...is my theme for this week. I don't know if it is because I am getting older or what but I have suddenly decided that life is too short for petty grievances and all the silly things that people get their knickers in a twist over. Of course there are some not-so-silly things that upset people and I have a couple of those but I am willing to live and let live and it's time some people get off their high horse and learn to forgive.
I guess I got to thinking about it all last week when I was feeling very down and thinking way too much. It's always a bad thing when I think too much. I am a very sensitive type person and I tend to think about regrets, and trust me I have had a few! The majority of the regrets are things that were my fault. I am big enough a person to own these things and to acknowledge that I brought some things on myself. I have spent my life trying to be a good person, or at least the best person I can be. Sometimes situations arise where I am not a nice person but that is something I have learnt to live with. It's not a deliberate thing and hey...who's perfect eh? Anyone who says they are is a liar in my book.
Anyway...Bridge No. 1. Last week I made contact with a dear friend who I haven't had much contact with in close to 6 years. We worked together in our last job and became very close friends. When Andrea and her boyfriend moved into a house near ours, MM and I made up a huge grocery basket of goodies for them and the kids because they were struggling and doing it pretty tough. We all got on great. Her kids were the greatest and well Andrea and I were like soul mates. We both had to endure the office bitches at our old job who were making life hell for a lot of the staff and Andrea and I were the only two who stood up to them and well, they made our life even more hell until both Andrea and I quit our jobs and got the jobs we have now. Needless to say those two old OB's are still miserable where they are and Andrea and I have moved on from strength to strength. Andrea was there for me knowing how much I wanted to have kids but couldn't and just helped me through a lot of personal stuff.
Then one day we just stopped talking to each other. For no real reason except our lives both went for a turn in a different direction. Andrea and her boyfriend split. Then one day out of the blue she announced she found someone new and was pregnant. It shocked me beacuase she always swore she would never have more kids and it was one of the reasons she and the old boyfriend split because he wanted kids (he had none) and she didn't want more. So I think, if I was honest with myself, I distanced myself from her because she was having the very thing I really wanted at the time. A baby. Definately not her fault but not something I could deal with at the time. So I kept making excuses and we just eventually went our separate ways. She found me on Facebook eventually and we started chatting again until last week I decided enough was enough. I had to make amends and it turned out that for the last 6 years we have been working in the same street and never knew it! How we never ran into each other I'll never know. But tomorrow (Monday), I have arranged for us to have lunch together and finally catch up. A few weeks ago she and her now husband moved 2 streets away from us as well which I never knew but it explains the car that always beeped when it drove past! So hopefully we can get this friendship back on track. I'm not proud of myself for being that way with her and I even admitted to her that was the reason I stopped seeing her. But the loyal friend that she is actually blamed herself! She said she had a feeling when she told me she was pregnant that she could have done it in a better way because she realised it would hurt me. And she never held it against me. She always knew when I was ready we would talk again. And I am glad that I did it! So the lesson here is that a true friend will take the good with the bad and they never give up on each other.
Bridge No. 2 - Eldest stepdaughter. Now I know I have told you about how MM had cut daughter No.1 from his life and we just found out she just got engaged to the Dick from Hell who is currently working in Darwin for the next 6 months leaving Daughter 1 at home by herself. I haven't told my MM yet but I decided to message her on Facebook just to congratulate her on her engagement because to be honest I am tired of the two of them being so stubborn. There is a lot of anger and hate there still although MM occasionally will reminisce about this daughter as she was always daddy's girl and he will pop up with a story about the two of them when she was smaller. I thought she would ignore me because I removed her from my friends list 2 years ago after Dad's funeral because she got drunk just after it and was sprouting all kinds of rubbish on Facebook and I had to remove her from mum's Facebook account as well because poor mum definately didn't need to hear the crap she was going on with. At the time I wrote her a nasty message in her inbox telling her to get over herself and to leave us alone etc. And that was the last we heard from her.
To my surprise I got a nice message back a couple of days ago and we chatted again about the last two years. She refuses to talk about her father and when ever I try to bring him into a conversation she changes the subject. She is aware I cannot stand Freak Boy. In fact none of MM's family like him at all because he is sullen and just won't speak. She can do so much better than him. But that's her problem. I'm hoping, once I tell MM, that I can organise a coffee date or something like we used to in the old days. She is so much like her mother...she loves playing the part of the victim and I wish she could see past all that and realise what she would miss if her dad was to be no longer around.
Anyway that's my week thus far in a nutshell. The weekend I spent cleaning out the office and filing (yuk!) and I have a desk again! Yay! Now the accountant will have some spare space to work on when she comes in this week to do the BAS for MM. She wants to retire some time soon and she will be teaching me how to use MYOB and do the BAS each quarter. It's not hard as I have done it before but it's been a while!
