Six ribbons

Many years ago, before children, hubby and I arranged to go out for the night with his brother and sister-in-law.  I got myself all dolled up but was, as usual, running late.  Hurry up and get in the car yelled hubby so I quickly picked up my handbag and grabbed my shoes as I dashed out the door.  We went to Twin Towns Leagues Club.  It's a bit of a drive but it's over the border in New South Wales where you could bet on the poker machines and because  that wasn't legal in Qld at the time it was always a bit of a novelty.

So we walked up the stairs and  my shoes felt a bit strange but thought not much of it. Once we made it into the entrance  Kit, my sister-in-law and I immediately made a bee line for the restroom.  So I'm sitting on the toilet and look down at my feet and, low and behold I am wearing 2 different shoes!!  They were both white (good)  they had a similar cut-out pattern on the front (good) but one was flat and the other had a heel (bad).   How am I going to get through the next few hours walking around in these shoes?  Kit was not much help due to the fact she couldn't stop laughing at me.  Actually she didn't let me live it down for years. 

Well, I was lucky because Jon English was performing in the auditorium and there were still tickets available.  The question was asked as to who wanted to go and I said I would go on my own if need be, anything to sit down and not be noticed.  So in we went and got treated to an  excellent performance.  He's best known for his performance in the Pirates of Penzance but his roadshow was great too and he proved to be an excellent on screen actor (in my eyes at least).

He died yesterday.   RIP Jon.

Here's a you tube link to one of his songs.

Sickly swimming

About the time I wrote the last post I had joined my local sports club for the swimming only.  The swimming hasn't been going all that great unfortunately.  I attacked the first day with enthusiasm, too much enthusiasm, which is a rookies mistake and I should know better.  I swam 10 laps which I didn't think was that much but that night I felt very ill.   I managed to get an infection that required antibiotics.  If I hadn't pushed myself so hard I probably wouldn't have got sick.  Anyway, all the muscles in my upper body felt very, very sore for a few days.   So I couldn't swim for a week until I got to feeling better.

Start again.  This time just 3-4 laps for a few days then slowly increase the number of laps.

Then, when I was exiting my house I twisted my ankle  on the little step in the doorway.  It was quite spectacular because I fell out of the house and onto the concrete entrance outside.  I landed first on my knees and then rolled a little.   It hurt. A lot.  There was nothing graceful about the way I went down.   I sprained my ankle and my wrist, scraped skin off my knees and elbow and my shoulder also went out in sympathy.  Another week of not swimming.

Start again.  Back to 4 laps but also doing deep water running in between.

Yesterday I managed 10 laps again.  My sinuses got bad and I didn't feel that great yesterday but I
seem to be a little better today.   Damn you stupid body.  I want to go back to my 30's when exercise and sport was easy and the only time I fell down was during sporting activities.

Start again.........tomorrow.

First post of the year

Hubby's back at work.
In-The-Middle has finished her Uni degree so now she can go back to working at the Coffee Club.
The Princess has purchased a house in Toowoomba.  And a new car to get her up and down the mountain range safely.
Teeny Tiny is crazy as ever. 
School Holidays are nearly at an end and The Princess and Teeny Tiny will be returning to their respective workplaces next week to prepare for the new school year.
Life is slowly returning to normal.

Next week I will start on the New Year, New You  crap that I go through each year.  There will be swimming involved and a reduction is the calorie intake.  Alcohol will be banned for a month or two.  I have decided to drastically cut back on dairy foods, not because I see this as a "bad" food but more because the last time I tried it all my sinus issues cleared up, and presently my sinuses are playing up.  This means no cappuccino each day.  I may need to kill someone.

At the end of last year I decided I might try out the Mediterranean Diet because it seems to be one of the few diets that is endorsed by most dieticians.  I went and bought myself  The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook so I would at least have something to follow.  The recipes in this book are AMAZING.  For the very first time in my life I'm consistently making food that tastes great and apparently is good for you too.  Small hitch - I think I may have been eating too much of the good stuff.  Plus somehow the odd glass of red wine may have fallen into my mouth.  There are many calories in olive oil and red wine and I wasn't taking calories into account. Because I'm an IDIOT.  Anyway, needless to say I put on weight.  I'm going to give it another bash but I will be a bit more sensible about it this time.  That is all I will be saying about my dieting for some time. 

