Booked!

We missed finding a cache on Saturday, it was part of a series, I had spent quite a bit of time working out the puzzle. I was a bit miffed. So when I went out in the afternoon I decided to try one that is quite close to home. Yippee, found it and there was a card in the cache.

Interesting! I did some research and talked to some people. As we had to miss Alice Springs n our big lap, I had thought we might fly in just for a few days some time next year.

What an excuse to finalize dates instead of "sometime or other."

Warren wants to go in the camper van and go to Gem Tree which is just north of Alice and then its not that far from his sisters and while we are that close we might as well drop down to Melbourne, sure, why not? 

Dates are organised, sites are booked and paid for, Warren was looking for the cost of the event, couldn't believe it is free to attend.

Our quick trip has blown out to a month, just waiting for house sitters to get back to us.

Yay this is what retirement should be, from not knowing to fully booked in three days is a great feeling. 

Knitted blanket

Well its not the greatest but its done finally. I really dont like projects that take forever! Forever in this case being eight weeks as I started it when we got home from our big lap.

A blanket of many colours, it doesnt look too bad now that its altogether, i thought the colours that I had would be boring and dull but not so bad.

I had bought a couple of knitting mags while away which had some wool with them, I realised that I would not make the items so the wool has been included here. I had some odd balls from other projects so it ws a good use for them.

I havent measured it but is is about a metre 100 cms by 140/150cms, kids blanket or a knee rug.

Honey Prawns

Yum, one of my favourite things when we got to a Chinese restaurant, not that we have been for a long time, humm, must change that soon.

On TV the other night, I cant remember what show it was as it was only a quick flick but someone was talking about honey prawns and how easy they were to make at home.

That sparked my interest. so I took note of what they did.

First it was make the batter using two egg whites, egg whites?

This morning we were out and about, taking a walk through a park and Lucy did need some big bones to chew so stopped at the supermarket. Lucy and Warren stayed in the car with the AC on while I raced inside. I didnt have any money on me, oh dear what an opportunity to buy a few prawns and try this recipe. I had everything else at home. Then I didnt feel guilty about using my card.

This was the end result. Not a cheap meal but far cheaper than going out.

The prawns for half a kilo was $10 and I have enough for lunches tomorrow. Its not the prettiest dish but in future I think i would let the prawns sit in the fridge for awhile after they were coated in the batter. I probably tried to cover too many at the same time so I will make them again. Did taste pretty good.

National Dog Day

Who would have thought that there was a national dog day! Apparently though it was on Friday, 26 August.
Our dog is going a bit silly this morning as it is past her walk time, we are having a slow day today. I have just given her a chewy thing to amuse herself with as we will go out to a park once my phone has charged so she will get a drive and a walk. Seems every day is dog day but the beauty of that is, we also get a drive and a walk in the sunshine, a win/win situation.

Freaked out!

Warren took Lucy for a walk past the dog free park a couple of days ago, as there was no-one there, he took her in and let her off the leash.She apparently panicked and went crazy. He had trouble getting her to come to him and he said that he was worried she was going to jump the fence and just run!

We both took her for a walk yesterday and rather than go the way I normally go with her, we went towards the dog park. I was thinking that we would take her into the park but keep her lead on.

We trot down the road thats her trotting and us walking, and we see a guy coming towards us with a small white dog. When there is about 30 metres between us, the guy takes his dog off to the side and down into the gutter area. The dog starts yapping and Lucy gets scared. We talked to her and had to stop to reassure her, her tail was between her legs and she was like a different dog. We set off and Lucy takes off, thank goodness we had the choker collar on as she pulled me, not an easy feat, for the next 30 metres to the kerb. The yapping dog was long gone. Lucy did sit at the kerb as she has been taught but was no interested in getting her treat.

As soon as we said she could cross, again she was straining to get further away. Two small dogs crossed in front of us and their owner put them int the dog park. I took Lucy to a bench to sit down and hopefully so she could calm down, she did a bit but I could tell that she didnt want to be there. Warren was talking to the lady and her dogs in the park. After a few minutes, Lucy was still agitated so we wen on with Warren catching us up. I thought that maybe it was the trees and bushland freaking her out as she had been found dumped  in bushland but only a few metres away from the park, her tail started to come up and her ears. She changed in a very short time and was back to the normal dog that we know.

