my gorgeous nephew

goat trials and hiking trails

Went up the Kokoda walk in the Dandenong Ranges National park with Larissa today. I only got halfway before I felt lightheaded and had to turn back, but I think now that I know what to expect I'll get to the top next time. It was the forth time Larissa had been up, she only made it a quarter of the way up her first time, and made it to the top on her third attempt. The walk, also known as the 1000 steps, is a tribute to the Kokoda trail, and is supposed to give you an idea of the trial our soldiers went through. I'm not unfit, but I get short of breath, and therefore lightheaded, easily, probably because I had asthma as a child. Just as well I don't smoke.

Yesterday and Friday evening was spent up at mums, Chris and I had a nice dinner at the Five Flags hotel with mum and Dave on Friday night, and had a pleasant day relaxing on Saturday, which included a hike next door to meet the new billy goat, and to say hello to the does and super-cute kids. The neighbors gave me a 2litre bottle of fresh goat milk to try, as a lot of people with dairy allergies can tolerate goats milk. I had it in a cuppa yesterday and on my cereal this morning and am now having a banana thickshake. I'm still not sure whether I'm reacting to it or not, I feel a bit off at the moment but then I often do. I have that many allergies that I'll often feel like I've reacted to something without knowing what it is, so the only way to be sure is to have my allergies retested, which I have been given a referral for. When I get it done I'm going to have the dairy allergy tested more thoroughly to see if its only the lactose that I have a problem with.

Damn that Murphy!

Bloody typical isnt it? Mum spent most of last week, when I didn't have a spare minute, nagging me about updating my blog. This week I've been posting everyday, so naturally her internet is on the fritz. Ah well. Chris and I are going up there on Saturday so hopefully we'll be able to sort it out then. Once its fixed she's just going to have to wade through everything she's missed.

Anyway here I am on my fortnightly active night shift. It's been a hot muggy day (and week) and the air con at work is broken AGAIN. I sent off a maintenance request for it yesterday and was hoping they'd have fixed it today but no such luck, they're coming tomorrow. Ah well at least its cooled down outside. Better here than at home anyway, my room takes forever to cool down after a hot spell, although the flip side of that is that its going to be fun trying to sleep during the day tomorrow.

I'm pretty much just killing time on here waiting for my boy to call me after work. He finishes at midnight and has to train it home, so I intend to provide a distraction from the monotony of the walk home from the station (totally altruistic I assure you). I don't want to get all the housekeeping over and done with in one hit as I've found I tend to get the figits around 4am, plus for my backs sake I'm better off spacing things out. I've done a bit already so now it's break time for a while. I've brought some dvd's as usual to help pass the time but for now its computerising. Tonights dvd's are 'looking for Alibrandi', 'Lilo and Stitch', 'Strictly Ballroom' and 'Bridget Jones's Diary'. I'll only watch 2 of them but I like to have a selection, because frequently the movies that look good at 9.30pm when I pack for the night are not what looks good at 3am. Think I'll start off with Alibrandi cos I havn't watched that in a while, then one of the more mindless funny ones in the wee hours of the morning. I never bring movies that require any measure of brain power on an active, cos by the time I'm ready to watch them its pretty much 'fire bad, tree pretty'.

Ahhh nice cool breeze coming through the window now... lovely!

Going to go potter round for a bit now, see what needs doing.

til next time, xo

The great bat migration

On sunday night Chris and I decided to try out one of the local hotels for dinner, and then hit the pokies for a bit until it stopped raining. Just as we were about to call it quits I scored a $30 win, probably my biggest til date mainly due to the fact that I very rarely play pokies and never use more than my spare change.

When we got home I noticed a couple of bats flying overhead. Most of my friends don't raise an eyebrow at them but we never got bats where I grew up (a mere 10minute drive from where I live now) so I tend to notice them. Anyway its fairly common to see them where I live now, but I've never seen more than one or prehaps two at a time, so when I saw two more fly over I started paying attention. Over the next few minutes at least 30 bats flew over, probably more than 50, all coming from the same direction. I don't know if they had been flushed out of some gardens or something, I live too far out for them to be from the botanical gardens, which regularly give the resident bat population their marching (flying?) orders. I didn't realise how big those beggers are, I've only ever seen them from a distance but some of them were flying pretty low right over us and they had a fairly impressive wingspan. Anyway to sum up it was pretty cool, wish I'd thought to grab my camera.

Bats, possums, cicadas... its amazing the difference 10minutes drive makes to the animal and bug population... weird considering I used to live further out from the city, you'd think out towards the Dandeenongs would have more wildlife. I actually saw an owl sitting on the phone wires over the driveway a week or so ago, never seen one in suburbia before. Shame that he flew off before I could get the camera, he was really cute.

til next time xo

I've decided to stay

Between not being able to blog at work, and non-members not being able to comment, I've decided not to move my blog after all. Still keeping that account, but just to keep in touch with friends

anyway the only thing I blogged about in myspace was the week in review, so heres a copy of that post:

Well, this is the first time I've actually had a chance to sit and type all week, so here's an update on whats bin going on...

