Absolut Nadie

Yes, I Cook.

2008-05-25T13:24:00.006+10:00

Yesterday I was lamenting the lack of any decent gluten free roti (Indian flat bread). I know there is a good range of gluten free products available these days, but if anyone knows where to get wraps that are free from gluten, dairy, eggs, yeast, and added sugar, which neither fall apart nor resemble card board in any way, well, I'd really like to hear from you.

Anyway back on track. So hear I was, wishing I had decent wraps to eat my aloo saag with, when I decided I would try to make some, so with no recipe and nothing in mind other then the notion that there couldn't be much to it, after all the base for roti is just flour and water right? So out came the gluten free plain flour, the sifter, and the mixing bowls. I started by combining flour and water until I had something the consistency of a good pancake mix (which turned out to be roughly half and half), then I added a bit of oil and salt and beat it all into submission, before cooking it like a pancake. The end result wasn't too bad, a little bland, but no more so then any of the options commercially available to me. The main thing was it held together well and was suitably pliable for the purpose of picking up curry.

Today I decided to give it another go, this time I replaced the oil with melted [dairy free] margarine, and I threw a handful of cumin seeds in the pan while it was heating up. Once they started popping I added them to the mix and started cooking. This time the end result was a bit thicker and stickier, but better tasting and still well suited to its intended purpose.

I intend to experiment further with this, I'd like to try it with different flours (chickpea for example), and also I'm going to try it with rice milk.

Whether or not I make this when I am also cooking the main meal (which I do from scratch) rather then just having leftovers will probably hinge on whether I have time to do it in advance, since [a] the stove can't accommodate that many pots and pans and [b] most Indian recipes require very close attention in the initial stages or the spices will burn.

Dollars and sense

2008-05-20T12:31:00.004+10:00

Ok so in all fairness I have tried to blog a couple of times and had my posts swallowed by the Internets, but mostly I just haven't felt like, or had time to, post. I've been sick, had a death in the family, all that fun stuff. Also had good stuff, like games nights, movies, an afternoon at fed square listening to the jazz festival, and a night out dancing to Frankie Wants Out at their first weekend gig in ages.

The latest news is that I put my car in for a service and repairs yesterday, and found out today that she could cost in the area of $2500, and will take a week. The work is badly needed, and she's otherwise a good car which once fixed up should last me a good long while. The head gasket has been leaking for a while, which I knew I would eventually have to get fixed but had hoped it would last until I was ready to get a new car. There are some other problems, which the mechanic will suss out and fix up as he comes across them when he rips the engine out. I had to get her in for repairs quickly because in addition to getting more sluggish lately I also had a 100km drop per tank in fuel efficiency between one tank full and the next, despite brand new tyres. We are talking about a small tank so that's a very significant amount. At least my mechanic knows I'm not overly wealthy and has said he will absorb costs where he can.

After Chris and I dropped the car off yesterday we caught a bus to Knox to do some much needed clothes shopping, and I also bought a wheelie suitcase which I need for going to sunny Queensland next month. Thankfully we managed to get a quite good one which should last years, on sale for $80 (loose change compared to other prices we'd seen). After we got home I went to wash the jeans we'd bought (2 pairs each @$100 for 2), only to discover that they had given me 2 pairs the same instead of the 2 different pairs I'd tried on. A shop assistant had gotten me a pair from out the back as my size wasn't on the shelf, and as I'd tried on a different colourway of the same cut I didn't try them on. The woman had gotten me the wrong pair. We caught the bus back to Knox, exchanged the offending pair of jeans, and decided to see what was on at the movies. We ended up seeing 'Iron Man', which was quite good, different from your average comic book movie, then caught a late bus home. Obviously we are going to have to watch the expenses for a while, but apart from the movie we didn't buy anything we didn't need. At least our holiday shouldn't cost excessively much as far as such things go.

That's it for now

x

Canasta in the Dark

2008-03-30T14:52:00.002+11:00

Doesn't have quite the same ring to it as murder in the dark does it?

8pm to 9pm last night was Earth Hour, a global event in which households and businesses in cities around the world turned off their lights for one hour to conserve energy. This was the 2nd annual Earth Hour, and the first to take it to a global level.

Last night also happened to be our turn to host games night, and so by 8pm Chris, Nat, Brett, Cass, Dave and I were gathered around the dining table playing canasta by candlelight. How romantic! We also played crazy eights once the lights went back on, which is essentially uno but with regular playing cards. A fun night all round with lots of laughs.

I had a little trouble in tinting class...

2008-03-23T20:34:00.005+11:00

This year I decided to celebrate Easter by dressing up as an egg...

Well no, not really. Its actually for the Leukaemia Foundations World's Greatest Shave. Yes, I know I could have just sprayed it purple for the day, but what would be the fun in that? I used fudge 'raspberry beret' on top, and wakk 'purple' underneath. The colour in the photo isn't quite accurate, the top colour is slightly more purplish, but you get the idea :) Both colours are designed to last 20-30 washes, although I know from seeing it on other people that it will tone down a lot in the next couple of weeks. To get the colour this bright I first had to bleach it, which took alot out of my hair so I gave it a couple of weeks to recover, with the result that my roots had a chance to grow out, but I'm happy with the result.

I did the dying on my own, as Fi wasn't able to make it. This meant parting my hair horizontally across the back of my head, which takes some doing, - I ended up hanging a small mirror over the door opposite the bathroom mirror so that I could see the back of my head, and even then there was much trial and error, - whacking the top section in a pony tail and covering it with glad wrap while I dyed the bottom, and then once the bottom half was done and washed out, repeating the process with the top section. Fairly time consuming, but well worth it I think.

If you would like to sponsor me it's not too late, visit my shave page, or bpay biller code 939488, ref 20198156. Please let me know in comments or email if you donate via bpay so that I can include it in my totals, and let me know if you want me to send you a receipt.

Have a safe and happy Easter everyone!

Extra - just because the [American] spell checker is having conniptions - colour colour colour colour colour. Just as well I used glad wrap and not aluminium! hehe.
I'm sorry, I'm in a cheeky mood. Fiery even.

Update

2008-03-15T15:25:00.003+11:00

As my hair and scalp are still recovering from bleaching, my stylist [i.e. Fi] and I have decided to push back the colouring date a week, so at this stage its looking like being next Saturday.

Yesterday was spent doing all those little things that pile up; the day started off with getting the car checked at 9.30am, then cleaning, mopping, washing, picking up a ring that I had resized, shopping, lunch, canceling gym membership, and bringing in the washing off the line, and then a cold shower to recover from doing all this on a 40C day. Then I picked up the boy from uni and we went to see Fi. We drove the less then a k down to the shops (see above comment on the weather), checked out the bead shop and a few other places, stopped at a cafe for cold drink and I had a yum gluten, egg and dairy-free yo yo biscuit (not sure on the sugar content but no adverse effects). Then hit some more shops, dropped Fi back and headed home to have dinner and fall in a heap.

Today I worked 7am- 3pm, just got home and am picking the boy up from work in just over an hour, then tonight we have games night at Nat's place.

Thats it for now,

Nadie

NOT HAPPY JAN!

2008-03-13T17:15:00.002+11:00

I discovered today that some [insert obscenity here] has done a hit and run on me when the car has been left parked. The passenger side of my bumper dented, thoroughly scuffed and scratched, and is hanging loose. My car is built like a tank so it would have taken a fair amount of force to do that kind of damage, there is no possible way that the person responsible couldn't have noticed or that their car got off undamaged. So now I'm stuck with a demerit point. Mum has kindly offered to pick up the $500 excess, for which I am very grateful, but I'm feeling very dejected and unimpressed with the human animal at the moment. Originally I thought it must have happened in a shopping centre carpark, but the thought occurred that it may have happened when the boy borrowed it for uni, which at least gives me specific time and place to hunt up security footage. I'm taking her for a quote tomorrow morning.

BTW for any overseas visitors who don't get the reference in the title of this post, the phrase originated in a phone directory ad and quickly became a popular Aussie colloquialism. Not sure if its used anywhere else. Probably not.

Last call for sponsorship!

2008-03-11T19:29:00.005+11:00

You'll have to excuse me for not posting, I seem to have suffered from an attack of blondness.

It's almost time for the world's greatest shave; come Friday I will be colouring my hair bright purple to raise money for leukaemia. To sponsor me, or to find out more about the event please follow the link in the side bar. Apparently some people have had trouble with the site accepting donations, so please let me know in the comments if you want to sponsor me and can't. Thanks!

Sums it up

2008-03-10T23:21:00.000+11:00

Meet Buster

2008-03-03T12:18:00.004+11:00

I mentioned a while ago that Kylie, one of the ladies who does night shift at work, cares for orphaned wildlife. This is one of her current charges, Buster. Buster is a male grey kangaroo joey, and cute as anything. We had a nice cuddle the other night during handover. Kylie is planning on keeping him.

Hang in there

2008-02-26T20:49:00.004+11:00

Ms Rosie is not a well girl. In fact she is so not well that the vet is amazed that she is still with us. She is slowly getting better day by day, but it will be a long time before she is really out of the woods.

Some people seem to have difficulty with the notion of nursing "livestock" back to health and spending large amounts on vet bills, but Rosie is a much loved pet, not livestock, and part of a family that takes pet ownership very seriously. She may not be allowed in the house, but that does not make her any less part of the family then the feline occupants.

Get well soon Rosie.

A mad month in bullet points

2008-02-22T20:54:00.008+11:00

Ok yes I know I haven't been blogging, February has been absolutely mad, on those rare occasions when I've had a spare minute to scratch myself ('scuse me), I've been more inclined to fall over than to blog. I'll go over the highlights in more detail later (promise!) but for now here are the highlights.

Sunday 3rd - Gay Pride March. I was called up on Saturday night and informed that I was going to the pride march in St Kilda, so I met up with Ross, Fi and Rach in the city, and we found ourselves a good spot on a balcony to watch the parade, before heading down to the gardens for the after-madness.
Saturday 9th - My birthday party at Witches in Britches theater restaurant. Fi stayed over the night before and we took 5 hours getting ready. Everyone got into the spirit, dressing up witchy-goth. An awesome night.
Monday 11th - Met up with Chris' folks, down from Townsville, QLD, and his aunt and uncle from England. Went on Puffing Billy (tourist trap old steam train) for the first time (only grew up 10mins away from the foothills).
Tuesday 12th - My 26th birthday. Chris got us a king corner suit on the 41st floor of the Sofitel Melbourne (swanky!), and we spent the day exploring our fair city. We had a lovely dinner at Cafe La, the hotel resturant, and a complimentary cocktail each, normally $18 a pop, at the fancy bar, because they'd kept us waiting 2 minutes when we checked in.
Wednesday 13th - After breakkie at the hotel restaurant, we met up with Chris' rellos by the yarra and went for a cruise to Williamstown for the day.
Thursday 14th - Valentines Day - Went for a pleasant drive in the Dandenongs. Watched a pair of Wedge- Tailed eagles circling while having coffee on the veranda of a nice cafe. Saw 'Juno' at Knox cinemas then had a nice dinner at Kazanna Indian restaurant.
Saturday 16th - Sat with Dave while mum went to the Opera, mum and Dave stayed the night.
Sunday 17th - Left with Fi for Wilsons Promontory, stopped at Loch for lunch and stopped in to say hi to an old friend. Ross met us at the Prom.
Monday 18th / Tuesday 19th - Enjoyed the pristine beaches, scenery and wildlife of the prom.
Wednesday 20th - Got rained out, packed up and headed home.
Thursday 21st - Discovered the stone had come out of my nose ring and went to get it changed. My piercer was on holidays so had to go to someone else who did a botch job and made it bleed, and who seems to have given me a ring designed for the other nostril. Not happy.
Friday 22nd - Back to work. Boooo! Went to visit nonna and my uncle after work, came home and cooked my famous (in the world according to Chris) aloo saag and aloo gobi (Indian veg dishes that, in the way of Indian food, taste A LOT better then they look)
Saturday 23rd - Games night in Pakenham.
Sunday 24th / Monday 25th - Most likely going up to mum's in Castlemaine to help out with ailing goat.

Detailed posts soon, with photos. We've gone over our download limit for this month so it'll have to wait until the speed picks up again.

Goodie

2008-01-22T18:29:00.001+11:00

Torchwood's started up again!

First ep guest stars James Marsters. Yum. Looks like he's set to return in at least one more episode to.

Looks like it could be a good season from the teaser trailers.

Shave for a Cure

2008-01-14T17:52:00.000+11:00

I'd like to take a moment to talk to you about something serious.

After many years of saying I'm going to do it, but leaving it to late, I am finally taking part in the World's Greatest Shave, an annual event to raise money for leukaemia, lymphoma and related conditions. While I have not had much experience with these particular types of cancer, I know how devastating they can be for those affected. Cancer is a very personal issue for me, and I'll do what I can to help find a cure. My hope is that advances towards a cure for specific types may help advance the cause for others.

Money raised will directly help patients and their families, as well as fund research for better treatments and cures, so please dig deep. You can sponsor me online at my shave page, and also see before and after photos, leave comments, etc. I know some of you may have misgivings about making donations online but please rest assured that it is a very secure, professional site. I'll put the link in the side bar as well so that you won't have to dig up this post if you get back to it later.

The event itself runs from the 13th to the 15th of March, so please donate before then. If you can't spare much, that's OK, but remember every little bit helps.

Thank you.

Swing in the City

2008-01-14T13:59:00.000+11:00

Don't you just love those spur of the moment things? Yesterday I was out shopping when Ross called to ask if I wanted to go see a band in Fitzroy, so Fi, Ross and I met up at Parliament station and headed down to Fitzroy gardens armed with picnic blanket, drinks and nibblies. The afternoon started off with live music until 7pm, which was followed up by a swing dance class on the grass. At 7.30 things really heated up with awesome Melbourne 9 piece swing band 'Frankie Wants Out' [check out their myspace for music samples]. Frenzied dancing ensued, to the point where my calves are still offering half-hearted protests (they aren't fooling anyone). They played until 9.30pm, and Ross and I covertly bought cd's [the organisers weren't allowing sales as it was a free event], then the three of us returned to our picnic blanket to recuperate and reflect for a little while before making our ways to our respective ends of the city.

Peace offering

2008-01-12T12:34:00.000+11:00

I know, I know. I haven't blogged in ages. I would have on my night shift, except Internet access has now been restricted at work (boooo!). The rest of the time I've either been busy, or its been far to hot to be bothered, we've had several days over 40C, and one night where it didn't get below 30C. New Years eve got to a scorching 42C, and was spent with friends in and out of the blow up 3m x 1.8m pool that I got for Christmas, and have now been told nicely by the local council that I can't have without a pool fence.

A few things worth blogging about have happened while I've been slack: New Years, Games nights, BBQ's, but the moments have passed now, so instead you get what I did last night, which was last minute babysitting of my nephew Riley, so that mum and dadada could go to the movies.

Master Riley was very good apart from grizzles around nap time, and we had lots of good play time. He has hundreds of toys, so naturally he spent large periods of time playing with his remote (no batteries) and a can of coke. He also seemed fascinated by Chris.

