Saturday, January 26, 2008

Girls just wanna have fun..........

Thursday was weigh-in day for me, my first. And after 10 days of being disciplined and making sure that I've exercised for at least 30mins at least every other day, I've lost 1.5kgs.

Good.

But then the Gods ( Goddesses would never be so mean) began to conspire against me.

Some wonderful friends called in for an overnight visit as they diverted their road trip to come and see us. Food and alcohol that weren't supposed to be on the menu suddenly were. But it was so good to see Ross and Julie; it's been ages since we've spent any time together. Ross was Beloved's best workmate when we lived in Tamworth. Consequently, a lot of re-visiting good times was done. Even more when the alcohol kicked in. Not for me; for Beloved and Ross. I was being Good.

And then today, after Beloved and I attended the local Australia Day Ceremony, I went to the movies with friends to see "27 Dresses". I found this movie to be a real hoot in places, and very bittersweet in others. And then lunch at a hotel afterwards. I chose a mini scotch fillet steak and a mini salad, and passed on the chips, and it was yummy. All for the grand sum of $9.50!! It was important that I spend time with these friends today, as my friend Jo is moving up to Mackay soon. It is very unlikely that I will ever get up there to see her. Jo was the first friend that I made when I moved to Muswellbrook. We met at the local library whilst trying to entertain our children in a new town during the January holidays. The friendship that was forged between GG and Jo's elder daughter has endured over the last 10 years. Even though our lives have moved in different directions over the years, there is a depth to our friendship that links us. Neither of us are letter-writers or good for reliable phone conversations.............. I hope that Jo develops a fondness for the computer, so that we can keep in touch. Damn... I miss her already..........

I haven't exercised for a couple of days, either. This afternoon, it was impossible. I'd bought some fuel for Beloved, and the container was in the back of the car, and by the time I drove it and myself home (about 50mins), I was feeling decidedly off, and ended up sleeping as I just couldn't keep my eyes open.

Never mind, at least I didn't have much appetite either... that's good, right? And tomorrow is another day.

I hope you had a Happy Australia Day!!!!!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful; beautiful boy.

Heath Ledger.

A beautiful boy indeed.

I fell in love with Heath back in 1997, when he played the young warrior, Conor, in"Roar", at the age of 19. He put the phoar into "Roar". But there was so much more to Heathcliff than just his lovely presence on the screen.

There is so much we don't know about this young man. A private & shy person; a multi-layered individual indeed. A local boy done good, he started at 13 in "Home and Away", and chose the most amazing and diverse roles to play. He's even played Bob Dylan............

His final role as "The Joker" in the newest "Batman" saga may have been a little surreal; "The Darkest Night"..................

It it so very sad that he died alone, found by his housekeeper.

Like most in this situation, his star will burn agonisingly brighter in his death.

I am sad for his family and friends.

This beautiful boy will be missed.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

The Champion of the World..................

G'Day Bloggers.

It is raining and bee-yoo-tiful in the land of the Blogmuggle. It's great weather for hunkering down in a comfy chair, reading a book or watching the TV. Which is how I spent my day so far. I've been going through old magazines, which are usually of the "Home Beautiful", "Burke's Backyard", "Australian Country Style" or any home and decor magazine that I've had in my "library", and sorting out the articles and pictures of decor ideas that I like. Maybe one day they'll even be put into use. There is quite a collection of these, believe me. And it's quite a time waster.

The other occurrence of the day has been that Beloved and I have watched a tape of the movie, "The Hurricane", which is the story of American boxer, Rubin "The Hurricane" Carter. Any movie with Denzel Washington starring is always worth a look, but this is a true story, which makes it all the more emotional to me. I just don't get racism or bigotry; why some people think that they're better at a cellular level. Because, we're all constructed from the same stuff on a physiological level, so why oh why are some superior? Or think that they are with such an unshakeable belief that others lives can be forfeited to support their beliefs. Regardless of the consequences.

