Drea's Blog

Show Time!

2009-09-27T16:26:00.004+08:00

Guess what I did yesterday?!

Yep, I went to the Perth Royal Show.

I LOVE the show. I remember going as a little kid and being so excited, it was my favourite day of the year! Anyway, all those memories seem to flood back as soon as I enter the gates...even as an adult. One of my most vivid childhood memories is sitting on my Dads lap on a rollercoaster ride(I think it was called the Wild Mouse) and screaming at the top of my lungs. Every time we flew around a corner or dropped over an edge he pretty much had to grab me and act as my seatbelt because i left his lap! I loved it though. Funnily enough, Dad and I went on the 'Python Loop' rollercoater yesterday (I didn't sit on his lap tho!) and the Ghost train and the bumper cars. He's 67 years old and loves it as much as I do!

I also went on a bloody kiddie ride with my 4 year-old nephew and felt so queazy afterwards.... rollercoasters are fine, but anything that spins and wooshes...eeeww. He loved it and so did all the other toddlers that were on it... I kind of staggered off the ride pretending it was fine, but really I felt like I had an impressive hangover. My brother thought it was hilarious and bought me a coffee as compensation.

My sister went to the show too...but somehow I didn't see her there. Every time we made contact we were on opposite sides of the showground. She refuses to go to sideshow alley (did she have a similar rollercoaster experience as a toddler and its scarred her for life??) so she basically hung out at the machinery and animals.

This year I had to leave the show early to pick up husband. Next year I am going for the WHOLE day.... and I'm going to drag my sister onto the rollercoaster with me. he he.

running, sitting and tennis balls.

2009-05-17T04:47:00.004+08:00

Boo!

I'm back. Well only because I'm on nightshift and the bloody work computer won't grant me access to Facebook, so i'm back to blogger land. I've missed my blog!

* * * * * *

I love jogging. I've been jogging a fair bit lately & generally i do 5 - 10km 4 times a week. I still go at snails pace (husband says I shuffle - bless him) but hey, I'm only racing myself so I can only win (huh?). Today i went for my usual 'easy' 5km and felt like i had concrete blocks attached to my legs. Big concrete blocks, like the ones that fall on people at building sites and their intestines squish out. Every single step was a bloody challenge, i tried all my usual diversions - focus on the next roadsign/tree/house, change my song, change my pace, change my breathing... change my undies (kidding). It was a looong painful 5km, and I wish i had a jogging buddy other than my Garmin forerunner 405 (which i LOVE) but it doesnt chat to me when the going gets tough. Husband keeps talking about joining me, (and talking, and talking) His current status: No-joiner.

* * * * * *
I'm trying to teach Murphy-dog how to sit still so i can clip his toenails. My God...what a task that is.
I'm still at the stage of getting him to sit still for 10 seconds while i gently just touch his paw without him freaking out. (i don't think we've actually made any progress yet!) It's only day 3... but the internet instructions say it should only take a week. Maybe it would only take a week if i didn't have such a bloody retarded dog. He actually growls at me when i touch his paws (thinks he's tough) but then gets mega excited by the treats i have, launches himself off his bed to try and snatch the entire packet to scoff down - and my training begins back at square one, just trying to get the idiot to sit STILL. Ugh. I'm thinking my less than average IQ dog might need a tad longer, and i might need some Valium.

* * * * * *
I'm currently on a wheat-free & milk-free diet (except yoghurt). I think i have irritable bowel syndrome (with the rest of the world) and get this 'thing' at random times i call 'tennis ball bum'... because it feels like i have a tennis ball up my arse... and its horrible. I'm not kidding. Too much information? too bad. I'm over it and i used to be embarrassed about it, but hey, all those close to me have heard my woes and laughed at my expense (with minimal sympathy shown i must add) so i've no shame any more! Anyway, the diet is somewhat challenging, Wheat seems to be in E V E R Y T H I N G that tastes nice. Ever tasted wheat-free biscuits? Nasty. The bread is okay as long as you put something tasty on it, the pasta is kind of weird but okay. Anyway its just a trial to see if it makes any difference to my symptoms. Anything to avoid having a camera up my butt, I do not want any scope or camera-like devices up my orifices unless absolutely necessary.

Okay now that I've talked about Running, sitting and tennis (!) I'm off to do some work.
Oh how i've missed blogging and sharing my personal info with the world.
x

In short

2008-11-30T22:15:00.003+09:00

FAT...
I've decided my eating has gotten out of control (It's only taken me 2 years to figure that out - no speed records have been set using this brain). My clothes have been getting tighter n tighter (even in my new fat clothes) and funnily enough the scales have been going up n up.
So I'm giving 'Weight Watchers online' a whirl -to try and get my head around portion sizes again. I was eating more than husband and shovelling so much crap into my mouth without thinking, so i figured this might help me think about how much i should be eating in a day and to find a balance again.
Fingers crossed, I'm over feeling porky.
(Oink)

MOUSE...
I just looked up and saw a mouse staring at me from the kitchen bench above the stove. I quickly pulled all the spice jars off the bench, grabbed a plastic bowl and planned to corner it & catch it under the bowl. That was a great idea ... until the bloody thing lurched and jumped from the bench straight at me!! I squealed...ducked... (cursed myself for being so pathetic) and it went straight over my head, plopped on the floor behind me and scurried under the stove.
I didn't want to kill him - he was kinda cute, i was planning on 'relocating' him (like to the neighbours... ). Hmmm, now I'll have to come up with another plan.
He's a tough mouse... he survived a 6ft leap! Impressive.

MARATHON...
Since I'm on a health kick, I've been thinking about exercise and ways to get motivated.
I've decided (drumroll please...) I'm going to try and do a half marathon.
Haaarrr.
Cough, choke **splutter**
I'm serious. I'm going to train up slowly and aim for the City to Surf 1/2 Marathon in August (2009 is the first year they'll be adding that distance) so I have 9 months to train!

A girls gotta have a goal. (even if it is far-fetched)

Cleaner - mugshot

2008-11-23T11:13:00.005+09:00

I have a second job - cleaning the Police Station.

Sounds boring, but I love it.... it gives me a bit of extra play-money and it really is quite simple.... I spend a few hours a week cleaning, with my iPod blaring through my headphones, singing my favourite tunes in time with my dusting-motions, and I get PAID for it. Bonus.

The Police station here is old...very old. It hadn't been cleaned for a long while before I started doing it. I've been dusting cupboards, organising shelves, sneezing from the dust, throwing out junk, sneezing more from the dust and discovering fun things! Check this out... one of those crim-name-board thingy's! I saw it and just couldn't help myself.

Hee hee hee. Love it!

I would've liked to do the side profile shot too.... but it was a bit tricky on self timer.

(PS: not really born in 00 - just trickin y'all)

Goodbye Senior

2008-11-08T21:06:00.007+09:00

Its been a strange and emotional month. In summary...

Diesel died.

He got so sick and eventually we opted to euthanase him. It was the hardest decision ever, my heart still breaks thinking about not having him here.

The picture above is in the car park at the vet, kind of weird to take a photo, but I'm glad I did now. We both cuddled him in the car, he was so quiet and peaceful - like he knew what was happening, even when he was on the table in the vet, he just lay down and didn't even flinch when the vet inserted the needle. We cuddled him till the end. It was strange, that morning husband woke me up, he was upset and said 'I think it's time to take Diez'. Secretly I had pondered that thought many times in the previous 2 weeks, wondering if we were being selfish keeping him around, wondering how it would end - if he'd improve or get better. In the days after he died I was a complete wreck. I cried solidly for 2 days... I had no idea it would leave such a horrible empty feeling of heart-break. I felt weird too because I've recently had close friends lose their parents for goodness sake, and I was in a mess because of my dog.

It was a ridiculous comparison, and in a way it made me hide my emotions (misery) unless I was around the one other person who truly understood (and would've been feeling worse than me) - and that was Wayne.

Ho Humm...so unfortunately we were a miserable pair for a few weeks, which - mixed with a new town, new jobs and both missing our friends in Leo, made it very difficult to feel settled and happy in our new home. Only now am I starting to feel positive about our move here.

I've wanted to blog for ages - but this attempt to write about Diez has always left me in tears and unable to finish, and I felt I needed to write about him because it had such a big impact on me.

I Love you and miss you Diez.

Anyone there??

2008-10-12T21:57:00.004+08:00

Yeehaar, we're in our new home, we've unpacked (except for my art room) and if I never see another bloody box again in my life-time I'll be ecstatic.

We arrived to our new little town just over a week ago, it rained on and off for the first 4 days... and it was cold. We soon sourced ourselves a good stash of fire wood and learnt how to light a mighty fine fire to keep our butts warm... made me feel like a real country bum'kin.

So how do I like it so far?? One word to describe it at the moment ... Q U I E T ! It just seems so darn peaceful it's almost eerie. It's not like Leo was particulalry noisy or anything, but here you never seem to hear anyone else, rarely a car goes by, no one walks past, even the streets are really quiet when you you go into town. Does anyone else live here?? Coooo- eeeeee. The noisiest thing is the birds, they go mad every morning at 6am, and the 'wow listen to the beatiful birds cheeping' novelty wore off in about 3 minutes. Now it's more like 'The birds suck ... I'm trying to sleeeep'.

Our little pink-brick (stylish) house is actually great. We've somehow squeezed all our belongings into it and apart from not having a dining table (will need to get a cubby-house sized one in the near future) we're all settled and organised. My sis came to visit and waved her domestic wand over my shambles of a pantry... its amazing, I can actually find what I'm looking for now.... go figure. Next I'll have her wave that wand over my wardrobe and linen closet. hee hee.

I have my first day at work tomorrow, so I'm praying it's not crap - since everything else seems to have gone smoothly so far. Maybe that will be the glitch? Hopefully not, I'm trying to think positive. It'll be fine... it'll be fine... it'll be fiiiiinnne..... just fiiiine.

* * * * * *

My new car is AWESOME. When we picked it up they had put a huge ribbon on it! I was so excited I just wanted to go for a drive, but no.... I had to sit through 90 freakin minutes of paperwork, demonstrations, introductions to the service department (who cares bout them?) and more paperwork before I finally got to drive her! I was almost started to twitch in anticipation. Anyway it was all worth it in the end, it is an amazing car to drive and I love her.

Deez and I went on a road trip in the mini to the Vet last week (2 hour round trip). I put sheets and blankets in the back seat for him to lay on - we had a great time!

Moving officially sucks

2008-09-29T20:25:00.002+08:00

Wow, a heap has happened since I last blogged.

Diez is still sick, but after further tests and visits to the big Perth Vet hospital he seems better and like he will slowly continue to improve (fingers crossed). Silly old sucker has cost us a fortune, he's a gold-plated dog.

Husband and I have officially moved from Leo. The packing up and cleaning sucked BIG TIME, it was a relief to finally walk out the door of the house knowing it was all done. Now we have to unpack everything at the other end...ugh.

It was very sad to leave good friends behind, but I have had a great past four years and have made some life long friends from my days in Leo.
I had a fantastic going away party with all my favourite Leo girls, it was a blast! JB was the hostess (with the mostest) and I could not have had more fun. We sang (badly) danced (badly), chatted and yahoo'd till 4am! My gawd... I'm far too old for that now, it nearly killed me. It rendered the next day a complete and utter write off for me. Despite my best attempts, every time I got up to try and achieve something my head pounded until i was forced to crawl back into bed. I was pathetic. It was kinda worth it though, I haven't had such a fun drunk-night for ages. However I do 'sketchily' recall getting pushed to the ground & sprayed with Champagne at one stage, and I also have vague memories of losing my pants and hiding in bushes while the girls searched for me to take photos of my large white behind in my undies. That was nasty. The pics were nastier, lucky the camera didn't seize (wish it had tho).

Husband & I are in Perth now for a few days before moving to Q'ding. Its been a great time to relax and chill after the last few hectic weeks.

Guess what happens tomorrow???
I get my NEW CAR! Yeehaar. We drove there today and saw her in the showroom... I know its mine because it has my custom number plates on it! I was so excited I was bouncing around like a complete tosser, she had a sign on the windscreen saying 'Sorry, I'm spoken for - please consider this when browsing'.
Ha! Get your dirty mitts off - she's MINE.
I can't wait.... eeeekkkk!

Over n out x

Dear old Diez...

2008-09-17T21:19:00.004+08:00

Poor old Diez is still not so great.

After my last post he got a lot worse and I was driving to Kal to pick husband up from the airport so took him back to the vet. This time I saw a different vet who was very thorough, she started an assessment from scratch and gave me quite a poor prognosis. I knew in my heart anyway that he was looking pretty awful, I really thought he would die that day. He was having difficulty breathing, he had a really high temperature and was really quiet. I left him at the vet for a barrage of tests and went to collect Wayne from the airport - As soon as I saw Wayne I burst into tears .... it seemed so much to deal with on my own and the few days before hand had been awful... I was a mess!

Anyway, the tests basically showed he had a raging infection but they weren't really sure of the exact focus, so we took him home on industrial strength doses of antibiotics, with the plan of returning in a few days if he hadn't improved. I left for Bali two days later and husband took over while I was away. I felt incredibly guilty leaving them - both husband and Diez.

Diez wound up having surgery to explore what was causing the swelling and infection in his throat. Post op Wayne said he looked a bit better for a few days, but now seems to be on a bit of a patchy down hill slide, although sometimes he has times where he wags his tail and will even get up and wander around sniffing things like he used to. Most of the time he lays on his bed looking quite sad and thats the heart breaking bit.

The vets are baffled and think its perhaps a combination of problems - a bad infection which has now progressed to Kidney failure - he's no spring chicken so his Kidney function was already a bit marginal and the infection has most likely exacerbated this.

The Vets in Kal (Robyn and Lauren) have been awesome.
They sound like they genuinely care and have been so understanding through our tears and questions. Today I spoke to Robyn at length about being stressed over the decision to Euthanize Diez. Are we being selfish by keeping him alive?? I want to do things for his best interest - not ours. She was fantastic and said we would just 'know' if and when the time was right, not to stress about it, but to spend our time with him loving him and continuing to give him the best care we can.

I know it's probably hard for most people to understand how upset and emotional I am about this, and to be honest I'm a bit confused myself at my reaction, but to Wayne and I our dogs have never just been 'dogs'... they are our family, our furry slobbering children, we are a team of four and I want it to stay that way.

Diesel update

2008-08-31T22:08:00.003+08:00

I don't want to count my chickens... but I think Diez is a wee bit better.
He actually wagged his tail a couple of times today (not at me tho...but at JB and KDF when they visited him on his death-bed. He's sick of the sight of me smothering him so I get no tail-wagging) He's also been walking (limping) around a bit more tonight. I had to pretty much hand feed him dinner but he looks better than he did this time last night.
Hang in there old buddy.

Dieza

2008-08-30T23:25:00.003+08:00

I think my beautiful old Diesel-dog might be dying.
He’s so sick, he can hardly walk and it’s breaking my heart.
I don’t know what to do.
I drove him to the vet yesterday in Kal and she said it was ‘an infection’ and his arthritis playing up, she prescribed him some antibiotics and anti inflammatories.
Today he has gotten worse, tonight worse again. I’m sleeping on the mattress on the floor next to him but I can’t stop crying and cuddling him.
I just want to take his pain away and make him all better.

Hang in there Diez because I love you.

Whats it called?

2008-08-26T21:15:00.002+08:00

Okay so this is probably only funny to me, but I'm in a video sharing mood and tonight i have been clearing the video recorder in preparation for Bali and came across this clip from our Canada holiday.

My pronounciation has never been great and this proves it.

ACME brand Treadmill

2008-08-26T18:23:00.003+08:00

Treadmill Falls Apart

This takes a while to load but it cracks me up - I've always been one to laugh at others being clutzy... can't help myself!

Its nice that his mate just sits there and watches, no assistance rendered whatsoever.

Classic.

Peter Andre - He Da Man!

2008-08-24T11:57:00.006+08:00

This completely cracks me up - such a blast from the past.
Good old Pete... why does he always have his shirt flying open in the breeze, and his pants pulled up under his armpits? And whats with the bouncing red car?
JB was searching for this song and we were having no luck finding it on iTunes, so after Googling it to make sure we had the spelling and song name correct we found it on youtube. We then spent the next hour in hysterics playing it over and over, imitating the dance moves and singing our hearts out.

After our Pete-session we watched the movie Music and Lyrics with Drew Barrymore & Hugh Grant. I'd seen it before but I don't remember loving it as much as I did second time round. KDF and I giggled the entire movie (JB fell asleep - she's a hopeless movie watcher). I'm not a huge Hugh Grant fan, but he is hilarious in this movie. The 80's references are classic - I'm not sure how KDF appreciates the humour tho since she wasn't even alive in the 80's and proved it with this conversation:

Me: That movie was awesome, kind of reminded me of WHAM! with George Michael and Andy whats-his-face, the famous one and the one no one remembered.
KDF: Who are Wham?
Me: You DON'T know WHAM????? George Michael??
KDF: *looking blank* No...never heard of them.
Me: Oh my God... you make me feel so oooold!

If you haven't seen that movie and you were alive in the 80's (although clearly that is not a pre-requisite to enjoy the pic) you MUST go rent it and watch it!

Hot Rod

2008-08-18T22:34:00.003+08:00

This is my new car!!

