday Chickie!

2008-06-01T09:41:00.003+10:00

Sorry I haven't posted much lately. My life's actually been quite boring lately. Today though, I do have something to post about. It's hard for me to believe it, but this cute little baby is a big grown up boy of 6 today!

He's still got those amazing eyelashes but the hair is lighter and only curly if you let it grow really really long.

He's still Star Wars mad (we gave him some Anakin Skywalker lego) but he's also into Indiana Jones lego and Iron Man action figures. He's liking school, is just starting to 'get it' when it comes to reading and writing. He's organised a little cubby house under his desk with a box to use as a mini desk and that's his 'office'. Yesterday, he was creating a comic book that he planned to take to the school library (perhaps I should create his own blog instead - just in case the school library isn't interested - hehe). Oh and if you talk to him, he's the birthday boy so he gets to do whatever he likes and his birthday lasts several days...

No party, as such, just a family BBQ this afternoon. With a chocolate chip birthday cake that he chose (thank goodness he's not into themed cakes yet - my decorating skills stop at putting a candle in!)

I don't feed my child...

2008-05-16T14:03:00.002+10:00

apparently.

I start work early - 7am (which is way too early for my liking but it means I can pick up Chickie after school). So, this means J takes Chickie to school and then heads off to work himself. One day a week J studies (he's doing a computer programming degree) so he drops Chickie off at his grandmother's place and she takes him to school.

So yesterday, Chickie woke up while I was still here and came and gave me a cuddle. I reminded him that his dad would take him round to his grandmothers and he smiled and said,

"I like going to nanny's place, do you know why?"

I asked why, and the answer was,

"Because she has food!!"*

* Apparently if it's not a chocolate biscuit, a packet of chips or a bowl of Milo breakfast cereal, it doesn't count as food...

Rites of passage number 74

2008-05-03T09:55:00.002+10:00

Chickie has cut his own hair with scissors.

Thankfully it's not too bad, but it will need tidying up by the hairdresser. He's been wanting to have his hair like Anakin Skywalker in the third Star Wars movie, so we let it grow a little longer. I guess he got a little annoyed with the hair on his forehead (even though it wasn't actually in his eyes or anything) and chopped off a chunk at the front.

Oh well, it's off to the hairdressers today then!

As a mother, I never expected I'd have to say...

2008-04-25T13:21:00.002+10:00

"When you take all your clothes off so you can jump on the trampoline naked*, please bring them inside with you".

* Yes, Chickie likes to jump on the trampoline naked**
** No, I've no idea why***
***Thank goodness for high fences

What I ended up wearing...

2008-04-20T11:24:00.002+10:00

Well, the weather was cool - so I wore the black pants and red top to the wedding. Had a couple of people say they were glad I did, so they weren't the only ones in pants! A bit of a shame I didn't get to wear my new dress, but I'm sure there will be lots of occasions I can wear it (and if there isn't, I'll make something up). Thanks for all your advice.

The wedding itself was lovely. The bride was beautiful (aren't they always?), the people waiting got a laugh when the groomsmen comically pushed the groom into the church, the reception was lovely (I should post the pictures J took of the food - heavenly!) and it was great to see everyone.

A few oddities though - the priest started the wedding ceremony with a history of that particular church. It was a nice little story, but something that didn't seem connected to the actual ceremony, as far as I could tell. We also got to hear the church's stance on what constitutes a marriage (yep, no problem with that) and also their views on breakups and divorce (err... at a wedding?? A related subject yes, but statistics on how many marriages fail is a bit of a grim thing to ponder during the actual ceremony!).

On a different subject, Chickie recently expressed an interest in learning karate. I'm very happy to encourage him to get into after school activities, so all three of us now go to a karate class on Monday evenings. We had our first class last week and Chickie seemed to really enjoy it. As we were getting out of the car afterwards, he gave us a bit of a laugh. He ran to the front door ahead of us, got into one of the punching stances and said 'Don't worry mum, I'll protect you'.

And a last giggle for you...

Overheard in the supermarket yesterday:

Husband: (picking up a packet of chocolate biscuits) This is for our Biggest Loser 'push'.
Wife: What??
Husband: Well, how can we lose weight, unless we put it on first?

Sometimes...

2008-04-06T09:55:00.003+10:00

... I really hate shopping.

J and I have a friend's wedding to attend next weekend. I don't have a lot to wear to it. I have a quite nice new red dress I could wear (is it ok to wear red to a wedding these days? It is rather bright). That will be ok if it's warm. Even if it's slightly coolish, I can wear a scarf/wrap type of thing around my shoulders/arms.

If it's cold, however, I'll be a bit stuck! J, Chickie and I went to have a look around the shops and I couldn't find anything I really liked. The stuff I found was either too casual, too 'old' (grandma type stuff) or some very nice dresses - but no warmer than my new dress.

I do have an outfit consisting of a pair of black pants and a nice top that I could wear if it's cool (again, the top is red!). It's not really wedding type dressy (even though the wedding isn't officially formal or anything). It would do, however.

Wearing red to a wedding though - ok, or not?

Thump thump thump...

2008-04-01T21:03:00.002+11:00

Who is this elephant that's living in our house? And what happened to my little boy?

Chickie appears to be physically incapable of walking, stepping quietly, sitting properly and well, being quiet for more than a moment lately. These days he galumphs* around the house like an elephant. stomping instead of walking, running most of the time and rather than place his posterior into a chair like a normal person, he almost launches himself into it.

All rather strange when his teacher commented on how quiet and well-behaved he is at school. On second thoughts - that's probably why we have an elephant at home!

--

In other news, I'm updating my template shortly. I was going to fiddle around with doing a picture like I had before, but for now I'm just going to use a free template (cos, I'm lazy like that). I'm going to go through my links and tidy them up so if any one links to me, but I haven't included you, please comment and let me know.

* I saw the word used on Frogdancer's blog and it immediately made me think of Chickie!

Bargaining...

2008-03-13T10:13:00.001+11:00

I don't think Chickie quite understands it yet...

The scene:

Chickie had finished his dinner - including all his veges, so that meant he could have a little 'something special' (we don't really do desserts in this house).

Chickie: Can I have a Tim Tam and two pieces of chocolate?

Me: How about a Tim Tam and just one piece of chocolate?

Chickie (in his best bargaining voice): How about just a Tim Tam?

Me (in a voice full of feigned reluctance): Oh alright then.

In the end he didn't even eat all the Tim Tam (sacrilege!), so I had the other half. Yum!

Misnomer

2008-03-04T22:35:00.002+11:00

Why do they call it a 'near-miss'? 'Near-hit' doesn't have quite the same ring to it but that's really what they are.

My little incident yesterday was definitely a miss... thank goodness!