We didnt go as far as I intended as i thought she needed to be home in her own environment so we crossed the road and of course there were a couple of barking dogs in large allotments, only a cyclone fence between them and us so Warren picked her up and we walked past them.

Once we got into our area she was fine again. Not sure where I am going to take her today for her walk, maybe just our usual one although, now that she does know it and walks well, it is not really long enough for her. At least today is not windy which probably didn't help yesterday.

We have got ourselves a dog with a few hang ups, just hope we can help her overcome them. I have never seen a dog so terrified before.

My two new completions

I have always had a habit of starting things and after awhile getting bored and going on to something else. one of the reasons why I have so many UFOs in my sewing room.

After finishing my TOTT bag the other day, I finally decided that as I have heaps of materials for kids clothes I should do something with it before its too old to be of any use. After all, I did buy three new patterns a few weeks ago.

This is the results of two afternoons work and I have another cut out ready to go.

I am not sure what I bought te material for but I considered t not right for kids although I wouldn't wear it either so it has sat and sat. One of the patterns that I bought had similar fabric as the cover photo and it looked good so I used it. 

The frills were quite easy no gathering. I did also stop before I had finished the second one, after all it was ten minutes before afternoon tea but gave myself a good talking to and got it done. I had hand sewing to do around the facing on the neck but all done now.

Two pieces of fabric out of my stash but it doesn't seem to be getting any less.

Its Back!

Yay, our favourite program on TV is back on which is amazing because it was on erlier in the year! i dont mind at all as its funny, entertaining and witty. Or should that be that because it is funny and witty that makes it entertaining? Whatever it is a good show!

It is Google Box! The most weird concept of a program ever. Who would have thought that watching people watching TV programs would be so entertaining but it is.

All the old favourites are back with a couple of extras who were new to the program at te start of the year.

Programs they watched last night were The Bachelor which some-one coined the phrase "The Bitchalor" which is pretty much on the money as the girls are really bitchy to each other.  There was a little bit on the Olympics, then Australian Survivor and it finished with the movies Beaches, a real tear jerker. I havent watched the movie but I have read the book. The women were all teary and the men were quite cynical about it.

Unfortunately the timing was wrong as it is on the same time as another program that we like to watch. We had to toss up which one to watch and which one to tape. Google was on later so it got recorded however we did end up watching it at the end as we didnt want to wait until today.

Top show.

My TOTT bag

I wanted a bag with all the bits and pieces for geo caching. Often a pen is needed if it is small, a phone with GPS is a must as well as some swag to swap .TOTT stands for tools of the trade.

Besides I like the idea of a dedicated bag.

I bought a half a metre of canvas fabric and designed a pattern, using a A $ sheet of paper, i figured that would be about the right size, didn't want it too big.

I rounded the corners and cut four sides which left enough for the zip panel and bottom, also a couple of small pockets, one on the outside for the phone and one on the inside.

This is one side with the outside pocket, the zipper is in, it is a double sided zip so can be opened from either end. I like to pin and then leave for a while before sewing on the outside.

The inside with a couple of pens in place. There wasn't enough fabric to line the zip panel so that is just plain cream canvas that I had in my stash , both sides have the cream canvas sandwiched between the zigzag fabric. Black elastic also from my stash

The finished product.

The strap came from another fabric bag that I bought and wore out but the strap was still good.

Cost was about $6, fabric was 40% off, that was $3.50 and the zip was $2.50, probably about four hours of my time.

I reinforced the bottom and over the straps, as it was an afterthought I had to stitch it on by hand.

Now I need to choose what I am going to make next. I bought five patterns the other day when they were priced at $5 instead of $17-20 each. I have made the girls pjs twice, guess I had better check my heap of material and then decide. I am trying to use up what I have before buying more fabric.

Crocheting!

Since we have been home from our trip I have been knitting strip for a blanket. I started to make a woolen scarf but it was too thick so it has continued to be a strippy blanket using up all the bits and pieces of odd balls of wool that I have.

Mum gave me all her wool once she got past knitting so i did think that i should do something with the wool.

The strips are different colours and different length so there is no rhyme or rhythm to it, but it is all 8 ply. To tie it all together i planned to crochet around the edges of each one and then around the whole thing. red was to tie it together and then it will be edged in black.


I finished the last one on Thursday, it took me about a week to knit one strip. I found a crochet hook and had a go at it. I used to crochet or I was taught and I made a suit for Jason when I was pregnant.(he is over 40!) It was a top and short pants. As I made it, it was used for all three kids. It's the last thing I remember making in crochet.

