8 things

I've been tagged by KindaBlue over at Every Generation. So here are 8 things you probably never wanted to know about me!

1. People call me a bit of a daredevil, but I don't really agree. I've been tandem skydiving, gliding, had a joyride in a tiger moth plane, a hot air balloon and a helicopter - but you'll never see me bungee jumping or on a boat where I can't see the shore (I'm terrified of drowning).

2. I've been told I 'sound blonde' (yes, direct quote there!). I used to be a radio announcer and met a listener at a function. She had a slightly puzzled look on her face and then said I wasn't what she expected. I asked why and that's when she said I sounded blonde (my hair colour is dark reddish brown).

3. I realised, at about mid afternoon today, that I'd put my undies on inside out. This is not the first time it's happened, but I guess you'll get that when you're getting ready for work in the dark...

4. I cannot read Terry Pratchett's books in public. I find his books so funny that I laugh out loud and people seem to think you're strange for doing that.

5. I have absolutely no sense of direction. I've worked in the same building for over seven years now and I can only remember that my desk is in the west wing by linking it in my mind with the tv show. I joke about it and tell people I subscribe to the Zen method of navigation (find someone who looks like they know where they're going and follow them). Funnily enough - that method did actually work for me once.

6. I once had a stalker. It wasn't a huge deal but it did make me feel a bit nervous and creeped out at the time. I was a volunteer on the local community radio station and this guy used to call up all the time and tell me about how his wife had left him and taken all the furniture except a bed, a chair and his radio. Was more annoying than anything (was near impossible to get him off the phone without being rude), until he started sending me flowers and other things, then calling me at home. He started hanging around the station (he became a volunteer) but when I saw him hanging around the apartment building I lived in, I got really creeped out. My then boyfriend and I moved and got a new (silent) number in his name and we also made sure I was never alone in the studio. Not long after that the boyfriend got a job in commercial radio so we moved a long way away.

7. I'm a bit of a spelling and pronunciation nazi. It seems like my eye is just automatically drawn to spelling errors (though there are some words I just cannot spell to save my life!), so I'm very embarrassed if I make typos in my posts!! Oh, and if you want to drive me batty just constantly mispronounce a few words. My mum pronounces film as fillum and I just want to pull my hair out when I hear it. J mispronounces mayor all the time. Makes me want to send this link to him. He says it as may-your. I think they both do it on purpose now... gah!

8. I think I've killed my taste buds. Before being diagnosed with diabetes, you couldn't get me to even contemplate stuff with artificial sweeteners in it. I detested the after taste - especially diet drinks. I used to drink a 600ml bottle of coke every other day or thereabouts, so going from that to just water was hard to deal with. I tried a few different diet drinks but the taste was just blech. I found that I could handle diet coke with lime though and after several months of this I've found that I can also now handle coke zero and plain diet coke. In fact, I realised recently that I have a hard time telling the difference between normal coke and diet. Yep, I'm pretty sure I've killed my taste buds...

You know, I've been thinking about this post for a few days now. I thought I'd have heaps of trouble thinking of 8 facts about me, but I think I even have a few up my sleeve. Perhaps I'll talk about them sometime when I've run out of inspiration.

I'm supposed to tag a few people now. I always find this bit hard. You never know if people are interested in doing memes (and then the ones that are have usually done it already!). Let's see...

How about Tasha at Mommy Needs To Vent (she hasn't posted in a few weeks though), Tracey at Peppermint Patcher (she's just moved her blog over to Wordpress and reached 100 posts! Go say hi) and Kirsty at Two Lime Leaves (go check out the pear photo mosaic she has up at the moment - very cool). If you haven't been tagged yet and would like to do this meme, leave me a comment - I'd love to read yours.

Linky love

Want to win some really nice hand blown glass? Then have a look at gnat's site (link below).

Glass Blowing Pensacola Florida: Glass Contest Time...make your guess!

1st prize is one his new shells - and they're just lovely. I wouldn't mind one of those myself!

All you have to do is guess the number of marbles in the vase and if you come over from my blog and win - I get the large marble!

I've no idea if he's wanting to send stuff outside the U.S. just yet (I asked) but if not, have a look at some of his pics on the blog - very nice work.

tooth fairy time

Yup, it happened - Chickie has officially lost his first baby tooth! I got a call at work today because he was so excited about it. At first I was a bit worried since the childcare centre usually only call if he's sick.

It seems like it's happened rather quickly, but I suppose it has been loose a few weeks now. I had a look in his mouth a couple of days ago and could see the adult tooth coming up behind it, so I should have guessed it wouldn't take long. I'll tell you one thing though - his new tooth looks like it's HUUUUUGE!! Honestly it looks about 3 times the size of his baby tooth. I'm wondering how the heck his adult teeth are going to fit in his mouth.

So, what's the going rate for the tooth fairy these days?

On another exciting note, a friend has just had her second baby today. Another girl and another big one - 9 pounds, 15! The first was also in the 9 pound range so they were expecting it, but my goodness that's a big baby.

Post party wrap up

Well, I think it went well. It looked like everyone was having a good time. So, I think I'll call it a success.

I'd invited 15 kids (not including Chickie), 14 had rsvp'd with a yes, so I told the bowling alley a final count of 15. One parent called, in the morning, to say his son was ill and couldn't come. One of the other boys had brought his older brother (he and his mother were planning on bowling separately while the party was on) so I asked if he wanted to bowl with the kids too. So all in all, I didn't have to worry about paying for an unused spot.

We got there half an hour early and one boy was already there! Not a problem but I hope they hadn't been waiting too long. Didn't matter to Chickie as this was one of his good friends that had now started school, so they were excited to see each other.

We went up to the area they'd assigned us and the other kids started arriving. It was so funny to see the kids play together. At one stage they were doing this follow the leader thing around the place. During the bowling they were also play wrestling and mini-'racing' between the lanes. It's a good thing we were right off at the end, so no one else was being bothered.

Once everyone was there we started the food for the kids. There was heaps of food. The amount was probably more suited to older kids, rather than 5 year olds. They didn't eat a real lot to start with (probably too excited, but they all seemed to come back to pick at it while bowling). After they'd had a bit to eat we got them started bowling. We had three lanes with 5 kids in each, but only one ramp (the other ramps were taken with other lanes - the place was packed).

It was hilarious watching the kids bowl. One boy (I) knew how to bowl and apparently does it quite a bit. They put up the speed of the ball being bowled and I's were going at about 10 ks an hour. Some of the other kids were at about 1 k an hour. Many many times, the ball was going so slowly that it stopped half way down.

There was at least one strike that I saw and a couple of spares. The kids would get so excited when any pins were knocked over though. It was so cute!

The adult platters were served once the game started and then the ice cream cakes were served after the kids finished their game. After that, we all went home and collapsed in a heap!

Some random thoughts for the day:

* I should have had name tags for everyone. Some of the parents I didn't know at all - other than when they called to rsvp. So putting faces to names was a bit of a task. Plus some of them wouldn't have known many others, so thinking back it would have made it easier all round.

* I was really pleased that so many dads turned up. We had two where it was mum and dad, and four where it was just dad and their child/ren. I was initially worried that J would feel a bit 'odd man out' with no other guys there, so I'm glad it didn't turn out that way.

* I should have had Chickie wait to open presents until later or asked J to write the gift on the back of the card. While I said hello to the parent, J was helping Chickie open stuff and he grouped the cards with the right gift but at some point things were knocked over and neither he nor Chickie can remember who gave what. I did make a point of thanking everyone for coming at the end and thanking them for the gift but it was a bit embarrassing not knowing which gift!

* Speaking of toys, people are really generous! I was amazed at the generosity of the gifts. Chickie is thrilled with all his new toys.

