Just a quick blog before bed. I just got a beautiful message on Facebook from N1, my gorgeous niece, that made me so happy and so proud of her :) Just recently she knuckled down and did a 15 week course to obtain her Certificate III in Child Care. This included 3 week's prac work at a childcare centre which she loved and has decided she wants to do this as her profession and will do her photography when she has the time. This may not be exciting for anyone else but believe me this is a big deal for us as since she left high school she has drifted...not interested in working, or helping around the house, huge screaming matches with mum on a daily basis and basically just staying away from home for weeks on end with no-one really knowing who she was with or where she was. Well we did sort of know she would be with the boyfriend of that period but where was anyone's guess. She is now in much nicer relationship with a really nice guy and I beleive he is changing her for the better. I'll explain more about him later as it's bed time for me and I want this to be brief :)
Anyway I bought her a little book called "Treasure Yourself" written by Miranda Kerr and I wrote a beautiful message inside from me telling her how proud I am of her and how much I love her. I finally gave it to her today when I was over at mum's. Now N1 is not much of a reader. Generally she will start a book then get bored by Chapter 2 and then just won't go back to it. I just received her message saying how much she loved the book and that since I left she hadn't been able to put it down and is going to keep it in her bag as a motivational tool. She has already marked her favourite passages and quoted a couple to me already! I had a quick glance through the book when I bought it and there were some lovely things that made me think. Just inspirational things and things that I thought would help N1's self esteem as she doesn't believe she is good at anything and doesn't think her photography is any good and hates her looks and the usual teenage anxiety things. She was amazed to read that Miranda Kerr has the same anxieties etc and had based her book on the things people had taught her.
To have N1 message tell me how much she loved the book and how much she loved me for thinking of her just made me so happy (and yes I had a cry) :) I had bought 2 of these books (we have those door to door booksellers who leave a pile of books at the office for a couple of weeks and you can order the ones you want). They were just really cheap and I already knew I would give one to N1 but I have yet to decide whether I should keep the second for me or give it away to someone else!
Anyway bed for me...busy week at the office this week so I'll keep you posted on this week's adventures! Nighty Night! xoxoxox
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
*Sneaks quietly into the world of Blogging*
Yay...it's me! Venturing briefly back into the blogging world. Still time poor and finding it hard to motivate myself these days but it's funny because I still have the urge to blog but my motivation to do so is virtually nil!
Because I was blogging only weekly I found I would forget everything I had done during the week (must have been pretty boring eh?)and even though I told myself I would jot down daily notes, half the time I was too lazy to! So I have decided to blog in an 'up to the minute' fashion and as something interesting happens and see how that pans out for now. So good luck readers! Things may get a bit haphazard and a bit random but hopefully you will cope!
Today is Friday for me...well its a Thursday for everyone else but since I have Fridays off I like to annoy my work colleagues by reminding them it is Friday and then watching as they all get excited and then it finally dawns on them it is only Friday for ME! Evil but effective :)
Received some disturbing news about eldest daughter today. Hubby rang me at work to tell me he had heard something about Daughter 1 that we are *not allowed to know*. Not sure if you remember but MM and D1 haven't spoken in about 4 years. Son told MM today but reiterated that she doesn't want us to know. Everyone else does and it is on her Facebook page anyway (well not the specifics just that something is afoot) but apparently it is a big secret. I won't go into details here in case she some day decides she wants to read this or someone else reads it but it is something that we figured should have happened ages ago anyway. MM is not sure how he feels and I asked him on the phone if it would change the way he feels about her and he said he doesn't know...he doesn't think it will although I do know without him telling me that he really wants things to go back to the way things were. She was always Daddy's Little Girl and he misses that. Anyway we will see. I sincerely hope the damage to the relationship can be repaired. She is marrying next year (we are not invited) and I know it hurts him but he won't admit to it. Men like to pretend they don't care about that sort of stuff but we all know they do hurt and being big and brave and strong means nothing.
Daughter 2 is also marrying next year. She in March and D1 in April...one month apart! D2 is not happy because it means she needs to pay for her wedding, get married, go on a honeymoon, buy a briedsmaid dress for her sister's wedding, get airfares to Tasmania where D1 is marrying and she and her hubby to be are dead broke! D1 had always planned on getting married in 2014 but because D2 is getting all the attention now decided to move her wedding forward as well! D2 we do see lots of and she has let me be involved in the wedding by sending me lots of updates on dresses/shoes etc. In fact MM and I are buying the wedding dress she has her heart set on so she is a happy girl right now! We also met with her future mother-in-law at our Mother's Day breakfast so that was really nice.