  The End

Last post for 2015

Thought I would just make one last post for 2015.

It has been a busy, busy month.  I thought I would add some pressure by organising a family holiday on Coochie Mudlow Island from the 12-19th December.  This is the first week of the Xmas holidays for the public schools in Queensland so 2 of my girls were free as birds, InTheMiddle was able to take a few days off but had to return to her non-paying (practical) job on the Thursday and her hubby was flat out with his business so I think he was relieved to go early too. The only one who couldn't get time off work was Teeny Tiny's partner.

 So Coochie is this little island close to the mainland about half way between our home and Brisbane. Half the island is wetlands and as you can see there are lots of trees.  One would expect that there would be lovely sea breezes here but no, too many trees stop the breezes and it tends to be very hot and humid over summer.

Hubby took his boat and InTheMiddles husband took his boat and everyday they would pile into the boats and go fishing.  Not me, I've done enough fishing in this lifetime and besides I'm paranoid about getting sunburnt.  The house we stayed in was awesome, big enough for our family. And we had some excellent weather that was perfect for fishing.  We've had high winds for most of this week so I'm glad we went when we did.

So the week was filled with lots of long strolls, fishing, eating (the fish), drinking, lounging outside on the verandah, reading a book or 2 (that was just me that read) swimming in the pool, and playing cards every night.   And no we didn't swim in the bay, it's salty and a little murky and has sea lice and one of the boys caught a shark and small though it may be it could still bite.  No one wanted to find out what that would feel like.

All in all it was a wonderful week and then we returned home and I needed to buy Christmas presents, because I put the 'fun' shopping times off until the last minute, also food and drink for the big day. There was a Christmas party with my friends in there somewhere.  I couldn't face doing the whole traditional family get-together to put up the Christmas tree and decorations much to everyone's disgust, so we had a teeny little wooden tree that took me all of 2 minutes to sort out.

   Don't judge me!!!!  It was cute and I did move the vases and put Christmas trinkets around it and on Christmas day we surrounded the cabinet it was sitting on with presents and no one seemed to care.  I cleaned out all the Christmas decorations on Boxing Day and it took me less than half an hour.  That would be a personal best.

Christmas Day was fun, we celebrated pretty much like every other year, when after lunch everyone plays in the pool or sits around complaining about eating too much (that would be me. I will never learn it seems).

So that's it for now.  Hope your Christmas was fun too.  And may the New Year be the best year ever?

Happy New Year!!

Making tracks

Well, the big news for this week is The Princess has found herself a new teaching position in a small country town about and hour and a bit from here.  She is going in as acting head of the English department so it is a promotion for her.  My girl is ambitious.  Always has been.

At the moment her hubby works and rents a room in Oakey which is about 40mins drive west of Toowoomba (but nearly 3 hours drive back home).   The town The Princess will be working in is about 50mins drive east of Toowoomba..  So the plan is to buy a house in Toowoomba and rent the house they own here on the Coast.    Toowoomba is hubby's home town and his sister and her husband still lives there, so The Princess still has some family support nearby which is good.

This new teaching position is only contracted for 6 months but she is confident that it should go for at least a year, unless she is crap at being head of department, which she won't be because this girl has amazing organisational skills.  Anyway if it came to that The Princess will come home and her hubby will find one or two people who can rent rooms off him.

So she has been very busy looking for houses on the net then sending her hubby off to inspect them after he finishes work.  She also needs to buy a new car because she will be driving up and down a rather steep mountain range each day and her old bomb will not last a week doing that.  So we (the princess, hubby and I) hit the car yards on the weekend getting prices on new and second hand cars.  What a boring exercise that was. I think I'll pass next time they go looking. 

How do I feel?  Sad that I won't get to see her as much but relieved that she will be with her husband because his working away from home and only returning weekends is not good for any marriage and I think the loneliness for him is doing his head in.  Also she has a promotion!  yay!  And she is already impressed with the positive attitude of the headmaster and staff and that has to be a good thing.  We'll see how she feels about it in a years time. 

Parenthood

Last month I had decided to post more often, at least weekly, and yet here I am not having posted anything for a whole month.  I've been busy doing stuff, I can't rightly say what but its been keeping me away from the computer most days.

