Red Hat farewell

The girls decided to give me a going away morning tea and we travelled to Woodsford to CJ's bakery. Lynette who owns it had bought purple mugs for the occassion and we had any coffee and a cake for $6. Everyone went and picked their cakes and then gave me their coffee order and the money which I then gave to the head waitress. The service was brillant, there were eighteen of us and I reckon that we all had our coffees in about ten minutes. There is a great dress shop up there as well and she caters for red Hatters. there was a great orange dress winter long sleeved on the 50% rack which I am thinking about, it was priced at $49.95, still deciding about another trip there to try it on. Anyway during the morning tea, I was presented with a gift of a fan (coals to Newcastle!) but it had a dragon on it and a swing tag to go on my name badges with Dragon Lady on it so that is my new name/title. i took along my book to show people and a couple of girls asked if they could buy a copy! I said no but they could read it if they wished.

Gold Class

On Sheri's suggestion, Warren's birthday present was gold class tickets at Chermside and we went this morning. He had chosen to see the The sapphires, good choice. It was an excellent movie, based on a true story and at the end they had a photo of the four girls as they are now. Sitting in a darkened theatre being waited on with fries and coke and later devonshire tea but with coffee was very relaxing and a treat. We had the foot rest up but only discovered the back went back too at the end oh well, we didnt need it.

Pampered!

Sheri bought me a pressie. She said i probably needed to be de-stressed after having looked after Aidan for two years. i drove to Albany Creek to Bella Spa and had a very relaxing time. First was the back massage and she did find a sore spot, down low on my right side, maybe i have twisted it a bit. Lots of creams and finally a warm towel, then she left me to put on a fluffy gown and wander down the hallway to the facial room. everything was sudued lighting and mood music, no traffic noise or any other noise. The facial was a mini! well a full facial I dont know what else could be in it. Then there was a scalp massage, which was only for a few minutes and then dressed and down the hall again. It was feet time! Nice warm bowl of water with rounded rocks, cut my nails and filed the bottom of my feet then they were put into hot paffin wax inside a plastic bag and then a warm sock. Nice cream rubbed into my legs up to my knees, finally I picked the colour of the nail polish. i was drawn to a bright blue green colour and decided to go for it. my toe nails are quite small, i think (got to have something small!) and the colour just pops! what did we do without that word Pops! Anyway I just walking around with no shoes on to show off my painted toe nails. Gee, dont I have pretty toes!

Ekka!

My first trip to the Ekka! Aidan had to go to the hospital for his port, blood tests and an exray for his five year medical appointment. Always knew that the port and bloods weren't going to be good. After we left the car in the hospital car park and walked down to the ekka. I only took $40 with me and I didnt even think of the cost of entry fee, which was $26 but Sheri bought a familt ticket and then I gave her $25 and i bought a dagwood dog for lunch so I actually came home with some money as the show bag that I bought warren, i used a card.
it was a good day to go as it wasn't a special day, very few school were there so we were able to walk around at our liesure. The Woolworths tent area was the place to go, lots of free tastings of foods. Loved the helgas slice, like bread but can be used as pizza bases, sandwiches etc. The pet place was good too, saw a great cat, it was like a dog in the way that it loved being scratched etc, I think it was a Tonganese cat. Jordan and I walked to the petrol station with the show bags as we didnt want to go back through the hospital. But gee, i was tired afterwards.

Warren's birthday

We decided a couple of weeks ago to go into town for a nice lunch, a week later I realised that it would be his birthday. we delivered Aidan to school and went off to catch the train, It was a freezing day and we had light jackets on, luckily we had heavier jackets in the car so we changed into those. i drove and parked at the usual spot on top of the shopping centre giving us a ten minute walk. Got to town and we walked thru the mall and had coffee at yuppy place, they have brought out a menu so we decided to have fruit toast to share. It was cut in half and a real doorstop. Continued on to the river and caught a Cat and went all the way up, intending to have lunch at Riverside on the way back. It took longer than we thought but it was pleasant on the boat, we did go and stand out on the front for a little while and got windswept. Lunch time and we walked along the foreshore, heading to a seafood place which was up two stories, got up the stairs only to read that it was closed for a private function. Opposite was another place and the dishes started $25 and went up. warren said too bad its my birthday so lets blow the budget. Had to walk thru and down to the hosts desk, when Warren for a table for two, they said "Oh, you'll have to go on a waiting list" there were plenty of seats available. I looked at my watch and saw that it was 12.20 and we wanted to be back at the station by 1pm so said we didnt have time to wait. Visited DVA and was told that they were 8 weeks behind so that means I wont get my card in time to buy my meds cheaply before China. Dropped into a food court to grab something to eat and use the toilet, making a beeline for the station and Warren says we can turn here and go this way, it didnt seem right to me but I wasnt recognizing anything anyway so we did that, suddenly we were at Uni gates.  I saw a taxi rank and said we can grab one of those, his nibs were concerned about how we got there and the station wasnt far away. My concern was the time it was already 1.10 and we had to get a train back to Strathpine, walk to the car and then drive to the school. we got the taxi and were only five minutes late but the bus had been early. It was cold, lunch was awful, got lost, had fish and chips for dinner, boat ride was pleasant, that was the best part of the day. havent got Warren a pressie yet but told him that I will take him to Gold class movies next week. Yucky movies though, only one decent is the Sapphires and I want to see that but i should give him the choice shouldnt I?

Strawberry jam

I read on the Down to earth blog about making your own SJ. It sounded easy and as Warren cant eat all brands of ham, i decided to give it a go. I bought two punnets of strawberries and the sugar but I didnt have any suitable jars. I waited til I was at Sheri's, she had jars. Ended up with a kilo of strawberries and I cut out some of the sugar. Its okay a little sweet and havent set quite enough. Made three jars, left one here and it has been going into Jodans mikl shakes as he loves strawberries. Between us we are aiming for him to put on between 1.5 and 2kilos before next clinic, in the first week, he put on 700 gms, what a star! and he hasnt complained about having skantishakes. Three pots cost me about $12 and I have sugar and jam setter over. At the strawberry farm on Wednesday, they were selling same size pots of jam for $8!

Bus trip to Eumundi

i had organized a bus trip to Eumundi for Red Hats. Kangaroo buslines had advertised a trip but I was doubtful that we could all get on it as once its filled that it so i had contacted them re getting a small bus just for us. Woohoo, saved $30 each by doing so but we did have to buy our own lunch. $59 and $57 for pensioners for trip, lunch and tours but for us it was $22 each but we did charge $25 just in case we couldnt fill the bus. I went to the depot as some were starting from there, the receptionist looked at me in horror when I said that we were going to Eumundi and asked how many, I said 23, "Argh" she gasped and walked out the back. I was thinking about plan B if they didnt have a bus, she came back all smiles and said that she hadnt known about the seperate bus and it would be ready in about five minutes. thank goodness for that. Uneventful trip up and very quick, we were there in under an hour from morayfield, we set a time to be picked and wandered off. Coffee was first on the agenda, wow there was such a lot to see! some of the girls wanted to meet for lunch so we arranged to have lunch at the pub at 12.30pm. i bought what looked like a dress and was persauded to try it on, looks like a dress but far too short, I think i will get a lot of wear from it. Quite diferent from what i usually wear and its paisley so will go with lots of other colours. We had almost four hours there and I'm sure we didnt see everything, picked up and went to the ginger factory where I bought some ginger sauce for cooking, love the stuff. Then people were talking about the strawberry farm and we said that wasnt on the plan but bus driver said he would take us there. No-one picked strawberries, a few bought a couple of things, I guess it was a nice stop and something else to cross off the "must go there one day" list. As it was our fourth birthday, i had bought small gifts for the girls and handed them out on the way home. Lynne had also made emboirdered tissue bags with each one's intial on them. Everyone seemed to have a good time so it was decided to look at another trip for next Feb when I will be home. have a quote to go to maleny in Feb and its cheaper only $20 and thats allowing a small fudge factor.

Yay! Book is finished

I met my quota last November for nanowrimo with a day or so to spare. 51,000 words give or take a few. Didn't look at it again til after holidays in Feb then I edited it, found some errors and a couple of pieces that I decided to rewrite because the sentence structure was wrong. Two months it took me, twice as long as it did to write the thing. Then I asked Warren to read and edit it too, he did about 90 pages in four months! Sunday i decided to wait on him no longer and finished it off and wrote an epilogue as well. Asked Warren to format etc so that I could send it to Create space to publish it. Sheridan and Jordan visited in the afternoon and his nibs asked Sheri to do it as she knew what to do. Tadaahh! she sat down and did it and its now been sent off. Certainly wont set the litery world on fire but it has some of the family stories down on paper.

"Friends"

Last week I took the boys into clinic and Aidan was mumbling in the back seat, when i asked him what he said, I got the reply, "I'm not talking to you" He was apparently talking to someone else who was in the back seat with him. Monday we set off to get petrol and Aidan wanted "Donalds" for lunch, I said that I would take him to Hungrey Jacks as it was on the way, between petrol and fruit market. On the way, we had a disscussion on who was in the car, Mick was sitting with him. AD asked if I knew Mick, I asked if Mick had been at Poppy's house, yes, he said, he was cutting trees. Lots of chat in the back and no he informed he was not talking to me but he was talking to Mick. In the car park at HJ's I was told that Mick was just behind him, I asked how big was Mick, Mick was apparently the same size as Adian. Tuesday going home, Jim had joined Mick in the car to go to our place. Picked up a few food stuffs and while driving to the library, Aidan informs me that Mick had not got into the car then a few minutes later, he was there. I asked how he got there, he run very fast and opened the door while we were stopped at lights. He was abit naughty for not coming with us. That is the last (so far) that I have heard of Mick or Jim for that matter.