Bit late, but...

2007-12-27T01:25:00.000+11:00

Most Christmas songs are woefully innappropriate to an Aussie Chrissy. Visions of a white christmas, frosty the snowman and sleighs are hardly helpfull when you're in front of the fan trying your best not to melt. So here's one of the better Australian adaptations. If I'd thought about it, I could have posted them regularly in the lead up to Christmas. But I didn't. So there.

This is my 100th post for the year. Woohoo I made it. Just.

Jingle bells

Dashing through the bush,
in a rusty Holden Ute,
Kelpie by my side,
esky in the boot,
kookaburra flies ahead,
laughing all along,
Oh what fun to drive and sing
an Aussie Christmas song!

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

Engine's getting hot;
we dodge the kangaroos,
The swaggie climbs aboard,
he is welcome too.
All the family's there,
sitting by the pool,
Christmas Day the Aussie way,
by the barbecue.

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

Come the afternoon,
Grandpa has a doze,
The kids and Uncle Bruce,
are swimming in their clothes.
The time comes 'round to go,
we take the family snap,
Pack the car and all shoot through,
before the washing up.

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

Merry Debriefing

2007-12-27T00:40:00.000+11:00

Wishing everyone a belated Merry Christmas, Happy holidays, all that stuff.

I worked Christmas Day, and am currently on night shift which started on Boxing day, so not happy holidays for me yet. I've taken a week off starting tomorrow - thank (ahem) Christ! A month of extra night shifts is really taking its toll. The money's been good, but I'm not sure if it's really worth it, although some of the shifts I swapped out of were apparently quite chaotic. One of the clients inparticular has been very unsettled in the lead up to Christmas, and has attempted numerous assaults on both staff and clients. I spent Christmas evening keeping her away from a client she was targeting, and an hour ago she got out of bed and tried to attack that same client in her bed (purely and simply because she is an easy target). Thankfully I was able to stop her in time and got hit about the arms and legs instead. Nothing serious, but I'm really over working with these behaviours. I know staff are not supposed to put ourselves in danger, but I'll be damned if I'm about to let a defenseless lady get attacked in her own bed. This is the first night shift that I've had an incident, usually its the afternoon/evening shift (when I usually work most) that gets most of the problems. The difference is that during the day there are two staff on to deal with this stuff.

If I don't get the job that I'm applying for then I'm going to request a transfer. This house is dragging me down. I have lifelong experience with disability and challenging behaviours, but its the malicious intent behind it from this particular client that gets to me. I can forgive anything from a client who lashes out because of frustration and not knowing how to deal with things, but planned assault is a very different thing.

Sorry to whinge. This is not my favourite time of year as a general rule, and I guess I've been letting things get to me. I actually dealt really well with the rubbish on Christmas day, and before work had fun with my year old nephew at the family dinner, so its not all bad. Just feeling the need to debrief at the moment.

New Years should be good. Having a few mates around at my place, and I've going to get the inflatable pool set up, since it's supposed to be a scorcher. Maybe even get the BBQ going. Won't need to light it, with forecast temps of 38C should be able to just chuck the meat on and let it sizzle.

Have a good one!

Storms, Parties, and an Opportunity

2007-12-23T04:01:00.000+11:00

It's 4am. Isn't that exciting? You're right. It isn't. Moving on.

The last couple of days have been absolutely crazy, for reasons that have very little to do with it being 2 days before Christmas (counting now as being Sunday morning rather than Sat night and not counting the day itself). The weather has been off the charts. Thursday saw flash flooding, two trams struck by lightning, and most of the train lines out of action. Friday dawned deceptively bright and sunny before the storm clouds returned bringing rain and gale force winds into the night, which continued Saturday. The temperature, meanwhile, only just dropped below summer scorcher levels on Saturday, so you can imagine how muggy it was Thurs and Friday. The rain is supposed to ease off Monday in time for a fine and sunny Christmas day.

Thursday was Rileys 1st birthday, and he had a party at the Standford Hotel, which had a great play area for all the kiddies, complete with face painting. Thankfully the storms had eased off by then so getting there wasn't a hassle. Riley slept through most of his party, but he loved his pressie from me (a singing Elmo toy) and I got a lovely giggly goodbye cuddle.

Friday Chris and I had planned what was supposed to be a Christmas BBQ for our friends. It's just as well our place is all decked out for Christmas since we were stuck inside. Chris manned the grill (thank you baby!), and we had one of those electric fat free grills going as well to cope with the truck load of meat I'd bought. Mum and Dave were also round for dinner on the way back to Castlemaine after visiting Riley for his birthday, as they hadn't been able to come down for his party. It was a good night all in all, apart from the odd spat, and I think everyone liked their pressies. I scored a board game ('Taboo'), and an inflatable pool, which will come in handy when the weather returns to normal.

[Insert segue here. It's night shift so you'll get what you're given and just be greatful that it's more or less coherent.]

I've just finished updating my resume so I can apply for a new job as a community development worker. The position is still within the same company, but a different department. The job deals with advocacy and community inclusion for people with disabilities, and sounds a great deal more rewarding then where I am now. The role is only 3 days a week, so if I got the job I would have to either still work where I am now with reduced hours, or join the casual pool on the side, but if I found I enjoyed the role I could then work towards increasing my hours. I know 4am is not the best time to be working on job applications. I'm leaving the cover letter alone for now, and will go over the resume again at a later stage, just getting started. Even without having ever worked in that specific role I still meet all the selection criteria without any embellishment, and Yooralla seems to prefer hiring from within its own ranks, so I'm feeling pretty positive about my chances. Wish me luck!

How to waste an hour on the Internets

2007-12-22T22:57:00.000+11:00

$4790.00

70%LUSH
35% Geek

244 WATTS

51%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Whoops

2007-12-16T02:10:00.000+11:00

I've just accidentally made potato gems. They were supposed to be scones, but I must not have used enough flour.

Still quite nice, made with chives from the garden, just not what I was going for. They are really crunchy on the outside and very moist inside. I made them at work for savory afternoon snacks but I think they will go well with tomorrows roast dinner.

My insomnia has been kicking in big time the last few days. Last night I didn't get to sleep until about 5am, after going to bed at 11, and once I finally got to sleep it wasn't particularly restful. I did manage to have an afternoon nap today though, which just shows how tired I was because I hardly ever manage to fall asleep if I lie down for a nap. The good thing to come out of this is that my body hasn't realised yet that I'm on night shift, although it is only 2.15, and 3-4am is the real test.

It's going to be a pretty busy week. I finish at 9am in the morning, then go home to sleep for the day (after a night shift is the only time I go right to sleep). Chris finishes work at 4pm, which is about when I should be getting up, and then we are heading to Castlemaine (he's driving) to see mum for her birthday, coming home Tuesday lunchtime to work Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. Thursday is my nephew Riley's first birthday, he's having a party that evening, and Friday Chris and I are having a Christmas BBQ at our place. Somewhere between all that we have to fit in a trip to the shops to get a couple of last minute pressies and stuff for the BBQ. Then I'm working night shift again Saturday and Sunday, recuperating Monday (Christmas Eve) and working Christmas afternoon and Boxing Day night shift.

I've taken a week off work after Boxing Day. I think I may need it.

For the cat people

2007-12-14T16:52:00.000+11:00

I think anyone who has ever owned a cat will appreciate this

Out and About

2007-12-13T00:24:00.000+11:00

It's been a pretty good day today. Yesterday, technically, since it's now tomorrow. Nothing overly exciting, shopping and stuff, but a nice relaxing day with good company.

Chris and I were heading towards the foothills for a spot of shopping so we did a loop, bought some special mugs at an Asian grocers in Knoxfield to replace some that had broken, checked out a cafe in Boronia that specialises in allergen free foods, and went on to Ferntree gully to look for a shop, which we didn't find but we enjoyed browsing and it was a nice day to be walking around. We then stopped off at Bunnings in Scoresby on the way home, and after a fair bit of browsing bought a trough, seedlings and potting mix for a herb garden, some camping chairs, citronella torches, a pedestal fan, and Chris priced some woodworking gear. Once we got home I cooked roast veges and salmon steaks with tamari for dinner, and got the herb garden set up, and Chris put the fan together. Put my feet up for an hour, and then headed off to work for my night shift.

Tomorrow I plan to fall in a heap.

Rules of Christmas decorating

2007-12-12T23:31:00.000+11:00

It's probably important to note when contemplating my Christmas decorating that I grew up in this woman's house. While my Christmas collection has a way to go before it can even contemplate thinking about the possibility of the thought of competing with hers crossing its mind, growing up with her has resulted in several rules of Christmas decorating being thoroughly ingrained from an early age.

Rule #1 - Christmas decorations go up on the first of December and go down on the 6th of January. There is leeway allowed for Christmas parties, stinking hot lazy days and decor that takes more than a day to get sorted.

Rule #2 - Christmas decorating is like a party - once the decoration numbers have increased they will spread out to fill the house, but when the party is just getting started they should mainly congregate in one room for maximum effect.

Rule #3 - Blue is not a Christmas colour, although sometimes exceptions can be made.

Rule #4 - Collections should be grouped together, be they Santa's, teddies, cats, etc. They all like to hang out.

Rule #5 - If it sits still long enough, tie a bow on it. Or loop a tree decoration over it. Either way. Anything can be Christmassed up.

Rule #6 - Although you can get away with more during the silly season then you might the rest of the year, there is a line between festive and tacky that should not be crossed. If you want to know where this line is, visit an Indian restaurant.

Christmas photos pt 1

2007-12-11T14:19:00.000+11:00

Since blogger is currently co-operating with photos, Its finally time to get some Christmas photos up. Since I have yet to collect a large stash of decorations, I have pretty much stuck to decorating the lounge room for now.
I've gone with the silver tree again, still standing despite the cats best efforts, swags, and assorted collections.
Here we have the little tree on the coffee table, decorated by the boy.The start of a Santa collection. I generally don't do blue for Christmas, but he was the boys Kris-Kringle last year, and I need three to call it a collection.

Another collection, this time of stuffed toys decked out with bows, hats, and Chris-moose has his own scarf.
more photos soon, for now I have to go to work

Shoesday - Christmas Edition

2007-12-11T14:05:00.001+11:00

In celebration of the silly season, I bring you a special Christmas edition of Shoesday. I present to you a Christmas shoe wreath! It might need a bit of glue before you try sticking this on your door.I bought these while I was up in Townsville during winter, and the tropical climate necessitated the purchase of Summer footwear. They had a 2nd pair half price deal on, so since I liked both colours, I took them up on it.
The cords on these shoes are so long that, if one is so inclined, they can be tied almost to the knees. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go see an ancient Greek about a chariot.

Never buy a maths major a rubiks cube

2007-12-09T00:29:00.000+11:00

I bought Chris a rubiks cube about a week ago, he has since solved it 3 or 4 times and won't leave it alone until he figures out the exact formula to solve it, not just how but why it works.
Never buy a maths major a rubiks cube. You'll lose him to it.

Chris has his own blog! He has only posted twice in 3 months, and may never post again, but he has a good writing style and I at least found it amusing, and have been encouraging him to post more regularly. Maybe if you ask sweetly he'll even tell you the story behind the toffee apples.

Christmas bells are ringing...

2007-12-08T22:35:00.000+11:00

The Christmas decorations are up, have been duly photographed, and blogger is dutifully refusing to upload them, so you'll just have to wait. Ner.

The cats have been outdoing themselves in their assaults on the Christmas tree, regularly pulling bits of the silver chain down and a few decorations a day. We were woken up this morning by a loud game of Christmas bauble soccer which ranged all over the house and ended abruptly when the "ball" was confiscated. They have a lot to live up to; better not tell them that, in his youth, their uncle Oakley used to bring the whole tree down by launching himself at it from the nearest armchair, or that miss Sophie would climb to the top of the tree dislodging ornaments as she went until none remained.

In other news, Fi, Nat and I went to see Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical on Wednesday night. Ross was, unfortunately, not able to make it as his rehearsal went overtime. It was a great night, and great to be doing something different with the girls. We had great seats, close enough to spot the fluttering of a beaded lash. The show kept to the general storyline, but changed enough to keep you paying attention. They kept most of the best lines, and added a few comedic elements, lines and a lot of songs. Some changes seemed fairly pointless, for example The 'ABBA' obsession was replaced by Kylie (possibly a song rights issue), others were pretty good. The entire cast was brilliant, as were the costumes. Micheal Caton had only to walk on stage to get applause, and while you might not, at first, recognise the rest of the cast, they all had impressive resumes.

We all left with souvenirs; we all got a program, a handful of confetti which we were showered with as the three drag queens left Sydney, and ping pong balls, which were launched into the audience at the end of that scene - yes, they included it, and it was very well executed! The ping pong balls are bright pink and emblazoned with the words 'FOR EXTERNAL USE ONLY', and the silhouette of that shot from the movie when they climb Kings canyon [as Queens]; the one that's on the cover of the DVD. I also got a fitted white t-shirt, Nat got a shot glass and Fi got a cap.

Thursday was the boy's birthday. He had to work during the day but we went out for a nice dinner at an Indian resturant. We were going to go for a walk afterwards but fell in a heap instead.

Earth Dragon

2007-11-26T13:59:00.000+11:00

This is something I sketched the other week. I think it has potential if I clean it up a bit. The Earth dragon concept is hardly original, but this is just my own take on it.

No Wonder!

2007-11-24T10:21:00.000+11:00

I bought some rescue remedy earlier in the month, it was what mum used to give me if I was a bit shocky. Anyway I decided it would be a good thing to have around, especially in case my piercing comes out again, since last time I got quite queasy when I couldn't get it back in.

So whats the secret behind this calming solution? Well, its made up of extracts of different flowers in a grape alcohol base. Wait a minute. Flowers and grape alcohol? That sounds familiar. It even tastes like red wine. No wonder its supposed to 'help you cope with life's ups and downs'

So it turns out alcohol really is the solution to all life's problems.

Shoesday

2007-11-20T13:33:00.000+11:00

At work we have to wear shoes with a closed toe and heel, so last summer I had to go out hunting for a pair that was suitable, but that would be alright in warmer weather. When I found this pair I fell in love with them, they are a beautiful soft leather and I really like shoes that lace up around the ankles. they also have nice detailing on the toes. The fact that I needed them for work, and that they were therefore tax deductible made these a great guilt-free purchase.

Sorry that the photos are a bit dark, it's a stinking hot day so all the blinds are closed, but they don't show up well with the flash.

Sketches #2 - dragons

2007-11-15T19:12:00.000+11:00

I have always been fascinated by dragons, and have been drawing them from quite an early age. I draw my own particular breed of dragon, they are peaceful like Eastern dragons, and often sport an Eastern-influenced beard. Physically they mostly resemble the malevolent beasts of Western mythology in terms of being generally four legged with bat-like wings, horns and a bony ridge over the eyes.

Theses sketches are roughly in order of age, from oldest to most recent. They are all completely original apart from the first, which was based on a figurine. I recently came across this tattoo design that was clearly based on the same collectible (either that or someone plagiarized mine from my obscure early website - doubtful).

