Holiday fun

We've been having a great time so far this holidays. On Monday we had a family Christmas get-together with Di's family on the Gold Coast. It was a nice picnic lunch/dinner and we had a chance to catch up with everyone.

It started raining Monday afternoon.




And rained until Friday morning.








On Tuesday & Wednesday, we did a huge clean up in the house and garage. I organised all the climbing gear that was strewn around and we gave away some stuff to local Freecyclers. It was very hard work but very rewarding as we can now see the floor in the garage!

On Thursday we went to the aquatic centre with a few friends & visiting rellies. Had a great time as the pool had about 5 other people in it and so we had the place to ourselves.


After the exercise we had to put back the calories so we had dinner at Hogs Breath at Redcliffe.

This was a really nice, relaxed meal and the kids were well behaved even though it was past bedtime.

Grrrr

Haven't been able to blog for a while because blogspot has been updating their site. We had a good weekend. Monday and Tuesday at home and really enjoyed having a few days to ourselves.
Jazmin can now get on her rocking horse all by herself. She especially likes it when she is watching My Little Pony on TV. Maybe she feels like she is riding one of the ponies on the TV!














I had to leave the room for a minute today and...well I discovered that she likes to eat Promite from the jar!!

More Pics

Here's some more recent pics. I tried, but couldn't get anything decent out of the prize night pics.


I love Jazmin's scowl I think it is so funny. She laughs when I scowl back at her!

Got Lots Done

Picked the car up from the insurance repairer, then had it taken across the road to the mechanic for more repairs and roadworthy etc, then took it down to Queensland Transport, paid all the necessary money to get rego and new Queensland license plates.

We only bought 6mths insurance because we don't know if we are going to America or not yet. Worst case scenario we renew again in May/June:No big deal.

After that we went shopping at Toombul, and then went to see Justin off to Melbourne, on the plane. Jazmin was being too slow with walking so she sat on the top of the suitcase with wheel, one leg each side of the handle, and went for a ride, which she quite liked!

As I was driving home I was listening to a CD of mine and one of the songs is "I'm on My Way" by the Proclaimers. Jazmin promptly said "Shrek" so she has clearly got the association because it is indeed a song from Shrek. If I ask her, "who is donkey's friend?" sometimes she will say Shrek. Other times if I ask her "who is Shrek's friend?" she either says Shrek or donkey (which sounds more like doggie at the moment, but that is a step up from Eeyore!!). I think it's pretty funny.

Anyway, I took an exit too early on the freeway coming home, and ended up having to take a rather long detour - about 10 mins. Found my way out eventually, but it can be difficult around freeways because there are several "no turn" places. It occurred to me that I don't think I have ever driven home from the airport, Justin usually drives - I normally drive there, but he gets the train to the airport in the first place, usually from work.

All the car stuff is registered to Justin, so he took the morning to do that - because of the privacy rules, they won't talk to me. Understandable, but crappy nonetheless.

I put Jazmin down at about 5:30 when we got home because she was very tired. It's now 8:15 and I don't think I will bother waking her up - She stuffed herself on chips at Toombul, and her nappy was fine when I put her to bed. Never wake a sleeping baby I say! I have no doubt that she will wake up if she wants something and let me know. She has a very powerful set of lungs, and says "Mummy" VERY clearly!!!

She is teething at the moment, got the two incisors on the bottom coming though - then I think she is only about 1 tooth short of a mouthful! Not that I would dare put my finger in to find out of course!

Everything's been pretty good here. We had the Sunday School Prize night on Saturday which was good. Jaz was grumpy because we were at the shops all day - it took us an hour to get there on the bus (car was in for repairs)...and 20 minutes walk from the station on the way home - which wasn't too bad actually - just a bit further than the IGA I sometimes walk to. I took some photos of prize night, but they didn't come out very well, the lighting was all wrong. I might be able to sharpen them up with editing software before I print them, but it can only do so much.

Sunday was the meeting of course and then we had lunch with Pam and David Kingston at their place afterwards, which was nice. Their dog's name is Jasmine...when I was calling my baby for dinner, the dog came too!

