What a day. I finally finished my last assignment!!! Boy oh boy does that feel good. I was beginning to think I wouldn't get there. So I will put it the mail first thing tomorrow morning (after I've photocopied it).
In other news. Hmm what else has been happening. Had a good and interesting day at work. I'm about to take over next week as acting manager for three weeks and it's looking like I'm going to have an extremely full three weeks.
We have to do up a pandemic plan for our workplace, but it also looks like we will finally be moving office. We've been told handover is Friday and we get the keys Tuesday.
That's about it for now. I haven't taken any photo's in the last couple of days, so I might have to rummage for a pic I've taken earlier on. Ah yes, the pic is of the menu from the bestest Thai restaurant around.
I'm so close to finishing my course I can just about taste it! Another few hours work and it will be all over red rover. Hopefully will get time to complete it tomorrow evening after work and I will get it in Thursday's mail.
Went to pottery tonight and finished glazing a few creations. Hopefully they will be fired during the week. I left my glaze there though ~ for the 2nd week running! Talk about ditzy.
Woke up feeling very stressed about my study this morning thinking I wasn't going to be able to finish in time. An immense feeling of relief when I received an email from my tutor telling me yes, I do still have time, I'm doing great and don't give up now. Can we all say a big collective 'Phew!!!!!' Funny how it suddenly all becomes much clearer and easier after that. I had a couple of good solid productive hours working on it last night and I can see the end in sight. Still have a few hours ahead of me but don't feel quite so anxious about it all now.
Spoke briefly with my Mum on the phone and a little longer with my sister. Was nice to catch up with them. Josh (son #3) has started doing some work with Gav (son #1) and Dan (son #5) and seems to be thoroughly enjoying it. They were working over on Macleay Island today.
Well that's about it from me for now. Today's pic is one I took last week up in the hinterland of the Gold Coast skyline.
Woke up at silly o'clock and couldn't go back to sleep, so did a little study before having brekky. Spent some time in the garden finding muscles we forgot we had! We have a jungle that needs clearing before it covers the house. Well maybe not quite that bad, but the groundcover over one part of the garden has totally invaded another so over the next few weekends we'll try and get it under control again.
A friend came over in the afternoon to get a massage from Bob and I got a little more study done while he was successfully finding all their sore spots and sorting them out.
Had our family dinner tonight, albeit without Gav, Lisa & Xavier who'd had too big a day and had only just settled. We'll try another night with them.
Well that's about it from me for today. Josh's starfish is the subject of today's pic.
Today is Anzac Day. My friend Kath and I got up early and attended the dawn service. It was beautiful and very moving.
Came home and had a nap before getting up and starting the day again. Had some brekky, did a few chores and got stuck into some study. Cripes it does your head in! At the moment I'm not sure if I'm on the right track. I think I spent too much time at it yesterday and got myself all confuddled.
I made a cake in the afternoon while having a break and Bob cooked a delicious dinner while I had another study break. I decided to give up the study for the day as I was going round in circles, so we watched the movie Notebook (beautiful and sad) before heading off to bed. I also managed to finish knitting the scarf I was making while we watched the movie.
Had a day off work and made it a quiet one due to not feeling terrifically well. Bob's son & fiance` dropped in last night around 9pm just after he got home from work, followed soon after by Josh returning home with a couple of friends in tow. And then I received a phone call from my friend Trace in Tamworth, so it was all happening last night. By the time Trace & I finished catching up (we haven't caught up for a couple of months), it was rather late but a nice end to the day.
Had a great day ~ did team building stuff this morning at Cleveland Point. It was very windy but we still had plenty of fun while doing the exercises. We also had a delicious lunch at the Lighthouse Restaurant out at the point.
From there we went to a day spa place. I've never been to one of those before and it was very noice! Made you feel very pampered. We had a pampering called the Samsara which is meant to be a Circle of Life type thing. They did a head, neck, shoulder and light shiatsu back massage, before we changed rooms and had a foot ritual which involved having our feet washed and then massaged. The foot one was absolutely wonderful! All of it was good but the foot one was my favourite. Came home feeling pleasantly tired.