Anyway everyone have a great week! Sorry for the yawn fest but there is just not much excitement in this here neck of the woods!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Happy Birthday Shaz!!
Happy Birthday to a Dear Friend who had a birthday yesterday (Sunday). I know she reads this page so I just wanted to let her know I was thinking of her. Good friends are hard to find and we have been friends now for 30 years! Yes the time has sure flown by!
Happy Birthday Shaz! Hope you had the best day ever!!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Another Slow Week...
You would think, wouldn't you, that now I have all this spare time on my hands, my days should be action packed and filled to the brim with lots of lovely, exciting things that I have done! Right? But no...it's been slow. But don't get me wrong. I am absolutely LOVING having days off. I am in a happier frame of mind these days and not feeling quite so stressed about all the things I had planned to do but not done yet.
Although this week was different. I wasn't happy...at all...and I have no idea why. I was in an argumentative mood with MM all week so because I was being snippy with him, he was being snippy with me, which made me feel unloved and unappreciated and feeling even more angry with everyone and wondering what the heck was going on. And it wasn't even THAT time of the month! I figure it might be a weather change thing because I know of a couple other girl friends who have been feeling exactly the same so maybe that's it. My mood swings went from being extremely pissed off to being really down in the dumps and crying at the drop of a hat to just giggling at random silly things. I'm sure MM was secretly planning to having me committed at one stage!
Anyway, Tuesday night was the turning point. We both seemed to mellow. We cooked dinner together (which is something we normally do anyway) but I had decided to do Dad's chicken chow mein which has been a long time favourite of mine since childhood and was my dad's specialty. So as we chopped and stirred and tasted together we talked about Dad, we talked abouth the future now the house is paid off and we had just such a nioe time. Once Mr 21 got home from work we served it up and being a cold night it was the perfect meal. This meal has always been a comfort meal for me and because it warms you from the inside it makes you feel good. So the three of us chatted happily around dinner, MM teasing Mr 21 as per usual and just generally having some good laughs.
After dinner we cleaned up then MM and I veged out to watch some of the TV shows MM downloads. We don't watch TV at all much because there is usually nothing on we like. MM downloads a lot of new TV shows from the States that generally don't get aired here or don't air until about a year after the States! We have always both enjoyed watching Survivor and Amazing Race because well, they are funny and we pick our favourites, cheer the ones we love and boo the ones we hate lol. Then we will both try and pick holes out of the strategies of the teams who play. It's pretty much as much a game for us as it is for the contestants! There's a few other shows that have yet to air in Australia that we enjoy watching.
After we got tired of TV we both sat on the computer watching old video clips of our favourite artists on You Tube. Wow talk about going down memory lane! MM and I share the same taste in music so we found our favourites and sang along and even slow danced at one point to our favourite Dr Hook song "Years from now" which MM had played for me when we first met. So yeah we shared some more nice memories until it was time for bed and then...well some things need to stay sacred!
So that was my week and my weird mood was over! Just like that...
Mother's Day was the only other event this week worth mentioning. We did the Mother's Day breakfast at our local sports club with my mum and MM's Mum and all the family. It's a buffet breakfast for $11 and really good value and so much to eat! It usually does all of us until dinner time! My kids bought me the flannellette PJ's I wanted...purple with pink and blue butterflies, and a soft fluffy purple dressing gown, and so nice to wear! The nights are cooler here now so I can now lounge around and be warm! I love it!
Tomorrow (Friday) is my day off and no plans as yet although I do want to catch up on some craft stuff. I'll let you know next blog what I end up doing! Ciao for now!
Although this week was different. I wasn't happy...at all...and I have no idea why. I was in an argumentative mood with MM all week so because I was being snippy with him, he was being snippy with me, which made me feel unloved and unappreciated and feeling even more angry with everyone and wondering what the heck was going on. And it wasn't even THAT time of the month! I figure it might be a weather change thing because I know of a couple other girl friends who have been feeling exactly the same so maybe that's it. My mood swings went from being extremely pissed off to being really down in the dumps and crying at the drop of a hat to just giggling at random silly things. I'm sure MM was secretly planning to having me committed at one stage!
Anyway, Tuesday night was the turning point. We both seemed to mellow. We cooked dinner together (which is something we normally do anyway) but I had decided to do Dad's chicken chow mein which has been a long time favourite of mine since childhood and was my dad's specialty. So as we chopped and stirred and tasted together we talked about Dad, we talked abouth the future now the house is paid off and we had just such a nioe time. Once Mr 21 got home from work we served it up and being a cold night it was the perfect meal. This meal has always been a comfort meal for me and because it warms you from the inside it makes you feel good. So the three of us chatted happily around dinner, MM teasing Mr 21 as per usual and just generally having some good laughs.