Twenty Wishes

A few weeks ago i read a book from the library titled "Twenty Wishes" It told the story of five women from a smallish town, all were widows, they were part of a book club and decided to get together for the holidays which were noramlly family get-togethesr. The main character was in her thirties and she had married a man twenty years older than her, he had children and stated before they were married that he wasnt interested in more kids. She was happy to go along with that but five years later her bio clock was ticking loudly. They argued over it and finally spilt, living apart for nine months but starting to come to terms and meeting again when he died, a car accident or heart attack. Anyway the five widows spent Thanksgiving or something together and decided that they should set themselves a target of twenty wishes that they could work towards as something for themselves. The book followed the MC and one of her wishes was to volunteer somewhere, one of the pther widows helped her with that as she did reading at a local school so that was one wish down. MC found it difficult to come up with 20 wishes, it took her a few months to put it in writing. Of course one of her wishes was to have a child and it does come true but not in the way she or the reader expects. I guess the book had quite an effect on me as I have been thinking about twenty wishes myself and also finding it hard to come up with a list. One wish that I did have was to go on another cruise and figured that if I didnt talk about it to anyone then nothing would happen. I mentioned it to Warren and probably nudged him in the right direction and he has booked a cruise for my sixth birthday. Thats a win win situation as i get what i want and he doesnt have to think of anything more for my 60th. Now to work out the other nineteen, maybe it does show that I am pretty content with my life. writer was debbie something and I have ordered a couple more of her books to read.

A Pensioner!

As of two days ago I am officially a pensioner. I qualified 31st of July on my fifty nine and a half "birthday"  Yesterday when I arrived home, there was an official looking letter waiting for me. Not that straight forward for every thing to go smoothly, they need more information! surprise, surprise! DVA had sent out the forms required, just a Part B and so that was what we filled in. I say "we" as I opened the letter and then Warren did the rest, he having the experience from his own. Yesterday's missile stated that Part A and Part B need to be lodged together, Part A is our bank details, assets and  trips to the loo each day (so they can track water usage lol). Part A from Warren's they already have and we wronged assumed that they would use that but no. It seems that each person is treated as an indivual BUT partners income etc etc are counted as well. At least, it was only ten days since lodgement day so we''ll see how much longer it takes until i receive any money. Warren's took five months, one can only hope its less. I would love to have it before I need to get my months worth of pills to take to China. $300+ down to $60, bring on the pension card! Pension, the word, gives me a bit of a giggle and sends Warren into a funk! While in China, he was doing a crossword puzzle, in bed and I was reading. He says I need help, What! I say being very obsorbed in my book. Well, I need a word for guest house, its seven letters and starts with a "P". I say "Pension". He says "Guest house" "Yes, pension". A few more words were said and then he got the dictionary in disbelief and to his astonishment, found that another word for guest house is pension! Admittly it is a French word but none the less, I was right. I told him that came from being very well read, tongue in cheek. He promised never to doubt me again, yeah, right, we'll see.

An Aidanism this morning

 Aidan had insisted on taking a drawing book and pencil. That was okay, I said he could do it on the train. He also sat in the waiting room at the embassy and proceeded to draw. He tells me that he is going to write a letter to Great Nana, I say ok, next breath he says, "Oh, no sorry she is died" where on earth did he get that from, so I suggested that he write a letter to Grandma. He wrote in his book all the time I was at the counter.

Visa application

We received our formal letter of invitation to teach last week, they were needed to apply for a visa. Friday after dropping the boys at school, I venture into Brisbane city. I had two things to do, go to the visa place and then on to the DVA and drop off the paperwork for my pension. DH had printed off maps of each place. I over shot the mark on both of them, very few places have building numbers displayed. Well, I certainly got my exercise. Visa place tells me I need a copy of medicals which we had sent to China,luckily Warren had copied them and had on file. DVA is in the BOQ building, another long walk and had to retract my steps. In the meantime I had found a discount souniver shop and bought a few things to take over. Six wristbands with Aussie flags on them being one item 6 for $10, bargain! Got home and showing Warren what I had bought (also got a soft toy, an Emu for Andy and Maise' baby) there were no wristbands in the bag, dont know if I had dropped them or they were not put in the bag in the first place. At the station while waiting for a train, I wanted a drink and went to self serve dispenser, put in my $3.20 and nothing happened, pressed the reject button, though that I might as well get my money back if I could, $4.50 spat out, then a guy walked over and asked what drink I wanted, I said a zero coke, he hit the button and one came out. I guess that meant that I was only $2.20 out of pocket cos of the bands.Took Aidan with me this morning with the medicals, knowing where to go made a big difference. He was excited but got sick of me hanging on to his hand all the time although he agreed that there were lots of cars and trucks.After the visa place, when he asked if we were in China, There were photos of Chinese icons, Chinese people and difference languages spoken so it was a fair comment.We went to King George Square and he posed at several statues. Had an early lunch at HJ's, we were the only white people, all others looked Chinese but at least the ones who left took their rubbish to the bins.

Out of the mouths of babes! (or little people).

Yesterday I had promised Aidan that we would go to Go Wild as we had been home for two days straight while the A/C was being fitted. Off we go and the car park in almost deserted, strange! Blacl plastic on the doors and dirty big locks and a note, to say that the locks had been changed due to outstanding debt. Aidan wanted to go to "Donalds" but that was back the other way, I presuaded him to go to Strathpine shopping centre and play in the shopping playground as it was raining. We walked around the shops and of course went past Millers, as I went to go in, Aidan, "Do we have to?" "Yes,  we do if you want to go and play after" "Oh, Okkkk!". many pairs of pants but none had pockets in them or only fake pockets, I need pockeets. Then there was a rack with jeans! and a sign $10. Humm, am I a size 14 still or should I look at 16's, decided to try them on. I take AD into the change room with me and he sits on the pouffe facing the wall, I thought he was cranky and asked what was the matter. He said "I dont want to see you naked Nana". I told him that I had a long top on and I was only trying on jeans so he wouldnt see me "naked". He was very happy when I bought the jeans and left. Naked indeed!

Home in daylight Yay!

This week i have been driving home and it has still been light outside. I have needed to have the lights on as I drive thru some wooded areas but it was light, so nice. Summer is on its way also some of the days that we have been having, it does seem a way off yet.

Christmas in July

It was so nice having a Christmas in winter. We had corn chowderwith olive bread at first, the boys had chicken wings. Then two roast chooks, baked ham and roast veges. I wanted to make a potato bake but Warren wanted to make a pot salad so I said fine as long as he did it. I almost forgot to put it on the table. Roast veg and green beans, I had also made gravy for the chicken and a spicy apple and tomato sauce for the ham. Then we bought out the pressies which of course the boys loved as there were nerf guns in each of their bag of goodies, they went outside to play while adults sat and chatted. my planned essert didnt work out, luckily I had bought a tiamasu from Aldi and I sliced that, added a spoonful of homemade icecream, some panna cota, passionfruit and a couple of marshmellows and Bob's your uncle. the kids left about 5.30pm and we were putting away the table and stuff when S & boys come back for a left phone and pills. Warren suggested ordering a pizza but we just pigged out on left overs. Corn chowder for lunch today and cooked chicken to do something with for dinner. tonight. Rob rang later and Warren told him what we had done so I had to sent a message to say that a box of goodies were being to them. I have everything but havent made moccassins for Ryan, may have to get my act into gear and make them and then I can send it on Friday. They wont be qable to use the Alma Park Zoo pass that I bought for them too, damn if you do and damned if you dont! I probably caused them not to get here by buying one for them as well. Oh, well, Aidan and I just might have to use it.

Corporate box at the footy

The boys were invited to take part in a guard of honour at the footy, Brisbane Lions match and we were asked if wanted to go as well. Well, of course, as the week went on, it got better, had a seat in a corporate box, had car parking, Jordan was asked to do the coin toss.
saturday evening arrived and we were early to the game but did have a bit of trouble finding the parking and the traffic was getting busy, thank goodness we had left early. Boys were lined up and then someone draped Lions scraves over them. The main woman realised that she didnt have a fifty cent coin, so asked around, I had one so it was transported out to the middle. After the Lions ran thru the banner, then the kids went thru and Aidan jumped up to grab it and got coat hanged and fell on his bum, it hurt! and he had to come off the ground with a lady he didnt know as Jordan had to then go out to the middle. It was too far away to Jordan but at least he featured on the big screen and Warren got a photo of that.
When Jd came off, we were escorted to the box. Sheri was organising to set up a credit card account to buy dinner, couldnt pay cash, when a big tray of pies arrived 16 in all. Later drinks came and then ice-creams, all I guess from BOQ. Leather footballs came for the boys and a goodie bag with stickers, ballons and a goal clacker thing. It was a good night, weather was good and it did rain but we were under cover so that didnt matter. Brisbane were winning til about the last ten minutes, it would have been an upset if they had won but it would have been nice to get a win.