To my surprise I found it quite easy, thank goodness. I dont really know what stitch I am doing but it is doing what I wanted it to do and that was to put an edge on it. Unfortunately it is not as wide as I want for a blanket so I am still knitting one more. It will be eight strips of approx 100 cms x160 cms once it is done.

It will be then donated to Knitting for Brisbane's needy. A woman I met last month set up this charity about ten years ago and she says there is still a great need to warm clothes and blankets. After this is done I will then go back to making beanies they are much easier and they want them as well.

International Geo caching day

Fifteen years ago the first geo cache was hidden and now today there are thousands out and about, nana small to large boxes. Some are very sneaky but all give a sense of achievement once they have been located and the log signed.

If we go out and get one today and log it, then we receive a virtual certificate on our profile.

I have a tracking bug that I picked up earlier in the week which I will pass along today. It is a small polar bear and its owner wanted it to travel the world, so far it has travelled over 28,000 kms. I will help it travel 40 kms.

These travel bugs are logged, picked up and left by geo cachers to move along as quickly as possible. This is the second that I have collected and sent packing.

There are heaps of caches around this area but most of them as traditionals. I think there are about seven different types, including Multi, Mystery and letter boxes.

Usually there is a bit of a story about the place that the cache take one to or a reason why it could be a nice park, some historical place or just good scenery, they are all different.

My favourite has been one Sheridan and I did in Darwin. We had had a big day, 28 in a day and this was called a ghost run or similar, Ghost was certainly in the title. We had to walk about 800 metres up a fire track and then branch off into the bush. When we got close, there were white material shaped like ghosts hanging from a tree and we needed to be looking for a ghost gum. The cache was at the base of  ghost gum.

All that is needed to cache is a phone with a GPS and a bit of a sense of adventure.We have found about 128 so far, still a novice.

Today I hope to finish my TOTT bag, (stands for tools of the trade) photos to come when I get it finished.

The Cenus

Oh dear what a farce this time around. They (Australian Bureau of Stats) decided to go all techo this time, what they didnt realise is not everyone is computer savvy or want to be.

The first boo boo they made was to end out a letter addressed to the house holder but they hadn't advised people that was what they were doing and a good half of the letters were put into the bin.

People could request a paper copy if they didnt want to it on line

Apparently it was pretty straight forward, Warren did it on the computer in about twenty minutes and sent it off. He must have done it at the right time as an hour later the site crashed and of course a lot of people jumped on the band wagon and talking about the information being hacked. It was just an over load.

Census night was the 9th of August and ads are still being run on TV and doing it late with no fines and households have until 18 September to finalize it. I just wonder how relevant the info will be if there is over a month for the information to be sent in.

A program on TV that we watch and it is mainly about advertising and both the gurus were saying that the info that the ABS want from the cenus is available through the phone book/records or the taxation office so really these days there is no reason to have a cenus.

Lucy takes over the back yard

Not sure that one can have a tidy and neat yard once a dog is in residence. Lucy has really taken over the yard and there are bones near the back fence, a ball or two around and chew toys. She will chase a ball for a couple of throws, she is quite happy to bounce after it and pick it up but its a bit hit and miss whether she will bring it back and three throws is the maximum at the moment.

Warren changed the stones in the yard and she loves to walk along them.

She also loves going under the big tree and picking up the dry tree beans.

Here she has one in her mouth.

She can still be a little timid, had visitors this morning and the tail was between her legs but before they left, she was happy and going from one to the other for a pat.

Had to buy pet shampoo and flea collar the other day, he is itching a bit but only five fleas came off her so she may have a slight skin irritation. 

Roast Chicken Dinner

I babysat yesterday as Aidan wasn't well, leaving home at 7am. Warren had been talking about roasting a chicken in the BBQ but wanted a foil tray to do it in. I had bought one when i went shopping and the chicken had been taken out of the freezer so yesterday was the day to try it.

I arrived home at 5.15 pm and as soon as I opened the garage door I could smell chicken. apparently our bbq was out of gas so he couldn't cook it in there.

Not knowing how long to cook it for, he put it in the oven approx 2.30 pm with the vegetables. He had cut up some oranges and placed the chicken on top and just cooked it slow.

Yum, the meat was tender with a slight taste of orange and the potatoes and carrots were crispy. Usually dinner is about 6 pm but as everything was cooked we ate early. There is nothing like having a meal cooked for you when you are usually the cook!