* Some kids must find parties hard. One particular kid cried a number of times. I'm not even sure why, to be honest. J thought it might be for the attention but I don't know, to me he looked a little overwhelmed. One other girl cried as well, but that was because two other girls were playing with each other and she was feeling excluded. I think it was because the two girls turned out to be wearing the same outfit and they kept telling me they were twins.

* Stomper's recommendation of alcohol afterwards was spot on. J discovered about 3/4 of the way through that they sold alcohol there, so indulged in a Jack and coke (for his nerves!).

Chickie is 5 today!!

My sweet little baby boy is growing up. 5 years old today. He's such a boy now.

He got up at his usual time (6am...) and found two very intriguing parcels on the couch. I was already up since I had to work, so we got J out of bed and Chickie ripped into them.

J had taken him 'scouting' for present suggestions a few weeks back and one of the things he liked was the pull string Woody doll (from Toy Story). We found a double pack where for an extra $10 you also got Jessie. So now he has two talking dolls. We also got him a snakes and ladders game (he loves playing that and monopoly when he visits his grandparents) and some proper paints (his current set is useless, the paint is so watery it barely colours the page) and a Spiderman colouring/activity book and pencils set. He also got some DVD's and $20 from my mum and dad. It was so funny when he opened the card, he picked up the money by the corner, waved it around and asked if it was real!

I managed to croak a happy birthday to him. Unfortunately I still don't have much of a voice. I took yesterday off to see if a day of not speaking would bring it back. It's a little better but not enough that I can do much at work. I took one call - internal thankfully - and it was obvious that I'm not going to be able to do any calls at all. Not so good when you work in a call centre!

Anyway, tonight we'll have family and a couple of friends around for bbq and cake, one of Chickie's friends has a birthday party tomorrow and then Chickie's party is Sunday. Get set for a big weekend here! Hopefully I'll have my voice back for Chickie's party, otherwise that could be interesting...

I'm a little hoarse right now

Well, truth be told, I actually have very little voice left at all.

I told J I'd spent 45 minutes yelling at a customer and he got all concerned and wondered what had happened. It's very out of character for me to yell, let alone yell at a customer.

So, I had my little giggle and told him I'd actually been yelling to a customer. Long story short - the customer had emailed in about some username/password problems and even after questioning a fair bit, we couldn't work out if it was with the initial connection or his email (in case you're wondering - his Mac worked, his pc didn't). Eventually we asked him to call in and see if we could sort it out quicker. He said he would but commented that he was a bit deaf and the last time he'd called, he'd hung up in frustration because he spoke to someone with an accent and they wouldn't slow down even after he'd explained he couldn't hear and understand them.

Now, previously I've worked in radio and found that speaking slowly and clearly is one of my strengths, so I figured rather than have this guy take his chances, I'd call him (though it's not what we usually do). Well, we sorted the problem, even though it took ages - and many many many repetitions of commands. I was sitting there shouting down the phone line, with my team mates having a good laugh at my expense (heh, we all do it to each other). In the end the customer was so happy to have the problem sorted that he told me I should get employee of the month award!

I'm thinking now I should have warmed up my voice before I called (even though voice exercises are so very embarrassing to do in public)! My voice has just been getting worse and worse all day. I'm down to just whispering now.

I have to say though - the funniest thing was speaking with Chickie earlier. Once my voice was pretty much down to a whisper, he started whispering back to me. I explained he didn't have to but he couldn't seem to stop. The way he was acting, it was like telling him dinner was ready and to come have his teeth brushed etc, were all big secrets!

Just about sorted.

The numbers for Chickie's party are in with the bowling alley.

I ended up with 15 - not including the one that didn't respond, but the alley says they don't have a problem with adding at the last minute. Food shouldn't be a problem anyway since the kid's food is on platters rather than individual, plus I've ordered extra platters to feed the adults too.

So, now we wait and see how it turns out. I hope the kids have fun!

Actually... while I'm soliciting advice...

What are your thoughts on this:

Chickie will be 5 in less than a week (how the heck did that happen??!). On the Sunday after, we're throwing him a birthday party at the local 10 pin bowling place. We've invited our mum's group kids, a couple of kids from the childcare centre and a couple of kids who used to go to the centre with him, but have now gone to school. There's about 15 kids all up, including Chickie (am I mad? We'll find out, I guess).

Small dilemma is that it's at the local bowling place which means I pay per child and they want final numbers by this Tuesday. I asked for rsvp's by yesterday, but I figured I might have a few stragglers so wanted to allow a few extra days before the actual deadline. Now all but two have rsvp'd, so do I say yes for those two - just in case - or not? I'd be out about $30 if I say yes and they don't turn up.

Complicating the matter further, is that I can't just call the parents to confirm. I dropped off invites to the centre and they posted the invites for me (to the ones that have moved on to school). Of the two that haven't rsvp'd, one child still goes to the childcare centre but the other no longer does. I have asked the centre if they can pass on a reminder to the one who does still attend, but I'm not sure about the other. At least I still have a couple of days for them to contact me. If they don't though, do I say yes for them and hope for the best??

Fifteen 5 (and under) year olds sounds like an awful lot of kids but we haven't done a lot of parties for him. He had a biggish one (family and friends) for his first and then only little mum's group gatherings (ie cake etc at the usual mum's group meetup), so I'm happy to have something a bit bigger for the 5th birthday. Well, I say that now... but ask me again on Monday the 4th of June!.

Speaking of things toothy...

For those of you with older kids, at what age did they lose their first baby tooth?

Chickie is 4, well ok 5 in a week and a half, and believe it or not, he has a wobbly tooth! Isn't that a bit early? I thought kids started losing them at about 6 or 7.

It's not hugely wobbly but I can feel it. Plus he's finding it a bit uncomfortable eating. Any ideas how long it will take to come out after it starts wobbling? I can't remember back that far... hehe

In other news, I had my yearly performance review at work yesterday. It went well - very well in fact. I got the second highest 'grade'! This has a direct effect on my bonus and payrise. If a bonus is paid, the higher the grade the more money you get (same with payrise). So I'm thrilled :)

Oh and finally - I bought the lastest Sims 2 expansion pack recently (Sims 2 Seasons). I installed it today, so if I don't visit your blog in the next few days, it will be because I'm hanging out in Riverblossom Hills (the new neighbourhood in the game)!

slack-jawed yokel

Ayup, that's what I feel like right now...

I've been to the dentist again and this time I did need to get some anaesthetic. Because the tooth worked on was sort of front right at the bottom, the needle was put in just down near my lip and now half of my bottom lip feels enormous. It's not moving very well either. I looked in the mirror and smiled earlier - damn near frightened myself to death...

Chickie-isms

A phrase often heard, from me, in our house is 'Can I please just go to the bathroom in peace?!' - usually uttered in quite a plaintive tone.

If it's not Chickie bursting in to 'chat' (or coming in and singing at the top of his voice - good acoustics you see), it's the two cats pushing open the door and hanging out with me (heck, one keeps trying to sit on my lap!). Shut the door you say? Well, I try. Unfortunately, Chickie's tall enough to reach the handle now and the cats have this very irritating habit of pushing a paw under the door and rattling it. Having them hang out with me is the lesser of two evils!

So today, Chickie opens the door and very nicely asks me to get a toy down from a shelf, when I've finished. I said I would and he (very solicitously) says 'thanks mum, now I'll leave you in one piece'.

Good thing he walked away then... I had trouble keeping a straight face!

Three posts in one night?

Well ok, two were YouTube videos - and this one will be short.

I picked up some chicken schnitzels from the supermarket tonight (quick and easy were the order of the day today) and found this printed on the back of the black plastic tray:

Serving suggestion:

Remove from packet before cooking.

Surely, no one has actually done that... have they?

David Tennant and Catherine Tate sketch

This is brilliant!

