what day are we up to again........

I hate having holidays and nothing planned, I think I might find out when my next lot of hols are(I have rostered hols) and try and plan something for then perhaps a trip to Melbourne,

I've never travelled south of the border, unless you count the border with Canberra strange setup that one, a little tiny state smack bang in the middle of nowhere, apologies to all of the canberanites out there but if it wasn't for the city there would be ski hotels and farms and perhaps a small town, it is interesting that they stuck it in between Sydney and Melbourne rather than in the center of the country, now could you imagine that....... the capital city of Australia...... ALICE SPRINGS........... it kinda works.

I've decided after reading the last paragraph that I should stick to the light shandy's rather than drinking the beer straight...... thank goodness for spell check (I've only had one.....)

anyway mum and dad are heading to Melbourne for their wedding anniversary I think it will be 32 years I could be very wrong..... they are going for a romantic weekend including a meal at fifteen restaurant..... its been booked for months, it annoys me that they don't want me to drive them to the airport because that would put me out, I might have talked them into it when I reminded dad of all of the 4am trips to the station, and his car will be more secure at home than at the parking station, it will also give them another $80 or so to spend while they are away. we'll see what happens dad keeps saying something about work, but it's on a weekend so I'm unlikely to be working anyway grrr

as for today well I joined Calorie King website, seeing as though its free now I figured another resource cant hurt seems pretty good enter food, counts calories in and calories out, shows how many left, similar to the meal planner on the WW site but I prefer the forum on WW so I'll stick to that not that I've been all that involved lately really need these things to work for me, I'm sick of not having any clothes that fit it drives me mad to have things that only a few weeks ago were perhaps a little tight but are now almost impossible to do up grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

going shopping with mum tomorrow for a new outfit... aunty is turning 60 they are having a garden party I need garden party outfit to go in or at least a bright and cheer full wrap thing and a hat to go with black dress more than likely new outfit though, I wonder if the boy will allow me to buy him a new shirt ..... prolly not

day 3 hols

well......... there was breakfast banana berry smoothie, I'm not a big fan of the liquid breaky but its so hot and I wasn't all that hungry
and then there were the weight exercises, tuna sandwiches for lunch, risotto at pa's for dinner
my arms back and chest are a little sore, but its good sore, its amazing how hot and sweaty lifting heavy things can make you, walking will start next week, hopefully the weather is cooler soon

holidays day 2

well, I spent the morning helping the boy put his bike together, for someoone who is such a neat freak he keeps an incredibly untidy shed, I will go through it one day and sort things out but that will have to wait until I manage to declutter the house, I am considering selling some of my fiction books and joining the library then I will have much more room for keeping my non fiction stuff and only keeping the special books, the one that were handed down or were gifts

the gym got a work out this afternoon, I know my uppe body will be sore tomorrow, but I will try to do legs stuff tomorrow, I thought about it today but my arms were shaking too much to hold the bar and the boy suggested it would be better if I have time in my routine for some gym stuff every day upper body today lower body tomorrow, still working on the routine thing it is happening, sort of but it works much better when I am going to work during the day

new addition this week will be vacuuming twice a week, he said we need to vacuum twice a week because the dogs are in the house a fair bit and if we had children they would be on the floor alot and he likes to lay on the floor too , he also mentioned he wouldn't mind if one of his ex's turned up with a child of his, it would be nice to go and do things like kite flying and bycicling and he'd make a good dad, prolly because his dad never did anything with him, I seriously think the boy is starting to think family, it is a bit of worry but then it could be just thoughts it would be nice to have instant 7 YO which can be handed back not sure how long it would be all good for though

holidays day1

one thing I love about CORE is breakfast

the only thing on this plate that I have to count are the sausages the rest is eat until comfortable

after breakfast I put up the new tent its pretty nice, very easy to put up and not to hard to fit back in the bag I've already lost one peg, I'll have to take a trip to the camping shop and get some more so that I have some spare

just for good measure I wanted to throw this photo in , just because I like it


it is red things from my garden

another day another dollar, or more

apparently they had bets as to weather I'd turn up or not, everyone lost, no one thought I'd go, hahahahahaha I usually say no I don't want to work, reasons,

• the boy only has weekends off and its nice to spend the day and the night together
• I can think of much more interesting things to do
• I work a lot of afternoon shift and so only get to see family and friends who are mostly non shift workers on the weekend
  