I don't think I mentioned in yesterday's blog that my sister and her two children came up to spend the night with us and meet Xavier. The time went all too fast as it does mid week but hopefully we'll catch up again soon.
Today's pics are of a fuschia blossom at the winery we went to yesterday and one of Fiona with Xavier.
Had a great day. We did the car rally thing at work today ~ fantastic and hilarious some of the antics my work colleagues got up to. A few hiccups when they didn't follow the instructions I'd left, but they made it eventually. We ended up at a winery at Nth Tamborine with a beautiful setting and had a delicious lunch. A pic from the day.
Oops missed another day! I'm so good at that! Not a lot to add really for Tuesday. Had a good and busy-ish day at work and then went to pottery in the evening. Brought home another creation that went wonky, but I guess it's unique in it's own little way. Spent class time glazing this week and will probably be doing same next week. Anyways, today's pic is of the most recent creation.
Didn't sleep well last night for some reason so woke up feeling totally wiped and as though I hadn't slept. Not too busy a day at work and my co worker was back today, so nice to have her around again.
Seemed to spend half the evening on the phone between calls to Mum, my sister and friend Jack. Had an easy dinner of tuna casserole and veggies, then an early night. So nothing terribly exciting at all for today's blog. Today's pic is one I took out at Cleveland Point last week when taking pics of Dan's ute.
Little Miss Tiara woke bright and early at 6am. Not bad for a little girl who didn't flake until 10.30pm the night before. She is such a cutie patootie though and so easy to be around. She went home with Mum & Dad at around 10am.
We decided to head off and do a test run of the car rally I've worked out. I'm glad we did as I needed to tweak it a little and I found a couple of small errors. Well one could have been a big one because I had the wrong numbered exit of the motorway! Oops.. I'd counted them correctly from where we'd got on, but the number of the exit didn't match up with how many there was before they got off. Ah well, all sorted now and ready to go for Wednesday.
We picked up some Yatala pies on the way home for dinner and the boys greatly appreciated that! That's about it for now. Today's pic is a slightly blurred roadside variety, taken as we wound our way down the mountain.
Had a lovely day today! A quiet start, then went to a lunch for ex ABA counsellors. It was great to catch up with people I hadn't seen in ages. A delicious lunch at a French restaurant and lots of good company ~ what more could one want? After lunch we wandered up to the new shop and had a look through. They had a little show bag type thing for us all, Desley of course had group projects and I was able to get a baby sling for Xavier while I was there.
Stopped in at Bunnings on the way home and picked up a few seedlings, then off to pick up Tiara. Nick & Jess are at a party for the evening, so Tiara is having a sleep over with us. I'd got her a baby sling for her dolls or teddies and she seems to like it. Today's pic is of Tiara with her baby in the sling.
Had a fun day today. I did a dry run for this mystery tour/car rally type thing I'm organising for next week. Lots of plotting and planning happened. They will have a number of questions to answer along the way and will need to be observant. They will have things to count, information to find out, photo's to take, envelopes to get from the back of signs and from under seats and inside shops, plus things to pick up from stores. They will eventually arrive at a beautiful setting where we will have a delicious meal. We've organised it for next Wednesday, so I'll take pics of my part along the way.
Had a quiet evening as I was really tired after all the roaming around. Not much else to report on, so will make this one a shorty. Today's pic is one of the pics I took of Dan's ute.
Had a busy day at work which was good. Spent some time plotting and planning the mystery tour, I think I have decided on a destination. Next up will be a dry run to work out all the tasks and clues.
Went down to Cleveland Point with Dan late this afternoon so we could take some pics of his ute. He's hoping to sell it and wanted some good advertising type pics.
Had dinner with Kathy tonight, we walked up the street to a local fish shop and had a delicious outdoor type meal, followed by a hot chocolate at a nearby coffee shop before walking home again. Very noice!
There is a new pizza place called Hell Pizza and they have some weird and whacky names for the pizza's. Their place is all decked out with mock coffins and strange looking people, so today's pics are from there.