Doctor Who Spoof

Laura (see link for Laura's blog in my blogroll) posted a David Tennant video last week. She thinks he's a bit of alright (heck so do I).

So anyway, in the last week I've been trawling through YouTube and discovered there's a heck of a lot of fan stuff out there. It's unbelievable how many people have put various Dr Who scenes to their favourite songs.

Along with those, there are also a lot of clips, interviews, short films, sketches and even whole tv shows featuring him (Ready, Steady, Cook and Weakest Link). So even though Dr Who wasn't on because of the Eurovision Song Contest, I guess I've had my David Tennant fix for the week!

I've decided to post two of my favourites. Enjoy!

Oh, and one more...

I have a pair of el cheapo thongs (flips flops for those over the pond) that I keep in the laundry to wear outside when hanging clothes on the line etc. Anyway, it's been cooler lately and I've been wearing shoes and therefore socks. Socks don't work too well with thongs so I've been thinking of getting some of those Crocs things (well the Target, Big W ones).

We went shopping and got Chickie a green pair, because green is his favourite colour. I was feeling a bit frivolous, saw these and decided why not! Believe it or not but these are actually kids shoes. A size 4! My feet are smallish (ladies size 7) but I was surprised by this. I mean I know they're supposed to be a little big on you but the 6's and even 5's were way too big.

So anyway I think they're kinda cute :D

The reno pics

I finally got the photos off the camera, so here are some pics of the floor we recently did.

This is the green carpet, except for the stains, it doesn't actually look too bad in this pic. It didn't look this good in real life though.
Underneath the green carpet was this um... treasure. Hideous isn't it? Then the underlay underneath was glued to the floor. That apparently was a heap of fun to remove.
This is the floor afterwards. Looks pretty nice, I reckon.
These pics are the new bedroom closet. Not exactly new but once it gets a coat of paint and some mirrors on the front, it will look pretty good.

So, up next is getting a new lounge, then painting (bedroom and loungeroom)!

Happy mothers day

If you're celebrating mother's day - like we are - then I hope you have (had) a lovely relaxed day. I had a very nice day. A sleep-in - even though it wasn't technically my turn (J usually sleeps in Sundays and I get Mondays). Then we went to lunch with family - including Chickie's grandparents, great-grandparent, great-uncles, great-aunts and (2nd & 3rd) cousins. Afterwards we went to one of the cousins' home and all the kids had a great time playing together.

Then tonight I've been enjoying the Eurovision Song Contest. I love it! The stage costumes, in particular, amuse me. Though I will admit that they were pretty laid back and 'normal' this year. If it wasn't for the Ukraine (the lead singer was wearing a silver star on his head, like some sort of shiny silver christmas tree), Moldova (someone pull up the pants on that girl!) and Slovenia (goth-y opera type with a sort of flower light thing on her palm - actually it would make a handy booklight), I'd have been a bit disappointed. Congrats to the winners Serbia. Not a bad song.

Though, I have no idea how Switzerland didn't make it past the finals (last night) - how can you go past a song that lets us know that vampires are alive?

Chickie's favourite joke

Well, it's really his first and only joke so far (which, of course, means I've heard it numerous times!)...

Q: Why is six afraid of seven?

A: Because seven eight nine.

He thinks it is an absolutely hilarious joke. It's so cute just how into it he is. Sometimes he's so excited by it that he completely mucks it up. He's so proud that he knows it though. Perhaps he's a stand-up comedian in the making.

I think I need to look out for some joke books for him or something. Expand the repertoire and all...

uh oh

J and I are going to have to start talking in code...

Last night, just before dinner we realised that we'd forgotten to get something out of the freezer. None of the usual suspects from the cupboard appealed to either of us. So we started discussing alternatives. I suggested a bbq chook or some p-i-z-z-a. I spelled it out because, while we don't have it often*, Chickie loves it and I didn't want to suggest it in his hearing if we decided against it.

As soon as I spelled it out, Chickie piped up and said 'yeah! let's have pizza!' J and I both looked at him in amazement. We've only spelled it out once before and we didn't get it that time so I've no idea how he recognised what we were spelling. I suppose when you spell it out, it does sound like the word, but it had us a bit shocked for a moment.

We ended up with the bbq chook, roast potatoes and veg. Yum.



* J could eat it every day of the week, but I'm not that enthused by it, so it's a pretty rare thing in our household. J gets it for himself every now and then, but he's also trying to get into shape to go back to his stick-waving hobby, so neither of us has had it lately.

Good grief!

This petition of Paris Hilton's is the funniest thing I've heard of in a loooong time!

This is from the link above:

PARIS Hilton has urged fans to sign a petition to keep her out of jail because she "provides beauty and excitement to (most of) our otherwise mundane lives".

Unexpected

Every now and then you'll find something unexpected. Like this...

I found this in the car parking place today. Excuse the poor photo, the only camera I had with me was my phone. Not something you'd see everyday in a car park, don't you think?

We were there because we had Yum Cha today with some friends and had a lovely time. We had booked ahead of time, which was a good thing since the place was jam-packed. So much so, that there was a wait just to get in the door. We had to wait for our table for a few minutes and while waiting, I started to feel really really sorry for the people near the door and register. They can't have had a great dining experience with people trying to squeeze past them just to get inside.

Thankfully for us, our table was in a corner and we didn't have to worry about people trying to get past our table. Well, except for the wait staff with the food! Food was excellent too, but no, we didn't have the chicken feet. I've never tried them and I daresay I won't be able to bring myself to give them a go, in the future either.

On the way back we checked out a furniture shop that had been recommended to us. Found a lounge that will probably fit the bill. A three seater with a chaise lounge, the right size for our room, not too expensive and something I can live with for the short term (then we plan to get a 'good' lounge). Click here to see it. It's the blue one in the middle. We're actually thinking of getting it in a black (colour is described as midnight - that is black isn't it? A bit hard to tell in the shop) sueded material. Has anyone had a lounge in black before? Is it hard to care for? My cats are black and white so I anticipate we'll have some cat hair to deal with (I plan on getting the optional fabric protection that comes extra).

The fabric we're considering is a little extra, but it was the only one we could agree on. Heh, Chickie's name was like that too* - but it worked out well!

*No, I don't mean Chickie's name was extra, I mean that it was the only one we could agree on.

aarrgh!

Sorry, I just have to vent. I'm so annoyed right now! Some people have no clue - truly.

As part of my job I answer emails from customers. We've had a back and forth couple of emails where a customer was getting a 'no such user' error about an email address. She insisted we were causing the problem in some way, while we were advising her that the email address didn't exist and suggesting she check with the other person or get them to call us to correct their reply-to settings in their email program (since the email address in question was one of ours we were able to confirm the email address definitely didn't exist). Her emails were getting more and more sarcastic and derogatory about our 'support'. Insisting because the other person could send from that address, we were less than useless and she was giving up on our 'so-called help'.

Eventually it came to me to answer and I checked to see if she'd called in at all. Surprise, surprise she had - and had been told she was wrong and the email address in question didn't exist! So, I replied explaining how it was possible (and actually very common) to send from different/wrong email addresses and again suggested she have the other party call in to correct their email settings. My team-mates read my email and basically said I was being too nice to her, considering her previous scathing emails.

So her reply to me?

I gave up on the "[my team name here].

I thought I would try the every day ""I have a problem"" ""Can you help me please"" "General Enquiry" lady.

Guess what????? She solved it in 15seconds!!!!!!!!

Gah! People can be so rude and clueless sometimes. She could have had the problem fixed days ago!

My brave little boy

Chickie now has his third set of grommets in (in both ears). He was very brave but fought them a bit.

I only mentioned in passing during the last week that he'd need to have grommets in again and while he heard me, it didn't really register. Then yesterday I explained we'd be going to go to hospital in the morning to have them in. He got a little upset and said he didn't want the mask because it made him feel funny.