It was nothing big but it left me a bit shaken up. I was driving home from work and a lady, coming the other way, quickly darted into the drive-way of a car park to my left (right in front of me). Only thing was, she didn't just pull into the car park, she was actually doing a u-turn. And she didn't bother looking when she pulled out onto the road again.

It's a good thing I had new tyres put on my car a few months ago. With my old tyres, my car would have been all crumpled on the front left hand side. It's also a good thing that the speed limit was 50km and I was slowing down already as I was coming up to an intersection.

Seriously, what idiot does a u-turn in front of traffic and then doesn't check to ensure said traffic isn't using the exact piece of road you're wanting to drive on?

Ah, the things kids learn in school...

2008-02-16T10:26:00.003+11:00

I picked Chickie up from school the other day and he was telling me about his day. He told me that something funny had happened. He said:

"D likes L, so they had the sex and he kissed her".

He obviously had no idea what sex is, because the kissing was the amazing and very hilarious part.

He's 5 and a half! Perhaps I'd better buy that Where Did I Come From book? I remember that one being around when I was a kid and I seem to remember it being quite informative.

spoke too soon

2008-02-07T11:06:00.000+11:00

Recently I made a comment on house & baby's blog about how Chickie had picked up every cold and bug that was going around when he was at childcare - but had been healthy so far at school. Well, obviously I didn't knock on wood hard enough, or didn't cross my fingers tightly enough... because he now has a cold. He seems fine - apparently two mouthfuls of cough medicine will fix him right up (so he says) - you have to love the resilience of little kids. J, however, seems to have caught it too and didn't look very good at all last night.

This morning I felt fine when I got out of bed, but not long after I arrived at work, I started feeling achy and my throat started to feel all scratchy. Then a bit later I started having this strong craving for raw carrot. That's always been my signal for the start of a cold or whatever. I could never figure out why I'd feel like eating carrots when my throat is sore and I'm feeling under the weather. Am I weird or do others get strange cravings when they're sick (please tell me I'm not weird!) . Anyway I've come home from work early to try to rest (in the hopes of getting rid of it sooner) and as soon as I've finished my lemon and ginger tea, I'm off to bed.

In other news, Chickie has now lost both the teeth that were being pushed aside for the big front tooth. The big front tooth is taking up the space that used to contain two, so I'm thinking dental fund is a good idea (and a big holiday, if he doesn't need, it is a great idea hehe).

My twitch is mostly gone. Stretching, heat etc didn't really seem to do anything to it, so I don't know what's caused it - or caused it to go away again.

In other big news - J and I might be visiting New Zealand later this year. I'm so excited! I might get to go skiing, which I've never tried before.

Right, tea's finished, so I'm off to lie down.

twitch... twitch... twitch...

2008-01-27T21:07:00.000+11:00

That's what my leg is doing right now.

I have a muscle twitch in the middle of my right thigh, at the front. It's the weirdest feeling. How do I get rid of it though? It's starting to drive me a little nuts!

I'm sure it will go away eventually. J's a little amazed that I've never experienced this before. I guess I've had a twitch in my eye before (I tend to get that when I'm stressed or over-tired) but it's never happened in my leg before.

Has anyone else had this before? And more importantly, how the heck did you get rid of it?!

omg...

2008-01-23T09:03:00.000+11:00

The news reports are saying Heath Ledger has died of a drug overdose. I'm stunned - he didn't really seem the type to me.

What is it with...

2008-01-22T22:56:00.000+11:00

* little boys and their 'aim' in the bathroom?

I went into the toilet after Chickie used it and nearly slipped over in the large puddle of wee next to the toilet. I was not amused. Moral of the story here - always turn the light on when entering.

* shops stocking up on the next 'holiday item' so early?

Seriously, I saw hot cross buns in the supermarket on December 27th! Easter is what? March, April? Now the shelves are stocked with easter eggs and I'm going to have to live with the gooey deliciousness, that is the Cadbury creme egg, calling my name for months!

* my lack of motivation to look after myself?

I have type 2 diabetes that is controlled by diet and exercise. I haven't exercised properly in two months and while I try to watch the diet, the last two months has also seen a lot of icecream being eaten. I keep saying that I need to exercise but I can't seem to actually drag myself onto my bike. My next HbA1c is going to be awful I think (and the point above won't help...)

* grumpy customers who can't seem to accept that sometimes you do need to take some responsibility too!

Honestly some customers drive me mad sometimes. You get so many customers that just don't believe you when you suggest that the problem may be something on their end - even when you can prove to them that they don't have the problem when they unplug that phone or stop using the 70 gazillion metre phone cable. We had one customer who went ballistic at one of our reps, even after her brother (who is a telephone line technician by trade and had checked the wiring inside her house) told her the wiring was the cause of the problem. Considering this brother works for the opposition, I'm inclined to believe him.

The one that blows my mind is the lady I spoke to a few months back. She had a new service that hadn't worked from the start. She was furious when I spoke to her and was demanding we refund her full monthly fee. The problem? Well, she'd plugged the filter in backwards. Now I can understand that some people get confused about how the DSL service is supposed to be set up. That's why we include a pamphlet with pictures showing how to plug it in (this customer told me she hadn't bothered to look at that). We also include a little animation on the setup CD showing exactly how to set it up (she told me she skipped that part of the setup CD). Finally our service also provides free 24 hour phone support if there are problems or you want help setting things up. This customer waited over a week to call us, and when she did she yelled at the rep she spoke to and basically wouldn't let them troubleshoot. It was passed onto me and fixed in 10 minutes. She didn't get to use it for a week and wanted the whole monthly fee back. I didn't give it to her. If she'd been nice about the whole thing though, I would have been happy to give her a credit for the week she wasn't able to use - even though it was a problem she'd caused.

Thank goodness there are plenty of nice customers out there though.

* Chickie's teeth!

I'm amazed at how quickly straight teeth can shift once the adult tooth decides it's not waiting for the baby teeth to be lost first.

In the last few weeks of school last year, Chickie's teacher took photos of all the kids so they could make a frame as a Christmas present for their parents. Chickie's photo is very cute and his teeth are quite straight. Then by Christmas day, two of Chickie's front teeth have been pushed aside so far he was able to fit a straw in the gap (one of the big front teeth and the smaller one to the left). The big front one was overlapping the other big front one, while the smaller one next to it was almost sticking out at right angles! Neither of these two were loose, by the way, and I was about to make an appointment at the dentist to have him check things. Then on my birthday he came home with the big front tooth in a paper towel. It had finally been pushed out far enough. He's funny sometimes though, he told the vacation care supervisor that she could have his tooth as a present. She kindly declined, suggesting he might want to see if the tooth fairy came (she did).