Back to work

It was a bit hard getting out of bed after staying in bed in the warm until 8am or so during the holidays. Finally got going at 7am, little later than usual and I wanted to, I prefer to leave home between ten and five to seven, makes it easier with the traffic, also I miss any roadworks as they usually dont start until 7 or 7.30. Got stopped at Narangba but only while a truck was turning into the station car park where they are doing some roadworks.Bit low on petrol so I told AD that we had to go out and get some when it warmed up. He didnt really want to get out of his pjs but I said he couldnt go shopping in pjs. Petrol prices were down to 127 when I drove to work and I got a tank full for $1.24, its easy to be excited over 1.24 when it has been around 150 for ages. Shopped for a couple of things at Aldi, saw the puppies at the pet store, no kittens, then drove to the play ground. While AD played on the swings, I walked around the car park a few times with AD calling out to me. Home for a late lunch. Ad said he wanted a pajamas day today so he hasnt got dresses and we have stayed at home, it is a miserable day out. I did some washing but its not going to dry. AD wanted pizza for lunch so I made that and he ate most of it, JD can have the rest for afternoon tea.

Jandowie trail bike ride

In the lead up to the weekend, Wazza was preparing/planning a way to take camper van and bike with only one car. I told him that I would rather not go than borrow a car. He bought a piece of channel iron and tied it to the tow bar of van, was going to bolt it but rope secured it good enough. The idea was to push the bike, only weighing 105 kilos, up and into the channel. We practised seveal times and strapped it on. Eleven o'clock on Friday morning, we set off, right on time! I had prepared lunch to have on the way, the campsite opened at 3pm. Uneventful run but thankfully there are now two lanes open on the Blackbutt road, speed still is 40 kms for a few kms but no stopping, what a bonus! Pulled into camp at 3.45pm just as they were placing the thunder boxes around the area. Single ones in a semi circle, woo hoo, they were flushing and even had a sink inside with running water to wash hands. Cooked dinner of sausages in bread at 5pm as we had no light except a torch, we got into bed at 6.45pm as we thought that it would be warmer there. People were rocking up for several hours and hammering in pegs. Ride got off about 11.15am, Warren had gone down to Robert & Melody's camp about 10.30 but as they were getting ready to go, their tent blew over the car doing some damage. Luckily the guys were all there and able to fix it.Lunch was late a staek sandwich, had to walk about 800 mts over thick tufted grass. Saw the trail bike on video that night while we ate hot chips. Pancakes and strawberries for breakfast ( I took it from home already mixed) felt quite special, a smaller ride on Sunday then packed up and left for home. Dalby maccas was paid a visit again, busy place that and I drove for a couple of hours, not notable difference with the extra weight. back home just before 6pm.

Eumundi

Drove to Eumundi to check out lunch places. What a nice little town, we saw where the markets are held and there are big shady trees covering the area. It is just off the main street and heaps of places to eat. We choose a Thai place and a $10 special with a pot of ginger tea and sat out on the veranda which was covered. After we wancdered back to the car and stopped at some interesting shops like a glass blowing art gallery, it was closed but couldnt have afforded to buy anything anyway, stunning work though. Book lovers heaven was a little further on, OMG what a bookshop. New and second hand books but definately not tatty, two or three nooks where there were some comfy chairs or sofas to curl up with a good book and one alcove led to a coffee bar. One could have spend several hours there. I did buy a few books even though I dont need any more but they looked interesting, could have gone silly but I will be up there again in August.

Red Hats Day

This month was here at home, twenty women. I counted up my chairs several times and planned where to place them. Everyone fitted and some including me stood for the morning. It was a show and tell type gathering, with everyone asked to bring along something that they had created. When I suggested it, I imagined people bringing something small but no, one lady brought six or seven quilts full size ones. they were nice but not really to my liking, she spread them out on the floor one by one and then thankfully she packed them up again. Most people had brought something or things. I trotted out my book and several people asked if they could buy a copy! It is now on loan with some waiting to read it. The day was also a swap day bring along clothing that no longer wanted/needed or wore. I had some purple stuff and three pairs of shoes that I had not worn, all three ladies who took the shoes offered to buy them, I said no to that and that if they didnt take them, I was taking to Vinnies. More clutter gone! I put out some extra clothes hangers and one lady took two of those, they were cane ones that I had bought years ago in Canberra, cost me $1.50 each. She came back to her seat and said oh, I 've got these, they will be so handy! I didnt have the heart (or guts) to tell her  they werent actually to take. I thought well, I do have plenty of coat hangers.  Another funny thing happened, I was keeping the jug boiling and as people arrived, asking if they would like tea of coffee. I had bought extra tea and coffee, one lady said I dont usually drink coffee, only tea. I said thats fine, theres tea there, she said oh no, its not opened so I''ll have coffee. How dumb, so i opened the tea and said well, its open now, which one do you want. She told tea! Some people, honestly.  Lesley and Maureen stayed behind and washed all the cups which was nice then we had another cuppa and they left about 1.30.

Landsborough by train

Sunday was a great day and we set off by train to have lunch at Landsborough. Thirty minute trip, got off the train and walked for about 800 metres round the bend to the cafe, need to know that it is there or it would be missed. last time we went it was closed for renos and it has had a name change, dont know if it is a management/owner change as well. We ordered lunch, warm Thai salad for me and a Thai club sandwich, dont think it was all Thai but just the things that we picked and we went into the garden room to wait.There was a large table of older people there with old fashioned musical instruments having a sing along. They were playing mainly Celtic music with banjo, squeeze boxes and ukalaylee. added to the enjoyment of the afternoon, home by 2.30 just in time to watch the footy. 

back to de-cluttering

Opened the kids room to put something away and noticed some magazine boxes. Stuff in there that I havent looked at, though of or needed in over three years since I changed my sewing room back. Four boxes quickly became one and eveb that could be too much but it can stay for awhile. we have decided to have a garage sale at the end of the month so the excess furniture will stay until then. I know i have a bread baker that has hardly been used. Dont know if we have enough stuff for a garage sale but I guess there is some stuff. well, coffee has been drunk so time to get back to it.

Shopping, what a nightmare!

As we are having Christmas in July and it was toy sale time I went shopping this morning. OMG, it was like the week before Christmas, so so busy. I also went to the bank and sorted out my own sign in thing for net banking. The guy told me that he was the same as me and didnt realise until he started work at the bank. it was a very long walk to Big W and again very very crowded, lits of kids and overflowing trolleys. i got in and made my purchases and got out but it still took two hours of my morning. Edited the last of my book now waiting for Warren to finish. GOT to vacumn after lunch!

De-cluttering day 26 or so!

Decided that we needed to do some housework this morning and instead of leaving our bedroom til last, started there first. While tidying things away, suddenly we found that we were throwing things out and then we went thru clothes. I have another three boxes of clothes to go our, they are in the car but the weather is wet so dont want to put them anywhere as they will be ruined. At least they are in the car ready to go. I also packed away summer clothes and have put some stuff in the top room ready to take to China.
Settled on outr house sitters last night so that is crossed off the list. We ended up went with the couple who are from Tassie and have been house sitting for nine or ten years. They want to settle in Qld as they say that Tassie is too cold for them as they are getting older, they are 65 and 64. Cooking a chicken in the crock pot, have only ever used it for soups and stews but I sprayed the chook and put it in after lunch and have just added some vegetables. went to Bunnings to buy hooks, we are going to hang a curtain in the passageway should keep the warmth in the living areas, I have read about window quilts and I am going to make one of those to hang inside the little window in our bedroom. we can feel the cold air coming off the window and straight down on us, its hasnt been too babd so far this year YET! Didnt get the vacummning done, maybe tomorrow or Friday. I have 20 Red Hat ladies coming on Tuesday so I'd better do it before then.

Meat, meat and more meat!

Monday and Tuesday is pension day at the wholesale butchers. Warren went there weeks ago and the meat so good. We went today and bought up big, keeping in mind that we only have eight weeks before we leave. Spent $120 and got pork chops a ham, 3 chickens for $10, mince, lamb chops. The freezer is abs full and I have some in fridge which we will need to cook in the next couple of days. I was looking for corned beef but they didnt seem to have any, couldnt fit it in anyway. Sat down for afternoon tea, an apple as scales are not being kind to me atm, the phone rings, I pick it up and a voice says "nihao" my first thought which student is this and do I really want to talk to them as their english if its not too good is made worse on the phone, anyway it was John from Canada, wanting to check when we get into Hangzhou. He is looking at a flight at gets in at 9pm an hour after us. They are also flying into Guangzhou so we may catch with them then. Sherrill says she is taking their silk doona, worthwhile thinking about it.

Baby sitting

First day of hols and we are babysitting! lol. Sunday we drove to Jason's place to mind the kids for Monday. We also had Jack and Katie, the four of them amused themselves, all we did really was feed them and wash the dishes after. Traffic was bad on the way home, we had left at 3.45 to avoid the traffic but no we didnt! There was a woman stuck in the middle lane which held up traffic but we were still home by 5pm. It had been a lousey day weather wise, cold, overcast and miserable so i made corn chowder for dinner. Watched Masterchef, I was hoping that Andrew would go out, at 7.30, Amaxing race was on so had to channel flick, it was Sam who left and AR was non elimation leg. Then we watched Sam Stouer win her first round at Wimbleton. Got six replies in all from house sitters, have now closed it and selected three to check references. Two single women and a couple. I havent moved off the computer this morning except to do the w3ashing and thats gone in the dryer, today is also a yucky day. Must get back to de-cluttering this afternoon.

