The Kids

I was going to post a couple of photos of the backyard (before pic of course) so that when the work starts around the place you can see what we have achieved.

Unfortunately after looking at the pics on the camera I am so embarassed about the amount of weeds I'll wait until I've done some culling this weekend.

It's amazing to see how much they have taken over in a couple of months - unless you are completely on top of it they just take over the whole ground and somehow you just get used to it and don't do a thing about it!!!

On the landscaping front, John went back over the old drainage trench as it had filled in a little bit due to the rain and weather we have had since then. Next weekend we'll at least fill one section of it (road base, pipe etc) and then start on the next section.

Dad will hopefully be down next weekend to lay the foundations for the garden beds so the backyard should be full of workers - the puppies will love having people in their domain!!

On the camera I also found some pics of the kids from christmas that I had forgotten were on there ... so figured I'll show them instead as they are a much better thing to look at than our weedy back yard!!!!

The Tasmanians arrived

On Saturday our little estate didn't know what hit them when 3 mean, rough bikies headed down our street.

Ok .. so mean and rough is completely over exaggerated.

More like 4, over middle aged people in the prime of their lives spending their children's inheritance and enjoying the good life!!!

It was very cool to see John's dad and his partner Marly with 2 friends (Viv & Connie) get on their bikes and take a trip down the Great Ocean Road for a week. Who knows where they will end up after the navigation by Tony to even get to our place, but I guess that will be the fun of it all.

As I write this they are probably wreaking havoc and having a bloody good time while they do it!!

I hope I do cool stuff like that when I'm old :-)))

Some new plants

Well I couldn't help myself ... I've been very good for such a long time but the itch to get some new plants in the front garden was killing me. With no child and no husband, the weekend was the perfect time to wander in and out of nurseries with no complaining.

Because I have my eye on the bigger prize (back patio getting done) I didn't want to go overboard so I just bought enough to finish off the little garden bed around the letterbox.

The photo is not so good as I took it with my phone but it looks quite lovely.

I'm hoping the effect around the bed of the driveway will be a two step hedge ... you can't see them very well on this pic but there are little hedge plants (same as the ones at the front windows) next to the driveway, then there is another plant behind it that will hedge as well to about 40cm. The ground was awful so I spent some time hitting it with claybreaker and putting some new soil in there.

Fingers crossed the little plants survive!!

I'm here to paint ze' fence

Before work commences on the paving area, I figured now is the perfect opportunity to paint the fence (and also before it starts turning grey and ugly).

The only question is ... what colour!!! I have absolutely no intention of painting it again so I have to get it right the first time.

My thought is to go a darker colour as the pavers will be a light colour and I don't want to much 'cream' colourings out the back but then again will a dark colour look too dull.

Anyway ... the choice is endless I guess so it's off to Dulux on Friday to check it all out.

Can't wait .... things are slowly starting to happen out the back and I'm so excited to think that once John gets home the work will really get started.

Bring it on!!!

Happy Friday

I've learnt the secret of getting over a bad day .... champagne.

Does wonders for your soul :-)

Happy Friday dear friends

:-)

What a day

Ever had one of those days??

Today I'm having one ... a mixture of anger, frustration, tears, joy, disbelief ... every bloody emotion you can think of.

So the day starts out fairly normally ... had a wee bit of a hangover from last night but nothing that a good cup of coffee wouldn't fix.

The boys in the office frustrated the life out of me ... sometimes I just don't get their logic. Hello frustration.

Later after an email had a flashback moment of a dreadful time of my life that has caused me the most pain I have ever experienced and hope to never again. Bring on tears.

This bought on some very real fears and concerns and had them brushed aside as if they mean absolutely nothing. Where are you anger ... aaah there you are.

Out of the blue get a call from a dear old friend who seems to be very grown up and is taking life very seriously. But it was awesome to hear from him and hear how he and his family are doing. There are a lot of people that come and go throughout your life (some you remember more fondly than others) but this person is somebody that will stay in my heart forever. You're a champ .. you know who you are :-))

So .. joy replaces anger and tears.

