Friday 25 September 2009

Still need that holiday!

So Moose left this morning. We had to get up before 4 am to get her to the airport, cause there's usually a queue. There wasn't today of course. But we had breakfast at Gloria Jean's, so that was nice. We left her at the departure gate and I think we got home just as her plane was taking off.

Today, though, I have to go to work. For a whole day. I am sure I don't know how I will cope. You know, some days I wish I drank coffee...

We had a very busy week. Saturday I had to shop and clean the house, and she arrived Saturday evening. Sunday was a lovely day, we did the 6km walk leg of the City To Bay, which I may have already mentioned. What a fiasco that was. We planned our day meticulously, with me dropping Moose and Dobby at the walk start and Fluffy and I driving on to Glenelg. We left my car there, and Fluffy drove us back to the start line.

That was fine, until we finished the walk, and somewhat battleworn, got back to the car only to discover I had left the car keys in Fluffy's work ute, back at the start line. He had to take a taxi back and pick them up. He was not amused...

That took an hour or so, so it was home for a quick shower and then had guests over for nibblies before moving to the Watermark Hotel for dinner. That was lovely but the price has gone up so I don't think we will go there again.

Monday has already been covered in my previous blog. Tuesday I went to work and Fluffy dropped Moose at the ice skating rink. No, he actually dropped her off at Designer Direct for some time killing. Then, after work at lunch time I picked her up and we made our way to Harbourtown. We shopped for a bit, and I picked up a couple of tees for Fluffy and Dobby, then the power went out and we had to leave. It was still raining...

Dinner Tuesday night was chicken pieces and baked potatoes. Very nice.

Wednesday morning I went to work and Fluffy dropped Moose off at the zoo. I finished work at one and picked her up. Back to Harbourtown to finish what we had started Tuesday. I found cheap skinny jeans for Dobby and a lovely purple satin shirt for her to wear to the disco Wednesday night. Corned beef sandwiches for dinner. She had a friend over to go to the disco with, and at the end of the night, they had a massive fight (as usual) with Dobby ending up in tears. Turns out she is hormonal (and apparently in pain this time) but they made friends again yesterday.

Thursday was my birthday so I didn't have to go to work. I still got up early and got Dobby ready for school. We all walked her down, and then Moose and I went to Marion shopping centre. We shopped around a bit and had lunch at the food court. Then we raced up to a friend's house to pick up some Body Shop Party things Dobby and I had ordered, and back to the school to pick her up at lunch time.

We ate a quick lunch, opened my birthday presents, then we had to take Dobby for gum surgery. They had to go into the soft palette, make quite a hole, and expose her hidden eye tooth. Poor lamb. It was pretty rough on her because she had been laying with her head down for over and hour, and was dizzy when she got up. Then, they took her into another room to glue the brace onto the exposed tooth. He had several attempts but the gum bled too much and he aborted the effort, but not before the pain killers had worn off and he had caused significant discomfort to Dobby. She came out crying.

When we got home I ran her a bath and she made herself comfortable in front of the telly, but after awhile felt fine and was back to her bouncy self, even managing the guts of an apple and custard tart with ice cream for dinner.

Oh yes, I got some lovely birthday gifts. I scored frog painted place-mats and matching coasters, frog bath mat, frog garden twirler, very expensive face lift treatment, pyjama bottoms (very much needed), jewel box and jewellery, little frog tea cup and saucer, and a date/address organiser book. Very sweet!

Anyway, after a long and exhausting week I am looking forward to a quiet weekend. I hope. I have to strip the van ready for our trip next weekend, and clean the house, but if I can get all that done Saturday I can relax Sunday. After I have done the ironing and shopped for our trip...

I need a holiday....

Tuesday 22 September 2009

Wow, what a storm!

Just a quick update for interstate friends (or foe) who may (or may not) be concerned about the weather here in Adelaide.

We are fine. Bit frizzy-haired, but fine. There were a lot of trees down and across the bay got a lot of hail damage I believe but we as a family are fine.

Fluffy phoned me yesterday to tell me he heard the thunder and got up to check the dog, and couldn't find him. After calling and calling he finally found him hiding down the back yard (God only knows where, it's a weed patch down there), thoroughly wet through and shaking like nothing else. He took ages to entice him back up to the house, where he dried him off and let him stay the rest of the day inside.

Moose, visiting blister from Qld, and I went into my work for the morning, with the original view to walking up the Parade to my local shopping haunt to check it out. Well, the storm hit before we even left work. We waited most of it out, lots of thunder and lightening, then ventured out by car. No dopes here. We decided, as the weather had cooled significantly, to stop at Vinnies to purchase a pair of jeans for Moose, and even then, we couldn't get out of the car. It poured. We eventually just made a run for it.

Then we drove up to the shopping district and parked under cover. Lunch was a lovely pasta for Moose and chicken Pollo for myself at Cafe Primo then a quick look at some window shopping while walking back to the car. It was still raining. We ducked into Foodland for a few staples then decided to drive back to Clovelly Park to the Chemist Warehouse to fill Moose's script as they are often cheaper there.