House sitters

Grrr! on the rounds of looking for house sitters again. Simon finally got back to me saying that thery had been away from communication and that they couldnt help us with house sitting at this time. I put up an ad with house carers, who I have used before and also contacted two sitters who's profile say thet are available for that time. This morning I have had one reply from a single women in her sixties, had to check if it/she was some-one we knew but it seems not. i have sent a reply and said that we would make a definate choice with the week. i would like to have a few to choose from and try to pick like minded people, have never had a single person before. This time we are not going to worry about getting them to pay for electricity and phone. With solar panels on and a set rate for phone its not the big deal that it used to be. i didnt get as much done yesterday as I wanted to but I did a bit of this and a bit of that, all in all, a good restful day. About to go shopping now (food) Icould clean a pair of boots! so my darling hubby suggested, my reply cannot be put into print. (i think he got the idea that I wasn't going to clean HIS boots)

day to myself

and so far all I have done is had breakfast and computer work. Its also the start of school holidays and I have a bit of stuff that I want to do. Warren is bike riding today I just hope that he doesnt break something like Chris as it is so easy to do. de cluttering is still on the agenda, today I will be tackling the linen cupboard. Oh i have edited two more chapters of my book, if Warren hurries up, I want to send it for printing by the end of the holidays, only forty pages to go.

Bank

Some of the mail that came in while we were away at Mum's funeral was a letter from the bank talking about sms or netbanking. warren rang them and said that he didnt want it as that meant I wouldnt have access to the account. Whoa! wrong thing to say as then they told him that what we were doing was illegal. we both pride ourselves on being pretty squeaky clean so that floored us as the account is in both names and we considered that we both have the rights to it, not so according to the bank. Now that is has been explained in full, I can see why so i will have to get a seperate sign in to access it. Out at Brookside on Monday, I needed to go to the PO and then straight across from there was a National bank, I have been thinking for a while to open an account with them for my pension when I get it, so I went over to ask a few questions. twenty minutes later I walked out with two accounts and net banking and NO money changed hands. the beauty of it is that our homeloan is linked and now we can see what the state of play is with that, we have always had to wait for a six monthly statement before. cannot fault the staff at the bank, they were very friendly and helpful, even got a lollypop for Aidan after asking me if he could have one. Plus plus to them. Oh, with the other one we are getting a token thingy rather than an SMS.

De-C seven to fourteen.

Wow, its been a week since i have posted here, so much for putting something every day. Last wednesday ( the first day that i didnt post) I did something to my back, I found that it was quite painful when i backed the car out of sheri's drive, it got a bit worse so wednesday evening I lay on the couch with a hot water bottle on it. Warren cooked dinner and also massaged my back a couple of times. Thursday morning went in a flash,phone calls and visits, finally did the shopping and then remembered that I was working that afternoon. Asked warren to get fish and chips as i would be home late. Friday morning got the news about mum, so many calls thru the rest of the day. saturday was a shitty day, wet, cold no footy til late. I had unearthed some wooden coathangers from years ago plus excess material so I put the two together, finished off yesterday. Not de-cluttering as such but at least now they are usable. Have two more boxes of clothes to go to Vinnies, some I have kept but looking at them, I wouldnt wear so out they go. Chucked a few more things from the bathroom, starting to get quite ruthless, it seems wasteful but then is there is much pointhaving things that I have not used and cant see myself using in the near future. looking at the sewing room, I have heaps of craft stuff, am I going to use it? some I think I will hang on to awhile longer maybe when I am no longer working, I may make some stuff but I have it all in one place now. I know that lots of stuff have gone out but except for the pantry, I cant really notice the difference. I have some furniture to get rid of as well but cant do it yet, maybe at the weekend. Packed up some wool for warren to take to a lady at tennis but tennis was cancelled on Monday due to rain so thats still in the car. She knits socks so this is wool that had come from Mum that I couldnt/wouldnt use. Will be away for four days so maybe I will try for a big day tomorrow of de-cluttering, the linen cupboard is full and I rarely open it as bedclothes and towels are washed and used again so no rotation at all.

De-cluter day six

Buggar buggar buggar, I wrote a whole page of stuff that I had thrown out today and then pressed the wrong button and lost it so eis a list.
More jars and empty, clean yoghurt containers, egg cartons, large red bag from sewing room full of bits and pieces, a makeup tray complete with makeup that I had been using on occassion, owned for over 15 years. Street directories that had been updated but still kept the old ones just in case! Bought blocks for the grandkids yesterday so out goes the old foam ones. Bin is full so will have a bit of a back log but at least things are waiting to go out the door.

De-cluttering day five.

About to go to bed and realised that I havent done my D-C today, Warren was in the cupboards looking for something to eat and I saw clean glass jars. We tend to wash any nice looking jars and put them in the pantry, why? just in case! I have never made jam or anything that needs jars so out they went, straight to the bin outside, two armfulls. Rock on bin day as it is almost full and that is a rare thing (maybe because things stay in the cupboards).

De-cluttering day four

Not much time this morning as we are going to the footy but I did go thru my "make-up" such as it is. For some-one who rarely uses make-up, I do seem to have quite a bit. I know that I have not bought any make-up since we have been home from China so what I have is quite old. Five mascaras!!!! WTF but they all seem to work and have a lot in them, two went out, the older looking two. Didnt make much room but a couple of handfuls of crap all adds up. I havent got a plan, like this week I'll concentrate on the bedroom, but I just want to go thru something each day and chuck out

Yummy dinner

Wednesday I cooked a chicken but it wasnt cooked all the way thru so I cut some pieces off for dinner and finished it off in the mircowave. The carcass went into the crock pot for soup today and tonight we had the theighs, it must have been a big chicken as we also had some for lunch in wraps. Anyway, I was looking for inspiration for chicken. In the cupboard was ginger marlamade, apricot jam, peanut butter and herbs, I put a spoon full on each in a jug with the juice of a lemon and "melted' it, threw it over the chicken and then warmed it in MW, we had it on rice with carrots and brussels sprouts. It was yummy, I must remember to do that again at some time. We still have the wings and some slices of chicken, humm, might cut the meat off and throw it in some flour and make patties. Lunch will be meat pies tomorrow at the footy! Yay!

De-cluttering day three

Doing some sewing in the sewing room this morning and I was looking for a small piece or lace or ribbon, which meant going thru drawers and drawers, didnt find any but found lots of bits and pieces to throw out. I also added some fashion sewing books that I have had for years, from Yass, never will I want or be able to make anything from those books so another six/eight books gone. Didnt even open them to have that last look and therefore waste time. I can see plenty of other nooks and cranies that need some culling. Warren even threw out some things this morning off his own bat, I hadnt even mentioned what I was doing. One was a diary that he had with Campbell park phone numbers in it, prob dating back to 1995! Finished my sewing project (without the ribbon) and sewed up the moccasins that I made last week now back to scraves, footy on tonight.

De-cluttering Day two

Putting away some clean clothes tonight, I culled some old T-shirts that I dont really like but still wear as they are there. i have plenty of nicer stuff to wear so out they went. Also my old curtains (I have thought of keeping them as they are in quite good condition, but what the hell do I want/need them for-nothing so Goneski) well almost they are and old clothes are in the garage ready for a trip to Salvos.

Phone Calls that are annoying!

I sat down at the computer to check emails, bank and write my blog, I allowed myself 30 mins. The phone rings, I see it is a Melbourne number. Something to do with national Wildlife and would I mind if it was recoreded for training purposes. The silky voice continued to tell me about how many koalas have been lost and they are almost endangered and we need to do somwthing to save out national hertiage, it was about then that i pressed the off button on the phone. So annoying and we have "do not Call" on our phone but apparently charities are exempt for that. Last night we had a ring at the door after dark, it was about 5.45pm and it was someone wanting to talk about solar power, that was easy, said we already had solar power, I refuse to answer the door after dark unless I am expecting some-one.

De-cluttering!

You know there's only two of us living but we have such a lot of cr....! i have started in the bedroom and got rid of some stuff but i want to take it further so Starting today, I am going to chuck out stuff that we no longer need, use or have a use for. my thought was to start tomorrow being the first of a new month, then i slapped myself and set out to see what went out TODAY! Our DVD player wouldn't play a DVD yesterday and we played around with it a bit and changed it over with another and the movie played. DVD player was put on the dining table and left there. as I was the one to put the bin out this morning out it went plus some odd matched glasses that had been taking up space for awhile. In the spare room (kids) we have aquired many kids books, some that Helen bought from garage sales when she stayed here three years ago, most of those are now in the bin. Gee, that felt good so look out house, I'm in a de-cluttering mood! My plan is to  clear out a drawer or a cupboard and chuck something every day for the next thirty days, this is not normal every day rubbish but stuff that has been taking up space in the house for awhile.