Odie got in Jazmin's dolly pram yesterday and she didn't like that one little bit and tipped him out - he was pretty scared!!
Good days all round :)

It's such a Strine having conversations with the Yanks

This might be useful if we do end up moving to the US next year!!
"A closed mouth gathers no foot"


Catherine GaltonDecember 8, 2006


I'VE just moved to the US and I'm taking a vow of silence. Not because I can't find an opening in conversation for all the mindless exercising of the first constitutional right but because it has recently dawned on me that I sound like a washed-up cast member of Crocodile Dundee.
And so do the rest of you.

It was during my first conference call back home to Australia. Six investment bankers (read, sheep shearers in suits) all took turns to give a market update. I listened in horror to the dropped Rs and the bludgeoned consonants, giving the conversation a decidedly slack-jawed feel. Red-faced, I turned to my new colleagues in horror and in my most worldly accent asked: "Do I sound like that?"

I could hear the individual drops from the cheap, decaffeinated, drip-filter machine as the verdict was delivered. The nodding around the table was unanimous.

I cast my mind back over the first four weeks since my arrival. That's why nobody knew what a Mars Bar was. Because I'd been saying Mahs Bah. And when I asked to have a stickybeak at a file, my manager thought I was asking to stick my something somewhere and threatened to report me to HR. And it dawned on me why the guys have been so friendly, after I told them we wear thongs to work on casual Friday back home. At least when I proclaimed that I needed a sausage sanga after too many wines, the Pom offered to join me.

Take comfort, my countrymen, the Yanks aren't without their strange sayings. If referring to u-turning as "banging a ewey" isn't indecent enough, I was told that if I "blew off a client" I wouldn't be invited back to further meetings (they didn't mention this in my visa application). No amount of Seinfeld, Sex and the City or Springsteen will prepare you to seamlessly enter American culture. I offer up some tips for my fellow travellers:

1. Don't use three words when you can use 10. The more you say, the more you know.
2. Yes, they know that their President was a bad choice. The country just voted in a Democratic landslide in the midterm elections. Just don't mention the war.
3. Popular opinion is best measured by which celebrity is in/out of favour that week.
4. Jumpers can be sweaters, but sweaters are not always jumpers.
Confused? So am I. Until I can order a tall, skinny, decaf, caramel latte without the Starbucks kid sniggering, I'm going to keep talking to a minimum. It might seem a high price to pay but if I wanted to bang a ewey, I would have moved to New Zealand.

Pics from the last couple of days

I just love these toddler curls!

Jazmin loves playing with her new dolly pram.

Today's Heckler

I thought it was pretty spot on!

Lazy staff, lazy customers - and they call it fast food

Sidi CollinsDecember 7, 2006
HECKLER

I WORK at a popular fast food chain. Well actually, its not popular, because no one comes in. Customers make the assumption that I give a damn about our bad customer service.
Imagine this: not only did you have school today but you also had work, your shift is finally up and just as you're walking out, a rude customer walks up to you and says in a droning voice: "By the way, I'm not going to come back here." Like it's your fault the system is structured badly.
While they are saying this you are thinking to yourself: "Why the hell am I meant to care?
I'm 14. I bothered to come to work today when I was meant to go out. I served you even though you were rude to me, and I'm off the clock, so it's not my job to care."

It is not like I'm fabulously compensated for my time. I get $7.22 an hour and I spend most of my time doing the jobs of the lazy workers that sit around and eat chips - as well as stacking the fridge, serving customers, and the worst job, cleaning the toilets, which stink, by the way.
I also get the privilege of cleaning the tables when customers decide not to walk the whole two metres to the bin to put in their junk. Is it really that hard to throw away your rubbish when the bin is right near the door you're leaving from?

Another thing that annoys me is when people come in minutes before we close and order the biggest thing on the menu, when we have already cleaned and thrown out the food.
And then there are the people who say they are on a diet, come in and order a bacon, processed cheese and chicken sandwich and then add: "Oh yes, make it a diet cola."

