zigzagged

zigzagging again

2008-05-15T11:52:00.000-07:00

I'm back
Don't know if I am going to stay
I've been trying other identities on for size - but can't seem to get a good fit
I've tried Piffle-ing for awhile - but I don't know

From the shithouse to the penthouse

2007-11-13T20:51:00.000-08:00

Me on the weekend:
Snapping at EVERYONE in sight
Shuffling along with EXTREME lower back pain
Yelling, crying and losing it big time.

Me on Tuesday:
Called a meeting and requested extra help at work - "why didn't you ask sooner?" APPROVED
Booked a unit at the Coast for 2 weeks over Christmas/New Year - (((((sigh)))))
Hugging my kids and telling them how much I love 'em (they are still wary I might revert to the dark side and still tend to back away a little when I approach them....still it doesn't hurt to keep them on their toes....)

For the time being I am just going to enjoy my purple patch. Tomorrow is another day.

Bullying

2007-11-02T03:30:00.000-07:00

I'm seeing red on this one!

I am sick of frigging hotmail, yahoo, blogger and microsoft etc. trying to force me to change my password! Enough already! HELLO! I'm playing! This isn't meant to be serious!

Friggin hell - you would think the security of the country rests on my lousy passwords. I do not WANT to change them. If some moron wants to crack my password and read my emails - let 'em go for it. It they want to access this simple little blog that I write for myself - let -em go for it.

I DO NOT need the hassle of trying to remember friggin passwords. I prefer to keep the same passwords for one very simple reason.......

.....I usually remember them even after a glass or three of red wine.

I am not playing for sheep stations.

End of rant.

Why?

2007-11-02T00:20:00.000-07:00

Why don't I EVER follow-up on 6 monthly check-ups with my Dentist?

(a) I can't find the time?
(b) I am a procrastinator?
(c) I get cheesed-off paying $200 for "nothing"?
(d) I prefer to wait until I am being kept awake, in pain, every night before I go?
(e) I prefer to pay $500 and sit in his chair for 90 minutes miserable minutes?

maybe the $200 for nothing IS better value than the $500 for something....

4.58am Eastern Standard Time

2007-10-30T05:11:00.000-07:00

According to the pro-daylight saving lobby the sky will fall in and businesses will go broke any day now.

It's a terrible shame that businesses will have to deal with 2 time zones (how many do they have in the USA?) and that the television networks will have programming "issues" to deal with (the same bastards who put the Sopranos on at 10.30pm Tuesday nights - stuff 'em I say!).

We just don't need it.

We live up the pointy end of the place.

We have heaps of sunshine.

We already have hours of daylight left over at the end of our working day.

It is really mean trying to get young children to eat dinner and go to bed while the sun is shining!

And it's a nice feeling to zig while everyone else has to zag!

Nature v nurture?

2007-10-25T00:34:00.000-07:00

I have been inspired by photos of others Spring gardening efforts - unfortunately I am a long way from playing with the big girls in that area. (Look away now if you are a tad faint-hearted..

the result of level 5 water restrictions and having a huge tank full of rainwater that is STILL waiting to have the bloody tap fitted!

(A friend gave me the plant in the white pot nearly a year ago so I am counting that one as successful. The weedy looking stuff in the green cup and saucer pot is rocket - seriously! and the other plant is ?????)

I have a fantasy where I wander through my garden wearing a broad-brimmed straw hat (with muslin wrap wafting in the breeze), a cane basket over my arm and stopping occassional to select fresh flowers ready to display on my grand old table. One of these days.

Boasting

2007-10-21T05:03:00.001-07:00

Picked in the Queensland Schoolboys Open Cricket Team as a fast bowler - AND on the final day of the competition he gets to play a one-dayer on the Sydney Cricket Ground!

Those were the daze my friends

2007-09-20T06:25:00.000-07:00

I remember crying every day for 3 solid years. I used to ask him why he even came home - I would have just driven past. A teenage daughter and 2 sons, 1 a toddler and 1 a baby (age difference - 47 weeks). Life was babies, boobs, bottles, baths, budgets, poverty, unwanted advice, no help, constant noise and mess, bodily fluids (no sex of course) demands and more demands.

....but to everyone else we were happy and coping beautifully - cause that's what made others feel comfortable. If you put your hand up and said "help" you would have been a failure and that just wouldn't have done.

Occasionally I would hear that fuck-awful line "You are doing too much". Holy shit how fucking useless is it to tell someone at the end of their tether that they are "doing too much" Pretty friggin obvious I reckon. The ONLY acceptable thing to say is "Here, I can do that - you go and lie down/go for a walk/call a friend/have a chat..."

I remember one day, I though I was having a reasonably good day actually, showered, dressed and 2 happy babies when my mother walked into my kitchen, looked at the rather sad excuse of a half-dead african violet and said "you need to give that some water" My response - I picked the pot up and pelted the whole things out the window. That shut her up.