I also explained he wouldn't be able to have breakfast before we went in. I got up earlier than him so I could have some without eating in front of him, but I didn't quite eat quickly enough. He got up, came out and with hands on hips, said "I thought you said no breakfast!". He had a very offended look on his face when I explained it was just him...

So we were at the hospital at 7am and went in at about 8.30. Chickie had asked J to go in with him this time (thank goodness! I went in the last two times and I hate seeing him go under), so J got to wear the lovely gown and paper shoes. J says he let them put the mask on him but he positively fought the effects of the gas. Apparently he was gripping tightly onto the bedrails and refusing to lay down - even as his head was lolling about from the anaesthetic. Though, as the doc said, they always win and he eventually went under.

He came out a bit upset and laid and cried quietly for a bit, but it didn't take too long to get back to his usual cheerful self. Then after a while, a vegemite sandwich and a drink, we were allowed to go home.

Lunch was his favourite (Maccas happy meal with a TOY!) and we rented Happy Feet to watch. Good but not as good as I thought it would be. Chickie seemed to like it though.

He's all back to his normal self again, though tired - early night tonight! Still asking us to repeat things but that will ease off soon hopefully.

As for house stuff, we went to Ikea on Sunday and didn't see anything on our 'list' that we both liked, but did see other things we liked. Didn't buy any of the big items yet but I've filed them away in my mental 'possibilities' list. Only things we actually bought were a green ghost lamp for Chickie (I'd love one myself!), some bamboo placemats and a cool little apple corer/slicer.

A busy few days

It's still raining - yay! The weather report for this week is kind of amusing. Rain forecast all week but it seems to read 'showers easing' one day, then 'showers increasing', then 'showers easing' again! I wonder if the bureau is just hedging its bets...

On Friday, work had another of their annual 'events'. Hard to describe them really, but basically everyone gets to get off the phones etc, go into town and listen to some of the company's directors chat about how the company is going, award some people trips and other prizes, then take part in some games and consume food and (alcoholic) drinks. This year we were divided into 4 teams and we played games for money that would go to different charities and the team that won the most money would also win a paid day off (yep a quarter of the whole building). Unfortunately my team didn't win this year but it was quite fun. We got to watch the company directors dress up and do some (very bad) karaoke. Cringeworthy but funny.

I didn't get to stay for the whole thing since J and I had plans to meet friends for dinner. We went to a Mongolian BBQ place. Now that was an interesting experience. You go up, choose your meat and veg, then add your choices of sauce and hand it to the chefs. The chefs then cook it in front of you on this huge shield over a fire. The shield was big enough to cook three meals at a time. Was quite yummy too.

Today, I had a half day off work and took Chickie to the birthday party of L who used to go to his childcare centre (but starts school this Monday). Chickie is the last of the 'four musketeers' who were such close friends there last year.

L's mother had organised the party at one of those indoor play places. This one is much bigger than the one we usually go to and way more popular - the place was packed. Not surprising on a very rainy day, I suppose. It was so noisy though, I'm surprised I didn't get a headache from it. Chickie had fun, although he didn't really take part in the games early on. He kept hiding behind me and pushing me to go sit down and play pass the parcel etc. I really wish he'd get past this initial shyness thing. He eventually gets in there and joins in but he really does miss a lot by hanging back so much. I don't want to push him too much but it does frustrate me a bit. Anyway, he joined in eventually and said this was 'the best day ever' as we were leaving. I'm glad he had fun.

One thing that amused me about it all was that he wanted me to write on the card 'Happy birthday, happy present'. I talked him into 'Happy birthday, I hope you like your present' but it took a bit of negotiating!

As for tomorrow, shopping is the order of the day. Now that I have my bedroom closet, I want a shoe rack and other shelf organiser type stuff, so it's off to Ikea tomorrow. While we're there, I want to have a look for a reasonably priced (ie: cheap) lounge. Now that our floor has been done and the furniture is back in, the lounge is looking a bit on the shabby side (and it wasn't a great one to start with). I don't want to spend too much though, since Chickie is still a bit too messy and we have two cats that tend to shed and scratch things (not allowed when we're there though). So, I don't see the point in getting an expensive 'forever after' lounge. I'm looking for a decent looking stopgap measure that will outlast the messy kid/cat stage (the cats are 10 years old btw).

I've also been thinking about paint colours for the bedroom. Please - give me your suggestions, your favourites. At this stage I'm looking for colours etc that I haven't thought of, ideas for techniques and hints on what to do/what not to do.

It's raining, it's pouring,

and if there was an old man around, he would probably be snoring!

The weather bureau says it's going to rain today, and tomorrow and then next day and the day after that - I heard someone say that it's supposed to rain for two weeks. I really really hope it does. Keep your fingers crossed for us, we desperately need it.

Yesterday was a public holiday here and I spent a lot of it being quite ruthless.

Unfortunately termites have shown up in our shed. We've had them in a side fence a few years back and so had the whole house done by the pest control people. Not sure if the shed was done but I'm presuming not. Anyway, they got into some boxes of old stuff I'd had stored and forgotten about. So I dragged them out and went through them to see what I could salvage and what needed to be tossed. A lot of it was paper, so not a great deal was salvageable. So I ended up tossing out a lot of letters I'd had stored for about 20 years. Some of them had stamps worth 33 cents on them! I reread a couple that were readable (there weren't a whole lot that were) and the memories came flooding back.

I ended up saving only a handful of things. A couple of photos, a bit of jewellery, an old Apple Portable brochure (J tells me there's a website that looks for that sort of Apple memorabilia), my notes from my radio course and my notes from when I was learning Japanese (don't remember much but I have a hankering to take it up again) and a couple of things that belong to an ex that I'll send off to him, one of these days.

I feel kind of strange throwing out some of the stuff. I've been married before and I had to toss a lot of cards and stuff from the wedding. I hadn't realised I even still had them, so it's not like I'll miss them, but it still feels odd to just toss them in the bin.

I keep way too much junk though. For some reason I still had a bunch of old pay slips from a job I had 20 years ago! Obviously I've just stuck them in a box and moved the box each time (I've moved quite a bit) and never opened it, done the needful, and tossed them out.

Next stop is to go through my clothes and toss out a heap. There's so much that is now too big and getting a new wardrobe, in the bedroom, is a great time to sort out clothes.

After that - painting the bedroom. Well, choosing colours at least. May need some suggestions soon!

Updates and checkups

I've updated my links a little - added a few that I've been meaning to add. I really need to go through them and delete some that seemed to have stopped blogging, I guess.

On a side note, I haven't added a couple of private blogs I read, since I wasn't sure if they wanted to stay private. If you link to me and you're not in my first list, let me know and I'll correct this. If you'd like to be added to my links, comment and I'll check out your blog! I'm always on the lookout for new reads :)

As for the checkups - well I went to the dentist, for the first time in seven years, yesterday. It wasn't too bad actually, since I didn't have much more than an examination, two x-rays and a cleaning. I do have to go back in a few weeks to get some stuff done. Apparently, I may brush my teeth a little too vigorously and I have a couple of teeth that are getting a bit worn. The dentist is going to do a little bit of a 'fill-in' to protect them. They won't even need to be numbed for that apparently. The other side will though. I have a tooth with an old filling that has a bit of a 'shadow', so he's going to redo. All in all, I'm a bit surprised. I don't really have great teeth so I was sure I'd need more work.

Like most people, I dislike getting dental work done. I remember having that gas stuff as a kid and didn't mind that so much. It was such a nice feeling - the floating up near the ceiling sensation. I have no idea if dentists even still offer that, I'm afraid to ask since I'm afraid I'd sound like a druggie. Even the cleaning had me wringing my hands a bit though. I don't know if it's the feeling of the tools or their sounds or that spit sucker thing, that freaks me out. I can tell you now, the thought of a needle in my mouth definitely freaks me. Kinda strange when I've given myself insulin shots in my stomach (insulin dependent gestational diabetes) and had some in my neck (cortisone? shots to minimise a scar from a car accident when I was a kid). So what is it about the mouth that makes it worse?

