Tuesday 27 April 2010

Annabell

Sorry, I forgot to mention, Annabell is a cat...

Sunday 25 April 2010

Living on Death Row

At least it feels like that sometimes... but more about that later.

In the true tradition of my life, this week has been eventful. Did I mention I need a holiday?

Monday night Dobby had netball training, Tuesday we sold an item on Ebay for a lovely price and the fellow came by and picked it up Wednesday evening. Thursday, nothing actually happened... Friday I gave blood, and they gave me a bruise and aching elbow for my efforts. It was a guy and I swear he was in another world. I told him it hurt but he said it would be okay. It ached the whole time I donated, ached while I bought KFC for dinner, ached while I slept and Saturday it had come up in a bruise.
The pic doesn't do it justice - it's actually darker than that.

Saturday morning we had a group therapy thingy with a lady who is helping us as a family. She is lovely and hopefully she can help us communicate better (and Dobby to not be a total terrible teen!). After that we went to Rite Price supermarket again and bought a few bits and pieces (they have crunchy muesli type cereal, 3 for $2! Gotta love that!).

We came home, had a bite to eat, than took Dobby to her first competition netball game for her new team. She played two halves and it was lovely to watch her in action for a team that could actually play!
Do you like their uniform?
Dobby in action
Taking the shot
Dobby (GA) scores another goal! She scored almost all the goals in the second half.
We got rained on, too, but that didn't deter them! They won, 19-16! Dobby was very happy. We made sure everyone knew (as you do!).

After the game we came home and had a lovely hot dinner.

Sunday morning we saw an ambulance vehicle outside. Soon after a police car came. We were wondering what was going on, when Fluffy wandered out to the end of the driveway. A police officer came to him and asked when we had last seen our neighbour, who had recently, (a couple of years ago) lost her mum. Turns out the unfortunate lass had taken a fall, hit her head on concrete pavers, and died. She was disabled and used to ride her scooter around everywhere. When they told us what had happened I felt terrible because apparently it happened Friday or Saturday, meaning she had been outside in all that terrible rain we had recently. Poor lass.

We milled about watching the comings and goings. Dobby was quite excited when the forensic fellow turned up with his camera, then I told her to watch for an unmarked van. Next thing I hear "mum, the van's here!" Sure enough, there is the silver coroner's van. It was all over quite quickly, about two hours. Which is good, because when the friend of a friend passed away at her house in Brisbane, the body was there for hours and hours.

Anyway, poor Tracey has gone. She left behind Annabell, and we offered to take her until they could find her family. However, before they left the police told us they left her there and a friend of Tracey's would feed her. I think she will run away because Tracey is not there anymore. But that's just my opinion...

So, it feels a bit like we are living on death row. First the old biddy next door, then late last year the old gent across the road. Now Tracey.... I wonder who will be next?

Anyway, that was Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon Dobby had a couple of friends turn up for a sausage sizzle. Not really a party, but nice for her anyway. Two couples from the caravan club, with 3 teens. Actually, one lady was unable to come because she is a nurse and got asked to work Sunday. At $64 an hour she would have been silly to refuse!

We had a great afternoon, ate waaaay too much. I had put out nibblies and they also brought nibblies, then by the time we did the sausage sizzle no one was really hungry. They bought Dobby lovely gifts - two vouchers, a make up pallette, Impulse body sprays. She did extremely well, lucky duck. They had a great time, as did we grown-ups. After they left Fluffy wasn't feeling real crash and had a bit of a nap. Dobby and I veged in front of the telly. When it came to dinner she was going to just put some leftovers on a plate but eventually I decided to make us eggs on toast for dinner - scrambled for Dobby and I, fried for Fluffy. That was all. Then, more veging and a hot bath for me. Early night for Fluffy.

Monday was perfect. Nan was going to pay us a visit but cancelled last night. So today, I put on the old rags, didn't bother with my hair, and didn't leave the house. We ate nibblies for morning tea, soup for lunch and dinner tonight will be leftover uncooked sausages made into a sausage casserole with mashed potatoes. I would do curried but don't have yummy coconut milk to go with it.

What a relaxing day. I could seriously get used to this.... did I mention I need a holiday?

Sunday 18 April 2010

Oh Dear! A TEEN!

So, as many of you know, dobby turned teenager this weekend.