Walking with Lucy

Warren had taken Lucy for a couple of short walks last week and then she did the big walk 5 Kms on the treasure hunt) on Sunday between us, with lots of stopping. The stopping was to wait for the kids to find what ever they were looking for in the treasure hunt.

Warren went off to tennis on Monday as usual so it was my turn to take her for a walk on my own. We want to teach her to sit on command so it was a walk with a learning component.

A pocket full of treats and we set off. Over the road we trotted, she walks along reasonably well but of course has no idea about heel or even walking on one side but that will come in time we hope.

Kitty corner was a big white bull dog who wanted to talk (bark) Lucy gets freaked out at new noises but I was able to coax her along although she was pulling back on her lead. I dont really like choker collars but it does keep her safe, otherwise she would slip her collar and who knows where she would end up. We got past him okay  at least she didnt lay down which she does when she is really frightened. She flattens herself as low as she can get and makes herself heavy.

We turned up the road and had several practices at sitting at the kerbs before going across the road, we came back on the opposite side. A guy was putting up a new fence and using a post hole enforcer to put the star pickets in, making quite a noise. Of course it freaked Lucy out and she stopped, I am trying to persuade her and suddenly the npise stopped.The guy who was about fifty metres away realised what what happening and stopped so she could continue without the noise. When we got to him, we had a chat and he got down to Lucy's level and gave her a pat. Then we continued on, that was so nice of him.

Yesterday I was out all day and Warren went to take her for a walk, the opposite way and they got three houses away from home and she lay down and flattened herself, she wasnt going that way. He turned and went the usual way and down the end of the path two hundred metres from home she did the same thing. He told me that he wasnt going to pick her up and carry her o they returned home.

This morning it was my turn again and he told me to pick her up and carry her past whatever if she did that again. It was the white bull dog that did it, yep, shes trying to make herself small even though he wasnt barking as much as Monday. I did carry her for a few metres and then went on and she was fine. A stretch of long grass freaked her out and she lay down but I waited her out. I wondered if she could smell something in there. Coming home she almost pulled me up the slope and then she was looking for Warren.

Treasure Hunting

Sunday was a joint birthday lunch for Warren and Aidan, their birthdays are nine days apart. As the kids were going to a trampolining place near Sheridan's in the morning it was decided to go there for lunch.I had already decided that I wasnt going to cook for everyone but buy a platter from Subway so it was easy to change. Lucy went with us to meet the family.

The trip was a bit much for her, almost an hour in the car and then up hills and several roundabouts, just before we got there, she lost her breakfast. Luckily for all of us, we were only a couple of hundred metres away and it went on her mat not on the seats so very easy to clean up.

After lunch, Sheridan brought out her phone as she had a clue to start the treasure hunt. We needed to walk to the dog park and the kids had to look at the background on the video and then find a "gold Coin/pieces of eight". The three smaller boys. eight, nine and ten, had a ball running from one t the other and finding the pieces. We wound our way back home while they located all the pieces. Jordan had helped Sheridan with the videos in the morning. The kids had a ball once they found all eight then they got the treasure which was a box of poppers, balloons and glow sticks.

It was a great activity and we all got a good work out as it was about a 5 k walk with a big hill at the end (up to the house!)

Lucy came too and did very well as it was the first big walk she had done on the lead.  

When we got to the edge of the dog park, one of the kids saw an owl in a tree it was only a couple of metres of the ground. Warren said that it was a Tawny frog mouth owl and they usually were in pairs. I had not seen one in the wild before and it really blended in with the tree. Once the kids got their next clue and went around the back of the tree there was the other one of the pair, so the birds were up about the same height but on each side of the tree.

Lucy the Escape Artist!

Friday Warren usually goes to tennis and with me going to work, he hummed and harred about going as it would mean Lucy being left on her own for the first time, but figured she needed to get used to it some time.

He took her for a short walk, gave her a bone to chew on outside and left for tennis.

When he came back about three hours later, our neighbour called out to say Lucy was over with them.

It appeared that Lucy had been quite happy with her bone for awhile and then started looking for Warren. As she had been over the road for a couple of visits, she used the crossbars on the fence to get a hoist up, over she went and trotted across the road. Our neighbour felt a cold wet nose on the back of her leg and it was Lucy.