Mothers day

Warren bought me a nice gift in the lead up to MD's. a cooking DVD and a PJ set which I love, not sure that I will use the dressing gown but living in the PJ and slippers. I had mentioned that if anyone asked what to get me for MD, I would like PJs mainly to take to China and he decided to get them for me, as he says I'm the mother of his children it was a nice surprise. Combined mothers day lunch and Benny's birthday so I got to see the kids and Rob had rang on the Friday. Chocolates, flowers and soap, could have done without the choccs as of course we ate them thru the week. Pretty passport holder and matching pen, my passport is pretty tatty looking so it looks good now and I can also know which one is mine. Had to take our passports to get our tickets and yep mine looked good! Rang Mum in the evening she had been to Kaylenes and Gary had visited so she was happy but getting ready for bed when I rang at 7pm. She seems to be slipping and not the person that she was but I guess thats to be expected.

New Bed and Curtains

Had a phone call to say that our ordered bed was really to be picked up, so Thursday was the day as the car would be home. my thought was that we would collect it before Warren went to work but no he says we'll get it after work at about 2pm. But I insisted that we move the current bed so it (new one) could just go straight in the bedroom. tipped mattress over to the window and then frog marched the bed base up the passage as the phone rang. It was Maureen saying she would come over later with the curtains, oh, poo! that meant moving the mattress again and tidying the room. Curtains look brilliant and they are so heavy, cut out a lot of light, will be great in summer. She even put the hooks into them and hung them, I must admit I would have been a bit hopeless at it. The bed looks good too but we didnt remove the bedhead that we made a few years ago, it is attached to the wall and has fluro reading lights attached but it works well except for the colour, its blue on white and the bedroom is now gold. We need to buy new lamps and DE_CLUTTER!

An interesting afternoon

which started with a phone call from Chris. Suddenly the bike ride is getting closer with organizing how to get there etc and what to sleep in. Wazza says I should take that bike for a ride, dont even though if its any good. as its not reged, had to take it somewhere in the trailer. BUT, the trailer was full of tree trimmings, says he, I'll run over that with the lawn mower, a few minutes later, it would be easier to take it to the tip so I'll do that. Can you come with me for the bike run, sure says I, ever the helpful spouse! Ten minutes later he was back and loading up the bike. he did suggest that we wait until after footy but that was no biggie as it was not my team so didnt really care who won. Get to the pine forest, unload bike (I just watched), then all the gear goes on. What do you want me to do, just be here with phone if I need you. I had packed our travel mugs with hot coffee so after a few goes to get said bike going, I sat with my knitting and enjoyed the peace and quiet and sipped my coffee. Apparently the bike went well but had to do another lap just cos it did so well. Mossies started to appear so after the next lap, I did suggest it was time to go home. went to get out of the car to help load up only to hear a loud roar and a familair face loomed in the back window, glory be, he had ridden it up the ramp. Oh dear boys and their toys. (Nice to see him with a big smile on his face though, I'm sure he will have a ball next weekend)

Footy!

Our first game was on Saturday nigh tBrisbane v Collingwood. We drove down to Wickham Terrace and parked in the parklands area and then walked to the transit hub. We werent exactly sure where the pick up for the footy was so we had allowed extra time. Got a little lost at the busses as all we saw were stops going to difference places, ended up going outside and then we saw people wearing Lions gear so we tacked on the end and yep, sure enough they were going to the game. Its was a dissappionting loss for the Lions, they couldnt seem to do anything right and the maggies were the opposite. The crowd was good, no problems at all, even going back with both sides. I think most people expected that Collingwood would win and was okay. We had good seats up in the third tier and there was always something to watch, looking forward to the next two matches which are both Sunday afternoon games. We think we will catch the bus from Chermside next time as it wont be as far to drive and the busses are free.

Acts of Kindness

I have signed up for this, it starts tomorrow. i have pledged to do four acts a week, then I find out that the weeks are themed. i think the first one is family based. last week I had a couple of AOK handed to me by the same person. I was visiting Maureen for coffee and mentioned that I was off to Spotlight to buy some ribbing, she said dont do that, i have a bag full and yes she did of all different colours, so that saved me a trip and some money. Then she asked me if I had made my new curtains yet, I said no, they would have towait until the school holidays. She said that she would be happy to do them for me as she had more time than I did. I was taken aback and said well if you really want to and thanked her very much. She dropped by in the afternoon to pick up the material. i know that she will do a far better job than I would have,  it was really nice of her to offer. Now I have to think and plan my AOK for the week.

China flights

Booked our flights and had seven days to pay in full. Finally got the school calendar and saw that we could come home a week earlier than planned which meant a savings of $100 so Katie at the flight Centre changed the tickets and we paid it in full. Now we are in payback mode, should have it paid off by the end of june. Everything is now done for China just waiting for the visa and packing!

Millers for dinner

I did my non fridge shopping at Sheri's Aldi on Friday as I needed petrol so killed two birds with one stone. It was taxing to be only able to shop for non persibles. I didnt want to haul any stuff upstairs to the fridge and then remember to get it out again. Saturday morning saw us head out to buy meat and vege. I said us as his nibs was told to attend after not helping to pack away the dry stuff and instead was being a hindrance so his punishment was shopping with me. I had decided to cook Chinese food and had pork out of freezer for Friday night,  that went for a pork and pineapple dish with ginger and veges. I also made beef and mushrooms with sweet chilli sauce. I did intend to buy some prawns and make prawn toast but I forgot to take my shopping list which had the prawns on it.  I made my green cheese cake for dessert. As I was packing away the soup that I had made for lunch, Warren asked if we could have that as well so we had a three course meal and there is still enough soup for lunch and leftovers for dinner so no cooking for me today. (Also two slices of cheese cake!) I had a glass of wine and thought that the scales would be very bad but no, I had lost 400 gms from yesterday. Today is going to be a sewing day for me if I can only get off this computer but I did have stuff to do, I cleaned up some of my emails and found a quote from a bus company that I had asked for a year ago and its likely to save us (red hats) some money. I needed to send a confirmation and it looks like going from $60 to $20 for a day out but lunch wont be included.

RSL

Warren wanted to go out for dinner Friday and he suggested the RSL. We had not been there before, our membership cards from the Sportmans Club got us in so that was no drama. Meals started at $11 which included a beer, wine or soft drink. Warren had his usual, roast pork and I opted for nachos. It was very nice ,  a little spicy and I was woken at 2am with ingestion, I think it was a little rich for me. Scales did not look good on saturday morning, 700 gms UP.

Day off

In between, bus trips on Thursday, I stopped to hang up a pair of pants in my wardrobe and keep at it and at it. yay! Without intending to, I now have a tidy wardrobe and no clothes on the chest of drawers, that is progress! My room is usually the most untidiest in the house and I rush to shut the door when anyone comes to visit. I have moved to the bottom of the mattress to open the drawers to get some clothes out only to stop and realise that we dont have drawers in the bed base any more, I suppose i will get used to that one day.

Cars!

The car was having little hiccups, every now and again, it wouldnt start. Mostly it had happened to other people but two weeks ago it did it to me. Three times! I booked it in for a service but it seemed that it needed to go to the dealer. Yesterday we took it over to Red Cliffe and caught the bus back. Bus travel is ok but nothing like the convience of having your own wheels. An hour on the bus to Morayfield, then a 25 mins wait to get the one to home, nice coffee break and a quick duck into Kmart to pick up a mothers day pressie, what do you buy for a 94 yo? a pair of warm slippers. 2.15 saw us do the reverse trip, quote was $190 but it only cost $174, yay, finally home at 5pm. The problem was the computer in the key, any many bl.......computers do cars have these days. Funny thing was after the service it didnt have any hiccups at all, but should be all good now though and nice to see it back in the garage.

Furniture

Our new bedroom suite is ready to be picked up so we arranged to do so on Saturday. Not a good day to pick up furniture in the pouring rain so we waited until Sunday. Apparently it was all there except the mirror which they had added in for no more money ( i had jokingly said that i wasn't going to buy it if I had to pay extra for that). When I went to pay the rest of the money, it turned out that it was all there except the bed. I had stripped both beds at home in preparation but hadn't actually moved them as I couldnt do it on my own (warren was organizing the trailer). It started spitting with rain as being loaded into the trailer but the stuff was packaged well. We got two bed side cupboards, tall boy and the cheval mirror plus the free mattress. We got everything in and set up and all our clothes have been transferred. We will be putting the old bedside cupboards on freecycle plus the bed base and new mattress as soon as I can work out how to post it.

Anzac Day

Warren got up and went to the dawn service at Bribie Island with a couple of friends. I was just surfacing around 7am when he returned, my plan was to make a coffee and go back to bed and read for awhile. Waz did too and slept for about an hour. Jordan had said that he wanted to the service with Chris, had to be up at 3.30am, he did! i think its great that young kids like him are wanting to go, esp to the dawn service. We pottered around the house, football was scheduled for 12.30pm so that was when we were going to have lunch. football did start then but it was Anzac stuff and the game didnt start until almost three. I watched the switch to Anzac Cove and then I went sewing. i had found a shirt that I had cut out and done the neck facing, probably six or seven months ago, I finished it up until the sleeves, hopefully it wont take another six months to completely finish it.