Our week was busy as usual, but Fluffy went back onto dayshift, so because we had not booked Dobby into vacation care Thursday and Friday he got to take holidays, lucky bugger. I was busy flat out at work trying to catch up with end of month so left them to it.

I had Fluffy run a few errands and pay a few bills for me on Friday, and we had fish and chips for dinner Friday night.

Later that evening I left Fluffy watching TV while we tried to set up Dobby with a Facebook accout but of course it wouldn't let her because she wasn't 13. Should have realised it. Anyway, after she had gone to bed, Fluffy was passed out on the couch, so I went to bed.

About 11.30 I heard a terriffic rumbling noise I thought was a truck, or large airplane taking off from the airport. When the weather is right they make a very loud rumble. The sound reminded me of the noise generated from Clipsal and the Fringe festival while it was on. I couldn't find the source of the noise so went back to bed. It didn't last long but seemed to go on for several seconds.

Saturday I flew down to the shopping centre and picked up a few last minute things that were not on Fluffy's list, and happened on a Millers 50% off sale. I bought 3 teeshirts with 3/4 sleeves, a pair of trousers (n0t the most flattering but very comfy), a knitted nylon-type material light weight smokey light blue jacket, and 2 ribbed high necked jumpers, all for the low price of $52. Gotta be happy with that!

On the way home I heard mention on the radio of a quake that hit Adelaide Friday night. What! We don't get quakes here! Apparently we get many but they are too light to register! This was an earthquake. How bizarre is that!

Anyway, back home did some housework and washing, then friends from Gawler arrived. See, Dobby was having 2 friends over for a sleepover but wanted to share her birthday with caravan club friends. So we arranged a sausage sizzle for next weekend. But this family, with two teenage daughters, couldn't make it next weekend so they popped in for the afternoon yesterday.

We had a blast! All the girls played and mucked up all afternoon, we did cake and nibblies, then they left about six last night. I went to the local pizza place and bought dinner for the girls. They kept me waiting for awhile because the stupid little girl on the counter decided the 4 pizzas on the bench weren't mine (dunno what name she was reading) so I waited and waited until the manager got off the phone and asked me if he could help me. Stupid girl.
Dobby picked the cake herself. It was chocolate with chocolate cream. Very nice!

Here is the gathered teenagers, Mate, Minnie, Shansy, Jess and Dobby (seated)
Don't touch the bottom! Took her 4 attempts to blow out all the candles!

Anyway, the ladies ran around (literally) the back yard until late. At 11.30 I went out and told them to stay in the tent. At 12.30 Fluffy went out for a smoke and they were in the tent, but talking quietly. Didn't hear anymore after that until they got up about 8.3o.

We decided to open Dobby's presents while the girls were here. She got some track pants (3 pair), sports bra, shoes, and an electric guitar. But we are having trouble getting the amp to work. It seems it just wants to hum loudly...

After the girls had left we wandered down to the cinema and saw Alice in Wonderland. Once we had bought the tickets we went to Billy Baxters for lunch. Dobby and I had nachos, but they were a very small serve, the edge chips were burned, and they didn't have the advertised bolognaise sauce! Ripped off!

We stopped at Foodland for choc honeycomb and a bag of snakes, then ventured upstairs to see the movie. It was a good 3D movie. Very good effects, not quite as dark as I expected from what I was told. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Then home to vege out. I am very tired, and feel all headache and just achey. Fluffy rubbed my hand in the car on the way home, and asked "feeling worn out, love?". heh. Understatement!

So, it's rissoles for dinner, with the last few shoestring baked fries, then back to work tomorrow. Yay, this week I have done all the end of month stuff, and the boss is in Sydney. I can finally get that slow week I have been waiting for. I hope...

Monday 12 April 2010

The sounds of silence

So this week was a short week, due to Easter, and boy wasn't that a good thing. Work has been flat out so I haven't walked off that Easter chocolate at all.

But this weekend was lovely. Nan asked if she could take Dobby for us for the weekend so me, never being one to miss an opportunity, said thanks, that'd be great!

It was also the weekend that Fluffy and I have been together 15 years (yesterday). Wow. Never thought it would last that long. He reckons he should be paroled any day now....

So, Friday when I got home from work Fluffy had already dropped Dobby off at Nan's. Hermione, for some reason, wasn't there. She knew Dobby was coming so I did find that unusual, but hey, she was good for Nan so who cares.

