oops

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...

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!

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!

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!

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

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!

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??

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

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

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!

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?

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...

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

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

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...

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

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!

From icanhascheezburger.com...

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

Chickie did it!!

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...

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.