Well it's not the actual car - but it's pretty much exactly the same. After pondering over new cars for what seems like forever (I changed my mind a hundred times), husband went to test drive some Mini's in Perth today (I was worried about getting one if they were ridiculously small inside) and he said it was great - and ordered me one! Yeehaar. It's Red with a white roof just like this one. Do you know the glove compartment has a chiller option??? W.T.F? Perfect for Iced coffee storage! This car was MADE for me.

Yesterday I sold my motorbike and I was feeling a bit sad and sentimental about it.

NOT ANYMORE!! Talk about an upgrade! Vrroooommmm.

Pretty in pink

2008-08-17T22:26:00.004+08:00

The last two weeks at work have been so ordinary, i think if I didn't know I was leaving I'd be ready to roll over, crawl under a rock and die.... just so I could have some hope of relief.

By the end of tomorrow I will have done 40 hours overtime in a week. That is just freaking ridiculous - no wonder I feel fuzzy and confused, and my house is a mess, and I have no clean clothes, and haven't cooked healthy food forever. Well okay, none of that stuff is directly related to my overtime but it makes me feel better if i console myself with the fact it might be and that it's not really because I'm a slob waiting for the fairies to come do it.

* * * * *
I have frostbite.

Well I'm sure it's not real frostbite, but it feels like frostbite. My toes have been blue and numb a reasonable amount of time lately because we seem to be having an extended COLD-SNAP here and my circulation is shite, and it's not acceptable to wear ugg-boots to work (damn-it).

Now three of my toes are the complete opposite of numb (how does that work?)... they are bloody sore! Tingly and sensitive... and... well ... frost-bitten.

* * * * * *

Wanna see our new house? It'll make you laugh.

It made me cry.

But only for a moment, because it doesn't look that bad inside. Its tiny... but okay. We've lived in worse.... far worse.

My fave feature would have to be the 'pink' brick... and the fact that it looks like the Jetsons house (Meet George Jetson...).

Maybe it was the Police Station once upon a time... which by the way is right next door, like on the same block (see the bottom pic, our house is on the left, the station is the building on the right) Crikey, husband won't exactly stress himself getting to work on time!!

The garden needs some T.L.C.
That should keep me amused for a while (while I'm waiting for my job search allowance to arrive - I still don't have a job to go to).

* * * * * *

I love audio books.

I used to hate driving long distances (for me thats more than 25km) alone because being in a car makes me sleeepy, and I just yawn and yawn and go glassy-eyed and want to curl up into a neat little ball and snooze. Zzzzzz.
Which is just plain unsafe when you are behind the damn wheel.
Anyway, someone left an audio book in my work car. So out of sheer desperation one day I tried it - and, (once I got over the cheesy introduction and elevator music that they unnecessarily played between the chapters) I found the kilometers would zoom by and I'd actually be hoping my destination was further away so i could squeeze in one last chapter.
They are a miracle I tell you!
The one I'm listening to at the moment is a tad odd i must admit (futuristic war), however it doesn't seem to bother me that the content is not something I'd usually read myself... because when someone else is blabbing it out, it just seems so much easier to tune in and follow along.
I am a nerd, I am not ashamed.

Over n out x

position wanted

2008-08-05T21:21:00.007+08:00

Husbands folks' sent us a card today. It was addressed to both of us and when I opened it (because it had my name on the front too and I couldn't help myself) and saw that it was a Congratulations card i thought 'weird' because the congrats is for husbands promotion - it's nothing to do with me. (Although, at this point I'd like to take some of the glory for all that wretched interview practice that nearly saw us divorced)

Inside the card Mum-in-law had written a novel of warm fuzzies* about both of us and what we have achieved... together. It was nice, really really nice.

Leonora has certainly made us both grow, we've had plenty of challenges both personally, in our relationship and in our careers. My favourite saying/motto is 'what doesn't kill us makes us stronger' and it sure is true. We grow from experiences and at the other end when you realise how much you've learnt from that experience, it doesn't matter if it was good or bad it seems to be worthwhile in some way.

* * * * * *
At the moment I don't have a job to go to when we move.

Shit.

What was I just sprouting on about life experiences... and growing?? Please remind me of that when I'm unemployed and broke and in an unfamiliar town.

I'm sure something will come up, but it's kind of stressful, especially since I handed in my resignation today. It may have been wiser to W A I T until i got another position. (nothing like counting ya chickens before they hat....yeah yeah, blah blah)

* * * * * *
Husband and I took the dogs for a walk tonight, then I went for a 6km jog with Tania. It was awesome! I felt like I was flying and loved every minute of it. Maybe it was because the dog-walk had warmed my legs up? Who knows but if I felt that good jogging all the time I'd do it every day and twice on Sundays.

* * * * * *
Isn't this an great pic?
JB up the hill, IC in hand (she probably has a ciggie in the other) waiting for the sun to set.
Nice.

Over n out.

* Warm fuzzies - friendly compliments that make you feel warm 'n fuzzy inside.

Thats what you get for moaning...

2008-08-03T16:34:00.002+08:00

Well the day after moaning about my job, husband finds out he is being transferred to Quairading as the Sergeant, so in 6 - 8 weeks I'll be looking for a new job. Holy crap.
Suddenly my old job doesn't seem so bad now... better the devil you know than the one you don't. Yikes... new town, new people, new house, new hospital ...new everything.

It was always on the cards for husbands promotion, but its so final and real now that its a big shock. I'm actually going to take a big backward step with my career because at this stage I don't even know if there is a position available for a full-time level one nurse. However I'm sure it'll all work out (it might actually be nice to go back to basics for a while and let someone else do all the decision making and paperwork).

At the moment all I can think about is my creature comforts that I'll miss - the creatures being JB and KDF (!!) and comforts being all the familiar things I know, the locals, the area, the Rec centre and running tracks etc etc. In the back of my mind also is Tiff who moved to Onslow last year (with her Policeman husband) and has been miserable ever since. What if I end up like that???

However to grow in life we must all place ourselves OUT of our comfort zones and experience other jobs, environments, people... otherwise life really would grow monotonous and boring. Well thats how I'm consoling myself at the moment :o)

Florence

2008-07-30T22:23:00.002+08:00

I've just come home from work for the second time today. Somehow (and i don't remember this ever being mentioned in my Job description) i got roped into covering as the Manager for the neighbouring hospital (120km away) when their boss goes on leave. And she's on 3 weeks leave. Three W H O L E weeks..... noooo. It's got knobs on it. Big hairy ugly gnarly knobs. Like my job isn't shite enough, now I've got two shite jobs. Halle-fuckin-lujah.

I was in a zone of feeling completely utterly overwhelmed this afternoon - i had my resignation letter written in my head, i was feeling defeated.... so I went to the gym to de-stress. In the middle of my workout i decided i'd go back to work and tackle the piles of unfinished crap spread all over my desk - so that i can atleast start tomorrow off on a more positive note.
So three hours later I'm home feeling a whole heap better and ready to tackle tomorrow.

Bring it on i say... come on throw it at me... i can do two jobs at once. I might be a twitchy cooky raving lunatic by the end of it, but i shall soldier on and do my almighty best. Florence freakin Nightingale eat your heart out.

Over-n-out (twitch, snort, twitch)

A weekend tale

2008-07-27T20:24:00.006+08:00

Well the weekend is just about over. It's zoomed by considering I gave myself a long weekend by wagging work Friday to go to Kal. Husband and I stayed at the Broadwater Hotel and enjoyed a night of sipping champagne (with Hibiscus flowers - thanks Jo!) in the spa, a yummy restaurant meal and some lovin'!! (too much information?)

We spent Saturday grocery shopping (with the rest of Kalgoorlie) and bought the dogs a new snuggly bed and fifteen thousand squeaky toys for Murphy from the 2-buck shop.

We drove home listening to a static-ridden broadcast of a live AFL game which was music to husbands ears (no to mine - although it did help to lull me to sleep Zzzzz)

Saturday evening I washed my work car and washed the work car floor mats. Then i washed both the dogs. Then I washed all their dog blankets. Clearly I was in a 'washing mood'.

Today I baby-sat Finn so his Dad could work and his Mum could sleep after nightshift (they're Nurses at the hospital). He has to be the most easy going 2-year old on this planet, we had so much F U N! We baked choccy muffins (packet of course Finn told me he prefers packet mixes) then we ate half the mixture. We played Leggo and danced to the Wiggles, and we went to see Aunty JB up the road to see if we could have another go at finding Miss Tubby - who hid under the loungeroom coffee table this time instead of the bed. Small steps Miss Tubby - small steps!

Thats a BIG spoon for a little mouth.

Our finished mini-muffins. Yum.

No pictures here

2008-07-22T19:57:00.005+08:00

My post feels naked without a photo - but I'm trying to resist the urge. I CAN post without a pic... I can i can i can.

Murphy (shit-dog) ate my iPod earphones (could insert a pic of the damage done - but i won't be tempted).
Then my Polar heart rate monitor watch froze and refused to work. Is this a conspiracy by secret unknown forces to stop me exercising?.... no music, no HR monitor. I was also supposed to go for a run with Tania tonight, but she text'd me last minute & piked (see it is a conspiracy!) but I Soldiered on -SOLO! I will not let this arse get bigger... noooo, I stole husbands earphones and plodded off for a 30 minute jog. puff puff.
(Could possibly insert picture here of beetroot faced 35 year-old!)

* * * * * *
Husband used to cook lots. He's the cook in our house. Lately his enthusiasm for cooking has been on a steep decline. Tonight it was HIS turn to cook.
He put the (shop bought) Salmon Patties in the oven, then played on the computer.
He asked if I could 'do vegies' - so I peeled and chopped carrots and cooked them, along with some Peas n Corn. I took the patties out the oven and served up.
I don't think putting 4 patties in the oven and turning it on warrants as an act of 'cooking'.
In my books it's still his turn to cook.

* * * * * *

Hey guess what??
I just Googled 'Polar F6 frozen' and within 30 seconds I had fixed my HR monitor! Ha! All I needed to do was hold in all buttons (which I had tried) - EXCEPT the light button (must have been the only combination I didn't try) and... ka-boom... a master reset is performed.
Too easy!
I LOVE Google. love love love Google.
If only I'd done my research before my run.

A purple Van

2008-07-20T22:44:00.004+08:00

Guess what came to our sleepy town yesterday??

An ICECREAM VAN!!!!

I was busy sorting washing out (yeehaar..thanks for sharing) when I heard a very dodgy version of Greensleeves blaring from a speaker... I thought 'that sounds like kiddies icecream van music' so I ran to the window and sure enough-a bright purple van was crawling up the road in our direction! I squealed in excitement to husband (who hastily put his order in and shoved $20 in my direction - how much did he seriously think it was gonna cost??) and ran outside to patiently wait in the freezing cold for the goods. I purchased one LARGE choc-nut-sundae - which husband demolished in record timing.

I'm not really into icecream (gives me brain-freeze) but I was so excited about the fact there was an icecream van in our little town!! That never happens.

It had travelled all the way from Kal just for the day. Isn't that cool?

I'm so easily pleased sometimes.

Road trip

2008-07-15T21:24:00.004+08:00

I am officially the worlds most pathetic blogger.

My last post was May 4th. Holy crap... since then I've grown a whole year older, I've been on a fun road trip with my sis to visit my (our) folks in downtown Walpole, I've danced to Abba, run away from home, returned home (feeling like a big dork), had my sis and her hubby up here to stay, enrolled to do my Cert III in fitness and spent a week pretending to be a Vegetarian in sympathy for all the cute fluffy cows out there.

My how time flies when you're doing mundane every-day things.

My holiday down to see Mum and Dad was FUN! It's the first time my sister and I have done a trip to Mum and Dads together (just the two of us) and by the end of the week I had sore cheeks from laughing so much.

This is my favourite place in the whole world... laying reading mags on my Mums lounge. There is something so comfortable and cosy about it... I'm not sure why it gives me such warm fuzzy feelings - maybe it's a state of complete relaxation which is difficult to find these days. I had to forcefully try and remove my sister from the lounge at times when I didn't feel like sharing it - which was most of the time. I spent an impressive amount of time laying horizontal in that exact position for the five days we were in Walpole.

Big Sis Jo in the Pilot seat. She wouldn't let me sleep so I annoyed her by taking silly photographs and singing out loud to her Beatles soundtrack.

Dad and I went fishing, Mum and Jo preferred to stay on dry firm ground, but met us down the river at a Jetty with coffee - deluxe! We wanted to go fishing again but it rained for the next 3 days! boo.

I'm definitely going to plan another Walpole journey in the next 6 months. This time I hope the weather is clearer so I can spend more time in the boat and less time on the lounge... not that I'm complaining - the lounge was a fine substitute for fishing.

Flutter-by's

2008-05-04T20:25:00.003+08:00

Today I spent the majority of the day in the garden . I bought some new plants in Kal yesterday, which today (coupled with the beautiful sunshine) gave me a splurge of motivation to attack the weeds and rearrange my pots. It looks like I've got a new garden now! Amazing.. Don Burke eat your heart out.
There were plenty of butterflies keeping me company...darn hard to photograph though, because they just keep flapping.

2008-05-02T21:05:00.005+08:00

Our Bali holiday dates have changed because JB was having a panic attack about leaving work at the end of July... so to avoid her

a) having an out of control spazza episode requiring admission to a psych facility

and

b) cancelling and deciding not to come at all....

I decided to change our dates. I did a mad ring around to the other Bali-adventurers and then to the travel agent and we have re-booked for early September. Initially we were unsure if we'd be able to get another 3 bedroom villa, but today it was confirmed... so it's all systems go!

Phew.

Note to self: NEVER try and organise more than 2 people to do anything at once EVER again!

* * * * * *

Husband is in Perth for a week catching up with his favourite things - family footy and friends.

He rang me today from the Lancome counter in Myer to see if I needed anything - he handed the mobile to the sales girl so I could explain my foundation and moisturiser to her. He then paid and will bring it back for me. Ah! Too easy!

He's decided to go to Bali too with some mates (He's not invited on our girls trip - so he had to make his own fun!) He's going before I do so I'd better start stashing some cash in case he spends it all.
Might start now... am off to hide a 50 under the mattress.

Happy Birthday Jo!

2008-04-23T23:29:00.008+08:00

My Sister JoAnn turns 42 years young today!

Jo you are a beautiful, generous and incredibly kind person.

I love you lots & hope you have a fantastic day -because you deserve to be spoilt rotten!

Nice Bikini.... even nicer hat. Did you choose that getup?

Gee... we reeeally look like sisters.

Hey! Take note of the date on this pic!

Happy Birthday Jo!

running solo

2008-04-23T23:00:00.002+08:00

All my running buddies have deserted me for a life by the ocean in the big city. boo.

On Monday I bit the bullet and figured if I want to run I'm going to have to learn to enjoy it solo for the time being. I've done a grand total of zero-zilch-no exercise since coming back from Canada and I knew it'd be tough, but I managed a 30minute 5km jog (plod) - just me and my trusty iPod and we did great! I felt like a big blubbery whale pounding the pavement, but it didn't completely kill me, and to be honest i actually quite enjoyed it.

Now I have no excuse not to go more often....especially now God has turned the heating off and the cooler weather has arrived.

Animals

2008-04-20T22:55:00.003+08:00

My fourth goldfish just carked it, so I'm now officially giving up on trying to be a fish-mum.

I'm obvioisly doing something very wrong.

First there were Ajax and Omo - they were both orange Fantails and survived the journey not only all the way back from Kal (240km) but accompanied me shopping in Woolworths before I even left Kalgoorlie! When we got home Ajax promptly swum sideways and died. Omo was a toughie tho and lived on solo in the tank for 2 months.

JB bought me fish number three -Harpic. He was a Comet and despite a traumatic fall from the window hanger-to the seat- to the floor In JB's car (on the journey home from Kal - which nearly caused JB an accident as she skidded to a halt to retrieve him!), he too survived two months before suddenly dying.

After a long discussion with the Pet shop gal (who assured me I was doing nothing wrong), I decided I'd go a fourth attempt and bought a Black goggle eye fish last Friday. I called him Bingo (hoping he'd be lucky) and he lasted.... wait for it.... TEN WHOLE DAYS.

I feel horrible that I've killed another one.

I spent a large portion of today on the 'Goldfish Emergency 911' site trying to save the little sucker. I'm now convinced the pet shop gal knows SHIT ALL about fish, and the tank I bought off them is DODGY, and our water up here SUCKS.......... because it couldn't possibly be all MY fault that four little innocent fish have snuffed it whilst in my care. Could it?

* * * * * *

JB is away converting to Yankee-ism in New York. She's loving it and reckons she's never coming home - she'd better because its weird here without her.

Anyway... I've been watering her plants because she only lives 4 doors up the road. On Friday I took the dogs up there, locked them in her yard while I watered and they LOVED it. They raced around the yard chasing each other, hid in the bushes - they had a great old time.

Today I thought I'd do the same.

Within one minute Murphy had found a broom and went mental attacking it (he has a 'thing' with brooms -it's an issue we're working with him on) and while trying to release it from his lock-jaw before it was completely trashed, I tripped over a sprinkler in the back yard, fell over & twisted my ankle - snapping the sprinkler off at the base of the retic pipe. I still didn't get the bloody broom off him and had to practically rugby tackle him and pull his ear till he yelped and released it. Shit-head dog.

I then locked them in the yard (or so i thought) and went to the other neighbours place to turn his retic on & water the back potplants. When I came out JB's front gate was open and there was no sign of the dogs.