After dinner we cleaned up then MM and I veged out to watch some of the TV shows MM downloads. We don't watch TV at all much because there is usually nothing on we like. MM downloads a lot of new TV shows from the States that generally don't get aired here or don't air until about a year after the States! We have always both enjoyed watching Survivor and Amazing Race because well, they are funny and we pick our favourites, cheer the ones we love and boo the ones we hate lol. Then we will both try and pick holes out of the strategies of the teams who play. It's pretty much as much a game for us as it is for the contestants! There's a few other shows that have yet to air in Australia that we enjoy watching.
After we got tired of TV we both sat on the computer watching old video clips of our favourite artists on You Tube. Wow talk about going down memory lane! MM and I share the same taste in music so we found our favourites and sang along and even slow danced at one point to our favourite Dr Hook song "Years from now" which MM had played for me when we first met. So yeah we shared some more nice memories until it was time for bed and then...well some things need to stay sacred!
So that was my week and my weird mood was over! Just like that...
Mother's Day was the only other event this week worth mentioning. We did the Mother's Day breakfast at our local sports club with my mum and MM's Mum and all the family. It's a buffet breakfast for $11 and really good value and so much to eat! It usually does all of us until dinner time! My kids bought me the flannellette PJ's I wanted...purple with pink and blue butterflies, and a soft fluffy purple dressing gown, and so nice to wear! The nights are cooler here now so I can now lounge around and be warm! I love it!
Tomorrow (Friday) is my day off and no plans as yet although I do want to catch up on some craft stuff. I'll let you know next blog what I end up doing! Ciao for now!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Another quiet week...
It seems I have hardly been at work for the past two weeks! I finally went back today. The days I am meant to be working have all fallen on public holidays so I seemed to have worked that out well! Last week I only had one day in the office and this week I only have today and Thursday! Almost feels like being on permanent holiday! Plus I get paid for them!
At home I have really just been spending all my time cleaning through the house and gathering up unwanted items to put on our garage sale which is going to have to happen real soon as I have great piles of stuff and MM is starting to get a bit cranky about it all. Never mind that a lot of it is old computers and parts and other things he couldn't sell in the shop so it will all go cheap on the garage sale. Will be nice to see it all go! We're still trying to toss up which room in the house will be the first to be remodelled. At the moment the consensus is that the upstairs bathroom needs to be totally ripped out and started again. Being a house of the 70's the decor in there is horrendous and all we did when we first moved in 12 or so years ago was rip down the horrid brown paisley wallpaper and my dad painted it a nice lemon colour for me which looked nice considering the horrendous brown timber cupboard and ugly sink top. The shower is a bathtub/shower combo which is horrible especially as we get older and will eventually have problems being able to step up and over the tub to get into the shower! We are planning to rip out the current tub/shower cubicle and get the shower placed under the window at the opposite end of the room and this will make it a bigger shower as well. We want the shower to run along the entire end wall like the one we encountered in a hotel we stayed at once...it was really nice and actually had two shower heads...one at each end! That's the dream anyway along with more modern tiles and something to lighten the whole room up...it is always so dark and dismal in there! It's not a huge room but for what we want it will suit fine. It currently has a huge sink and cupboard, most of which we don't use (just the two of us now) plus a huge mirror right across and really we don't need it now. It was perfect though for when the 2 girls lived with us as all three of us girls do be in there doing make up and be out of each other's way but way too big now. MM reckons he doesn't need a mirror to do his hair as he knows where his head is! Funny boy!
This week MM and I are re-doing our wills especially now the house is paid for. He wants to cut Daughter Number 1 out of it as she is now a non-entity and we haven't seen her since my dad's funeral. We just found out from our son that she is now engaged to marry the freak who is the reason she is no longer part of the family so that has caused a bit of anguish. There is a long story connected to the whole thing and probably best explained in person. Not something I really want to discuss here but needless to say MM now only has two kids not three. Friday we will visit the Solicitor to deal with the final paperwork for Registering the Title Deeds for the house with the Lands Dept. The bank wants us to keep it with them for an annual cost but it was suggested by friends we seek legal advice which we now have and they will do all the running around for us and hold the Deeds for no cost with them in a secure box so we are doing that. They will also update our wills for no extra cost. All up it will cost around $250 which wil be paid to the Lands Dept and also pay the Solicitors fee which we thought was pretty good and we decided it would make it easier as we have no clue what we are supposed to do now and the bank keeps confusing us so we figure leave it to the experts! I always figured you paid for your house and all was good but there are papers to be signed and documents to be lodged with different places...no-one really explained to us exactly what needs to happen! We are thinking now of buying a block of land with a view to build a little down the track so we will wait and see...the house is too big for us now and we want something low set especially as we get older and now is probably the time to do it but first I want to enjoy being debt free for a bit!
