20 no more

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

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

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...

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

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

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..' .

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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.

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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

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!

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

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

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.

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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.