Merry Christmas everyone!

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

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

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...

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?

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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!!

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

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

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...