My niece, Miss 17 got her test results back regarding her panic attacks and her heart problems. She now has to go to the Cardiologist at the Royal Brisbane Hospital for further tests as they have spotted some abnormalities. She is scared out of her wits poor kid but they are saying this is also the cause of her panic attacks...her heart stops, she can't breathe and because she can't breathe her body seizes up and she panics which then places more pressure on her heart! They were going to put her on anti-depressants but we talked her out of those as I don't think kids her age should be on those and now the doctor thinks she doesn't need them now anyway which is good.
Things with her and mum have settled down a great deal. They are actually being civil to each other and their relationship is back to the loving one they had before dad passed away. Mum has become more accepting of Miss 17's boyfriend and that has helped. He keeps her calm and makes her a much more relaxed person. He still spends way too much time at mum's house. Mum reckons he should be paying board because he eats, sleeps and showers there about 3 or 4 days out of every week! The other half of the week Miss 17 sleeps at his house! It's a good arrangement for them but not too sure about the parents!
Anyway I guess that's all the goss from me for the moment. Oh yeah I spent Friday afternoon/night watching the lead up and then THE Wedding of the Century! I am a romantic and I love that sort of thing but it meant MM spent the night downstairs on the computer because he had no interest in it at all poor love! I didn't care...I had my champers and my nibblies to myself and I chilled out and watched and marvelled at how beautiful she looked. It didn't seem that long ago when we were watching Princess Di's wedding. Was it really 30 years ago??? *Ouch*!!
Wow...just about to post this and a flash storm has just hit here...the lights flickered and then a big *boom* of thunder...hope it clears up before this afternoon...don't fancy trying to get a train home in stormy weather especially since the trains don't like to get wet! Thank goodness tomorrow (Wednesday) is a day off for me.
At home I have really just been spending all my time cleaning through the house and gathering up unwanted items to put on our garage sale which is going to have to happen real soon as I have great piles of stuff and MM is starting to get a bit cranky about it all. Never mind that a lot of it is old computers and parts and other things he couldn't sell in the shop so it will all go cheap on the garage sale. Will be nice to see it all go! We're still trying to toss up which room in the house will be the first to be remodelled. At the moment the consensus is that the upstairs bathroom needs to be totally ripped out and started again. Being a house of the 70's the decor in there is horrendous and all we did when we first moved in 12 or so years ago was rip down the horrid brown paisley wallpaper and my dad painted it a nice lemon colour for me which looked nice considering the horrendous brown timber cupboard and ugly sink top. The shower is a bathtub/shower combo which is horrible especially as we get older and will eventually have problems being able to step up and over the tub to get into the shower! We are planning to rip out the current tub/shower cubicle and get the shower placed under the window at the opposite end of the room and this will make it a bigger shower as well. We want the shower to run along the entire end wall like the one we encountered in a hotel we stayed at once...it was really nice and actually had two shower heads...one at each end! That's the dream anyway along with more modern tiles and something to lighten the whole room up...it is always so dark and dismal in there! It's not a huge room but for what we want it will suit fine. It currently has a huge sink and cupboard, most of which we don't use (just the two of us now) plus a huge mirror right across and really we don't need it now. It was perfect though for when the 2 girls lived with us as all three of us girls do be in there doing make up and be out of each other's way but way too big now. MM reckons he doesn't need a mirror to do his hair as he knows where his head is! Funny boy!
This week MM and I are re-doing our wills especially now the house is paid for. He wants to cut Daughter Number 1 out of it as she is now a non-entity and we haven't seen her since my dad's funeral. We just found out from our son that she is now engaged to marry the freak who is the reason she is no longer part of the family so that has caused a bit of anguish. There is a long story connected to the whole thing and probably best explained in person. Not something I really want to discuss here but needless to say MM now only has two kids not three. Friday we will visit the Solicitor to deal with the final paperwork for Registering the Title Deeds for the house with the Lands Dept. The bank wants us to keep it with them for an annual cost but it was suggested by friends we seek legal advice which we now have and they will do all the running around for us and hold the Deeds for no cost with them in a secure box so we are doing that. They will also update our wills for no extra cost. All up it will cost around $250 which wil be paid to the Lands Dept and also pay the Solicitors fee which we thought was pretty good and we decided it would make it easier as we have no clue what we are supposed to do now and the bank keeps confusing us so we figure leave it to the experts! I always figured you paid for your house and all was good but there are papers to be signed and documents to be lodged with different places...no-one really explained to us exactly what needs to happen! We are thinking now of buying a block of land with a view to build a little down the track so we will wait and see...the house is too big for us now and we want something low set especially as we get older and now is probably the time to do it but first I want to enjoy being debt free for a bit!
My niece, Miss 17 got her test results back regarding her panic attacks and her heart problems. She now has to go to the Cardiologist at the Royal Brisbane Hospital for further tests as they have spotted some abnormalities. She is scared out of her wits poor kid but they are saying this is also the cause of her panic attacks...her heart stops, she can't breathe and because she can't breathe her body seizes up and she panics which then places more pressure on her heart! They were going to put her on anti-depressants but we talked her out of those as I don't think kids her age should be on those and now the doctor thinks she doesn't need them now anyway which is good.