Down to earth Book

Driving out this morning to go to vote, peeing down rain so we didnt walk like we have in the past, i saw the front door mat was all screwed up, Warren said that it looked like there was a parcel under it. sure enough, it was my book! What a great read although I didnt get to it until mid afternoon. decided to cook pastie slice for lunch and then a lasagne, a vege fritta and a few sausage rolls and finally some salmon cups all while the oven was on. After lunch, I packed it up and took some over to Les as he is recovering from a hip replacement and his wife had hers done yesterday. Anyway back to the book, i have read about half of it and happy to see that they live quite well on $400 a week and even then are able to save. There are some great ideas, tips and recipes. The laundry powder is very much the same as Sheri and I made and i like the look of the soap, think I will try that as soon as I buy a stainless steele pot.

Sick bay

Got a call from school this am, Aidan wasn't feeling well, could I pick him up. He was lying on his camp bed and was happy to see me. He had a slight temp and looked sorrowful. Started to pick up a bit on the way home, had some apple, got into his new Pjs and went to sleep on the sofa. He wanted his sandwich from school but later told me his head hurt when he went to eat it, I think he may have a sore throat. I found some marshmellows in the cupboard and he had a glass of up and go. Great excitement though, Mr Maker has just come on TV. It was an advert so I offered to check the 'puter to see when he will be back. Colour is coming back into his face and hes talking more. Daddy is also in the sick bay but in his room!

A making day

Yesterday under instructions, I made feta cheese, it was so good! Bit daunting at first as I had to follow a receipe and things were very different to anything that I had done before. While that was on the first cook, Sheri and I made laundry powder, another first for me, we didnt have enough borax, luckily the local IGA had heaps. Measuring it all out, made us cough a bit so I think I would do it outside next time. We also made a household spray and wipe cleaner, I have been using it today and its great, then to finish up Sheri made ricotta out of the whey. Not sure if we saved any money as all up it was about $50 but we had fun and know exactly what is in the products.

Busy weekend

Message from Rob to say he's coming for the weekend. Flying in Saturday night, leaving Tuesday with both kids. Saturday saw us cleaning and washing as I didnt know if Lindsay was crawling yet but not used to having a baby in the house. Each break in the footy we did a bit more, walked to the Millers for dinner,(no car, thats a whole other saga!) recorded the night match of footy so watched that while we waited for 1am. I figured that would be about the time if they were coming. It was a bit uncertain as he hadnt booked the tickets when he spoke to us and hadnt let us know either way. car turned in at 12.55am, yes we had visitors. fed Lindsay and finally got to bed around 2am.Twelve for lunch, thirteen really but cant really count Lindsay. Had some wrapped lollies for the kids to have a lolly hunt so Ryan could experience it. Later on in the evening Aidan was watching Rob change Lindsay and was mystifed as to where her winky was, Sheridan explained and then he took great delight in working out who were boys or girls and who had a winky. He stills refers to everyone as he or him but at least he does know who is a boy or girl.

"Little" Black dress or LBD

I have never had one of those before AND I had just put a "Ban"? on myself to buy no new clothes fpr three months. Last years curfew/ban whatever worked well and had decided to do mit again as I was getting into the habit of "I'll need this in China" huh, I just like buying new stuff. Maureen walked into a shop in Landsborough, it was a little unusual, some clothes, jewellery, nicnaks. She spied a silk looking jacket on top of a long dress and thought that she would try it on as it would be handy to wear to evening things. Took it off the hanger and I am left with the dress which had no price tag, maybe the two went together. Sales lady took some money of each and we ended up with one piece each. Mine is a long sleeveless balck dress which can be used with a light jacket over it and a skivvy under it when the weather changes. Its lightweight and wont crush,a  very versatile outfit for China but I think I may take up the hem. $80 for the two, had been $59 and $39, $30 well spent I think.Ban is back on.

Train travel to Landsborough.

The Queen and I thought it would be good to take a trip by train somewhere have lunch together and then return (for Red Hats) as we like to be prepared for questions and have the answers, we did a reccy. Army training coming into play! Thursday we set off with train timetables organised, we had checked the place out (Mad Hatters Tea House) in Google maps, it said 300 metres from station. After asking three people at various times along the route, all of them were also visitors! Iwent into the BP service centre and got directions, "across the road, around the corner about 100mts". Great! good directions BUT the place was closed, buggar! A worker was there, the place looked guttered but he told us that it would reopen in the next few days. Back we walked to main shops and it was only about a 10 minutes walk and had lunch at the local bakery which had proper pasties. With Maureen and I both being Sth Aussie and brought up with meat pasties, its hard to go past so it was a coffee and  pastie for lunch. Train back was at 1.03 or 2.03, five minutes before the train was due they told us that the 1.03 train was a bus! it took longer by bus as we called into lots of places but it was a quite interesing trip.
June's chatter meet will be there and those who dont want to train it and walk can go by car.

China, Here we go again!

After having our fingers crossed and hoping, yesterday our complete and proper contracts arrived via email. We printed, signed them and as I write this, are being delivered to Aust Post ready to wing them way back to China. Although we were sent a draft copy to look over and comment on, i didnt expect to have to sign them until we arrived in China. It does seem that they are dotting the i's and crossing the t's better. Starting to think about what we should/could take etc, bearing in mind our 23kgs luggage limit. Warren did suggest the other day that we freight a box of stuff over, probably winter clothes and shoes. Have started a list with vege peeler, decent can opener, promite and disprin on it so far. Bought two stamps the other day, one with "awesome" and the other "great work", the students get a kick out of those and sometimes it helps us to know if we have seen their work, a little sneaky but you gotta do what you gotta do. Need to wreslte them away from Aidan. Havent got a date to start yet, contract just states Sept to Jun. I'm considering just a one way ticket at first, it will be cheaper but more expensive in the long run, maybe a job for later!

Bought a bike!

warren has been looking for a bike to buy around a thousand dollars but of course at that price, they all needed work. He teaxted me about one that he was keen on but it was $1700. I missed the message and so he rang me to say that he wanted to take a look, I suggested he come down by train, take the car and go that afternoon. he wanted to take the trailer as he was pretty sure he would buy it. Told him to organize F&C so we could go as soon as I got home from work, it was about an hour away. had to raid the bank on the way and yes, he took one look, started it and handed over the money. It does look good and sounds good too, never been reg but everything is there to do so. Chris says that he can get a day permit to go on the fun/fund rides so they are set to go next month. Probably want rego the bike until we come back from China.

Red Hat day

Warren did my work for me so that I could go. We met at the Caboolture Historial village for coffee and scones, i usually take the money at times like these so it means that each one comes to chat to me while paying the money. Its rare that I have to chase anyone for the money, thank goodness as that is not my idea of fun. after I had had my coffee, I moved from the small table to chat to some of the others and talk got around to the movies and overseas travel etc, suddenly it seemed that it was almost 12 o'clock and time to go. Came back to Morayfield shops for lunch as Maureen had to pick up Dave. I chose to have a chinese meal, not that good. Home at 2.30pm did a bit of sewing and computer stuff.

What a week!

It is less than a week since I posted but it seems longer. Back to work on Wednesday, Thursday i took the boys to the movies to see the Lorax, fun movie. I cooked three meals at once on Thursday, Friday we watched Puss in Boots a movie that I had missed seeing when it came out. Better than i expected as sometimes the shorts are the best bits but this one had lots of funny stuff. Got home from work and had trouble with the garage door, it stopped and started, hic-cupped and so on. Thought, buggar another bill, after a few minutes, Judy from across the road walked over and told me that Warren was watching me through their windows and had another zapper for the door, HE was playing with the door. thank goodness, it wasnt a bill. Scales havent been going too good for me so Sat morn I set out for a walk, 3 kms, had to have a nana nap. Nothing on TV and didnt feel like watching two games of footy back to back so went to the movies and saw  something about Marigold hotel. Top movie, laughed and laughed. Quote "When i want your opinion, I'll give it to you". Did another 5 km walk today, scales had better be good tomorrow. Actually did some sewing today, made a towel into four hand wipers as mine is just about had it. Rang Mum and she told my sister to talk to me then Mum hit the wrong button I think and cut me off but she has moved into her room at the hospital and sounded good. 

Travelled to Ipswich.

to visit Wim and Rachael yesterday, we havent seen them for over a year but keep in contact by email. Took down a bottle of Chinese wine and tea, unopened that we had been given. Wim also asked for books that I was clearing out so two books of books and a pack of DVDs found a new home. came home with a waterproof jacket for warren and two dozen eggs. Back at work today but got a sleep-in as I didnt need to be there until about 9am. Cooked a chicken casserole for dinner tonight and in keeping with me trying to be more frugal, I also cooked a lasanga and large sausage roll, Dinner wasnt too bad, using the last of the poached chicken with carrots and frozen vege topped off with mashed potato, have enough for lunch tomorrow. Finished the sleeve of my jumper and cast on stiches for the second one, did about 4 inches last night as I sat up and watched an Agatha Christie movie. Yay, tonight Amazing Race is back on but it is late but I do have a late start again tomorrow. Humm, can you use two buts in the one sentence,? dont think so but cant think how to rephrase it.