Time soon to go home...looking gloomy and miserable out there but I am so hoping that the rain will hold off until I get home. Been such a quiet day work wise but gearing up for a big week next week with our admin assistant away so it will be all hands on deck! Nothing is planned for this weekend yet although I have a lot of rooms that need a thorough clean out! I spent the last couple of weeks decluttering the bathroom and kitchen and made lots of donations to the Salvation Army of goods that I don't or have never used. Trying the minimalist approach! It's amazing how much material goods we accumulate that we really don't need or use. I have now kept all the better things and all my nice glassware I keep getting for birthdays or for my engagement is now being used. I have decided every day is "for good". We always seem to keep our nice stuff "for good" which means we never ever get to use it! Time to spoil ourselves I say!
Anyway stay safe! You may actually hear from me more regularly so keep on tuning in! Will have to change the nick names for all my family as well as their ages are all changed now!
Ciao!
Today is Friday for me...well its a Thursday for everyone else but since I have Fridays off I like to annoy my work colleagues by reminding them it is Friday and then watching as they all get excited and then it finally dawns on them it is only Friday for ME! Evil but effective :)
Received some disturbing news about eldest daughter today. Hubby rang me at work to tell me he had heard something about Daughter 1 that we are *not allowed to know*. Not sure if you remember but MM and D1 haven't spoken in about 4 years. Son told MM today but reiterated that she doesn't want us to know. Everyone else does and it is on her Facebook page anyway (well not the specifics just that something is afoot) but apparently it is a big secret. I won't go into details here in case she some day decides she wants to read this or someone else reads it but it is something that we figured should have happened ages ago anyway. MM is not sure how he feels and I asked him on the phone if it would change the way he feels about her and he said he doesn't know...he doesn't think it will although I do know without him telling me that he really wants things to go back to the way things were. She was always Daddy's Little Girl and he misses that. Anyway we will see. I sincerely hope the damage to the relationship can be repaired. She is marrying next year (we are not invited) and I know it hurts him but he won't admit to it. Men like to pretend they don't care about that sort of stuff but we all know they do hurt and being big and brave and strong means nothing.
Daughter 2 is also marrying next year. She in March and D1 in April...one month apart! D2 is not happy because it means she needs to pay for her wedding, get married, go on a honeymoon, buy a briedsmaid dress for her sister's wedding, get airfares to Tasmania where D1 is marrying and she and her hubby to be are dead broke! D1 had always planned on getting married in 2014 but because D2 is getting all the attention now decided to move her wedding forward as well! D2 we do see lots of and she has let me be involved in the wedding by sending me lots of updates on dresses/shoes etc. In fact MM and I are buying the wedding dress she has her heart set on so she is a happy girl right now! We also met with her future mother-in-law at our Mother's Day breakfast so that was really nice.
Time soon to go home...looking gloomy and miserable out there but I am so hoping that the rain will hold off until I get home. Been such a quiet day work wise but gearing up for a big week next week with our admin assistant away so it will be all hands on deck! Nothing is planned for this weekend yet although I have a lot of rooms that need a thorough clean out! I spent the last couple of weeks decluttering the bathroom and kitchen and made lots of donations to the Salvation Army of goods that I don't or have never used. Trying the minimalist approach! It's amazing how much material goods we accumulate that we really don't need or use. I have now kept all the better things and all my nice glassware I keep getting for birthdays or for my engagement is now being used. I have decided every day is "for good". We always seem to keep our nice stuff "for good" which means we never ever get to use it! Time to spoil ourselves I say!
Anyway stay safe! You may actually hear from me more regularly so keep on tuning in! Will have to change the nick names for all my family as well as their ages are all changed now!
Ciao!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
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!
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!
Monday, July 4, 2011
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!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
My Sewing Weekend
Well I decided to finally dust off my sewing machine which my parents bought me 4 or 5 years ago and I have never really used! I have been given a few bag patterns over the past couple of years and I finally decided to spend the weekend attempting one! I have never really sewn before except for a really nice patchwork quilt I made for my niece when she was a baby and it came out beautifully but having said that sewing a heap of squares together isn't really that hard!