We (Warren) are now adding to the fence, making it higher and the addition is going on top of the cross bar so she wont be able to get a lift up.

There's no whimpering at night any more and she is walking on a lead quite well but isnt up to walking on one side or anything like that. We are teaching her to sit on command at the moment, she has come a long way in a short time.

This is her bed at night, we shut her in there and we do have to lift her in as she would rather sleep on the carpet but once she's in, she curls up straight away until morning.

We are going out later and we will take her with us.

 

Back to Work

I had the opportunity to work for a day on Friday, as I had nothing planned, I agreed to go in. It did mean that I had to leave home at around six thirty in the morning! I must admit it was nice driving at that time of the morning, quite a difference in the volume of traffic.

I was filling in for a guy who does mainly year tens, elevens and twelves which was nice. I didn't work with any of them last year but I had the year before. It was nice catching up with work mates and students that I had known.

The big difference though was the maturity of the kids plus their size. Two boys in particular, they are twins and I used to tell them apart by the character more than looks. One was a little more out going than the other and they were little boys, now it seems as though they have grown about six inches in nine months and have filled out. They are no longer little boys but young adults, I guess they would be sixteen or seventeen. One of their class mates turned eighteen the day I was there so they may even be almost eighteen.Pretty much all taller than me too.

The kids that I knew all seems happy to see me which was really nice. I enjoyed my day of work and I get paid for it at some time.

A "P" day

Yep, A P day standing for Picnic

We took Lucy out in the car,she had travelled ina car before but not ours. We didnt go too far and we wanted a quiet place with few or no other people and dogs around. Warren looped her lead around a piece of rope and that then over the tow bar so she could go for a bit of a wander but as can be seen she didnt go far. Her picnic of a chicken neck was demolished before I had even made our coffee. 

Later at home I settled down to make a pair of PJs, almost got them finished.

Very bright fabric with animals and their names on them. At Spotlight when I replaced my needles, patterns were on sale for $5 instead of the usual $15 to $18 so I grabbed a couple. So much easier than draughting my own (we were taught to do this at school)or tracing patterns from a book.

While i was sewing, Warren did some work on Project one. He took down the old curtains and curtain rod and replaced them with the new curtains. Old ones were short and new ones are to the floor. I had taken off the single letters and I am considering taking down the kids names, but they are still there for the moment. Waiting on an electrician to come and fix the fan and light in that room.

The tri bed, chest of drawers have gone to a better home and a broken fan gone to the bin. Still a bit to go such as the big heavy steel filing cabinet. I;m sure there is plenty of shredding that could be done to empty it.

Lucy the thief!

The foster care told us that Lucy was a bit of a thief and that at her place she had had a stash of stuff, pens and bits and pieces.

We hadn't noticed this until yesterday when she decided to grab my knitting from my chair while I was on the computer. maybe she thought that she was home alone a Warren was at tennis and I wasnt making any noise. I had heard the doggy door swinging back and forth so know she had been going in and out. It was quiet so I got up to see what she was doing and knitting stretched from the lounge room through the dinning on to the mat that she likes to sit on and there was my weeks worth of knitting with the bamboo needles that I use snapped in half and the other one with teeth marks. She had disappeared out the door when she heard my chair move.

I just said "No" to her and took it back to the chair .That was obviously not enough as ten minutes later my knitting trailed through the doggy door and was on the back door mat. This time both needles were stuffed. the knitting was then put up high, honestly its like having a child having to put things up.

Later when Warren came home and he had taken his shoes off like usual while watching the TV, Lucy struck again. She had trouble getting his shoe, the new pair that he bought for Kokoda, out of the doggy door.

Hummm, seems she wants something to chew and play with, she does have a couple of toys but not chewy stuff. Off to Pet Barn, I went and bought pigs ears and a kong for her, plus big chewy bones from the butchers. When she came, the foster carer had an opened tin of food for her which we fed her for a couple of nights but phew, did it stink when feeding and the aftermath was worse. No more tinned food for her. i will make up some mince and vegetables as well as the bones.

She was very happy this morning, tail wagging a lot more and she has been for a short walk with Warren. Lucy had not been on a lead before so everything is a big learning curve for her.

We are going out to a park for a lunch time picnic. We want her to get used to travel in the car. She cant be around other dogs yet and shes not that good with too many people around so we will have to pick our spot and just see how we go with her. 

Sausage roll with a difference.

