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.

Good Dinosoar

Ended up five of us went to the movies. Two to The 5th watch?, grampy, Lindsay (4yo) and I saw the dinasoar. It was quite long for a kids movie. Had to laugh at them eating fermenting plums and how they got drunk with a hang over the next morning.

Movies tickets are much more here than at home, we pay $8.30 and it was $12 today for us, even $18 for students.

Grease

Well we got to the musical on Saturday afternoon and it only took just an hour to drive and find the place. Even though it is not far from here, none of us know it, I think I have only been there once before.

The bottom stalls where we had tickets were on a flat surface, I expected that it would be raised a little so that you could see over peoples head in front but not to be. We were in the last row before the stepped seating (prices were the same  guess it was first in, best seats). Fair bit of necking craning to see it all but it was mainly the singing and dance anyway that are the best parts.

The show went for fifty minutes and then an interval, Warren bought an ice cream for us but he missed out as he only had a $20 note on him. That's what happens when we all get so used to using a card (he made up for it after when we went to Maccas). The interval was 20 minutes and it finished about 4 pm. It rained fairly heavy just about all the way home but I don't think we had had very much rain just enough to water the lawns.

The small threatre apparently has lots of shows or artists come, I grabbed a program that went from Sept to Dec and most weekends there was something on. Cheaper than going into Brisbane but of course they wouldn't get the big productions but certainly worthwhile seeing what they will having next year.

Mare

This is an Island that we visited from the cruise. I didn't know how to say the name, what it mare like the horse or what it ma re like the girls name? As it is part of New Caledonia and therefore has French connections, they say it with in the French way so Ma're.

This is a tiny island and our cruise ship couldn't get close enough so we were taken of the cruise boat by tenders (these are in actual fact the lifeboats!) They used three and each one could hod up to 141 people. It was a pleasant ride of about ten minutes across to the island.

 Could either stay there or buy a bus ride to the other side of the island. $18 for a twenty minute ride there and back. Bus went and came back when the bus was full.

It was interesting travelling through tropical paradise and seeing the local houses, few houses in town but they were dotted around with garden plots, seemed to have a fairly simple life.

The water was a beautiful colour.

These are passengers of the boat frolicking in the water. The name of the bay where we swam was called Turquoise Bay, and can see why.

It was a bit cold for swimming but we stayed for awhile and did a bit of snorkeling and then went back on the bus to the tenders ready for a late lunch.

This is the lady collecting our tickets to return on the bus. Our tickets were a bit wet as Warren had them in his pocket of his swimmers and hadn't thought to take them out. Luckily he had rescued them before they got too wet and soggy.

Dirty Dancing (The play)

Sheridan surprised me with tickets to this show for Mothers day but had to wait until it came to town. She had a PD day in the city on Thursday so I drove the boys to school and back again. She ordered pizza to be delivered and while I was wondering if the delivery guy would/could take a card, he told me that it was already paid. Bonus!

Sheridan had rung and ordered online and paid as well. She arrived just after the pizza and we had just enough time to eat and then leave for the theatre, she had arranged for parking as well under the Playhouse.

Our seats were quite a way up but we were right in the middle and the sound was fantastic. It was a very fast moving with lots of singing and action, very enjoyable.

It was fairly late by the time we got home but I stayed the night which meant I didn't  have to drive the forty minutes to our house, Aidan lent me his bed for the night. It also meant that I could have a bit of a sleep in the next morning.

Training it

Volunteering at the tennis and there is little parking available for us so we are taking the train, its also less stressful and free although it does take a little longer.

Friday was our first official day and we had arranged to meet a fellow volunteer on a certain carriage, he had not travelled on the trains here before and had had to buy a Go card for the first time. Its funny how we all get used to things pretty quickly but F was rather nervous esp when the tracks change and it does give quite a bang, he nearly hit the roof but we assured him that everything was okay.

Although we had been told our accreditation cards would get us free travel, the cards stated 4 Jan and we were travelling on the second (for qualifying games). I was concerned that it may not cover so I asked at the station office. he told me that it said from the 4 Jan but he said that if it was him (in our place) he would just get on and we would be working.

twenty minutes into our trip, the ticket police came on and we were all teasing each other that we could end up in a cell somewhere. I couldn't believe how many younger people either didn't have tickts or had concession tickets/cards but couldnt produce their concession cards. One girl who appeared to be in her late twenties just told them that he didnt have a ticket, no reason was given and when he was writing her out a fine, she kept saying that t didn't matter as she wouldn't pay it anyway. Not once she look at the guy while he was talking to her and she was on her phone, either texting or looking at something.