My birthday celebrations kicked off last Saturday (10th) with the Evanescence concert. It was absolutly fantastic. Lead singer Amy Lee is every bit as incredible live as recorded, she has the most amazing voice, and also played piano, which was interesting when combined with bass that would jump start a flat liner. The songs were a great combination of ballads and rock, and they played pretty much the entire current album along with a few hits from 'fallen', such as 'tourniquet', 'going under', and of course, 'bring me to life'. The crowd was interesting, pretty much an anything goes kinda deal, with a smattering of goths and emo's (who I am not grouping together here, I know they are most definetly not the same deal), alongside the jeans and t-shirt crowd and the dressed up.

Sunday we went to the zoo, which was great fun, even though in the end most of my friends couldn't make it. The twighlight concert kinda sucked tho, in part because the sound system was decidedly crappy, but also because killing heidi just don't seem to be very good live.

On Monday (my actual birthday), I went up to mum's (Castlemaine) for the dayand we went to Dalesford together. We went to this cool little bakery that does all organic yeast-free stuff for lunch and I actually got a birthday cake for the first time in years... and it actually tasted GOOD! Then we went shopping for a pressie from my brother, and ended up getting a gorgeous hand-bag. Mum paid for my tatt and also got me an anklet, and Chris got me gorgeous red leather stilettos (not high ones, just a couple of inches if that). I also got a customised photo album from Nat that we're going to fill together, fluffy cuffs(!), cash and a JB giftcard.

Tuesday I met up with my oldest friend who I haven't seen in probably 10years, so that was interesting catching up. I've known this guy since before I can remember, so it was great to see him again, and we'll be sure not to go so long til the next time we see each other.

Wednesday was Valantines day. Chris and I were thinking of going for a day trip to sorrento or something, but in the end it was too hot and we couldn't be bothered. We both feel that it's just a hallmark holiday anyway and I'd rather do nice stuff on a random day, but I got a rose and a teddy and we went out for a nice dinner.

The rest of the week was pretty much just spent working, except for last night when Nat and I went to Cass and Daves for a game night. Haven't seen them in ages so that was great, got home just before 2am.

Anyway I'm sure I've missed stuff but that at least covers the good stuff, will probably add photos at some stage.

til next time!

dilemma

Well I know I said I was moving, but I can't access myspace from work. I'm not sure if its to do with security settings or if the site is just down, guess I'll check back and see if its consistently out. Anyway I'm really not sold on myspace yet, I got an account with them so that I could view a friends private blog, and then thought since I had a few friends over there might as well move so that it was easier to keep track of each others blogs. There are a few pros and cons to moving my blog, the main one is I'm not sure if people without a myspace account can leave comments, also there's the whole no work access thing, and then there's the simple fact of myspace being annoying with ads and things. Blogger is easier to use, and does everything I want it to, but myspace allows you to do more. Guess I'll wait and see how it goes, can't keep jumping between the two.

Moving on...

my blog is moving to myspace http://www.myspace.com/absolutnadie

Updates

Well, my tatt is now 5 days old and seems to be healing well, no sign of peeling yet. It was sensitive on the second day, giving me a twinge every now and then when I walked, especially when I first started walking after having my feet up for a while, but other than that hasn't really given me any problems. I've accidently knocked it a couple of times but it doesn't seem to have been damaged thankfully.

In other news, Chris has a cold which I seem to be coming down with, I'm a bit snuffly and my throat is hurting a bit. With my allergies that could be a coincidence but given that I have a big weekend coming up I'm not taking any chances and have been taking eaze-a-colds since Chris came down with it. They are just herbal stuff to boost the immune system so they can't do any damage if I'm not sick. I'm going to see how I'm feeling tomorrow and if I'm at all sick then I'm going to take my wed active night shift off, cos that could really leave me run down and give any lurgies a chance to take hold.

The other not so good news is that a small chip on my windscreen has turned into a massive crack, so I have been calling around windscreen repair places for quotes today and have a guy coming to my work tomorrow to repair it. Given that I want to go visit mum next week it really couldn't wait. I can get away with 10minute drives to work and back but there is no way I'm going on country highways with a cracked windscreen.

Ta daa!

Yep, I went through with it! [pause to allow anyone who fell off their chairs to pick themselves back up again] The tattoo artist had to change it slightly to get the detail to show, like spacing out the horns more and widening the cut under the wing, but other than that this is pretty much as I designed it.
This photo was taken 3 hours after getting it done, when I changed the bandage (ok, glad-wrap) for the first time. I have to change it again in the morning, and then it can come off tomorrow evening, and then for the next 10 days I need to rub cream into it regularly and avoid soaking it (so no baths or swimming).

The whole process was a lot less painful than I'd anticipated, apart from the occasional little pinch it didn't really hurt, although it was bleeding when it was finished. It stings a little like a very mild burn occasionally, and was tender when I washed it before changing the bandage, but I can't feel it at all now that its wrapped up again. I was also expecting it to look more icky at this stage, red or bruised or something. Maybe that will come out later. The skin around it was a bit pink when it was fresh, but it went down really quickly.

After we left the tattoo place, Chris and I went to visit Christina and Riley, who slept through most of the visit and was wearing the blue and white top that his nannie made for him. He woke up in time for a cuddle and had a bit of a whinge but cheered up in time to say a proper goodbye.