• I need to go shopping
  
• anything else that comes up at the time

really I just don't like being at work more than I have to, yes the money on weekends is very good and I can probably pay the rego on the Ute from working one weekend but I think my home life is more important than putting 2007 equipment into 1970's machines then trying to get it to work. it wasn't too bad today although we did get a cruddy job later in the day, which technically we shouldn't have done because the other jobs are classed as 12 hrs, I heard much complaining on the way out to the job from the bloke who was sent out to the job with me, I don't care we are there and doing the work makes the time go quicker

On the way home I stopped into anaconda and bought 2 sleeping bags and a 3 man tent, when the boy gets his licence back they will get some use, I bought them now because they were on special, and the sleeping bags will fit nicely in the bottom of our saddle bags and the tent will fit nicely across the back of my seat, the whole lot cost $108, full price would have been over $300, I an learning to control my spending, which is great, now most of the time I am able to confidently stop at the shop on my way home and grab some basics, it's sad when you are not sure if you have the $10 for the few things you are picking up from Coles or woollies

On Australia day, it is the day that the Governor declared the colony, so pretty much the day the first fleet landed

straylya day

well, happy Australia day, I can't remember if its a celebration of the day the first fleet landed or if its the day that the country was discovered I know its something important like that anyway ,usually celebrated with BBQ and beer this year we are having a nice quiet at home day, I have to work tomorrow so I don't particularly feel like running around or doing a BBQ I hope it rains later its another one of those humid days, I would consider going to the local pool but I know it will be packed, and there's no fun swimming in a crowded pool, we were going sailing but I think those places will also be packed oh well have fun every one

it's started

with 10 days to go the process for the boy getting his licence back has started he did his knowledge test to day "aced it" apparently, only required a pass but got all questions right yaaaaaaaaay, they are making him wait until the first of Feb before he can even book for his prac , I thought he would be able to book for the prac so that he could get in close to or on the first , looks like another week unnecessarily added onto the end of his disqualification, like its not hard enough doing 5 years without a licence. that last week is going to be a killer because he is then allowed to hold a licence but cant get it until he completes the test.

new tires for the Ute while he was at it, they couldn't find the winder to get the spare down so it too almost 2 hrs rather than the 45 mins they originally stated I was most unimpressed. the winder by the way is always clipped to the back wall of the cab with maybe a bag of green bags in front of it, if I ever need another new spare I'll have to remember to have the winder out ready, I'll have to re pack the cab later, and after yesterdays disaster with the fires on the F3 and Old Road (pacific hwy)

I must remember to throw in a bottle of water or two lots of people were stranded in the traffic with small children and no water to give them, unfortunately for them they are too thick to see that the authorities have more important things(like fire) to deal with than some dill who doesn't carry water in their car, they( the people without water for the 3/4yo child) were ringing up the radio complaining that no one was bringing refreshments through the traffic for people who were stranded, how dare they concentrate on fighting fire and re-directing traffic, later in the day one of the guests mentioned she always carries a litre bottle of water in the boot of her car which is use full, for washing up after changing tires or if you get stuck in big traffic jambs, we carry a 2 litre bottle when we take the dogs but I think I might just keep it topped up, if you are really thirsty it doesn't matter how stale or warm the water is
SMH article

symphony

We being me and them ( the boy decided it was too hot)
had a really good time, everyone took some food and many bottles of champagne were drunk, I have no hope of ever keeping up with that lot

the conductor was very entertaining you could tell he was really into the music, this year was mostly from American composers he explained allot bout the relationships between different composers and what each piece was about


the lighting is awesome, every piece had a different set of images projected onto the sails

here's a vid of the last bit, the entire vid is too long,


yes I jumped when the cannons went of the first time
they told me the fire works would come off the buildings so I was leaning that way, I really need to work on my videoing skills

trip to the city

OK so in preparation to go to symphony tonight we went and laid out a sheet to mark our spot. the domayne is almost right in the middle of the city its pretty nice, lots of big statues around and old trees I took a heap of pics on the way into and out of the citythese are the bridges in and out, you have to pay a toll on the harbour bridge to get into the city so we go in on Anzac bridge
I think this one come next, ANZAC bridge, I think its a very pretty bridge to look atas you get closer you can see that other Icon of the city, Center point tower, not sure if they still call it that but that's all I've ever known it atdid i mention I think this is a pretty bridgeI love all of the old buildings, I think this is a cathedral and the old hospital, I could be very very wrong with this oneits hard to take good picture when the car is moving this is st something or other, could be Andrew, could be James, could be way off to but I'm sure there was a st in there some where
the entrance to the tower is somewhere on the other side of the park, its probably a very long walk the ever famous bridge, not as pretty as the Anzac

on the ever famous bridge, no toll on the way out, mum got lost on the way home because she was too busy talking on the phone (hands free) and took a wrong turn, I knew where we were

