test drive

I haven't been here for a long, long while.

I'm getting bored with Facebook, and only check in to lurk around.  I can't be bothered with the games;  they become tedious very, very fast.  I have the concentration span of a gnat, it would seem, these days.  I suppose it's yet another menopausal side effect.
I have another theory.  I think I expend an enormous amount of my mental energy in my job, and I think that  every night, when I get home, I have my very own private, quiet melt down.  The first thing I like to do when I walk through the door in the evening is have a shower, and slide on into my pj's.  It wasn't all that long ago that I never even possessed pyjamas: now I spend hours and hours in them.  At least it has the decency to be dark at 5pm as it's winter.   What on earth am I going to do when it's summer and daylight until almost 9pm?
I simply cannot find a single thing that inspires me to do anything else.  Not yoga or zumba.  Not reading, book club or crosswords. Not the local drama group or a chat on the phone with a friend.  Never sewing or craft-related stuff.  Music only happens in the car.  Not even a walk with my poor doggy.  There is no enthusiasm to summon.
Mind you, I am still good fun, love a good laugh, derive enormous amounts of pleasure from being with the ones I love and retain my distaste of all things domestic.  And I am studiously ignoring the renovations that have gone from patiently waiting to be completed to screaming at me to get it over with and done.  I am very good at this ignoring business.  Some professional types might term it "detatchment".......  meh: who cares......

So I guess there's really nothing wrong at all.
Situation normal.

Maybe I just need to get back into this.

Enough for now.  I wouldn't want to overdo it now, would I?

Read all about their schemes and adventuring.... it's well worth a fee......

I don't really have anything to blog about, so it is with Aussie spirit that I have decided to have a whinge............. I am going to call it;

"WHAT CHEESES ME OFF..."

• TV stations changing their programming just when things start to get interesting. I love watching tv: it is my chief recreational pastime. I find it extremely annoying when a station shows 1 or 2 episodes of a tv series, then don't run it for a while, or all of a sudden stick the show in at an obscure timeslot, eg "BUFFY" turning up at 1am on TEN the other day, "Supernatural" off for a couple of weeks, "House" coming and going at odd times and tonight, Nine decided to run a repeat of a "documentary" about Carl Williams instead of "The Mentalist"..... The same thing happened with a little series called "Roswell" back in the early 90's........ Unfortunately, most of the shows I like seem to be on late at night..... I know there's more, but that's enough of those for now.....
  

• Anti-smoking ads: Anti-drinking ads as well. These just don't work. They are so awful and offensive, and the only people who seem to really pay attention are the people who don't partake of the advertised evil product. So much money is wasted that could be put to better use in the hospital system. GG is part of the "Healthy Harold" generation, for whom the evils of drinking, drugs and smoking any substance have been force-fed into them. Like most teenagers, they just don't care about any of the dangers......... it's more important to have fun..... they tend to look upon the ads with ill-disguised scorn. No amount of adverse advertising will ever stop this stype of behaviour unless people really want to. And no-one ever believes that they will become addicted. Putting up the price of cigarettes isn't really much of a deterrent either..... GG smokes "roll-your-owns" because they're cheaper. Our house has always been a non-smoking abode, so the argument of "children copy the example of their parents" doesn't fit here....
  

• Parking fines. Or more specifically, my daughter's parking fines. Last year, I payed over $500 to cover these little babies for my daughter. This year, during February and March, my delightful daughter has racked up another 5 or so at $84 a pop, all because she "can't afford/be bothered" to organise more appropriate parking. There is only metered parking, not residential parking where she lives in Newcastle, and as a person who frequently works until 3am, waking up to move her car from outside her residence is not often a priority. Newcastle Council booked her 3 days in a row....... If the fines aren't paid by the due date, another $50 is added on. It's a rather convoluted process to submit a stat dec stating I wasn't the driver at the time of the infringement, involving a solicitor or legal counsel.......
  