Wow, what a day. I received notification from my tutor that I'd passed every subject in one of the units I'd sent in for marking ~ yayy! He was also very happy with the fact I was getting everything in so quickly when I realised how close the deadline was and has actually extended the deadline for the final unit, so I now have another week or two to complete. Very happy about that, it takes the pressure off and I can breathe! I would have needed to be in tonight's mail otherwise and it just wasn't possible to complete in that time, so I was planning to send in as much as I'd completed. But I'm being given the opportunity to fully complete, so that's fantastic.
Things have been a bit whacky at work lately, so it's been decided to have a few days of team building next week.
My challenge is to plan a mystery tour, kind of like a car rally where I have a destination in mind and I plot and plan the trip. We will have two cars going, so I can send them off at 10 minute intervals or send them via different directions.
My plan is they will have to follow clues to get there, no road maps, no street names, just clues and they will have little tasks to do along the way. Like take a photo of the view, pick a flower from the tree you see on this street, stop at this shop and pick up a message, drop in to a chinese restaurant and find out what #17 on the menu is.
I now need to choose a destination that is within a 60-90 minute radius, so that is today's task and then tomorrow, I'll do a dry run to plot and plan the route and the tasks they have to do along the way. Should be fun!
The only major requirements or requests are that there is relatively easy parking and a nice restaurant or place to eat at the destination. And it would be awesome if there was some type of scenic view to add to that. I've had a few ideas but just have to see how feasible they are.
And onto todays pic which is of some of the neighbours flowers down near the jetty.
Back to work today after the long weekend ~ that was tough! I still have the assessment unit to complete before Thursday afternoon, but can feel time flying away. Although it's extremely quiet at work at the moment, I'm unable to do my TAFE work there. So it's a little frustrating to be sitting there reading books on work related stuff to fill the time when I could be doing my assessment unit. Ah well, such is life!
Dropped into my friend Kath's place on the way home from work and just after I got there, a young guy selling artwork called in. Kath had bought some of the work he was selling earlier in the week and wanted me to see it, hence the invite to drop in after work. Anyways, this young man is Jewish and has only been in Australia for three weeks. He is from Israel and is planning to have a year out here travelling around. Lovely man and very interesting to talk with.
Came home and threw some dinner together while Daniel went down and checked his fishing line. Today's pic is of his catch ~ a small pike eel.
Bit of a strange Easter Sunday really ~ used to seeing all the family on Easter Sunday but we're having a change of day and doing it Easter Monday instead. So we spent the morning getting some chores out of the way ~ rivetingly exciting stuff! Alas we didn't catch any fish on the lines we put in last night but they did enjoy the bait.
Planted some sweetpeas, stocks and heartsease (aka as Johnny Jump Ups). Will fill the garden bed up as time and energy permits. Need to tidy up the veggie patch and clear up some weed farms too. All in good time.
Tried doing a little study but couldn't get into it, so watched a movie instead. Tuesdays with Morrie ~ a beautiful profound movie. I loved it! Makes you laugh, makes you cry and makes you think a whole hell of a lot.
Had some delicious curry that we had cooking in the slow cooker. It tasted as good as the aroma that wafted through the house all day smelt!
Todays pics are of the shawl I finished and a little nest of toadstools I found hidden beneath the weed forest we have growing in the back yard.
Had a nice cruisey type of day today. Went off on a mission this morning for a few things but in half a dozen different stores spread across the city. First stop was IKEA for a ~ as in one ~ stool. IKEA, well what can I say, there is no walking in there for just one thing. The place is massive. We came out with two stools and a hanging thingy for the grandkids stuffed toys.
After IKEA was Bunnings, one of my favourite stores. Picked up a new door knob/handle/thingy for Josh's bedroom door because his broke. While we were there, some sweet pea, stocks & heartsease seedlings just jumped into our basket. Amazing how they do that!
From there it was off to Eckersleys ~ the art shop that is another favourite and just as dangerous. I was after a particular type of paint, but alas, they didn't have any in the colour I wanted. So I came away with two different shades of pigment and some clear medium to mix it with. Hopefully it does what I'd like it to do.