The top view of the dragon in flight was the starting point for my main assessment for year 12 studio arts in 2000. The finished version is in storage so I can't show you that. The close up of the head and neck was made into a lino stamp as a minor piece for the same class.

The pen drawing of the head and arms was to be a full sized serpentine dragon going down the corridor at my last workplace. When I left the head and first couple of sections had been cut out of balsa wood, I don't know if they ever finished it.

I also designed my dragon tattoo, which I got done in February.

Click on the images to see them larger.

Sketches #1 - Cats

2007-11-14T23:33:00.000+11:00

I've just bought myself a sketchbook with the intention of starting drawing again, so I thought I'd get things started by posting some of my old sketches that live on the computer.

This is an A4 sketch of my old cat Smokey, probably dates back to around 2000.
The other two were based on illustrations in a book, and are both on post-it sized bits of paper.

Gratuitous cat photos

2007-11-13T13:13:00.000+11:00

My cats are, lets face it, odd.

Suki puss is often to be found lying flat on her back. Its no use telling her that it isn't ladylike, she'll just poke her tongue out and tell you that it isn't her fault that she isn't a lady anymore, she wasn't given much say in the matter. Its just as well she has such a cute spotty belly, which is a much healthier size since earlier in the year when she was sick and lost an alarming amount of weight. If anything she's getting tubby now.

What happens when you do a spot of spring cleaning? well naturally the feline members of the household must examine newly cleared nooks and crannies, and reassert their hold over the de-fluffed areas.

Shoesday

2007-11-13T13:05:00.000+11:00

This is probably my favourite pair of heels, Chris bought them for my birthday last year. A few of my favourite pairs of shoes happen to be red. Funny that.

Wedding Bells

2007-11-05T15:27:00.001+11:00

Saturday was the big day for Cass and Dave, and it went beautifully. The weather cleared for a day and the rain started up again once we were all safely inside the reception hall. Cass and Dave have to be one of the best couples I know, and I am really glad they found each other.

In the bridal party we have Nat, Nadine, the lovely Bret, and I cant remember the second groomsman's name.

The reception could have doubled as Cass and my 7 year high school reunion, given that there were two tables of our year level, plus Ross who was a year below. Most of the time the GWSC group were the only ones on the dance floor as well. It was great to go to a wedding with friends (previously I had only been to family weddings and an older family friends second wedding), and to catch up with some of the people I haven't seen since high school.

No rest for the wicked

2007-11-02T11:15:00.000+11:00

Despite being sick this has been a pretty busy week, there hasn't been much happening which allowed for things that had been building up to be taken care of.

Tuesday was spring cleaning day, in between little rests Chris and I got a fair bit of cleaning and reorganising done. Not the most fun, but very necessary. Still some things to finish off as I banged my finger and had to take some time out with an ice pack, but no lasting harm done, now I just need to get around to cleaning the bathroom. I meant to make a shoesday post, but didn't have a photo ready and got sidetracked from taking one. It takes a lot of trial and error to take a decent photo of your own feet.

Wednesday Chris and I went shopping at Knox, where among other things Chris got a nice shirt and suit jacket for Cass and Dave's wedding, and I got some sneakers which I need to return as they arn't comfortable (never buy expensive shoes at the end of a long day on your feet). While we were having coffee I also found Village cinema vouchers and a forgotten JB gift card in my bag. As JB is directly opposite the cinemas, we bought movie tickets then browsed while waiting for the movie to start. I bought the complete season of Firefly, and Muppet treasure island, which is easily the best muppet movie. We then saw 'Death at a funeral', which was frankly painful to watch, and did the grocery shopping before heading home around 10pm.

On Thursday I dropped chris off at work then headed to the Glen to get a long overdue haircut. I have a tendancy to put off getting my hair cut because I don't trust anyone to do a good job. The hairdresser I got left a lot to be desired, she was way to casual about hacking into my hair. I'm certain my hair length isn't even remotely even, as she didn't even check, and she took more off than I would have liked, however it seems to be sitting ok and it probably needed the extra length off. After the cut I did a few errands around the shops, and bought some clothes. I need to return a skirt I bought as a seam is already coming undone, and I need to get some money back from another store as I got charged seperately for two shirts that were supposed to be 2 for $x. This evening I'm going to go to Knox to exchange the shoes and I'm going to try to sort the other stuff there as both chains are at Knox as well.

Cass and Dave's wedding is tomorrow afternoon, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the weather is good. Melbourne weather is unpredictable at the best of times and during Spring all bets are off. Its supposed to be a garden wedding, to be moved indoors if its raining.

Road Trippin'

2007-10-29T17:57:00.000+11:00

On Saturday Fi and I went for a therapeutic day trip to Castlemaine. We set off armed with an MP3 disk full of musicals, and headed up, stopping briefly at Malmsbury to show Fi the old rail bridge there (still in use, as shown by the photo taken on a previous visit). I thought Fi would like it given her appreciation of old architecture and stonework.

Once we got in to Castlemaine we went to Saff's cafe for a nice lunch in the garden then headed over to mum's, where Fi spent some quality time with Caramel, her cat whom mum adopted when Fi had to find a new home for her, and also met the kids, now 5 [I stand corrected - 7] weeks old and getting really big.

After getting Fi acquainted with mum's livestock, we headed across the block to check out the new arrivals next door, a Shetland pony mare and foal, and also introduced Fi to billy Blackadder , Ruby and Rowans father [pictured]; heavily pregnant doe Nelly; and India and Scarlett, last years goatlets.

When Fi had had enough we headed back onto mum's block, and spotted these two fly-ins by the dam, dubbed Fred and George by mum. Apparently they have been visiting mum quite regularly.

Once we got back to the house Fi gave Ruby her bottle, and we spent some time relaxing in the sun and taking in the country air and view before heading home. The trip home was spent singing along with Chicago, Rent, and The Producers. Nice to have people around who are nuts about the same stuff. I dropped Fi back and hung around until it was time to pick Chris up from work, then headed home where the cold that had been looming all day came out in force, and I've been forced into taking it easy since then. My head was far to fuzzy to post yesterday, and is still pretty bad to tell you the truth, so you'll have to excuse me if this isn't the most eloquent post.

til next time
xo

Hair!

2007-10-21T12:21:00.000+10:00

First off a big thankyou to everyone who commented on the last post, and if you still haven't delurked, remember your comments are always appreciated!

Now its time for updated hair pics. Fi and I decided to go over it again as it didn't come out as well as we'd hoped the first time. I'm really happy with it now and have decided not to dye over it after all (at least not for a while).

ETA: Add to the new hair a new bit of shrapnel through my left [hand side, so right from your perspective] nostril, actually the same piece of shrapnel from a few months ago which came out after 6 weeks and has just been reinserted. Can I just say owie owie yowch eeeeeeeeiiiii?!?!? I was warned that it would hurt more this time because of the scar tissue as I wanted it in the same spot, and well, it did.

The Centennial post!

2007-10-19T10:51:00.000+10:00

Well, here it is, just shy of my 1st anniversary on blogger, my hundredth post.

This is another one of those 'haven't-had-time-for-a-long-post-in-a-while-so-time-to-play-catch-up' posts. Stick around though, I'll have a dig around and find something good to end on.

Sooooo lets see, what have I been up to lately? *racks brain*. I've been spending a lot of time just hanging out with Fi lately because she was staying with her parents who live around the corner from me for a couple of weeks, so we've been making the most of it before her parents move. On Sunday Fi came over in the afternoon for a BBQ, we spent the afternoon sitting out in the sun, then I dropped her back at her parents place and went to babysit my beautiful nephew Riley while Steve and Christina went to a concert. Riley is now 10 months old and scooting all over the place. He's a cheeky little giggle-pot so we had fun. He had a nap for about 2 hours before his dinner then stayed up til Steve and Chris got home at midnight, so hopefully they will have gotten a bit of a sleep in.

On Monday night Fi called me very distressed after getting some bad news and needed to be with friends, I was busy at the time so Ross went round to her place and I met them there and we all went back to my place and got exceptionally drunk. I have discovered V (guarana) and vodka. Whoa. Makes for a good night as long as you don't plan on getting much sleep. We spent most of the night outside sitting at the table, lying on the grass, and generally mucking around. We went to bed around 3.30am. Tuesday was spent recovering.

One of the good things that came out of Monday night was that before we got too drunk we managed to work out when we are seeing the Priscilla: Queen of the Desert musical and got tickets. Now I just hope everyone coughs up the money soon since I'm about $470 out of pocket.

On Wednesday Fi and I had a girly day. We met at the shops to get hair stuff, then back to my place to bleach my hair. We used a tipping cap with the result that my hair is now multicoloured brown, blond, and a coppery ginger. My hair was still a bit damp in the photo so its not really true to colour but it gives you an idea. I was a bit nervous about overdoing it as I've never used peroxide before and was weary of my hair going brittle so we didn't leave it in as long as we could have. I am going to go over it with deep red, but might stay like this for a few days first. I go burgundy from time to time but on my dark hair it really only shows up as a tint, now it should be really vivid. As I've never bleached before this also serves as a test for 'Shave for a Cure', which involves either shaving or colouring your hair to raise money for cancer. I'm planning on doing it next year. My hair has coped fine with the bleach so now I know I can do it again and dye a really out-there colour over the top. I would only shave if I raised a huge amount of money, since my hair grows quite slowly.

Now, in celebration of my hundredth post, I want you all to delurk! If I go by my comments I only have 3 regular readers plus the odd drop in. I know I get more views then that, so leave a comment!

I will leave you with some semi random photos: me with the goats on my last visit to mums, Suki playing in her tunnel, and Sumi just looking pretty

2007-10-16T16:37:00.000+10:00

Since blogger has been stubbornly refusing to let me upload video lately I've gone behind its back and signed up to YouTube, which was much more obliging.

This video is of Ruby and Rowan exploring their newly expanded world at two weeks old, it was taken less then three weeks ago but according to mum they have tripled in size since then.

my videos are also available here

You know what its like?

2007-10-16T16:18:00.000+10:00

When you get something really stuck in your head and you just have to get it stuck in everyone else's? Well enjoy!

Got this classic stuck in my head thanks to yet another spoof of it. The only cure was to look it up.

Muppets rock!

xo Nadie
just a little bit evil

Shoesday

2007-10-16T14:11:00.000+10:00

Today is 'alternative' shoesday. These goth/ punk boots were a recent purchase from Fitzroy. They may not be everyday wear in suburbia, but they will get their chance to shine. I'm planning on wearing them to 'witches in britches' for my next birthday. The photo doesn't do them justice at all, the boots have great detailing along the heal and up the back, as well as on the toe, and the heel is slightly higher then it looks in the picture.

Goings on

2007-10-09T21:16:00.000+10:00

The last few days have been fairly eventful. This is the first time I've been able to sit at the computer for long enough to write about it. I've given up trying to upload video of the kids as I tried all week on both computers at home as well as at work.

Thursday evening I had my monthly massage and Chiro adjustment, I also had a sleep assessment and bought a memory foam pillow. I discovered fairly quickly that I'm sensitive to the pillow and went back to my old one, although the short exposure was enough that my eyes are still itchy. Friday I rang the chiropractors to see if I could return the pillow and was told that should be fine.

Friday night I was supposed to be going to Ross's production with Fi, but neither of us was up for a big night so I instead met up with Nat and Kenny to catch up over coffee, and after Kenny left Nat and I decided to check what was on at the movies across from the cafe. We ended up seeing a 9.15pm session of Hairspray, which I loved. If you like comedic musicals and dance then I highly recommend it. It was all kinds of cheesy but great fun. I got home about 11.45pm, about half an hour before Chris who had late shift.

Saturday lunchtime I went to Cass's hens party in Pakenham. She decided to have a Tupperware party, which I thought was an odd choice in place of a hens night but still fun. Nat and I stayed on afterwards and when Dave and Bret arrived mid afternoon we decided to have a poker night. We finished up just after 1am. Chris had no way of joining us after work so instead went to a local pub for a party for someone who was leaving his work. While there he agreed to swap shifts with someone who needed to get out of a Sunday shift. He beat me home by about an hour. Dave messaged me the next morning to let Chris and I know they are planning another hens/ bucks night in a couple of weeks, starting with dinner together then moving on from there. Should be good.

Sunday morning while Chris was getting ready for work Fi called to see if we were still on for a BBQ that I had sort-of-but-not-quite-arranged-depending-on-weather. Chris was annoyed that he was missing our first BBQ but it couldn't be helped that he had forgotten it was a possibility when he picked up the shift. Ross came over just before 4pm and we met Fi at the shops to get what we needed then headed back to my place for evening drinks before firing up the BBQ around 6pm. It started to get dark not long after eating so we moved inside for games which is how Chris found us. Fi left just after 8pm then Ross, Chris and I settled in under quilts to watch "Practical magic" before crashing.

Yesterday was busy in a much more mundane sort of way. I had a staff meeting at a local pub, then dropped by the chiropractors with Chris to return the pillow and was told that I couldn't return it, but if I could come back the next day to talk to the chiropractor they would see about exchanging it and using the return as a demo pillow. Chris and I went to The Glen from there and had a coffee before doing a much needed big shop. Once we got home I made risotto for dinner and we watched 'Clerks' and 'Chasing Amy'.

Today I exchanged the pillow [wish me luck with the new one] and just pottered around until it was time to go to work. Chris worked during the day and finished an hour after I started. I like having the house to myself for a bit every now and then but I'm glad we generally work similar hours, although I'd probably get a lot more blogging done if we didn't!

until next time
xo

Because you asked for it

2007-10-09T13:48:00.000+10:00

Well, mum did at least.

I mentioned a little while ago that one of the night staff at work cares for orphaned wildlife, and has been bringing a young wallaby to work lately. I finally managed to get photos of said wallaby, although not particularly good ones since he was more interested in exploring than posing. The photo of him looking over Kylie's leg is included to give an idea of size.

Tuesday Shoesday

2007-10-09T13:01:00.000+10:00

*Thunk* that was the sound of me jumping on the shoesday bandwagon.

It was a tough deciding which pair was most worthy of the first post, but in the end the newest pair won. I found these adorable flats a couple of weeks ago at DFO's Novo. They fit beautifully and I love the vibrant shade of red, I even had a matching handbag already!

Next time: shoesday goes goth!

Playing catch- up

2007-09-30T22:52:00.000+10:00

Ok, I know, I know. I've been slack with the blogging. The last couple of weeks have been kinda nuts, I've been very up and down. When I've been feeling up I haven't had the time to blog, and when things have been down I haven't had the inclination. Soooo now that things have settled down a bit here's the highlights.

A fortnight ago was Chris and my 1st anniversary. To celebrate Chris got us a room at the Novotel hotel on Collins st in the city. More extravagant than he could really afford but still preeetty good. We spent Sunday in the city, had lunch at the hotel opposite Flinders st station then went and checked in and had a look at the room (very nice, but might as well not have had windows for how bad the view was). Then we walked to Southbank, checked out the Art Centre Sunday market and watched a street performer for a while before finding a cafe overlooking the Yarra for a coffee. Then we walked back down along the Yarra and went on the travelling Ferris wheel that is currently set up next to Fed Square. We then had a look around Fed square before heading back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. For dinner we went to a really nice seafood restaurant at docklands, then afterwards to Hot Chocolate, for the best coffee I have had in ages.