Shiiiiiiiiiiiit. Crap crap crap.

I ran up the street screaming 'Murpheeeeeeeeeeeeee' (you can't call out to Diesel coz he's deaf as a door-nail and it's no use) a guy in a ute drove by and said he'd seen them run up the street into the bush. I had visions of squashed dogs on the highway because they have ZERO road sense (and zero intelligence) between them. As I ran down the street toward our house I screamed to husband to come help. I then spied Murphy staring at me from about 50 meters away in the bush. As soon as husband walked outside Murphy ran toward home, with Diesel following 2 feet behind.

Phew.

I fully need therapy after todays animal incidents.

See why I don't have children?!

Clever Husband

2008-04-12T19:21:00.003+08:00

Early in February, husband studied his butt off and sat a very intense interview to be considered for the Police Sergeant pool. He spent ages preparing & I helped him a bit - proof reading his application, quizzing him on 'Frontline First Policing', reading over scenarios with him - heck I was so familiar with WAPOL strategies I think I could've sat the damn interview myself! Anyway, he rang me last week (He's away at the moment in Leinster doing a week relief because they're short) and said:

'Drea, I'm in the pool'
I replied 'Really?? - Isn't it cold?'
He said ' No! I mean the Sergeant POOL'

Ooooooohhh, I said (feeling like a complete moron for thinking he was swimming) YAY! Congratulations husband, what a smarty pants!
I'm really happy for him because I know he'll make a fantastic Sarg (and secretly I'm also glad we don't have to go through that whole bloody loooong process again, jeezus it would've killed me!)

Now we have to think about the future. It opens a few more doors and changes our plans a bit, but thats kind of exciting.

* * * * * *
More cool news.... Off to Bali I go! And I'm going with all my favourite girls! Mum, Jo, KDF and JB! - - - It'll be AWESOME!

JB, KDF and I were chatting one night about having a girls only holiday, then I asked Mum and Jo if they would consider coming, now it's all booked and we're going -July 25th for 10 nights.
I'm so excited because I've always dreamt of holidaying with Mum overseas (she hasn't been anywhere!) and I think we'll all have a fantastic time.

We've booked a 3 bedroom Villa at The Bali Villas that looks very luxurious. JB has been eagerly practicing her Indonesian (on any poor soul that will listen) and I'm all of a sudden on a health kick to make sure I don't scare everyone in my bathers.

103 days to go!!

Ironman

2008-04-06T21:57:00.006+08:00

Yeah i know.... it's been a while.

I've been a bit 'off' blogging lately, mainly for fear of losing my anonymity and the whole small town i live in reading my daily moans. However after having a long think about it, I've figured if anyone is offended by anything i write - then sod off and stop reading. Its that simple!

I can't believe it took me so bloody long to figure that out.

* * * * * *

Is it me, or is the whole world in a facebook-frenzy?

Its a frenzy i just don't get... well I would if maybe i was single or a teenager, because all the crazy questionnaires, flirty quizzes, writing on your wall (or whatever it is)....it's just plain annoying to me. God i'm OLD. Anyway, i got sick of emails asking if i'd be friends or telling me i had a funwall mesage... so i deleted my facebook. GONE.

Husband has a serious klutzy- issue with the iron. He blames our ironing board but i blame his lack of attention. We've had TWO new irons because he's knocked them off the board onto the floor and they've broken. Yesterday he rings to tell me 'he's had a bit of a mis-hap'.

Mishap all right.... he was ironing (while watching the football - he's not quite as multi-skilled as he thought) and knocked the iron off the board (because hey...he's good at that) face down onto the carpet. We now have a perfect singed outline of our iron on the carpet in the lounge. For fuck sake...what is the deal with the iron NOT staying on the board when he is trying to iron??? I have NEVER knocked the iron off the board...ever. And he's had 3 disasters in 12 months. The burn mark is right in the middle of the lounge room carpet. It couldn't be in a more obvious area damn it.

Maybe it's a ploy to get out of ironing.

The men

2008-01-13T09:31:00.000+09:00

KDF Matt and i made these little guys on Boxing day. The cookie cutter has these built-in bits that make a dent in the dough for buttons, mouth and eyes. They turn out so cute and it was so much fun turning each one into a little person... i felt bad eating them (but only for a split second because they tasted so good the flavour wiped my emotions). My personal fave would have to be top right, he was dropped when coming out of the oven (maybe he tried to run away) and sustained a severed arm and leg in the process. KDF fixed him up with some blue stitches. None of Matt's decorated men made it into the picture... because he insisted on givng them all 'pink-eye' (Knocked-Up has a lot to answer for) and they looked like possessed crazy little gingerbread-men.

All in the family

2008-01-02T21:22:00.000+09:00

This is a pic of Mum, KDF (my niece) and I. I dragged Ma back to Leo for a few weeks to work at the hospital again (bless her woolly socks for saving our souls) and KDF has been working as a Patient Care Assistant/Casual Admin clerk... so thats 3 generations of my family all working together. It's a conspiracy to take over the town! It was great fun, however Mum snuck away back home just before Christmas leaving KDF and I to soldier on in the heat.

HEAT.... it's been a kazillion degree's every day (Thats no exaggeration). My whole garden is turning crunchy and the dogs have dug enormous craters in the back garden to try and stay cool (trust me... you need to dig a looong way down for any sign of damp-cool-dirt).

Husband is in Perth for a week having a holiday. He's staying with friends... relaxing, swimming, eating, shopping.

Bastard.

I want to be shopping.

I love shopping.

Love love love shopping.

Doesn't matter though coz i've given him a list. A long list. he'll wish he never went shopping without me ever again.

The great escape

2007-11-28T21:39:00.000+09:00

Thank god I'm home.
My 3-night 'vacation' turned out to be 5-nights and by day 6 (Monday) I had an impressive escape plan hatched inside my head, should I need to 'break-out' if they didn't give me the okay for discharge. Luckily after more x-rays, bloods and a spirometry test I was given the all clear and practically ran out the door of the hospital Monday afternoon! I decided to stay Monday night in Kal so I could grab a few things from the shops (at a gentle Nana-pace of course) in the morning before heading home. I checked into the Broadwater Hotel... where I lazed in the spa bath, sprawled across the not-plastic-covered King Size Bed (like a big fat octopus) and ate real non-hospital food. Yeah...it was pure heaven. Anyway I'm all better and don't plan to repeat last weeks events anytime again soon. (fingers crossed)

* * * * * *

I would like a dollar for every time I was asked in hospital how many children I have.
When I answered 'none' I was shot looks of utter disbelief and sheer horror, quickly followed by the question 'why not?'
Does it not occur to people that maybe not all women of child-bearing age want to actually bear children?
Isn't it just a teeny bit rude to quiz a person as to why they don't have children??
Is it really anyone elses business?
I'm not usually that sensitive about it, however explaining it over and over (when I'm not entirely clear in my own head the reasons why I don't have kids... nor if I will or won't have them) is rather dull and tiring and uncomfortable and weird.

Is it bad if we decide not to have kids... like not...ever?? Will we end up bitter, lonely, selfish old sods who have nothing but each other? I'm not opposed to kids, heck I love the little suckers...as long as they're someone elses. The maternal desire is yet to smack me over the head and at 34-years of age - I'm kind of thinking it never will... and I'm fine with that. Husband shares my thoughts exactly - not opposed but not really into it either. We kind of have a 'lets re-evaluate each 6-months' theory and that suits us fine. Just wish it was tattooed on my forehead so I didn't have to explain myself over-n-over-n-over.
( NOT having kids this week... so don't ask)

Maybe I'm looking into it too much, maybe people are just trying to make conversation... who knows. Can't they just stick to questions about the weather?

Vacation time

2007-11-23T00:54:00.000+09:00

Yeah well... I'm in hospital with Pneumonia. What a spaz.
Off I go to Kalgoorlie Hospital for a 'Recruitment and selection' workshop (ugh) and I manage to listen to about 45 minutes of the workshop (I got to put my name on the registration slip... so i hope they credit me as having done it) before I wound up wheezing and spluttering my way to the Emergency department for a neb and some oxygen. I then won myself a 3-night all-expenses-paid vacation to D-Ward Kalgoorlie Hospital.
Anyway, I feel much better now. Oxygen, IV Antibiotics, Nebs and steroids are now on my list of all time amazing inventions of the world and favourite things.
I'm a bit embarrassed (actually a LOT embarrassed) by all the fuss thats been made, I've been sent choccys, flowers and cards galore, not to mention that the hospital staff have treated me like a queen...aww, shucks.

Husband drove down from Leo yesterday afternoon and he has been keeping me amused and eating my chocolates. (Of course)

I'm sure I will be back jogging to Gwalia again in no time flat. The enforced rest has done me the world of good... it should be an annual compulsory requirement for everyone to lay in bed and do nothing for a few days.
Although personally I'd prefer a King Size pillow-top mattress and non-plastic-covered pillows next time.

night bath

2007-11-19T21:41:00.000+09:00

Husband bought home half a cow tonight. It's gross. It's now laying neatly in two huge hunks in the bottom of our fridge awaiting slicing and freezing tomorrow after it has been allowed to 'air'. (I don't quite understand the whole air thing, but his strict instructions were it required 24 hours airing??) I don't mind a bit of steak every now and then, but I have trouble coping with it en'mass like that.... put some fur on it and it could almost walk around moo'ing.

Tomorrow I go to Kal for two nights for more management/work stuff. Joy.

I just washed my work car at 9:45pm at night. weird. It'll probably look like crap considering i did it in the dark. I'm not sure what inspired me to do it that late (except for the Kal trip tomorrow, but it didn't need to be clean for that) i hope i didn't wake the neighbours with the vacuum cleaner.

I had a gym session with Lewie this arvo. We did legs only, and although it was only short bursts of cardio/weights it killed me. I'm really wheezy and chesty still and think it'll be a while before I'm back to road running.

Better go pack my bag... and a heap of note paper since my voice is still on strike.
What if it never returns??

Perfect wife

2007-11-17T22:24:00.000+09:00

I took this photo of Murphy tonight sprawled out snoozing. It's not really a glamorous look, but it made me laugh.

I worked this morning with no voice.... nothing, zilch, zip... not even a croak. It was a weird experience. How come when you whisper to people they automatically whisper back? It's like they're worried they might wake someone up. Some of the patients I saw gave me strange looks like I was playing a practical joke on them. Nope... 'fraid not. One guy laughed at my whispering efforts and proceeded to tell me I would be a 'perfect wife'!! Nice.

Even the dogs are looking at me weird 'why isn't she talking to us?'.

* * * * * *

I'm still working on my Election homework... 3 homework chapters to go. Must do them tonight, we have training tomorrow and I don't want to get detention for not having it done.

My diet and exercise this week have been crap.

Please God, let me have a voice tomorrow (a proper non-croaky one would be nice, but I'm not overly fussy, an audible tone of any kind would be appreciated at this stage)

Over n out

Don't count ya chickens...

2007-11-16T21:36:00.000+09:00

Yeah great. I bounced off to bed last night with the glorious illusion I was all better.
I woke at 4am feverish, achy and feeling like crap. Hmph, that'll teach me to boast about wellness.
The good thing about my new job (the ONE and only solitary-single good thing about my new job) is that my hours are flexible, so as long as I work my quota per week it doesn't really matter when I go in, so I stayed in bed till 9am. Then I moved to the bath for a long soak. Then I finally made it to work at about 11am to find it mega-busy. The aircon in my office has carked it and it's a major sauna in there, so I was glad to dodge it as much as possible and help out in A&E. I ended up staying till late because the nurse on needed to do a patient escort. At the start of the shift my voice sounded like a boy going through puberty with its squeaky uneven tones, by the end of the night I was barely audible and very husky - kind of like a gnarly hooker.

Geez, what a moan-fest.
I guess after to listening to everyone elses woes all day at work, I felt I had to vent my own.

Munching on dead things

2007-11-15T20:46:00.000+09:00

Even though it was a million degrees outside today we decided to do the good parent thing and take the dogs for their nightly run on the town oval. Its the only place that offers a bit of green lawn, where we can safely let the dogs off the lead. Tonight we fed the dogs before their run -(coz we left a biter later due to the heat) but it seemed the mutts thought dinner was merely entree since they snacked on every damn dead thing they could find at the oval. Faaar out. Murphy ran off into the yonder and did hist best to demolish half a rotten roo before husband caught up with him and kicked his arse for it. I know eating a bit of road-kill isn't a major problem, but it IS when your dog spends the rest of the night puking his guts up. Diesel then found a dead pidgeon and ran up to me with feathers hanging out his mouth (I had visions of Sylvester with Tweety) before I squealed ooohhh groooosssss and made him drop it. Did the heat make them extra hungry or something?? Yuk. We only did one lap of the oval before banishing them to the car in disgrace of their poor taste & headed for home.

* * * * * *
I've been sick since Monday. Today I started feeling well this arvo and it's FANTASTIC! I even shuffled myself off to the gym with husband where I bravely trained with Lewie for an hour. It nearly killed me (it was only a gentle session) but it felt good to be out of the house and out of bed. For someone that loves their bed like I do, thats a tough call, but I have spent so much time over the past 3 days horizontal trying to snooze away my aches and pains that it's glorious to feel better again.

* * * * * *
My Mum has been to Leo working again (bless her size 12 cotton socks!!). She has escaped for a couple of weeks back to the cold south (and my Dad) but will hopefully be back to help us out for a couple more weeks before Christmas. This time of year is always AWFUL for nurses. This year seems particularly bad and I'm not sure how we're going to find enough staff to run the hospital. Anyone know a nurse who wants a summer job??!

* * * * * *
My sister and her husband are coming to Leo for Christmas! That should be great fun (if they don't keel over from heat exhaustion). My niece is here working, so it'll be the most 'family-orientated' Leo Christmas we've had. Cool. Oh and did I mention my sis is a fantastic cook? Yum, I can feel a Chrissy feast coming on (hint hint Jo!)

Enough babbling, I'm off to do my 'polling day homework'. Somehow JB conned me into helping out for the Federal Election next weekend. The next thing I know I'm not just helping out - I'm Officer-in-Charge (WTF??!) and I have this huge file to study with HOMEWORK!! Ha! Its like I'm back at school. She owes me.... big time.

20 no more

2007-10-08T21:00:00.000+08:00

Last week I went to Kal for a course. I went with Nik who also works as a nurse here, we stayed at a Hotel overnight because it was too late to drive back after the course had finished. Some girls from Laverton were also staying at the same place so we decided to go out to dinner.

Nik and I had done some serious shopping (Thurs night, the shops were open late) after the course, and I distinctly remember saying as we walked to dinner 'I feel so tired, I might eat dinner and crash to bed for an early night'.

Yeah right.

An entire bottle of wine to myself later I rolled back to my room, jolly as ever declaring this was the most fun I'd had for Ayyyy-ges (drunk slurred speech). I've never drunk a whole bottle of wine to myself before... E V E R. I'm spastic after drinking two glasses... what was I thinking??

Well it was all fun and laughs until I got back to my room and in the quiet isolation of just my own thoughts- I found the room spinning continuously. Ugh. It was a long night of hugging the toilet bowl and feeling sorry for myself. Nik came to my room in the morning and said politely 'did you throw up in the sink?' I couldn't really recall till she pointed out that there were 'noodles and spinach poking out from the plug-hole'. Charming, not to mention ever-so-classy.

Note to self: You are NOT 20 years old anymore. You can not drink like a fish and soldier on the next day as if nothing happened.

Ugh.

Puking dog

2007-10-01T21:39:00.000+08:00

Another day off today, I think all weekends should be long weekends, 3 days off work is a dream. I managed to eat healthy today and I had a Lewis-workout at the gym this arvo, which was good except for the fact there were 6 people using our tiny gym and we had to wait for equipment... which kind of sucked.

KDF (niece) came over for dinner tonight (she risked her life since I was cooking - not husband) then we all lazed in the lounge watching 'Girls of the playboy mansion' and 'Seinfeld'.

Murphy dog spent all of last night puking. 6 pukes in total. The first puke contained (and I'm not kidding) 4 of my hair elastics... charming! I'd wondered where they'd all gone to. That dog eats anything.

Poor Murph, he looked miserable. I was really worried that his hair-lacky consumption may have caused a bowel obstruction, but he finally stopped barfing and fell asleep. He woke up starving hungry this morning and back to his normal-stupid self. Phew.

Yesterday we took the motorbikes out to Malcolm Dam, it looks really strange out there at the moment because its covered in yellow flowers. Heres a pic of husband zooming by!

Goodnight.

PS - R.I.P Mainy

Happy snaps

2007-09-30T10:10:00.000+08:00

Whilst on our NZ family holiday in August, we all agreed to share our holiday snaps when we got home. Husbands folks are travelling around Oz in a caravan (lucky them!) so they were kind enough to burn their pics to a disc and send them over. It arrived in the mail last week.

I excitedly put the disc in the PC and opened it to browse through happy family pictures of kiddies playing in the snow, New Zealand scenery, farm animals, Jet boating, river cruising.... and a very disgusting picture of me looking like a whale.

Yikes... reality check.

I hardly recognised myself in the picture... double chin, fat arms, spare tyre. Crikey, there is enough lard there to keep me fuelled for a decade!! yeah yeah, I know its at the end of a holiday of scoffing myself stupid, but I hardly recognise myself.

Am going to enlarge this picture and put it on my fridge.

A year gone by...