Well, the roads were flooded and the rain was that heavy we could barely see the cars in front of us. Due to a couple of previous accidents, Moose was digging holes in the dashboard. but I got her there. I decided to park out the front instead of in the car park (which would have meant walking around the corner in that rain) and the gutters were so full of water the wheels were half buried!

No luck there as they have discontinued the medication she was after so we decided to stop at Terry White at Castle Plaza. This was only a short drive up the road a way, and by the time we got there, blue sky was visible. Behind us was black as anything, but above was a lovely blue!

We met a lovely Irish chemist who was able to help, and Moose found she could spend her gift card there as well, and proceeded to do so.

Then, picked up Dobby and made it back home. What an afternoon! But we weren't finished yet!

My hairdresser had phoned earlier in the day to change our existing appointments from Today (Tuesday) to last night. Mad scramble but we did it. We had been going to have Corned beef tonight done in the hot pot and chicken pieces yesterday. Ended up that we didn't have tea last night and I made quick ravioli for Dobby and Fluffy.

Anyway, they got good hair do's. I got a trim. They got the better deals.... see below....

Tuesday 15 September 2009

Pics of the room

So this is my Hall of Mirrors. As you can see, you can't see the cupboard for the mirrors!

(note the hairy little assistant in the corner playing on the cane boxes)


This is the view from the door, with Fluffy's wardrobe on the left. We managed to get the TV into this cupboard. The next wardrobe is all but empty at the moment but I have a stack of shelves in there with thin drawers I am slowly putting my make up and personal stuff in.



This shot is standing in front of that little cup holder in the previous pic, looking back toward the corner. These are my wardrobes. All those creepy mirrors....



Hello! This is looking at the same corner from my side of the bed. Check out Dodge playing. He loves the mirrors. doesn't play with his reflection as a kitten would, but he loves playing around the bottom of them. On the wall above the bed is .... another mirror. This one is just a few months older than Fluffy. Bloody ancient! There is still some stuff lying around as you can see, but we hope to have that gone by the weekend. Fingers crossed....

Monday 14 September 2009

I need another holiday

So we had this busy weekend, right. We had chosen some new bedroom wardrobes from Ikea but all the pieces weren't in until Friday so Fluffy toddled off to pick them up. They were so heavy he had to wait until Dobby came home from school to take them out of the ute.

Anyway, he got them out and into the carport ready for the big job on Saturday. Friday night we managed to move the existing furniture around to clear some space ready to assemble this huge 3 door wardrobe. We got up early Saturday and discovered we need to lay it down to put it together. So, we ended up balancing it across the bed. Tricky, but with a little help here and there from Dobby we managed to assemble it ourselves. We got it into position and chose where we would put rails, shelves and basket drawers.

We also discovered they had given us, for 2 3-door wardrobes, 4 glass doors and 2 wood-look, instead of only 2 mirrors! Shock! Their loss and our gain I guess, but ugh, who needs that many mirrors? Anyway, we had two glass and one wood door up and ready when Dobby and I had to leave to go to a fundraising afternoon. I hadn't had lunch so did pig out a bit on snacks but who cares?

When we got home I helped Fluffy do a few more little things, still in my little black dress, and found he had assembled the smaller 2-door space filling wardrobe we had bought as well. It was still in the kitchen and bits of other furniture was hanging messily about here and there too.

We cleaned out the remaining furniture ready for removal (clothes, junk, personal care, you know the stuff you manage to accumulate over the years...)

About this time our Hermoine and her nan arrived for her first sleepover. I chatted to Nan for about an hour, while Fluffy struggled to move the rest of the furniture outside mostly by himself!

We pretty much left the girls to get to know eachother, and all we heard (up till 11pm when I texted Dobby to ask for a bit of quiet) was giggle, giggle, giggle. Fair to say they hit it off!

After dinner of pizza, I helped Fluffy arrange the old furniture out in the car port safely so it won't get ruined by rain. Then we watched the Crows get beaten by Collingwood because of a penalty in the last minute! Stupid Pies!

Anyway, Sunday, we had the space to assemble wardrobe 2. It went okay and Fluffy gave me leave when we had the bulk done to take the girls out to buy a plastic drawer set to fit into the filler wardrobe to put all my make up and bits and pieces in. Quite effective it is too! But, it too has a mirror! Gads!

The girls had fun, and took this pic while on our way out to the shop. I also stopped at Stratco where they had cheap potplants and bought 12 little plants for $1.99 each! Excellent!


After we got home we pottered around a bit more and put some more stuff away while the girls played with the dog. Fluffy had put all his shelves and drawers in, and loaded up his clothes and stuff.

Anyway, I took the girls to see the movie Up after that, and when we got home we loaded up the ute with an old television we had no use for, and I got an unused DVD player and computer flat screen, chucked the girls in the back and drove across Adelaide to Salisbury to take Hermoine home.

We stayed there long enough for Fluffy to set up the tv, DVD player and screen for Nan. She was over the moon! She even baked us a batch of very scrummy oat and sultana cookies (I have had two while I typed this!).