Things with her and mum have settled down a great deal. They are actually being civil to each other and their relationship is back to the loving one they had before dad passed away. Mum has become more accepting of Miss 17's boyfriend and that has helped. He keeps her calm and makes her a much more relaxed person. He still spends way too much time at mum's house. Mum reckons he should be paying board because he eats, sleeps and showers there about 3 or 4 days out of every week! The other half of the week Miss 17 sleeps at his house! It's a good arrangement for them but not too sure about the parents!
Anyway I guess that's all the goss from me for the moment. Oh yeah I spent Friday afternoon/night watching the lead up and then THE Wedding of the Century! I am a romantic and I love that sort of thing but it meant MM spent the night downstairs on the computer because he had no interest in it at all poor love! I didn't care...I had my champers and my nibblies to myself and I chilled out and watched and marvelled at how beautiful she looked. It didn't seem that long ago when we were watching Princess Di's wedding. Was it really 30 years ago??? *Ouch*!!
Wow...just about to post this and a flash storm has just hit here...the lights flickered and then a big *boom* of thunder...hope it clears up before this afternoon...don't fancy trying to get a train home in stormy weather especially since the trains don't like to get wet! Thank goodness tomorrow (Wednesday) is a day off for me.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
By Request...
Here is a couple of photos which were originally just on slides. I scanned them into a jpeg file and now they are ready to be printed.
These are probably my favourite pictures of me as a little one! This was when we lived in a one room shack at Tannum Sands...its amazing to see how different it was in the days we lived there compared to now! These haven't been fixed yet...if you open the photo right up you can see what I am dealing with age wise but with Photoshop I can erase all the age marks and negative wear and tear and make them look like new again!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Short & Sweet...
Blog for this week is very short as it was a really quiet Easter and long weekend. Feeling the pains of having no money until next pay day! I know...it was all for a good cause as all our money just paid off our mortgage but its sad having 5 days off and nowhere to go! Still I made the most of it.
I got caught up on decluttering the house. I now have a beautiful clean craft room again and I have cleaned out a whole heap of cupboards in MM's office ready to rip out the old wardrobe that used to hold all our stationery supplies and other odds and sods. MM has someone coming in to build some proper cupboards and benches so the room will look like an actual office instead of a bedroom which is what it was when we first bought the house and never could afford to renovate it! We are planning a garage sale very soon as I now have boxes and boxes of stuff to sell so hopefully we will make enough to be able to afford to tile the floor which will make the room look awesome!
MM also bought me a new scanner as the old one died suddenly. I was so disappointed to see the old one go as it was one of those that turns slides and negatives into photos. Over the past couple of years mum gave me boxes of her old slides to do and it was quite tedious as it only did one slide or negative at a time. But this new scanner is brilliant! Now I can do 5 slides at a time and a whole roll of negatives in one go. So in one day I actually scanned 2 big boxes of slides (about 275 to be exact) into jpeg files ready for printing out. Mum was so excited as a lot of the slides were from 1965 and had never been printed to photos. Now mum has a CD of photos ready for her to print out and do whatever she wants with them. Was really nice to see all my old baby photos and photos of my first birthday with mum and dad...was a real walk down memory lane!
My next task now is to scan 2 huge folders of negatives from MM's photography days when he was a professional photographer. As he used to develop his own photos there are hundreds of negatives he never bothered doing and I found 3 or 4 that he actually won awards for and there is one which actually used to hang in the Brisbane City Hall. Not sure if it is still there but I now have the photo!
I also did a bit more work on Dad's book. He left a couple of reams of handwritten notes for me to decipher so I am working my way through them in the hope of one day putting them all into a book for family and friends. I am envisaging it taking a couple of years! Along with the notes is his old journal which is full so it might be a while!
Easter Sunday was quiet. The kids went to their mother's for breakfast so it was just MM and myself. After the kids got back we went on a drive to visit my mum and MM's parents which pretty much took up the rest of the day. Got loaded up with choclate so came home, watched a few more episodes of "Cold Case" and pigged out on choclate for a bit. Still have heaps left over and I am already over choclate! I have never been that much of a choclate lover. If it is there I will eat it but it's not something I go out of my way to buy. Occasionally MM will buy me a nice block of choclate if he is schmoozing up to me for whatever reason but other than that I can take it or leave it.
Anyway today (Thursday) is my only day of work this week. I should have just had the whole week off instead of coming in one day but at least there is no choclate here!