Yes, having a diet cola instead of a regular will stop that plastic cheese, fatty bacon and deep-fried chips from going straight to your thighs, darling.

People can be so irrational. They wait in their car for 10 minutes to get a drive-through cola when they could walk 10 metres from the car, order it, and be back out in two minutes.
Another thing about my work is the disregard for other people's schedules.

Just when I adjust my social budget to cope with a total lack of shifts, I need to readjust my social schedule when they throw me on for 30 hours a week.

As you can see, I hate my job. I think I have a solution that will solve all these problems. I think I will quit. But you lot? Stop eating there. You're causing more misery than your own heart disease.

Not Much On

Quiet one today - busy one tomorrow! Haven't done much really today, and there is nothing on TV - end of ratings season! No Dr Phil of course coz of the sodding cricket, and they have even taken off the 6pm viewing of The Simpsons. That should NOT be allowed!!

I have to go and pick Justy up at about 9:15 - his plane is due in at 10..we'll see if it actually is or not.

Got a guy coming tomorrow at lunchtime to give us our new water filter. Because the dams are so low the water is gritty and tastes revolting - I've had to buy water this week. It still tastes crap even after boiling. In any case, our kettle has broken so we had to throw it out. The filter we are getting allows us to put tap water in, and then on one side it has a chiller and the other it has a heater, and will give boiling water on tap, thus fixing two problems at once. It is a benchtop model - not a freestander as I thought that would be too dangerous with Jazmin and Odie - one of them is bound to knock it over and/or burn themselves. Our free trial starts tomorrow, but if we like it, we'll buy it.

Monday

Went to the shops this morning to pick up a few things - mostly sinus medicine and kitty litter.
Justin flies to Sydney tonight.

Sunday

Jazmin and Odie are starting to play together now, Jaz playes with the ribbon and Odie chases it - Jazmin laughs so much - she loves it.

Tonight's lecture was very good - on Angels. Afterwards a few of us went out for McDonald's, a bit like old times when we were in Sydney - we had a great night.

We had to clean up cat poo when we got home because the wind had blown the door shut and poor Odie couldn't get to his litter box.

Saturday

Odie cried much less today and is getting used to all of us. Sometimes we have to remind him where his food is, but other than that he's doing well.

Went to ALDI today to check if they had any kettles - they did yesterday, but had all sold out today! The new ALDI just opened on Thursday at Morayfield, it's good having one so close because the other one is at Burpengary.

Justin is meant to be getting Christmas presents and hampers for some of the people at his work, some of which are in Syndey and Melbourne. I suggested he just send them a David Jones hamper and get it delivered...saves a lot of time and hassle and money on postage when they can just be ordered over the net!

We had Fasta Pasta for dinner - very nice as usual. Justin took Jazmin to get it and meant to take some DVDs and books back to the library on his way past...he forgot so had to go back out again!

Justin is in Sydney Monday night and Tuesday again this week, and Jazmin is booked to have her immunisations on Wednesday - I can't believe she is 18mths old already!!!

We bought a few DVD's: yesterday I got a 3 movie collector's pack - Legends of the Fall, Seven Years In Tibet, The Devil's Own. Today we got: The Castle, a 2 movie pack - End of Days and Lost Souls and the second Austin Powers movie. We've found the packs to be really good - we have thne pack of "the day after tomorrow" and "independence day" and also MIB 1 & 2.

Odie Pics

Gotcha! Some resting pics of him. He was microchipped and vaccinated this afternoon so he's a bit worn out. Jaz ranges from wanting him to be close and running away scared - I am sure they will get used to each other soon enough. Odie loves to snuggle up on Jazmin's "My Little Pony" rocking horse.

Welcome Odie!

Our new cat Odie is just 7 weeks old - he was born on 13/10/06 (we think). He is a cross breed and very cute. I will try and have tried to get some pics, but being a playful little kitten, he doesn't stay still for long! He cried a bit last night, but seems to be doing pretty ok now. Jazmin is warming up to him, but she was a bit scared when he first came home last night. She says "baby cat". We are taking him for his vet check today.

Justin got home from Sydney OK last night. The plane was delayed but not too much.