Wednesday I had a girls day out in Fitzroy with Fi. We decided it was time for a change and went shopping for a goth/punk outfit for me. We did the rounds of the interesting alternative shops and I ended up with a funky black coat with fluffy trim - a bargain at $20 down from $60, fantastic boots (not so much a bargain at about $130), hot lace fingerless gloves which require assistance to do up, and two pairs of footless tights, stripy bright purple and black and plain black. Fi got the same fingerless gloves, a pentagram, and wrist cuffs. We then headed to Fi's favourite goth shop to finish off the outfit but discovered that they had closed early, so we went back to Fi's to dump everything and headed to one of the local pubs for dinner and drinks. Ross joined us later and we went back to Fi's for a few hours, before Chris came to pick me up and Fi came back with us to spend the night at our place.

Thursday after breakfast Fi decided to go visit her parents while she was in the area, so Chris and I dropped her off before heading to the DFO in Moorabbin. We each got some shoes (much cheaper then the ones I bought the previous day, and probably more practical), and looked at boring home stuff like towels and casserole dishes, then went to bunnings and bought a BBQ, which we still haven't had a chance to try out.

Friday night I headed up to mums in Castlemaine. My brother Steve, SIL Christina and 9 month old nephew Riley were up for the night so for once we were all in the one spot. It took an hour longer then usual to get there as I'd forgotten that school holidays had just started, and as soon as I cleared the traffic jams the heavens opened, so after a somewhat stressful drive it was good to relax, have a meal with my family, a play with Riley, and give my goat her bottle.

Steve and co left after breakfast on Saturday and I spent large parts of the day sitting on the ridge out the back with the goats. Both kids seemed to remember me, especially Ruby, who in her first 2 days of life decided that I was her person.

Chris caught the train up on Sunday and we came home Monday evening, as the cats were prepared neither to share a house with the ever burgeoning ranks of mum's petting zoo nor to spend more than one night without their people or a change of litter.

That's pretty much it, I've been working every day since Tuesday and am now on a night shift.

I am now going to see if the brand spanking new work computer will indulge me in an attempt to upload video. USB sticks are a wonderful invention.

Goaty fun

2007-09-15T16:37:00.000+10:00

This video is of Ruby's early attempts at gamboling at 2 days old. Rowan was still learning to support her own weight at that stage so could not join in. Aunty Robbyn watches on from outside the goat enclosure.

Kids on film!

2007-09-15T16:18:00.000+10:00

This video of Ruby and Rowan getting to know mum Rosie was taken on Monday just after Rowan's first feed. Ruby (strawberry blonde) is about 40 minutes old, Rowan (white) is about 15 minutes old. The storm that you can hear in the background arrived about a minute after I finished filming, Rosie did well to time the birth when it was dry.

Both kids are doing well, I'll be going back up to see them next weekend.

This is my week for cute animal babies. The last two nights while handing over to the night staff, who cares for orphaned natives, I got to snuggle with 5-6 week old wallaby 'Buddy'. He has just reached the age of climbing out of his pouch and exploring, very cute!

Kidding around

2007-09-10T20:34:00.000+10:00

I am currently staying up at mum's in Castlemaine, where at 4.30pm today I attended the birth of her goat Rosie's beautiful twin girls Ruby (firstborn strawberry blonde with white on her head, belly and ankles) and Rowan (white with caramel head and strip down her back). It was Rosie's first pregnancy, and mum's first time at caprine midwifery, both did extremely well, in fact Ruby arrived so soon that we missed her birth, mum found her when she went out for a routine check thinking we were settling in for the long haul, and Rowan was born in less then two minutes from the time her foot emerged.

Both girls take after their Saanen mother in appearance, although Ruby has her Anglo-Nubian dad's floppy ears and their colouring is a mix between the two breeds, Saanens being white and Anglo-Nubians being the equivalent of a tortoiseshell [calico] cat.

I just came in from their second bottle feed. I fed Ruby and mum fed Rowan, as Rosie is from such a good line that she’s been requiring milking for weeks now, and the kids needed the nutrients from the first milk produced. After finishing most of her bottle Ruby settled down to sleep on my lap. After we gave the girls back to a concerned Rosie, Rowan decided she wanted a bit more to drink, then also fell asleep on my lap. It was a wonderful experience but eventually we had to resettle the twins and leave Rosie to it.

Photos don't want to load at the moment so check back later, for now there are some on mum's blog.

More chickens, and feedback required

2007-08-29T13:05:00.000+10:00

Damn breakfast menu. Can I get a side of compassion?

More chickens here

I need some feedback about my new banner. Because of the way blogger works I had to make it up of two images, the background, which should line up with the edges of the rest of the blog, and the text and picture, so I need to know if they are loading alright and lining up properly on other systems. I designed the background from scratch and the picture is also mine so no copying.

Oh baby!

2007-08-25T15:38:00.000+10:00

Last night Chris and I babysat master Riley, my 8 month old nephew. I hadn't seen him in a few months so it was great to spend some time with him. He was really good most of the night, ate his dinner like a champ and had a good play, taking after dad already with the footy and hogging his remote. He got cranky later in the night, fell asleep having his bedtime bottle then woke up half an hour later crying just before his mum got home.

On a completely unrelated note, finally got my banner to behave itself, doesn't show properly in IE, but works in firefox.

Wednesday night rant

2007-08-23T03:10:00.000+10:00

Yep, night shift again.

It's just after 3am, and I've gotten almost everything done. The little thats left I'm deliberately leaving until later so that I have something to keep myself awake. I've just been tinkering with the side bar, changing the little tidbits around for those who pay attention to such things. More changes are planned, but they require my own computer. Given the hour it is entirely possible that I will look at what I've done after some sleep and wonder what I was thinking. Chris maintains that 3am is the best time for creative thought because the mind works differently at this hour. Certainly in my Uni days 3am was invariably the time I would wake up with an idea for an assignment that was likely to revolutionise the disability industry. Of course in the morning I would look at whatever I had scribbled down during the night and be unable to comprehend it. The curse of 3am thought is that its brillience can only truely be recognised when 3am again rolls around.

It'e been a bit of an up and down week. My car is hanging on purely and simply because it only overheats when it's held up in traffic too long. As Chris and I are both shift workers, we have thus far managed to avoid peak hour. The car is scheduled to get repaired on Friday, which doesn't suit me at all but it's the only time we could get it in.

On Saturday night we joined Cassie, Dave and Cassie's family for her and her brother's joint birthday celebrations. As they live a fair way out I wasn't game to test the traffic theory with my car, so Nat was good enough to pick us up. First, dinner with the family at a really nice italian resturant that had just opened up. Great staff, wonderful food, and a bill which reflected that standard. After dinner we headed over to her mums place and settled in to play poker til around 3am. Cassie's family were highly amusing as always, a pretty good night on all counts.

The rest of the week has been fairly uneventful. a spot of shopping on Sunday, work Monday and Tuesday. On the plus side I found out yesterday that they have introduced a new pay grade for disability workers with tertiary qualifications. Up til now I have been earning the same as people who only had TAFE certificates, so it will be good to finally get a little recognition for my degree (B App Sc). Not sure how much more I'll be earning but every little bit counts. My supervisor was annoyed that my current level of pay is only a couple of dollars less then hers, but as I'm overqualified to do her job, let alone mine, I see things a little differently. I'm faxing off my academic transcript in the morning, hopefully should hear back fairly soon.

Today was a bit of a blah day. I spent a good portion of it attempting to get some sleep in preparation for tonight and failing dismally. Chris and I also went for a walk to the butchers to pick up some lamb shanks for dinner. Said dinner did not go to plan. Never having cooked shanks before, I was following a recipe. First step of said recipe was to cook onion and carrots in the casserole dish on the stove top. This started off fine... until the bottom fell out of the casserole dish. The lamb shanks are now in the freezer awaiting a new casserole dish to replace the one which had been used only once since it was aquired two weeks ago, and now resides the outside bin. We had Chinese for dinner.

Nora the piano playing cat

2007-08-20T21:10:00.000+10:00

The Internet is flooded with videos of musically inclined pets, but this pretty girl is one of the few worth sharing

If you liked this, check out Nora's other work

Can't see the video? Try here

Not so fun Friday

2007-08-18T12:44:00.000+10:00

Yesterday, let it be said, was not a good day.

Curled up in bed having called in sick I got a phone call from my manager to let me know one of the clients I used to work with had passed away during the night. He would have been about 26 or 27.

Couldn't go back to sleep after that so I decided to get up and do something with the day. Chris and I went for a drive to get some computer parts and were on our way back to do some grocery shopping when the car suddenly overheated and started making scary noises. 45mins later RACV roadside assistance gave us the all clear to head home, keeping an eye on the temperature gauge. He wasn't able to say what the problem was so until I can get to a mechanic I'm effectively carless. I just hope that the problem is an easy fix.

DIY and a naughty cat

2007-08-17T20:41:00.001+10:00

With a pair of cats who favour the computer monitor as a camping ground, one must eventually pay mind to minimizing the amount of cat hair that is surely accruing inside said monitor. We had given consideration to a) buying or b) hitting up the cats grandmother for a suitably breathable cover, but the other day the thought occurred that that an old canvas shopping bag, the other favourite feline nesting site, would probably do the trick. Out came the scissors and off came one side and the handles - a perfect fit! Next came the dilemma of how to secure it. Chris got out the fishing wire and with a bit of experimentation, and lots of investigation and interruption by said felines, managed to tie the cover down in such a way that the girls would be hard put to dislodge it.

On a completely different but still cat related note, miss Sumi, shown here doing her bit to support Daffodil Day, is very much in the poop with her nanna. I borrowed the earlier Harry Potter books off mum to refresh my memory, and on the first night Sumi decided to chew on one of them. Sumi used to commit atrocities like this on a regular basis, and I had hoped she had grown out of that particular habit. Mum, being about as fastidious about her books as it is possible to be, was less than impressed.

Cat yoga

2007-08-14T13:30:00.001+10:00

With your host Suki

Feel that stretch!

Walk those paws around to the side

Don't forget to breath!!

Twist and stretch those front paws!

Meet Fluffy

2007-08-10T23:20:00.000+10:00

image from afunnyparadise.com

How to be a good helper

2007-08-09T02:46:00.000+10:00

A good cat knows how to lend a paw when her people decide to rearrange the furniture. Humans need to take regular breaks, or else they may be too tired to pay us the attention we deserve. Because we love them it can be hard to accept it, but it must be acknowledged that humans are not the brightest creatures, and will often forget to take breaks if they are not subtly prompted to do so. This can be done by placing oneself behind or underneath the furniture as it is being moved into position, forcing a break and guaranteed attention as you are moved from what they perceive as being a hazardous position. An even better effect can be achieved by getting onto or into the furniture in question. This results in a longer break, as your humans will naturally feel the need to photograph and generally make a fuss over your cuteness, which despite regular exposure they continue to be amazed by. This method works really well in the case of an emptied bookcase, as demonstrated here, as it is not a position you usually have access to, and therefore has an added novelty factor.

Naturally if you do your job well, your housemates may become jealous of the attention that you will inevitably receive. They may attempt imitate you. Although you may be put out by this, and are entitled to let the offender know, try to take it as a compliment. Your people will be impressed by your ability to share the limelight

- Sumi

Goats on a boat!

2007-08-06T18:27:00.000+10:00

This made me laugh, you've got to love a good parody, especially of something that was a joke to begin with. I got the link from Say No To Crack. Killer goats?! Oh hell no!

Why boys need keepers

2007-08-06T18:06:00.001+10:00

I found this little treasure in the freezer about half an hour ago. Thankfully it waited patiently until it was in the sink before exploding.

Sometimes I really have to wonder how some guys survive on their own. Oh wait, I've seen how bachelors survive. It isn't pretty.

Right now the average bachelor, having successfully blown up the can, would probably be attempting to pry it open to get to the frozen pepsi goodness, and cutting themselves up in the process. I think I'll let it go.

A post for posts' sake

2007-08-05T03:31:00.000+10:00

Its 3.33am and I'm bored. I'm being well paid for my boredom, since I've picked up the Saturday and Sunday night shifts this weekend, but right now that thought isn't helping much. I'd rather be curled up in bed.

Today's activities were perhaps not the best preparation for an all-night shift, I managed to sleep in until 11am, then after lunch did a half hour aerobic workout and stretches. I had just finished and started to relax when Chris called from work to say that he had realised at the servo that he didn't have the key to open the fuel cap on my car, and it was precariously low on petrol. So I walked the 2+ km uphill to the station and caught the train to his work, arriving 15mins before he finished. By this stage my legs were protesting the amount of exercise they had been forced to endure, and I would have been quite happy to crash for the evening. We managed to get to the servo in time and arrived home at 5.30 and attempted to have an afternoon nap. At 7.30 we gave up, got ready and went out for a really nice pub meal, which we finished in time for me to drop Chris off home and head off for work. All things considered I am holding up quite well, but 3-4am is always challenging.

It wouldn't be so bad if I had something worth posting about, but as I've been working everyday since my last post there really isn't any news, and as I have 2 more night shifts to go this week, there isn't likely to be any. Things should pick up later in the week.

Until next time

Nadie

Weekend wanderings

2007-07-30T11:15:00.000+10:00

Last night Chris and I ventured out to Ruby's Lounge in Belgrave for the grand final of their unsigned band competition. We went to support Charles Baby, a friend of Jacinta from work, but some of the other acts were great too. It would have been a very difficult comp to judge, as the bands all played distinctively different styles of music. There were two great male bands, the first of which gets bonus points for use of a double bass, while the second played everything they could get their hands on, from the standard electric guitars and drums, to a tambourine and a whistle. There was also a grunge girl band, but we went outside while they were on, although I'm sure they'd be great if that was what you were in to. We had to go before the last act and the judging so I have no idea who won.

Apart from the chance to hear some different music, it was great to see Jacinta outside of work. She goes to Ruby's regularly, and Chris and I both intend to go there again, it's a great venue, the dress code, as stated on the wall, is simply "shoes", and, perhaps influenced by the location nestled up against the hills, this allowed for an interesting mix of bohemian and other alternative types, along with the jeans and t-shirt crowd. No drunken louts or bar fights, just a bunch of people looking for a good night out, and great original music. It was also a refreshing change to go to a pub and not come home reeking of cigarettes, with my eyes stinging from smoke. The only other pub I've been to since smoking was banned on July 1 was an Irish pub which stank of Guinness anyway.

Edited Tues 31/07 to add: I discovered tonight that Charles won the competition, the prize was studio recording time. If you want to check out some of his music go to his myspace.

On Saturday we saw the Simpsons movie at Century City with a few friends. I can take or leave the Simpsons generally, and had my doubts about whether they would be able pull off the movie after 20 years of exhausting their idea pool, but it was good for a few laughs. There were definitely some cringe worthy moments, but overall the movie came out on top. Afterwards we went out for coffee on Kingsway.