We were somewhere not very far out of the city and if we keep following the signs we will find our way home :-), a very exciting evening

La La La

it's too hot to care, I was thinking about re-starting my workoutson the bench and ball, then I thought about taking my little beastie for a ride, I could alway finish that washing that I started and hang it out, its still on soak cycle, which usually gives it a couple of days before it starts to smell which happens withing a few hours of the spin cycle finnishing, its probably good weather for washing, but I 'm buggered if I'm going out in it to hang the stuff out I've finally figured out how to get this room somewhat bearable with a fan in the halway sending the airconditioned air this way seems to be working niceley, we are going to the domayne tonight to lay out a sheet, apparently this is the best eay fo reserving a good spot unless you wish to camp their all day and night, this week is symphony in the domayne , it starts some time on saturday night the boy was a little sad that we missed jazz in the domayne oh well maybe next year.

Time to respond to comments

Ok so I just can't think about anything to write at the moment
so

Merlot - We have repetedley let my aunty know that her dog won't get fat just like the last one didn't and for that matter any one of the dogs I grew up with and my girly could be considered almost skinny

Jen - thanks for that comment, I wish I had room to gow a magnolia myself even if they do make a lot of mess

Chris + Erica - The gnocchi was pretty good, not sure how ponit friendley it is I counted it at potato gnocchi+spinach+parmesan cheese I think a serve was 6 pts or hardley anything on NC cause then its just the cheese

Merlot - the thermometer was a birthday gift from the boy it is very useful having farenheight as well especialy for when disscussing weather with those in other countries, still waiting for that cool change

Merlot- I have a really nice pic of J strapped to the chair with M in the background, but as they are not my children and are so young I felt it probably isn't right to post their pictures here

yet another big day at Nans

we got asked to mow again today, not sure if I mentioned earlier but the boy's dad and his nan had a little bit of a falling out and so we haven't been mowing for a while, she rang earlier this week and said she would rather us do it than get some one in, the boy agreed as long as one or both of his brothers help out occasionally, today was only the middle brother, he brought his little un's, M(4) & J(1) with him, which made the day somewhat interesting as soon as the brother took nan and J to the shop M asked "uncle where can I garden?"," I don't know you should ask aunty Belinda to show you", I helped her rake with a 4 Y/O sized rake for about half an hour then I had to go get some petrol, I got back and they were mowing a little part of the front yard, not too bad for a bloke who had no idea what uncles do or so he told me when every one was excited about her birth, didn't help that he wasn't talking to his brother at the time, we had lunch with nan which was pretty good, I can see we have an organiser in the family, " aunty belinda you sit next to me and nan can sit next to J a and daddy can sit next to nan and uncle sit next to you" the seating plan didn't work out quite that way daddy straped J to a plastic chair so he would sit still was pretty amusing because the only thing he had to do the strapping with was the bag he had with him

it was a good lunch anyway and we didn't stay that late, and for the first time ever it wasn't stinking hot, we are still waiting for that storm

heres the result of the day, shhh don't tell the boy, I promised no more pics but its too sweet not to share

hot

it's only been a couple of days and I am well and truly tired of hot, for some reason I hardly perspire, I am jealous on days like today of those people who start dripping once the temp reaches 25, It's supposed to be 37 or 38 today I'll have a look at my kitchen thermometer.................
............. it must be broken it only says 32 grrrrrrrrrrrrrr so much for our temperate summer here comes the heat and humidity, which wasn't so bad this morning at the shops or maybe it was the air con cooling the area outside the shops which made it not so bad

Gnocchi

I finally got around to making my own gnocchi

I had the silverbeet I had picked earlier in the week and wanted something interesting to do with it, I found a recipie for parmesan and silverbeet Gnocchi