We ummed and aaahed about what to do for dinner and as it was cold and damp neither of us wanted to go out so I did up a finger food platter for dinner. Shoved some chicken nuggets and spring rolls into the oven, and did some cheese, crackers and salami to go with it. With a couple of glasses of softdrink. We relaxed in front of the telly and didn't move. Lovely.

Saturday we decided to go have a look at the Rite Price supermarket at Prospect to stock up on van food. We found a lot of great specials on noodles, sauces, biscuits, chips and nibblies. Spent a lot of money but got a heck of a lot for that.

Got that home and unpacked then headed down to Marion to check out Gold Class. We figured we would just take pot luck on what was left. We were lucky to get into see Clash of the Titans 3D, and it was starting in half an hour. Great! But the card declined so I had to use my credit card. Woops!

Anyway we thought we would take a bit of cash out and buy lunch. But the machine declined the smaller amount too. Oh dear.... So we went back up to Gold Class and what the hell, stuck it all on the mastercard and ordered a shared seafood platter, a cocktail for me and coke for Fluffy. After all, how often do we get to treat ourselves? The seafood platter was very, very delicious, but cost an awful lot more than it should have. I would say $25 at the most not $45.

The movie was great though, and Fluffy said he enjoyed it. Afterwards we headed home, and put our feet up for the rest of the day. Same deal again for dinner and neither of us wanted to move. And we watched The Bill, Blue Murder than the Midsommer Murder movie on ABC. It was great to actually be in charge of the telly! Well, we usually are but neither of us really watch TV, so it was a nice change.

Then, after a sleep in on Sunday I got up and did 2 hours ironing. While I was doing that the alarm started beeping again. A couple of weeks ago you may remember the alarm company phoned us at 7 in the morning to say we had a low battery. Well, I happened to overhear what the lass said to Fluffy, about it being related to the low battery in one of the zones. Well, that was not mentioned earlier! We thought the main back up battery was flat again and really didn't have the money to replace it, as it had only been done 18 months ago.

But the periphery sensors are battery operated not hardwired, so we got up and changed all those batteries (4 AAA's each in the two sensors, and 6 AAs in the smoke alarm.) Before we did the smoke alarm the machine was till beeping so Fluffy got up and pulled the smoke alarm down and wriggled the batteries. The machine stopped beeping. Aaaaah, must be that then. When we got to thinking, I don't think those batteries had been changed in the 8 years we had the alarm.... not bad, hey!

So, anyway, through all this I kept ironing....

Then, after stripping the bed and remaking it, I did 3 loads of washing, changed the kitty litter and sheltered the cat while Fluffy did the vacuuming - it appears he is somewhat scared of the vacuum cleaner and hid in my jacket, the big black sook.

After I dusted the dining room, changed the table cloth, changed the water in my water feature, and tidied up it was lunch time so we headed up to pick up Dobby.

She was just finishing her lunch when we got there (home made mini quiches and hot chips). I snavelled one of the quiches. Very nice indeed. Then Nan had made scones for us so we sat down to fresh scones. There were six leftover so I grabbed two for morning tea today.

We bought her home about 3 ish, and she had fun trying on some clothes Nan had given her (someone had given them to Nan). Then we relaxed for the afternoon. All in all it was a very nice weekend. Dobby even behaved for the rest of the afternoon. I did go to bed after Underbelly with a killer headache last night though.

Today it's back to work, Fluffy is taking the van down to get the awning replaced finally, and Dobby is hanging with him. If I can shake this headache that is coming back I will actually get some work done this week I hope. I can finally see the light at the end of that tunnel.

In the mean time, I think I'll go put that kettle on for morning tea...

Tuesday 6 April 2010

Eudunda then home again

This morning we had our last morning cuppa, and the winners of the Survivor Eudunda Challenge were announced.

In 4th place - Thong U - Dobby's team.

In 3rd place - Young Ones - Hermione's team

In 2nd place (by one point, which they only lost because the umpire's daughter forgot her banner for about 30 seconds) - FarQu 2

Which, of course, means Stunna Wanna-Bees were the winners! Yippee!



Pretty good, hey? This is our Gloat Photo. We had the best time and I was very proud of my team!

We took our time packing up, and headed home about 11.45. After a stop to drop off Hermione at a servo close to her home, we eventually got home just before 3.00pm. Unpack the van, put Fluffy to bed (poor bugger was on night shift) and run some washing through, and we were done. What a busy weekend, but although I really didn't want to go, I did enjoy myself.