Easter Monday

Bit quiet today after the buzz of the weekend so decided to get out and go for a picnic after Warren finished tennis. baked some salmon patties and read some blogs on Simple Savers mainly about the $21 challenge. i really think that I should/could do that so no grogery shopping until next payday, ten days away. I did a little shopping last Tuesday. I dont have many fresh vege but I have some frozen and I also have frozen soups that are full of vegies.
Packing up the picnic, I thought that I could invite the Millers along, that meant extra food so got out sausage rolls from the freezer. It was very nice to be in the fresh air, found a shady spot of the grass to eat. Home now for nana nap/watch footy. Also need to menu plan sort of, out to lunch at Wims so thats one meal out.

Volunteering at the Davis Cup

What a buzz that was, tiring but good. I was glad that I wasnt in the sun all day even though it was hot in the tent at least we were in shade and able to sit down when not busy. The two girls that I worked with were good fun and I got on better with Chey (19) than Karen (late 20's) maybe cos Chey and I were the pleebs and Karen was the supervisor. had a good time and would def do it again, even got the chance to watch a bit of tennis, which was a bonus.

baby sitting/day out Plans changes

Offered to mind other grandsons for a day which required going the day before and staying the night. No way did I want to go down that highway in time for them to go to work. D-I_L was sick so didnt need to go, change of plan, all day in sewing room, phone call changed the plans again. DD rang to ask me to go to maleny to the cheese factory for lunch and then the dairy for a tour. Warren was playing tennis but he decided to go as well so we went under our own steam. Lunch was good and so was the cheese tasting although I didnt try many as cheese is one of my downfalls in the weight stakes. The weather was warm and it was a relaxing day. Warren says yeah, we'll go on the dairy tour. It was a great tour topped off by tasting of flavoured milk, yogurt and custard. I am not a fan of custard but that was good! sewing was put off for another day but at least it is tidier now and so I can actually do something in there.

knitting

Last week after knitting Aidan's hat, I made the boys one each. They must have liked them as they wore them for most of the afternoon. I thought that I should make one for Ryan as well so my first day at BH, I completed Ryans and I will have to look out a small pattern for Lindsay to make. I started my jumper, its dragging already and this is only day three. I decided to measure it so I know how much I am doing each day. I suppose its not too bad as I have dome 20 cms of the back but its so boring just knit and purling, I need to do 43/46cms before anything else, I guess at this rate, it should only take a month, not sure that I like the colour after all.

Yahoo!

While checking on my emails this morning, I decided to check on the bank as well. Yahoo, my lump sum was paid in and so we are no longer in debt! We went to lunch to celebrate, at Matildas.

Burrum Heads

Having the week off before the holidays we decided to head north for a few days and after much thought we checked into BH. It was a cheaper place BUT it had a swimming pool and a tennis court. It took longer to get there than I thought but it was a nice park lots of shade. The toilet block was adequate (in an ATCO hut!) many many permanents but they were on the other side, it was like two parks really, perms one side further from the water and the temps on the other near the river. The shops were about 500mts away which was a nice walk. Tennis courts were to be hired and didnt look that good, while we had taken all the gear, we didnt use it. i went for a swim yesterday while warren drowned little fish. Nice relaxing time, probably will go back. Only $26 a night but goes to $45 a night over Easter and Christmas, thats a rip off.

Easter Egg Hunt

Last year I organised a EE hunt in the garden for the grandkids, it was a hit! so much so that I asked (badgered) to have another this year. The kids are of course one year older and more cunning in finding the eggs. I dont think anyone ate any eggs, the fun is in finding them. This year we had two bigger eggs and some little ones and they had small baskets to gather them in. Afternoon tea was of course Hot Cross buns and dinner was a curry and rice plus a spinach and feta pie, couple of salads, sausages and sticky chicken legs. 

Salads

Woo hoo, my garden is taking off, have some tomatoes setting outside and have picked lettuce a couple of times. I bought ten plants and they are the ones that dont head, just use the leaves are required. i use the herbs quite a bit, basil, parsley and mint, they are growing well have several plants of those outside as well as the window sills ones. my first capsicum that I planted in about November, I picked three, back in Feb , two had gone rotten and the other was okay and I thought that it had finished but it has produced another three greens one, first pick were red. plants snow peas on the weekend and also put in supports for them to grow on.

Window sill garden

Dont have much space outside and I wanted to grow some herbs so I bought some pots at K-mart for 25 cents each, what a bargain, just couldnt leave them there. The pots came first, then the herbs. I now have mint, basil and parsley growing nicely in the window sill, they get the morning sun and because of where they are, I dont forget to water them. I also had two tomato plants but they grew too big and are now in the side garden outside the kitchen window. The pot on the right is one I put together after seeing it on BH&G, just three small plants of varying heights in the same pot. I havent had indoor plants for years.

Sewing room

I love having some where to go to sew and when we moved here that was one of my requirements,  a sewing room. However, due to other committments, I dont have the time or the inclination to spend as much time in there as i would like to and it has become a bit of a dumping ground. The pictures of it dont actually show an inviting room to spend time in and most times the door remains shut. last week I started to tidy and get rid of some of the clutter. I'm pleased to say that it looks much better and I even did three little mending/finishing jobs that have been lurking in there for quite awhile waiting to be done. I took out three bags of rubbish, unuseable things, an armload of sewing patterns books that I havent used in five years and unlikely to ever use again. I also have a box of clothes (from elsewhere) and three bags of stuff to go to Salvos. The floor is clear but I still have the table to do, am considering doing away with the table as I have never used it to cut out on and it seems to invite stuff being put on it. I hope to be able to post tidy photos in another week.

Wool!

My wool collection is under my sewing table and as I have spent some time in there tidying, I have been astounded how much I have. Some came from Mum as she can no longer knit and so I bought all hers home as well. I am determined not to buy any more wool until I have knitted it. last night I started on Aidan's wool hat that he asked for and picked out his choice of wool. It is a multi coloured red, green, blue and yellow. Football was telvised for the first time this year the NAB cup so settled down to watch and then today was "Win it in a minute" so that was an hour for lunch and knitting and so I have finished AD's hat, the predominate colour is red. I have another one just started in the same colour but I will only use it as stripes and use another colour to tone it down as it is a bit in "Ya face". yay, I can now add a photo! Thanks to some family help.

Clowns (2)

During the week, I put the wheels that i had made together to make up two little clowns and a big one, using up all the circles/wheels that i had made. The heads are on and I need to make the hats and they are finished. I still have three small heads and lots of circles cut out so will be sticthing for awhile yet. Any left over materials, i cut them up for circles and i do have heaps for the big ones but after that i will concentrate on the small ones. While I was in Big W the other day, I found hat elastic which I use to attach all the circles and bells together for $2.97 for 10 metres, i have been buying 4 mts at Spotlight for that price, I know where i will be going in future. On the lookout for different colours as the clowns are very pink or light colours, not sure how that happened. The local Lifeline has cot sheets and baby pillow cases for 50 cents and it is amazing how much circles, I can get from a small pillow case.

Impluse buy

Its not often that I buy things for the house on an impluse but yesterday I did. I took Aidan to Big W after his hydro session to see his poster. Didnt think that I needed anything but had a look while I was there, $62 later I am leaving the checkout. Wool was on special or cheaper than other places and there was a nice mens jacket on the balls of wool. I bought enough to make a jumper, hummmm how long is it since I have made an adult jumper and finished it. ( I will need one for China!) and a hat! Aidan thought that Grampy would need a hat too. I bought a couple of books and wrapping paper to top up my supplies at home then I saw it! A self closing screen door that can be put up in seconds, what a great idea as some-one at home likes to have the laundry door/ back to garage open most of the time. I bought one hoping to install it, said it was easy and only took a few seconds. Yep! heard that before. Drove home with my purchase and lo and behold HE steps out of the garage thru a self closing screen door. Has also been shopping and thought what a great idea, actually neighbour had told him about them, he had bought two and installed both. I will keep mine and put it into the random gift cupboard that I have started. Could think of a couple of places where it could find a new home. Many many times we have bought things and they have sat waiting to be installed, put in place, planted or what ever. We noticed the other day that we are getting better at that type of thing. We bought plants at the market and actually planted them that same morning, what a break thru! 

Day Off!

Aidan has to have his port done today and Sheri has taken the day off so she said I might as well have it off as well. he has rang me and he and Jordan have both put on weight this week so that is good. he sounded happy to go to hospital and he will ring me after. Wanted to have a sleep-in so I turned all (3) of my alarms off but set one for 7.30am, didnt want to sleep the day away BUT of course my sleeping partner still had his on for 6.30am. he went to tennis about 7.45 and i got up and had a leisurely shower, breakfast and catching up on some computer stuff. About to catch the last of the morning show on TV while i finish my coffee, then I am going into my sewing room. Hopefully by the end of the day, it will be tidy! One can hope! It looks like a bomb blast ATM as everything just gets dumped in there. may I will post before and after photos if I could work out how to get photos across to this.

Picnic at Mapleton

It seemed to be a long week and there was nothing planned for the weekend. I decided I wanted to go somewhere and so suggested a picnic. When trying to lose weight going out for lunch is not a good idea hence taking a picnic. Several places on offer, Redcliffe, Bribie, Coolum Beach or Mapleton. Years since we had been to Mapleton and its only an hour or so away. Prepared lunch, a sald, poached chicken, hot cross buns that were in the freezer and off we went, the long way thru the mountains. There had been a road slip so had to go around but we arrived about 12 noon. The park where we intended to go was awful, I think it was just to park the car and then walk to see the waterfall, nowhere to eat so we went back into town, its only a small place and on the way to another national park we saw lilyponds ands seats and shade so we had lunch there. i had taken a flask and makings for coffee so we ate and watched the birds, quite a few kookaburras and Ibis getting worms and the like. We headed home via the highway and I wanted to visit the Ginger factory to buy some ginger sauce that we like, had a nice walk around the gardens bought hand creme (to take to China) and the sauces, arrived back home about 3pm. I had taken too much lunch and scones jam and cream at GF was not an option as we were too full. Excess picnic was eaten for lunch on Sunday.