2007-09-28T22:02:00.000+08:00

To blog or not to blog?
I thought I'd give it up.... so much to do, so little time to do it...blah, blah (stop sleeping so much and you'll have ample time). But tonight I've managed to score some quality computer time (husband moved his butt from the computer chair to the couch to watch footy on TV)... and I've been browsing through all my fave blogs and have been re-inspired to keep at it. I've always thought writing down your thoughts was a very effective method of debriefing and clearing all the mush from your brain. That - and the fact it was exactly 12 months ago that I started blogging after an impressive burst of enthusiasm to get fit.

So it's been a month since my last post, I've been slowly finding my way at work with my new job. I'm enjoying the challenge but still feel like I have a Learners-permit stapled to my forehead. Some days I get overwhelmed with all the things flying through my noggin, and for the first time in my life I have had trouble sleeping because my mind won't rest when my eyes close at night time. That has been hard for me, I'm the kind of person that usually has a brain 'on/off' switch allowing me to put all my thoughts on hold so I fall asleep within 20 seconds of my head hitting the pillow. Laying there thinking about work stuff has knobs on it. I now know why husband gets insanely frustrated trying to settle to sleep -he uses the TV to channel his overactive thoughts elsewhere. I'm sure it'll wear off and It's all part of the transition of a new position.

The one bonus of being a boss is I can hire and fire (... well sort of). My 17 year-old niece from the city needed a job (and we needed nursing assistants), so she has moved up here and started work at the hospital. I was a bit worried that she'd hate it - (because lets face it, the clientele can be somewhat challenging in every way imaginable!!) However it's been quite the opposite. She came here with such a positive attitude, willing to give anything a go & I think she's really enjoying it. She's doing a fantastic job, and I love having her around. Its like having a younger version of my sister here.

Its a long weekend this weekend.... and guess what? I get long weekends in this job.... yeeehaar!

Mr Messy

2007-08-28T21:29:00.000+08:00

Day 2 in the new job and I had a shite day.
Day 2 blues I've called it, I'm sure tomorrow will be better.
I think it was just a messy day, I'm in the process of getting 'handover' from the previous boss and everything feels messy, scattered and unorganised. I just want to get in and get things sorted so I feel like I know what I'm doing! She leaves tomorrow, and although she's a great 'security blanket', she's only a phone call away. When she goes I can get in, get sorted (hopefully) and fly Solo! Gulp.

I feel a bit stressed (which is very strange for me), so I'm gonna go have a long relaxing soak in the bath. Just me n lotsa bubbles.
Yeah, that sounds great... sod the water restrictions just for one night.

More pics

2007-08-26T12:54:00.000+08:00

Today was my last day of 'no responsibility' - of being able to pass on problems and plead ignorance. Tomorrow I start my new job as the 'Captain' with L-plates firmly taped to my forehead! Yikes, I'm just praying that I don't spend the majority of next week saying to myself 'Jeeeezus, what have I done?' I'm sure it'll all work out fine, but I just want to get over that learning stage where everything seems to take three times as long as it should, and every question you think to yourself 'ummmm, I'm not sure..' .

* * * * * *

I went motorbike riding with Tan this morning, she's got her Learners permit (and her own bike now too - it's been lowered so she can touch the ground!) and needs to practice on the road before geting tested. We did laps around town like real dorks, but it was fun.

* * * * * *

I can't help but share my 'saved' pics...so here's more.

This is Captain's Pizzeria which is on the Captains run at Cardrona Ski field. Its a really cute Pizza cafe... but the best thing is you can stop off mid run and go to the loo instead of having to ski all the way to the base! Haa... priorities!

Me 'n Vicki-Lee Outside Captains. (post pizza and pee)

NZ is gorgeous.

Nephew number 2 (2.5 years) on the sled, and husband and nephew number 3 (11 months).

Holiday Happy-snaps

2007-08-26T09:50:00.000+08:00

Husband keeping a watchful-Uncle-eye on Seth, who at 4 skii' d like a champion!

Lucky my arms are long... no need for other people to take our photo! Me, husband and Indi.

I sustained 3rd degree frostbite after taking my hand out of my glove for this pic. It was FREEZING on the chair lifts. Me, Husband, Vicki-Lee & Mark. Bbbbrrr.

Pulling rabbits outta hats!

2007-08-25T23:14:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I did the daftest thing ever. After previewing my 200-plus photos from our holiday and secretly telling myself that we had taken some darn fine shots, I then proceeded to cut & paste them from preview to my pictures, and since it was taking ages to transfer that many pics over (yeah...ages...like a few seconds...am so impatient) I grabbed the camera and without turning my brain ON, I disconnected it from the computer and then deleted the images from the camera - for some reason thinking that I had them safely on the computer.
Then I hear a pop up with a message stating 'there has been an error during this transfer...' and I have this sudden moment of realisation... my stomach drops to my toes and my heart picks up pace....shiiiiit. Noooo, shit, shit, shit. What on earth was I thinking by disconnecting, not to mention deleting ALL the pictures off the camera???
I had 8 of my 230 holiday photos.
That was it.
Gulp.

Anyway, after a few hours of sulking and desperately hoping for them to magically reappear, I did a little bit of a Google search (gotta LOVE Google) and discovered that I was not the only dipshit on this planet accidentally deleting things... people do it all the time (phew!). All I needed to do was download a retrieval programme (i used PC-Inspector) which took about 10 minutes (and was FREE), hooked up the camera again and voila.... All my pics back!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Internet and technology and people inventing things to save the sanity of no-brainers like me!!

Rain has melted the snowman

2007-08-11T17:26:00.000+08:00

Were on the last few days of our NZ holiday and it's been RAINING non stop. C R A P! It actually feels a bit warmer which is a bonus, but it's not real helpful when you're trying to cart 4 kiddies around and entertain them without all ending up like drowned rats. I think tomorrow is forecast to be rain-free so we'll try to break free from our hotel room and find something fun to do. We're planning more skiing Monday & Tuesday which should be good since there has been about 10 tonne of snow dumped on the mountain in the last 2 days. (soft landing for the butt!)

Husband and I just had Thai for dinner, we had a Red Curry Duck dish with Cherry tomatoes, pineapple and grapes! Sounds strange...but was yum.

Last night we looked after the kiddies while the others went out for dinner. We ordered Pizza and had a great time playing with the toddlers...indoor soccer, colouring in, leggo building and popcorn popping. It was fun.

Best be off, husbands finished researching footy results (thats the reason we're in the internet cafe - he's having AFL withdrawals!)

Kiwi girl

2007-08-09T10:31:00.000+08:00

Far out, its been a decade since I blogged. Shit. where'd that time go??

I'm in snowy New Zealand on holiday, Husband and I have been here for a week, with another week to go. We're staying in Queenstown which is as beautiful as ever, the most amazing views of snow topped mountains and an enormous lake... its magic to wake up in the morning & look out the window to admire it, I love it.
We've had 4 days skiing which has been awesome. The first day we spent on green (beginner) runs (refreshing our wobbly legs on the art of ploughing thru the snow) the second day I cracked the shits because we tackled blue (intermediate) runs obviously way before I was up to it. I fell over atleast TEN times on one run... fuck, I was so frustrated by the end I spat it, took my skii's off and marched off down the slope huffily refusing any assistance from my ever-so-patient husband who had spent the whole run dusting snow off me and stopping to make sure I hadn't wrecked myself. We both crack up laughing about it now... how shitty I was (like a little 4 year old throwing a tantrum) and how I just spent that entire run looking like a giant human snowball!! Bloody funny in retrospect.
Anyway, following that doomsville-run, husband insisted (rightfully so) that we return to the basics and I brushed up on my hill turns and learnt how to slow down. Its also worth mentioning that when husband does my ski boots up extra tight I have a much more impressive skiing style (funny that). The combination of the above meant days 3 and 4 skiing were fab. Yesterday we spent the whole day on blue runs and had a great time. No more dummy spits from me. yahoo.

Husbands entire family are here on holiday with us. His Mum, Dad, Brother & Sister-in-law with their 4 kids under the age of 5yrs. It's nice to have all the family here, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't occasionally feel like pulling my hair out (strand-by-single-strand). Apparently I'm not quite as patient as I thought I was. It takes soooo looong to do anything with that many toddlers in tow. Yikes! They're cuties but I'm obviously missing the 'mother-gene' that gives you the ability to cope when: two are screaming their lungs up to their throats (because No 1 is biting No 2's ear off), one is pouring your freshly ordered Latte all over the floor and the other is tying your shoelaces in knots.

* * * * * *

Guess what?? You know that job I applied for?? The one that I thought I did really crap at the interview??

I GOT IT!!!

Yeehaar! I got a phone call confirming it a few days ago... I'm stoked! I'll have to put my serious-person hat on now... I can't wait for the new challenge! yay me.

Thats the goss for now, I'd better sign off from this dodgy internet cafe and go find more coffee.

Rubber ducky

2007-07-17T20:41:00.000+08:00

Last week I went onto the Lush website and treated myself.

Lately I seem to be bath-mad. I love long hot soaks in the tub, reading a trashy-mag and completely zoning out in my own little world. I guess you could say its my kind of meditation. Part of what I love about my soak is getting out smelling like a walking potpourri-pot, so I invested in some yummy smelling bath fizzer thingys and soap. They arrived today and I'm dying to soak my achy muscles in the tub. With product names such as 'Butterball, Lemony flutter butter and Comforter bubble bar' I almost want to take a bite... (would be seriously fizzing from the mouth if i did!)

We might live in the middle of nowhere, but having the Internet is like having a department store next door... you just need patience, since most things take around a week to arrive.

* * * * * *

I went to Kal yesterday for a work meeting, stayed overnight, went to another meeting today then came home this arvo. I gymed yesterday morning before leaving and have had a day off exercise today. My legs and butt are pretty sore from Sunday- and I looked like a Nanna climbing the stairs at the hotel we stayed at ... ouch...oooh...ouch. The girls I went with thought it was hilarious. I don't feel a bad as I thought I would though, and I'm planning another Lewie-session tomorrow. Gotta get my legs ready for skiing, yeehaar.

* * * * * *

I've heard a few rumours (gotta love a small town) about the job I applied for. The main one being that another person applied & was interviewed, and that person was 'over-qualified'.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing??

Anyway, I'm not too concerned, just wish I knew either way...waiting to find out sucks!

Dips n Polls

2007-07-15T20:43:00.000+08:00

Hey... notice the new 'Poll' thingy by Blogger? What fun. Please vote, I'd love to know if there are any scrunchers out there.

* * * * * *

I had the most amazing gym session this arvo...awesome, inspiring, king-of-the-world kind of stuff. Its been a while since I felt that empowered after a workout.
Pity I won't be able to walk tomorrow... or lift my arms to brush my hair... or sit down...

Trainer-Lewie put me through the wringer. I sent him an S.O.S text yesterday as my enthusiasm had been waning and I needed a boost. He suggested a training session with him which consisted of him kicking my arse... doing 5000 squats, lunges, dips (god I HATE dips... unless they are the kind you goop up on a corn chip) pushups...blah blah. I cursed him the whole way through our 90 minute workout .. 'Lewis... you SUUUCK...Owwch!' while he had this evil grin on his face. Anyway, despite the pain I loved being pushed to my limit by someone who is a hell of a lot fitter than me. Will have to do that more regularly.

Lets see if I'm so keen tomorrow after the muscle aches set in.

Baking for the boys

2007-07-14T22:28:00.000+08:00

I just made biscuits.

No..not the human variety... for the doggies!

We've run out of dog treats (bribes) and there are no shops open here tomorrow. Yes they could go without... but I've a night off and a day off tomorrow, so I Googled 'Dog biscuit recipe' and by golly, it's magic...up popped a kazillion recipes, one of which I kind of (...give or take a few minor things) had all the ingredients for!

Mmm, interesting mix of carrot, flour, beef stock, Paprika, Parsley and bran.
(Dogs will be poopin' well me thinks)

Taa Daaaa.
Some of the finished product. The boys (K9) are impressed.
Note to self: I must remember to let husband know they are for the DOGS... although it might be more amusing if i don't mention it.
Tempting - I must say.

a scarf and some soup

2007-07-12T22:44:00.000+08:00

Husband went to Kal today, he had a day off and one of his mates was going for the day so he bummed a ride. He bought food (oh glorious food - -fresh fruit n vegies and exciting...not-available-in-Leo stuff like soy milk and Yoplait yoghurt and crumpet bread and Sprite zero) ...anyway what was i talking about? Oh yeah, he went to Kal, and he bought me a surprise! Yeah...gotta love that. A groovy knitted Roxy scarf, i've been wearing it around the house like an excited pre-schooler since i got home from work, mmm nice and snuggly and soft. Will be perfect for the snowy climate of NZ.

He also bought what looks to be part of a pig... which is nicely nestled on the shelf in the fridge. A 'smoked shank' (sounds like something illegal) is what it says on the label. He's informed me he's making 'Ham Hock and cabbage soup' tomorrow.
Its not the pig-foot I'm worried about... its more the cabbage. I can't seem to remove from my head the thought that poor Charlie Bucket's family lived on cabbage soup before they found the golden ticket and got to take over Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. I have always thought cabbage soup sounded terrible, so I'm hoping that by adding a pig hoof it'll jazz it up a bit.
I'm sure it'll be great, all those hours watching Food Channel on Foxtel must teach him something! (maybe I should tune into it?)

No exercise for me today... but my house is clean. Is that a fair trade?

Midget gets back tomorrow from her European travels...yay!

Short circuit

2007-07-11T14:46:00.000+08:00

Phew, it's OVER! puff puff.

I rarely get nervous, but today I felt awful! Which is daft really because I'd done lots of preparation and I knew the interview panel reasonably well.
But I just couldn't get my answers out smoothly... Ummm, ahh, ummm *pause* ahemm... and I was like that for the whole 9 long questions! F A R O U T!! My brain just kind of froze and didn't seem to be processing what was in my head to my mouth.

Anyway, it's all done and dusted now. Apparently we won't find who the successful applicant is for 2 -3 weeks - I'll be zooming down snow covered slopes by then... swooosh.

Whatever happens I gave it a go. Next time I have an interview I'm going to drink a quadruple shot of vodka before i go, to get the brain-mouth circuit warmed up.

;o)

PS - I took Savoury muffins yesterday. They weren't too bad, and I've had no poisoning reports as yet. (Oh except for my boss who was horrified I'd 'hidden FUNGUS' in them!! -mushrooms..yum)

Emesis bag required

2007-07-11T07:04:00.000+08:00

It's interview day.
Ugh.
1115am
Can't wait til its over.

*vomit*

A lunch date

2007-07-09T06:18:00.000+08:00

Some Health Service bosses are coming to town tomorrow for a meeting. They're having lunch at the hospital, so we've decided to all 'bring a plate' and make a party of it (?? yeah.. I'm sure it'll be rockin).
Problem is... I don't know what to take.
I usually take some kind of creation involving eggs (zucchini slice or quiche thingy). But someone else is doing that... the cook usually makes homemade sausage rolls and sandwiches.
Any suggestions??

(Remember -my cooking skills are limited to a basic pre-kindergarten level)

Interview spew

2007-07-05T20:09:00.000+08:00

We just booked our flights for another holiday! Yahoo. Husband and I seem to live holiday to holiday, his happiness is determined by having something to look forward to, so if a holiday is partly planned and booked, then he'll have a smile on his dial :o)

Destination?

Hong Kong 9 nights, Singapore 5 nights.
Nice... need to look for hotels now.

* * * * * *

I got a job interview! Yeehaar.

I know its a 'means to an end' but now I'm really shitting myself. The one thing in life that I absolutely dread is a job interview (interrogation). I will have 3 people on the panel (jury) determining my worth (sentence).
1115 next Wednesday.

*Vomit*

I've been instructed to go in 30 minutes before so I can read the interview questions.

Huh? Thats weird. When I read them... can i take notes?? If i take notes can I take them into the interview and refer to them?? Does that mean the questions are going to be ridiculously hard-and thats the reason they give you 30 minutes....because it'll take you that long to interpret them??

*Vomit's again*

I can't wait for it to be over.

* * * * * *

Husband and I had a day off together yesterday. We got all dressed ready to go for a motorbike ride, only my bike was D E A D. Not even a whimper of a noise from the motor once the key was turned & ignition button pushed. Silence. Zero signs of life. Squat.

So we (well husband and his mate... I pretty much watched & did nothing) spent nearly two hours trying to get it going. Push start, jump start, push start again. Call for back up. Still no life.

The battery is now being charged and we've postponed our ride for a few days time. Thats if husband doesn't secretly sell my M'bike before then, he was cursing and swearing when killing himself trying to start it "Thats IT... I'm putting for sale notices up this ARVO..."

Aww a sorry sight - she's hooked up to the car for a jump start.

* * * * * *
My gyming and eating has been going pretty good. I'm still following Lewies weights program and adding a bit of cardio in as well. It's nice to be doing something different. I've just done an early morning gym session with JB, so now I'm free to relax and do whatever I like tonight after work.

What a great feeling!

Favourite...

2007-07-03T22:54:00.000+08:00

Each week, the Sunday Times has a feature article on the back of the 'Home' magazine that shows photo's and lists some random persons' favourite things. I love it, and it's the first thing I look for when I read the Sunday paper. Why It's on the back of the Home liftout I'm not entirely sure. I'm not even sure why I find it that interesting, maybe because what each person lists as important to them is always quite different.