Came across the aisle to us took one look and said "oh you guys are right" and continued on.

Later that night, arriving home on the train, I thought I could see from the platform that lights on the car were on, damn and blast they were, thankfully only the parkers. Turned A/C and radio off and it started without losing a beat, been on from 11am til about 8.15pm.

The lights turn off when the car is locked however a few months ago we started having issues with the button lock sometimes it would lock and sometimes not so we ditched the button and use only the key and after Friday we have discovered that the key locking does not turn off the lights, lesson learnt and fortunately we were not left stranded with a flat battery

Mrs Brown's Boys D'movie

Earlier in the year, Mrs Brown's boy and the crew came to Australia and I did look at the tickets but at $130 a seat, I decided against buying them. Now of course there is the movie or to quote the title "D'Movie".

We went along yesterday and pre-purchased tickets for $8, much better price. I asked Warren if he wanted an ice cream to take in with us, of course he said yes. Oh boy, I hadn't realised the cost of them as before we had bought tickets and ice cream together. $6.60 each they were, jeepers, that's a bit steep but I did buy them anyway but will think twice next time.

The movie was good, very funny, bit of swearing, bit of smut, we thoroughly enjoyed it and for $14.60 a reasonable afternoons entertainment

The Monument Men, the movie

This is an awesome movie, it is a war movie but its like a side line to the war. It was based on a true story and after watching it today, I intend to do some research to find out more about what was stolen and where it was taken etc. Basically a team of men were tasked to find, recover and return to the rightful owners while the war was still raging.

The movie didn't last every long here at the cinema so we had to go closer into Brisbane to see it which took us past the Top Nosh Cafe  that I wrote about a few days ago. Wow, three visits in as many weeks, we did say though that we wanted to check out their meals, yummo! Warren had a burger which came with chips and I chose a mushroom and spinach omelette with a soft drink each.

George Clonney acted and directed the movie, Matt Damon, John Goodman, Bill Murray and Cate Blancett were also stars in it. Two hours long but very well done, we both enjoyed it.

On the news tonight, they were talking about movie tickets going to $20 by the end of the year, we paid $21 today

Federation Cup (women's tennis)

A couple of weeks ago we both received an email asking us if we would like to volunteer as ushers at the Fed Cup. We were going to buy tickets and had not got around to it, thank goodness. We said yes and we were in!

We had to go in for an induction meeting and collect our uniform which consisted of a hat, T-shirt and our pass. Fed Cup lasts for two days and was the best of three out of a possible five, four singles and a doubles match.

Only twenty ushers were needed so we felt quite honoured to be asked and then selected. It was much more relaxed than the Brisbane International. I was put with another woman, who had only worked in Corporate services before,so I had to show her the ropes of being an usher, due to numbers there was only two on each door but it was pretty easy as there was no need to check tickets and patrons could sit where they wanted,so our job was really only to open and close the doors at the right time and make sure that people didn't move round while play was on.

Yesterday we started at 10am, with the doors opening at eleven, play starting at 12 noon. They played the  two singles and both our girls didn't play that well and they lost their matches, but they were playing girls rated higher than them. It was a Semi finals against Germany.

Today, play was later starting and it took us over two hours to get there because of trail track work.We had to take a bus between Roma Street and South Brisbane. Sam played Kerber today and won the first set but went missing in the second set, losing it six nil, the third set was very good and it could have been anyones but Kerber won out in the end. That was the third and meant that Germany had won their way into the final.

Although it was a dead rubber, the doubles were played by Casey and Ashleigh, boy did they play well and ended up winning in a profession tie breaker. Some people left but many people stayed and watched the doubles which was good for all the girls.

Play finished around 5pm and then dinner was supplied for us, we were thinking sandwiches and maybe party pies. Prawns, oysters party pies, scones, fruit, boy what a feast! Best thing for me was our girl team, Sam, Ash and Casey came out and pinched some our food when passing by and I got to speak to all of them.

Arrived home at 8.30, legs are tired and so is the rest of the body but it was a good weekend.