• Whilst I'm on a car-related rant, e-tags and motorway tolls cheese me off as well. last year, after a few of these little suckers arriving in the mail after Beloved drove through Sydney on his way south, I tried to buy an e-tag on-line. After 3 days of NOT being able to succeed in this endeavour, I tried to phone, again to no avail.... The same thing happened to Beloved again in January, but as he was driving a rental car, the account didn't arrive until March, complete with high administration fees. In March, GG managed to rack up 3 motorway tolls in the space of 14 minutes..... because she didn't address the issue within 48 hours (after she phoned me on the day and I advised her to phone 1300ROAM), the admin fees on these little suckers have ended up costing me $35 instead of $11... what-the! Probably the most annoying thing is that I can drive around Sydney without paying any tolls except to cross the harbour........ You're probably wondering why I pay the fines: it's simple. "Her" car is registered in my name so that the insurance and CTP is cheaper...... To change it over into her name will not only make the insurances more expensive, it will cost money (of course) for the transfer..........

Ok. Rant over....... thanks for listening......

Now, to think of a title.. it has to be lines from a song, or a title ..... Oh yes..... "Crime of the Century" by Supertramp.....

Here's the rest of the Supertramp song:

Now they're planning the crime of the century,

Well, what will it be?

Read all about their schemes and adventuring,

It's well worth a fee,

So roll up and see.

And they rape the universe.

How they've gone from bad to worse:

Who are these men of lust, greed, and glory?

Rip off the masks and let's see.

But that's not right - oh no, what's the story?

There's you and there's me

That can't be right.........

Cheers, Cyndy ;0)

We are family........

Hi there Bloggers!

Are there any Bloggers out there anymore in this instant-update era of Facebook?

It would appear that I missed blogging in March all together. At least that’s another “first” that I can cross off my bucket list. Life has been busy (as usual) in the Blogmuggle household. Lots of time has been spent at work, and a lot of other minutae that is so incredibly (un)interesting that I can’t recall any of it.

THE most exciting event actually happened in April. April 2, to be precise.

GG turned 21!!!!!.

She celebrated with a select group of family & friends at Newcastle Harbour Foreshore Park, enjoying meat-laden barbeque-style fare on Good Friday. She was dependent upon her very cool mirror-style sunnies to protect her tender eyes that resulted from the previous night's soiree with friends at her home. It was her best buddy's 21st birthday as well..... Happy Birthday, Morgan!

The weather was fabulous! It was a fun affair, but I am mildly distressed with the fact that in this era of fabulous technology, no-one had the thought of capturing the event on celluloid (or microchip) for posterity...... We had a video camera on hand, and almost every person over the age of 12 had a mobile phone with a camera... none used....

Except for a few choice piccies.....

These were taken by my sister-in-law, Lisa. These kids are all cousins. This is all of them from my Mum’s side of the family, except for my absent cousin’s absent daughter.... My dad’s side of the family have no interest in our little family. Sad, but true. Actually, they have no interest in each other..... Even more sad, but true.

Grace, Eloise and Laura:

Eloise, Laura, Khiara, Ebony & Grace:

Rhys, Jack and Sam:

Eloise, Grace, Rhys, Sam, Laura & Jack:

Eloise, Ebony, Grace, Laura, Rhys, Sam, Laura, Jack ,Zachary & Khiara:

I’m so glad that Lisa took them: at least we have some photos of all the cousins together.

It’s hard to all get together these days. Zach, Khiara & Ebony are my cousin, Alyson’s brood. Ally’s Mum and my Mum are(were) sisters: Ally & I were more like sister’s than cousins when we were children, even though she’s almost 10yrs younger than me. Lisa married my only sibling, Glen, when he was 41. I will be forever grateful that they were blessed with their 3 gorgeous kids. Mum’s only surviving brother, has 2 children: only one of them has children and they weren’t present on the day. There is some good news: there are twins expected to arrive at the end of June (good one, Andrew!), but I doubt we will see a lot of them, probably only three times a year. I have cousins that live in the Netherlands that I have never met, the offspring of Mum’s younger brother who passed away in the 70’s. The poor bugger developed cancer and died shortly after his mother. Neither knew about the other, as we had no idea where Uncle Harry was. The Salvation Army finally found us. It allowed Mum & Dad to track down my remaining cousins and meet them. I don’t really know much about them, though, and despite a few internet forays on my part, I still don’t.