Clowns

Have been working on my clowns, sewed together six heads and stuffed them so will need to make that many. I prefer to make the smaller ones, I think they look better and they are quicker to do.

My Book

Yay, I finally finished editing it, now has gone to the proof reader (Warren) and i saw him scratching some comments so it seems that there is further editing to do. Three days over my schedule but it seems harder to get motivated to go over it than it is to write the thing. Still not that happy with the middle but I am not rewriting it.

Visit to the Threatre!

Have not been to a live performance since we lived in Yass. Kiss Me Kate was being put on at the Mouse trap threatre in Redcliffe. Tiny place, held about a hundred people, tickets were $15 and $18. Lots of singing and it was a pretty good show. One guy was sorely tested in the singing department and I felt sorry for him when he had to sing, def not his thing. Very hot and I felt sorry for the actors.We had coffee at Maccas after and it was an enjoyable night.

Meat!

Our freezer was getting empty as I havent bought much meat lately. I asked Warren to go to a new place in Caboolture to buy some stuff, chicken, lamb chops and a little bit of good steak. They advertise 10 % off for pensioners on Mondays and Tuesdays and I thought that we may as well make use of his card. Wow!, I came home to the freezer full of meat as it had been packed into indivual meal packages and labelled. I dont think we will need to buy meat again for 6 weeks or so and it was only $61 with the discount. Then dinner was almost ready, gourmet sausages and steamed vegies. Hope the rest of the meat tastes as good as those sausages.

Back seat conversations.

Yesterday we went to play group and a lady from the library was there to read to the kids and suggest that parents/carers etc spend ten minutes a day reading to their child or at least chatting to them in the car or going shopping. That is the least of my problems with Aidan. Leaving to hospital today, he had hydro, he saw a dirty 4wd and suggested that it should be washed, I agreed. Driving out, hes chatting about the dirty car again and tells me that it annoyed him, then starts to tell me that Jordan annoys him sometimes. I am a bit non commital at this stage as I was driving in traffic but I asked why, just cos' was the asnwer. Two seconds later, a voice from the back says "I came out of Mummy's tummy" "Yes, I know" said I, "how" asks the voice, I'm afraid I passed the buck and said "You'll have to ask Mummy how that happened" "Oh, okay" Two seconds later "nanna, I cant hear my song, make it louder please" so I did and the song that started was Five little ducks. A few weeks ago when it first played, I suggested they were naughty ducks for running away from their mother, he has a different take on it altogher and says they are good little ducks as they came back, so the questioning begins "nanna why do you say the little ducks are naughty?" Have to have a quick mind to keep up and know what hes talking about. I waiting to hear what tonights topic of conversation will be.

Mum

Lots of phone calls back and forth as Mum was admitted to hospital on Thursday night, I received a call from my sister Saturday lunch time and another about 4pm to say that mum had gotten worse and it was possibly another brain tumour. rang and spoke to a nurse who did admit that it was a possiblity but could be any number of things. Talked to Mum and she sounded not too bad. Phone calls between siblings and hospital all weekend, rang Mum again tonight to find her has gone home and is fine, movements have settled down, scan was clear so brain tumour. Its her birthday tomorrow and having a small party at the lodge.

Garden beds

I have been cooking with a lot of herbs lately and my measley herb garden is not up to it so went and purchased some pots and herbs. Now i have two tomatoes, a pot of basil and one of parsley joining my little pot of mint. Outside in the garden we also have more tomato basil and mint.

Family news

Rang Mum on Tuesday as I was home and she thought that I had heard the news of my uncle dying the night before. No I hadnt but there was a message on my phone when I looked.  U Clem was Dads closest brother and the last of that family, he had his 96th birthday last month and had been pretty good up until the past few weeks. Today I get a call to tell me that Mum is in hospital with involunty movements of her legs and arms, she will be 94 on Wednesday. not a terribly good time at the moment.

Rainbows!

Rained again yesterday, its like being in the tropics, hot in the morning with teaming rain laterin the  afternoons. So heavy when driving home that in one place I could hardly see the road but it did clear up as suddenly as it started. Putting out a bag of rubbish at home there was the most beautiful rainbow and then a noticed a second one with the colours reversed, just had to get the carmera out. It was truly awesome!

Nanowrimo

I didnt look at my book/story until after the holidays. Been home a month and slowly trying to edit it which is really just adjusting sentences and word tenses. yay, I finished it yesterday, on paper, now I need to make changes on computer, all 120 pages of it. i have done 54 so I have set myself a deadline of end of Feb. Will need to do some each day. Its funny though as reading some of the stuff that I wrote, I think to myself, I should have put something about him runninh away here and next sentences or so there it is. The middle bit seems to be a bit wishy washy and it is where it is all fiction, I really have no idea how both of them spent seven years of their life and it seems noone left living knows either so it is purely fiction on my part. I am also going to change the name to just "Norman and Polly". I will also write an epilogue.

Bribie Island for lunch

Friends have been doing it a bit tough lately, health wise and really living in each other's pockets. We decided to take them out to give them a different outlook. First, we went next door for a quick half hour, had been invited to a birthday partyu whhich would go most of the day, we felt that we needed to put in an appearance. Arrived at friends at 12 noon, not ready to go. Finally set off and drove to BI. Nice fish and chip place but someone has little patience for little kids crying 'cause they're hungry and then lunch took awhile to come, they were busy. Lunch was massive, I remembered then that we only ordered a fish platter for one before and shared. Neither couple could finish theirs, which was probably a first. Had a rest when we got home.

Rain!

It started to rain yesterday at 3.20pm, no point going to pick up Jordan as he would have already been on the way home and because he takes short cuts, I would have no idea where exactly he would be. Luckily he was only five minutes away and so didnt get too wet. Five minutes after he arrived, it really pelted, I thought it was hailing but just very heavy. This went on for about ten minutes and then gradually stopped. When I left for home at 4.45pm, the sun was shining until 13kms away then there was water over the road, police were there, derecting traffic as they had closed one side. thankfully after that I was going up a hill, yes, I was but the rain got heavier and heavier making it difficult to see. Several more spots were the water couldnt get away so the gutters had water in them. Very hard to see and I decided that if I couldnt see the white lines on the road then I wasn't going to drive through, did go through some water over the road. It was so nice to pull up in the garage and go inside.

Movies

On the menu was fish and chips, Warren said he didnt want much and suggested baked beans so a quick and easy dinner. Went to the movies to see the Descendants, pretty good and  not what I expected. Avoided the popcorn but still two icecreams and one drink between us was $13 something, cheaap tuesday so tickets were only $8.
Had coffee when we got home and I did some more editing of my book, thats taking longer to do than the actual writing of it, still about halfway thru now.

Red Hats Lunch

Today was our meeting of Red Hats and two of our ladies were doing the activities so that meant that Maureen and I (Queen and Vice-Queen) didnt have to do much. I still collected the money and went and paid the bill but everyone know to have the money ready for me and its not that much of a drama. Its always a releif though when I count the money and it works out. We were farewelling one of our members who has been unable to stay permanently in Australia and they are returning to Denmark to live. We had an interesting trivia quizz about our members, who fitted what description. The one that I didnt get was "Who needs a solictor to" as everyone is over 55 and most are no working, I couldnt think who was a solictor BUT the clue was in the "to" the answer was Sue. Mine was who was born in the year of the dragon and because of that I wear a material dragon on my sash, that was on my birthday card last year. Jonna who is leaving us, gave me a beautiful dragon brooch which I also put on my sash which I wear to most meetings. I was good and only had the grilled steak and no dessert.

Play group

Organized over the weekend to take Aidan to a new playgroup as the old one and kinder are on the same day. First problem was someone had forgotten the key, turned out they hadnt forgotten it but it had travelled to work in hubby car so no assess to the hall and toys. The alt plan was to go to a covered park which seemed a long way away, Esme from the old group was there and she suggested that we go to Maccas, that was fine with Aidan and I. Another grandma came too with her charge, 14 month old Maddie, Aidan played with Sienna, so it worked out well. Shopped after to buy a new schoolbag for Jordan, he was using his own money but I got a good deal for him and a doughnut for AD. Came home and AD says hes going for a rest at 11.30am and would I read him a story. Hes now asleep, kinder and playing must have worn him out. I will be making sausage rolls soon for the lunch box.

No kids today (til later)

Aidan is off for a full day of kindergarten today and the house is very quiet. I had tidied the kitchen and dining room, put a load of washing on and checked my emails. I still need to come to "work" to take and pick Aidan up from kindy so I offered to do the housework for the day. Its quite different doing someone else house rather than my own. One thing is I dont touch S&C's bedroom so there will be some things placed outside of their door. I will watch some TV while having lunch and it wont be cartoons