The Week Thus Far...Monday & Tuesday

Well here we are another week down the track and I don't have a lot to report but really just wanted to touch base with everyone. As much as I love only working part time it seems to me the days are starting to blur a little. It really does make the weeks go faster and the days I have off I usually have a big list of things I want to achieve and I think I have been doing an okay job of that. Finally getting the hang of my sewing but now I am finding it hard to make the time to leave the house to post off my goodies! Plus I have been speninding one day a week with mum where we go window shopping and do coffee then go home and sit together working through the family tree. I am trying to get my mum out and about more as she is finally over the hump since dad passed and already its been 2 years! She still has a cry every now and then but now she can talk about him without breaking down so thats a good sign.

Her sister and brother-in-law own heaps of vintage cars and they do vintage car rallys so they have been taking mum out on those with them. They are all people her own age so hopefully she will make friends out there! She hates leaving her two little dogs behind but she really needs to get out more and socialise which she is doing.

Anyway in the words of one of my favourite bloggers...Onwards and Upwards!

MONDAY

Another start to the work week. Mondays are generally a wasted day for me as all our Managers have to come into the office on Mondays for the staff meeting. They are generally out on the road so Mondays are usually noisy with everyone catching up on gossip, and I get passed a heap of work request forms from them asking me to do stuff for them. So whatever work I had planned for that day I can kiss goodbye until I have given the Managers everything they need. Staff meetings can be a little tedious as well especially for admin staff but it can be an insight to what is going on as well so some days are okay. These meetings will last right up until lunch time. However on this Monday we had organised a surprise morning tea for one of our young accounts girls who is pregnant and about to finish up work and go on maternity leave. She is a lovely young girl around 22 years of age so we threw her a surprise baby shower and morning tea so work stopped completely on our floor for about 2 hours! We did the usual baby shower games and even the blokes were surprised to be allowed to play. They had never been to a baby shower before and I am pretty sure they will never want to again lol...they all got an insight as to what REALLY happens when lots of giggly women get together and how naughty we can all get!!


TUESDAY

Tuesday morning became a nightmare. I drove to the train station and actually got a good parking space for a change which I thought was strange but I cheered thinking I must have just gotten there earlier than everyone else for a change. I climbed the stairs to get to the platform I usually wait only to hear on the loud speaker that there was a major police incident at Geebung station so all train commuters would be put on buses and driven past Geebung Stattion to catch the trains at the station after it. Great! That meant waiting for a couple of hours as my station is packed to the rafters with people and the buses only take so many people at a time. I debated waiting and catching a bus or actually driving myself to work in the city. I chose to drive which I think most people did hence the empty car parks!

I generally hate having to drive to the city simply because we now have toll roads everywhere and inner city bypass and overpasses and all kinds of road works going on everywhere so I went the back way because I know it best and there is minimal road works going on out that way. It is also the longest way...always quicker to drive in through the city but driving through the outer suburbs is much more scenic! It was actually a good drive because I got to work in an hour by driving whereas a normal train trip takes me 45 minutes so I did good! One of the ladies I work with had opted to be bussed so she got to work at 10:30am whereas I was only 15 minutes late for work by getting to work at 8:30am.

It turned out the incident at the train station was some poor guy who chose to ignore the train signals and ducked through a boom gate to beat the train, narrowly missed the south bound train but then got hit by a north bound train! All because he was running late. It's not the first time that has happened...these things happen all the time. Usually its cars or trucks who try to cheat the boom gates and last week we had a jumper at Roma Street and on a regular basis Roma Street gets bomb scaress and all trains have to be stopped or diverted until bomb squads arrive. I am lucky that work are okay with as a lot of us catch the same trains and if we are late they know it is to do with the trains.

Driving home was another story. I left early to try and beat the traffic and I guess the rest of Brisbane did the same! I did however finally get to go through the Clem7 tunnel. I have wanted to for ages but always missed the exit. This time I made it and to be honest I don't know why they bothered with the tunnel! Just another way to steal money from motorists is what I see. It took me about an hour and a half to get home and I had to drive home through the city bcause I missed a new exit that would have taken me home the way I came in. Boy has all that changed since I last came into the city! If you have ever driven in Sydney there are overpasses and underpasses and bridges etc and if you get in the wrong lane you end up god knows where with no chance of turning around until you get out to an outer suburb. Well Brisbane is going to end up being the same! I was feeling stressed trying to find the right exit to head me towards the Sunshine Coast and home! And I had to be sure to be in the right lane otherwise I would have ended up at the exit to the Gold Coast/Sydney! I also now know why you need to be an aggressive driver in the city as well. I actually had to literally nose my car into the next lane so I could make my exit. You really do have to barge in lol! None of this "excuse me but do you mind if I just jump in here?" It's more a case of "Hey you, I want this spot...move it or lose it bucko!" Finally I was on a familiar stretch of city road and I just cruised on home albeit bumper to bumper the whole time because the traffic was horrendous. Thankfully I have good music in the car so I was able to sing away to my little hearts content ignoring all the other drivers around me!

So there you have it. My Monday and Tuesday and today is my day off so I am still sitting in my big fluffy dressing down and my lil ugg boots. I will have to move shortly because I am dying for a coffee and I have run right out of slave boys! Plus Wednesday is my major cleaning day so I need to get up off my butt for a bit and make a start!

Some More Bags

Well as you can see I think I am getting the hang of sewing and making my bags! Still not 100% perfect but it is getting easier.

Here is the last 4 I made in the last couple of weekends. I made 3 in one day and the black one I made for my mother-in-law took me a while longer because the fabric was a bitch to work with until I got it figured out so I had to walk away at one stage as it was getting me frustrated! Once I understood how to handle the fabric it was a breeze and actually turned out the best! The aqua coloured bag was made for my daughter for her birthday, another is for my friend Shaz as a late birthday present and the brownish/grey one is the one my mum chose. I have one more bag to make for Miss Froggy as she asked ever so nicely and then I want to move on to another type of bag that I found a pattern for.

The black bag is made out of a snake skin look fabric and my mother-in-law loves it as she bought snake skin look shoes and this bag is a perfect match! And I chose a burgundy satin lining just because I liked it with the black.

At the moment I am really enjoying it and another sewing friend suggested getting myself an Etsy account and try selling but I'm not sure I am ready for that yet. I don't want to sell inferior products so when I am certain it all looks great then I will think about it!