I grew up with a very large and involved extended family. Leisure time was spent with my Aunts & Uncles (whether or not they were “blood-relations”), cousins of the first, second & third varieties. Our family included “In-law” cousins such as fellow blogger, Lisa B, her sister (and now new-found sister, Kerry) & cousins. After school, weekends and holidays were spent with a myriad of people that were simply acknowledged as “family”. There was fishing, camping, simple play & games, music & laughter. There was never much money that I saw, but it didn’t matter. There was conditional acceptance of everyone and their circumstance. There were no skeletons in our closets: they were out there, loud & proud.

Beloved is part of a big family too. But there’s no photos of them from GG’s big day. There’s 2 new babies due there as well in the next few months. We never even managed to get around to singing the “Happy Birthday” song....... the day was over all too soon. But there was some great cake courtesy of GG's birthday buddy, Morgan's boyfriend the baker, Toby..mmmmmmmmmm

And that’s enough from me for today. Until next time......

xoxoxoxoxoxo

We are moving to a lighthouse you & I.... I'll just hold you tight & we'll not let those @#$$ers in.....

I'd best get another blog in before the month's end, eh?

The usual everything yet nothing has been going on in my life. Maybe point form might be the way to address the past few weeks:

• We've bought a "new" car. It's a lovely little diesel ford Focus. It's very "un-thirsty" and very suited to the large numbers of miles that we drive up here. Very schmick, shiny and silver, it is. One day, I will draw up a timeline of my life according to the cars that we have owned: it's a direct reflection, I assure you.

• We saw the Newcastle Women's roller derby league demonstration day in Newcastle on Valentine's Day. It was great fun and very tactical. Beloved & I were amazed at the number of people there. And a few tattoo artists may have been afforded an overseas holiday based upon the amount and level of inkage on display. We're looking forward to GG's debut as "fresh meat"... seriously, that's what newbies are called.........

• Last Tuesday, we attended a "send-off" for my cousin, Ian. Ian passed away at the tender age of 47, from a heart attack following 4 previous attacks in 8 months. He also had Graves Disease and Type II diabetes. He has a large and loving family and friends that will miss him dreadfully. Ian had married his high school sweetheart 14yrs ago after they met at a school reunion. Both had gone through messy marriages/divorces. Happiness turned his life around. Beloved reckons that it was one of the saddest funerals he's ever been to: I thought that Kiss & Metallica were never more appropriate, and how wonderful it was that "Boong" made so many wonderful memories for those left behind.

• We then had 3 very busy days at work, and on Saturday, our little world was shifted on it's axis a little....... Beloved went to work to do a simple job. Except that it didn't end up being a simple job. I can't go into details for legal reasons, but Beloved and another work colleague were involved in an incident that saw the other driver choppered off to hospital. A phone called from a rather shaky Beloved for a clean shirt resulted in my not actually going to work. I was almost ready to go to work when he called: I turned up at the worksite as he was going into a bit of very-expected shock, so a phone call to work later, that was the end of that. Fortunately, work wasn't busy, and could do without me. On Sunday, they called me to see if I wanted the day off as maternity (where I was rostered to work) was closed, and the hospital was very quiet. Thank goodness. Poor Beloved ended up at work until midnight as investigations took place. Then back again on Sunday to sort things out. After yet another gruelling day of "sorting" on Monday, Beloved is now having time off until his soul has recovered a bit from the shock of it all. Fortunately, the "other guy" has had surgery and is home recovering. He should be physically ok in the next week or so. But Beloved is beleaguered with the fact that the other guy was driving the smaller machine that is usually Beloved's. The only reason Beloved wasn't in the driver's seat was because someone had phoned in sick, so Beloved had to drive the larger machine as the replacement guy wasn't licenced to drive the larger one. So he has the mindset of "it should have been me" compounded with the thought that the actions performed on the job may have had a truly dreadful outcome. He is full of anger, guilt & self-doubt at the moment. It's so hard to watch him feel like this. He is running on very little sleep, and is exhausted, which just makes it all worse.