Perhaps it's the feeling of having somebody's fingers in my mouth? I know I felt twitchy, after the cleaning, when the dentist was flossing my teeth.

oooh exciting!

Can't wait!

Dust everywhere!

My home is covered in a fine layer of dust. The floor is gritty and if you forget to put your slippers on, your feet get filthy. There's muddy footprints in the bathroom (Chickie can't seem to get the idea of 'no water outside the tub' sometimes) and the furniture is still all over the place.

I'd love to just get a feather duster, broom and mop and just get in there and get rid of it. I can't right now though. As I speak, J and his dad are putting up a cupboard in our bedroom (yay! I'll have some storage space soon!). You could say I have a skeleton of a closet and soon I'll have a closet for my skeletons - but that would be a bit corny...

So anyway, with all the drilling and sawing and trekking even more dust and dirt around the house, cleaning is pointless. I'll have to be a cleaning demon tomorrow - though I've got a dentist appointment in the morning so who knows if I'll be inclined to do much more than lay about and moan about 'the pain, the pain!' (read that in Doctor Smith style there).

I'm loving my new floor and I can't wait to have a proper bedroom cupboard but I'm not a very patient renovator. I just want my house back to normal!

And the doc says...

Another set of grommets (or ear tubes) for Chickie.

I took Chickie to see the E.N.T. again today. Chickie's had a long history of ear infections, (many) burst eardrums and has already had two sets of grommets. His poor eardrums have suffered quite a bit in his not-quite-five years.

His hearing was affected before he had the first lot put in and this was happening at a time he was just learning to talk. I realised how much his hearing was affected, when he was trying to find me one day. I was sitting in a chair in his room calling to him. He was about two metres away, with his back to me, and obviously wasn't able to hear me properly. It was shortly after that that he had the first set put in and then his speaking just exploded! Not to mention that he started sleeping through the night regularly for the first time (he was never a great sleeper).

I had a feeling he'd need another set of grommets. Lately he's been asking us to repeat things almost constantly and has the tv so loud. I've taken to making a point of having him look at me and then talking to him, just to make sure he's heard me.

The right ear should be fine - the grommet was still in, six months ago, at the last appointment, but it's now out. The left one was out at the last appointment and this ear is definitely suffering from some hearing loss. Usually the test they do involves bouncing sound waves off his eardrum to see how much it moves. They did that this time and the left didn't respond much at all. As he's almost 5 they tried another test where he had to hit a block on a jar each time he heard a noise. It started off ok, but he lost interest after a bit and was just playing and drumming. Maybe next time he'll be old enough to do it seriously. At least they got some figures for the left ear with this test.

So anyway, another set of grommets to come (well, the doc did say definitely in the left and just possibly in the right, they'll know for sure on the day). I'm kind of glad, since I'd rather he didn't start school with possible hearing problems. I'm sure that wouldn't be the best start to his school experience.

meme for the day

From charm school reject:

Look at the list of books below: Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in. If you are reading this (and haven't participated yet), tag, you’re it!

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18 The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58.The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Too much rushing...

I took Chickie to the doctor's today. He has another appointment with the Ear, Nose and Throat doc on Thursday and I needed a new referral (lucky I called to check that today!).

I picked Chickie up from childcare and instead of driving straight there, I brought him home to get him changed. I'd forgotten today was their pj day at childcare (they have themed days every now and then). I probably could have just taken him in his pj's since they really looked more like shorts and t-shirt (green and black pirate themed pj's), but honestly they were filthy!

So I rushed home, rushed him into the bathroom, pulled the shirt off him and then looked straight into those reproachful little puppy dog eyes of his. After inquiring what the problem was, I was told "Mum, you caught my lip on the shirt. You hurt my beautiful lip!" It was all I could do to keep a straight face...

Oh, and by the way - the rumours were true, I've won another award at work. This time it's a "Most Valuable Player" award (and this one came with a $50 gift voucher).

Today...

I spent the day with Doctor Who. Well, alright watching Doctor Who (it's as close as I'll ever get!). I caught up with the Runaway Bride ep and the first three of this season. Thanks for the heads up velcro - much appreciated.

I'm really enjoying this new series. I really liked Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor - love that cheeky grin he used to flash (oh and if you like his stuff, check out The Second Coming - very interesting) but David Tennant is doing a great job - and I can't deny it, I think he's cute! I quite like Freema Agyeman in the role of Martha too, though it's early days. I do believe I'm going to have to put all the DVD's down on my Christmas/birthday wish list.

As for local tv, I'm a bit annoyed I missed tonight's Biggest Loser elimination. I hear Kim got eliminated, is that right? I thought for sure it would be Pati. Leaving Kim in would make it easier for the other contestants, I would have thought. So for those of you watching, who do you think will win? And who would you actually like to win? I think Chris will win, but I don't like him much and Munnalita irritates me as well. I'd like either Marty or Pati to win personally.

Oh and the party on Saturday was fun. J's mum had organised a friend to come and do a belly dancing show (J's mum used to do belly dancing). It was great catching up with all the rellies and the food was pretty yummy too. Had some interesting choices like kangaroo shaslicks with chilli plum sauce. Got told I looked 'mega-skinny' in my new red top too. hehe I'll accept that exaggeration any day!

What animal were you in a past life?

You Were an Otter

You are a faithful friend who guides others toward success. You are also light hearted, and love to play around.

What Animal Were You In a Past Life?

Some days things just 'click'

J's mum had a 'big' birthday recently and they're throwing a huge birthday party this Saturday. I think she said, at one stage, that almost 100 people were invited - but quite few won't be able to actually make it.

So I've been making an effort to lose weight in the last 18 months and it is slowly working (though it seems to have stalled lately). One problem with losing weight is that your old clothes don't tend to fit very well and you literally have nothing to wear.

Of course, one of the good things about losing weight is that your old clothes don't tend to fit very well and you literally have nothing to wear - so you have to buy new ones!

Well, ok I could make do with the shirts/tops I already have but all my 'good' pants are getting to the annoying 'hitching them up every few minutes or they will fall off like you see in funniest home videos' stage. It's not a good look.

I figured this was a good excuse to go have a look for something new. I went shopping yesterday and was completely disheartened. I couldn't find anything I liked at all. Nothing really excited me and the one or two things I thought might do in a stretch, were out of my size. It was looking like I'd have to wear jeans (not really what I wanted to wear - I live in my jeans already).

Today however, I went to the bank and then thought I'd drop into the shops nearby. Found a classic pair of black pants - dressy rather than business wear. Then I found this cute little shrug shouldered top in a deep red. I tried it on, and even better - had to go get the next size down!

So I'm all set for tomorrow night now. It feels good to find just the right outfit :)

After the holiday

So what have we been up to since our trip away? Taking it easy perhaps? Nah, that's no fun!

I think I've mentioned before that I hate our light green lounge/hallway carpet. Funny really, since green is actually my favourite colour. Just not this green...

Anyway, I kind of made a snap decision to have it ripped up now and replaced with floating floors. We've been wanting to do it for a while, but I just got completely sick of it.

J's put in a heck of a lot of work in ripping up the carpet, ripping up the carpet underneath (icky swirly brown stuff) and then scraping off the black underlay that the original carpet layers so 'kindly' glued to the existing floorboards. The existing boards aren't good enough to polish up (plus there's been a wall knocked down in the past sometime and they replaced the boards where the previous wall was with a couple of really wide boards. Floating floors are just easier. Well, so long as you're good at doing puzzles!