I didn't quite have enough for the recipie so I went and picked some more

I have to learn to check the leaves as I pick them , this little bugger scared the life out of me I think I scared him too cause he webed in the sink , but he wouldn't drown so I took him and the leaf he was on out to the front garden

I have decided I need more bench space I have a realy nice big chopping board which I do everything on but I didn't quite have room to roll out the whole ball of doughWe had to watch the woofs with this lot, while I was trying to perfect the fork trick I dropped a few peices, champ quite enjoyed them, Girly missed out because she was too slow

garden update

I thought I might do an update on my veggies with pics of course

the cabbages are starting to look a lot more like cabbages, I have harvested the first leaves off the silver beet and the first of the tomatoes and beans I'm waiting till the tomatoes start to go red before picking them, Hoping not to have to spray, so far no aphids but its the flies I'm worried about our peaches got quite big but everyone of them had been attacked by the fruit fly, we will have to spray in future, there are some organic sprays out now the one we use is called econatrualuer it attracts the fly then sterilises them hopefully it works better sprayed rather than put into traps
the eggplants finally came up, I'm pretty impressed with thoseunfortunately the snow peas dies not sure what happened perhaps they need more water
I also planted a potato which I found growing in the pantry it doing quite well as well
Oh and I cant forget the rouge lettuces they are in flower I never new lettuce could be so attractive, I have thrown some more seeds in the veggie patch for mixed salad greens they came up pretty quickly the broccoli came up as well but disappeared after all of the recent heat thankfully it is raining again


Weigh in was good lost 0.2, still going to go on points this week to try for a bit of a kick start might run some sort of hybrid thing, eat only when hungry until full mainly non processed stuff but staying within points

you stink dog

I am cursing my cousin ...... this is the one that works at the dog food factory........ he brought down a case of CHUM .....big cans that mum would never use also schmakos and some small bags of dried food with asian writing of some sort on them..... ever since we started feeding them the Chum they have been farting sooo much its not funnymot only are they loud but they smell like CHUM, Iknew there was a reason we stopped feeding them tinned food


I started tracking my food again I have discovered my problem ....... after only 3 days of tracking I am at - 6.5 points and thats with 3.5 exercise points thrown in and not being completely honest (I can't go back to low fat/skim milk) so I'm thinking next week I'll be going on the points system just for a week and see how I go, I'm also planning to make use of the gym set again and still trying to get walking again

My excuse for not walking today is that when I came home, the boy wasn't here and he has left his mobile behind if he needs to call he only knows this number but he prbably thinks I'm still at mum and dads

In loving memeory

today is the second anniversary of my Nan's passing,
I think the whole deal was very traumatic for everyone and so the day has not been named yet,
I think I'll call it magnificent magnolia day because that's one of my first memories, sitting in the kitchen with my nan learning to say "Nans Magnificent magnolia", I was probably 3 or 4, the magnolia is still there outside the kitchen window, in autumn it drops its leaves on the driveway, in spring its the flower petals its absolutely gorgeous

nan had bowel cancer, it wasn't discovered until they found the secondary cancer in her liver there was something mentioned about an operation she had quite a few years before for a twisted bowel being related or some such thing, all I know is that it is the worst thing in the world to watch some one you love so dearly suffer for so long , and there is nothing you can do about it, life sucks sometimes

I'm sure Pa would have gone to the cemetery today as he does a Christmas, their wedding anniversary and birthdays, mum hope he doesn't go because he has to, someone asked him the other day about the widows at the bowls club chasing him yet he replied that he wont let them, he very attached to his routines and way of life and to what is right and wrong

Happy magnificent magnolia day .........

happy new year etc.....

well we have another number to write at the end of the date .... yet again never mind that I am still dating things 04 or 05 I'm sure I'll catch up eventually or not , I 'm on a really cruddy shift this week .... 5am to 1pm getting up at 330 really sucks
apart from that It's been raining again this time they were talking about the catchment area getting 71mm I'm hoping this is a large portion of the area behind the dam cause 71mm over a really small area won't make that much difference

I find it funny though that they keep trying to blame the unusually cool weather on global warming it was snowing in some places on Christmas day which for the international visitors out there is the middle of summer and generally around the 35 - 40'C mark. for the moment I'm enjoying it I'm sure it'll get hot again come mid February then not cool again till April at least