On a completely unrelated note I'd just like to say a big hooray big brother is over and done with for another year. I only know this because I accidentally stumbled onto the finale. The down side is that this means that Idol will be starting up again. There is no escape!

The Boy Who Lived

2007-07-27T12:05:00.000+10:00

I've finished Harry Potter, and OH MY GOD! its just... and then... but... and Snape.. and... whoa!

and they all lived happily ever after... except the ones who didn't

Grrargh why can't you all have read it, can't say a bloody thing without spoiling it.

I will say that this one is going to be very hard to fit in one movie, there's a lot going on, its very intense and no wasted space. There are some huge revelations.

At least the kids who got hooked when the series was new are now old enough to read it, so not a childrens book.

Spot the difference

2007-07-26T15:25:00.000+10:00

Well, finally managed to get an almost decent photo of my latest acquisition. I actually decided a couple of weeks ago to get it, but was waiting for a cold to subside. If you don't like it, blame the boy, he paid for it :P

Before anyone arcs up about how I'm going to manage with my allergies, I did look into it very thoroughly beforehand. I checked with various sources - internet, piercers, and piercees about whether being prone to a runny nose would be an issue, and the general consensus is that it may take a bit longer to heal, but shouldn't be a major issue. Just in case, I got it done with titanium, which is supposed to be better for healing.

Retail Therapy

2007-07-25T22:25:00.000+10:00

Well, here I am on night shift, armed with the new (and final) Harry Potter and ready to stay up til 8am. I'm up to page 236 since buying it Monday afternoon so might even finish it tonight. I'm going to be good and not put any spoilers, but I will say that the first 100 pages are very intense. I wasn't going to buy it yet but it was only $28 from Kmart so I figured what the hey. I really need to re-read the others though, I'm remembering details as I go along. Monday turned into quite the shopping spree. I also got one of those shiatsu massage things that you strap to a chair, and something else that Chris has made me promise not to tell you about until I have a photo to put up. Grrr.

After the shopping spree we went home for a bit to recover, then back to Knox to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at VMAX. I really enjoyed it, I thought they did much better then the last one, which had some very jerky transitions. Of course with such a long book they did have to cut some stuff out, they brushed over the details of Sirius' home, the painting of his mother, and Kreacher the house elf, for example, but on the whole it was very good. It can't have been easy deciding what to leave out when they didn't know what would be touched on again in the then unpublished books. At least that wont be an issue for the production of the remaining movies, all they have to worry about now is the aging cast. The twins in particular were looking much older, and are also no longer identical; one is taller and their noses are different.

In completely unrelated news, Suki is doing well. She isn't eating very much, but she is having small amounts regularly, including some dry food. She is still way too skinny, but does not seem quite as frail anymore.

Nothing much else going on really, Monday was my only day off in a while since I picked up an 11 hour shift on Sunday. Hopefully this weekend coming up will be a little more eventful. The weekend after that I've picked up the Saturday and Sunday active nights, in addition to my regular Wednesday.

Stay tuned to find out what else I got on Monday, its very difficult not to spill now that I have all this free time to blog.

Suki update

2007-07-17T21:06:00.000+10:00

Well, after another couple of hundreds worth at the vets, miss Suki now appears to be on the mend again. It seems we were a bit premature in thinking her better last week, she seemed to have stopped eating again and when I took her to the vets on Saturday she had lost a further .2kg, bringing her down to a bony 3.8kg total. After a couple of days more of antibiotic shots she is eating again, only a tiny amount, but she seems to be eating slightly more each day, and to be wanting it more.

We've been shutting Suki in the bathroom with food a couple of times a day so that a) she could get to it before Sumi, who is now almost twice Suki's size and weight and very pushy when it comes to food, and b) so that we could see how much she is actually eating. We tried her on whiskers mince today, at mums suggestion, which she seemed to really like, so we'll switch to that one for a while and she how she goes. She's only been wanting mooshed up whiskers casserole in gravy up until now.

FYI...

2007-07-16T16:37:00.000+10:00

I've added photos to all the posts about my holiday for those interested in going back and having a look.

Day 1,2 and 3
Day 4 and 5 - Paluma and fishing
Day 6 and 7 - Billabong santuary / about town
Day 8 - Magnetic Island
Day 9 - Townsville to Cairns
Day 10 - Daintree
Day 11 - The Great Barrier Reef
Day 12 and 13 - Kuranda

Here are some tree photos which mum was interested in but which didn't make it into their relevant posts.

Things I'll bet you never knew about...

2007-07-16T11:25:00.000+10:00

Need a reason to eat your vegies?

carrots - help stabilise blood sugar levels and so are useful for managing sugar cravings. They also help fight cancer, viruses, and prevent heart disease. Yay carrots!
onions - contain high levels of an antioxidant which stops the formation of cancer cells, is anti-inflammatory, antibiotic and anti-viral
beetroot - is great for detoxing and purifying blood, and boosts the immune system. It enhances the production of disease fighting antibodies, white blood cells, stimulates red blood cells and improves the oxygen supply to cells. It also contains properties which help prevent cancer and heart disease.
tomato - boosts the immune system, helps to prevent cancer, and protects the body from toxins.
pumpkin - contains high levels of cancer preventing carotenoids, and is also rich in vitamin C for immune function.
chillis - even small amounts of red chilli contain high levels of the anti-viral, anti-cancer and antioxident beta-carotene. They help prevent damage caused by toxins, and can stave off cancer and premature aging. Chillis also contain a natural analgesic, which can ease headaches, arthritis and sinusitis. Chilli also has mild mood-boosting properties (increased by combining with chocolate!).

Mmmm

2007-07-15T17:14:00.000+10:00

The other day I decided to treat myself to some new toys. I bought a set of four good cocktail glasses and a shaker. Of course the ingredients cost more than both of these combined but what the hey!

Due to my allergies, the range of alcohol I can tolerate is fairly limited, the range of cocktails even more so, as a lot of them involve added dairy or sugar. Just as well I like the ones I can have! Here are some of my favourite drinks, and one I want to try. Vodka is well and truly my drink, hence my blogs name, so it features strongly in all of these. Strangely enough I've never taken to the screwdriver, which is vodka and orange and probably the most popular way to have vodka.

Note: a measure is approx. 30ml, which is roughly equal to a shot glass or the lid of a cocktail shaker. Ingredients should generally be poured in order of alcoholic strength

Cosmopolitan

2 measures vodka
1 measure cointreau
1 -2 measures cranberry juice
juice from half a lime

shake with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass, garnish with lime slice

Bloody Mary

1 measure vodka
4 measures tomato juice
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
squeeze of lemon juice
dash Tabasco sauce
pinch salt
black pepper

pour over ice in cocktail shaker and strain into highball glass (tall glass) with ice cubes, garnish with celery stick or sprig of mint

Sea Breeze (haven't tried this yet, but plan to)

crushed ice
2 measures vodka
3 measures cranberry juice
3 measures grapefruit juice
lime wedge

pour the vodka over crushed ice in a highball glass, follow with cranberry and grapefruit juices and stir gently, decorate with lime wedge and drink with a straw

Savage chickens

2007-07-15T15:53:00.000+10:00

I think a little comic relief is required after a post like the last one, these really tickled my fancy (at least, I hope thats what they were tickling :/).

I especially like 'My Jesus can beat up your Jesus'.

This world we live in

2007-07-15T15:04:00.000+10:00

If you haven't already, I strongly urge you to read this post by yarn harlot, about an American rape case in which the Judge has banned the use of emotive words such as 'rape', 'assault', 'forced' and 'victim'. Apparently he feels that words like that imply that a crime has been committed (really? here was was thinking that court rooms were for hosting tea parties). It turns out that it's not rape until the jury says it is. This begs the question of how one is supposed to convince the jury without using any of those words, especially when the jury do not even know about the language ban. Saying 'he had sex with me' is hardly likely to do it. While the court is on the subject of semantics they might want to rethink the term 'justice system'.

Rape and sex are in no way the same thing and forcing (whoops) the victim (whoops again) to describe what happened to her without calling it what it is just makes her look and feel stupid, as if she hasn't been through enough already. No wonder so many rapes don't get reported, those woman have been through such a hard time already and then the ones who are brave enough to report it have to go through an even greater psychological ordeal.

This 'blame the victim' mentality is sending us back to the 50's, when woman were just supposed to lie back and take whatever the man dished out. Assault victims should be supported in every way possible, not made to feel guilty for speaking out against their attackers.

I'd say 'only in America', but the sad reality is that this could happen anywhere, it is only the amount of outrage that varies.

Day 1, 2 and 3

2007-07-13T13:55:00.000+10:00

Well, I've finally posted about my holidays in detail. Wanted to wait until I could do it all in one hit. I've broken it up mainly in lots of 1 and 2 days, depending on what days had lots of photos.

We arrived in Townsville around 9.30pm on June 19th, and were met at the airport by Chris' sister jen, whom we were staying with. That night was just spent getting settled in. We arrived during a week when the whole east coast was having strangely cold weather. I was assured that the weather was normally much nicer. It was generally not too cold for me, but it was overcast and dreary for the first week.

On our first full day in Townsville we met up with Chris' mum at the local shops, and she came back with us for lunch. We then went round to Chris' friend Ron's place, who had just gone back to Townsville himself after living in L.A for a few months. He had stopped over in Melbourne for a few days on the way to L.A and I had met him then. We went with Ron for a driven tour of the city, and went up to the lookout at Castle Hill, from where you can see the city, bay and islands. Thats Magnetic Island in the first two photos. Where we are staying is about 5 minutes around the other side of Castle Hill. After getting back to Ron's, Chris and I met up with Jen at his old home for dinner with his parents.

This is a shot of 'The Saint' on Castle Hill. He appeared overnight following a local footy game several decades ago and promptly became a local icon. The council had it removed a while back and was met with so much protest that they wound up putting him back up there!

Our second day in Townsville was the coldest on record, at a chilly 14C, which is mild to average for Melbourne in June. As it was also wet, we had an indoors day, only venturing out for lunch and to go to the shops. In the evening we met up with Ron and some of their other friends for a game of pool and a movie (Oceans 13 - not too bad if you can resist the urge to pick it apart).

Our third day was still cool but not too bad, and we went out for lunch with Chris' mum at the new riverside complex. We ate at Cbar, where I had beautiful grilled barramundi. The staff there were very attentive and we had coffee and cake after lunch then went for a walk around the grounds and down by the river, before going to Chris' parents place to play cards with his mum for a while before we had to meet Jen. That night we dropped Jen off in the city, went out for dinner and then to the casino.

My overall impression of Townsville is that it is a beautiful city, one which i would very much like to visit again when the weather is doing what its supposed to. I found the little things interesting, such as trees and birds that we don't get down south. There were lots of falcons and sea eagles for example, and green tree frogs just hanging out on window sills.

Day 4 and 5 - Paluma and fishing

2007-07-13T13:21:00.000+10:00

On Saturday June 23rd Jen, Chris and I headed to Paluma, the rainforest in the clouds. En route we stopped off for morning tea at Chris' uncles place, where I met a bunch of lovely people I had no hope of remembering the names of.

An hour or so later we were back on the road, driving past sugar cane fields and pineapples towards mountains fast disappearing into cloud. The drive up the mountain itself started much like any other small windy road through the bush, but the scenery soon changed to dense rainforest. The cloud trailing through the forest made for interesting atmospheric effects. At certain points one could easily imagine the headless horseman riding out of the mist, sweeping past the vines which dangled from branches arching over the road.

We drove all the way to the huge man made reservoir on top of the mountain, where we got out to stretch our legs. Again the mist made interesting effects. The water appeared white, and we could feel and see tiny water droplets which were so fine that they did not cause any ripples in the lake. On the drive back we stopped in the village for something to eat before returning home.

Later that night we were all relaxing at Jens, and after she went to bed Chris and I decided we felt like doing something, so we ended up going for a late night stroll along The Strand, Townsville's main beach. We ended up walking a fair distance, and stopped for a coffee before returning. It was a beautiful walk, and a lovely mild night for it. Afterwards we went to the casino for a little while before calling it quits for the night.

The next day Chris and I met up with Jen for lunch along the strand before heading off to go fishing with Ron and his dad, Ron snr. We went out on one of the creeks in their new boat and found a spot where the fish were biting constantly. This was my first fishing trip. I caught a few little guys that had to be thrown back. Chris was the only one who caught anything big enough to keep; he caught a flounder, a brim and a big mangrove jack, which is an expensive reef fish. We gave the brim to the Ron's, had the flounder as part of our dinner and saved the big fish for later in the week.

Day 6 and 7 - Billabong sanctuary and about town

2007-07-13T12:34:00.000+10:00

On Monday June 25th we went to Billabong Sanctuary with the boys parents.

Billabong sanctuary is pretty much what you'd expect from an Australian sanctuary - free roaming roos, koalas (which I discovered are smaller and fluffier up North), birds, snakes etc.

Two things made it different than a Victorian Sanctuary - cassowaries, which are like a small emu with head gear, and crocs, both freshies and the big estuarine beggers. As the weather had been cool and wet the crocs were not eating (they shut down in cold weather), but the show was still informative.

Under the fruit bat trees we saw dingos and cassowaries being fed (not one to the other), and I held a koala, juvenile croc and a carpet python (not together). The Americans were funny with the reptiles, one woman in particular kept jumping back during the demonstration every time the snake looked at her, and when it was her turn to hold it was keeping her arms out as far as she could while saying 'quickly- take- the- picture- quicky- quicky- quicky' through gritted teeth, and had also announced earlier that the croc felt slimy. I don't understand people like that who insist on holding reptiles and turn it into a big drama. Meanwhile the snake was more interested in my camera.

That night Chris' parents came round for dinner then we headed over to Ron's for a night out with the boys. We started off playing cards, then went to one of the other guys places for some fire twirling, which was a bit different. We then headed over to another place for late night munchies before heading off.

The next day was spent just hanging around town, and also planning the rest of the holiday. We went to the open air mall in the morning. We had a nice lunch then went looking for thongs, which I wanted for the beach. As it turned out the place I got the thongs from had a buy 2 pairs get a third free deal so I had to buy some other shoes as well, then one pair turned out to be too big (hard to tell with the security tag) so I exchanged them for two pairs which were on special and only came to $5 more then the pair I was exchanging... I had to get them... they made me.

After the mall we went home to plan for the following day, then went to sizzler for dinner, which was much yum yums. I bought a main to go with the buffet incase their wouldn't be enough I could have, but as it turned out I needent have bothered, the buffethad an excellent range and was very fresh. We then met up with Jen and Craig, who had just returned from the mines, for coffee at Cbar on the strand, then Chris and I went for a late night walk along the beach. I loved the novelty of being able to go for a pleasent walk at night in the middle of winter, people who go for late night walks in Melbourne at this time of year certainly don't do it because its relaxing.