When my kids were little a neighbour, who also had children, said I was amazing being a stay-at-home mum because it's so hard, much harder than working.  You know, all this time I have thought she was patronising me because I couldn't imagine working and raising children without my falling in a heap. Hubby was never going to help out with the kids or the housework and for 9 months he actually worked in Melbourne and I only got to see him for one weekend every 6 weeks.  So I was a single mum of sorts.  But finally I get it, it's not difficult looking after little ones but it is tiring and occasionally irritating and boring and unless they are asleep it is unrelenting busy-ness.  I've been looking after Little E from 8 - 5.30 a couple of days a week and by the time her mum gets home I'm pretty much spent. It seems to have become way more tiring than I remember. 

How did I do it with 3 kids 24/7? I remember a  time when Teeny Tiny would wake up at 2am and think it was party time and wouldn't fall asleep until about 5am which was about the time the other two would start to wake up.  I was like the walking dead for months.

To anyone with kids who might possible read this, whether you are stay-at-home or working, I take my hat off to you because it's not easy......but oh, the laughter and the love!

OCD

It has occurred to me that I have a mild case of OCD.  I never noticed it before but now that I am oh so much older it is becoming more pronounced.

I don't need to wash my hands repeatedly or clean the house over and over.  OMG what a nightmare that would be.  Could you imagine constantly seeing mess and having to vacuum over the same place that you vacuumed just an hour before.  I don't think that will ever happen to me.

But, I can't stand to see a picture hanging crookedly on a wall, it drives me nuts.  There are 2 chips on the tiles in the kitchen, that look like I haven't swept properly.  That also drives me nuts even though they have been there for years.  A few years back we changed the furniture in our lounge room and I have never liked the arrangement but cannot change it.  I'd sell the sofa but it was stupidly expensive and also is the most comfortable sofa I have ever owned. Still when I look at it it bothers me.  Worse still the painting on the main wall is  not centered above the large sofa because before we had a 2 seater and this sofa is a 3 seater and I had to move it to a slightly different position.   I would change the painting but then that requires me patching up the hole that would be left behind and I have no paint to cover the patch up so basically I would need to repaint the whole room.  It will happen.....eventually.  Meanwhile every time I look at that painting I feel a little disconcerted.

But worse, I find it really difficult to walk away from a task that is not finished.  Like when I start on a picture in my colouring book, it's really, really hard to do anything at all (like going to bed) when there is a picture to complete.  Also if I start a book I find it difficult to just put down and wait until the next day to finish.  And I have learned not to start playing computer games where the objective is to get enough of a score to be allowed to move forward in the game.  Cradle of Empires, for instance, had me hooked for awhile before I decided to delete it and never go back to that game again.  I was thinking about it morning, noon and night.  So yeah, obsessive. 

 Does stuff like this ever bother you?

Colour my world

I celebrated another of those pesky birthdays recently and got some pretty neat presents.  Hubby bought me a Robo Vac.  Sweet little device that wanders aimlessly around the house picking up dog hair and getting constantly stuck under furniture.  Hubby loves it and follows behind it to see what it will do next then shakes his head in awe that someone came up with the idea.  Frankly, I do believe he gets more pleasure out of than I do.

Teeny Tiny bought me an adult colouring in book complete with paints and watercolour pencils.  They are all the rage at the moment so it seems that I am not the only one reliving my childhood. All those colours and the need to get the colours looking just right AND keeping inside the lines.  I tell you all this is important!    I am quite addicted and get a ridiculous amount of pleasure when I have completed a picture and then I tell myself this would have to be the most childish thing I could come up with.  The kids have said I'm lame.  They may be right.  I can't stop now though because I've also bought felt tip pens and gel pens so I need to use them up. 

Already I have my eye on another book.  Maybe I can drop hints about it just in time for Xmas.

Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth

So close, and yet so far away.

In-The-Middle completed her final assignment, a presentation, today.  No more study.  No more assignments.  Ever.

She still has a few months of prac before she is fully qualified but the finish line is so close now she can taste it.

Not bad for the teenager who would get dropped off at the school gates and high tail it to the back school gates for a wonderful day of wagging it. 

Big Red Car

 
When I was a kid my dad bought a brand new car, an Austin 1800.  It was the first brand new car we had ever owned and we were all so very proud of this car.  There was a sticker on the car that said 'Floats on Fluid' and I wanted dad to drive it into a river so I could see it float.  Apparently that had nothing to do with it.  So in the interest of not appearing like a dumbass I just googled it and here is the following explanation taken from the Morris 1100 page:

"Many years later I discovered that it referred to the Hydrolastic Suspension. The Morris 1100 floats on fluid by means of interconnected rubber balloons filled with a solution of  equal parts alcohol and water, plus corrosion inhibitor and green dye.