Thanks heavens for the actions of others that help secure justice and freedom for Rubin Carter. But it was a long time coming.

Here's the lyrics form the song that Bob Dylan penned in support of Rubin Carter. It's a classic song, and the music supports the emotions that the lyrics produce. It's a mammoth 8 minutes & 31 seconds long, but it could be longer, it wouldn't matter; I love it.


Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall.
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood,
Cries out, "My God, they killed them all!"
Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

Three bodies lyin' there does Patty see
And another man named Bello, movin' around mysteriously.
"I didn't do it," he says, and he throws up his hands
"I was only robbin' the register, I hope you understand.
I saw them leavin'," he says, and he stops
"One of us had better call up the cops."
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin'
In the hot New Jersey night.

Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around.
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that.
In Paterson that's just the way things go.
If you're black you might as well not show up on the street
'Less you wanna draw the heat.

Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops.
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin' around
He said, "I saw two men runnin' out, they looked like middleweights
They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates."
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head.
Cop said, "Wait a minute, boys, this one's not dead"
So they took him to the infirmary
And though this man could hardly see
They told him that he could identify the guilty men.

Four in the mornin' and they haul Rubin in,
Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs.
The wounded man looks up through his one dyin' eye
Says, "Wha'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!"
Yes, here's the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

Four months later, the ghettos are in flame,
Rubin's in South America, fightin' for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
And the cops are puttin' the screws to him, lookin' for somebody to blame.
"Remember that murder that happened in a bar?"
"Remember you said you saw the getaway car?"
"You think you'd like to play ball with the law?"
"Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin' that night?"
"Don't forget that you are white."

Arthur Dexter Bradley said, "I'm really not sure."
Cops said, "A poor boy like you could use a break
We got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend Bello
Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow.
You'll be doin' society a favor.
That sonofabitch is brave and gettin' braver.
We want to put his ass in stir
We want to pin this triple murder on him
He ain't no Gentleman Jim."

Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much.
It's my work, he'd say, and I do it for pay
And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
Up to some paradise
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
And ride a horse along a trail.
But then they took him to the jailhouse
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.

All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance.
The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger.
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger.
And though they could not produce the gun,
The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
And the all-white jury agreed.

Rubin Carter was falsely tried.
The crime was murder "one," guess who testified?
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride.
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's hand?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
Where justice is a game.

Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell.
Yes, that's the story of the Hurricane,
But it won't be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

What else has been happening in my world?

Well, we went to Sydney as planned and it was fun. We spent time on Friday sorting out some house stuff, including planning a kitchen with the guys from "Romos" at Rutherford. The price has come in ok, but I might tweak it a little more yet. Any ideas of better flatpack kitchen suppliers, Bloggers? Beloved, Vegeboy and GG came home on Friday night. Scorpaboy & I stayed in Newie. SB had planned to spent time with friends and riding his bike.

Saturday, I took NanandPop puppy shopping, and finally arrived home at 3 in the afternoon with 2 new chihuahua puppies. Nan is the proud owner of a lovely white little girl with black spots & ears, with some tan spots, that she has named Gidget. Pop has a new little black guy, who has markings similar to a rottweiler (but much, much, much smaller), that he has named Pepe. Not a problem for him, but this is the 3rd Pepe that they've owned, including the one that was buried less than 2 weeks ago. Did I mention that Dad has some qualities that indicate that he is in the early stages of dementia? At least he won't forget the pup's name........ They are lovely and busy puppies. As one would expect. I went home shortly after that.

Sunday was a nice, quiet day at home. Then Sunday night I drove back to NanandPops as I had a 2 day computer course for work. Boring, and not all that helpful for me, but I did get to take SB & my brother to see "American Gangster" on the Monday night. I enjoyed it. But it's so hard to work out what makes people tick, isn't it? I liked the characters and I thought that Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington were great in these roles.