Then Lincraft to grab another ball of wool so I could do the tassels to finish off the shawl I knitted. A couple of balls in another colour also fell into my hands too.
Home again where I put the tassels on the shawl, cripes, what a time consuming tedious little job! But worth the effort. Decided to try a little fishing, eventually caught a couple of bait fish in the cast net and set some lines up. Finished the evening with some delicious Thai food and a movie.
Today's pics are from our very early start to the day ~ daybreak!
Today is Good Friday. Made some Easter buns which I haven't done in years! They were yummy and I don't know why I don't cook stuff like that more often. We had some humongeous prawns for lunch and although they were nice, the small ones are so much nicer and sweeter. Unfortunately they didn't have any when I went to get them. Ah well, they were still nice.
Bob's son and his fiance` came over for dinner and we had the sea perch, which was absolutely delicious, with a baked jacket potato, steamed cauliflower, carrot, and zuchini, all served with a white parsley sauce on the side. And of course we had an Easter bun to finish off.
Today's pic is of some vine in the garden.
Oops I missed another day! Thursday was quietish, finished work early, did a little shopping and got some more wool for a project or two, and bought some delicious looking fish for tomorrow nights dinner. The boys had a few mates over tonight, great bunch of friends but they can get a little noisy in the wee small hours. We're 'babysitting' Smudge again this weekend as our neighbour is competing in the Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race. So today's pic is of Smudge.
Another unassuming day goes by. Went to work, my co-worker is now on hols for a couple of weeks (lucky duck!), came home, cooked dinner, then went and did some grocery shopping. Can't say it was a rivetingly exciting day because it wasn't. Although I do have to say my co-worker was amusing when leaving work. Her car was first in the line and she drove as slow as she possibly could when we were leaving, doing bit of a zig zag type thing so we couldn't pass her. Got down to the intersection and spent a very long time checking the left and right before very slowly driving to the next intersection. Good thing it's a quiet area and short streets! I think we were all laughing hysterically by the time we could go properly. Anyways, that's it from me for today.
Hmm I might try a new font today ~ I always use Arial so, today I'm using Verdana instead. Today was a very unassuming type of day. One where nothing out of the ordinary happened, you know the ones that just kinda slip under the radar.
Went to work, went to the bank to check out an idea I had for finances that I've now decided against, and bought the latest Money magazine which has an offer for free brokerage. Fantastic news being that I'm considering getting into shares for the first time ~ not in a big way, just a baby way but it's something I've been thinking about for a few years. And seeing as we're getting the govt stimulus money, I thought I may use a little of that to get started. Not 100% sure yet, still in the thinking/planning/working it all out stage, but probably closer now than I've ever been.
Managed to get dinner organised earlier than usual which was nice as I prefer to eat a little earlier rather than too late during the week so I'm not going to bed on a full tummy. I have enough trouble losing weight as it is without adding another hinderance to the mix. Well that's probably enough of my ramblings for now, (did you notice I had a couple of long sentences in there? cripes!) so I'm off to find a pic that I'll add. Probably one of the flower pics I took the other day.
Blimey Monday comes round awful fast. Busy-ish day at work which always makes the time go faster. Had a Dr's appt this arvo and my blood pressure hasn't moved anymore over the last month, so I go back in another month. If no change, then it will be adjusted. Apparently it can take a couple of months to settle. At least it's not dangerously high anymore.
Enjoyed dinner at Nick and Jess's place ~ their puppy is cute and very affectionate. She looooves cuddles. Tiara is just gorgeous of course and was ever so excited when she found out 'her' baby was coming to dinner as well, along with his parents Gav & Lise. Xavier a little unsettled but still snuggly and delicious.
I think that pretty much sums up the day, so will add a pic of Tiara & Xavier.
Today would have been my sister in law's wedding anniversary. Donna and Barry were married 23 yrs ago. So sad that she's no longer with us to celebrate that event.