I got caught up on decluttering the house. I now have a beautiful clean craft room again and I have cleaned out a whole heap of cupboards in MM's office ready to rip out the old wardrobe that used to hold all our stationery supplies and other odds and sods. MM has someone coming in to build some proper cupboards and benches so the room will look like an actual office instead of a bedroom which is what it was when we first bought the house and never could afford to renovate it! We are planning a garage sale very soon as I now have boxes and boxes of stuff to sell so hopefully we will make enough to be able to afford to tile the floor which will make the room look awesome!
MM also bought me a new scanner as the old one died suddenly. I was so disappointed to see the old one go as it was one of those that turns slides and negatives into photos. Over the past couple of years mum gave me boxes of her old slides to do and it was quite tedious as it only did one slide or negative at a time. But this new scanner is brilliant! Now I can do 5 slides at a time and a whole roll of negatives in one go. So in one day I actually scanned 2 big boxes of slides (about 275 to be exact) into jpeg files ready for printing out. Mum was so excited as a lot of the slides were from 1965 and had never been printed to photos. Now mum has a CD of photos ready for her to print out and do whatever she wants with them. Was really nice to see all my old baby photos and photos of my first birthday with mum and dad...was a real walk down memory lane!
My next task now is to scan 2 huge folders of negatives from MM's photography days when he was a professional photographer. As he used to develop his own photos there are hundreds of negatives he never bothered doing and I found 3 or 4 that he actually won awards for and there is one which actually used to hang in the Brisbane City Hall. Not sure if it is still there but I now have the photo!
I also did a bit more work on Dad's book. He left a couple of reams of handwritten notes for me to decipher so I am working my way through them in the hope of one day putting them all into a book for family and friends. I am envisaging it taking a couple of years! Along with the notes is his old journal which is full so it might be a while!
Easter Sunday was quiet. The kids went to their mother's for breakfast so it was just MM and myself. After the kids got back we went on a drive to visit my mum and MM's parents which pretty much took up the rest of the day. Got loaded up with choclate so came home, watched a few more episodes of "Cold Case" and pigged out on choclate for a bit. Still have heaps left over and I am already over choclate! I have never been that much of a choclate lover. If it is there I will eat it but it's not something I go out of my way to buy. Occasionally MM will buy me a nice block of choclate if he is schmoozing up to me for whatever reason but other than that I can take it or leave it.
Anyway today (Thursday) is my only day of work this week. I should have just had the whole week off instead of coming in one day but at least there is no choclate here!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Freedom at Long Last!!
Wow...Seems the last time I blogged was back in January around the time of Great Brisbane Flood 2011! I was off work for 3 weeks over that time as our building had flooded and the office re-located to the south side of Brisbane which made it hard for those of us wh live north side to get to work considering a lot of the roads were out and the bridge out near where I live was broken. (Still is nearly 4 months later but more on that later!). So I was given the option of coming to work and having to catch 2 trains and one bus each way every day or to take leave for 2 weeks. The first week was given to us fully paid up to compensate for our pain and suffering! Nice :) So I chose to take leave which I had accrued bucket loads of anyway.
By the end of January we were back in our slightly smelly and damp building but now near the end of April all the renovations are nearly complete and its like there was never any water anywhere! Mum's house was saved...no water came up to the back thank goodness as we were a little worried as there was so much water! But now life goes on, Brisbane is rebuilding and we are back to normal. It's still very annoying near where I live though as the Petrie Mill bridge is a 2 lane each way thoroughfare for those of us who live on the northside to get to the city. It was completely closed for a few weeks after the flooding which meant peak hour traffic in the mornings and afternoon was horrendous as everyone had to divert to the highway which even out of peak hour time is bumper to bumper. It was taking people 2 - 3 hours longer to get to the city which was at a crawl. Eventually they opened up one lane each way on our bridge and it is still chaos. I run the risk everyday of missing my train as with the one lane closed there are hundreds of peak hour commuters trying to merge into one single lane. Needless to say road rage is a wonderful start to everyone's morning!
There was one day because the traffic was so bad, cars started to come down my street where I live because it leads to the bridge as well and people assumed it would be quicker. Hah! It was even worse! And what made it worse for me was I could not get out of my own driveway and sat for an hour just up the street from my house before finally getting out. No-one could move and no-one could to get out. Finally after nearly 2 hours I got to the roundabout at the end of my street turned around and worked my way back home having decided I wasn't going to bother to go to work! What a day! But now nearly 4 months later the Council have not even touched the bridge and traffic snarls continue. There is plenty of equipment sitting there and has sat there since January, but not a Council worker is in attendance anywhere. What is ironic is that after the huge earthquake in Japan, their major highways were ripped apart and it apparently took them only 48 hours to repair them to a useable level and yet here we are, 4 months later and one little bridge, which doesn't even really look damaged too badly, is still sitting and waiting. *Sigh*
Anyway enough of the doom and gloom for now.