Tuesday, Beloved, VB and a friend caught a (very) early morning train down to spend the day at Lambton Pool, and so were all a little crispy-fried when they picked me up in the afternoon. After a trip to NanandPops to pick up SB's things, and later on the way home, SB himself, it was back to "Walnut Grove" as Lovely Lisa calls it.

The rest of the week has just been as per usual. Blog reading, scrabulous, work, shopping, house and family stuff. Beloved has finished removing the rear of the house, so we're ready to go as soon as the bank says "MUSH"......

I can't wait.

But for now, I'll just listen to the falling rain, listen to it fall. (And with every drop of rain, I can hear you call...)

Yep, there is a song for every occasion. Thanks Jose.




Wednesday, January 09, 2008

If a picture paints a thousand words.....

My pictures WILL be posted!!

Read the post preceding this one, and it will make sense. (although there are no guarantees).

Before Beloved worked his magic, ably abetted by Scorpaboy.......



Afterwards, the job is almost done. This is Scorpaboy's rear view......
He's standing on what was formerly the bathroom ceiling

And last but not least,

The magnificent Vauxhall Victor 101.............

3 speed column-shift, good tyres, last registered in August 2005.

VICTORY IS MINE BLOGGER!!!!! *maniacal, hysterical laughter*.......

And now that it's nearing 1am, I'm off to bed..........

G'night...... >_< ...... zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

House of Cards.....

My Beloved is a magician!

2 days ago, the back of my house looked like this....... (you'll have to imagine a ramshackle skillion addition hanging off the back of the house as blogger won't let me put my picture here... PLURGH!!!!!) .......



Tonight, ....VOILA!!!

(Indulge me here, folks. I had really good intentions..... Blogger even deleted me a number of times before I "undo'd" a few times...)

The back of my house has disappeared!

It has re-emerged as piles of debris all over the yard.

And the local tip is closed until Friday. Problem..... the trailer is full of decaying peach-tree & fly-blown-peaches, and we can't empty it then fill it up...over & over & over & over & over & over & over etc....

And Beloved needs it so we can take the trade-in motorbike to Sydney on Thursday... he will travel a few extra miles tomorrow to empty it, and collect a jackhammer to make a few more piles of debris..... but heavier this time.......

It's been a good few days. My birthday on Friday was good. Uneventful, but good. We bought me a laptop. YAY!!! I'll need it when I'm studying in Newcastle. Eventually, I'll connect it up to the internet so I can blog whenever I want (when we go wireless, that is). But I can't remember my bigpond account password.... and can't be bothered sitting on the phone to PC support for ages.... We emptied out the back of the house before the afore-mentioned demolition, into spaces that we had to make out of other spaces that really weren't spaces at all.

Does anybody want to buy a lovely 1964 Vauxhall 101 Special? We need to sell it to make space. It's not registered at the moment, but will easily pass........
(again, no picture here thanks to Blogger, but it's very neat and tidy, pale green, & runs well)


And I had a lovely day on Monday working split shifts at the local hospital as the rostered-on AIN was unwell. And it was good. Beloved and the builder nutted out the details of the up-coming addition.
GG and Scorpaboy have a music festival in Sydney on Thursday night, so SB will have his 1st ever solo train ride to Hamilton to meet GG so that they can go together. The "Boys of Summer" ticket is her Xmas and birthday present to him. There are no sensible and safe trains scheduled for them to come home, so we will drive to Sydney (as already mentioned), have dinner with the bike seller and his wife, pick the kids up, then drive back to Nanandpops to sleep for a while......

As usual..... Phew......

That'll do for now.

I promised that I would blog more whilst I was on holidays.....

See you later ;0)

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Nothing stays the same forever.....

As I told GG the other day, the only thing that you can be sure that will be constant in life, is change. Other than the love of a mother, that is.......... and a father too, I suppose.

As I ponder the things that are in the beginning of the new year, which also heralds the momentous occasion of my 46th birthday tomorrow, I am given pause to think...