I will try to include more photos if any end up crossing my in-box....

Eudunda day 3 (Easter Sunday)

Today saw the end of daylight savings. What this meant for me, is that my natural waking time went from 7.00am to 6.00am. Crap.

However, it did allow me to take this:



Lovely, isn't it?

The dog has slept in the girls tent last night, supposedly, but they took him off his lead and when Fluffy got up to check him he found him wandering around the paddock! Lucky we weren't at a park or we could have been in a bit of trouble.

I went back to bed and read until Dobby got up about 7.30. It was Easter Sunday, so she had to find out what the Easter Bunny had bought her. Not much, but although neither actually said thank you, they both seemed happy enough with their haul.

After breakfast the kids went for an Easter Egg hunt, with all the found eggs getting divvied up among all the kids so they had about ten each. They were happy.

Then they had a visit from The Easter Bunny:

this is the Easter Bunny with all the guys around him. I videoed him with the kids and the ladies, but this was the only still shot I took.
he's all class, isn't he? NOT!

from a distance they look like hares... get it?

All the kids were given a large bunny, and the adults one of the above (he has both his and mine there, and I am please to say, they are still in the freezer!)

After morning tea we had our next challenge. This time we had to stand with our hands above our heads for as long as possible. Now, some of us were out in the first few minutes, I personally lasted about 20. But the winners lasted 45 minutes! One of those was a dancer, too, so that probably gave her the advantage. Our team lasted well over half an hour, with the proud lass being ex-army and used to holding a 2.5kg rifle over her head for ages.

We came 3rd in that challenge, with Fluffy's team coming first and Hermione's team coming 2nd. Dobby's team lost.

At the start of the day, we were on a lowly 6 points, with our next rivals on 12. However, overnight one team member had managed to get us an extra 4 points for not wearing her bandana, and for exclaiming loudly that she didn't want to do anymore challenges. Not happy Jan! Haha.

Most of the campers decided to go 4wdriving after lunch but one of Dobby's friends and her mum stayed behind, as did my girls, Fluffy and I. I think there were a couple others scattered about too who chose not to go. We had about 4 lazy hours to ourselves, and I managed to finish my book. It was lovely to have nothing to do. The girls always amuse themselves, at someone's van, or in the gym so we didn't have to worry about them, and we just relaxed. Aaah, that was sooooo good.

After dinner we had our last challenges. The first was laying our footwear in a line. This time the shortest line won. We came second this time.

Challenge 2 was the limbo. You know, I amazed myself by getting a lot lower than I though. My old hip joints were so sore and my back had packed it in so I didn't think I would be able to do anything. I think I got it to about boob level before I had to quit. Our team came second again.

The last challenge of the night was erecting a toilet tent. Fluffy's team won that one, and we came last.

Now it was down to 4 points between our teams.

As a way to let off steam we had a mini disco on our last night. A couple of adults and a few of the kids rocked on for an hour or so, and I admit, I had a blast dancing away. I haven't been to a nightclub for many, many years so it was nice to let my hair down. Apparently I totally embarrassed Dobby. Yay!

Eudunda day 2

Saturday morning we were up late. I had a terrible night Thursday night but Friday I slept well. Aah, those headache pills work wonders!

We started the day with a pancake breakfast provided by the club. We just had to supply our own toppings. I think I managed half of one. They lacked sweetness but were great anyway.

After breakfast we were supposed to do another challenge but the club treasurer turned up so we all paid our dues instead. Then the kids had kids club where the kids made their baskets for the Easter Egg hunt on Sunday. We decided to do 3 challenges tonight instead.

That left a free afternoon. The captain of Thong U wandered down for a chat, the kids showed up with friends for lunch, then eventually they all cleared off and we were left alone. Fluffy had a nap, I read my book.

At 6.00 we all gathered for a hot pot dinner, with food being supplied by each family. I did a stroganoff. Not real great be edible...

After dinner I pulled Hermione aside and asked her why she wouldn't join in. Every time I looked at her she was sitting by herself. She reckoned she tried but Dobby kept telling her to go away. So I pulled Dobby aside and asked her. She said they had all asked Hermione to join in but she refused.

So I went to Wenz and asked if she would mind asking her girls. One said that Dobby had indeed said that, and the other said that Hermione refused to join in. Dobby also said that Hermione claimed she didn't like the other girls, which I could believe.