• Last night, we went to Lizottes in the old King's Theatre in Lambton to watch the one & only Josh Pyke perform. It was just him and his guitar: no band, bells or whistles. AND HE WAS AWESOME!!!!!! This man needs no engineering: his voice is rich, mellow and so multi-hued... it soars..... his guitar playing is superb.... and he has a sense of humour and fun. As the man himself said: "you likey Pykey?".... Yes we do. Absolutely. I wish we could see him again....If you haven't heard him, do yourself a favour and have a listen. But be prepared: his stories are bare and raw...... and he can fit more words into one breath than anyone I ever known..... The venue is great, and the service phenomenal. I've not had such complete service in a long time. The best ever, I'd reckon. Except for the old dears at the The Staff House at Newcastle Uni a generation ago.......
  

• Then today we had our annual check up with the Skin Cancer Clinic. Beloved's ears need work: we have been prescribed some cream with the preceeding question; "are you in a health fund?".... It must be expensive...... Evidently, I have very good skin. Wrinkling, mature and (very tactfully) with some blemishes that occur after 30 that can be frozen if I want. I have chosen "not" for the time being.....

• Then we saw "Shutter Island" at Charlestown with our free movie passes..... I'm not a big fan of Leonardo DiCaprio, but Beloved & I both liked this one. I'm not telling you about it.... It was a good diversion for a couple of hours. I caught the train home as Beloved has to get a towbar fitted to the Focus tomorrow and it was half the price at ISP compared to the price we were quoted up here. It was shame that they booked us in on the wrong date. It was supposed to be done while we were in Newcastle today. He's staying with his mum again tonight. I would prefer that we weren't apart at the moment, but there's not much we can do about it. I have an evening shift tomorrow. It's the first of 6 days. I was called today to see if I could fit any extra shifts in. I don't think that I can. 40hours this week will be enough, especially with everything that's going on........ I have 4 nightshifts and 2 dayshifts booked next week.... 56hrs..... It sounds like I'll be rolling in money..... huh!

It's a bit later than I hoped...... I'd best get off to bed. Goodnight.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxo zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Here I come: Here I go.......

My gosh.

It's been over a month since my last post. I'm not sure where it went. I was working, I guess.

Anything big happened? Not really.

Beloved took some holidays to spend with his mum. He loved having the time with her. I think (and hope) that it will happen again. He also met up with Sboy in Newie and together they travelled to Canberra to pick up "Rumdawgs" so thay could go to Mulwala (NSW-Vic border) for the boys to perform at the annual waterski festival. Well, they would have if the big black F-truck hadn't died 2 hours out of Albury. Lucky for the boys, Beloved, who had been roped into driving them as neither of the two are licenced to drive towing a big trailer, was with them so that they were able to rent transport. The boys wouldn't have been able due their red P Plate status. And lucky that a couple of kind-hearted truckies offerred half their day to drive the boys & tow their trailer to the ski park. And lucky that they broke down outside a hotel that sold good food and were extremely hospitable, even if they didn't have any beds. The truck has been on a slow downhill slide over the past few months: they were very, very lucky that it didn't happen sooner. But in the end, everything worked out well. Beloved and I are waiting for some re-imbursement of our investment to get the boys home........ Given the fact that the truck is going to cost around $10,000 to repair, I think we'll be waiting a while.......

Sboy's boss arrived home from 2 months overseas on Saturday: we will see them next weekend as they have to travel here to pick up the trailer then drive it back up to Glen Innes for 3 days of shows next weekend. My big Sboy has turned 19 as well: his last year as a teenager!