You can now see the adult tooth and it's huge. It's basically taking up the whole gap where previously there were two baby teeth. I'm worried the poor kid's not going to have room in his jaw for all these huge teeth that he seems to be getting (this is his 4th adult tooth and he has two more wobbly teeth! Not counting the one that is still sticking out at the front).

Can anyone reassure me that he'll grow into his teeth? Or should I be starting a braces/dental fund now?

It's official...

2008-01-17T02:10:00.000+11:00

I am now officially the answer to the "Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything".

Just thought you'd like to know...

Back into it

2008-01-12T10:51:00.001+11:00

It's now been a week since Mum and Dad left for home. They should arrive home today after a slow drive home with the caravan. They were here for a bit over three weeks, with my sisters and their families here for around a week (over Christmas).

It was really great to see them all. Some of the family had never been down here (and we've been here almost 10 years now), and some I haven't seen in over a year. The amazing thing was how grown up the kids are getting. The oldest nephew didn't come - he was actually in Japan over Christmas (got back the day before yesterday). He's 18 and finished school now so I guess it's to be expected. At least we got to see him when we went on our holidays earlier this year.

There were a few stresses and annoyances during the whole time. I suppose that's also to be expected (there were 10 adults and 7 kids around for a lot of the time and our house isn't that big!). I was debating with myself about posting some of my gripes here, but I've decided to just let it go. I think that might be healthier!

So, I'm back at work now and nothing really changes. I mean that literally. We're still dealing with issues that were a problem, before I started my holidays! Although, there was one change. The no shorts policy has been temporarily changed back to allowing them - due to the extreme heat. Same rules as before - below the knee, dress shorts, no board shorts etc. So I can wear my capris again. A good thing, as I did wear one of my skirts to work and I just felt I wasn't dressy enough (like I do in my capris!).

Thank you all for your good wishes for T's dad. At this stage it will be a bit of a hard road for him as he recovers. He's lost one foot (up to mid calf as prosthethics available for this amputation are better) and the heel from the other. They were able to save his toes on the other foot and grafted a muscle from his stomach to reconstruct the heel (basically from his arch to the little bone that pokes out on the side of your ankle was lost).

T says he was very lucky. He was doing the work on his friend's property and she was home so heard him yelling for help. They also have neighbours, very close to the area he was working in, who also heard him - these neighbours are both nurses, so he was able to get medical help very quickly. If this had happened on his own property it's quite likely he wouldn't have survived apparently.

I'm going to try visiting all your blogs soon and I know I need to do some work on my template. A lot of my links need updating and I need to fix up my header/photo, so I have a bit of work to do. I was thinking of redoing my header pic again anyway, so this will be a good opportunity for it. I have no idea how long it will take me though!

Feel free to comment and update me with how you're doing. I hope you all had a lovely holiday season and 2008 is a wonderful year for you!

Merry Christmas everyone!

2007-12-25T18:28:00.000+11:00

Hi all, sorry I haven't been around lately. With my mum and dad visiting, and now having all the family here, things have been very busy. It's been lots of fun - with a bit of tension thrown in. There's always a little bit of tension when you get that many people together in one place, I suppose.

For those that celebrate it, I hope you're all having a lovely Christmas day. We all trooped over to J's parents' place for lunch. It was lovely. Too much food though (isn't it always the way?).

The rest of the family have now gone to where two of my sisters, and families, are staying. They have a pool there, so everyone else has gone off for a swim while we give Chickie the chance to quieten down, play with his new toys himself and have an early night. The last few nights he's gone to bed so late and since he doesn't know the meaning of sleeping in, he's been over tired. An earlier night is sorely needed! Plus, it gives J and I a bit of a break too.

And finally, I don't want to leave things on a downer but if you can spare some positive vibes I'd appreciate it. A friend's father had a farm accident a few days ago and has lost one of his legs. They've rushed him to a big Sydney hospital to try to save the other and it looks good, but they say there's always the chance they won't be able to save it. Any positive vibes you can spare would be welcomed. My friend (T) and her family were our next door neighbours whilst growing up and we're quite close. T is very close to her dad and she was quite shaken when she called to let me know.

It was quite a coincidence really - just days before, a girl (that T and my sister D went to school with) was on Today Tonight before going to jail for fraud. Then the morning before T called to let me know about her dad, the rest of my family were discussing the story of the accident they read about in the newspaper. Since my home town is fairly small, they presumed they knew the person - even though the article didn't give any names. Was a bit of a shock to find out it was my friend's dad.

Anyway, hope everyone has a lovely holiday season - take care and have fun. I'm sure I'll be round to read everyone's blogs once everyone goes home again!

Day three

2007-12-09T18:07:00.000+11:00

Yes, it's already day three into my holidays and I'm exhausted.

First day was spent being very very lazy.

I did nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Well ok, I tidied up a little bit (aka: toss Chickie's toys into his room and shut the door, to be dealt with later) and a few loads of washing (well I needed clothes for day two, you see...). Oh and I did play a bit of World of Warcraft.

Day two saw J, Chickie and I at the shops. Specifically the toy shops. On a Saturday. A few weeks before Christmas.

Were we mad???

Ok, so we were scouting out for ideas for Chickie and for my niece and nephews. Didn't really need to bother with Chickie though. All he wants is Star Wars stuff. Star Wars Lego specifically. I'm just glad we didn't have to go through any checkouts and that it only took us one and a half goes around the car park to get a spot. I'll go back during the week when (hopefully!) things will be slightly quieter. If I go this week, at least school is still happening so that's going to make things easier.

Then today, day three, saw us dealing with Chickie's room. Chickie comes from a long line of hoarders and for a long time wouldn't even let us throw out the boxes of some of his toys from last Christmas. His room was a mess. J was quite ruthless with the old toys though. Anything broken got tossed, anything no longer played with is in a plastic tub (with the view of seeing if a friend with a 1 year old wants any of it), and his room is a lot more spacious. On the other hand our lounge room is a bit of a mess. I moved all Chickie's old clothes out there to be sorted through. I'll keep a couple of sentimental pieces but the rest will be given to charity (if I can find somewhere with a charity bin that's not already overflowing). That will be my job tomorrow.

That, along with shopping, cleaning (my parents arrive this week), more washing, posting presents and ~~relaxing~~ (ah well, perhaps later).

Hand over fist

2007-11-29T07:47:00.000+11:00

That's how our money is heading out of our household at the moment...

We've had a few upgrades to things furniture and pc-wise lately. Stuff we've been looking at getting for months really, but we finally just went ahead and bought what we needed (we have a new lounge!).