Anyway, I've decided to make my own (since the Sunday Times obviously doesn't seem to have my contact details...)

My Fave things... in no apparent order..

1. My boys!

Husband, Diesel (Brindle) & Murphy (white). what would i do without them? Life would be so boring and filled with a lot less love! (but my house would be much cleaner and have far fewer fur-balls on the floor).

2. Bears

I have always loved teddy bears. when I was young I had so many covering my bed and I insisted on sleeping with all of them. My Dad used to joke that I'd have to sleep on the floor to make room for them. I still love the classic old-style bear and husband will often surprise me with one. The small brown one 'Buttons' is very treasured because Wayne had him hidden at home, waiting for a moment when I needed cheering up. It worked a treat and I'll never forget how sweet that was. (Aww shucks!)

3. My Art room

This is the equivalent to my Dads shed - a place to hide away and find complete relaxation. Its a mess - it always is, no matter how organised I try to make it, but thats okay. I know where everything is (sort of). The mess factor is the reason I get a whole room dedicated to what husband refers to as my 'art crap'. If it wasn't contained to one room, I'd have half finished projects scattered all around the house. He figures its just easier to sacrifice an entire room to my hobby. Unfortunately my Art room isn't quite as exciting in a rental house when we lived in our own place in the city my art room had bright orange and pink swirls painted on the walls. and a wall painted in magnet paint so I could stick magnets all over it. I'm not seven years old... I swear.

4. Useless Nick-Knacks

I love random things like this colourful vintage wind-up duck. When you wind him his hat twirls around and he pedals the bike. My Mum would call it a 'dust-collector'. I love pretty much anything that's colourful.

5. My Jewellery

Husband buys me nice jewellery. I think he has great taste.... white gold and diamonds...Nice.
When it comes to diamonds, quality is better than quantity. I just love my bling.

6. Gadgets

I'm a gadget geek. By 'gadgets' I mean anything electronic that can be programmed or played with! I love new gadgets... figuring out what they do and how to use them. I love to have the latest and greatest. The one gadget I'd love but haven't got is a laptop of my own. At the moment that would be top of my geeky-gadget-wish list.

7. Iced Coffee

Of course this has to be on my list!

I'm seriously trying to give it up tho.

8. Ma 'n Pa's house and Tom

See this bright red lounge? I am at my most relaxed laying on this. Its at my Mum and Dads house in Walpole and If I'm there it means I'm visiting them (which I love). I spend a LOT of time on this lounge when I'm at their place -- snoozing, reading mags, watching TV, chatting to Mum and Dad. I love it, it's my 'safe place' that I go to in my mind whenever I'm stressed or scared.

I love this photo because not only am I on the red lounge, but I've got my beautiful nephew Tom on me playing.

9. Photo's

I love photos. I take photos of pretty much anything and everything (Nooo...really??). This is a cork board I made that is on the wall in my house. I pin up my fave photos and change them around every now and then. I have a terrible memory especially of holidays, so by taking loads of photo's it help to keep my memories alive. I love looking at old albums - reminiscing.

A darn good snooze

2007-07-02T06:37:00.000+08:00

Its raining, its pouring, the old man is snoring...

All of the above is true.
Its been raining all night (yeehaar..finally!), pouring gallons into our rain water tank so we thankfully don't have to drink the revolting town water, and husband is still in bed...snoring!

Me, I'm up ready to face a morning shift and I'm bright-eyed and bushy-tailed because I've had (wait for it)... TEN hours sleep!!!
Ha!
I went to bed last night at 8pm. I was exhausted I'd had a busy day - an early morning gym session (5am), a morning shift, home to wash the doggies, do laundry, vacuum and mop the floors, put laundry away... blah blah. I was so tired I had to force myself to keep going until 8pm, I really wanted to dive in to bed at 7pm with FatCat.

Well, I'd better stop prattling and go to work...

*heads out the door cheerily whistling*

Wonder Woman

2007-06-30T07:34:00.000+08:00

I went to a meeting out at Gwalia the other day and stopped off to take some snaps of the cute little miners huts and surrounds. This place is magic, I could spend hours wandering around checking out the old houses & cars. I always find myself thinking how on earth people lived in these tin shacks, they must have been so hot in summer and bloody freezing in winter.

Thank god for my reverse-cycle airconditioning... microwave oven... washing machine..hot water system........

* * * * * *

Moron-Murphy-dog has a sore leg.

Husband and I tried to have a romantic (?!) movie night the other day (he cooks my fave pasta meal, we watch movies, drink wine, eat chocolate & if he plays his cards right he gets lucky;o)) and hence the dogs were banished to the back yard.

But it was raining... and when it rains Murphy does drips. He jumps up trying to catch the falling drips from the verandah and he does it continually. Bark... jump.. somersault..bark

UGH!

The next day he was limping. Perhaps one of his somersaults didn't go as planned.

* * * * * *

Husbands mate Lewie has written me a gym program to try out. I did the 'legs' workout this morning. Now my legs feel like jelly.

Tomorrow i'll do arms. Its nice to do something different, and I know I should do more toning/weights but I'm always a bit lost on what I actually should be doing.

When Lewie asked me what my 'goals' were i said "I want to look like Wonder Woman"... he said 'no problems, we can achieve that, but you'll have to wear your undies on the outside!'

pathetic passenger

2007-06-29T07:22:00.000+08:00

I'm now 34. That means I'm half way to being 68 and thats old.

I had a relaxing birthday, I spent time in my art room making cards and also had a long soak in the bath, oh and of course i managed to squeeze in a nanna nap as well. Zzzz
I got some great prezzies... vouchers, alcohol, choccies (have scoffed them already), socks, clothes.

Today its my Dads birthday, he's 65. Happy Birthday old boy.

* * * * * *

Yesterday Husband and i went to Kal for the day, he desperately needed a haircut (he was looking very shaggy) and we needed to get a few things like dog food & human food (note the order of priority there).

I am an awful travel-buddy. Any time I'm passenger i snooze. 5km into the trip and my eyelids start getting very heavy, i'm yawning, eyes are glazing over, i reach for the recline lever on the seat, place my pillow in position.. 5, 4, 3, 2, Zzzzz.
I've always been like that and apart from the anti-social-ness of it, I think it's actually a bonus for me that I can sleep so easily -it makes the journey so much quicker! Lucky for me - husband is used to my pathetic-ness and willingly drives the whole way. I close my eyes and it feels like 5 minutes later we're arriving at our destination when in fact its been over a 2 hour journey. 'whoah.... what, we're here... already?'
On the way home I was asleep within my usual 5 minutes, I woke after an hour - my bladder the size of a footy (600ml of Diet Coke will do that to you) 'I need to pee' i say to husband with an urgent look on my face. He rolls his eyes, pulls over to the side of the road, i scurry into the bush to relieve the football-bladder, return to the car, we take off and i snooze again. Husband really is a saint for putting up with me.

* * * * * *
I've just had a 6am workout at the gym with JB. I did X-trainer intervals and 'random' walking program on the treadmill - which is a hill workout. By the end of it my quads felt like they were on fire. Its kind of a good feeling though after a big 'hill' when the incline reduces back to near-flat... your legs feel all jelly like and weird.

I'm off to soak in the bath. Nice.

not-so-hot-dogs

2007-06-27T05:11:00.001+08:00

When I got home from work early Monday morning the dogs didn't even budge to say hello. This is how i found them... snuggled up on their dog lounge.

It was 2 degrees...

They're not silly.

A new use for a sharps container.

2007-06-26T21:12:00.000+08:00

For a few days there has been this stench of stale urine in A&E at work. Initially i have to be honest and say i thought that the guy i was treating for a suspected heart attack had pee'd his pants... however went he left the stench didn't.

So last night i went into sniffer-dog mode.

The smell was particularly strong near the entry of A&E, near the first stretcher bed. Sniff, sniff... nothing seen that was obviously the culprit. Smelt the curtains -nothing. Mopped the floor -still there. Changed the stretcher bed linen completely and wiped the whole bed over (twice) with disinfectant...still stenchy. Where was it coming from??

Then later on I was checking our Resus trolley & defibrillator when i noticed the stench was particularly strong in that area.

I was like a bloodhound on a mission.

Sniff, sniff..... sniiiiffff....

Sniff sniff....Ewwwwww YUK!!!

D I S G U ST I N G !!!!!!!!

I'd found the source...someone had Pee'd in the sharps container that hangs off the side of the Resus trolley!!! What a Dirty DOG!

The container looks exactly like the one above (except ours are bright yellow) which if you'll take a moment to consider with me...poses two huge risks to ones manhood (presuming it was a man that was responsible... and I'm CERTAIN only a man would be daft enough to do such a thing)

a) the container was over half full of sharps (old needles etc) one 'prick' could have proved very nasty.

b) see those little plastic slits at the top of the container?? That is so when things are put in the container, they don't come out.

It could've been oh-so-much worse.

tick tock tick tock

2007-06-25T04:06:00.000+08:00

So far so good on the health front. Not a carton of Iced coffee or a choccy bar to be seen near this fatty's mouth!!

I woke at 4pm & went running with Nikki. I jogged for an hour! (yeah, go me). We had a great run, Nik pushed her toddler-daughter in the pram the whole way.... she's bloody amazing, she never-ever looks puffed or even slightly buggered and chats non stop the WHOLE way (which is a great diversion)... I swear she's the Bionic woman.

Tomorrow I've planned a Gwalia walk with JB. Time to rest the legs a bit from running. Generally I hate walking (why walk when u can run??) but sometimes the knees and shins need a break. Plus its always fun with a friend.

One more night to go. Ugh.

I can't wait to put my head on the pillow (which will be in precisely 3 hours and 20 minutes) its been a looong night. Clock-watching sucks.

Toss in a salad

2007-06-24T00:38:00.001+08:00

I ate so much crap on night shift last night - that i felt ill by the time i got home into bed this morning.

REALITY CHECK... why are you busting your arse in the gym each day then eating chocolate and iced coffee like a freak???

I had a long chat to husband, confessing my eating sins (admitting to him that i frequently lie to him about what i eat and drink and that YES i do drink Iced coffee... every day)... its a bit like reverse anorexia isn't it? Instead of hiding the fact your not eating, i have my own crazy disorder that finds me lying about what i do eat. weird. Husband was pretty annoyed and disappointed in me, but said 'at least it makes a bit of sense now why you're not losing any weight when you work so hard in the gym' poor guy, i think he thought i had some severe metabolic disorder and despite all my best efforts i was unable to shed blubber.

Anyway, to cut a long long story short, i have devised a plan to take a bit of responsibility with my health. Its long overdue, i've needed a good kick up the arse for a while now. Here it is...

I will no longer lie to husband about my food. (its actually a huge relief that i fessed up!)
I no longer drink milk (since i seem to be obsessional about it)
I will take more pride in myself... take the time to get ready for the day instead of slothing out in PJ's like a big lump.
I need to realise that i am overweight, it won't go away unless I eat properly and no one else can do that for me!
I must drink 2 litres of H20 daily.

So, lets see how i go.

* * * * * *

Husband made a humongous pot of Chook n vegie soup today. I'd forgotten about his winter soups... they are fab tasting and healthy. I bought some to work and ate it at midnight for 'dinner'. Sluuurrp...Peeerrfect. (hmmm, and to think for dinner last night i had Freckles and Iced coffee..WTF?? See what i mean about my 'disorder'??)

We gym'd again this arvo.... 3km run and X-trainer. puff puff.

* * * * * *

2 & 1/2 night shifts to go. who's counting?

Nightshift suits quokkas and nothing else

2007-06-23T03:20:00.000+08:00

Jeezus this page is bright and a tad too cheery at 3am! I almost need sunnies.

Well here i am again on nightshift. Who's the idiot that does the rosters? (umm that would be me) ....yawn. Why is it that although i slept 8 solid hours today, my brain tells me its time to be snoozing now? Does it forget about the sleep i already had?

I went to the gym after waking at 4pm - husband and Lewie went too, but they played squash, so i had the gym all to myself which was a bonus. After my 50 minute workout i watched them play squash for a bit. They are lunatics on the squash court... running at a million miles an hour, diving for the ball, smashing into the walls. The competition between them is huge, they came out looking like dripping beetroots. It was quite entertaining to watch.

I got an early birthday card from my Dad today which was a great suprise. He's such a cute old bloke. He's up north working for a few weeks, and he sent me a separate card just from him (usually Mum does the birthday card/prez thing from both of them). He'd tucked a $50 note into a Miss Piggy birthday card, and written 'happy birthday for the 27th... hope you don't wind up with a sore head'.
Ha! Nice one father bear!

clutz in the gym

2007-06-20T23:19:00.000+08:00

I went to the gym solo today. it seems i'm having a run of being 'stood up' by my gym dates (do i smell?!) Husband & i planned to go this morning at 8am, he was on a 10am shift & i had the day off. The alarm woke us at 7:30, so up we get with the best of intentions.
Then there was a knock at the door. someone came to find the police at our HOUSE because some dude was running a muck in town stealing things. Huh??? What happened to the idea of using a PHONE to call the Police??! Okay i admit at the moment we have a huge Police Car parked out the front of our house (which kind of screams 'Policeman lives here') but knocking on the door at 7:30am? WTF??
Anyway, off husband went to dutifully 'protect life and property'.... gym session cancelled.
Me? what did i do?
I did what any good wife would have done... i went back to bed. Zzzzz.

I did manage to drag myself to the gym this arvo at 2pm. Did a long run and some intervals on the x-trainer. (trying to build up my 'skiing legs' ... only 6 weeks to go till NZ!)
I was in the gym on my own - LUCKILY because when i was running on the treadmill, I accidentally swiped my iPod cord with my hand... knocking my iPod off so it fell onto the treadmill mat. In my fatigued-frenzied effort to avoid stepping on it (which wouldve equalled one very sick iPod) i came to within a millimeter of falling off the tready!! My god, it was like

'SPLAT...

hop...skip...stumble...squeal...stumble a bit more... (hit emergency STOP)

Fuuuuuccckk!!!'

Puff puff!
compose self
Pick up iPod
resume running like nothing ever happened.

And I have the balls to laugh at other people in the gym??! ha!

hot soak

2007-06-19T23:00:00.000+08:00

I got myself up this morning to go to the gym at 5am with JB.
But she never showed... PIKER, she (apparently) set her alarm wrong. Me thinks it had something to do with the fact she has a warm cozy electric blanket that she raves about and that it was like minus 25 outside!!(well it felt like that)
So i tried to go back to bed.... which i did... but i couldn't sleep. So i got up and at 5am i had a bath. A nice warm 45 minute bath, it was deluxe!

I highly recommend it.

Ripleys believe it or not

2007-06-19T22:55:00.000+08:00

Can you believe Sean just DIED in All Saints??? Huh?? where did that come from?? He was the only reason i watched.

Can you believe our computer is FIXED?

Can you believe they ACTUALLY sent a technician to outback Leo to FIX it???! Wow.

Can you believe I actually submitted my job application with 5 hours to spare? Wow again.

Can you believe I'm posting this?

dodgy computer

2007-06-16T22:25:00.000+08:00

Crap shit crap crap crap.

Our wonderful spanker of a new computer is caput. Wow, it lasted a long time didn't it???!
We're not sure whats going on with it, it was working kinda fine... then started doing weird shit (which we partly blamed on Windows 'Vista' glitches) like freezing screens & not allowing some pages to load, then the bluetooth mouse & key board all of a sudden weren't being recognised by the computer... so Dell (who have been very helpful I must say - given we live in the middle of nowhere) sent us a new keyboard and mouse ASAP thinking that was the problem... but no, of COURSE it wasn't that simple. Husband has spent atleast 6 (yes SIX) HOURS on the phone talking through every kind of possible 'push this button then click on this while holding that..' scenario with the Dell computer helpline people (I'm not kidding... he's been on the phone 2 days solid) trying to sort it out. Fuuuuccckkk. It's still not sorted, so we had to hang our heads low, drag our old computer out from the spare room (I bet old computer is laughing at uncontrollably) and plug it all back in while we sit 'n wait for news on whats happening next. Apparently they're sending a technician out to have a look.... Do they know where the fuck we live??????!!!!
Husband is NOT impressed, so far he hasn't blamed me for wrecking it... although I'm waiting for his over-frustrated-mega-stressed brain to pop that comment out of his mouth. He's a tad dyscopic when things don't run smoothly, although I must fess even I'd be pulling my hair out after six hours on the phone trouble shooting with an 'english-is-my-second-language' stranger. aaarrgghh.

Oh well, ho hum, at the end of the day it is only a computer. We will survive without one for a while (and look we even have a 'spare'!) so grieving isn't required just yet.

* * * * * *

My lamb roast turned out awesome!! Yay for me. I took some great pics to share... but of course I can't post them because I'm back on 'old dodgy' computer that won't let me post pics.
Ahhh, the good ol' times.

sheep in the oven... baaaa!

2007-06-13T08:36:00.000+08:00

4 nights down...and now for some days off. Yeehaar.

I've spent the last two nights doing my job application for the D.O.N position at the hospital. I said I'd never do it, and I must be mad to even apply, but heck 'what doesn't kill us makes us stronger' thats my motto and you can remind me of that (if by some remote chance i get the job) and am moaning ahout how crap it is in a few months time.

Its no great loss if i don't get it, I quite like doing what I do at the moment... but its all about feathers in hats!! Experience experience experience blaaaahh.

