Wednesday 26 March 2008

Celebrate or Lament?

So, I went to the doctor yesterday for my 3 month check up. I entered the surgery knowing full well I hadn't lost anything since my last visit, waiting for the scales to acknowledge my shame...

Well, actually, I had lost a whole KG! Wow. The doctor wasn't upset (as I thought he would be) and made the comment that he was happy I wasn't putting weight on, and had in fact lost a kg. Hey, I'll take that KG thanks. According to his scales I am 90.8kg. Mine say 89kg, so I think I like them better! Whatever the case, at least it is a loss.

However, he was concerned because I had presented with almost constant reflux, which he said meant the band was too tight, and why didn't I go see him earlier? See, I just figured my hernia had returned! Anyway, he loosened the band a fraction and I have to go for a barium meal x-ray on Friday morning (oh joy), and back to see him on Tuesday next week to figure our next course of action. Hopefully I don't need further surgery to correct any problems.

Otherwise, it is back to the grindstone, started walking again yesterday but the weather is changeable this week so I may not be able to do much. We walk really fast when Walking Buddy and I go out, and after about 5 weeks of not walking (well, we did walk lots in New Zealand, so 2 weeks I guess...) I felt every one of those steps. The old hip joints didn't like the workout, and nor did the leg muscles. Geez, I hate being 40!

Monday 24 March 2008

Happy Easter!

So, I hope the Easter Rabbit was good to you. The Easter Bunny in this house jumped the gun a little. He bought the eggs the weekend before Easter, and when he put them out over the weekend, he found the hot weather had ruined them. Very sad he was.

He has spent $18 on a lovely one for Him, the most he ever spends but it was worth it (at the time) and now it is all run and melted...looks very sad. But him reckons he will just break it up into a bowl and munch on it anyway.

And Jr Her isn't fazed at all. So long as she has chocolate she ain't fussy on what it looks like, bless her. I also found out that the chocolate hearts I bought for the wedding tables had gone white too, but a test taste found them to be very sweet and creamy, quite delicious!

We also had another drama over the weekend. Him decided to boost our RAM in our home computer, and also buy me a video card, as I had games that I hadn't been able to use due to no video card.

So Him packed up the box and took it to work on Thursday. Friday lunch he phoned the fellow fixing it only to find he had been trying to get hold of him since Thursday night. Turns out Him's mobile phone was playing up, and he wasn't receiving messages or calls. Some of the messages this guy left were quite colourful!

But I digress. It turns out the extra RAM didn't fit, and nor did the video card. We forgot our machine was a Compaq, which has the video card attached to the mother board. It was very small, which is why it wouldn't run the games.

Don't worry, says the fellow, I have a similar box here with a newer, faster system, and a bigger video card. I will put your stuff into that box.

Next thing we get a call that it won't boot up. He had to format the hard drive, and load all new software onto the machine. Of course, there are always ups and downs to this.

UPS: We now are running the latest Windows XP, Microsoft Office, and Internet explorer, latest software for Nero etc. So it's just as well we bought the new RAM in the first place, or we wouldn't have had enough to run all this stuff! I can now play two of the three games I had (I can't play one because the new system still doesn't have a big enough video card, but never mind).

DOWNS: We lost everything we had stored on the hard drive. So, I don't have anyone's email addresses, you will have to give them to me again! (Except Wally and SOL, that is) My email address is colleenschafer@optusnet.com.au if you need it...

However, as luck would have it, just the weekend before, we had dropped in on the spur of the moment to JB Hi Fi, and bought ourselves a 250G external hard drive...and loaded all our holiday and wedding, and previous photos and documents onto it!!! How lucky was that!!!!

Whew! So now I have a you-beaut, fast system that goes like the clappers, and all new software, so no excuse not to keep up with my blog, hey....:-)

Thursday 20 March 2008

I was going to write Ho Hum but I've used that...