Nah. Let's not go there. Instead, a point version of the Blogmuggle existence at this point.

  • Christmas, spent in Newcastle with family. All presents successful and appreciated with just a few exchanges necessary. I was reminded yet again, as I sat on the balcony of an 8th floor apartment in Bolton street overlooking the harbour and up to Nobby's lighthouse, why I love Newcastle so much. And it should all be preserved as it is now.
  • Boxing Day at the Mac's has been a family tradition, it was worked out, for 34 years now.... wow. It's always a good day to touch base with family, as funerals seem to be the only other time that this happens. Weddings and birthday celebrations seem to be a bit thin on the ground on our family.

  • Home again on 29th, with GG in tow, which resulted in an uncommonly full rear seat in the mighty wagon.
  • Clean up at home (very empty and somewhat mournful without the festive treatment), fun visits with friends and visits from family members in transit.
  • New Years Eve spent on a friends farm. One beer consumed. Dabbling in fireworks resulted in an increase in the height of Beloved's hairline. No doubt, this is why fireworks were banned from general use........
  • Jan 1, return to Newie with GG so she could attend work on Jan 2, then to "Raj's on the Corner" for dinner, followed by a movie; "Atonement". Loved this. There are always consequences to your actions. The filming and scenery were divine, even if it was wartime. And GG almost died with embarrassment when she realised that she'd rushed us in through the closed doors to watch the credits of the previous session. Still, we had our pick of the seats......
  • Devastated Nanandpop by facilititating the euthanasia of their beloved old dog, Pepe, by having the unfortunate job of driving Nan and Pepe to the vets for the "Job" to be done while Pop was at work; Nan had decided that it was time to give the old, one-eyed, blind-in-that-one-dog some peace. We found out that he had a raging infection in one ear, and the other had already burst the eardrum.... chronic congestive heart failure, poor kidney function, but extensive use of fluid tablets resulted in the poor wee doggie peeing on whatever he thought might have been suitable... usually inside the house..
  • Take Nan to her Aunty Viv's funeral on Thursday, Jan 3. She's the last of the "old generation", passing at the grand age of 84. Transported Aunty Marion and cousin Ally as well, and after the very short service (where Nan fully expected Aunty Viv to sit up in her coffin and mutter "bullshit", after the reading of the 23rd Psalm......), we dropped in on other relatives.... lots of hen-like cackling was heard by passers-by, no doubt. Evidently, our family owned half of Toronto... How come we're so poor???????
  • Had a phone call from the Trainee Enrolled Nurse Co-Ordinator; I've been offerred a traineeship at Scone Hospital (45 country minutes from home), commencing with TAFE in Newcastle in April. Of course, I accepted (Unless you can see something better coming up for me Lisa....). So I have a little breathing space for now. Thank goodness....

  • The bank has verbally ok'd our new mortgage for the renovations. This is a good thing (I think). The builder is due to start in 2 weeks. Of course, he's not my first choice, but what can you do when THE Master Builder isn't available to travel up to Walnut Grove (haha; haven't heard it called that for a while)

  • GG is somewhat excited as Harvey Norman have a vacancy in Muswellbrook, and she's well over working at Golo in Belmont. She's heard nothing from the Jewellery Making Apprenticeship, so she's pressing on with other opportunities. So, she may come home again..... Does anybody have a caravan that we can borrow for a few months till after the renovations are done??? The poor kid doesn't have a room at home until they're done..... if she gets the job, that is.....

  • Home for a few days. Family and friends will again drop in in transit. Had plans, but fiscal disabilities will most likely result in the consumption of 2minute noodles and rice until next Wednesday........ Petrol is SOOOOOO expensive at the moment. It jumped 10cents a litre overnight.....
  • Anyway, I said that this would be short...... I am on leave until 11th, so maybe I will find time to babble on again.......

    Woo Hoo.... It's gone past midnight.......

    Happy Birthday to Me!!!!!
Bye Y'all xoxoxoxox