Work goes on and more frustration with the men in the office!!

But the best news of the day is that my husband is finally coming home to work in Melbourne. For how long? who knows, but the great thing is that will be home for a while at least.

Maybe not so joyful for him when he reads that he now has to get the backyard done before winter (insert evil laugh here).

Calling all geeks and nerds

Hold on to your hats for this news may send you into a minor meltdown ....

The Stargate movie is due out very soon!!!!

Sad, but true ..... we love it.

I'm looking forward to finding out whether Daniel & Vala ever 'get it on' and how much bigger T'ealc's arms really have gotten over the last few years.

These are exciting times my friends ... exciting times indeed.

:-)

How to decide

I've just come back from a lovely weekend in Hobart seeing hubby and my two wicked step children. Had an awesome time (mainly because I hadn't seen John for almost 3 weeks) but also hadn't seen the kids since christmas.

As much as the little buggers drive me mad, I love them just as much as they annoy me so it all balances out!!!

As you all know, I'm itching to get my bike licence (given my hissy fit in January and decision not to go for it then) and I always look longingly at the bikes that race past me ... generally murming the comment "lucky bastard".

Yesterday my heart skipped a beat when John pointed out a Suzuki GS500. "what do you think of that?" was the question. What do you say .. it look just like the sort of bike I wanted but figured I wasn't allowed to have it as a learner.

I answered with the standard "yeah looks way cool" and kept walking.

John proceeded to talk to the owner and came back a few minutes later. It is a bike that I could possibly get under the new learner system, enabling me to get a bigger bike and not ride around on a 250!!!

I took a quick look at the Suzuki website this morning when I arrived and sent the link to John with the statement .... 'and only $7,990 brand new!!' (with smiley face for good measure).

The response .....

"If you want it I'll buy you one but there is a trade off ... I'll be working away for longer".

What to say oh what to say!

Of course I want him home soon but hey ... what's another few months away compared with the absolute joy I would get out of riding a bike to work every day.

AND the colours I like would match my helmet.

Surely it's a no brainer :-)))

ADSL .... finally

Well folks ... we have finally moved into the modern era and today I pick up the modem that will connect us to ADSL Broadband. I think we may even be lucky enough to have a port that is ADSL2 enabled!!

So goodbye dial up .... you have been a good friend however it's time for us to part ways. This time, forever.

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day,
A lot of people poo-poo valentines day, saying that that the whole idea is to boost the profits of the profits of greeting card manufacturers, florists and those companies that make soft toy teddy bears with 'I love you' written on their bellies.

Today like any other day is a day where you can appreciate your partner and how they enrich your life. The only difference is that today all the hype and commercialization gives you the chance to either focus on it, or it gives you an excuse to dismiss it all as a load of bunk.

When we were married, I spoke to our guests about how the ancient Greeks had muses who were the beautiful daughters of the gods and inspired them to write, paint and make music. In that same way I felt my wife Andrea was a gift from above, sent to take the slobby, thoughtless bogan that I am and inspire me to be a better person.

And inspire me she does...... Every day, not just today

Happy Valentines day Bubs

J

Wow it's started

We have some movement in the backyard!!!!

Dad came over last weekend and started to put up the retaining walls for the paved area. The land drops away a fair bit (which we knew) but it's a bit higher than I anticipated so I have to rethink the other bits around the paving now.

I've started to plan out what we need to do and I think it's going to look fantastic. I'm keen to get the paving done because then I can finish the front yard!! Why are they even connected you ask? Well we need to deliver stuff out the front and then barrow it around to the back. I don't want to do a nice front lawn with trees and plants and then be running over it with the barrow every 10 minutes.

Question for you men out there ........ something I found quite perplexing yesterday.

As you know, John sails every weekend. While he's been in Brisbane he hasn't been able to get out and sail as much as he would have liked to. As you know by his previous post, he spent 3 days at Geelong sailing on the Australia Day weekend so this week he said to me that he wouldn't be sailing on Saturday so that he could spend the weekend with me.