Well, I can't really say Ho Hum anyway. That would imply boredom. I simply haven't had time to be bored.

I know it's been awhile since my last blog, but when we got back from NZ I discovered our housesitter had used quite a lot of our internet usage allocation. We had only a week to go on our billing account, but almost 80% had been used, so I had to curb my activity for a bit. I think billing period ends today. But I am doing this at work anyway, so that's okay.

Which leads me to my next whinge. Man, it has been busy. I did expect to come back to a heck of a lot of work. That goes without saying. What I didn't expect was for the accountant to update our accounting software, but use his data stick instead of my back up. Which means all those extra hours I put in before I left to make sure I had everything up to date and current were for naught. I discovered I had to start from mid January.

That meant re-doing the bank reconciliations and everything. Well, that's not entirely true. I do them first in a cashbook in pencil, then enter that into the computer. Much easier to follow and the boss can look up the book for a transaction at any time.

What I did have to do was reenter a lot of customer invoices, a lot of supplier invoices, and some general journal entries, then do the bank rec again. I have done one company (the biggest). I will tackle the others later. I still now have to do everything for February. By then it will be time to get March happening. Man, I am exhausted just thinking about it!

I was hoping to be caught up by the Easter weekend, but sadly, I am not going to make it. However, I have made a lot of headway.

I also, in my absence, inherit the role of league secretary at bowling on Wednesday evenings. Just what I need at this time! Well, it's not a lot of work, just fiddly stuff I have to remember to do each week.

Well, work beckons so I had better go do some. Have a great Easter everyone!

xx

Wednesday 12 March 2008

Last but not least...


So we made it home, as you guessed. What did we come home to? A heat wave. Just what every Australian needs - a good old-fashioned heat wave. We missed the first few days of it, but now it has surpassed previous records and looks like going on for another week. Usually we get a few hot days then it cools down a bit. But not this time. Seems we are going to be in the high thirties until this time next week.

The last few days of our holiday were spent holed up in the cabin cause it was cold and wet outside. Aaah, but those ten degree mornings, they were the days! I have to laugh though, because most Adelaidians will be pining for the sun in a few weeks. Fickle beings we are.

I weighed myself when I got home. We had been eating smaller meals, not totally good food, but smaller meals, walking heaps (including that awful hill up to our cabin) and my clothes fitted much better so I couldn't wait to jump on those scales.

The verdict? Exactly the same....sigh. I have a dr appointment on the 25th. Time for another rap over the knuckles...can't win.

Tuesday 11 March 2008

Danger, wide load...

This site won't let me add more than a couple of photos at a time it would seem, so I will add more at another time.

Hope you like them...




Getting ready to start




Exchanging rings




Wide Load...

Surprise!

Here's the first group of photos - the server keeps timing out so I will upload more tonight!




At the Cadbury Chocolate Factory in Dunedin











At the top of the Sky Gondola in Queenstown - breathtaking views!






Him and Jr Her outside the St Mortiz in Queenstown











Queenstown - geez it was cold!

Wednesday 5 March 2008

All good things must come to an end...

So, here we are, at the tail end of our holiday. I have to admit, I will be happy to be home. Three weeks away is a long time (I miss my cat).

This week has been very relaxing...not much else to do when you are sitting in the middle of a tiny coastal town and it is pouring rain. We managed to go for a drive around the Coromandel Peninsula on Friday, which was lovely but quite hairy. Some of the road edges were very steep and the roads were narrow.

But it poured rain Saturday and Sunday. We just sat around and watched Sky TV. Him walked into town twice on Sunday (which sounds okay, but when you add a hill at the end of the walk which is like Eden Hills (Shepards Hill Road) in Adelaide or Eden Street in Gladstone, and is a winding road about 400m long, you get the picture).