J decided to lay the floorboards on the diagonal to make the room look larger and to disguise the fact that the lounge/hallway don't exactly match the two bedrooms we had done years ago. It really looks quite nice and it'll look great once he does the finishing touches (beading around the skirting boards, the metal strip between the doorways etc).

On the weekend, he and his dad were going to put up a wardrobe in our room. When we first moved in, there was a homemade job that was really poorly done and looked awful (we pulled it down). Of course this left us with even less storage space (this house has an absolute dearth of storage). Handily for us, J's parents renovated their place a year ago and had a spare built-in type wardrobe. Of course it was over a year ago now, so they couldn't find all the bits they needed. They've found them now however, so I should have a nice newish wardrobe in a week or two.

The other thing we've scored from J's parent's renos was their old stove. It's in excellent condition and to be honest, provided it was working in any way, shape or form, it would be better than our current stove. Our stove only has two working gas burners and using the oven is pure guesswork since most of the numbers have disappeared off the dial. The plumber has agreed to squeeze us in this week so we can get it installed. Very nice of him!

Then on a personal note this week, I won a customer focus award at work and someone mentioned today that there may be another award in the offing. All I can say is it's very nice of people to nominate me - I'm just doing my job!

What I did on my vacation... part 3!

Friday (aka my dad's birthday) was our day at Seaworld. I would have to say this one was my favourite.

We started off the day checking out the dugongs, then headed off to the seal/sea lion show. This show was good but not my favourite because it was a bit warmer that day and we started out in the sun (I was paranoid about Chickie getting sunburnt the whole holiday). At least it was still earlier in the day so the sun wasn't at its hottest yet.

After that we thought we'd catch the water ski show and figured if we headed over to the stands, we could scope out some good seats in the shade and have an early lunch. Worked out the timing perfectly because we got great seats. The show was fun and some of the stunts were pretty good.

From our seats we could see a 'volcano' that occasionally flamed/erupted and Chickie was desperate to find out what was going on there. After the water ski show we took a ride on the monorail and the spiel they had over the speakers mentioned there was a 'secret' under the volcano in the Bermuda Triangle ride. Of course this made Chickie even more desperate to find out!

We then headed over towards the rides and discovered that the volcano was a water type ride and that was it for Chickie. He'd gotten wet, on the log ride, the day before and didn't want any part of a ride like that today. Mum and dad went on the ride while we headed off for a ride on the 'tennis wheel' - as Chickie kept calling it - aka the Seaworld Eye (a big ferris wheel with enclosed carriages), so at least we found out the secret. Click here for a look at all the rides.

We did a bit of looking around and then headed over to the dolphin pools for the show. This one was my favourite. It's amazing how strong the dolphins are. They jump so high and can carry people, who are standing up, across the water. When they tossed those trainers in the air it was surprising at how high they went.


After the show Chickie and I checked out Shark Bay and this was also very cool. There's a section where you're encouraged to touch the sea stars, sea cucumbers etc. Sea stars are actually quite hard - not exactly what I was expecting. The underwater viewing part of Shark Bay is amazing. The size of some of the fish! We were pretty impressed by it.

We then headed over to the kid's rides and Chickie had a ball on them and playing with the water fountain jets. By that time it was getting late and we headed over to the volcano ride to meet up with J who'd gone on all the water type rides. We then caught the Skyway back to the exit and headed back to the apartment.

We didn't get to do all the rides - the Corkscrew roller coaster and Pirate ship are two I've been on years ago and we knew Chickie would be too young for them. Also both Dreamworld and Seaworld have water attractions (Dreamworld now has White Water World and Seaworld has a pretty cool looking pool and water slide), as well as Wet & Wild being in the area as well. Still, Chickie's too young to really enjoy these things. We're thinking that perhaps we can go again in a few years time (perhaps staying at the Nara Resort) and do all the water worlds.

On Saturday morning, mum and dad left to drive home and we had to do a bit of shopping. Yes, had is the correct word here. At Seaworld one strap on my bag broke and I lost the little screw out of my sunglasses so they only had one arm. My eyes are pretty sensitive to light so if I'm outside, I'm wearing sunnies. A new pair was necessary. I suppose I could have managed my bag with just one strap but it wasn't comfortable.

In the afternoon my sister's husband and 3 of their 4 kids came to visit. We had a swim in the pool and then we all went to see "Meet the Robinsons". A cute movie which all the kids loved.

Our last day (Sunday), we checked out of the apartment and went up to my sister's place for the day. Chickie had so much fun playing with his 'cousins' (that's all he calls them by the way, I don't think he can remember all their names so they are just collectively his 'cousins'). Then later that afternoon we headed back to the Gold Coast and flew home. I thought for sure Chickie would sleep in the plane since it was a late flight home, but no such luck. He wanted to do some colouring in. Oh and his idea of colouring in? He tells me which colours to use and where he wants me to colour. He's not that interested in colouring in himself, he prefers the activities like spot the difference or dot to dots).

Some overall impressions:

The weather was perfect! The day we arrived was a bit overcast but the rest of the time idyllic. I shouldn't have worried about it. Steve mentioned that the rain held off until after we went home, which was very considerate.

Flying with ear infections is not fun. Both J and I had colds just before leaving. Mine was a little chesty but J's gave him ear infections and landing was quite painful for him. Getting sick, for him, was not well-timed. At least it cleared up by the trip home.

A self contained apartment was a very convenient thing for 5 people and having the pool and heated spa was fantastic. Chickie would have spent hours in there if he had the choice.

Edited to include: Daylight savings finishing still screwed up Chickie's inner clock. He got up at 5.30 every morning. I was once able to give him a snack and get him to go back to sleep until 7, every other day he wanted to go swimming. 5.30am is way too early to wake up when you're on holidays. At least now he's getting up at 6.30 again (though, this is still too early, in my opinion).

The food at most of these theme parks didn't seem too great to me. Chips, nuggests, hot dogs etc or pre-prepared salads/sandwiches/wraps. Whilst these would normally be ok, I'm fussy and detest raw onions and mushrooms (they overpower the taste of everything else in the salad so you might as well forget the rest of the stuff and just have mushrooms and onions!). Of course all places had onions etc in their salads so I ended up with chips etc. Not good for the waistline or my health, I'm sure. You're not supposed to take your own food in either. At least Seaworld had a stand selling fruit.

The phrase we heard most from Chickie? This is the best day/place ever!

What I did on my vacation... part 2!

So Thursday we went to Dreamworld. This was kinda the whole reason for the trip. You see, Chickie and his 3 best friends from last year at the childcare centre used to talk endlessly about Wiggles World (which is at Dreamworld). Chickie had told me about the little 'plots' they'd make about escaping from the centre and heading up there. It was very cute.

Anyway, I figured since he starts school later this year, now might be the best time to take advantage of not having to fight school holiday crowds and pay premium rates for accommodation etc. Plus he's still young enough to actually like the Wiggles.

The timing was perfect - we left the day before the rates increased at the apartment complex. There were hardly any crowds at the theme parks and we only had to wait once or twice and not for very long. Most rides we were able to get straight on. We were also able to get great parking spots up close at both of the parks (Australia Zoo was a bit further but not by much).

So Dreamworld... well, we went in and headed for the Nick Central part of it. Chickie loved the place where you got to shoot foam balls at stuff (I shouldn't be surprised here). Mum and Dad then headed for the Imax Theatre while we headed for the Spongebob show. We never made it to the Imax ourselves but I've seen it before so I wasn't too worried. Chickie was desperate to see the Nick Slime Time show but we ended up missing that unfortunately.

We had a bite to eat early, which was a good thing (no lines) and then checked out the Nick area. We went on the boat ride then checked out Wiggles World. Chickie fell in love with Captain Feathersword's ship so when I spotted a guy dressed as Captain Feathersword, I thought Chickie would be excited to see him. Nope... He came running over when I told him, took one look at the guy and said (in a very loud voice!) "He's a FAKE!". No fooling Chickie there.