Noble .. lovely .... quite sweet.

Yesterday I then said to him that he could go sailing if he really wanted to as I had to go to the hairdresser and could use the opportunity to do some other stuff that he is not interested in and then we would go out for a nice dinner Saturday night.

Lovely??? Apparently not.

I get an email from him saying that his mates at work wanted to know what I'm softening him up for to allow him to go sailing ......

What is with you men???? If we are naggy bitches that tell you you can't do something, you complain. When we happily say 'please go out and do something' you complain.

And you reckon we're high maintenance :-)

DUI (Dialling Under the Influence)

J here,
Dont you think it would be a great idea if someone invented a Phone that had a breath tester in it that detected your B.A.C (blood alchohol content) through the microphone and if it was more than a preset level, locked out the phone so that you couldnt SMS and the only number you could dial would be for a cab ??

In addition to you not being able to make embarassing texts or calls your Ex to tell them what a bastard/bitch they are or telling them that you still loved them, it would also prevent your current signifigant other waking you in the middle of the night !!

A has been off to a 'sales conference' this week and as part of this week long Gab fest there is a boozy dinner at the end of each day. All in the interests of 'team building' of course.

At 23:11 hrs I was woken from my slumber by the buzzing of my phone on the bedside table in my hellishly hot apartment bedroom.

There was a message from the bestest wife in the world saying 'I love you' followed by 3 kisses.
A fine sentiment indeed, but wouldnt it have been better if she had sent this earlier in the evening ??

Still its nice to know shes out enjoying herself while Im away .........

I'm off to write an email to Nokia

J

It's official ...

We have the coolest house in the world .... .temperature wise that is !!!

Yes the long awaited air conditioning system finally went in yesterday. After a lot of frustration with the installers mind you.

So now I'm just sitting around patiently waiting for a hot day.

Bring it on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ITS OFFICIAL...............

I have the bestest wife in the world,

I mean who else but the bestest wife in the world would put up with her husband (who she hadnt seen for 2 weeks) coming home from Brisbane, spending the night with her then buggering off for 3 whole days sailing, drinking and generally having a good time with is mates and not with her ?

Yet that is precisely what happened last weekend.

Dancin to a bit of Jimmy Buffet

Yup there I was, celebrating Australia day, feeling a little 'tired and emotional' after the passage race from williamstown down to Royal Geelong yacht club. that race we came 20th out of 51 boats in our division, but all up there was a little over 400 boats there for the weekend.

SOME of the yachts

The race the following day was going well until we buggered up, leaving the shipping channel and winding up 'on the bricks' (read run aground), needing yours truely to do his best 3 toed sloth impersonation hanging from the underside of the boom while the rest of the crew pushed the boom (the horizontal sticky bit that hits you in the head) out over the water, thus tilting the boat and lifting the keel off the bottom. But despite this we wound up 15th out of 31 starters, so we would have been a shoe in for a top 10 place if we hadnt made our 'navigational error'.

The 'A' Team in action (Im in the blue hat)

The final day was light and we all wanted to get home early, but we started the race and again did really well until the wind died completely. When we worked out that there wuld be no way we could finishe the race in the alloted time we dropped the sails, fired up the engine and went home.

To add to my wifes already legendary status I came home to a lamb roast followed by a few drinks and an early night. Certainly not the meal of 'hot tongue and cold shoulder' you would think I would be in for after such a weekend.

But Tueday morning as I got ready to go catch my plane back to Brisbane my wife came up to me, put her arms around me, kissed me softly and said 'it was nice to see you for the few hours that you were actually here, maybe next time we can build it up a bit until eventually we might even spend a whole day together..........'

Message received and understood

Shes such a treasure

J

Andrea ... aka whinging cow

To my friends, family and cyber-friends ... I am SO sorry for having a huge blowout on here.