Then last weekend J's car had a bit of a fit. He found the motor is on the way out and has been contacting people for quotes on repairing or replacing the motor (that's cheaper apparently). Last night he was about 10 minutes from home when the motor had another hissy fit. He said there was smoke and oil everywhere. I'm glad he was so close to home when it happened since he had actually been nearly 45 mins from home at one stage. His dad was able to tow him home safe and sound.

Unfortunately now, we're looking at a minimum $1500 to replace the motor. Expensive things these cars...

It's going to be a bit of swapping and changing while organising around one car, a bit of a hassle when you're so used to having two. Thankfully J's dad works in the same area as J, so they can carpool. Plus I'm on holidays from Friday the 6th of December (did I mention I have a month off work at all? hehe), so that will make things a bit easier then. I've no idea how long it will take to get it fixed.

Grrr...

2007-11-22T08:54:00.000+11:00

I am so annoyed at the moment.

Our work has a casual dress policy - we can wear smart casual clothes. It's company wide, however some parts of the company are customer facing so they wear business attire. Most of our callcentres are not open to the public though, so our clothing is more relaxed and comfortable. There's obviously certain rules - no inappropriate slogans on t-shirts, no revealing clothing, no ripped/dirty items etc. All fair enough if you ask me.

Now we've had a directive from management to say that no shorts of any kinds will be allowed. Nothing that shows the ankles will be permitted. This leaves the guys with one option - long pants. We're coming into summer and it's going to be a hot one I think. We've had some very hot days already and we're not even into summer proper yet. I really don't think that's fair for them.

Women can wear skirts apparently, but there's a few problems that I have with this - one is that the few skirts I own (I'm not really a skirt person) are the full flowing type of skirt. I just don't feel that I'd be business like enough in them. I feel more business like in my long shorts (capri pants). If I don't wear the skirts though, I'm going to be stuck with long pants (and the only long pants I have are jeans). I really don't want to have to wear jeans to work in 40 degree days!

To me, it feels that they want business wear policy back again so they're kinda doing it by stealth... When I started we had to wear business attire and it seemed so pointless. We never saw anyone but our workmates. We were thrilled when they brought in the casual dress policy. People still had the option of wearing business attire but hardly anyone did - in our building at least.

I'm not sure what's brought this on. I've never seen or heard of anyone wearing inappropriate shorts. It really doesn't seem fair on the guys - almost discriminatory.

I'm currently trying to convince the guys in my team to wear skirts/kilts to work...

more musical leanings?

2007-11-19T08:01:00.000+11:00

A few posts back I asked a question about what age is good to start learning a musical instrument, in case Chickie is ever interested. Now I'm thinking perhaps I should look into some sort of musical type program - even if he hasn't actually directly expressed a wish to learn an instrument. Something that's fun with some sort of musical theme, if you know what I mean (I have no idea what's actually available).

Now most of the time Chickie will tell me not to sing - because I can't. I freely admit it - and still do it! He's 'allowed' me to sing along with the radio in my car, because well, it's my car and I'm going to do it anyway. He sings along too actually.

The only other time I'm 'allowed' to sing is when I put him to bed. He even asks me to sing him a song or two. Last night he started giving me musical direction...

He's watched the video clips of some of the songs I sing and was telling me that I need to sing lower at one point. Later he was saying I was doing it wrong because I wasn't starting softly and getting louder (lets forget the fact that I try to sing softly because I want him to get sleepy!). There were lots more 'suggestions' from him, but to be honest, I was concentrating more on just remembering the lyrics!

He's obviously got a better 'ear', than I have, for music.

Today is world diabetes day

2007-11-14T07:43:00.000+11:00

From the World Diabetes Day website:

Today, more than 240 million people worldwide are living with diabetes. Within 20 years, this number is expected to grow to 380 million.

This is a huge number and a lot of people with type 2 diabetes don't know they have it. When I was diagnosed with type 2, I had no obvious symptoms. The only indicators I had were a family history and having gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with Chickie. I had to have insulin shots while pregnant and apparently this meant I had a 50% risk of getting type 2 diabetes within 5 years. Due to this my doctor sent me off for a yearly test and that's how it was picked up.

If you'd like more information about diabetes or want to see if you're at risk, try this page.

If you think you're at risk, I would strongly encourage you to see your doctor and get tested. The earlier you find it, the better.

fostering an interest in music

2007-11-13T07:43:00.000+11:00

I don't know if I've mentioned this in the past, but when listening to the radio in the car, Chickie has to know the name of the song, who's singing and who wrote the song. Woe betide me if I don't know the answer...

I've taken to making stuff up, on occasion (hey, it's been quite a while since I worked in radio - I don't know every song out there any more!).

His latest thing is to ask what's making the music, so I've been trying to identify which instrument is playing at the time in the song. Luckily it's fairly easy with one of his favourites at the moment - Into the Night by Santana and Chad Kroeger.

So my question is, for anyone musical out there, if he expresses an interest in learning a musical instrument at any stage in the future, what age would you recommend to start? I don't want to push it all but if he ever does express an interest I'd like to start him at an age that encourages him rather than discourages because it's too much at that age - if you know what I mean.

back again

2007-11-11T09:07:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone, break's over. So now you'll be subjected to all my trivial thoughts again... Did you miss me? (no, don't answer that - I'd rather keep my little illusion, that you did, intact hehe)

Haven't been doing much over the last month. The usual stuff at work, Chickie's doing great at school and I've been playing a fair bit of World of Warcraft (good to lose yourself in, when you don't want to think too hard ;) and I've made some very good friends there).

I'm totally hanging out for December though. I will have a whole month off. I can not wait!

My mum and dad will be visiting for a fair chunk of it, and then the rest of my family (3 sisters and their families) is coming over for Christmas. I haven't seen some of them in years and some have never visited us here. I can't wait.

J and I are also trying to organise a quick trip to Melbourne to see Spamalot. I just love Monty Python and I've heard this is really good. Will be a bit of a rush but I hope we can organise it for when I'm on my holidays.

Now I plan on visiting everyone's blogs soon, but I'm going to just mark everything in my bloglines as read. It's just overflowing. So if I miss anything important, I'll apologise right now. Congratulations, commiserations, good luck etc for anything I miss. I hope you've all been well.

Oh and I don't know if I mentioned this but I'm really looking forward to my holidays in December...

Thanks and a short break

2007-10-15T19:01:00.000+10:00

Thank you to everyone, for your kind comments after G's death.

The funeral was typical G, complete with Toni Basil's 'Mickey' and Robbie Williams' 'Let me entertain you' played at times. It was still sad though, hearing about other people's stories about her.

With all this, I'm feeling like I need a short break from blogging. I'm just not in the mood at the moment. I will be back soon though, I'm sure! Be well, and I'll come visit your blogs again soon.

2007-10-05T16:18:00.000+10:00

There's one less wonderful person in the world today. G passed away earlier this morning.