I've made the BIG decision to cook a lamb roast for dinner. Gee whiz whacky doo. Husband has cooked dinner for like the last million nights in a row, so i thought i'd give the big guy a rest. Oh and he has to work tonight and i've got the day off so i guess its kinda fair! I hate cooking. I'm a crap cook.. it's hard to be good at something when you dislike it and its hard to like something when your crap at it. Get it?
Anyway, a lamb roast is by no-means 'rocket science' so i shall give it a go.
Not that my rocket science theory is any insurance for a palatable dinner. Luckily husband is about the most NON-fussy eater in the whole world, he always pretends to like my attempts to produce edible goods. Once he said to me (which thinking about it now - it was really quite cute) "Umm Drea, maybe you should just stick to making your staple kind of dishes and leave the creative dishes to me" .... Haaaaaarrr! By 'staple' dishes he means the only things i ever cook that are reasonably safe - Apricot chicken, Chow Mein and Lasagne.

Anyway I'll be sure to take pictures because YES i can post PICTURES now .... yes YAY, not that I'm sure you havent noticed, or have noticed, but you should've noticed. Hmmm. Time for bed me thinks...brain sluggish from selection criteria addressing and 10 hours of night shift.

ZZZzzzzzz

Goodnight.

Freckles

2007-06-10T20:29:00.000+08:00

Just for Melissa! Now that I've just spent 20 minutes trying to find a picture of them I am seriously craving some... Allens brand have the best Freckles ever... Surely you know what I'm talking about now?!
If you open the bag, put them in the microwave for 30 seconds, shake the bag around, return & nuke for a further 20 seconds they go semi-soggy and you can eat them out of the bag with a spoon. Delish.

* * * * * *

I'd just like to say a big (sarcastic!) THANK YOU to Debstar for this post on nicknaming
gym-folk. I went to the gym this afternoon and found myself attaching nicknames to everyone that walked in the door.

Firstly there were husbands 2 work buddies - although I know them well, i couldn't help but think of what other people might nickname them ... probably 'pretty boys' because they're young and body-beautiful and perhaps a bit snobby to others in the gym. Then a girl who should be known as 'Wonder Woman' because she's halved in size since she first came to town. She's a regular at the gym and is starting to look awesome. Lastly (but by no means least impressive) is 'Mr Sweaty'. Ugh. I've mentioned him before and haven't seen him for a while, but today he returned bigger & sweatier than ever. He gets on the treadmill, running at FULL incline at a kazillion miles an hour. Mr Sweaty never does things half arsed- he goes hard at it for the whole time....wearing nothing other than his shiny black bike pants and a sweat band on his head. Thats IT!! -NO shirt... NO TOWEL! Uuurrrkk. I can't relax when he's there - not because of the sweat flying from his wirey body in all directions.... no, it's because he looks like he's about to cark it any second. He pushes himself so god-damn hard its frightening. I spend the whole time having visions that he's going to go flying off the back of the treadmill & crack his sweaty noggin' open on the weights bench behind him. I tell you - Mr Sweaty is dicing with death. He runs precariously close to the back of the treadmill, one stuff up and it's all over. It scares the living bejesus out of me.

* * * * * *
I'm on nightshift and am on my 4th cup of coffee (hot... not Iced..boo). I'm supposed to be writing a job application but have zero enthusiasm.
Its my 2nd night and its going S-L-O-W-L-Y.
Y A W N ....
Last night i worked with JB which always makes the 10 hour shift go quicker because it's fun. We have a crossword 'challenge' whenever we do nights together (which is not that often these days..boo). It started off as a way of killing an hour, now its just pure competition. I'm pretty certain she's never beaten me yet. We get the big Crossword from the 'New Weekly-trashy mag' and photocopy it so we both have a copy. We usually start at 2am and have an hour to see who can get the most done. We'd built ourselves up for the challenge last night only to discover the hospital photocopier was broken. It was a tragedy! We had no way of both getting a copy of the crozzle... Disappointment PLUS!
Until we discovered our break-n-enter skills were pretty damn fine.
The GP's office in the same building has a small sliding glass panel thingy- like a 'welcome window' and through that window staring at us was a beautiful photocopier.
Well lets just say that JB managed to pry open the sliding glass thingy enough for me to climb up- n-through it so we could use their photocopier!! (I almost had to do the splits to fit through & it could've all gone horribly wrong!) BUT we managed to print off 2 copies and the crozzle comp was ON! (Phew!)

As usual I whipped her butt.

Blah blah

2007-06-08T20:40:00.000+08:00

Just for T O A O... finally I got round to it!!

What was I doing 10 years ago?

Umm, 1997.
I'd split from my boyfriend..was miserable and about 15kg lighter than I am now!!

What was I doing one year ago?
I'm struggling to think of something exciting to say here. Sorry but same ol' same ol' i'm afraid to say. Living here in Leo, working and looking forward to my next holiday!

Five snacks I enjoy

1. IC (of course!)
2. Promite and egg sandwiches
3. Oats in any form... hot, cold, raw, cooked... Mmmmm
4. Freckles.... microwaved so they're soft
5. Carrots n Salsa

Five Songs to which I know all the lyrics

'Leavin... on a jet-plane' haa!
Pretty much all the Wiggles tunes - (thats what you get for working in a kids hospital for 10 years)
Madonna's 'La Isla Bonita' ... I loved that song in high school. I learnt all the words off by heart so I could sing along (I thought i was really cool!)
Evanescence 'Broken' I just love that song at the moment... not sure why.
Shakira 'Hips don't lie' - it's my 'get me moving' gym song!

Five things I would do if I were a millionaire (can I be a multi ?)

I'd buy a holiday home near a ski resort somewhere (1) and then I'd hire a hunky ski instructor (2) to give me lots of lessons whenever I wanted them.

I'd send my parents on an overseas holiday (3) and pay off my sisters house (4). Oh and I'd probably share some of my $$ with husband (5)!!

Five Bad habits

I sleep too much
I always make a huge mug of tea/coffee and only drink half of it
I am the queen of unfinished tasks.... lots of half-done things.
I procrastinate... always leave things till the last minute.
I'm terrible at caring for my expensive sunnies... I never put them in their case, I put them on the table face down, drop them... husband goes ballistic at me and I never seem to change despite my bestest efforts (honest!).

Five things I like doing...

Sleeping... snuggling in bed with my big fluffy blanket... Mmmmm
Playing with new gadgets- figuring out how to use them etc.
Relaxing with my folks in Walpole. It's the absolute in relaxation and 'comfort' being with Ma n Pa!
Playing in my art room... creating masterpieces!! (okay, that was a lie...it's more like creating more junk)
Motorbike riding through the scrub.

Gawd..are we done yet?? This seems to be going on forever......

Five things I would never wear again...

Body suits! My god, they are NOT made for people with long bodies. Those little push-stud thingy's can cause serious harm to girly bits.
A bikini (whale watch alert)
A school uniform...eww that starched blouse, pleated skirt and sandals. Yuk.
That A-frame white Nurses uniform that used to be standard for Nurses. Whoever invented that had tastebuds in their butts and had NO respect for the female figure whatsoever. (Not to mention the fact that they were WHITE... very see through and impossible to wash blood out of)
Wool. Yuk... bloody scratchy horrible stuff. Makes me shiver just thinking about it.

Five favourite toys...

My iPod, my olden day wind up metal toy duck (very cool), my eyelet setter, my Dymo printer tape thingy and my digital camera.

* * * * * *

Step AWAY from the camera!!

2007-06-08T20:15:00.000+08:00

Okay, I know I've been going a bit beserk with the pic-posting... but hey, there is a lot of lost time to make up.

I've been so keen to capture some pics I even took my camera to the gym this morning (much to JB's disgust) ... but she got me back and snapped a pic of me on the treadmill.

Putting my earphones in ready to jog a mini marathon (??)

Faster JB... FASTER!!!

* * * * * *

Midget left on a jet-plane today... i've been singing that darn song in my head ALL day... 'I'm leeeeavin' on a jet plane.. don't know if I'll be back again..' I took her out to the airport, she's off on a 5 week European holiday... lucky thing. She'd better post plenty or I'll be leaving rude comments on her blog! Actually she didn't look overly excited, I wanted to smack her in the noggin and shout 'do you know what your about to do???!!' I think she was pre-occupied with deep thoughts and perhaps a bit nervous. Actually I'm sure its because she's going to miss us here sooo much that she was holding back the tears.

Maybe not.

Of COURSE I took my camera to the airport...

Thats her at the back in the beige coat... bye bye Tan.... have fun!

Red Nose Day Gonk

2007-06-08T20:11:00.000+08:00

I bought him to support the cause. So ugly that he's cute!

Pics again!

2007-06-07T23:03:00.000+08:00

Well I'm excited because we've got a new Computer! Yeehaar!

I'm not excited because its got a bigger screen or because our new printer scanner/copier thing is very groovy, or because I get to learn how to use Windows Vista... nooo, I'm excited because I can post pics on my blog again!! AWESOME! Picture-less posts is like wearing joggers without socks, having coffee without milk, eating toast without butter- just plain weird.

Husband and I have been up transferring data from old computer to new computer all night. So now i must be off to bed so i can rise early to gym with JB.

Just wanted to get one quick 'picture-post' in!

Nighty-night!

Talk back

2007-06-05T10:36:00.000+08:00

Well what a big weekend here in downtown Leo.

I worked most of the weekend and feel like i missed out on all the action, but hey it's gotta be done. My Liver will be grateful at the lack of alcohol it was required to break down. Unlike many other Livers around town... geez there were a lot of hangovers and sorry souls in town.

I 'worked' for the Shire (thanks to JB) on Sunday morning, helping out with the runners registrations. It was the best so-called work i've ever done! It was Fun! We were out in the sunshine, in the middle of all the action. We got entertained by a crazy clown and Dorothy the Dinosaur, watched a few of the sprints, ate donuts, chatted to locals, ate hotdogs... it was tough going!

Next year I'll make sure i have the day off from the hospital so i can work for the Shire the whole day!

* * * * * *

I got up at 5am and gym'd with JB. I used the new fantastico-super-dooper treadmill. As a complete gadget lover i was almost overwhelmed by all the flashing lights and options. Heck the thing even has a TV on it! At the end of the day you get on... run your guts out... sweat all over it...run a bit more...then get off. TV or no TV it achieves what most treadmills do.

I came home, showered and went back to bed. Zzzzzzzzzzz

I sleep far too much.

* * * * * *

Random comment for today...

I hate Talk-back radio.

It makes me feel so darn uncomfortable, i know it shouldn't... but it does.

I spend the whole time feeling sorry for the callers who are sounding like complete twats... usually old folk (who I'm sure use it as their only chance to speak to someone in the week) they speak slowly, misinterpret what the announcer has asked, miss their cue to begin talking ....
"on the line next we have Joan from naggsville"
"Good morning Joan"
(silence)
"Hello Joan??... "
(longer silence)
"Are you there Joan? "
(Joan finally acknowledges) ... 'oh, um good morning, am i on? hello? testing testi..
"Yes Joan we can hear you..."

Then the announcer/s spend the whole time hurrying callers up, cutting them off and getting stuck in awkward situations when Beryl-from-Bundenberg starts prattling off about her grandchildren... (which has absolutely nothing to do with the topic) and they're trying to get a word in to tell her to shut up!!

Awww, it just puts me on edge the whole time. Husband loves it... especially when it's footy related, and especially when we're travelling in the car... he says it 'gives him something to do'.

I say 'thank god for my iPod'.

big weekend

2007-06-02T21:42:00.000+08:00

I love the show Will & Grace and luckily for me it's on Foxtel pretty much all the time. I don't care if I've seen the episode three times already... i still laugh. I think it should be called 'Jack & Karen' though... since they are what makes the show... bloody funny, Jack is a scream.

* * * * * *

Its the big annual weekend here in town... lots of things happening. We have running races
('The Mile') that attracts pro-sprinters to compete, horse races and a Country & Western street concert (yeee-haar!). I had an extra nurse rostered on the evening shift at the hospital because we have like a gazillion extra folk in town and guess how many patients we saw this arvo??

ZERO!!

Yep zilcho! Typical! Oh well, I guess thats good... just hope night shift don't get a mass of drunken souls.

* * * * * *

I went and watched the Cycle challenge this morning.
Lots of professional cyclists.. also lots of little school kids on bikes that seemed taller than them (very cute!). I really went to cheer on JB... who had partnered up with Tracey to do the 50km ride. There were no female 'local' entrants, so they decided yesterday afternoon that they would do it, they borrowed a Mountain bike and signed up this morning !!! (nothing like a last minute spare of the moment decision!) My god, i thought they were nuts, but they did really well. They found the 25km each easy...and scored themselves $250 prize money! Gooo girls!

I don't think they'll be able to walk for a week, but at least they have a medal to show for it.

A chocolate egg

2007-05-31T21:36:00.000+08:00

I went to the gym at 5am with JB but i did nothing! After a pathetic 5 minute bike ride warm-up, I crawled onto the exercise mat on the floor... and stayed there. I seriously tried to find an ounce of enthusiasm in my big lump of a body, but it didn't happen. JB said I'm sacked as a gym buddy. I then spent the whole 8 hours of my morning shift at work praying everyone would piss off so I could hide and snooze... but it didn't happen and it seems the whole freakin town decided they needed to see a nurse this morning. Ugh. It was a loooong shift. I came home, plonked myself on the lounge and fell asleep in 10 seconds flat. Zzzzzzzz

Now I feel fantastic!! Never ever ever underestimate the power of a quality nanna-nap.

* * * * * *

Husband rang me at work this morning and i obviously sounded like a whiny-pain-in-the-arse neurotic wife who was at risk of throwing herself in front of the next oncoming road train... because - he then came up to the hospital to visit & make sure I was okay.
He came & found me, gave me a hug, then pulled a Kinder surprise egg out of his pocket and gave it to me!! Awesome... I love love love Kinders', they have chocolate AND a trinket (what am i... like 3 years old??!). Sometimes he just knows how to cheer me up, it made me feel all warm n fuzzy

Gawd I'm high maintenance!!

Bahh... everyone has their crazy days, at least mine was cured with a Kinder and a snooze.
Easy!

shoes on the chair

2007-05-30T20:57:00.000+08:00

Husband often has a dig at me for random things i do that seem to piss him off... always 'dumping' my sports bag on the bench, forgetting to close the back door after letting the dogs in/out, leaving the coffee machine on... trivial pathetic things really- that just seem to irritate the shit out of him! Anyway, I'm a pretty laid back person so always shrug it off and go yeah whatever...sorry, I'll close the door or put my bag away... no big deal, he does things that annoy me too, I just usually think it's not worth nagging about so don't often mention it.

Until yesterday.

Husband often puts his shoes on the dining chairs after taking them off.
Its weird... and quite annoying when you go to sit at the table, pull the chair out and plonk your butt down on a pair of ugg boots or joggers. Yesterday it got to me because no less than THREE pairs of his shoes were taking up seats at our dining table!
PUT THEM AWAY i say!! We have a perfectly good bedroom with a wardrobe specially for your shoes... they're not hungry, they don't need to sit at the table.
"I change my shoes all the time and it's better than leaving them on the floor for the dogs to chew" is his response.
I huff and groan, collecting his shoes then dumping them on the floor in the bedroom in protest... all the time moaning about 'the dogs never ever chewing shoes before, why would they start now?' ...blah blah.

Hmmmph

Tonight I'm cooking dinner and husband comes home from work to find monster-dog Murphy chomping on his favourite pair of Reef sandal thingy's.

SHIT!!!

How on earth did Murphy get them??
Maybe because I put them on the floor instead of the dining chair safe-haven??
Crap-shit-crap-shit.

Not a happy husband. Shoes are wrecked.... munched to a mere pulp of their rubbery selves.
I never really liked the shoes anyway... I used to call them his 'special sandals'

Unfortunately husband loved them.

oops.

Tagged...7 Things

2007-05-29T14:14:00.000+08:00

Cherub tagged me...

Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. You need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!

7 Things about me...

1. My arms are abnormally long. My arm span is about 15cm more than my height... which is weird. I can almost knuckle-walk like a chimp!

2. When i was 18 months old my brother sat on me in the bath and i drowned. My Ma found me blue and pulseless but resuscitated me. Good thing Ma is a nurse.

3. I hate the chunky bits in Orange juice... they make me gag.

4. Sometimes when i shower i love to sit on the floor with the hot water unning over me. Its relaxing and much easier to shave your legs when sitting!

5. I only have one Ovary... the other one exploded! Nasty.

6. I once entered an Easter colouring-in competition and won a huge basket of easter eggs. My older sister had coloured in the pic for me. I've always felt bad about that. The eggs were yummy tho.

7. I like to microwave sandwiches/rolls before i eat them. I hate a cold sandwich, plus the mild 'steam' effect it creates makes the sandwich taste fresh to me! Much nicer...try it!

I'm tagging:

JB
Midget
Kerry
Stubby
Melissa
Debstar

(......sorry guys!)

Drea's day off

2007-05-28T12:56:00.000+08:00

A day off for me .... finall-eeeeeeeeeeeee!
Ha rhymes!

Okay I know I had a day off last week, but I had to go to Kal for court and it never felt like a true blue day off- where i could lounge around all day like a fat potato choosing to do nothing or something or a combination of both (?) Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Nice.

* * * * * *

My house is a tip. Dog hair, Drea hair and chewed up little bits of plastic everywhere (courtesy of Murphy). I'm slowly pottering around,cleaning up as i go... in between blog surfing of course (which is the ultimate time waster).

