When is the best time to blog?

• Work
• Tafe
• Placement
• P&C
• Family

There we go, I sort of divided up into categories what I have been doing for the past couple of weeks. Just those few dot-points about pretty much sums up everything.

Oh, but in between all those things (that sound less time consuming) there are those little things that we all really should be doing, you know, like cooking, washing, cleaning, eating, vacuuming, obtaining fuel, going shopping and better add sleep to that list as well. Not to mention the daily updates from the other house-dwellers and the latest Play Station accomplishments.

Work is going fine, it is still there and am now receiving regular hours….. not regular shifts (that’s for sure), though, so can not really plan much to match up with my (non-existent) social life. This week I get to do the opening, sadly that means a 5am start, but I like the mornings, work is over and done with by about 6am, the rest of the day is filled by me (and many many others) just trying to look busy, yes, I can do that.

Next item, ah yes Tafe, well Tafe is moving along just fine and dandy, we only have the rest of this term to go and then off to do our 200 hours of placement. I am going along to some ATSI organisation, to meet with whoever to do whatever…… Don’t really know what I will get upto over there but should be very interesting anyway. Don’t really know where it is or when I get to start, all I know is that I have been assured that they will be flexible with hours. That’ll do me. This week, we have to visit a crappy island to listen to locals whinge about living on a crappy island. Sound like fun ? No, it does not.

P&C, well, they can go jump….. or rather find someone else they can ask to jump hoops.

That brings us to the last dot point…. Family, I have not caught up with local members of the family (see point one) but as I have not been rostered on this week-end, I plan to be home and waiting visit. Called far far away family member for her Birthday and got the answering machine on which we left a messege hoping that she has a wonderful day. Speaking of Birthdays, child three is now 9, and we got him an electric scooter, hours of fun, oh and a DS….. more hours of fun. Soon to be nephew one’s Birthday ….

I am ever so tired, oh and cranky… I think it’s age related, maybe it is work related.

Whatever……

The best thing about going on a holiday is …. ?

We got onto the train…

And went far far away…

Found an inviting little garden path…………… eventually.

Where we found this bloke…

      

     

In a house … well, in his house.

Now this little house is actually not very little, it’s huge inside and has many many many walls that required painting, and this little house had many many walls on the outside that needed painting also.

On the inside of this house lots and lots of painting was done, from peach to green and from ‘latte’ to white then green. On the outside of this little house, I managed to turn most of the ‘rusty red’ colour to ‘cottage green’. This task was heaps of fun and I would do it again …. in about 50 years.

  

While we were staying there we noticed heaps of traffic of the ‘road-train’ variety. These darn things run 24/7 and we really noticed when there was a break in the traffic (as it is quite an odd silence).

     

We enjoyed ourselves every single day, we painted, built, swore, measured, tacked, broke, mowed, ate, slept, hammered, fished (turtles mainly), swept and drank many beers all in the fine coating of sweat that can only be brewed up in the Northern Queensland humidity.

Got home on Sunday night, made dinner, drank coffee and went to bed. Ankles have now returned to normal size after horrific train ride. None of us want to travel on a train for at least six months, but I bet we will.

Oh, the best thing about going on a holiday is ……….. sharing the photos.

 

POST UPDATE  08 April 08

 

Some more photos of the trip…….

We met some new friends…

     

 J is so cool, oh, and Charlie is cool too I guess for a grasshopper hunting cat. 

(sorry J but it is a great photo)

We saw some wierd things and went to some wierd places too.

     

A lino tree, a Townsville waterpark and a Joshua tree.

We went to the cinema…. sorry “the Worlde Theater” and together with two tourists and four locals we sat and watched Horton Hears A Who….. between all the giant grasshoppers which are naturally attracted to the light of the screen.

      

      

 

 

I hate contact at this time of year.

It is THAT time of the year again, parents across the nation are preparing for a rest day, the first day of school. But, before that day comes there is a couple of things that parents must do, well they feel that they must do, feel that their child wants them to do, feel that the teachers and other kids parents want them to do (but not ‘better’ than they do), and that is to cover textbooks, exercise books and reading writing and maths books, label everything with initials and names, lunch boxes, drink bottles, hats and bags. I have one thing to say to all those parents involved in this little caper, and that is to have a good hard loving look at the property you are preparing to send off with your youngens’ this year, cause it’s probably the last time you will see it.

So, as you may probably tell from the above, I have been battling ‘contact’, sure it looks great on the roll child three had selected various popular themes such as ’spiderman’, transformers etc, unfortunately this great looking contact turns out to be that crappy foil stuff that is really hard to work with and one roll didn’t even stick to the book I was swearing at, so now with half of the books done, I now have to face another four books tomorrow. Not happy. But I have all day.

So, I have done the ‘good parent’ thing and covered and labelled everything, except the lunch box and drink bottle, as they will probably not go missing but rather come home in a destroyed state. No kid pinches the broken stuff. Pity.

Guess I should scrounge around for the uniform, they are here somewhere, probably in a draw, it will do for this year, it’s just a uniform, grade four this year, how exciting, oh and a male teacher to top that off. It should be a good year.