Thanks to everyone for your kind comments on my last post. They were much appreciated and really helped me.

Down

2007-10-02T22:20:00.000+10:00

Pardon me, but this will be a bit of a gloomy, rambling and probably self-indulgent post.

If you've read my blog recently, you may know that a friend (G) is currently in palliative care and has only weeks to live. I've visited her a couple of times and the last time I saw her, she seemed brighter but drifted in and out of sleep several times during the half hour visit.

I came away from the last visit in two minds. On one side it was good to see her brighter. She'd been able to have a 'bath' of sorts and the staff wheeled her bed outside since it was such a lovely day. Such small things, but they can bring joy.

Then the down side of things... G obviously doesn't have a lot of energy. It was hard seeing her drift in and out of sleep in such a short time. The conversation faltered as she drifted off to sleep and the other visitors (her nephew and his family) and I fell silent. We looked at each other with the sort of half smile you make when you're trying to be cheerful for someone else. Then a few minutes later G would resume the conversation - obviously unaware she'd drifted off.

Then today I received an email from a friend - K (who is more like a second daughter) and she said that when she'd talked to the nurses today, she was told that G wasn't doing too well. K said she'd let me know if it was anything serious and I haven't heard from her, so no news is good news at this stage, I guess.

The fact that G has weeks to live is so strange to me. She's always been so strong, even when she wasn't physically strong. It's like everything's on hold, and we're just waiting. I can't imagine how it must feel for G herself, or her family.

I'm not really that familiar with death either. I've been to a total of 3 funerals in my life - my grandmother about 10 years ago, a work-mate's father's funeral last year and my friend B's earlier this year. I've had other (usually elderly) relatives die but I've not been around before anyone actually died. It's all so... weird. I know this is all very self-indulgent - it must be ten million times harder for G's family. I feel almost guilty for feeling upset that G is going to die soon (god, that's hard to say).

Hey, if you got this far... thanks for reading my ramble. I like that blogging gives me a way to just get some of this out.

But muuuuuuuum...

2007-09-30T10:12:00.000+10:00

The complaint from Chickie:

"Why do you make me do everything?"

The heinous crime:

I told him to get up and get his own drink bottle, when he was thirsty.

The kicker?

He was about a metre away from the drink bottle (it was a chair over from him in the lounge room), whereas I was 2 rooms away.

I'm such a mean mother...

ups and downs

2007-09-27T19:39:00.000+10:00

You know, there's no way I'd be able to be bulimic. You'd be able to tell straight off with me.

I currently have splotches all around my mouth and eyes because I've been ill last night and today. I suppose it's broken blood vessels in my face, and it doesn't look very attractive. Not that I particularly care how I look right now. Heck I'm still in my pj's (and have been all day). Right now, all I care about is whether my stomach could keep down a little bit of chicken soup. I did manage to have some vegemite toast at lunch time so perhaps it will be ok.

Of course the annoying thing is that we may have to cancel a bbq with our friends. You see, we'd organised to have friends come over a couple of weeks ago. They had to cancel since their baby had conjunctivitis (which they didn't want to share - phew!), so we organised for them to come over last Friday. Again they had to cancel as one of them had a nasty case of tonsilitis. So, it was arranged for them to come over tomorrow. Now I'm hoping I'll be over this stomach bug, but given how queasy I still feel... I have my doubts. Oh well, we'll wait and see.

--

Chickie had a great time at his sports day yesterday. He even got a ribbon for third in the 5 year old boys race. He's so proud of it.

They had all sorts of cute stuff like the dressup race (yep, putting on clothes, bag, necklaces etc), the egg and spoon race, the water race and the sack race. I had to work, but J took the day off and Chickie's grandmother and grandfather dropped in for a bit too. So there were lots of photos for me to see.

call centres

2007-09-25T22:53:00.000+10:00

Have you ever worked in a call centre? I'm sure most people have called one, but have you ever wondered what it's like on the other side? Have a read of this. Now our company is pretty good. We're paid well and while there are times where it's exhausting and stressful, I don't believe we've ever had things go to this extreme.

That said, though the story might be exaggerated (aren't most stories in the media exaggerated?), I can totally see it being true - because the same basics seem to apply all over. I've also heard similar stories from people who have worked in call centres for other companies.

It can be a tough job sometimes, especially when it gets busy. We're flat out at the moment and our team is getting offered as much overtime as we want. It's leading to burn out though. There are quite a few in our team feeling like they can't take much more. I must admit I broke down today, though I think it was a combination of the workload and stress - as well as the shock of my friend G having only weeks to live. It's so embarrassing crying in your cubicle.

On a more upbeat note, Chickie has a sports day at school tomorrow and he's so excited about it. He's in the yellow team, so please send all yellow vibes this way tomorrow!

Also, it's the last week of the school term, this week, and his class is having a little party on the last day. We have to bring a plate of something to share. Half the class has been asked to bring something savoury and the other half sweet. We have to bring savoury, but I'm suffering brain fade and can't think of a thing. Any suggestions?

Sad

2007-09-24T19:53:00.000+10:00

I went to visit a friend (G) in hospital tonight. She fought breast cancer a few years back and thought she'd won. Then earlier this year they discovered she had a tumour in her brain that was inoperable. She had chemo again and was on the verge of coming back to work (just an hour a week to ease her into things), when things went downhill suddenly last Friday.

So now she's in palliative care and they're saying it's a matter of weeks. She won't be going home again.

G is one of the receptionists at work and she is one of the most lovely and loving people you could ever meet. Our building has hundreds of people working there and it's going to be hard when she does pass away. She's so loved in our company that the head of the division flew over to visit her.

I'm just torn up about this. I'm trying not to cry in front of Chickie but seeing G tonight was a shock.

back to everyday life

2007-09-19T21:12:00.000+10:00

My 4 days off was nice - but it's back to the everyday again now. Work's as busy as usual and I'm looking forward to my usual weekend off this week - though that's going to be busy too!

Friday we have some friends coming around for a bbq. On Saturday night J's work is putting on a 10 pin bowling evening (their social club tries quite hard to organise fun stuff for the staff and their families). Good thing I've already seen the season finale of Doctor Who, otherwise I'd be going nowhere! Then Sunday after work, we're going around to a friend's place to celebrate his birthday.

Chickie's going well at school. He's been the 'Star of the Day' again and received more little certificates (latest was for 'getting along with others'). He's so proud of them, but also a bit jealous of one boy, who apparently has 'one hundred fifty million nine'* certificates.

His class went on an excursion to the zoo yesterday. Chickie was so excited - and so exhausted at the end of the day. He's been telling me all about endangered animals and also about how his best friend didn't get to see a turkey. I'm guessing his friend must have been really disappointed since Chickie's mentioned it several times since the excursion!