We finally got home about 7.00 and I tried to fry up some salt and pepper squid and fish bites, but I don't know if the oil just didn't heat properly but it went soggy and horrid anyway... but, everyone ate it anyway, they are good like that! lol!

We pottered around filling cupboards and tidying up, and Fluffy set up the tv and set top box on a shelf in his wardrobe, so we have the telly back in the bedroom, behind closed doors too! Excellent!

It was after eleven when we got to bed last night too, and man, I am exhausted! But, I do have a lovely new room, if somewhat surrounded by bloody mirrors, but hopefully tomorrow I will be able to post some pics... after I finish putting away the leftover junk we didn't have a home for, and potting my new plants ready for next weekend.

Tuesday 8 September 2009

Finally

Have you ever felt some things were just as they were meant to be? Ever clicked with someone and knew in an instant the relationship was going to work?

Well, that's what happened to me today. I rushed home from work a little early to meet our Time For Kids child, and even arriving home at 4.45 I didn't make it. They were early.

But, it didn't take very long to figure out this relationship was meant to be. Our child, lets call her Hermoine, is a lovely young lady. Charming, whitty, somewhat shy, intelligent, classy and all together very nice. And her nan is just the loveliest lady. She does a lot of volunteer work and also is a dog sitter.

They were here for over an hour and a half, and we all felt the whole "click" thing. Nan is someone who would fit in very well with my circle of friends. Friendly, kind, caring, funny and a great lady, I like her a lot! I think this set up will work for all parties in a lot of ways. And I don't think I am exaggerating when I say I think we have made friends for life.

I have always believed in God, and Nan is a very devout Christian, and Hermoine goes to a Christian college. I think we have all be placed in this situation for a reason, and it just feels very right.

I am quite optimistic about this set up, to the point where I suggested this weekend we were free if Hermoine felt comfortable visiting so soon. As Dobby and I have plans for Saturday afternoon I suggested either Hermoine could visit Saturday evening and stay or come over Sunday if she felt it was too soon. She opted to stay Saturday night. That's very encouraging!

As our friendship progresses I will keep you posted....

Monday 7 September 2009

Just a quick one

So, I'm sitting here at work, minding my own business, when someone knocks on the door. He's holding a HUGE bunch of flowers, and it's actually for me!

Turns out, one of my customers (from Queensland, who always gives me a weather report) has sent me a thankyou boquet for getting him an emergency order, and thus saving him over $1000.

Aren't they lovely? And, being lillies, they are one of my favourite flowers (my workspace smells heavenly!)

*feeling rather special*

Saturday 5 September 2009

How embarrassment...

So most of you know Dobby plays netball for her school. She has played 3 out of the last 4 years, I think, or is it 4 out of 5. Anyway, she loves the game and fears they will lose without her playing. They're going to lose anyway, though, as they have never won a game yet. But, she is one of their best players.

Now, wouldn't it be nice of the school was actually behind their team? For a start, no one but a few parents seem to take the game seriously. We usually manage to just scrape together enough girls to make a team, and on two occasions have had to borrow from our opponents, with one team making us forfeit because not enough players bothered to turn up, and it was a home game!!! And, no one bothers to let the coach know when they are likely to be going to miss a game. Now, I don't know about you, but for us, we believe if you join a team then you commit to that team and all that goes with it - early rising, turning up for practice, wearing a presentable uniform, good reason for not playing etc. Dobby will play even when sick. The only game she missed was when she had surgery on her gum.

My gripe today is that the school does not support their team. Our uniforms are a maroon netball skirt supplied by the school and the kid's own white school polo shirt. Now, Dobby is a big girl. She wears a ladies size 12. The biggest skirt they could get for her is a kids size 16. It barely does up! And one girl wears a HUGE white tee, usually tied in a not, and her skirt is held together with a safety pin as it is way too small (she is short but quite round). So, when we play we look like a motley crew. They did buy them new bibs for this season so can't quite complain.

Our grounds are the worst we have ever played on. The court is old and cracked, and the lines are all but invisible. How the umpire is supposed to be able to see when the ball is out is beyond me.

Some schools have a coffee van on hand, others have a bbq or small stall running. Ours does not. Some schools have real uniforms and plenty of balls, ours do not. And some schools have their sports shed in one place where it can be found.

We all turned up for a game this morning and the sports shed is gone. No one seems to know where it was moved to, or what happened to the equipment stored inside. The school receptionist suggested we see if the equipment was moved into the gym, but lo, no one has a key! The vice principal who handles the sport cannot be contacted, and once again we are made to look like fools.

Today was the last game of the season, and how embarrassing was it to turn up and not even know where the equipment had gone? No one bothered to tell our coach, and no one bothered to make sure they showed up this morning to support the team on it's final game of the season.

The school simply does not support it's netball team. I seriously hope Dobby does not play next year because it's just too painfully humiliating to go through this every week.

Anyway, here are the girls and their mascot, who, I might add, was the toast of the day!