So I took my mum and sister to Spotlight on Friday while I searched for some cute material to make my first bag. I found this really nice, snake skin look purple material. It's really glossy so it looks exactly like a skin of some kind but it is in fact a stretchy kind of material and I made the lining a black satin. The pattern said to use any kind of material but this one seemed to be just right. The button for the catch and ribbon also were just right so I was happy with the whole purchase.
The pattern was rather ambiguous in places, well for me anyway as I am a newbie at this and had to try and figure out what the pattern was trying to say. But a little bit of loginc and ignoring parts of the pattern to suit me seemed to work and I think, for my first attemps, it came up pretty good. There are a couple of bits that are a bit wonky (my dodgy sewing!) but hardly noticeable to anyone but me. Even MM declared it to be fabulous. He loves the material! Now I have made one everyone wants one so I will work my way through my list starting with my mum lol. She has even picked out her material! It should be easy now I have the pattern figured and I have my sewing machine set up perfect for me. MM is already trying to work out how much profit I can make selling them lol but I think I will leave that until waaaaay down the track when I can actually make the perfect item.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Nothing Much...
…Has happened since I last blogged. I could just blog crap or make my mundane happenings sound more exciting than they are but lately I have been feeling rather *bleah* as in “I couldn’t care less about anything right now”. I hate this kind of mood and when I get into this sort of funk it takes ages to get out of it again. I think a lot of it is because I have finally come to a point in my life where I am at a crossroads and I have no idea what I want out of life right now. It’s so weird because right now I should be on top of the world. The house is paid for and the legalities of it is all sorted, I am now semi-retired and enjoying finally having free time to enjoy life and finally we have the security to what the things we always wanted to do but never had the time or money to do.
The financial thing is still the hardest. Even though we have no mortgage now you would think the money should be rolling in but because it took every cent we own we now have to wait for the bank balance to build which it is…slowly. I guess I am just impatient! MM and I are currently making a list of all the things we want to do to the house and planning somewhere to go for a holiday. Right now I would be happy just for a weekend away! Both of us are in a bit of a rut and I think we just both need to get away for a couple of days and re-focus on our future.
Another thing I guess I am down about is all the weddings happening in the next year or 2. MM and I have been engaged for 13 years now and still haven’t had our “Big Day” but that was for financial reasons and really, neither of us was in that much of a hurry. But now this year we have 2 sets of friends who are marrying this year, both of them very short engagements. These are 2 separate couples who are in the older bride and groom category, both lots are second marriages so they will be small and simple affairs. Then in the new year MM’s oldest daughter will marry in Tasmania (of course we haven’t been invited to that one and are apparently not supposed to know about it but of course everyone already told us about it and I have since spoken to this daughter about it) and MM’s niece who is 22 years old marrying her really nice boy. And all four of these weddings will be beach weddings which has kind of annoyed me a little as I have been planning a beach wedding for 13 years and now “everyone” is having a beach wedding so ours will just be “the same as everyone else’s”. MM thinks I am crazy and says there is no reason why we still can’t have one as every wedding is different. And I know he is right but I am just being a petulant little child at the moment! *pout*
So I think I will go back to the drawing board and start again. Actually I have made enquiries about weddings in the Whitsundays as they do weddings from start to finish and we will pay for my family and MM’s family to attend and have a simple and special wedding at one of the resorts. Will depend on how much we can save. MM’s mother is not getting any better and I don’t want to make the same mistake as I did with my dad and not having it while he was still here for it.
I have however, planned to take mum to Canberra next Anzac Day and be part of the ANZAC service at the Australian War Memorial. It is supposed to be fantastic and apparently there are now photos there of dad and his Korean battalion on show there now in the new exhibit so mum is really excited about going. She really needs a trip away and my cousin lives right in Canberra and has a big house so she often tells us to come visit so accommodation will be a breeze.
October I am hoping to visit my old home town, Gladstone. Miss Froggy will be there then too so I have told MM that’s where I will be come October so long as everyone there stays put and don’t make other plans!
Dad’s 2nd Anniversary came and went. I made a really beautiful powerpoint display of photos set to one of my favourite songs to present to everyone on the day and everyone loved it! I put it on mum’s desktop of her computer so now she plays it every night before she goes to bed! Miss 17 was absolutely thrilled with it as she misses her grandad more than she lets on. I have yet to put it on a CD for her as she been having trouble playing it on her laptop. We had a small morning tea together and it wasn’t as sombre as I thought it would be. We are all moved on I think although we still miss him a lot especially at special times but the good thing too is mum is finally settled and starting to look to the future. She is taking better care of herself health wise although she is now under more stress since my sister and her kid moved in with her which is probably the other thing I am annoyed at right now!