Husband is at work (where all good husbands should be)

The doggies are snoozing, they have a great life.

My iPod is playing my 'exercise playlist' ...trying to motivate me into a faster pace of cleaning - its not working tho.

The weather outside is awful... blowing a gale. I just tried to hang the king size doona cover on the line and ended up wrapped in it like a mummy - i had to wrestle with it forever to get it pegged safely on the line. I dare not hang my undies outside for fear they will end up in the neighbours back yard.

I gym'd this morning at 5:30 with JB... quite a pathetic effort on my behalf, took it kind of
slow'n' steady. Oh well at least i made it there... unlike yesterday Zzzzzzzzz.

Speaking of ZZZZZzzzz, might just go check out my bed... see if its still there..... straighten it out...Zzzzzzzzz, mmmm i love to zzzzzzzz. I'm just checking for holes in my eyelids....
goodnight

shopping

2007-05-25T11:03:00.000+08:00

I'm hoping to make this post a tad more cheery than my last effort!

I've had two days off from work... well sort of. I had to go to Kal on Wednesday to be a witness for a court case... a sexual assault from two years ago. Ugh, talk about a bit sketchy on the details after so long. It's proven to me why it's so important to WRITE everything down... so when they're quizzing you, you don't sound like a dumb arse. I felt a bit like a politician... 'I don't recall' or 'sorry, I don't remember'.

Anyway despite the witness thing we (husband and I) stayed in a nice hotel for the night and went out to dinner! yeehaar! We drank champagne, munched on an antipasto platter, pulled the piss out of the dodgy waitresses and generally had a great time.

The next morning we grabbed a real coffee and I literally spent the entire journey to the coffee shop (and the duration of the coffee order) begging husband to take me to Target for retail therapy! It's pathetic, it really is. I love, love, love to shop, i don't necesarily have to buy anything, but the feeling of wandering around a 'real' shop, browsing ...mmmm, just gives me warm-fuzzies inside! Husband doesn't share my shopping passion one little bit.

Our conversation goes something like this...

me: can we pleeeeaase go to Target?
him: why? What do we need to get from there?
me: silence (and a sulky face)
him: well??
me: nothing...i ...just..want ..to ...look.
him: but if we don't need anything then why do we have to go there?
me: because I LOVE LOVE LOVE Target... pleeeaase
him: so you just want to go and look around till you find something to spend money on just for the sake of it?
me (thinking) yes... and there is a problem with that??
me: noooo, i just like to look... see a real shop... smell the price tags...touch the clothes...fill a trolley...
him: no way. nope. its not happening. no chance. we've got too much to do.
me: silence and the look of complete pathetic devastation
..
long pause
..
him: okay - you've got 10 minutes and I'm following you
me: boo you. Noooo following, I'll hide!
him: Drea I'm FOLLOWING.. and I'm timing..

He did follow, but only for a few minutes till I lost him in the DVD section!!
20 minutes later we left the store with 2 long sleeve Tshirts, some sugar free lollies and a DVD.

xx

1080

2007-05-22T18:56:00.000+08:00

1080 aka Sodium Monofluoroacetate
I'd never heard of it before living here, now it gives me nightmares.

Its a highly toxic substance used to bait wild dogs (and other animals) in this area. It is injected into little pieces of dried meat resembling beef jerky and aerial drops of 'baits' are made from planes or station owners/ CALM officers lay baits on properties.

I appreciate the stock loss problems that wild dogs cause, but 1080 baits aren't the answer.
This substance has no antidote. Its ingestion results in a prolonged inhumane revolting death that is horrifying to witness. Unfortunately its victims are not always the intended recipients.

Today I tried to help a couple who had come rushing to the hospital with their beautiful much-loved Blue Heeler dog that was convulsing.
I knew there was no hope - the dog displayed the classic signs of baiting. I've been in the same situation at the hospital at least 10 times previously, watching as a much loved pet runs around madly squealing like its in agony, before dropping and arching their back in complete full body spasm, drooling and foaming from the mouth then convulsing uncontrollably. Unfortunately it doesn't stop there. This awful sequence of events continues in a macabre cycle which can go on for hours. The nearest vet is 2.5 hours away. People present with their sick dogs crying and pleading for someone to help... I always try but there is nothing I can do except to sedate the dog or euthanase it - I'm not qualified to do either but I can't bare to watch the pain and suffering. Todays doggie died within 20 minutes, I gave her sedation and cuddled her in a blanket until she died then wrapped her up for her owners.

Its bloody horrible and it always leaves me completely disturbed for days afterwards.

I'm off to cuddle my doggies (I haven't let them out of my sight all afternoon).

R.I.P Blue Heeler

Bung eye

2007-05-18T19:48:00.002+08:00

I'm getting really frustrated with not being able to put pics on my posts! aarrggghh. I can put them as a page element but not on my post... P A I N F U L.

I went for a walk with husband this afternoon, it was our lame excuse for exercising! We headed off through the bush (me with my treasured Camelback on!) and walked for about an hour. Walking with husband is never as exciting as walking with the girlfriends... for a start I'm not that fond of walking... why walk when you can run? Also he's not exactly big on conversation, so it can be kinda dull!! sorry husband, but it's the truth... long walks are for long goss sessions. All my walking buddies over the years have been great chatters, it certainly makes the time go much quicker.

* * * * * *

A guy came into A&E today with a metal filing (a small one... not as gruesome as it sounds!) embedded in his eye & I had to dig it out with a needle. Ewww! Eye things make me get 'sympathy tears' - if i'm looking closely at someones red, sore, watery eye - then my eyes start watering like crazy, my nose runs and it can end up looking all quite pathetic. Its can be really embarrassing... luckily the bung-eyed patients are usually a tad visually impaired so don't easily notice my 'tears & snot'. You blokes out there need to wear safety glasses damn it... then I won't have to dig foreign bodies out of eyes! And i'll be a happier nurse.

* * * * * *

I had this phone interview thingy today, I'm participating in a 'Twin study' and it was all about alcohol & drug use and mental health. I have no idea how I ended up involved in the study (apart from the obvious fact that I'm a twin) but they offer a $50 Coles/Myer voucher if you participate so OF COURSE i went 'yeah'... voucher = shopppping... yay.

My god. The interview took 2 hours!! For some daft reason i expected it to take 20 minutes. My ear was numb and i kept drifting off thinking about other things (where can i find a nurse for next week? what should i have for dinner, i can't believe people bleach their behinds.....) .. then i had to keep asking the researcher lady to 'please repeat the question' - it was a killer. I earned every single cent of that 50-buck voucher, so they'd better not dupe me, it better be in the mail!!! The whole time I kept thinking 'my twin brother would've hung up by now... he would never have done this'.
I'd better warn him that they're going to call him.
Actually no, I think I'll tell him it'll only take a few minutes and that it's really worth doing. Haaarrr, payback for all the times he pinned me down and played 'typewriter'* on me.
Yeah great idea.

Seeya!

* Typewriter - he'd pin me down, sit on my chest pinning my arms down with his knees/legs then 'type' on my chest and 'return' by slapping the side of my head. Charming.

Where's the snow?

2007-05-16T21:28:00.000+08:00

Who turned the cooling on???? It f-f-freeezing here all of a sudden. Had to go on a mercy mission to dig out all the warm winter clothes from the depths of the spare cupboard. Ugg-boots, fluffy dressing gown. I'm looking pretty stylish at the moment.

* * * * *

The cold must be affecting my dogs brain, he's doing backflip-spin-outs trying to amuse himself.
Funny.
Now he's chewing on older dog trying to get him to play.
Not so funny... lots of growling going on. Munching and growling. Old dog doesn't want to play, he wants to snooze.

* * * * *

Dr 90210 is on Fox must go watch...

Oh my god. There is a chick named Tabitha on there (apparently she's a Plastic surgery addicted Porn star) who has had many procedures in the past... 'Anal bleaching' being one of them. WTF?? I'm going to HAVE to Google that one and find out exactly what it is, curiosity is killing me! She just asked the surgeon if it was possible to implant her precious 3 Carat diamond in her wrist, so it could be 'permanently with her'. Pfftt.
How about implanting some brain cells? That might work better for you Tabby.

* * * * * *

I did a Tae Bo DVD this morning... what a blast from the past, haven't done one for ages. It was great but I'd forgotten how seriously annoying the American counting was. Wayne kept mock-imitating it from the next room so it was obviously driving him crazy too. Billy's kinda cool though. You've gotta dig his enthusiasm if nothing else.

Its gonna be a long rest of the week... overtime galore. I think all the Nurses out there are in hiding. I'm going to have to kidnap one soon - we're getting desperate!

x

Oh, PS if you're curious like me here's the bleaching deal!!! Yuk.

A Fun Run

2007-05-13T21:45:00.000+08:00

Well I did it! The Mothers Day Classic Fun Run/Walk is done and dusted! We had a great turn out...approx 50 people, the coppers helped out by providing a sausage sizzle and we had helium balloons and spot prizes thanks to local donations. I had lots of help from friends (& husband) and the morning went reasonably smooth. We gave out helium balloons to everyone to release before the walk to 'remember those affected by Breast Cancer' ... it gave me goosebumps thinking of my Gran & my Mum.

My 4km running effort was pathetic! My shins went into a major spasm almost straight away and i had to stop & walk. That hasn't happened to me for ages, I think it was probably from the dirt track... the surface was 'mobile' and I think (??) I may have been 'gripping' a bit with my toes. Thats my excuse anyway. It bloody hurts when it happens, my feet point down and my shins cramp/spasm to the point where I can't flex my foot up & i feel like throwing up ...nice. Oh well, no land-speed record made by me today! Tania did the 8km run (despite her clagged up flu-ey nostrils!!) Lewie & Adam jogged 4km, otherwise everyone else walked. Tiff took her dogs and dressed them up in pink Tshirts! They looked great. I'd post pics BUT for some reason I can't seem to on this computer anymore... it keeps saying 'error'. WTF?? No pics makes me feel NAKED! I can't blame blogger, I think it's something to do with security settings on this computer which i know N O T H I N G about. Boo.

* * * * * *
Happy Mothers Day!!

* * * * * *

My 3 days off are over, back to work tomorrow. This week is going to be a Drea-week. Me me me me me. I need to focus on ME. Not work, not the fun run but ME! Well thats my plan.

Seeya!

Weedy Principal

2007-05-10T22:24:00.000+08:00

Hmmm, i just spent two days in Kal at an Occ Health and safety managers course (when i'm not even a manager) learning to 'spot the hazard' ....... hazard smashzard, if i hear the word hazard or worksafe again in the next week - I'm going to consider myself an impending incident. I am hopeless attending workshops/conferences that i have minimal interest in. I get this involuntary sleepy thing, where no matter what i do my eyes just try their hardest to close, my vision goes fuzzy and staying awake is like harder than crawling up Mt Everest with a sumo suit on. Its awful. I make myself sit right up the front in the middle so i have to pay attention and get involved, but even then sometimes i battle. Two WHOLE L-O-N-G days listening to one dude who's passion is job safety analysis. what a blast.

* * * * * *
Okay, now I've got that out of my system I'll brag about the fact i've now got 3 days off. Yipppee! The Mothers Day Classic is on Sunday. We have 42 people registered so far (YAY!) and hopefully a few more will turn up on the day. I got all the 'freebies' in the mail yesterday - Groovy bright PINK Tupperware bottles, PINK bags and medallions with a PINK ribbon! I was very impressed! (being a pink lover and all!) Also got the merchandise I ordered...pink Tshirt for me and a blue one for husband. I've got a few last minute things to organise tomorrow then we'll cross our fingers and pray for sunshine on Sunday!

* * * * * *

I went outside yesterday arvo to put some rubbish in the bin. While out there I noticed some weeds in my side garden bed, so (ever the queen of procrastination) i sat on the edge of the driveway to pull a few out. Without any thought whatsoever... i then hurled a handful over the fence (a low fence facing into the vacant bushland next door).
Then i heard a "hey...whoah!"
Then i looked up
Shit
Double-shit, crap

I had just hurled my handful of soggy-red-dirt-encrusted weeds straight onto the School Principals nice Navy Blazer as he innocently walked past on his way home from work.
Unfortunately for me he lives next door- which is going to make it pretty hard to hide from him for the next month while i recover from embarrassment.

* * * * * *

Yay 3 days off... did i mention that already???
Yay ya yayayayayaya.

dodgy drinks

2007-05-06T15:25:00.000+08:00

My mojo has found it's way back! Well kind of. I can't officially say it's back after only one week of pulling my finger out my large butt, however its a reasonable start.

This week my exercise has included:

2 x 45min runs,

1 weights session (upper body)

1 HIIT session (running)

one game of squash! (Tania whipped me 3 - zip) boo

Well heeello 'Mrs fitness' and welcome back! yeah yeah.

I have got up 3 times before morning shifts to do my workouts (yawn) thank god I have friends silly enough to join me at 5am, otherwise I would have most probably piked every time.

* * * * * *

We went out for dinner to the local pub on Thursday to say bye to 2 Agency Nurses that have just done a stint here while travelling around Australia. They were both really nice girls (very sorry to see them go...was hoping to hook them up with some hunky 'local' dude so they'd stay in the town... no luck... no hunky dudes to be seen within a 400 mile radius!!).

Anyway... husband (and come to think of it everyone else but me) got drastically drunk, noone had planned to, but it just turned out to be a fun night with a tonne of drinks. I was trying to take it very slow in the drinks dept, i had a 12hr shift the next day starting at 7am and didn't fancy feeling sleep deprived and seedy. I was sipping on a 'Smirnoff twist' - a girly Vodka drink that looks like Lemonade and tastes like lemonade, when Tiff decided to buy shooters for pretty much the whole bar and insisted on me 'shooting'. NO WAY i said... i hate shooters. They equal disaster (ie: hugging the loo puking yourself stupid for the next 8 hours) i continued to refuse so she grabbed my drink and poured the shooter into it!! The result...

It bubbled and froth'd then went almost so 'solid' you could carve it!! Bloody disgusting!

She promptly ordered me another 'Twist' and gave up on me having a shooter... thank god.

* * * * * *

I'm off to Kal again in a few minutes for 2 days.(seem to be living out a suitcase these days).

Better go!

Portable water,lollies and a holiday.

2007-05-01T13:39:00.000+08:00

I'm going for a run this arvo. Its been a while, a l o n g while since my last run. I made an eBay purchase for running and it's awesome! Check it out...

Its a Camelback that goes around you waist and its perfect for me because I'm ALWAYS thirsty, especially when jogging. By the time I finish a run I'm so dying for a drink my tongue is pretty much stuck to the top of my mouth. With this groovy thing I can sip to my hearts content the entire jog...hands free! Sure I look like a bit of a tosser but who cares! Best darn invention ever.

Hmmm, maybe I'll fill it up with Iced Coffee (& a few ice blocks) and i can sip it slowly all day. yummm!

* * * * * *
Today I'm making a real effort to eat more like a human and less like a freak. I had oats n yoghurt for breaky and a cheese & salad sandwich for lunch. We're having chicken & vegies for dinner and I bought a huge pumpkin to make some Pumpkin soup. Vitamins...yeah, what a concept!

* * * * * *

I sent my Mum and Dad one of these yesterday. No reason really, just wanted to let them know I love them and thought I'd help to rott their teeth a little!!

A kilo of lollies!!

They'll love it & so will their dentist.

* * * * * *

3 months today we're off to New Zealand skiing again. Yeehaar. I'd better get exercising and move some blubber from my butt before I attempt skiing down the mountains again . Actually come to think of it the extra padding might help since I seem to spend the majority of the time on my butt. I swear I fell over 500 times last year. It was fun though.

I LOVED skiing, will post a skiing pic just to get my excitement going again. I wish I'd learnt to ski 10 years ago.

he he he... looks like I'm skiing up hill, although it's more likely I'm sliding down backwards..aaarrrggghh! Heeeelp.

What a boring blog post today.

Sorry!

x

Zap-happy

2007-04-29T20:31:00.000+08:00

Well I'm back from a weekend of defibrillating and resuscitating. I went to Kalgoorlie for the Advanced Life Support 2 day course. I left on Friday even tho the course didn't start until Saturday morning... had to squeeze in some retail therapy! Shops...oooh shops! I could touch real things for sale instead having to browse at them on a computer screeen. Such fun!

I'm going to go to bed tonight with the squealing noise of the defib alarm and prompts ringing in my ears. I have to say I'm pretty much over anything defib-related after 2 mega-intensive days doing nothing but zapping the crap out of plastic mannequins. I was actually secretly hoping someone would fuck up and zap themselves so i could do the 'real' thing on someone that wasn't just a plastic limbless torso! Is that wrong??

* * * * * *

My vino impregnated carpet is still just that... Vino impregnated.
Bloody Bicarb and salt trick is crap. It looks awful. Will have to try some of Melissa's linked 'tips' tomorrow.

Going to bed now, will perform a decent posting tomorrow!
Promise.

x

Vino de'splat

2007-04-26T22:07:00.000+08:00

This is what happens when you try to balance a glass of red on the heater while scoffing apricot chicken down your gob - after already consuming a tad too many beers.