Anyway, Jr Her missed out on swimming Sunday but still went Saturday. Then, Monday we drove over to the town on the opposite side of the waterway, which escapes me now but I am sure I wrote about in my last blog. Tuesday was wet again, and cold. We spent the day huddled up in front of the heater watching movies all day. We did venture out to a coffee shop and to stock up on supplies. But that was all. Oh, Sunday night we ate at the local sports club, and the kids meal was bigger than the adults! Monday we ate at the hotel, and even with our discount cost a small fortune (but worth every cent).

Today, the sun is out, the sky is blue, there is a warm breeze blowing, and we have slept late, lazed around the pool, eaten fries for lunch, and now I am doing this. We will either go back to the pool so Jr Her can swim again, or take a drive down to the beach. I left Him upstairs seeing if we could coax some butter from the kitchen (we are out and it is not worth buying more). Haven't seen him yet.

We now have just tonight in this little piece of paradise, then head to Auckland tomorrow, stay overnight and catch an early plane Friday morning. We will be back home by lunch time Friday. Can't wait.

This place, you know, is rather special. Apart from being in separate chalets, it is very quiet. Even if the place is full you rarely see other people. Sometimes you see them walking the paths among the trees. Others, well, you just don't see them. When you approach the hill this place is on, you just see a hill with a few houses dotted amongst the forrest. You can't see this place at all. It is totally hidden.

Our chalet has a bedroom and bathroom for us, and Jr Her sleeps on the sofa bed in the lounge and has her own bathroom. It is fully self contained, and has a lovely big balcony outside. Televisions in each room, (flat screen of course), and all the facilities you would imagine. It has been a very pleasant experience.

But, alas, for now, it is time to sign off. My next write will be when I get time to post some photos for you.

Thank you all for your support, and for taking the time to read my little rambles. Hopefully you haven't been too bored...but really, too bad if you have! :-)

xxx

Saturday 1 March 2008

Greetings from the trees

Well, my apologies for taking so long to write, but the days have just flown by.

On Monday morning we left Christchurch and travelled to Picton, where the interisland ferry leaves from. The drive was lovely and because we knew we had time we stopped at a little coastal town called Kaikoura to investigate a seal colony. Lucky us! While I was getting my camera ready one actually hopped onto the carpark wall and walked straight past me, pausing for photos along the way. Very nice!

Picton was beautiful, and on Tuesday we took the ferry across to Wellington. We dropped the hire car off in Picton, a lovely XR6 Falcon, and picked up in Wellington a rattly, noisey blue Falcon Futura. Ugh.

Well, Tuesday we drove north to Palmerston North. Very nice little town, where we treated ourselves to a smorgasboard style dinner at a reasonably priced diner. Very good food, nice room and Jr Her was happy cause there was a pool. She got her first swim.

Wednesday we moved north to Rotorua. Smelly little spot that. Outside Rotorua is a place called Thermal Wonderland, a 4km or so walk around fantastic sulphur pools. Hot, bubbling mud and smelly sulphur is all the go. But we survived!

The motel was old, but looked cute. They had a wash room which the thermal hot water pipes ran through, and the room doubled as a dryer. It took about an hour for our washing to dry. Our room had a spa pool out the back so we all had a spa.

On Thursday we travelled here to Puka Park Resort at Pauanui. A little coastal town. with a string of shops, servo and mini golf! Jr Her and Him played a round while I kept score. There is also a sports club we will investigate on Sunday night for dinner. The resort is great, up here in the hills. You park the car and someone drives you to your room in a golf buggy. The walk up the hill is a killer each time you have to go to reception, but hopefully it will be a little exercise for us all.

Our first night here we had a wine tasting, which was a very good chance to meet other club members, and sample some local produce.

Not much more planned for the week. Him tried to play golf this morning but it rained out. He paid $75 for 4 holes of golf. Now we are broke again (eating lots of sandwiches lately but what can you do?). Never mind. We are off now to the shop for more bread. Sigh.

Well, will write again when I get the chance.

xxxx