Most of you will know my sister and also know how little I think of her. I do however adore her daughter, Miss 17, my gorgeous niece who was raised by my mum and dad. Thankfully she is nothing like her mother and even tells us all the time that she never wants to be like her mother and does everything she can not to do the things she did. Anyway my sister and her son were kicked out of yet another unit and is now “apparently” on the priority list for housing commission which I doubt considering how Brisbanites are still waiting for homes since the January floods and I am pretty sure they will get first preference.
Anyway she tells mum she will only be there for a month at the most until they place her. Three months later she is still at mum’s not paying any money towards anything. She will occasionally vacuum or wash dishes to make up for it but other than that she and her 13 year old bum off mum. My nephew, “Gremlin” I shall call him eats like a horse and spends all his days, when not wagging school, watching TV or on the playstation and refuses to get off his rear to help. He also hates his mother with a passion and it is not unknown for him to thump, kick or bite his mother and call her very rude names. My sister is covered in bruises from where he does these things but she laughs it off and as a result he continues the behaviour. He detests women. He calls my mother foul names and I have told her that she is to kick them out if it continues but of course she doesn’t want to see them on the street. Perhaps I am being a little harsh? He is yet to call me anything and I am just waiting for it because I can tell you now I won’t be laughing it off and he will be lucky to speak to me at all with his teeth on the floor. The people he listens to are my brother and my MM as both have actually put him on his butt when he has been cheeky to them so he knows not to push their buttons.
The sad thing in all of this is Miss 17 has moved out of her home for 17 years because she can’t stand having her mother and brother around. She is embarrassed by them when she has her boyfriend over so she now lives with him and his parents until such time as her mother moves out which could be never. I do think though that since she is almost 18 they will decide to find a place together. He is 20 now and working full time and his parents are rather well off and have been feeding them and letting them stay in the granny flat rent free. She has had to grow up quite quickly but as I said before is very determined to make her own way in the world and not be a leech like her mother.
Gosh I did ramble didn’t I!! Sorry!! Tomorrow is another day off and I am going to try and make my very first bag so I will be making a trip to Spotlight first thing to find my material! Hopefully I will have something to show off next blog!
The financial thing is still the hardest. Even though we have no mortgage now you would think the money should be rolling in but because it took every cent we own we now have to wait for the bank balance to build which it is…slowly. I guess I am just impatient! MM and I are currently making a list of all the things we want to do to the house and planning somewhere to go for a holiday. Right now I would be happy just for a weekend away! Both of us are in a bit of a rut and I think we just both need to get away for a couple of days and re-focus on our future.
Another thing I guess I am down about is all the weddings happening in the next year or 2. MM and I have been engaged for 13 years now and still haven’t had our “Big Day” but that was for financial reasons and really, neither of us was in that much of a hurry. But now this year we have 2 sets of friends who are marrying this year, both of them very short engagements. These are 2 separate couples who are in the older bride and groom category, both lots are second marriages so they will be small and simple affairs. Then in the new year MM’s oldest daughter will marry in Tasmania (of course we haven’t been invited to that one and are apparently not supposed to know about it but of course everyone already told us about it and I have since spoken to this daughter about it) and MM’s niece who is 22 years old marrying her really nice boy. And all four of these weddings will be beach weddings which has kind of annoyed me a little as I have been planning a beach wedding for 13 years and now “everyone” is having a beach wedding so ours will just be “the same as everyone else’s”. MM thinks I am crazy and says there is no reason why we still can’t have one as every wedding is different. And I know he is right but I am just being a petulant little child at the moment! *pout*
So I think I will go back to the drawing board and start again. Actually I have made enquiries about weddings in the Whitsundays as they do weddings from start to finish and we will pay for my family and MM’s family to attend and have a simple and special wedding at one of the resorts. Will depend on how much we can save. MM’s mother is not getting any better and I don’t want to make the same mistake as I did with my dad and not having it while he was still here for it.
I have however, planned to take mum to Canberra next Anzac Day and be part of the ANZAC service at the Australian War Memorial. It is supposed to be fantastic and apparently there are now photos there of dad and his Korean battalion on show there now in the new exhibit so mum is really excited about going. She really needs a trip away and my cousin lives right in Canberra and has a big house so she often tells us to come visit so accommodation will be a breeze.