Nice one husband. (doooooorrrk)

Guess who had to clean it up? yup, me. Well he looked at me with this horror confused look on his face (that men always seem to put on when they want to get out of doing some kind of crap-ola job) and kind of mumbled ' awww Drea, can you help me??' I had to help... plus the vision of a HUGE stain right smack-bang in the doorway of the lounge forever to come, was also somewhat motivating. I remember my friends very 'Martha Gardener-ish' Mum using Bicarb on a wine spill once... so I did the same.

Except I used up all our bicarb in the process.

So then I used salt as well (thanks Google for your advice)

A Big tub of salt.... all gone on the spillage (there was a lot of wine in that glass)

Maybe I shoulda soaked the wine up with a towel first. God i'm clever.

Now it looks like a big science experiment in the doorway of the lounge... the most obvious place it could possibly be.

Suggestions anyone???

Birthday tears

2007-04-25T11:03:00.000+08:00

I'm sick of my grey blog, I'm going to mess around with the format a bit, so expect some changes. I'm in one of those moods where I just can't make my mind up...so it could take a while!

It was my sisters birthday yesterday (Happy Birthday Jo!). She rang me in the morning to say she had got her album thingy i made her and she'd been sitting in the car at the post office looking through it bawling her eyes out!! It wasn't supposed to make her CRY!!!!! It was supposed to be a happy warm-fuzzy-i-love you-your-my-sister kind of thing! She said she loved it... which is great (since it took me like a gazillion years to actually complete!)

I'm off to do some housework before Wayne gets home and discovers I've spent the whole day wasting time in blog-land!
*shriek..who me?*
x

A Dogs life

2007-04-22T17:00:00.000+08:00

Well it's Sunday and it seems forever since I last blogged.

The town is covered in big angry grey storm clouds, and until about 20 minutes ago we had been in a blackout for a couple of hours. Wayne came home from work to find the place in darkness and me on the couch with the dogs on top of me (both quivering in pathetic-ness from the thunder outside) I was trying to snooze between offers of reassurance to the whimpy mutts.

Wayne was pacing around in boredom, it was dark and quiet, and his afternoon of footy watching had been destroyed by a storm. He was trying to find something to amuse himself with and he said to me 'Do ya wanna root??'. I just about fell off the couch choking with laughter - for a start who says root these days?? And... although we've been married for 9 years puh-lease try to make the offer somewhat romantic and not just because your bored shitless and it's the last thing you could think of to amuse yourself!! What a dork, thank gawd about 20 seconds later the power came back on and I haven't heard from him since, he's reverted back to being a footy-head.

* * * * * *

I took a heap of photo's of the dogs yesterday. I sat out on the back lawn with them, they were playing tug-o-war with a dog toy thingy, then doing laps chasing each other, it was funny to watch... aww i love my dumb doggies! I've posted some of the pics.

I did a couple of good runs last week, other than that my fitness wasn't as great as I had planned. My eating was okay, lots more fruit n veg and nutrition.

* * * * * *

Mothers Day Classic update:

The Fun Run planning is going great guns. JB and I decided to go down and sit ourselves outside the supermarket Saturday morning to advertise the fun run/walk and to see if we could sign anyone up. We had a great response, signed up approx 15 people and also managed to get over $140 in donations (from people who weren't willing to walk 4km but wanted to donate to the Breast Cancer charity) and some surprising generosity. One guy signed up himself and his wife to do the walk ($15 each) gave us a $50 note and said 'keep the change, it's for a good cause'. Amazing eh? There are still 3 weeks to go, so hopefully we'll get a few more people registered and walking/running for a good cause.

While we were sitting down there this very friendly dog hung out with us, he was beautiful, still a puppy with the hugest ears! He must've escaped from someones yard, we think we worked out who he belonged to and eventually sent him home, but not before I (the crazy dog lover) took some pics of him. I could've stolen him, he jumped up into my lap and was just so cute & super friendly. JB (a non-doggie lover!) was not impressed. I should've signed him up for the fun run, He could've been our mascot with a pink bandana or something.
Check out the flappa ears!

This week I plan to do 3 runs, attend the ANZAC dawn service and dig out my Tae Bo DVD's! (Not necessarily in that order). I have to go to Kalgoorlie this weekend for a course, so will be away Friday and Saturday night, back Sunday arvo.

This is the last week of me 'playing' boss. Wow that 5 weeks has flown and it actually hasn't been anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be. It just shows that sometimes we have more ability than we sometimes believe we do.

xx

wobbly when running

2007-04-16T21:26:00.000+08:00

Yeah well, so much for my post about not worrying about what i eat and focusing so much on my weight. It seems my brain won't just 'turn off' that stuff.

Here's the deal. Basically I've been eating like a freak, (what? you mean normal people don't sit and eat whole boxes of Tiny Teddies for lunch??) and the Pope has probably done more exercise than me. Now my clothes don't fit. Funny that.

Sooo, I've decided to head toward the 'healthy' side of the fence again, to give my brain some well deserved Nutrition, my muscles some tone (under that flab) and my buttons a chance to do up!! Ha!

In all seriousness, I'm feeling wobbly and lazy again. You know that constant groggy - yawny feeling? Its AWFUL & I prefer feeling fit and 'alive', not puffing when I walk up stairs, not squishing into clothes and feeling self conscious about the spare tyre developing around my girth. Most importantly I prefer to feel focused with clear thoughts, and diet plays a huge part in that.

Today I have tried to eat smaller more regular meals. I drank WATER instead of IC (wow!) and I went for a fabulous 56 minute jog with Tan which made me feel on top of the world.

Yeah! Feeling better already!

* * * * * *

The Fun Run update:

The Leo 'Mothers Day classic' is happening!!! Woo Hoo, we're registered as a regional event and I'm excited! Its not on the web site yet, but is a work in progress. All we have to do now is to get the lovely Leo folk to register & join in.

The girl moves

2007-04-13T06:29:00.000+08:00

I just had to post and say I JUST WENT FOR A RUN!!!! Yay!! Miracles do happen.

I managed to move my hefty butt out of bed at 0445 am to meet Nikki for a jog out to Gwalia. I got up to find she'd left a message on my phone (I have to guiltily confess after a crap-ola sleep I had kinda hoped it was her cancelling the jog... hee hee) but no, she was telling me the visiting maintenance man from Kal had kind of 'invited himself' on our morning jog and she was for-warning me & apologising her little heart out (not her fault tho...plus i don't really care who comes jogging, the more the merrier). Anyway we did a hospital to Gwalia jog and I did really well! I was worried because it's been ages, my fitness is at an all time low, and last time i jogged my shins felt like they were about to explode. Not to mention the fact that Nik is an awesome long distance running queen, and maintenance man looks like a wirey-natural-runner-kind. (You know that look... when u can imagine people in little running shorts and a sweaty singlet going for miles n miles?) But I did fine... managed to hold a half reasonable conversation with them the whole way and Maintenance man found it tough going, so i felt secretly great about that.

* * * * * *

I'm wagging work today (well half a day of work) to go to Kal with husband for a dirty weekend! yippee. well actually it's only one night, we're coming back tomorrow arvo. Thats still ample time to stay at a nice hotel, sip cocktails in the bar, have a relaxing spa in their ginormous spa-baths and perform some much needed retail therapy.

Halle - bloody- lujah

Easter bunnies

2007-04-09T21:50:00.000+08:00

I now understand why all the non-shift workers I'm surrounded by RAVE like lunatics about the Easter break. I have just (for the first time in my entire working life) had a real Easter break. F O U R days OFF!!! Yay...yahoooo, yipppeee. Oh my gawd it's been wonderful! It is the only truly wonderful thing about doing the bosses job for 5 weeks - not only do I manage to have Easter off, but I also jag another short week when ANZAC day comes around. As a nurse I usually work public holidays... half the time I don't even realise it is a public holiday (until I go to the shop or Post Office and realise it's closed!). So YAY, I feel refreshed and rejuve'd.

So what have I done the past 4 days?

I've had a gardening and scrapbooking FRENZY! My two favourite 'relaxation' hobbies have been done to death. Today I spent no less than 8 hours gardening. Weeding, digging, pruning, weeding, potting, watering, weeding some more. It was great. I've got blisters to prove my efforts, but I feel fantastic that I managed to clean up the entire back and front garden beds. I wish I'd taken before and after shots - I could've sent them to Backyard Blitz & they might've hired me to be part of their team!

Scrapbooking... well i finally finished my sisters 'better-late-than-never' 40th Birthday album thingy. It's awesome (pity she turned 40 last year...haarr!) and I know she'll love it. Here are some pics.... (I hope she doesn't read my blog)

If Scrapbooking bores you ... you'd better scroll down fast!

Well I'm off to bed to have dreams about pulling weeds, digging trenches and cutting and glueing bits of paper!!

PS: I've eaten like a 'normal' person today... healthy but not obsessive. It felt great!

Obese or obsessing?

2007-04-07T13:13:00.000+08:00

Have you ever noticed how pathetically weight obsessed we all are?? Hey...I'm one of the biggest offenders, but lately I'm starting to think seriously about it all. I appreciate the health benefits of maintaining a 'healthy weight range', but the amount of time, effort, depression and obsession that people put themselves through.... trying to achieve something that they think will make their lives a 'whole lot better'... when in fact many of us are in a healthy weight range.
I've come to the conclusion its sad, very sad. Why don't we spend equal amounts of time learning to love the body we have, appreciating that we're healthy and fortunate enough to be around people we love, in fresh air and sunshine, in a country that's peaceful and beautiful.

Instead of spending millions on 'weight loss' drugs and regime's, why doesn't some of that money & focus go towards accepting ourselves for who we are. I know that I seem to have an all or nothing approach. I'm either fixated on eating like a saint, or I switch off and don't give a toss. I have problems with binge eating at times, I eat when I'm emotional, I eat 'forbidden' treats when my husband isn't around (sneakily hiding the evidence!) and I've finally come to the conclusion that a lot of my life seems to revolve around obsessive food behaviour. I'm sure if I stopped focusing so bloody hard on what I'm eating, when i should eat, and my left and right brain stopped arguing over whether i should exercise or not.... if i just TRULY ate and did whatever i felt like, then I would be much better off. The problem is i can't seem to turn that part of my obsessive brain off... and that sucks.

I was looking through some old photo's yesterday when I was 12kg lighter than i am now. I remember thinking then (approx 6 years ago) that i was overweight. WTF?? I wasted so much time feeling miserable when there was nothing wrong with me!! Aarrggh.

So in summary, i have to admit I'm a bit lost at the moment. I read other blogs and so many of us seem to be in the same boat. I want to lose a few kgs and be fit, but I'm sick of obsessing about it and feeling so down on myself when i get off track. I'm wasting time by not appreciating what i have and should be grateful for.

Happy Easter.

Rockets and perming solution

2007-03-25T11:47:00.000+08:00

It's amazing what a decent sleep can achieve. Throw a few quality Zzzz's into the air and your growly-bear personalty goes into hibernation. Thank god for that.

Husband and i just took the doggies to the oval for a walk, it's a beautiful day outside and they loved it. We must have worn them out because they're both now unconscious on their beds. There was a guy down the oval with his kids shooting off these rocket-parachute thingy's. I had no idea he was about to launch one when he did, it was so loud and i almost had to get a doggy-dumpage bag for myself - it scared the living beejeezers outta me! It was amazing how high these things went and how powerful they were. The kids loved it.

* * * * * *

In all my misery yesterday i forgot to mention my one exciting thing i did during the week.

I went down an underground mine! It was an awesome experience, we went down 680m underground, spent approx 2hrs having a look around different levels and at different machines. One of the Occ Health and Safety guys from the mine (Danny) took us on a guided tour... me, my boss (Elissa) and the visiting physio (Nat). I was a mine virgin.... had never set foot inside one before and knew next to nothing about about the whole process. I learnt so much, it was so interesting (and perhaps a little disturbing) learning about how they get to the gold, all the safety requirements, the future plans and costs (mega-gazillions of $$) and especially learning about how the 'old fella miners' did it all 100's of years ago, they must have been MAD! They're not even half way digging the declines yet, and it's amazing how hot, stuffy & humid it is down the bottom (not to mention it stinks like awful perming solution...i was having 80's flashbacks!)

At the bottom Danny took us on this very sloshy-muddy trek to find these groovy little crystals 'growing' from rocks...some mineral deposit thing that makes for quite a pretty little display of spikey 'crystals' growing upwards. Cool. We grabbed a couple to take home as souveniers (what we really wanted was some GOLD, but he was non-obliging... the crystal growths had to suffice!).

* * * * * *

Midget and I are off on a M'Bike ride this arvo. She got her 'Learners' the other day so we've been practicing riding on 'real' roads (wow). It makes life much easier - trying to get to good bush tracks without going on main roads was proving to be quite challenging, we had to sneak across a few roads in the past when we got stuck in the bush, so atleast we can do it guilt free now!

I'll report back later.

Seeya!

Ugh.

2007-03-24T22:39:00.000+09:00

Oh my gawd, it's been like nearly a week since my last post. (oooh, that sounds like a confession).

I have worked a gazillion hours overtime because Nurses seem to be in HIDING and don't want to come and play with us here. It's been a nightmare trying to find any agency nurses, the whole process is exhausting - phoning, begging, emailing, more phoning, re-doing rosters, re-doing them again, 'n again, 'n again... trying to give some people a break and magically trying to cover shifts with nothing, all while you're physically and mentally exhausted yourself. Its times like this I want to be a gardener. Pottering outside all day in the sunshine with the birdies tweet'ing and the smell of freshly mowed lawn clippings. Mmmm sounds like a much better option. No poo, pus, rudeness or exhaustion. Sometimes i wonder why on earth i put myself through it. And to think the next 5 weeks I'm doing the D.O.N's job (because no other loser would take it on), that means dealing with not one, but TWO hospitals. Fuck, fuck, fuck, bum, boo, fuck, shit, bloody, crap, fuck, what was i thinking? crap, fuck, double fuck.

Ho hummmm, I just need a good sleep and some decent exercise. When I don't exercise or eat well & am tired, my brain turns to mush. After reading what i just wrote i think its pretty mushy right now.... I'm guessing about the consistency of Pal puppy food.

I'm going to bed before i make everyone miserable

xx

Big Reds

2007-03-18T18:01:00.000+09:00

My folks rang tonight and asked if i wanted some more tomatoes sent. YEAH...course i do! My Father-bear grows the yummiest juiciest tomatoes ever, and he cutely packages them up in a post-pack box and sends them to me (They live down south in beautiful Walpole). The store-bought tomatoes are mega-dodgy (bland, floury ..blechh!) so i LOVE getting tomato-survival-packages. Dad has sent me Avocadoes, Mangoes, veges and Strawberry plants (the runners) thru the post, i swear he'd send me a bag of horse manure if he could find a post pack big enough. Surprisingly they always arrive in great condition, havent opened the parcel to find tomato-puree... yet.

* * * * * *

My exercise is going pretty good and my diet okay.

Friday morning i did a gym workout before work, 50 minutes of intervals/circuit. JB came to the gym with me - thankgod she shares my enthusiasm (a.k.a stupidity) otherwise i'd never manage to go solo to the gym at that time of the morning. It was dark when we left (5am), and dark when we came home (6am). Although i used to be a staunch daylight savings fan, now that we have it i'd rather return to the old system. It doesnt get light here until 7am and its bloody dangerous jogging early in the morning-attempting to dodge big boulders, twigs and rocks on the path (oh and beer cans, broken glass, drunk bodies etc) I have nearly stacked it a kazillion times. I need to steal a headlamp off a local miner so i can see where i'm going. Actually i might just do that...
No exercise for me yesterday, just a motorbike ride with husband which was great fun. Why is it that flying through bush tracks on red dirt and rocks is so much fun? It makes me feel like a little excited kid. I put some new stickers on my bike, they're hibiscus flowers- i bought them in Hawaii. Wayne said my bike looks like a Hawaiin shirt now. Thats not quite the look i was hoping to achieve.

* * * * * *
This morning i jogged 7km with Tan. I still haven't reached that 'i'm really enjoying this' stage, its more like 'oh my gawd... this is kiiillliiing meeee' as i struggle to the end.
It gets a bit (tiny bit) better each time i go though.

* * * * * *
I think i'm going to have to do a 12 hour shift tomorrow, our agency nurse is a no-show. Ugh.

seeya x

Stolen Cows and conspiracy theories

2007-03-15T22:28:00.000+09:00

I had IC today :-(

JB bought me one, so it's her fault!! I was most obliging and it was GREAT!! Yummmmmy.

Maybe i can have just one a week and thats it. Yeah maybe i'll try that, just the one. Yeah and maybe pigs can fly and Emu's can iceskate. I swear they put some addictive substance in them, i know so many people who share my problem, it's the next world issue i reckon. I can see the news headlines now...

"ICED COFFEE addiction rocks the nation as Cows unable to meet milk demands"
or this ...
"Cows stolen in attempt to maintain personal milk supplies"

Its udderly crazy....hah! Get it? Udder?? haaaaaarrr.

Well apart from that hiccup i had a great day. Oats for breaky, yoghurt thingy for mid morning, half an egg roll for lunch and steak & salad for dinner.

I got home from work and felt like going for a jog (?? WTF) so I bravely (and rather stupidly given it was bloody near 40 degrees outside) set off on a solo jog for 45 mins, puff puff, not sure on the distance - have always been terrible with estimations, but it was a reasonable run.

Tonight i had dinner with a friend from work which was great... lots of girly chit chat.

I'm off for a mega early gym session in the morning with JB before my early shift, so i'd better go to bed! seey'all

xx