I was waiting at the school for the bus (it was running a little late) and overheard one of the other teachers talking about Chickie's teacher (L) and how she thought that L was crazy for taking the kids on an excursion. She was saying there was no way she'd put herself through it and that L would learn once she'd been in the job a few years. I don't know... taking a bunch of 5 year olds to the zoo wouldn't be something I'd want to do either, but I'm kind of glad L is relatively new to the job and had the enthusiasm to organise it. Chickie had a great time.

*direct quote from Chickie.

feeling relaxed

2007-09-13T12:05:00.000+10:00

Day two of my 4 day weekend and I'm feeling a little tired. Well, playing World of Warcraft til 3am will do that I guess - even if I didn't have to get up at any particular time (I got up at 9 anyway since I was awake). Killing virtual monsters is quite therapeutic!

I'm feeling quite relaxed, knowing I don't have to go into work. Guess the stress was getting to me. Even my blood sugar levels are lower on waking. The last 3 or 4 weeks they seem to be in the high 7's in the mornings (it's meant to be around 5.5), no matter what I did the night before - hard workout, snack before bed, no snack before bed, lowering the carb levels at dinner. Yet yesterday and today - 5.6 and 5.7. I need to win a lottery and become independently wealthy. For my health, don'tcha know...

Hmmm... what to do now... perhaps a nice relaxing bubble bath? I figure I've earned it since I've just done a workout on the exercise bike.

Oh and I'd just like to say that Nori Wasabi flavoured peanuts are delish and very addictive (not to mention quite hot!). Very good when you have the munchies but don't want to go overboard - I can't really have very many at a time.

A long weekend!!

2007-09-11T20:34:00.000+10:00

Yay! 4 days off. I'm looking forward to doing very little the next few days. Think of me sleeping in, if you're getting up to work over the next few days. [grin]

We took Chickie to see Ratatouille today. It was pretty good and I loved the Pixar short film at the beginning. All three of us laughed a lot at that.

I still don't have a new mobile phone yet. Work still hasn't posted the new phone deals for the month - and we're nearly halfway through the month! I've decided I should get something with navigation/maps etc, a decent camera (2 or 3 megapixel will do) and something that's not too big. Some of the ones I've looked at are quite big in size and probably have more features than I really need (well want actually, all I really need is something for calls and text). Of course, if I decide not to bother waiting and just go buy something - odds are that it will be the next to go on special.

A better day today

2007-09-05T20:36:00.000+10:00

because it's J's birthday! It's not been a real exciting day for him though. He took today off work but still had to go to TAFE this afternoon (he's studying computer programming). At least he had a relaxing morning. Hopefully we can do something special this weekend.

Chickie's not feeling so great though. Looks like he's got a cold, poor thing. I thought it might be allergies at first, since I've also had a bit of light hayfever lately, but no, I think it's a cold. He looked quite wrung out today.

As for me... I've organised to have a 4 day weekend next week. I'm feeling the stress a bit at work so decided I needed a bit of down time. I can't wait!

I'm in a bad mood

2007-09-04T07:57:00.000+10:00

A Very Bad Mood, in fact.

I start work at 6.30am. I am so not a morning person. Getting up at 5.30am is a struggle for me. I do this so I can ensure I'm there to pick Chickie up from school in the afternoons (J takes him to school in the mornings). I will be putting in for after school care - when it becomes available because I'm finding it hard to get up this early (not to mention work is letting me start at 6.30 as a favour - it costs them, since I get paid at a higher rate if I start early).

So, why can't Chickie cooperate and not wake me up 15 minutes before my alarm is supposed to go off? I cannot stand being woken just before my alarm goes off. He wouldn't go back to sleep either, so I'm grumpy from being woken early and he's whiny because he's up too early. Heaven only knows what he'll be like after a full day of school. He's so tired afterwards, even when he has had enough sleep!

Of course, then I come into work (after cursing all the idiot drivers in front of me, on the way in) and the first calls I have are people whining or looking for an easy way out of the call they're on. I hope neither was psychic, since all I was thinking was 'Stop whining, because I don't care, just go do your job properly!'

It's going to be a long day...

The research continues

2007-08-31T20:55:00.000+10:00

I'm still no closer to deciding on a new mobile phone. I do have a bit of an excuse though. One of the guys at work recommended I wait until next week as work will have a new lot of handsets on special. If I get it through work, I can get it cheaper (the perks of working for a telco!) - not to mention the staff plans are pretty good.

The down side is that there's a limited range on offer. So I'll wait and see. My supervisor used to work in the mobile department and he recommends either a Sony Ericsson or a Samsung. He doesn't think much of the other brands.

I did go have a look at a few handsets today and I've been asking friends what they have and what they like. A couple of my friends think I should get the Nokia 6110 Navigator. Apparently my knack for getting lost easily is well known!

Hmm... perhaps that's not a bad idea ;)

lunar eclipse

2007-08-28T20:04:00.001+10:00

Are you in a spot where you can see it? If so, go outside - right now! It's so cool.

If not - take a look here.

--
Edited to add...

Check out my friend Ian's pic, of the eclipse, at splendor-solis.

Doin' research

2007-08-27T22:08:00.000+10:00

So people, I need your opinions...

I'm looking into buying a new mobile phone. My current one is almost 3 years old now and it's starting to do weird things on me. The latest stunt it's pulling is disconnecting me in the middle of calls and then flashing on and off for a few minutes. It seems to be ok if I turn it off for a while but it's happening more and more now, so I'm looking around.

I don't really need anything too fancy - calls, text, alarm function, a camera and bluetooth are the only 'must haves' (and most of those are standard these days anyway).

So tell me about your current phone or a phone you covet. What do you like about it, what do you hate? What will you never buy ever again? Feel free to rave about various features you use all the time. There's probably lots I could use but have never just bothered with!

Oh and Americans... please don't talk to me about the iphone - I'd love one of those but they won't be available, here in Australia, for quite some time yet... /pout

A day at the museum

2007-08-25T19:24:00.000+10:00

And nothing came to life. Life is never like the movies , is it...

It was pretty cool though. Our local museum has a giant squid in an old elevator shaft, so you can see it from all 4 levels. There's even a perspex floor at the top to look down on it. For some reason though, no one wanted to stand on it!

J took Chickie to the museum months ago while I was at a friend's funeral and Chickie's been dying to go back ever since. So yesterday I suggested we go this weekend. Turned out to be good timing too, since they were having a science day thing there too - lots of extra displays and stuff to look at. We fluked that one quite nicely.

One giggle of the day... at one point, I sat on a handy chair to re-tie my shoelaces, then looked up at the wall to see a sign labelled 'Antiquities' just over me. I banned J from taking a picture hehe.