Water conservation

2007-09-20T06:01:00.001-07:00

5,000 ltrs of fresh rain water collected in a shiny new stainless steel water tank ready for use on the non-existent vege garden. Even the overflow pipe is plumbed legally into the stormwater outlet. And on the side you can't see? A gauge to show the water level! What's missing?

A tap!!! B reckons it's all about "conserving water" not using water. Idiot.

B's father had a thing about painting anything that didn't move "Mission Brown". The King's favourite colour - Deep Brunswick Green - it's everywhere. batons, downpipes, guttering, windowsills, concrete......

Wounded warrior

2007-09-19T05:24:00.000-07:00

He has survived thousands and thousand of outback miles.

He has forded swollen rivers with water up to his window-sills. He has ploughed his way through the soft beach sands of Moreton and Fraser Islands many a time.

He has pulled his way out of muddy bogs.

He has carted our babies, giggly girls and their friends, smelly boys and their cricket gear.

He has taken us camping and lugged all our gear.

He has moved furniture, taken rubbish to the dump.

His motor is so strong you would swear he could crawl up a vertical wall if you asked him to.

.....but Retro Boy, who is learning to drive drove him into an electricity pole and that's the end of that!

(When Retro Boy and M in the Middle were 3 and 4 year olds one of their favourite party tricks was to shove golf balls up his exhaust pipe and watch them shoot out like missiles when their father started the engine - they couldn't get the golf balls to fit up the exhaust of my VW Beetle so they use to stuff chalk up its skinny little pipe - not as dramatic but better than nothing)

One of my "happy places"

2007-09-19T05:07:00.000-07:00

If I were a lady of leisure this is where I would chose to spend a considerable part of my day. With my big fat arse plonked in the sling of the sqatters chair, my legs spread apart (rather inelegantly) and resting on the extended "arms" of the chair, a great book, a gentle balmy breeze passing by, birds chirping merrily in the trees (I would have already killed the damn crows - who was the dickhead who made them a protected species?).

This is verandah B and I built the summer before last, ourselves. Not bad at all. As with every renovation project we have undertaken there was a "renovation injury" sustained - in this case B "jumped" down off scaffolding and "popped" a tendon in his heel - only on crutches for 4 weeks though.

You know it's been awhile when...

2007-09-18T04:28:00.000-07:00

you need to get blogger to email you your password! At least it explains why I haven't been able to post comments.

I have been finding it hard to find my voice blogging. Should I write to a non-existent audience? Should I write to myself? Should I even blog?

Should I drink red or white before I blog? How many glasses should I drink? And then there is G&T season just around the corner and my new lime bush is covered in bloom, ready to produce juicy little slices to add the finishing touches to the G&T. Will adding diet tonic water to the G really make all that much difference or is it okay to stick with the normal tonic water? The ONLY soft drink my boys won't touch - you gotta have a win every now and then.

And photos! what about photos? That would mean actually learning how to use the new digital camera (not that I ever really figured out how the old one worked). Maybe I can practice by taking photos of the damage younger son did to the car when he drove it into the street pole this afternoon?

Transitions

2007-03-24T04:24:00.000-07:00

View of Southbank and the new GoMA building taken from the window of my new office. Now I am playing with the grown-ups!

Started out in an "Office" - escaped to the country for awhile - then had a part-time position working in an upmarket Fabric Emporium (and the fools paid me to be there)- then discovered the joy of working as a "Teacher's Assistant" in a preschool for a decade - now back where I started! (Skipped over the bit about raising 3 kids - ongoing!)

Now it's time to get serious again and pretend to be "corporate".

Printer's Trays

2007-02-14T21:02:00.000-08:00

I just love these - something about being able to sort things out?

Show and Tell No.3

2007-01-02T01:51:00.000-08:00

This Christmas quilt hangs on my wall all year around. It was made, as a surprise, by the children in our 2001 Preschool Group. It is one of a pair - the other quilt was presented to the Teacher I work with. One of the mothers organised the children to sponge the background on calico. She was also responsible for sewing the completed squares together to make the top, then quilting and binding the finished quilt.

The children were responsible for drawing "something to do with Christmas" (hence the 6 legged reindeer!) and they chose the fabric they wanted to use. Some of the parents sewed the red background shapes and assisted with sewing the applique shapes on as well.

When the quilt was completed the back was signed by all the children and the parents placed a message of thanks in the middle.

Over the past 5 years we have also taught the younger siblings of many of the original "quilt artists" and retain strong ties with many of the families.

Life has been getting in the way

2006-12-22T05:36:00.000-08:00

.... where was I?

2 x teenage sons and end of year assignments/exams AND serious cricket playing (State Championships)
1 x daughter nearly completed Masters now backpacking SE Asia solo
1 x only sister/best friend visiting from O/s for 4 weeks
2 x elderly parents tending towards the "doolally" stage of life
1 x husband finishing a lifetime career (thought the big BMW m/cycle AND the 73 VW Kombi Camper were the mid-life crisis - apparently not!)
me x leaving a job I love to enter into a "new adventure working alongside husband"
1 x home "undergoing major renovations"

and now for the tricky bit....