When the front wheels hit a bump, fluid is displaced from the front balloon into the rear one causing the rear suspension to rise about the same amount as the front, thus keeping the car level. Conventional suspensions using metal springs and dampers (shock absorbers) cause a car to "pitch" first to the rear as the front wheel rides over the bump and then to front as the rear wheel does."

Anyway the Austin was a lemon.  Everything that could go wrong with it did and dad sold it fairly quickly.  After that he swore he would never buy a brand new car again and after that he would buy an old bomb that would limp along for a couple of years until he ditched it for another old bomb.

 What the Austin probably looked like 2 years after we sold it.

 

Hubby and I have owned old cars and new ones.  I really don't care about the age of the car, as long as it can get from point A to point B without breaking down I'm happy.  I own a red Mazda which we bought brand new 10 years ago.  Love the Mazda.  

What do you drive? 

(The title of this post has been brought to you by The Wiggles who sing songs that are designed to drive an adult crazy.   "Toot, toot, chugga, chugga, big red car, we travel near and we travel far.........."   Oh no, that's going to be in my head all day now.

 

You can stick your mid-life crisis

So, I came on here specifically to leave a message but I have now been sitting for 10 minutes trying to come up with something interesting to say.  Nothing........

Yay just thought of something.......

We're sitting watching telly last night and hubby starts a conversation.....
Hubby:  I think I'm going through a mid-life crisis, I'm seriously considering buying a new car.
Me:  We already have 2.
Hubby:  This one is a Mustang.  They haven't come off the production line yet but if you want one you have to order it now AND pay for it.
Me:  How much do you have to pay.
Hubby:  $60,000.  What do you think?
Me:  *crickets*

sick

It's been sick central in my house ever since I started looking after my grand baby.  First it was a flu from hell that took weeks to recover from, then just as I was starting to feel human again I got a gastric virus.  In The Middle told me it was a 24 hour thing and it might have been for her but I had it for 5 days and it left me feeling blah for a week after that. Then little E passed on her head cold, also a 2 week recovery period.  I know I joked about little E passing on all the diseases she picks up from kindy but this is ridiculous.

I have heard that there is a virus doing the rounds of the kindys called slapped cheeks,so called because the persons cheeks go bright red.  Seriously, slapped cheeks, if you don't believe me google it.  I just know I'm going to get that.  Looks like I might be wearing a paper bag on my head soon.

Not the hardware store.

Not so long ago I told you about hubby getting his dream job in a major hardware store (here if you want to read it again, though goodness knows why).  He enjoyed it well enough but it definitely was not the dream he had in mind.  The store had a 'soft opening' which is where they invite in friends and family first, possibly so the staff can practise on them before the grand opening.  I went along and bought up big on all the specials.  The staff were all very keen to help and obviously proud of their nice shiny store because they had spent weeks packing shelves and getting the place ready.

And then........

He gets a phone call from a telecommunications company, one he had worked for many years ago. The manager had heard that he was working in a hardware store but would he (hubby) consider working for them.  The wages offered were considerably more and it's back to 36hrs a week (as opposed to the 15hrs he was getting in hardware).  Considerably more.  He said, oh yes please.  There's a catch, of course, the job is back in Brisbane, where he never wanted to go again,  right in the CBD,  which means he has to catch the train and he hates the train.

Last week he spent a few days working in Rockhampton and he was given the work vehicle to get there.  On Monday he drove the work vehicle into the city, there were 2 big accidents on the way in and it took well over 2 hours to get there.  He was not impressed.  Now he's saying the train is not so bad it's the people who get on the train who are the problem.   

By the way

It has crossed my mind lately that I have had heaps of events that I could have blogged about but was too distracted to actually do a post.

I could have told you about The Princess going to the Snowy Mountains with a school camp over the holidays.  But I didn't.  She had a ball, by the way.

I could have told you about the excellent day I had with my family in Brisbane as we watched Teeny Tiny, dressed in her Harry Potter outfit, collect her certificate at her graduation ceremony.   But I didn't.  Some of the speeches were dead boring and I only complained a little bit, by the way.

