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...

The research continues

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

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

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

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

lunar eclipse

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

If not - take a look here.

--
Edited to add...

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

Doin' research

So people, I need your opinions...

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

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

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

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

A day at the museum

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Huh??

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cool!

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

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

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

heheh

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

hodge podge post

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Grrr..

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

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

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

Not happy Jan...

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

Time and place, people, time and place!

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

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

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

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

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

Is there something I'm missing here?

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

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

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

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



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