Day 8 - Magnetic Island

2007-07-13T12:06:00.000+10:00

On Wednesday June 27 the weather finally cleared for our trip to Magnetic Island. We caught the ferry around 10am and were there 15minutes later. The ferry came in at Nelly bay and from there we walked to Alma bay, one of the smaller bays flanked by large boulders. After relaxing there for a bit we caught the bus back to Nelly and hired a mini moke, which we drove to Horseshoe bay on the north side of the island. After a quick stop at one of the tourist shops to buy a headband to stop my hair from whipping my face in the topless moke, we had a relaxed lunch at one of the pubs, before wandering down onto the beach to soak up the sun for a while. We then drove back past Nelly bay to Picnic bay, which apparently used to be a tourist hub but is now only inhabited by locals as the ferry point has moved from there to Nelly. While at Picnic bay we walked out onto the pier, which offered a good view across the water to Townsville, and checked out a large curtain fig which I knew mum would be interested in. Mum would have enjoyed Townsville if only for the variety of birds and trees.

We then headed to a rocky outcrop which we had been told was inhabited by a colony of rock wallabies. These little guys were coming close enough for people to throw them food, but had enough healthy fear of humans left not to get any closer.

We headed back to Horseshoe bay to relax for a while and to catch the sunset, and watched schools of mackerel jumping close to the shore, as well as something poking its head out, possibly a turtle. After sunset we headed back to return the moke and catch the ferry.

That night we had dinner with Chris' parents. His mum cooked the mangrove jack that Chris had caught earlier in the week - beautiful!

Day 9 - Townsville to Cairns

2007-07-13T11:32:00.000+10:00

We got up bright and early on Thursday the 28th of June for the drive to Cairns. It is a 4 hour drive straight through and we had detours planned. Jen and Craig were driving, and were staying in the same hotel as us until Saturday before going to the Tablelands.

The road to Cairns was mainly surrounded by sugar cane fields, which get a tad repetitive after a while, however we also drove through the land that was hit by Cyclone Larry last year. The vegetation was recovering well although you could see where the damage was caused. Many of the larger trees were lop sided and scraggly.

Our first stop along the way was mission beach, a beautiful wide sandy beach lined with palm trees and offering beautiful views. The cassowary speeding sign was from the road into mission beach.

We then drove on to the Tablelands, which is essentially rainforrested mountains with a flat top.
I have a theory that the top of the tablelands was cut off at some point and wacked down near Townsville to become Paluma, The mountains there come straight down to the road heavily forested without much change in the slope, then the land flattens out abruptly at the base to become fields. We made a few stops as we drove through, at one of the little towns for lunch; at the Curtain Fig Tree national park to take photos of the big curtain fig for mum ('there's a quilt in that!'); and for coffee at a lake which filled a volcano crater, which I keep forgetting the name of.

We made it into Cairns late afternoon, and after checking in to the Mecure harbourside and settling into our rooms, which in Chris and my case were on the 5th of 7 floors facing the mountains, headed into town to do some shopping. I bought sunnies and new bathers, and Chris bought boardies. We then met back up with Jen and Craig and went out for a seafood buffet dinner at Charlies, which Jen and Craig recommended and which turned out to be right next to the hotel.

Day 10 - The Daintree

2007-07-13T11:01:00.000+10:00

On Friday June 29th Jen, Craig, Chris and I met downstairs for our buffet brekkie, then drove to Port Douglas for lunch, stopping along the way at a lookout over one of the lovely bays.

While in Port Douglas I had the best seafood Thai green curry, with beautiful fresh prawns, mussels and baby octopus. We then went on to the Daintree for a River train cruise along the Daintree river. The Daintree is the largest rainforest in Australia and the oldest in the world at over one hundred and thirty-five million years old, and is home to an amazing array of wildlife. Our tour guide was very informative and knew where all the crocs could be found, as well as details about each one. We only saw a small part of the rainforest, but even in that small span of river we saw three territory-holding male crocs, along with a couple of small, well concealed juveniles. We would have seen females as well but a motor boat sped past us and startled them into the water. We also saw a sea eagle and egrets among other birds. The croc photos are well worth opening full size for a better look,we were able to get quite close. See if you can spot the juvenile in the photo of branches. You'll need to open the photo full size, he is very well hidden but very clear once you spot him.

After the cruise we went for a walk along privately owned boardwalk, but did not see any wildlife other than mosquitoes. We did however see this pretty little waterfall.

Day 11 - The Great Barrier Reef

2007-07-13T10:54:00.000+10:00

Saturday June 30th we were up bright and early for our reef cruise with Sunlovers, part of our holiday package. After our buffet brekkie Jen and Craig dropped us off at the pier before heading to the Tablelands for the rest of their holiday.

We were headed to a section of the outer reef which was 40km off shore, so we had a long cruise before arriving there. After about a 1.5 hour cruise we arrived at the private pontoon at Moore reef, and after attempting to get to the snorkeling gear through the crowds of pushy tourists, we gave up and had our buffet lunch first, then a semi-submersible boat tour to let the food settle. While on the boat we saw a couple of turtles, but did not manage to get a clear picture. After the boat we hit the water. Snorkeling was great, I have only snorkeled once before and that time the fins were too boyant for me, this time was much better, I also turfed the life jacket fairly early on so that I could dive (the life jackets were not mandatory, but of course the cruise line is legally obligated to strongly recommend them). The fish and the reef were amazing, we saw big schools of little bright blue fish and zebra stripped fish, big multicoloured fish that I think were parrot fish, 4 foot long ugly buggers, and others of all shapes, colours and sizes, as well as a giant clam. No rays or clown fish, or further turtle sightings unfortunately. After a while we got out and had a cuppa and went on the glass bottom boat. On return I went back in the water, while Chris elected to stay on dry pontoon. I'm glad I went back in because this time I saw even more big brightly coloured fish, and the tide must have come in because I was able to get further over the coral. I probably could have gone even further, as others did, but I was very aware of not getting too close as coral is so delicate that one can easily destroy centuries of growth with a careless fin. I did not want to get out again but did in time for the fish feeding before our return trip.

On arriving back at the pier we went for a walk and had dinner at Bull Bar, where I tried Morton Bay Bugs for the first time (a little sweet and overpowering after a while, I think these are something best eaten as part of a buffet rather than as a main course). We then returned to the hotel for a relaxing evening.

Day 12 and 13 - Kuranda

2007-07-13T10:42:00.000+10:00

As most of our time in Cairns was spent on day trips we decided to keep Sunday 1st July to relax. After our buffet brekkie we headed into town to get our reef photo's developed and to attend our Vacation Club presentation, which was a requirement of receiving our holiday package. We then went for a walk and had lunch on the way back to the hotel, then spent the afternoon relaxing by the pool, during which time I had a couple of cosmopolitans and chatted with some lovely Californians (who were quick to assure me that they voted for neither Schwarzenegger nor Bush). In the evening we went out to a lovely restaurant called Tamarind, at the Casino to use the dining voucher that was part of our holiday package. I strongly recommend this restaurant; the food, service and atmosphere were all wonderful. We then spent some time (and money) at the casino and went for a walk before returning to the hotel.

On our final day in Cairns we took the Skyrail to Kuranda, a village deep in the rainforest. The skyrail is a cableway system comprised of gondolas which carry you above the rainforest canopy to Kuranda, stopping at two stations along the way, one to walk through a section of rainforest on a boardwalk, the next containing lookouts to Barron falls. Once in Kuranda we unfortunetly did not have enough time to really relax and enjoy the town, we walked through the heritage market and bought some funky agate candles, then stopped for lunch before returning. Had we had more time there were more markets to view, walking tracks, and a butterfly sanctuary.

We returned to Cairns on the Scenic Railway, which offered some stunning views, and also included information about the history of the area and the railway during pioneering days and war time.

Once back in Cairns we wet for a walk along the boardwalk, which offered charming views of the swamp that in Cairns at low tide (just does not compare with Townsville's main beach), then went through the market, before getting dinner at the Irish pub and heading back to the hotel to collect our stuff and taxi it to the airport.

We arrived in Melbourne at 11.45pm, and made it home in the wee hours of the morning.

It's funny cos it's true

2007-07-12T20:54:00.000+10:00

I saw the signs...

2007-07-11T22:00:00.001+10:00

This is a collection of funny real signs we saw while on holiday in North Queensland.

It's fresh... kind of.

Just checking that you're paying attention...

Should read "Cassowaries have killed cars" if that picture's anything to go by.

I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts...

Because everyone deserves an ok gift

As opposed to whatever maccas uses?

Sick kitty

2007-07-11T20:20:00.000+10:00

Those of you who already know about Suki's illness will be glad to hear she is doing much better. I returned from Queensland to discover littlest miss had not eaten in at least a few days, and had lost a great deal of weight off a frame that did not have much to spare. She was still very alert at that stage, and appeared healthy apart from my being able to feel every bone, but within a couple of days went from wanting lots of cuddles to being lethargic, hiding and not coming when called.

After a couple of days on antibiotics didn't help, the vet suspected a blockage, or pancreatitis, and when a full physical exam, blood, urine and radiology didn't shed any light on the issue he decided to keep her overnight on a drip with plans to operate in the morning. By the next day she had started to come good and it was looking more like an infection, so the vet decided to keep her another night on the antibiotics. The following morning she was drinking and eating a bit, mainly just the gravy off the top of the wet food, and ready to come home. She is now back to her old inquisitive self, into everything and very vocal. She's going back for a check up on Saturday just to be sure.

Thanks to Val for the vets details, they've been great.

I'm baaack!

2007-07-05T22:34:00.000+10:00

Well, actually I got back 3 days ago but this is the first chance I've had to sit at the computer. I didn't get a chance to blog at all during my holiday, Much to mum's disgust. I'm not going to post everything tonight because there's just to much and also there are too many photos for one post, so I've decided to give an overview here and then work back day-by-day as I get the time.

We arrived in Townsville about 9.30 Tuesday June 19th, and were met at the airport by Jen, Chris' sister, whom we were staying with. We were in Townsville until Thursday the 28th, during which time we spent a lot of time catching up with the boys friends and family, and also went up to Paluma (rainforest); the lookout at Castle Hill, from which you can see the city and the bay; Billabong sanctuary; for late night walks along the beach; went fishing for the first time; and spent a day at the beautiful Magnetic Island.

We left early on Thursday 28th June with Jen and Craig, Chris' BIL, for the drive to Cairns. On the way we stopped off at Mission Beach, and the Atherton tablelands. Once we were settled in the hotel (Jen and Craig stayed at the same one), we went out shopping and to a seafood buffet dinner. Friday we went on the Rivertrain cruise in the Daintree rainforest and saw three adult male crocs, Saturday we went on a Great Barrier Reef cruise, which included snorkeling, Sunday was our day to relax by the pool and wander around town a bit, and Sunday we took the skyrail to Kuranda and the scenic railway back before having to come home. We got into Melbourne at 11.45pm Monday 2nd July.

We went up to mum's on Tuesday to collect the cats, and discovered that miss Suki has not been eating for a few days. She has been to the vet today and had a shot and antibiotics, she's going back on Saturday and will need tests done if she hasn't improved by then.

Snapshot

2007-06-14T04:44:00.000+10:00

Ok, so it's 4am, I've just been pottering around but now I've run out of things to do and my crazed mind needs to keep itself occupied, dispite the way the sleep deprevation is being reflected by the downhill slide in my typing skills (the backspace key is my friend). Here's a snapshot of where I am at this point in time:

Reading: Tomorrow when the war began, John Marsden. We had to read it for English way back when, and I remember that I liked it and always meant to read the rest of the set. When I helped Fi set her new place up a couple of weeks ago I was unpacking books and found them, so I've borrowed the whole set.

Watching: Chris is trying to get me into Prison Break, watched the first episode last night. Liked it but not a good one to go to sleep to since you have to pay attention.

Listening: Triple M is on in the background, they were playing "Zombie" by Cranberries before - not sure if thats a statement about the state of mind of people who listen at this hour. In the car I have a new MP3 disk with 10 hours worth of music. I had a fair bit of time to kill when I made it so I numbered the tracks so that multiples by the same artist are spaced out - theres quite a few of Evanescence, Green Day, Live, Chili Peppers and some others.

Loving: My toe socks

Hating: My hair colour. Ok, so hate is too strong a word, but its gone blah after a few washes. It was meant to be dark violet, but it's come out brown. I'm going to go over it with red, which on hair as dark as this will just give a reddish tinge, nothing over the top.

Anticipating: Going to Queensland next Tuesday for a 2 week holiday, and to my housemate moving out.

Dreading: The final hour of my shift when everyones awake, I have a feeling its going to go badly, based on the events of yesterday evening.

In the next hour: I'm going to go make a cuppa, do the ironing and assist the first of the clients to get up and ready.

Later today: I'll go to bed around 8.30am, get up whenever I wake usually between 3 and 4pm, 5 at the latest, Visit the chiropractor at 6pm, Then Chris is making me dinner.

Feeling a bit more alert now, I always struggle around 3- 4am, but aparently thats pretty common. 'What's Good For You' had a segment about night shift workers the other day, and came to the conclusion that most people hit the wall around then. They also gave the increadibly useful advice that there is no ideal way to handle them, just don't eat junk food during the night, or have too much caffeine, and do what you feel like in terms of staying up or sleeping the next morning. Mind you, most of the conclusions on that show are blindingly obvious, they never tell you anything usefull. Among the other incredibly mind boggling finds this week, as the result of involved studies with a complete lack of controls: balanced diets more healthy than extreame vegan or meat- only diets! and, toilet seats best left down! Woah, who'da thunk it?

I said I was feeling more alert, I still reserve the right to ramble.

Wednesday Night Rant

2007-06-14T02:30:00.000+10:00

It's that time of the fortnight again and I'm at work on my allnighter, my second last shift before going on holiday. I came on to find a very stressed and flustered casual who had a rant about the day she'd had and then as she was leaving told me that one of the ladies had not had anything to eat and had gone to bed without putting pj's on because she had been aggressive earlier in the afternoon and the casuals didn't want to risk going near her incase it set her off. I am extreamly ticked off about this as apart from anything else it is a breach of Duty of Care. Its fair enough not to ask someone to the dinner table when they aren't safe to be around but at the very least she should have been taken something to eat in her room. She wasn't even displaying behaviour by dinner time! I had to send the incident report to my supervisor and manager as the staff that were here didn't know how to use the email, so I included a note about the client having been left in her room all evening with nothing to eat. They can do with the information as they see fit. Meanwhile I have a plate of food ready incase she wakes up during the night, but she usually sleeps through.

I can't wait to finish my shift on Saturday, I swapped from my regular 8 - 3.30 shift on Friday, which I find really hard to get up for as my sleep cycle is still out of wack from tonight, to a 12 - 8pm shift on Saturday, which gives me a sleep-in, an extra 30mins work and Saturday rates. Also fits in with the boys schedule better than my Friday shift. So a winner on all counts, and after that I'm off work until the 4th of July! On Sunday I'll be heading up to mum's to leave the cats with her, coming back Monday afternoon and then Tuesday flying to Townsville via Brisneyland. Can't wait!