October I am hoping to visit my old home town, Gladstone. Miss Froggy will be there then too so I have told MM that’s where I will be come October so long as everyone there stays put and don’t make other plans!
Dad’s 2nd Anniversary came and went. I made a really beautiful powerpoint display of photos set to one of my favourite songs to present to everyone on the day and everyone loved it! I put it on mum’s desktop of her computer so now she plays it every night before she goes to bed! Miss 17 was absolutely thrilled with it as she misses her grandad more than she lets on. I have yet to put it on a CD for her as she been having trouble playing it on her laptop. We had a small morning tea together and it wasn’t as sombre as I thought it would be. We are all moved on I think although we still miss him a lot especially at special times but the good thing too is mum is finally settled and starting to look to the future. She is taking better care of herself health wise although she is now under more stress since my sister and her kid moved in with her which is probably the other thing I am annoyed at right now!
Most of you will know my sister and also know how little I think of her. I do however adore her daughter, Miss 17, my gorgeous niece who was raised by my mum and dad. Thankfully she is nothing like her mother and even tells us all the time that she never wants to be like her mother and does everything she can not to do the things she did. Anyway my sister and her son were kicked out of yet another unit and is now “apparently” on the priority list for housing commission which I doubt considering how Brisbanites are still waiting for homes since the January floods and I am pretty sure they will get first preference.
Anyway she tells mum she will only be there for a month at the most until they place her. Three months later she is still at mum’s not paying any money towards anything. She will occasionally vacuum or wash dishes to make up for it but other than that she and her 13 year old bum off mum. My nephew, “Gremlin” I shall call him eats like a horse and spends all his days, when not wagging school, watching TV or on the playstation and refuses to get off his rear to help. He also hates his mother with a passion and it is not unknown for him to thump, kick or bite his mother and call her very rude names. My sister is covered in bruises from where he does these things but she laughs it off and as a result he continues the behaviour. He detests women. He calls my mother foul names and I have told her that she is to kick them out if it continues but of course she doesn’t want to see them on the street. Perhaps I am being a little harsh? He is yet to call me anything and I am just waiting for it because I can tell you now I won’t be laughing it off and he will be lucky to speak to me at all with his teeth on the floor. The people he listens to are my brother and my MM as both have actually put him on his butt when he has been cheeky to them so he knows not to push their buttons.
The sad thing in all of this is Miss 17 has moved out of her home for 17 years because she can’t stand having her mother and brother around. She is embarrassed by them when she has her boyfriend over so she now lives with him and his parents until such time as her mother moves out which could be never. I do think though that since she is almost 18 they will decide to find a place together. He is 20 now and working full time and his parents are rather well off and have been feeding them and letting them stay in the granny flat rent free. She has had to grow up quite quickly but as I said before is very determined to make her own way in the world and not be a leech like her mother.
Gosh I did ramble didn’t I!! Sorry!! Tomorrow is another day off and I am going to try and make my very first bag so I will be making a trip to Spotlight first thing to find my material! Hopefully I will have something to show off next blog!
Monday, May 16, 2011
Terrible Tuesday...
Tuesday...another work day for me. You are probably wondering why I am suddenly in the blogging mood? Because work is soooo quiet and I am soooo bored! So I resort to blogging just to fill in the hours between coming to work and going home again.
This morning's train trip was a lesson in patience. The train was broken...again...the third time this last week or so. Today it was the train door in the carriage I was on. It just didn't want to close so we had to sit at each station for five minutes waiting for the door to automatically shut. About half an hour in, some bright spark at Queensland Rail decided to lock the door, rendering it useless and thus we were happily sailing off to the city again. BUT because the train was now considered broken it would finish it's journey one stop before mine...AGAIN! So at Roma Street station our train terminated and those of us wanting to get the one station beyond that were forced to wait on an icy, wind blown platform waiting for the next train which *Surprise Surprise* was going to be delayed a further 20 minutes because one of the signals decided it was too cold to come to work today and closed itself down bringing all the trains into and leaving Roma Street station to a dead stop. *sigh* So this meant I was an hour late to work...AGAIN! There is a few of us in our office who catch the same train so at least the boss knows it is just not me! The lady who had been sitting next to me on the train was in a highly distressed state. She had never caught the train before and was going to be severely late for a very important appointment. I felt so sorry for the poor thing. We chatted for a bit and I reassured her this happened at least 2 or 3 times a week and she was shocked! It's a way of life in Brisbane really. And really any boss in Brisbane who fires an employee because they got stuck on a train is a "bum" to paraphrase Bob Hawke!