Did a few chores today and s'more cooking! I like cooking ~ have I ever mentioned that? I do. I also started knitting a shawl. Me, the non knitting person. So far, so good and it's even looking shawl like too.
Gav, Lise & Xavier came over for dinner tonight and Bushy n Jess joined us for a short while after dinner. Was a good night and enjoyed lots of Xavier snuggles again. Today's pic is predictably of Xavier. He's with his Uncle Jon in this pic.
Oops missed a day again. What happened to Saturday anyway? It disappeared! Hmm so what happened yesterday? The neighbour must have been doing some work to his boat and one of today's pics is of someone halfway up the mast.
As for what we did? Well we did a little shopping and I did a little cooking and I took some garden pics and we watched a couple of dvd's. Do you like my liberal use of the and's? Just an observation hehe. Basically had a veg out day. We watched Whale Rider and One Flew Over A Cuckoo's Nest ~ both different to what I was expecting, but both enjoyable. The other pic I'll add is one from the garden.
Back to work today! Loraine has been babysitting Miss Molly and brought her in today. She is wayyyyy too cute. Such a gorgeous little bundle of affection and love.
Mum gets to fly home tomorrow. Her specialist will be in Tamworth next week, so she'll see him on Tues & Thurs. Apparently all is going reasonably well ~ slowly but surely.
It's been raining still, the pool is overflowing and we have a little inside rain damage as well. The garage flooded and keeps flooding with each heavy downpour, so we are going to have to sort through the stuff that has been wet this weekend. We also had a large dinner plate size bubble appear on the hallways wall where water seeped in between the wall and the paint. And in the lounge room, we had water leaking around the timber part of sliding door frame. So repairers will be out to take a look when the rain stops.
I've finally finished another unit to my TAFE course, now only have two left. I wonder how realistic it is to think I may have a chance of completing them within a week? I've emailed to find out my exact finish date, if I'm lucky, it may be a little later than I think it is.
Today's pic is of some delicious ice cream! Talk about heaven in a bucket.
Mum called this morning and she is to come out of hospital today. Apparently she was to go by ambulance to the hospital in Randwick where they planned to check her retina. Hopefully all will be ok and if so, then they will go ahead with another operation in a few months time to repair the lense and hopefully her sight. Her friends were going to pick her up from the hospital in Randwick when she's done.
I had my last day off today and go back to work tomorrow. Spent the day unpacking sorting and tidying, along with mopping up water that has come inside due today's very heavy rain. It's rained most of the day. How ironic we get rain when we topped the pool up with water just yesterday! Perhaps we should have checked the weather forecast first ~ oops.
All of the young people in this house have or are getting the flu ~ every single one of them! I hope Bob & I can avoid it. Today's pic.. hmm what shall it be? Ah I know, a pic of the gorgeous flowers Fiona & Rich sent Mum in hospital.
Blimey, how time flies! Can you believe it's April already? Nice to be home again but had so much to do today that the day just disappeared. Managed to get some more food in the house, inbetween getting my tyres checked, repaired and rotated on my car, sorting out pool issues and dropping off business cards for both Bob & I (mostly for Bob).
Bob still has a godawful cough but hopefully it clears up sooner rather than later. He says he feels ok, so that's the main thing. Sarah has a cold, Sidonie has a cold and Josh is getting a cold. So long as they keep their little germs well away from me, I'll be happy :).
Hmm what else? Probably not much else to add to this, so I might finish here and add today's pic which is of a funny children's book I bought at the Art Gallery in the Domain. It's a slightly different take on the Three Little Pigs. Very funny and definitely worth a read.
My little sister's birthday today ~ happy birthday Fiona! I hope you had an awesome day.
Today I flew back from Sydney, had a good flight perhaps helped by knowing the pilot was a woman :). Received a phone call from my good friend Stu, fantastic to have a long catch up with him again.
Mum is doing ok and will be coming out of hospital on Thursday morning. All being well, she will probably be able to fly home on Sunday or Monday.
Today's pic is of a stretch hummer of all things, that was used for a wedding in Hyde Park on Sunday.