This week is an exersize in using up the perishables before going away. I mentioned in my last post that I got some lovely fresh meat and seafood from the Vic Market. On Sunday night I looked through my recipe books and picked out a few I wanted to make, then on tuesday bought everything I needed. Sunday night we had salmon cutlets grilled with soysauce and served with a rice pilau. Absolutely beautiful! Today I made Trinidadian lamb curry, which is lamb marinated in lime juice, fresh coriander, chilli, garlic, cumin and curry powder, then slow cooked with tomatoes and onion until really tender, served with basmati rice and sambal (sliced banana tossed in lemon juice and dessicated coconut). Tomorrow night Chris will be taking over the kitchen with a rice meatball bake and veges. Friday lunch will be chilli calamari (half made with lime juice, half with lemon to use up the halves left over from today. Fresh coriander in that recipe too so should use that up without any trouble), and Monday night good ol' steaks and roast veges. The nights we haven't planned to cook either we won't both be home, or in Saturday's case will be finishing work too late to cook. We should have plenty of leftovers to go through on those nights, we already have some of tonights curry in the fridge, which I think will be one of those things that improves with time.

Since we have all this beautiful fresh food, I've been making an effort to eat well in general this week. There is fruit and unpopped popcorn there for snacking, and I made pumpkin scones today because the hunk of pumpkin I got from the market was way too big to use up in main meals. I haven't bought any processed junk this week, and I'm not getting any take-away if I can help it. I prefer fresh food anyway when I have the time to cook, so its not like its a hardship. Chris was tempted by Maccas on the way to the station after work tonight just for the sake of getting out of the cold, but resisted. I want to see how big a difference cutting out the processed stuff makes to how we feel, I suspect it plays a big part. I imagine we'll be eating out alot while on holiday so just as well to start fresh. Unfortunetly It's much harder to eat well on the other week of my set roster because I have four 3-10pm shifts in a row, so I don't have any illusions about keeping up the healthy eating.

Anyway, I'm going to go do stuff, I'll read over this tomorrow some time to make sure it makes a kind of sense other than crazed early morning sense.

To market, to market

2007-06-10T17:09:00.000+10:00

It's been an interesting weekend. Yesterday I changed my shift times to take a client to the footy. This had the potential to be a great outing despite the fact that I really couldn't have cared less about the match itself. It was actually a complete disaster which won't be entered into here. Moving on. Finished work at 6.30 and headed home. Chris had wanted to cook me dinner, I suspect as much to prove he could as anything else, but as we desperately needed to do a shop he settled for taking me out to a nice Chinese restaurant.

After dinner we headed round to Fi's parents place, who were away for the long weekend, for drinks and general carry on around the fire pit. It turned into a really fun night, despite Ross going home early. I was expecting Chris to pike fairly early on given he had to work today, but he actually got comprehensively drunk and stayed on until we all crashed around 3.30. Chris and I wound up sharing the single bed in the spare room, so needless to say neither of us slept particularly well, and the following morning he dragged himself up, rummaged in my bag for my car keys and somehow made it home and then to work

About half an hour after Chris left I made it out of bed, freshened up and headed off with Fi and Dan to the Queen Vic Market, which has become a regular haunt of theirs on a Sunday but which I had never been to. The reasons for never having been to this integral part of Melbourne life are varied. I suspect having a mother who has an intense dislike of crowded shopping centres and markets bordering on mild phobia has something to do with never having been as a child. Of course she was usually busy with my Autistic brother so it might not have made any difference. As an adult I simply don't as a rule spend that much time in the city, although Fi having moved to Fitzroy is changing that.

The apartment Fi and Dan have moved into is a stones throw from an abundance of pubs, cafes and trendy little boutiques, but lacking in anything resembling a local supermarket, so hitting the produce section was a focal point of the expedition. First though, general browsing of the stalls. It was fairly crowded because of the long weekend, and we got there late so we didn't browse many stalls closely, however from what I saw I know where I'm doing my Christmas shopping, and have earmarked several stalls for a closer look next time. I did make some totally unnecessary purchases; This floppy hat was my first purchase for the grand sum of $18. It's a bit big but sits nicely on my ponytail.

Next stop, $7 for toe socks. I've always liked them but never found the right pair. Fi got the same socks in hot pink stripes.

Finally a funky bag. The writing is a much clearer blue than it looks in the photo, and again, Fi got the same bag in pale pink. The damage: $5.

After the stalls it was on to the fruit and veg, where I grabbed whatever looked good that I was likely to use, then meat where I got some lovely fresh salmon cutlets, steaks, mince, diced lamb and for something different, calamari. I then followed along to the deli section, but as I don't eat cheese or much in the way of cured meats I didn't get anything there. Some of the dips and the sun dried tomato looked nice, but by that stage I was laden down with bags and not inclined to get more stuff on a whim.

All in all, a good way to spend the day. Dan dropped me home around 4, and since then I've just been relaxing, debating whether to shower, have a nap or look through my recipes.

Of Frothy Coffee and Fresh Baked Bread

2007-05-30T23:37:00.000+10:00

Well here I am on my first active night since I was off work sick. I don't know how I'll go since I'm still feeling a bit run down and have actually been going to bed before midnight lately (doesn't happen very often for me). It doesn't help that there were casuals on tonight who left the place in a mess. Ah well I'll manage. I brought the xbox with me in case I get bored, although I have a stack of paperwork to do as well as housework so probably won't use it. This is the first night shift I've had since we got the damn thing. The xbox hasn't exactly changed my life, I get sick of it pretty quickly. The boy can play it for hours which is frankly a bit of a worry.

The title of this post comes from me rediscovering my cappuccino machine and bread maker, I've used both this evening and have been making real coffee most days over the past week. Chris and I found really nice ground coffee, I'll have to add the name of it when I remember because it's one of the better one's I've tried, and I do like my coffee. After all I've grown up on nonna's expresso, 2 demitasses of which will have you swinging from the chandelier, and more then three would probably give you heart palpitations. Really should visit her just before an all night shift come to think of it. Anyway back on track, the logic behind using this as the subject of the post is that I have a few different things to talk about, and what better way to catch up than over coffee and warm fresh bread?

The biggest news this week is that my housemate is moving out soon. Chris and I asked her to a few days ago and it turned out she had already been thinking about moving on, which saved us having to go into why we wanted her out. We were able to just leave it at us wanting the place to ourselves, which is true, but its really more to do with us finally having had enough of her attitude to housework and various other issues. No need for things to get nasty though, she has started looking for other places. We have asked her to try to move out by the time we go on holidays. It will mean the rent will go up, but it has gotten to the point where her rent contribution wasn't outweighing the stress of her being there. Now that I know she's going I can't wait, I'm looking forward to the little things, like having the extra space in the bathroom and not having to worry about switching the cars around, which can be a real nuisance at times.

Chris and I are off to mum's on Friday after work, coming back Saturday night. I was going to try to catch up with friends, given that I haven't seen anyone since I got sick almost 3 weeks ago, but mum called the other night to say my brother and sister-in-law are going up on Saturday, and asking if we could come up too. We can't stay Saturday night, so we're going by train so that we can stay later, given that my fog lamps are stuffed and my headlights aren't good enough to trust on country highways at night.

Not long now til our Queensland holiday. I can't wait, winter is settling in now and it will be great to get away for a bit. While I'm at mum's this weekend we'll sort out how we're going to handle getting the cats to her place and back, other than that, everythings taken care of. We'll be going to Townsville for a week or so to start with, then to the tablelands. No idea what they're like but Chris says I have to see them. I know I could just look it up but I'm happy to be surprised. We may stay a night there depending on what his sister and brother-in-law are doing, then on to Cairns for 4 nights. We have to see one of those stupid holiday club presentations as part of the Cairns deal, which includes a beautiful hotel, a reef cruise and dining vouchers, among other things. Can't wait!

Thats all for now, hope you've enjoyed this little catch-up over coffee, we'll have to do this again some time!

Nadie
xox

Photo time

2007-05-23T16:46:00.001+10:00

Well after almost 2 weeks off work and 2 doctors visits I'm feeling better again. Hopefully I don't come down with something else tomorrow, otherwise I'm back to work. I've mainly been spending my down time taking it easy, playing games and shuffling round in my fuzzy slippers (many synths gave their lives for these slippers). Chris finds the sight of me pulling them up over my tatt to be hysterical. Something about sending mixed messages. Hrmph. Here's me thinking that they both send the message that I'm not one for following the crowd

In other news lookie what Chris got me while I was at the doctors on Monday as a bribe to get better! Finally snagged a guy who knows the value of a random pressie. Ok, so I'm a romantic. Its just nice to have a guy who'll do sweet stuff like that, instead of guys who if you drop enough hints might ask, "did you want that?".

As a follow up to my earlier post about Sumi's fondness for relaxing on top of the dining room computer, miss Suki recently decided that Sumi was on to a good thing. For a while there it was pretty much a case of who got there first, until last night when Sumi decided that, come hell or high water, she was going to sit there, and her offspring could make room or leave, so being the agreeable little person that she is, Suki scooted up to the front to make room. Once we established that the tail is not to hang where it pleases while the computer is in use, we were onto something. Sumi was lying down with just her ears visible until I got the camera out, then of course she had to sit up.

I included this last photo of the girls just because I like the look on Suki's face. Shame madam in the background had to do some critical grooming right at that instant.

Sickie [updated]

2007-05-17T14:45:00.000+10:00

I've been home sick for the last few days, I wasn't feeling too bad yesterday but as it would have been my all night shift last night I decided to play it safe and give it a miss, rather than make myself even more run down. Just as well as it turned out since I woke up this morning with a brand new set of symptoms. Will have to see how I go today and decide tonight whether to take tomorrow off as well. Went to the doctors on Monday and had blood tests done to try and figure out whats going on, just got the results back and nothing showed up.

In other news, Chris and I decided to get an xbox last week. I haven't had a games console since the Commodore 64 when I was about 6 and never really felt the need for one, but it was only $120 and I can take it with me on night shifts so what the hey! I wouldn't pay $600 for an xbox 360 and I certainly wouldn't fork out $1000 for a PS3, but the older consoles are so cheap now that I'm not fussed, and I don't really care about whether new games are available since I think they're a rip off anyway. Quite happy with 2nd hand games. The only problem now is getting Chris off it, he's become addicted to 'Need for Speed', I on the other hand, am still trying to master the controller, and excel in crashing in the racing games. Ah well. I'm slowly getting better at it.

The cats think they're on to a good thing with the xbox, but then again they think that of anything that gets their people to sit still for a while. When I'm playing Suki invariably winds up either on the arm of the couch or curled up against me. Sumi on the other hand has made it clear that Chris belongs to her. I'm not sure how we wound up with a cat each given that they've been here longer then he has but there you have it. Cats are like that though, they always have their favourite. That goes out the window when they have a sickie to take care of though, they were both very attentive while I was crook.

Flying North for the Winter

2007-05-05T13:34:00.000+10:00

Chris and I are headed up to North Queensland on the 19th of June, staying with his sister in Townsville for about 10 days then up to Cairns for 5 days, depending on if we can get the dates we want for a holiday package in Cairns, otherwise we'll probably just go there for a day or two. If we get the package then the trip includes a Great Barrier Reef cruise.

Townsville may not the most desirable tourist location in QLD, but it'll be great to get away for a couple of weeks, for Chris to see his family and for me to see where he grew up. I got along with his family when they came down so definitely not averse to the idea of staying with them. It'll also be good to escape the middle of Melbourne winter. Chris assures me the weather is nice up there that time of year.

Mum is taking the cats for the duration, so it is entirely possible that Sophie, my cat that lives with mum, will never talk to me again, either that or she'll finally accept their existence. We just need to figure out details of how they are getting there and back: whether I'll go visit mum either side of the trip or if she'll come down, and whether it's just for a day trip or to stay over.

Anyway more details to come once I get confirmation on the holiday package

Cheeky Puss

2007-05-04T19:26:00.000+10:00

This is Sumi in her new favourite spot, perched on top of the dining room computer. It's got everything a cat could want: it's generally where the people are, it's reasonably high up [a definite selling point for any cat with Siamese heritage], and it's warm. Whenever anyone uses that computer she is bound to hop up there and have a nap, stretched all the way back to the wall with just her face and occasionally a paw showing. If we ever get an LCD monitor I'm sure there will be feline riots.

It's just as well my girls are so darn cute, with the wanton acts of destruction they're responsible for. I discovered this chewed through headphone cable the other night, they used to chew cables all the time but since we bought the revolting spray I thought they had stopped.

This is Suki looking suitably contrite at the mess they've made trying to dig their way into my bedroom. Keep in mind I'm in a rental which had new carpets when I moved in. Cheeky bloody cats!

4am Ramblings

2007-05-03T03:47:00.000+10:00

Hello all, I'm on my all night shift which means its time for a catch up post. Hopefully this will be coherant as its 4am and I'm not altogether certain that my mind is funtioning on the higher levels.

Anyway, last friday was the biannual Cirque du Soleil pilgrimmage. Mum and I decided when we saw them the last time they were in Australia with 'Quidam' that we would go see them whenever they came out. They certainly never disapoint. Their latest offering 'Varekai' is visually stunning, dispite the incomprehesible storyline. My only quibble (other than the token clown filler) is that one of the most stunning performances happened to early on, and was difficult for other acts to top. If you have never seen Cirque, I strongly encourage you to do so, I am not into standard circuses (circii?). Cirque su Soliel is in a league of its own. They showcase just what the human body is capable of. Some acts are beautifully fluid and gracefull, fusing dance and acrobatics, others are fast and flashy, either way they are amazing.

After I got back home and mum headed back home to Castlemaine I had a few hours to unwind and relax before the boy got back from work. Relax? hmmph. When mum called me to let me know she was home I slammed my knee into the bed post running for the phone. While I was rolling on the bed clutching my knee I managed to grab the phone and gasp out what had happened. Once mum hung up I hobbled to the fridge to grab an ice pack and put my leg up. It came up in a decent lump immediately and as I had a big night planned for Saturday I needed to do everything I could to minimise the damage. The next day the bump had gone down and the stiffness gradually eased up over the course of the day. It was very tender to the touch for a few days and is still bruised but not sore thankfully and it was ok for Saturday night.

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival was on in April. On Saturday night, Chris and I went to see Tripod and Steven K. Amos. Tripod was good, if you've never heard of them they do musical comedy, or momedy as they call it. Very strange little people, but very entertaining. We had a couple of hours inbetween shows, so we went and had a nice dinner in China Town, which happened to be halfway between the two venues, before going to see Steven Amos at 11.30. Steven Amos is a stand-up comedian from London, and he had sell out shows pretty much every night for the whole 3 week festival, so an extra show was put on for that Friday and Saturday. They happened to announce the new shows the day we got our tickets, so we got row 6 dead centre, which in a sold out theatre of 700 people, is not bad going. He was hilarious, I think being over tired worked for him. Some of the material I had already heard him perform on TV, but it was still good stuff. Afterwards he was signing copies of his cd in the foyer, so I got a photo with him. Chris and I ended up missing the last train so we caught the night rider bus home, and got in about 3am. Bloody good night!

After my eventful Friday and Saturday, Sunday was fairly quiet, mostly spent pottering round at home. Chris came home from work early sick, and still is. He was just sick enough to warrent staying home until last night, but today (well, yesterday really - night shifts muck up my sense of what day it is) he is drastically worse, so today was spent taking care of him.