My good news is last Wednesday I made my FINAL MORTGAGE PAYMENT!! So exciting! It has taken 12 and half brutal years of no spending, no holidays, no nothing but I'm thinking now it is worth it. Of course we have absoloutely NO MONEY right now as everything we had went into paying it all off but give it a month or two and we will have some savings. What a relief. Plus at the end of February I went part-time with work so I am now semi-retired. I can't see myself giving up work completely as we still have general living expenses to pay and neither of us is old enough to claim a pension but working three days a week is heaven. I work Monday, Tuesday and Thursdays and have Wednesday and Fridays off. MM makes enough money with his business to pay the general household bills associated with his business from home so all in all I think we will do just fine. I do want to work closer to home though so at the moment I am using my time off to find closer work because the 45 min travel each day to work is really tiring now.
With the time off I am finding my days are busier than before! We are now going to start renovating and my project at the moment is going through each room and de-cluttering. Its amazing how much junk we have accumulated over the nearly 13 years we have lived here. So I am being really brutal and getting rid of everything. I am going to organise a garage sale on the next clear and fine weekend we have as mum has also been decluttering her house so between us we should have heaps to sell! Mum is hoping to sell enough to get herself a new garden shed as her old one is falling apart and all dad's old tools are getting damaged and weather worn. My share is going towards the holiday MM and I will eventually go on although we now have to start saving again as our holiday fund went into the mortgage! So wish us luck!
I forgot to mention that during the January troubles, my niece, Miss 17 ended up moving in with MM and myself. She and my mum were going through some very serious issues with each other. Neither could bear the sight of the other and the fighting had reached a head to a point where I had Miss 17 on the phone to me sobbing about how much she hated it there and then when MM and I went over to see what was going on, Miss 17 was in her room sobbing and my mum was sobbing her heart out in the lounge room. So I went to talk to Miss 17 while MM calmed down my mum and had a talk with her to find out what was going on. In the end nothing was solved, neither would look or even talk to the other without screaming at each other so I told Miss 17 to pack up some things and she was coming to stay with us for a while to give her grandmother a break. Neither of them fought that idea so Miss 17 moved in with us. I think the biggest trouble is Miss 17 is a teenager and doing what teenagers do best by being disrespectful, treating mum like her personal slave and bank, being demanding, not helping out around the house, wanting to have her boyfriend around all the time and then being shitty because mum was annoyed about not having any notice the boyfriend was coming and so no meals were organised. All this while mum was upset about the house, worried about paying the bills and feeling angry and sad that dad wasn't around to help her out with these issues. Mum was just feeling very much alone and on her own and really Miss 17 is not her daughter and should not be mum's responsibility. Mum agreed she just needed some space and some alone time and just time to do what SHE wanted to do and not have to run around after a 17 year old. MM and I talked quite a bit to Miss 17 over the course of her stay and it was good for her too and for us to know she misses her granddad badly and she knows she is being a bitch to her grandmother but she carries a lot of anger and we worked through that with her.
After 2 weeks with us she began to miss her grandmother and I took her and mum out to coffee one day, the first time they had spoken in 2 weeks and they hugged and genuinely missed each other so we let Miss 17 go home and she has been there ever since. Things have gotten better although they quarrel from time to time but now Miss 17 always apologises and tries to make it up to mum. She does a little more around the house, not much but a little, is looking for full time work now she has decided not to study and spends a lot of time with her boyfriend.
Her weekends are devoted to her photography and she gets a lot of paid jobs now. Mum got her a heap of business cards so she does work for people as well as getting paid jobs modelling herself. A couple of weeks ago she was offered a job modelling in New York all expenses paid! She was allowed to bring 4 people with her although they had to pay for their own air fares but accommodation was paid for. She wanted to take me and Ray lol. Unfortunately she had to turn it down as they only gave her 10 days notice and none of us has passports but they told her to get a passport and they may find more work for her. So you never know!
So I think roughly that's my life since Christmas. I have more to tell but it's home time for me so I'm off to catch a train. Catch you all later!
By the end of January we were back in our slightly smelly and damp building but now near the end of April all the renovations are nearly complete and its like there was never any water anywhere! Mum's house was saved...no water came up to the back thank goodness as we were a little worried as there was so much water! But now life goes on, Brisbane is rebuilding and we are back to normal. It's still very annoying near where I live though as the Petrie Mill bridge is a 2 lane each way thoroughfare for those of us who live on the northside to get to the city. It was completely closed for a few weeks after the flooding which meant peak hour traffic in the mornings and afternoon was horrendous as everyone had to divert to the highway which even out of peak hour time is bumper to bumper. It was taking people 2 - 3 hours longer to get to the city which was at a crawl. Eventually they opened up one lane each way on our bridge and it is still chaos. I run the risk everyday of missing my train as with the one lane closed there are hundreds of peak hour commuters trying to merge into one single lane. Needless to say road rage is a wonderful start to everyone's morning!