Vboy's been having lots of fun over the school holidays. It doesn't seem to have finished, even though school's back. He's in for an interesting year. He's been moved up for Science, History & Geography. I worked very hard with him on his assessment tasks last year, and it seems to have paid off. Mind you, his final exam marks weren't all that flash...... Beloved and I will be moving heaven & earth to get him a maths tutor. I have been lobbying his teacher for quite some time now in regard to this subject, but she insisted that he was "holding his own" in class... I'm not sure exactly what of "his own" he was holding when I found out that his Final Yr 9 maths exam mark was 38%....... if he's doing ok, what about the rest of his class?????? I tried for most of the second half of last year to secure a tutor, but had no joy. Maybe since it's the beginning of the school year, it will be a little easier.

GG had a big day out at the "Big Day Out". She's been gritting her teeth since the beginning of December when Beloved & I bought her car home for repairs. It's rego ran out on Friday: we took the hard line with her & did not offer to renew the rego for her this year..... after 12 months, she hasn't come up with the money, so here it remains...... She tells me she will have the money this week. As soon as it's registered, I will return it..... when I can fit in the drive (and the train trip home). Maybe next weekend. Her newest passion is The Newcastle Roller Derby. We might catch that too next weekend.

Beloved & I went out in Hamilton then back to a friend's house in Wallsend last Saturday to help him celebrate his 50th birthday: it was great fun, but was in between work shifts for both of us. This weekend has been good for me, as I haven't worked, or set foot out of my little village all weekend. Bliss! Beloved & I have had some lovely quiet time together as Vboy was with friends. We like to watch movies together.

I finally finished the assessment tasks and workplace observations for the Aged Care Course that I was doing. Woo Hoo! I am doing a palliative care course next month. Hopefully it won't be too taxing on my shrinking brain. That might just about do me for my learning in 2010.......

My house is clean. The cars are vacuumed. The washing up as well the washing is up to date. Even the kids rooms are habitable. But.... (there's always a but).... before you get all high-fivey and congratulate me, just let me share with you that my spongemop has perished from lack of use. It left bits of interesting yellow stuff all over my clean floors. And ... ummmm..... that .. my... oven... hasn't been cleaned at all this year.... not since December 2008, in fact.....

It's interesting though, don't you think, that the only thing that will remove those ridiculosly large "Water Usage" star stickers on bathroom appliances is copious amounts of water and elbow grease?.... such an irony.

Ah well..... see how mundane my life is? Maybe that's why I have been such a pathetically unmotivated blogger... it saves you from hari-kari as a result of the boredom of reading if I had posted anything........

Goodnight!

Can I have another piece of chocolate cake?

Hey Ho!

Happy New Year!

Well, it was for me, anyway.

Believe it or not, I spent New Years' Eve at home, on my own, watching DVDs!

Beloved & Sboy were at entertaining the crowds in Parramatta, and Vboy was staying at a friend's house. So I entertained myself with "Samson & Delilah", "Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince" & "The Boat that Rocked".

Very Anti-social indeed. But just what I needed. I have been busy at work, and have been rather bushed by it all. I will be glad to eventually settle back into part-time hours... eventually....

VBoy & I met Beloved & Sboy at Sister-in-law's on New Years' Day to help her survive her 50th birthday. It was a lovely get together with family & friends. Home again in the evening. Nanny Val is going well. Her speech is improving, but there is a long way to go.

Saturday, we went to see "Avatar": what a great movie! It was 3D, which was interesting, but even in 2D, it would be good. We had to drive through the most torrential downpour to get there.... I seriously don't do rain travel well. And the boys were travelling somewhere behind us in GG's car that needed 2 new front tyres, and only had 1 windscreen wiper...... VBoy sent me a text message; "Holy moly it's raining a lot mother!" And he was right. We had to pull over at one point as vision & conditions were so poor. I was rather astounded when a the learner driver that we had overtaken before the storm drove past us when we were pulled over, then turned right at an intersection when visibility was about ten feet.......

No work on Sunday.. hahahah... I had given myself a few days off and because today is my birthday! Actually, it was yesterday, because it's now 1.55am, yet I am disgustingly awake.....