Child two has secured a job at the place he did his ‘work experience’ at, how fun, hope it works out ok, he will not be going back to school this year, he has hated it for a couple of years… and it shows. Child one going back to Tafe to start the Diploma of Community Welfare, hope she does well with that, and I have enrolled to finish the second year of the Diploma, since the job has fallen through (they moved most production about two hours away), so I had better do something. CentrePricks don’t like you doing nothing.

They have gone…………

That’s right, they have gone, left the house, cleared out, without even a goodbye, see ya later or thanks for anything, just gone… how rude, how inconsiderate, how typical. I got home from work on Thursday, took my boots off and then checked on them, just to see if they were home, and guess what, they had disappeared into thick air, leaving not a trace of evidence that they ever lived here, just empty space…….. And thank goodness and good riddance to them too. I bet you are guessing as to what on earth I am on about, well, finally, we have conquered the fleas….. yeah, only took about ten flea bombs, and two cans of really really expensive spray, but they have gone. We are never owning (or looking after) a dog ever again. Yuck, I don’t really care much for the cat either to tell the truth, I am just not an animal person.

And what a great week it has been, besides getting rid of the fleas, child three has been to vacation care this week as child one has been working more hours and child two has been doing work experience, so vacation care it was for this week, I think he enjoyed it, they were allowed to have a water fight today, odd as we are on water restrictions…. anyway, i think he is glad not to have to go again next week, they wear him out,, but it is great for getting to bed early.

I have been at work now for almost two weeks, I am enjoying it, they have a great team, there are some ladies who have been there for almost 10 years so it is nice to pick up on some pointers from them. There is also a lady who has been there for over 12 years, who thinks she runs the joint, she knows everything, and smirks at people … and yells at people, and grumbles around the place, they put it down to stress, she is ok, learn heaps from her I can tell you that, we get along fine… so far. I work at a wholesale plant nursery, well it’s not really plants… (well, it is) but we germinate seeds in things that look like ice trays, then after they have grown (slightly) we make sure there is one per cell, or whatever they should be.

Now another great thing about working there is that they have a ‘dump’, whatever is not sold staff may take home, just for our own garden though, I am quite pleased to inform everyone that I have managed to keep about 12 plants alive that I took home last week, truely amazing for me, can’t remember what they are but at least they are alive, they are not quality stock, they are albino Monsterios…. omg, I remembered what they are, anyway, I give them about another two weeks. I plan to clear out the garden out the back so I can ’save’ some lettuce, tomato and carrots. I have now ‘trained’ the passionfruit vines, sorta.

Got washing to do, lawn to mow, car to clean and beds to make, cya’s.

Is this a ….. sign…. ?

Good morning and welcome back, on this mornings show, if you stay turned through the entire program, you will learn much more about why we don’t watch ‘Humphrey, dreading Birthdays (and what they bring) and repairing cracked tiled areas.

I will start with Birthdays, as some people are aware, my child two has his birthday this weekend, we are very excited, he will be 17, wow. He doesn’t want a party, he doesn’t want a gathering, he doesn’t want to go out, he doesn’t even want a beer……. sigh, so we will have cake, and probably go to the pictures at some stage during the day.

The other Birthday I am looking forward to is my 40th, now I know it is a little early to be thinking about events or celebrations that will occur more than three years in the future, but one can never be too prepared,  but naturally, the day before I will still be running around madly.

There are a couple of reasons I don’t agree with people who do not wish to acknowledge their own birthdays. One is that kids think that if others do not wish to celebrate their own Birthdays then they must think that Birthdays are insignificant and thats how they feel about other peoples birthdays … Did any of that make sense at all, well it does in my head, it may be a little blurry for others. You can’t always be the ‘giver’, you must allow others to give, and you must receive and enjoy, if you dont let others give to you (material and in kind) you are passing on the feelings that you must be the giver later in adulthood. Geez, we pass on enough crap to our children.

That discussion was/is not intended to offend anyone, this is my blog and I can comment however I want to, that’s what is so great about a blog.

Anyway, today is a day of firsts (of sorts), that’s right, today my very first ‘dole form’ is due, I am so excited …. NOT …. I have to use fuel I don’t have, patience I don’t have, go somewhere I hate to ’scab’ payments to pay utilities and food, it’s just ****ed. On a lighter note, I am going for another interview tomorrow, see how that goes…..

Lovely to see brother Scoop and Brother Joe dedicating time to their blogs, it’s great to have something to read that is at least relevant, I look forward to a wonderful entry from each, one about a fantastic ‘house warming’ party, and the other about ‘old lino’, cracked tiles and lead paint dust.

I want to congratulate both my brothers for not only managing to buy their first and second houses, but you know, for keeping it real, realising that owning a house doesn’t make you ‘better than’ others in the suburbs, for having a crack at the great Aussie dream, Good On Ya’s….

Oh, crap, I forgot about the significance of the title…….. I wonder if watching (and enjoying) a Military tattoo (bands and marching, not like a tattoo on ya bum) means you are getting old…..or at least middle aged… maybe, it seams like such a ‘grandma’ thing.

We learnt nothing about Humphrey B Bear.