One moment I wasn't sure what to say was when I came out of the ladies. Chickie ran up to me excitedly and dragged me over to see something. He pointed to a boy with two artificial legs (not the real looking sort) and said "Look mum, robot legs!! Cool!!". I just said "yeah! Oooh look over here, a skeleton!". I hope the boy didn't hear us. Chickie wasn't mean about it (quite the opposite) but I daresay when you're in that position, you're probably sick of comments at all.

Then on the way back to the car, we checked out one of the bigger book shops and I ended up buying lots of books for myself. I feel a bit guilty since they were all for me - and I could have bought way more, quite easily!

Oh and thanks to everyone who voted for my friend. She didn't win (in fact I think she probably came last unfortunately) but at least she won $1000 and she's our state winner. Plus as J says "that's better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick" (that saying always makes me laugh). I was personally hoping that the QLD entrant would win, if my friend didn't. The other two looked too tarty in my opinion.

Huh??

2007-08-20T16:13:00.000+10:00

I got yelled at when I went through McDonald's drive thru yesterday. I was picking up a few orders for the guys at work, as well as my lunch, so it took a bit of time for them to hand me my order (probably didn't help that they had some trainees on). There were two cars behind me and one woman started yelling 'hurry up red car!'

Err ok, like got I've any control over how fast they work...

Not to mention it was 11am on a Sunday, so I wouldn't exactly call it rush hour.

Now, if you feel you can spare a vote for my friend in the Triple M Hot Mama's competition - please go visit their website here. From the front page, click on the 'View the hot mum galleries' link, then click on the picture to go to the finalist voting page. My friend is number 4 - Tricia. She's the underdog at the moment, so any votes you can spare would be greatly welcomed! She has a chance at $5000 - decided by a web vote.

I won't link directly to the gallery because it auto-detects my state and I don't want to mess up the link for others. I don't know if that means you won't be able to vote if you're outside Australia, but if someone would like to try and let me know, I'd appreciate it.

Oh and feel free to spread the word, the more votes, the merrier!

Cool!

2007-08-14T23:08:00.000+10:00

Do you happen to listen to Triple M (if you're an aussie) in the afternoons? If so, you might have heard a friend on the show. One of my mum's group friends has been voted our state's 'hottest mama' in a radio competition. She was over the moon when she called me - particularly since the prize was $1000. She did say she's kinda glad that her hubby entered her now!

Next week she'll be running against the winners of the other states for a chance at $5000. It'll be a website vote, so if I find out the link I'll post it, in case you can spare a vote.

Funnily enough, I talked to my sister (in a different state) tonight and she said she heard my friend's chat and thought that she seemed to be the only one who didn't sound 'up herself' and was planning on voting for her - even before she found out we were friends!

heheh

2007-08-13T10:44:00.000+10:00

I love icanhascheezburger.com - good for a giggle on a Monday morning...

hodge podge post

2007-08-12T23:50:00.000+10:00

So I've been a little scarce lately. Things are very busy at work so I come home mentally wiped out. Found a good little diversion though. Anyway, here's a hodge podge post of what I've been up to lately.

A friend asked us to download some patches for World of Warcraft, since he was throttled and couldn't grab them himself, and gave us his guest account to play with. It lasts for 10 days so J and I have been having fun killing monsters etc. It's a good way to work out some frustrations of the working day (particularly when you get to deal with some very nutty customers - must post about some of the more bizarre customers one of these days).

J fixed the curtain. Just in time for when a friend brought her kids around to play with Chickie. It appears that school might be giving him more confidence. When he's played with these friends in the past, he's been kind of quiet - more a follower, than a leader. This time he was downright bossy!

Oh he's received another certificate at school - this time for organisation. The last was for persistence - these are two skills I wouldn't have thought were his strengths so perhaps they're trying to encourage things in those areas?? I'm all for it though :)

We went to a quiz night on Friday night. It was to raise money for the netball club that J's mum coaches for. We usually do ok (usually 2nd or 3rd) but this year we came equal last. We were down in numbers a bit though since we had half the numbers of the other tables (due to illness). It was fun though - we were feeding Chickie wrong answers and having him say them out loud. He thought it was hilarious! We won a couple of cool prizes in the raffles though - including a remote control car for Chickie.

Saturday, J and I went and saw an Indian movie - Chak De! India - loved the scene in the McDonalds. The rest of the crowd in the cinema were quite amusing. They were cheering and clapping at various parts.

Well, spose I'd better get off to bed. Another busy day at work tomorrow. Night all...

Grrr..

2007-08-05T22:48:00.000+10:00

We only have half a curtain hanging in our lounge room tonight...

In our lounge room we have a rocker recliner chair. Chickie has a very bad habit of jumping on it and into it. He gets told off and put in time out for doing it. Still he keeps doing it. He's started losing privileges lately.

So tonight, he was doing it again. This time he did it when the chair was pushed up against the curtain, so basically pulled on the curtain and pulled the screw out of the wall and down came half the curtain rod and curtain.

Not happy Jan...

I feel so exposed. Even though we have canvas awnings covering the front verandah, so we're not completely visible from the front yard, it just feels wrong.

Time and place, people, time and place!

2007-08-03T14:42:00.000+10:00

No sleep in today unfortunately, as J had to go on a trip to Brisbane for a meeting. I got to get up and take Chickie to school.

As we're getting out of the car just outside the school, we can hear two people having an absolute screaming match across the road. A man and a woman, several cars apart, yelling at each other about their kids - so presumably a former husband and wife. Thing is, the poor kids were right there, looking absolutely miserable. Chickie was a bit scared by the yelling as it was, so I just got him into school quickly, after reassuring him it was just an argument. He hasn't really experienced that much though, J and I don't really argue much.

Then after I'd dropped him off I was walking behind a lady who called out to a friend who was across the road and she commented that she was off to visit a shopping centre nearby. As a joke, the lady across the road called back "Don't do that, you'll get stabbed" (there was someone stabbed to the hands the other day when someone tried to steal her bag, at that shopping centre). Now this was right in front of the school - with kids still going in. For pete's sake people, 5 year olds do not need to hear that - even as a joke! Gah!

After that, I went and caught the Simpson's movie - gave me a laugh. If you haven't seen it, stay for the credits.

If you've visited House & Baby lately, you see she's doing a Flashback Friday. I've been feeling in the flashback mood today, only not with photos. I've been surfing YouTube for 80's music, so if you want to check out some of the songs I liked in the 80's, go visit my other blog Visual Parallax.

Is there something I'm missing here?

2007-08-02T21:45:00.000+10:00

Ok, for those of you who are women and exercise, perhaps you can explain something to me...

What is the point of those 'shelf bras' in work out shirts?