Dorothy the Dinosaur and Wags the Dog were easier but he wasn't having any part of going near them for a photo. Waving from a distance was his limit (though I kind of expected that). Mum was a bit disappointed by it. She wanted lots of photos of him with all the characters, but we still haven't been able to convince him to get a santa photo yet.

We went on the Big Red Car ride and that was enough to convince Chickie that rides weren't so bad. He even wanted to go on the log ride later. This surprised me since you could see it come down the big hill and splash everyone, but he was really excited and kept saying it was wicked!

He didn't like it so much afterwards though - we all got drenched! Take a towel with you if you're planning on going on those rides. Still he was ok with rides after that and we spent a bit of time later at the kid's rides.

Heading home, we stopped at the souvenir shops and he chose a Spongebob toy where you press a button on Spongebob's back and his eyes and tongue pop out.

Then next day was Friday and my dad's birthday. That day was spent at Seaworld and I'll tell you all about that another time.

What I did on my vacation... part 1!

We had a great time at the Gold Coast. Caught up with family, did a couple of theme parks and did a teensy bit of shopping.

So to start with, we flew to the Gold Coast on the Monday. Chickie's been in a plane before but he was much younger, so I wasn't sure how he'd go. He's an active kid usually and I thought he'd be really bored for the flight. I didn't want that to happen so I (over) prepared. We borrowed J's mother's portable dvd player, I had a couple of new colouring in books, a new book (Cat in the Hat) and a small toy (a Cars car). He ended up watching a dvd for most of the flight so it actually went pretty quickly.

From there my mum and dad met us at the airport. They'd been on holidays for a week already (staying with my sister and her family south of Brisbane). They then drove us up to my uncle's place where we stayed the night. They live on the Sunshine Coast just near Australia Zoo and we were planning on going to Australia Zoo on the Tuesday, then drive back to the Gold Coast to check into the apartment.

I haven't seen my aunt and uncle for quite some time. I lived with them for a couple of months while I was doing a radio course back in the early 90's, so it was good to catch up. It was quite funny seeing Chickie running around the yard (they have a huuuuge back yard) and trying to get the dogs to play with him. They have two pretty elderly dogs and Chickie was trying to get them to run along with him. They followed him around - only at a very sedate walking pace.

While we were up that way, mum and dad drove us past the house we lived in when I was little. I have vague memories of it - painting on the shed down the back, a dog we had called Mitzi (I thought her name was Mincey and only discovered it was actually Mitzi when I was a teenager), and I vividly remember a black vinyl couch with bright purple cushions.

Then Tuesday we went to Australia Zoo. We saw the crocodile show plus a few others (my personal favourites were the otters). Chickie had great fun playing on this big wooden crocodile there. At one stage he climbed in the crocodile's mouth and waved his feet around pretending he was being eaten. J did get a photo but it was a bit dark and you can't really see much. Chickie got a kick out of seeing this crocodile because he's seen it in the Wiggly Safari dvd.

I'd decided beforehand that I'd buy Chickie a small souvenir from each theme park and so from Australia Zoo he chose a rubber snake. What is it with boys and snakes? He's got two toy snakes now. Not to mention, we've got a very good photo of him moving his finger up the glass window of a snake display and the snake following his finger. brrr... I'd post the photo but I'd rather not show photos with Chickie's face for now.

After a pretty full day at the zoo, we drove back to the Gold Coast and checked into our apartment. I'd organised a 3 bedroom apartment at a town called Labrador. We stayed at Sandcastles on the Broadwater.

J and I had the main bedroom upstairs, mum and dad the second downstairs and Chickie had a room to himself downstairs. I felt a bit guilty taking the main bedroom, though I'm pretty sure mum would have been complaining about the stairs after a day or two.

The main bedroom had it's own ensuite and balcony with private spa and a lovely view. If you haven't seen the pics yet, check them out here (I've set up Picasa Web albums as well as Flickr and prefer Picasa since you can organise them quite easily - thanks for the tip dogbait!). I've added photos of the apartment for holly & scolly mainly, since they're looking at a holiday at the Gold Coast too (and most of the accommodation websites have very few good photos of the rooms).

The apartment was quite self contained with laundry facilities in a cupboard. We didn't use them though, what was more handy to us was a full kitchen. There was no way I wanted to be in a hotel for a week and having to eat out every night. Our dishwasher didn't work though. It sounded like it did but it turned out that the motor/water pump was broken and though it generated plenty of steam, no water actually touched the dishes etc. I haven't washed dishes in the sink for a looong time.

The apartment complex also had a lovely big pool and heated spa, as well as a games room (you had to pay to play so I doubt it gets used much), a large bbq area and a mini-gym. The gym was pretty cool actually (yes, I did exercise while I was away - not very regularly mind you, but some). Some machines I'd never used before. If I had the money and space I'd get a few different machines.

On the Wednesday, we took it easy. My sister came down to visit and we had a look around a few shops. We didn't buy anything but some groceries (dinner, munchies etc). I found a bead shop that I could have gone mad in but thought better of it. I have so many different beads already and don't seem to find the time to do as much as I'd like. Then there were the different beading magazines. Cool, but magazines like these are so expensive these days.

The next few days we did Dreamworld and Seaworld, but I'll post about those tomorrow. I need to get to bed!

piccies

Ok I'm giving Flickr a try-out. If you're interested click here.

Haven't worked out how to get the pics in the order I wanted (they're backwards and some out of my preferred order) but it's late and I ought to be in bed.

Oh and don't worry, I'm not putting up all the 300+ pics, hehe - these few took me long enough to organise!

Some pics of our holiday.

I've been looking at the photos we took on our holiday and there's almost 400 of them! Oh and I say 'we' but I really mean J. I took about 3 myself!

Anyway, I think I need to set up a Flickr account or something. Is Flickr ok or do you have any other recommendations?

Here's a few pics to whet the appetite!

The view from our bedroom in the apartment - pretty nice huh?

Chickie croc wrestling at Dreamworld.

The view from the 'tennis' wheel (as Chickie called it) - Seaworld call it the Seaworld Eye.

Polar bear chillin' at Seaworld.

The dolphin show was my favourite. I can't believe how high the dolphins were able to jump.


More detail to come!

back again

Hi all, back home again. Thanks muchly for the well wishes. We had a great time on our holiday. I'll post a bit of a round up tomorrow but I'm now off to bed - I'm exhausted!

Karma? Or a trade-off?

I woke up Friday morning feeling like:

1. someone had broken in while I slept and used a cheese grater on my throat
2. my head was throbbing in time with the ceiling fan
3. my sinuses were threatening to burst out of my face and go on an angry rampage.

Yes, I have a cold.

Was it karma, for hoping that the rain would hold off one week for my holiday? Perhaps, since the weather report now says rain for first two days but none for the rest of the week. Yay!

I stayed home from work Friday and slept a lot of the day. Saturday, I was feeling a bit better (sinuses were down to petulant tantrums by that stage) so I went to work. Funny how exhausting just sitting and trying to help people fix their internet can be.

Today I'm just a bit congested. Could have done with a bit more sleep (since I'm now on my time off) but the clocks went back last night and Chickie was up at 5.15am (would have been 6.15am in daylight savings time). I've been trying to tell him all week that today he'd need to sleep longer but his internal clock will probably be set to daylight savings time for a while. Though I heard him when he woke up at 5.15, at least he didn't come asking for his breakfast until 5.55.

No idea what the holiday is going to do to his internal clock, but I'm hoping it will reset it to slightly later. This kiddo has zero concept of how nice a sleep-in can be (no matter how much I try to convince him).