I bought some mince when doing the grocery shopping with a view to make pasties. We both love Cornish pasties and did have a couple while we were travelling. Most places have pies but few have pasties.

The mince i bought was classed as gourmet mince and had no preservatives in it which is a good thing but I noticed, it said on the pack that it needed to be used or frozen within 24 hours. Yikes, I wasn't prepared with vegetables to make the pasties so I make sausages rolls instead.

I did also buy a huge bunch of silver beet or spinach, not often this is for sale or maybe I just shop at the wrong time and we both like it.

Using Annie the Thermomix, I roughly chopped the silver beet and threw in some mushrooms as well so that it would chop down into manageable pieces, add 500 gms of mince, some tomato sauce, salt and pepper.

It made a fairly solid mound, I had two sheets of pastry thawing and I had seen on TV, some making large rolls using a whole sheet of pastry, I usually make sausage roll size.

The guy on TV had cut the pastry first and then spread it like lattice and it looked good so I did that as well.

There was dinner and I have two smaller ones in the freezer for a quick lunch or a picnic.

Rio Olympics

Just finished watching our girls win the Rugby sevens. I didnt even know that it existed, but boy oh boy what a fast and furious game. Went to bed knowing that our Aussie girls were to play Canada and was very surprised to hear this morning that they won.

Turned on the TV early this morning and USA and France were playing for fifth and sixth position again it was a very entertaining game. Then it was the playoff between Canada and Great Britain to be followed by the gold medal playoff between us and the kiwis, just gotta watch it.

The games are only seven minutes aside but in the medal round they played ten minutes a side.

We were down and then there was a try. Warren and I were urging them on to the line and getting a little loud, suddenly Lucy took off outside, poor dog, we think she thought she was being yelled at. The next try she stayed but looked uncomfortable. Just wait until we are watching AFL! Hopefully she will be used to us cheering on the TV by then.

Finally it was another gold for us, silver for the kiwis and bronze going to the Canadians. It is the first time that women's Rugby evens have been to the Olympics, not surprising as the game itself has only been on the world circuit for four years.

Glad that I can knit while watching otherwise it would be wasted time but I am getting things done.

Lucy the kelpie

Lucy arrived this morning with the Second Chance organizer and her foster mum. She was sitting in the back seat looking very attentive.

Everyone came inside and they did a handover while we bonded with Lucy. As we had a collar for her, we handed over the one that she came with which was only a few days old. She had filled out so much in a few days that a new one had to be purchased for her.

She has been walking around and sniffing everywhere. Warren took her outside this afternoon and the two little dogs from next door barked at her. She raced back inside and then barked and had a nervous wee on the floor.

Oh boy what an awful photo! I used my tablet and it seemed to take forever to actually take it.

Here she i having a drink at the back door, she hasnt used a doggy door before so one more thing we will have to teach her.

Not sure what that green stuff is.

He went that way but can i follow him? It means that i have to step on the green stuff.

She had a good first night, we have a doggy fence for her to sleep in and while she did not want toilet outside before we all settled for the night, at least she held herself in check all night and was grateful to go outside this morning.

Warren went off to tennis and she seemed to miss something but followed me around while I did the house work, I havent brought out the vacuum cleaner yet, too noisy for her just yet (besides its a good excuse to put it off for another day or so. She also was happy going in and out of the doggy door and after lunch Warren had to do a pick up in the garden so we could almost say that she is toilet trained to go outside.

Bike upgrade

While we were travelling, Warren decided that there were some adjustments/additions to his bike.

He did some research and parcels have been turning up for a few days.

A friend had minded the bike while we wee away and made sure that it was started regularly and took for a run. One of the first things Warren got was a lift for the bike as it is quite heavy. The lift will lift a bike up to 150 kgs. I tried it out by sitting on the base and it lifted me with no problems at all.

The lifter is at the back tyre.

A bash plate was added to the bottom which is just out of the photo. 

A tray was bolted on and the boot was added. At first he bought a bigger one and when it came it was massive, could hold two helmets. He replaced with the smaller one.

The bikes that we rode (he rode, I pillioned) had these back boots and as well as holding some luggage or groceries, it was a security thing for me, with that at my back, I knew that I wasn't going to slip off the back.

Project three. Finished!

Oh its so good once something is completed. Yesterday was a very cold day and while sitting over coffee after breakfast we had decided that it was a day to stay inside and keep warm.

