Life in the fast lane....

Well. It's quite a while between posts. I've had thoughts that have entered my head, and I've thought "That would make a great blog". I've planned and drafted it all out in my head. But I never seem to get around to typing it up. So, this is the mediocre stuff that you end up with.

I had the flu last week. I felt less than good, and forgot to go to a retirement dinner on Monday night, but I DID remember to take GG to the railway station. I came home from work early on Tuesday. I slept through most of Wednesday, then went to work on Thursday, only to leave to come home again earlier than the usual time. I was relieved that I had made myself unavailable to work in my casual job in Muswellbrook on Friday. The boys stayed at PP until late on Thursday, so it was very quiet at home. And I still didn't blog. But I didn't have to cook either. Does porridge count? That's all I could be bothered with.

Saturday, VB played rugby league in Muswellbrook against Swansea-Blacksmiths. TheSwansea boys had no reserves, and played like trojans, but were beaten by our boys on the day. On Sunday, we spent the day in Newie to celebrate my Father-in-law's 80th birthday. He's had a rough last 25 or so years; heart attacks, two major valve replacement surgeries, white-tailed spider bite, prostate cancer, and a myriad of complications from any and all of the above. Don is an absolute gem, and I love him dearly. He's bet Beloved a case of Crown lager that John Howard will win the next election.... but don't hold that against him. His birthday party at Cardiff RSL was a surprise, and he had a great time. As did we.

Afterwards, after dropping GG back at Nanandpop's, we called in at Marc and Lisa's so Marc could share his building expertise with us. We have finally had our plans for our additions drawn up, and the builder has quoted us about $140 000 for about 80sqm of living space, and 15sqm of verandah. Some project home building companies are advertising that they can build a complete 232sqm home for the same price. This includes a new kitchen, bathroom and ensuite. Our addition includes a kitchen and 1 bathroom only. Even Marc raised his eyebrows. Maybe we need to deal with another builder... but .... I contacted 8 builders when we first wanted to do this almost 2 years ago. This guy was the only one interested in actually dealing with us. 5 others never bothered returning my call. One went to the trouble of coming out and measuring up, but never bothered with providing us with a quote. The other builder, who was interested, said that he would charge between $300 and $500 to prepare a quote..... And the builders up here complain about the project home builders stealing "their" work..... I haven't gone any further with it this week. Living and work have gotten in the way. And maybe it's just too hard to think about at the moment. But it would be preferable to not have to spend another winter in the garage. It's our own fault really. Fancy wanting to have ceiling heights that match the original 3.3m ceilings?????? Ridiculous!

I worked an evening shift at work tonight, after someone called in sick. So, I worked from 8.30am until 7pm. No penalty rates, just extra hours, and maybe some brownie points. I need a good reference (hopefully) for my traineeship....... Beloved is on the job, and probably won't get home until 2am tomorrow. He left at 6.30 this morning. It always worries me that he has to drive home after such a long stint at work. It's one of the reasons that we haven't moved closer to Newcastle. Before we bought this house, which, by the way, is named "Stella", after the original owner, we tossed about the idea of moving down Maitland way so that we could be nearer to family, but decided that the travel to work for Beloved could become too much. His job is basically on call 24/7, but the hardest part is that he has to drive to the depot to pick up his crane, and then he may have to drive for another hour to reach the job site. And then there's the return trip. Way too risky for me, my friends. I only have one Beloved.

This weekend is shaping up to be ludicrous. VB plays league at Central Charlestown at 1pm. He then has to be home to attend a birthday party at 5.30pm. Then we will drive back to Nanandpop's on Saturday night as the boys are riding at PP on Sunday. The reason that we are going back to Nanandpop's is so that we can pick up GG from a friend's party at Warners Bay early Sunday morning so that she and I can go to Paddy's markets at Homebush, and then to IKEA... that's 6.30am early, folks. ....
Like I said: ludicrous. Otherwise, the boys could just take the shorter drive down the Putty Rd and back on Sunday........ It doesn't make sense. But then, what did I ever do that does???

Life in the fast lane......... It's not always the best place to be driving your life from. As exhibited in last Saturday's episode of "Dr Who"........ which I finally got around to watching last night while cooking tea.... We need to watch out for the crustaceans....and stop to take the time to breathe.... and just be....

Life in the fast lane
Surely make you lose your mind
Life in the fast lane, everything, all the time
Life in the fast lane.... yeah

I'm totally shagged. I need to go to bed. I think I'll take my own advice.

Goodnight all. :)