Show and Tell No. 2

2006-09-16T03:31:00.000-07:00

Friendship Quilt

Ever wondered what becomes of old Kindy Committee Members? Sometimes the lucky ones form friendships that endure and grow stronger over the years.

They share the joys and the good times and support each other through the tough times. They share vital information about why you should only ever buy stick deodorants for boys, never spray (nothing to do with the ozone layer - give a teenage boy a spray can and they can't help but "aim and fire" - they will grafitti their own name on the mirror!) They share ideas on how to prepare and serve a nutritious meal in the 5 mintues you are home between school pick-up, sport/music/dance practice and getting back to school for a meeting. They admit to being reduced to "vegie night" - the one night of the week that no one has sport/music/dance practice and everyone is home - so you stuff as many vegetables into the meal as you can because you can't predict when it will happen again. They cheer with you when your child achieves success and empathise with you when your are summonsed to meet with the Principal to discuss "issues" involving your child/rens behaviour.

In keeping with what we do best the theme just had to be "meet you for coffee". We each made 9 squares, kept one and gave one to each of our other friends. Mandy made "cups and saucers" - Wendy made "coffee pots" - Sue made "coffee mugs" - I made "teapots" - Michelle made the centre piece "flowers" - Chris made "cakes" - Leanne made "plates" - Julie made "honey" and Lisa made "milk and sugar".

The stripping was a joint effort and it is just as well this photo is out of focus because our finishing is a bit on the rustic side.

The group has expanded to include other "old Kindy friends" and for the past few years we have been meeting once or twice a month for "craft and coffee" and lots of laughs.

Show and Tell No.1

2006-09-02T16:45:00.000-07:00

Button Quilts

When I was a child I would spend hours playing with my mother's collection of old buttons. One of the earliest memories I have is of me sitting under the kitchen table on the lino floor and swirling my fingers through the buttons while being sprinkled with drops of water as Mum "damped down" freshly laundered clothes ready for ironing. Before "steam ironing" came into being she would spread anything that needed ironing onto the kitchen table and sprinkle water over the freshly laundered items. Originally she sprinkled the clothes by dipping her fingers into a small bowl of water and flicking the drops of water onto the clothes - then she upgraded to a glass coke bottle with a special lid - very posh! Before Mum began this process she would prepare her cane laundry basket by lining it with a big plastic sheet ready for her to place the rolled-up, dampened items in. After the damping down process was completed Mum would fold the plastic sheet over the damp clothes to keep the moisture in while she set up her wooden ironing board and prepare to do battle with her "dry" iron. That particular iron didn't have a heat setting and the only way to prevent "scorching" was to turn it off and on. She would iron her "nylons" first (while the iron was still gathering heat) and work her way up to her "linens and cottons" (as the iron reached full heat) then she would turn it off and reverse the process. As I write these words I now understand why I HATE ironing and also where my sister and I learnt such bad language - it's Mum's fault!

Back to the buttons. After both of my Grandmothers passed on their button jars were added to Mum's collection. As the collection grew it was upgraded to various old biscuits tins. When my sister and I were young children these buttons became our first maths lessons. We sorted them into piles, colours, shiny ones, 2-holed, 4-holed, ones with shanks, pretty ones and some that were just plain ugly to us. As I grew older I became more interested in their history. A couple came from my Great-Grandmother's "best coat". Many others were saved by my Grandmothers - nothing was wasted during the Great Depression - the birth of recycling. Some were worn by my Dad during WW2 on his naval uniform (as a Gunner not an Admiral!). Many of the buttons were recycled from clothes which had been worn by my aunties and uncles when they were children. Mum and I have also added to the collection with buttons we have saved from our own children's clothing.

When Mum and Dad moved into a smaller home my children and I became the custodians of the collection. I had been storing the button collection in 2 very large old glass preserving jars when I couple of years ago I came across a photo of a button quilt in a magazine. I am not sure who designed it but I was inspired to make something similar as a more befitting home for part of our collection.

I decided to make a pair of matching quilts - one for my sister (who is living far too far away) and one for my mother. There are well over a hundred buttons sewn on each quilt and I left a cream border ready for them to add to the collection as they wish. I still have hundreds and hundreds of buttons left and one of these days I plan to make a third button quilt for myself. (Before then I need to learn how to take clearer digital photos and then be able to post them where I want them instead of where blogger puts them. Aaaaagh!)

Confessions of a semi-reformed "lurker"

2006-09-02T02:32:00.000-07:00

The time has come to stop lurking and come out into the open. For the past few months I have been spending my nights "visiting" craft logs. I have felt like a cross between an eavesdropper and a peeping Tom and I just can't do it any longer. How can someone who HATES reality TV shows with a passion justify "lurking"? So here I am.

Mind you I will be doing more reading that posting but at least I feel I am making a token effort to give something back in return.