Playing catch-up

2007-04-15T02:12:00.000+10:00

Well, it's Saturday night, or more precisely, early Sunday morning, and where am I? Yep. At work. Oh the exciting life I lead, sometimes its almost to much to bare. Ah well. It was my choice to pick up this overnighter, and tomorrow nights as well. A comprehensive falling-in-heap is scheduled for monday. Joyous celebrations are scheduled for next pay day. Until then I reserve the right to grumble about lack of sleep and achey bits. After payday the topic of grumblation (well it's a word now, deal with it) shall be Mr Taxman.

Anywho, its about time I posted on the events of the Easter weekend. After work on Good Friday, Nat and I headed up to Castlemaine for the weekend. Some other friends were going to come too, but had to cancel at the last minute. This was the first time Nat had made it up to see mum's place, since for the last 2 years she hasn't had a break at the same time as me. So it was rather fortunet that this visit happended to coincide with the Castlemaine State Festival, which only occurs once every two years. During this festival all the artists in central Victoria, and a good many from much further afeild, come out of the woodwork. It doesnt matter where your interest lies. Theatre, music, and visual arts of every description. Classics, new age and everything inbetween. It was all very much in evidence. Every venue in town had something on, right down to the old mine shafts and goldrush era buildings.

Nat and I arrived at mum's at 6pm on Friday night, and after settling in, giving Nat the grand tour and introduing her to the goaty girls, we headed off to the chinese resturant for dinner, where we spend most of the meal trying to figure out what the artistic statement next to our table was about. After we got back to mum's I started idly flicking throught the program guide, thinking there wouldn't be anything on that late, only to find something that sounded interesting that started in half an hour. So off we went again into town to see a performance at one of the old pubs. The group was a trio called Vardos, and if you ever get the chance to see them I strongly encourage you to do so. They were comprised of a very animated violinist, who also introduced each number and was an absolute crack up, double bass and accordian players. They played Romanian and Bulgarian gypsy music, which was quite lively with occasional sad parts, and were captivating from start to finish. It was also good just to be doing something so far from the norm, and the cocktails didn't go down to badly either! After an intermission, a jazz group came on, which was good but not as engaging as Vardos. As it was getting late and we felt we'd definetly gotten our moneys worth, Nat and I sat out in the beer garden for a bit then called it a night.

On Saturday, after much um-ing and uh-ing over what to see that night - adult puppet theatre or an opera-jazz fusion thriller (we settled on the adult puppet theatre), we went into town with mum and Dave to get our tix only to discover that our first choice was sold out and the other had been cancelled! Ah well. After a wander around town (it was a beautiful day for it) we headed down to Victory Park to see Erth, the group that did the Ned Kelly sequence from the 2000 Olympics opening ceremony. The production, which was on every day of the festival, was set in an ancient Australian garden, with giant inflateable plants, a sinister red back spider, who spent half the time hanging upside down on aerial rigging, and stilt walking insects. It was fasinating to watch as the inflatables gradually unfolded, and David found it hilarlious when the spider came down from his rigging to grab someone, only to be eaten by a carniverous plant (complete with a very satisfied sounding burp).

At the end of the show, the performers came out to talk to the audience and invite them to have a look at the garden. The insects had changed into gardeners outfits, but the spider came out carrying his costume, so that the younger audience members could see it was a person under all of that. We got chatting with the spider, and told him about how much David had loved it when he attacked people, as he has a very visual sence of humour due to his autism. The actors response was to turn to Dave and ask him if he would like to try on the costume and be a spider! Definite brownie points for that!
So Dave posed for the camera, holding his arms out in scary spider pose, while a little boy who was probably all of about 5 announced that he wanted to be next, only to be told that 'they don't have any small enough'.

After a pleasent late lunch we went for another wander around, pointing out some of the more historical sites, such as where they used to keep the gold before sending it to Melbourne, which is now a private residence but was open to the public for the duration of the festival, and the tree that miscreants used to be chained to before the town had a lock-up, and of course the hotel where they filmed the exterior shots for Blue Heelers (what tour would be complete without that?!). We then started to head home, but got sidetracked and went to Guildford to see the Big Tree instead. The Big Tree (yep, thats its official title) is about 30m high, 35m across the canopy and has a 10m trunk circumfrence. Its estimated to be between 500 and 1000 years old so its got some pretty funky hollows and branch formationtions where multiple branches have fused together. The town has actually re-routed the roads around it because the roots were getting cramped, and moved the powerlines to avoid pruning. Anyway. Its a cool tree. We then went back to mums to relax for the evening.

Sunday we had every intention of going to the last day of festival celebrations at the Botanical gardens, but got sidetracked by the neighbors goats and ran out of time. Just as well. Mum went there after we left and ended up coming straight home because there were that many people there that cars were parked for over a kilometre in every direction. On the way home we stopped off at Malmsbury and Taradale to take photos of the bridges there for Nats dad, who is going to be involved in work on them. Pretty funky old bridges with that beautiful old stonework, especially the one at Malmsbury, which had heaps of character.

After all the excitment of looking at old stuff, it was off home to relax for a couple of hours before Easter dinner at Nonna's, where young master Riley, now 3 1/2 months old, was the centre of attention, as he should be.

I'm back!

2007-04-05T00:23:00.000+10:00

Well, here I am on my all-night shift. Its been ages since I've posted, not counting the one from 5 minutes ago so it's time for a bit of a catch up. The reason that I havn't posted is, quite simply, that I haven't had the time. In fact I've barely turned my computer on or checked my email in the last 3 weeks.

Highlights of the last month included Chris and my 6 month annaversary, which fell on Saint Patricks day. Had we realised sooner that it was St. Pats day, we probably would have made a booking, since we were thinking of going to a pub for dinner. We ended up going to one of the resturants at Knox Ozone for a lovely dinner and a couple of drinks, then to the coffee club to relax and give the booze time to wear off a bit before driving home.

Friday before last was Ross's production, his first outside of uni. It was BRILLIENT! made up of 7 adult short plays, those before the intermission, which all included ross, were light and cheeky, and my favourite included Ross as the devil in the smallest hotpants you have ever seen. I loved his interpretation of the devil, if I believed in hell, I'd want to go there. The plays after the intermission were much darker and intense, and also brillient, even though Ross was only in one of them.

After the play we went out for Fi's birthday, to the Elephant and Wheelbarrow in Saint Kilda. We got a booth to start off with, then once we were nicely drunk, hit the dance floor. Ross and some other guys from the play joined us later on in the night. All in all it was a really fun night, It was great to hang out with the guys, including some people I hadnt met before but I'm sure I'll see again. I don't hang out in pubs that often anymore so it was great to get back to it.

Apart from my annaversary, the last few Saturdays have been games night with Cass, Dave, Nat and occasionally Chris, depending on what time he's working sunday. They're generally at Cass and Daves place but last week was at mine. We play a variety of card and board games, with different games every week. Always a good time!

Sunday before last mum and David came down from Castlemaine and we had lunch at Nonnas with Stephen and my nephew Riley, now 3 months old. Since the last time I'd seen him his eyes have turned pale blue and his hair is going red. He is growing nicely, a really beautiful boy. Mum came back to my place afterward and once Chris got home from work we decided to go back to Castlemaine with mum for a couple of days until we had to come back for work. Our time up there was fairly quiet and uneventful, apart from me going to a tap dance class with mum on monday night. It was good to just relax for a couple of days, then on wednesday morning we caught the train back to Melbourne, had lunch at Spencer (sorry, *ahem* Southern Cross) station, then back home before work.

Anyway, that pretty much brings you up to date, I won't bore you with little things like staff parties, meetings and chiro. Got a big weekend coming up so check back next week sometime.

til next time, xo

the book MEME

2007-04-05T00:04:00.000+10:00

I know I havn't posted in a while, but before I get into the long and involved post of whats been happening, a bit of fun stolen from mum's blog.

If you'd like to join in, just copy the list as is. Don't add any other books to it. Bold the one's that you've read, italicise the ones you'd like to read.

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 [ Crosstitch in Australia and the UK ] Diana Galbadon
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)
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 [Only the parts they made us read in primary school]
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)

Cooking for two

2007-03-12T14:12:00.000+11:00

Its so much easier to eat right when you're living with someone. I like cooking but its just not worth it just for yourself sometimes, you end up eating leftovers for days and lots of ingredients don't come in small portions so you end up throwing out things that have gone off.

A woman I work with gave me a massive zucchini from her garden a few days ago. There is no way I could have even made a dent in it on my own. So I went out and bought a few more vegies and some cutlets, and since then have made risotto with pumpkin, leek, zucchini and baby spinach; marinated Indian cutlets (barrah kebabs) with roasted vegies; and pumpkin and zucchini scones. All of this used up a quarter pumpkin, at least part of which would have gotten thrown out had I been on my own, and about half the zucchini, which is so thick that the main meals only used up 1 or 2 inches of its length each, and the amount I grated for the scones barely made a dent. May have to knock up a stir-fry to use up some more zucchini, it's far to nice to waste and isn't showing any signs of going off.

[added later]
After looking through some of my old recipes, I've decided to make chickpea patties instead of a stir-fry. The recipe calls for 2 medium zucchinis, so what I have left should do nicely.

til next time, xo

Shopping spree

2007-03-11T17:35:00.000+11:00

I accidentally spent $100 on clothes today. They ambushed me. I swear! ok maybe not, but the main thing is they look hot and they were good value, I got a red jacket, a long black cardi/wrap thingy, and a black crochet-style loose holey top, all of which go well over a white singlet.

Clothes shopping was not actually the intended purpose of the trip, I needed to buy a going away pressie for a girl at work on behalf of the team, so I went to Chaddy after dropping Chris at work. I went to Ishka because I know she likes things that are a bit different. Got her some funky garnet earrings and bracelet, hopefully she'll like them. Since I was there I decided to have a wander around, tried out some makeup and stuff, and on the way out saw the mannequins in Jeans west looking pretty funky in the new season red and black getup, so decided to try some stuff on and then I just had to have it. Usually I hate clothes shopping, I am not the most fashionable person around, mainly because I think most high fashion looks pretty stupid on real bodies. But I do love red and black, especially together with a dash of white. No fussy prints, but give me a flattering black top over a white singlet with a red belt and I'm happy, if a little poorer.

Also got some homeopathic allergy spray and insomnia spray from the macro organic centre. Most allergy stuff is aimed at hayfever but this is supposed to target food allergies so for $13 its worth a try. I'm considering making an appointment for a consultation with their naturopathy clinic, its $65 for the first consultation, and of course that would involve them giving me a list of more things to spend money on, but they specialise in allergies, low energy and fatigue, insomnia, stress and anxiety.. the list of things that applies to me goes on. I wouldn't do a detox program without professional advice because of all my allergies, but it could potentially do me a lot of good so its worth at least considering.

All good things must end

2007-03-09T11:03:00.000+11:00

Daylight savings is nearing its end *snif*. It was still dark yesterday morning when the 7am staff came on, and I was driving into the sunrise on the way to work this morning at 7.45. I only have a couple of early starts a fortnight so the difference between one and the next is fairly obvious. I also noticed that my yard was in shadow by 5.30pm yesterday. Being the total summer bunny that I am, this does not thrill me. I love it being light til 9pm in summer, Though I'd settle for 8. Ok, 7? No such luck. We are nearing the days of darkness for another year. How depressing. I don't know how places without daylight savings cope with it. How sad to live in darkness by 6.30 year round. Still, I guess its a matter of what you're used to.

On a happier note, Tomorrow marks the start of my first long weekend (in a public holiday sense) in three years. The only public holidays I've taken off in the time I've been working for Yooralla have been New Years Eve's. Not that I wouldn't work on monday if a shift was available. It just happens to fall on my day off and other people got in first. So what am I doing to mark this momentous occasion you ask? Haven't the foggiest. I was going to go camping with some of the guys, but life interveened on their side, so I am down to my usual waiting to see whats happening. I'll be catching up with people, just not going away. I also have Easter Monday free, but at least I'm working Easter Friday. I have however managed to pick up the saturday and sunday active nights for the weekend after easter, Which is most profitable, being 22 hours all up of the active night rates over the top of the weekend rates, including 13 hours on the Sunday split between the two shifts. I'll be buggered afterwards, but I have until Tuesday afternoon to recover so should be ok. I want to see how I go with consecutive active nights incase the chance to pick them up regularly ever comes up.

til next time, xo

Here we are again

2007-03-07T23:12:00.000+11:00

Yep, its time for my fortnightly all night shift. I've been here for an hour 15 mins, the last 15 of which was spent checking out mum's blog, but I've already done most of the housework, plus the monthly paperwork. Apart from the hourly checks, there's maybe half an hours work left, which I'm saving til around 3-4am when I tend to get the figits. I'm hopeful that I should get through this shift pretty well, since in addition to sleeping in til 11am (after going to sleep around 2 or 3am), I actually managed to get a couple of hours broken sleep this afternoon. It's pretty much unheard of for me to be able to have an afternoon nap, I take ages to fall asleep. Testament to how run down I am that I could today.

Its been a fairly uneventful week since my last post, mostly spent working. Had a massage and chiro yesterday, so I'm a bit tender across the shoulders, but thats about it. Probably undid most of the good it did me by going home and cleaning up the place ready for an inspection today, then going to work and doing more damage, but oh well, hopefully still did some good.

Don't really have anything else to say so might see if I can find something to do. I'm feeling a bit restless now, don't feel like sitting down.

til next time,

Nadie xox

Those random moments

2007-03-04T14:08:00.000+11:00

Last night ended up in a very different place to where it started out.

I had no idea at the start of the day what was happening, Nat was planning on coming round, and I was waiting on various other people to get back to me. It could easily have wound up being a quiet night in front of the tv. In the evening before Nat came over I had to drop something off at Fi's that had been left at the boys place, which was cleaned out yesterday and the keys returned. I hadn't seen Fi in over a month, so naturally I stayed a while to catch up, find out what she was doing that night, etc. She and Ross had already decided to catch up that night, so they both came round to my place.

We were all planning on making it a fairly early night. That was the plan. Then around 10.30 Fi got a phone call and found out one of her old friends was back in Ballarat and having a birthday party. We wanted to go but being fairly inebriated by that stage didn't think we had a way to get there. Wrong. Larissa, the only one of us who hadn't been drinking, and also the only one who didn't actually know the Ballarat boys, decided that an impromptu road trip sounded like an excellent idea, so at 11pm Fi, Ross and I piled into her car, and off we went! The actual party was a bit of an anti-climax, as it was after midnight by the time we got there, and the guy whose party it was crashed not long after we got there, but the road trip was fun, we got to catch up with a few people and meet some new ones, and a good time was had by all. We left Ballarat just after 3.30am, and got back home just after 5am.

Its been so long since we've done something totally random like this, it was great to just pack up and go on the spur of the moment. Last night was especially good since I hadn't seen Fi in a while, and we used to do random stuff on a weekly basis. It was great to get back to that, and I think we all really needed it.