I've had a good birthday. There's nothing like Facebook to give someone validation... a gazillion birthday wishes... And then there's all the usual well-wishers. It's lovely. While I was in town today, I lashed out & spent $20 on 2 balinese-style ceramic fish that now have pride of place on my coffee table. And my boys bought me the DVD set of "Torchwood: the Children of the Earth" series as well as "J-Lo" perfume. I've never worn it before, but Sboy (who chose it) said that reminded him of some perfume that I had worn. It is lovely, and hopefully, not too heavy. The bottle is gorgeous. A baked dinner capped off the evening.

The final surprise was when a friend of Vboy phoned and asked if he could come around, as he had a surprise for my birthday. As we hadn't eaten, I invited him to join us for dinner. Well, Jake turned up with a rather delicious cake that he had baked for me! He was a bit disappointed with the presentation, but he had decorated his choc-caramel-fudge cake with whipped cream & topped it off with candles! I couldn't resist his cake, his cuddle and spoken "happy birthday mum". He's leaving us for at least 2 months to go live with his sister on the Gold Coast: we will miss his 16yr old smile around here... and the "Keep looking" sticky notes that he hides...

Well, I have to work 2 shifts at Merriwa over the next couple of days. I sleep over, so I won't be around until probably Wednesday night or even Thursday.

I should probably try to get some sleep.

Goodnight xoxoxoxoxo

So this is Christmas....... and what I've done......

Well, Christmas is done & dusted.

It was good.

We drove to Poppy Ken's late in the evening before Christmas as the air-con in the car (which HAD been repaired was on the fritz again after just 4 deliciously cool days of driving....)

The day started with NOT waking up at sparrow fart, then having a swim at Newcastle Beach, followed by breakfast at Maccas. Yes, you read that right: breakfast at Maccas.

And it was good.

Then, my Dad, Beloved & I & the kids all got together for lunch at my brothers house with his wife, kids & inlaw family types for lunch. Cricket was played, copious amounts of festive food/drink were consumed and a few people napped after lunch, as is the custom.

And it was good.

Then it was off to my sister-in-law's place to get together for a while, without too much food/drink involved. It was good to get together with everyone there, especially Beloved's mum, the lovely Nanny Val, as she sufferred a stoke a couple of weeks ago. She is doing well. She still has her mobility & physical co-ordination, but is finding speech, reading & writing difficult. There is a long road of therapy & a few lifestyle changes ahead for her, but she is facing the challenge head on with her usual approach of humour & grace in equal measures.

And it was good.

All three of the kids then returned to GG's place in King Street to watch Xmas-gift DVD's for the evening. A sleep-over at Sisters! That was different! My babies are growing up..... Beloved & I returned to Poppy Ken's and turned in for an early night.

And it was good.

Beloved & I had a day together on Boxing Day, not doing much at all until it was time to collect the kids & head off to Uncle & Aunts for the traditional Boxing Day/Night get-together. There is always such good food at Aunty Dor's..... it's changing though: I'm not sure if it will still happen in a few years.... this will be a shame. GG couldn't be there, as she had to work. And Sboy was very busy socialising. But Vboy had fun with his cousins.

And it was good.

Breakie on the Deckie at Nords Wharf with lovely friends started the next day, followed by a visit back at Sister-in-laws to see Nanny Val again, and more relatives..... We rounded out the day by catching up with a family that we hadn't spent time with for at least 7 years.... Their oldest is the same age as Vboy, then a boy who was 2 or 3 last time that we saw him, and the youngest is a delightful little girl that we hadn't met before...... we dropped in at 6pm and talked our way through until 11..... then drove home..... 1.40am was the end of our journey.

And it was good.

The rain has continued up here, which is marvelous, even though it has effected Sboy's "holiday" activities. I gave up almost any pretence of hanging the washing on the line: it is happily tumbling around & around instead. I've spent a fair bit of it watching "Scrubs" dvd's and pottering around dusting & wiping surfaces........ There may have been a wee power nap in there, too.....

And it's been good.

I have 3 days of work ahead of me before another 4 day break over the New Year period. It will be interesting, as I'm having a night away, sleeping in a nurses' home in between shifts at a hospital a little further west of here.

I'll fill you in on the details.

Hopefully, it will be good.

Bye xoxoxoxo