However Warren went out outside and next thing I knew he has started moving bricks and he got it finished.
He said that he needed to keep warm and this was one way to do it while being outside, whatever, I am just pleased that it is done.

This was the side fence that he put together and up last week.

The bricks were moved from the right and put into a straight line across to the back fence. With the trees getting bigger and giving more shade, not much will grow there so we will just leave it. Between the house and the bricks was where we were going to put turf but getting Lucy the dog in a day or so, we have decided to just water it and see what happens, it is possible that the grass/lawn will grow back.

Now that is it done, we do think that we will get some small bushes and plant them on the right of the bricks.

A Vent!

The thing that annoys me the most is having my name spelt wrong! I dont think its that difficult and when I fill in forms and people reply because of that and then spell it wrong THAT is what really gets up my nose.

There are many ways to spell my name and believe I think I have seen most of the different spelling and while mine is not the most common is one not that uncommon.

Because of my annoyance re my name I do make a concerted effort to check the spelling of people's names and try to get them correct.

Two weeks ago I booked some tickets to the tennis which included a hotel room, there were forms to complete and then a couple of phone calls. One of my calls that I needed to make on Wednesday along with ringing banks was to the ticket people as I had paid but had nothing to confirm it. Hoping that my money hadn't gone missing and that no tickets were forth coming. I was assured that everything was okay and they would re send the email.(My email address is said different to the spelling so I always spell it out for people).

No email yesterday or today so I checked my junk mail and yes there is was with my name wrong, Grrrrr! as my name now doesn't match with the name on my credit card, I will now have to have it changed. On a positive note, I now have tickets and a hotel room confirmed.  Arrr, now that I have vented I feel so much better and can go about my tasks for the day quite happily.

Money!

Can be so annoying at times. I have spent the last hour or so dealing with money and banks and counting.

I set up a new bank account which pays a higher interest, transferred two lots of money, all good then I tried to do a regular direct deposit and it rejected, silly me, I had put my client number instead of my account number. Luckily for me, after this little bag of money had been swanning around somewhere it was returned to me after five days.

Realising my mistake, I tried again, sent the little bag of money flying from one bank to another and waited for it to reappear in the second bank and waited and waited. Yesterday, it was back! like a bad penny.

Okay so I needed to resolve this somehow. First I rang the first bank and changed the security code going to Warren's phone number as each time I moved money he and his phone needed to be here so changed it to mine. Fifteen minutes after that my phone rang and supposedly the bank was ringing to confirm, a bit wary of the call but they didnt ask for account details just were concerned that Warren's was still on as contact number. I did recognize the guys voice after awhile so that was all good. Yep, Warren's number is good as a contact and mine for security codes. I can do this as I opened the account and while it is in joint names, I am the principle person unlike another bank that wont allow me to do anything as warren is first mentioned on the account, one of the main reasons that I do internet banking.

Next to ring second bank, they were too busy so I quickly reconciled some money for a group that i belong to and arrgh! too much money. Count it again and then made a phone call to confirm that my count was right due to extra money added that I didnt know about, phew! thought I had lost my marbles or at least my counting abilities.

I paid out for some travel tickets a few days ago and hadn't received any confirmation regarding that so another phone call chasing where money had been spent. Oh, yes, they had received it and I should have received an email with the details they would re-isssue, so that one is done. Supposed to be a house work day for me but so far, its been on phone and computer.

Ring second bank, they couldnt tell me much as money had not been received there but did confirm that the numbers I used were correct and suggested that I ring first bank to see why it had rejected or taken a trip and then came back.

I am pysching myself with a coffee and a vent on here before I need to put on my big girl pants and ring AGAIN! Bloody money!

So Excited!

Finally we are getting a pet dog. Now that our big trip is over and the back yard is secure again we feel that we can have a dog again.

I had been looking at the rescue dogs for awhile, there are some many looking to be re homed. Warren liked the look of a kelpie, she is one of three, she has two brothers and they had been dumped in bush area.

The price is $400, gulp and includes worming, inoculations and de-sexing. Because she hasnt been de-sexed yet, we cant pick her up until next week.

This at least gives us time to get organised. We have bought a harness and treats for her so far. We went to a Blind dogs session a few years ago and picked up some points regarding training, so treats it will be when she does something right.

She is about seven months old and not toilet trained yet. Her kennel name is Lulu but we think Lucy.We havent met her yet only seen a photo and read a profile, I'm sure there will be more to come re Lucy