Are you supposed to wear a bra with them or are you supposed to use the shelf bra only? I would have thought that a shelf bra wouldn't be enough support during exercise, even for the under endowed. But then, wouldn't you get too hot and sweaty having that extra layer in that area, if you're wearing a bra as well?? Or am I the only one who 'glows'* copiously in that area?

So what's the point of them - can anyone enlighten me?

* My mum always said 'horses sweat, men perspire and women glow'.

Of wizards, buses and stars.

2007-07-28T09:37:00.000+10:00

Well, I've had a week off work (back to the daily grind tomorrow) and I must admit I haven't done a lot with it. I've mostly been reading the new Harry Potter book (loved it and now have plans to read the lot again from the beginning) to fill in time between dropping off and picking up Chickie from school.

I did schedule a few appointments this week too. A doctor's appointment for my regular HbA1c (I have a lovely bruise in the crook of my right elbow) and a cut and colour for my hair (looks nice, thanks for asking), not to mention going to see the latest Harry Potter movie. Still I don't feel like I accomplished much this week. It was pretty relaxing though.

On my way to the hair dressers the other day, I saw something for the first time - a two bus collision. Well, I didn't see the actual collision but but the police were there putting up traffic cones and the buses were still there. One had a smashed in front left corner and the other had the side of the bus smashed in. I've heard of plenty of cars try their luck at intersections, and t-bone other cars but I've never heard of buses doing it. Perhaps the drivers were playing chicken?

Chickie's loved the first week of school. On Thursday he was the star of the day and was the leader for their fitness class. He was so proud to show me his name in the big star on the board.

I didn't need to worry about what to feed him. He's mostly been eating ham sandwiches and his fruit (usually bananas) and usually finishes his Vita-weat crackers at home. He's still as hungry as a horse at home but it sounds like he's too busy to eat at school. I'm just glad he's enjoying it.

Day two

2007-07-24T13:57:00.000+10:00

And Chickie was excited to go back to school. So, I figure he must have enjoyed himself. He didn't care that we were going yesterday and barely looked in our direction as we were leaving today. Mind you, after asking about his day yesterday, you'd think all he'd done all day was play in the playground and in the sand pit!

He must be making friends though. We went down to the shops afterwards to get a little celebration cake, of his choosing, for starting school (a choc mint mud cake from the Cheesecake Shop - well, a quarter of one really) and a little girl in a similar 'uniform' called out his name and said hello. He didn't know her name, mind you...

So, all in all he's fine. Me on the other hand... well, I still can't believe he's old enough to go to school. Yesterday, J and I came home and I had a tear or two and then J left for work. I tried to settle down to read the new Harry Potter book but just couldn't concentrate on it. So, I haven't got very far yet. I've got the full week off work and I've scheduled something each day (today I saw the new Harry Potter movie - loved it) so hopefully I'll actually finish the book sometime!

I'm glad I'm not working this week. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be much use there, while I'm this scatterbrained!

All growed up

2007-07-23T10:08:00.000+10:00

Well, my sweet little baby is a big school boy now. J and I took him in this morning, found his spot in the classroom, put his water bottle in the basket with the others, his lunch box and hat in his tray, then hung his (now empty) school bag in the cloak room. We left him there happily drawing a picture and talking to the girl who sits next to him.

He was so excited to be all dressed up in his uniform (though I don't think he's going to like wearing the skivvies I got, he kept fiddling with the neck) and wearing his backpack. He barely waved when we left, so I think the visits a few weeks ago were a very good idea.

J and I got sniffly on the way out. You probably won't be surprised to hear I was more 'sniffly' though ;)

I feel at a bit of a loose end now (I have this week off work), but it's probably a good thing I have the new Harry Potter book to distract me until 3pm.

The countdown is on!

2007-07-22T00:16:00.000+10:00

No, not the Harry Potter one - that one's been and gone and J's currently reading the book in the bedroom. The real countdown is that Chickie starts school Monday morning.

How is it possible that he's old enough to go to school now? I know he's ready for it. His teacher at the childcare centre tells me he's completely ready academic wise. They're doing this Letterland thing and he's just soaking it up like a sponge. They've only been doing it a few weeks and he spelt out the word Myer today, while shopping (and technically they're only up to the letter F!). She also says he's very social and will probably find it very easy to make friends.

We've bought clothes for him to wear. The school's dress code is navy, red and white. So far we have lots of navy stuff and a few red things. It was actually really hard to find stuff for him in navy, in his size. There was plenty of grey around but hardly anything in navy. I managed to find two pairs of navy school uniform type pants (one in size 4 which will only fit for a while, and one in size 5) and as a back up, he has two pairs of cord navy pants. This is just not the time to be looking for winter clothing - all the summer stuff is starting to come out!

Anyway, all the new clothes have been washed and hopefully it will be enough to keep him reasonably clothed.

We've been practising opening lunch containers. He's not finding that so easy - some of the new containers we've bought are a bit stiff still. Hopefully they'll loosen up soon and in the mean time we've bought some resealable plastic bags that he finds easier.

His lunch is probably going to be a bit boring to start with. He's decided all he wants on his sandwiches is either vegemite or ham. He likes the idea of Vita-Weat crackers with vegemite and either bananas or apples for fruit.

My sister suggested I don't get into the habit of sending muesli bars, sultanas or fruit rollups (basically any sort of 'sticky' type foods), since one of her boys ended up with 9 fillings in his first year of school. She said the dentist told her it's often because the kids don't always drink enough water to rinse the food from their teeth. Chickie doesn't seem to drink very much at home, to me (he does actually like water though, thank goodness), so I think perhaps I might take that advice and only send those types of things occasionally. Though, once he actually goes and sees what the other kids eat... things could be different.

So, am I ready for this? Um no... he's my little baby! He's too little for school!

A photo of me

2007-07-17T00:19:00.000+10:00

I was sorting out some pics of Chickie's bowling party for my family and found a pic of me when I visited Japan. I was there 20 years ago now but it seems like only a few years back. Meggie's mention of creating a kimono outfit for a doll reminded me of the trip.

It was a fun 2 weeks, not to mention a great experience. My oldest nephew will be there this Christmas and I'm sure he'll have a great time too.

I got to experience quite a bit while there - Tokyo Disneyland, a Japanese wedding, karaoke in a karaoke bar, trying a kimono, visiting Mt Fuji, Tokyo trains and the Bullet Train, visiting a movie lot/theme park and visiting many many lovely shrines and gardens. I stayed with penfriends and their families and would love to go back again one day.

I've got heaps more photos of the trip and I really should get around to scanning them. When I do, I'll have to post some of the pics of the gardens. They really are stunning.

It really doesn't feel like it was 20 years ago...