Anyway I got to finish my book while waiting to get to work. This got the lady beside me fascinating over my Kindle so we talked about that for a bit and I told her where I got mine and how cheap they are currently so I think I convinced her she needed one especially if she was going to be a regular train traveller!
I have been reading all of Charlaine Harris's books which I downloaded for the KIndle. She wrote the True Blood series about the vampires which became a TV show. The books are better than the series but its kind of weird because I saw the first 3 seasons of the series first before reading the book and the books are rather different. The main characters are the same but the TV show took a lot of poetic licence with the book and the story lines are really different. Frankly the book's storylines were so much better than the TV show.
Her new book series is called the "Real Murders Series" and is the one I am reading now. The main character is named Aurora Teagarden and it's kind of one of those corny kind of mystery stories where the main character lives in a small southern US state, she's a boring librarian with no life, no man and a member of the "Real Murders" club where they all sit around trying to solve old unsolved murder mysteries and read murder books etc. Suddenly all the members of this club start getting murdered and the main character gets caught up in it. I am now up to Book 6 and for such a small town, there are an awful lot of murders and all of them just happen to take place in the character's back yard so to speak! Very corny but entertaining reading especially on a long train trip!
Well time for me to head off and catch a train. Got to head to the shops on the way and get some supplies. Thinking about making my very own soup for dinner...what sort I haven't decided yet. It's the night for comfort food!
This morning's train trip was a lesson in patience. The train was broken...again...the third time this last week or so. Today it was the train door in the carriage I was on. It just didn't want to close so we had to sit at each station for five minutes waiting for the door to automatically shut. About half an hour in, some bright spark at Queensland Rail decided to lock the door, rendering it useless and thus we were happily sailing off to the city again. BUT because the train was now considered broken it would finish it's journey one stop before mine...AGAIN! So at Roma Street station our train terminated and those of us wanting to get the one station beyond that were forced to wait on an icy, wind blown platform waiting for the next train which *Surprise Surprise* was going to be delayed a further 20 minutes because one of the signals decided it was too cold to come to work today and closed itself down bringing all the trains into and leaving Roma Street station to a dead stop. *sigh* So this meant I was an hour late to work...AGAIN! There is a few of us in our office who catch the same train so at least the boss knows it is just not me! The lady who had been sitting next to me on the train was in a highly distressed state. She had never caught the train before and was going to be severely late for a very important appointment. I felt so sorry for the poor thing. We chatted for a bit and I reassured her this happened at least 2 or 3 times a week and she was shocked! It's a way of life in Brisbane really. And really any boss in Brisbane who fires an employee because they got stuck on a train is a "bum" to paraphrase Bob Hawke!
Anyway I got to finish my book while waiting to get to work. This got the lady beside me fascinating over my Kindle so we talked about that for a bit and I told her where I got mine and how cheap they are currently so I think I convinced her she needed one especially if she was going to be a regular train traveller!
I have been reading all of Charlaine Harris's books which I downloaded for the KIndle. She wrote the True Blood series about the vampires which became a TV show. The books are better than the series but its kind of weird because I saw the first 3 seasons of the series first before reading the book and the books are rather different. The main characters are the same but the TV show took a lot of poetic licence with the book and the story lines are really different. Frankly the book's storylines were so much better than the TV show.
Her new book series is called the "Real Murders Series" and is the one I am reading now. The main character is named Aurora Teagarden and it's kind of one of those corny kind of mystery stories where the main character lives in a small southern US state, she's a boring librarian with no life, no man and a member of the "Real Murders" club where they all sit around trying to solve old unsolved murder mysteries and read murder books etc. Suddenly all the members of this club start getting murdered and the main character gets caught up in it. I am now up to Book 6 and for such a small town, there are an awful lot of murders and all of them just happen to take place in the character's back yard so to speak! Very corny but entertaining reading especially on a long train trip!
Well time for me to head off and catch a train. Got to head to the shops on the way and get some supplies. Thinking about making my very own soup for dinner...what sort I haven't decided yet. It's the night for comfort food!
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