We fly out tomorrow - I can't wait!

A high note

It's always nice to receive compliments and work yesterday ended on a high note. The reason - I was complimented twice on my work!

In my job, we make outbound calls to help with customer's technical problems and only take incoming calls from the reps on the floor (we help them with their calls). Apparently the centre manager was listening in on a rep who got through to me for help. The manager was so impressed that she passed on the feedback to my centre manager, who then dropped into our team meeting to pass it on to me (and everyone in the team!) *blush

I also hold another extra role in my workplace. There's actually a bunch of us throughout the building that have the same role. As part of that, we had a meeting a week or two ago with some auditors. I made the mistake of sitting opposite the guy doing the interview. So he'd look at his notes, then look up - at me! There were about 8 of us in the meeting/interview but I felt like I was monopolising things a bit (not to mention feeling a bit 'deer in the headlights'-ish). So anyway, I was chatting to our HR person yesterday and she said she'd heard I'd made an excellent impression during the interview.

Wonder if I can top that today ;)


Oh and I have a request. Is anyone into knitting at all? If so, can you recommend any pattern websites? J's mother said she'd knit me something as a birthday present. I've been trying to find something that I like but honestly there are some really crap looking patterns in the shops locally. I need to trek out to Spotlight some time and see if they've got anything. The stuff around here is either baby/craft or 70's ugly stuff.

I'm thinking of something fairly simple - perhaps a cardigan to keep at work (since the temperature is usually a fraction above freezing mostly). I'd like it in a fairly soft wool and I'm not into the chunky knit look (I really don't need any help with looking chunky!). The only request J's mum has made is no Feathers wool!

So any recommendations?

Well, that's a bit of a relief.

I picked up Chickie from child care today and as usual, talked to the carer about his day. She said he'd been so helpful with everything today - just a joy to have there (always nice to hear!). Then she said he was so ready for school. So, I'm thinking it will be a good thing to start him later this year.

We were talking about it further and she was under the impression he'd start in a few weeks, but he misses the cut off by a couple of weeks so has to wait until third term. So he'll be there for a bit longer yet. Because of this the carer is going to talk to his room leader about putting him in the extended program. Apparently there's a couple of kids in a similar situation so they're going to concentrate on things he'll find helpful in school. I don't know what it is they'll be doing exactly, but I plan on having a chat with the room leader to find out more.

I hope Chickie enjoys it. Sounds like he probably will as the carer today said he was very familiar with the usual program already. She was concerned he was getting a bit bored.

My baby is growing up!

Bah!

I just checked the weather channel for the Gold Coast weather for the week we'll be there.

Rain...

Every. Single. Fricken'. Day!


In fact the weather channel long range forecast, for that area, says it will rain for two weeks solid. Couldn't it have waited just one lousy week???

Then and Now (part 1)

The tv was on at work today, tuned to the ABC. Rage was doing a bit of an 80's flashback and they showed the Hunters & Collectors 'Throw Your Arms Around Me'. I loved that song (along with a lot of other Australians!).

It brought to mind though, the show from the 80's/90's The Big Gig. Anyone remember this from it??

Then and Now (part 2)

As for Now? Well, I'm kinda liking this song - a lot!

A why, a how and a hard to believe

Why is it that the sports bottle Chickie has by his bedside (in case he gets thirsty at night), had to lose its lid about two minutes after I've changed his sheets and tucked him in... Yes, he and his bed got soaked - thank goodness for waterproof mattress covers.

How is it possible to spend money so easily? My bank account is $3000 lighter tonight. All it took was a (smaller than usual) Visa bill, a couple of plane tickets, accommodation for a week for 5 people, childcare costs and car insurance. Bills always seem to come at once, don't they?

Hard to believe but looks like Chickie has his very first girlfriend. Well, to be totally honest - he may not even know it! Apparently one of the other parents at the childcare centre came in asking which boy was Chickie. She said her daughter would not stop talking about him and she was saying that he was her boyfriend. I haven't asked Chickie about her since he's not too enthused about girls lately (girls are icky, doncha know).

So, that's my day, hope yours has been better.

By the power of Grayskull...

I went and saw Hot Fuzz today - loved it! If you liked Shaun of the Dead, go see Hot Fuzz. It's very funny. If you've seen it you'll recognise the title of this post.

If you have seen it, can you tell me how you would describe the segues between various bits of action? I really don't know how to describe that style. I found it really effective for this movie though.

Usually I'm a chick flick fan but this was a nice change of pace. Comedy still but definitely not a chick flick!

Then tonight I watched the last episode of Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee on SBS. I really quite liked it. I might have to go search out the book.

You know, thinking about what sort of movies I like, you'd think I'd watch a lot of tv shows that are along the chick flick lines. To be honest though, I can't even think of any shows I watch that would fall into that category. The closest would be Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee, and it doesn't quite fit. My fave shows at the moment are NCIS, House, Medium and Bones. Funnily enough all on an investigative theme.

So what shows are you watching at the moment? Are they the same genre as movies you like to watch?

Whaddya think?

Do you like my new banner picture?

I'd never make a graphic designer though, since it's taken me most of the night to get it to the stage I'm happy with. I have to admit, I quite like it.

Happy to accept constructive criticism (just be gentle mmkay?). Oh and if you know of any good (free) clipart/photoart/digital scrapbooking sites for bits and pieces/tutorials, please do comment with the url. The photoshop bug has bitten me again ;)

An advertiser's dream

I was talking to Chickie yesterday, about his birthday (he'll be 5 in June). Earlier this year, I was thinking that he and his 3 closest friends at childcare could have a little party. I'll have to rethink that now since two of the 'four musketeers' (as the childcare workers called them) have gone to school already and I don't have their contact details. May just have to make it Chickie, L (who is still at childcare for the first school term) and the kids from the mother's group we used to hang with.

I was thinking of doing a ten pin bowling party. J's work had a social club outing at the local bowling place last year and Chickie had an absolute ball. Something about being encouraged to knock things over perhaps??

So I mentioned this to Chickie and he got all excited. He must have seen an ad on the tv for a bowling birthday party, because he started talking about what they could do and how they could have chips and hot dogs etc. So I said "So you like that idea then, and you want to do it?". His response? "Yes! I want to do exactly what the tv tells me!"

Oh dear... better cut down on the tv.

What shall I do on this sunny Sunday?

It's my day off and the sun is starting to shine a little. Weather reports said it would be cloudy and a chance of rain over the weekend. We did have some thunder and about 5 minutes of rain on Friday night but then yesterday it was a little cooler and cloudy.

Yesterday's weather was very appropriate for B's funeral. Overcast and grey. The funeral was Greek Orthodox so most of it was conducted in Greek, with one tribute from B's brother in English. 95% of the service was sung/chanted by the priests. I've never experienced that sort of service before. I have to say though, the sound of B's wife and mother weeping is the most heartbreaking sound I've heard in a long time.

On a more cheerful note, we bought Chickie a trampoline yesterday. They had them on a fantastic special and I've been wanting to get him either a swingset or trampoline for ages. It's a small round one with a net. I'm hopeful it will stop him from jumping on our bed (that drives me nuts!). I think we need to organise some sort of steps for him to get in and out safely though.

So what to do today? Chickie keeps asking to go to the museum. J took him yesterday while I was at the funeral and he loved it. I think his new favourite word is mammal because he keeps saying "Mum, have you heard this word before? Maaammaaal" (he really stretches out the word). Perhaps we'll all go next weekend. Maybe we'll take a train ride into the city. He loves that. Today though, I don't know.

So what are you planning on doing with your Sundays?

Grrr

I've been trying to post a video from youtube for over a day now, but I'm having zero success. I keep getting error 400. No idea what it is though - guess I'd better go search through their help section.

Anyway, here's a link instead...

Especially for House & Baby