There was one day because the traffic was so bad, cars started to come down my street where I live because it leads to the bridge as well and people assumed it would be quicker. Hah! It was even worse! And what made it worse for me was I could not get out of my own driveway and sat for an hour just up the street from my house before finally getting out. No-one could move and no-one could to get out. Finally after nearly 2 hours I got to the roundabout at the end of my street turned around and worked my way back home having decided I wasn't going to bother to go to work! What a day! But now nearly 4 months later the Council have not even touched the bridge and traffic snarls continue. There is plenty of equipment sitting there and has sat there since January, but not a Council worker is in attendance anywhere. What is ironic is that after the huge earthquake in Japan, their major highways were ripped apart and it apparently took them only 48 hours to repair them to a useable level and yet here we are, 4 months later and one little bridge, which doesn't even really look damaged too badly, is still sitting and waiting. *Sigh*
Anyway enough of the doom and gloom for now.
My good news is last Wednesday I made my FINAL MORTGAGE PAYMENT!! So exciting! It has taken 12 and half brutal years of no spending, no holidays, no nothing but I'm thinking now it is worth it. Of course we have absoloutely NO MONEY right now as everything we had went into paying it all off but give it a month or two and we will have some savings. What a relief. Plus at the end of February I went part-time with work so I am now semi-retired. I can't see myself giving up work completely as we still have general living expenses to pay and neither of us is old enough to claim a pension but working three days a week is heaven. I work Monday, Tuesday and Thursdays and have Wednesday and Fridays off. MM makes enough money with his business to pay the general household bills associated with his business from home so all in all I think we will do just fine. I do want to work closer to home though so at the moment I am using my time off to find closer work because the 45 min travel each day to work is really tiring now.
With the time off I am finding my days are busier than before! We are now going to start renovating and my project at the moment is going through each room and de-cluttering. Its amazing how much junk we have accumulated over the nearly 13 years we have lived here. So I am being really brutal and getting rid of everything. I am going to organise a garage sale on the next clear and fine weekend we have as mum has also been decluttering her house so between us we should have heaps to sell! Mum is hoping to sell enough to get herself a new garden shed as her old one is falling apart and all dad's old tools are getting damaged and weather worn. My share is going towards the holiday MM and I will eventually go on although we now have to start saving again as our holiday fund went into the mortgage! So wish us luck!
I forgot to mention that during the January troubles, my niece, Miss 17 ended up moving in with MM and myself. She and my mum were going through some very serious issues with each other. Neither could bear the sight of the other and the fighting had reached a head to a point where I had Miss 17 on the phone to me sobbing about how much she hated it there and then when MM and I went over to see what was going on, Miss 17 was in her room sobbing and my mum was sobbing her heart out in the lounge room. So I went to talk to Miss 17 while MM calmed down my mum and had a talk with her to find out what was going on. In the end nothing was solved, neither would look or even talk to the other without screaming at each other so I told Miss 17 to pack up some things and she was coming to stay with us for a while to give her grandmother a break. Neither of them fought that idea so Miss 17 moved in with us. I think the biggest trouble is Miss 17 is a teenager and doing what teenagers do best by being disrespectful, treating mum like her personal slave and bank, being demanding, not helping out around the house, wanting to have her boyfriend around all the time and then being shitty because mum was annoyed about not having any notice the boyfriend was coming and so no meals were organised. All this while mum was upset about the house, worried about paying the bills and feeling angry and sad that dad wasn't around to help her out with these issues. Mum was just feeling very much alone and on her own and really Miss 17 is not her daughter and should not be mum's responsibility. Mum agreed she just needed some space and some alone time and just time to do what SHE wanted to do and not have to run around after a 17 year old. MM and I talked quite a bit to Miss 17 over the course of her stay and it was good for her too and for us to know she misses her granddad badly and she knows she is being a bitch to her grandmother but she carries a lot of anger and we worked through that with her.
After 2 weeks with us she began to miss her grandmother and I took her and mum out to coffee one day, the first time they had spoken in 2 weeks and they hugged and genuinely missed each other so we let Miss 17 go home and she has been there ever since. Things have gotten better although they quarrel from time to time but now Miss 17 always apologises and tries to make it up to mum. She does a little more around the house, not much but a little, is looking for full time work now she has decided not to study and spends a lot of time with her boyfriend.
Her weekends are devoted to her photography and she gets a lot of paid jobs now. Mum got her a heap of business cards so she does work for people as well as getting paid jobs modelling herself. A couple of weeks ago she was offered a job modelling in New York all expenses paid! She was allowed to bring 4 people with her although they had to pay for their own air fares but accommodation was paid for. She wanted to take me and Ray lol. Unfortunately she had to turn it down as they only gave her 10 days notice and none of us has passports but they told her to get a passport and they may find more work for her. So you never know!
So I think roughly that's my life since Christmas. I have more to tell but it's home time for me so I'm off to catch a train. Catch you all later!
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