I could have told you about my Mum tearing her rotator cuff and ending up in hospital for 5 days.   We tried to get the hospital to organise some extra help for her.  They didn't the bastards.   But I didn't.  She has improved greatly, by the way.

I could have told you about my teeth which have been giving me trouble and costing a considerable amount of money.  But I didn't.  The saga is not over yet, by the way.

That's about it for now.  Presently I'm in the process of sewing new covers for my chairs. While it not entirely necessary to do this it does keep the chairs in good condition so I should get some extra years out of what was a very expensive lounge suite.  Also, from the moment I got the lounge suite home I decided that I really wasn't fussed on the dead boring colour,  so covers in a contrasting colour work for me.   I only change the covers every few years because sewing them is tricky and time consuming and frankly I don't enjoy sewing that much.  And that is why I'm on this computer right now, I am procrastinating.  I do that well, by the way.

I was a member and then I wasn't

I was wandering through the shopping centre a couple of weeks ago when I was approached by a salesman to buy into a food delivery service called Hello Fresh.  It looked interesting.  You choose a day to have a box of food delivered and it comes complete with recipes.  For 3 days there is no need to shop or deliberate on what to cook that night. it is done for you.

So I joined up.  The selection of meals for the first week did not interest me but I was unable to change it on the website and I wasted a considerable length of time trying, believe me.  Then I tried to ring the company to see if they could change it from their end but I was put in a queue for so long that I gave up.  I also sent an email that didn't get answered.  So I ended up cooking meals I really wasn't interested in eating.   I was left very unimpressed.

Also it has occurred to me that buying the food is not the problem for me, cooking it is.  Oh for a person to just come in and cook me meals each night.  I could choose the recipe and buy the food and they would cook it,  that would make me so happy.

I have cancelled the membership.  Finding a way to deactivate was very well hidden but I finally found it, I was determined their stupid website would not get the better of me yet again.

I am now deactivated or possibly dismembered.

Stay At Home.

It's been one whole year since this gorgeous little girl came into my life.  I've been very lucky in that her mum has wanted to involve me so much.  I get heaps of one on one time and lots of cuddles. 

So good.  My life just gets better and better.

In-The-Middle is in the final stretch of her uni degree (social work) and she has to do 6 months of practical work.  That is working 4 days a week for 6 months totally free.  Not fair really.  Surely they can learn what they need to in, say, 3 months.  She has already done 6 months working in a hospital in a rehabilitation section and she loved it and they obviously loved her because they contacted her to see if she had qualified so they could put her on.  That was a year ago when the baby had just arrived.

Anyway, I am the winner out of all this because I will get to look after her 4 days a week.  Tuesday is still mine because...friends and coffee and movies.  I'm not giving that up.  Little E will be in kindy on that day.  It'll be good for her, she can learn how to socialise and get to play with different toys and pick up every disease that's going around and then give it to me.  She's good at that.

So I will be a stay-at-home grandma.  It's a job. 

Oh yeah, I have only just got over the flu.  It was awful, about the worst I have had in about 10 years or so.  I'm still feeling run-down but at least now I can make it through most of the day before I need a rest.  

Staying silent is not one of my strong points.

Blaaah! I'm sicky, sick, sick.
Snotty, snotty, snot, snot.
Cough, cough, hack, hack ack ack ack.
Worse still, I have lost my voice.  Completely.

If you find it send it back to me OK. 

Another teacher in the family.

Teeny Tiny has reached the end of her time at Uni and today she finishes her practical work.  She just sent a message to me saying that already she has found a job teaching Math.  YAY!  IamsoproudIamsoIamsoproudproudproundproud!!!

Muffins

To leave a comment on PhilPlasma's posts you must first prove you're not a robot by matching up pictures.  Today there were pictures of cakes.  Yummy cakes with a mountain of icing.   mmmmm
After trying to resist the call of the cake and failing I eventually pulled out my considerable library of recipe books and wasted much time looking at pictures of cake.  Pictures don't satisfy sadly enough.

Long story short, I baked muffins.  Apple, sultana and oat muffins to be exact.  The recipe was OK but it is apparent that I need to eat all of the muffins to decide exactly what needs to be tweaked.  The smell in the house was awesome but it's gone now so I'm going to have to make more muffins just to get that smell back, and then I'm going to have to eat all the muffins........

This is not going to end well.