So, I told Dobby to behave and Hermione she had to join in, that was afterall, the whole purpose of her coming along!

Anyway, we had 3 more challenges to get through.

First challenge involved a dish of jelly beans, and several coloured dishes, and a plastic teaspoon. I am sure you can figure out what to do here. No? Well, sort the colours into their matching container, silly!

We won that one...

Second challenge was a toss up between head and tails... with two coins. Everyone played, with the 4 team captains tossing the coins (although I forgot to have my go as I had wandered back to my team momentarily). We had to place our hands on our head to indicate 2 heads, hands on bottoms indicated 2 tails, and one on each indicated, well it's pretty obvious really. The team with one person guessing the right answer and everyone else wrong, was declared winner. Then those who were wrong that time played off for the remaining places.

We won that one....

The last challenge was to tear a sheet of newspaper into the longest possible strip, then lay the longest piece from each member in a line. Team with the longest paper line wins.

We won that one too......

In their defense, Fluffy's team could have won two of these challenges but for a single loud-mouth. Every time Fluffy put forward an idea, this arrogant SOB pooh-poohed it away and insisted they do something else. Fluffy's ideas were the exact ones that won it for us. I don't think he was the only one displeased with the loudmouth's efforts either from talk that was circulating...

So Fluffy went to bed early, and as I am not one to sit around the campfire drinking and shooting the shit I stayed inside and read a bit more till the girls went to bed.

Legends, we are hey!

Eudunda, part 1

Because this weekend was so long I will post over the next 4 days. Hopefully then it will make it a bit more exciting for you, waiting with baited breath for the next installment.... okay, I just don't have time to write it all just now!

So anyway, we ended up leaving Thursday night. This was the one rally I had put my foot down. We are definitely not leaving Thursday. We are going Friday morning. Early if you like, but Friday morning.

Then I got asked to be a team captain for our Survivor Eudunda challenge. Which meant I had to be there and prepared by ten Friday morning. Sigh. We went Thursday. It was very busy on the roads and we had to stop and pick up Hermione. But we were loaded up by nan with pink fairy cakes, biscuits, fruitcake and a nut roll, bless her. Yummo!

We arrived about 6.45 pm, to set up on the school oval. As we were the last to arrive, we chose a spot right at the end, and parked sideways (there was a slight hill so we would have rolled over onto our side if we hadn't). As it was a school oval there was no other vans to take our spot, no complaining neighbours, and we were right outside the gym which housed the toilets and showers. Now, when I say showers, it was a rudimentary set up with two stalls, and broken shower curtains on the 5 shower stalls in the ladies, one cubicle, one urinal, and a completely open shower stall in the mens. They strung shower curtains between them but luckily guys are not as prudish as women so they had to get to know their neighbour whether they liked it or not.

Friday morning we wandered down to morning tea at ten, and were allocated our teams. I am really glad I chose to be a captian, as it gave me some control (and lets face it, power) over the weekend. We were given a white piece of blank material, and 12 pieces of material to wear all weekend as Buffs. This had to be on our person at all times, or penalties would apply.

The idea of this challenge was to come out with the least amount of points. The team the came in last place scored 4 points, 3rd was 2 points, 2nd was 2 points and 1st was 1 point. Plus a point was awarded for not wearing your bandana, being rude or disrespectful, or cheating.

Our first task was to assemble in our groups and decorate our banners. This is ours...



Pretty neat, hey? We had all the coolest members of the club in our team. Wenz decided our name, and it was accepted by the team. Fluffy called us the Double D's cause there were so many ladies in the group. Fluffy's team was called FarQ 2, which the hostess pronounced Far A Que 2. Dobby's team was called Thong U, and Hermione's team was Young Ones.

Then we had a free afternoon, so all the kids took off and played in the gym. Noisy but fun.

We had a lazy afternoon before club game at 3.oopm followed by happy hour, the dinner.

Our first challenge after dinner was an interesting thing where we had 3 lines of 4 people within our group. we had to run across the gym, untie a bag, then hand it to the next person, who had to untie several knots. They then handed it to a 3rd person who ran across the gym, touched the wall, then handed the blocks to a 4th person. When all 3 bags of blocks were on the table we had to assemble a word. Our word was Port Noarlunga.

We won. Naturally there was much celebrating by the Stunna Wanna-Bees!