A. It's got nothing to do with the house
B. Makes me sound like a pathetic loser
C. People simply aren't interested in hearing about my troubles

So .. sorry folks. Happy face is on .... no more complaining unless it's the house I'm complaining about :-))

Birthday day got WAY better after a couple of drinks at lunch time with friends from work. Got a beautiful bunch of flowers delivered from hubby then friends came over for dinner ... where more wine was consumed.

I became the plant lady for my birthday .... receiving 4 lovely natives and 5 or 6 other plants (agave, cordylines, lilirope and aloe vera).

Unfortunately all of these plants will be for out the back yard so they'll have to live in pots for a while yet.

So .. once again ... sorry for the rant and rave. It was a minor meltdown but hopefully shouldn't happen again.

Love ya's all

A

Happy birthday to me

(to be sung to the tune of Happy Birthday)

Happy Birthday to me

Squashed bananas and wee

Don't waste it just taste it

Happy Birthday to me

Yay for me ... 37 today.

If you haven't picked up the sarcasm in that last line entry I'll just let you know that it is there!!!

Feeling even crappier today than I did last Wednesday (meltdown of the year day) .... everything really sucks at the moment.

Anyway .... no point whining about it all the time hey ..... nobody gives a crap and it just makes me feel even worse.

So ... happy face on ...... going out for lunch today with the guys from work and a couple of friends are coming over tonight for dinner (a 'la Bridge Jones birthday dinner ... minus the blue soup).

Hip hip .... hooray

Too much work & getting old

What a crappy week. Good thing it hasn't been that hot because otherwise the heat would have sent me over the edge!!

I worked until 3:00am on Monday morning to get a tender in on time (due Monday morning) and since then haven't really been able to catch up on sleep. I hit the wall yesterday and was a mess - wanted to cry everytime somebody spoke to me, everybody and everything was annoying me and all I wanted to do was shoot everybody fair and square in the head.

So a combination of my tiredness, missing hubby, and my 37th birthday fast approaching all culminated in a minor meltdown yesterday. To top it off I got home and for no particular reason (as nothing has changed in the last 6 months),I got really really sh*tty that the backyard still looked like something out of a Stargate episode when all life has been wiped from a planet for 30,000 years. Huge holes ... some pieces of wood sticking out of the ground and big ugly nasty weeds.

The completely insane part of me then starts questioning all of the decisions we have made and the major one was should we have spent so much money on our honeymoon when we could have had all of the landscaping done with that money???

Well I answered my own question by looking at the pictures of the honeymoon .... even while the weeds grow at an alarming rate and the dogs are in fear of their lives due to the large craters they may fall into ..... if I had my time over again .. I wouldn't change a thing.

So today .. I'm much happier ... I've had a lot of sleep ... and some additional good news is that my man will be home at the end of February.

Life is good.

The sun

Man it's hot

Be careful what you wish for

Welcome to 2008!!!

I've finally got a chance to sit down ... take a deep breath ... and reflect on what seems like a whilrwind few weeks.

The silly season has come and gone as quickly as it took to spend my whole month's salary!! Fortunately having a hubby that gets paid weekly helps the situation however on the weekend he misplaced his eftpos card therefore the promised trip to the movies with the children was put on hold as we had no way of getting any money out of the ATM and since my money tree hasn't arrived from the Garden shop yet ... well .... you can just imagine the result.

Good thing I had some beans in the cupboard to eat :-))

Anyway ... that was a minor hiccup in what was a fantastic few weeks with the family.

Tim & Chris (John's terrors .. I mean ... lovely little boys) headed back home on Sunday morning after spending a week at our place. They seemed to enjoy their room that we had made in our house just for them and there didn't seem to be any arguments about who had the top bunk. I think the week gave Sarah a taste of what it would be like to have brothers and sisters ... at times I think she would love some siblings but at other times I think she was pretty glad she is an only child!!!

but in general all 3 kids got along great. Sarah is the bossy one and took on the role of 'mothering' the boys when John and I weren't saying anything. Tim is a typical video game nut and as long as the X-Box was playing Need for Speed, he seemed to be in his element. Chris is far more imaginative but can't sit still for more than 3 minutes (has the attention span of a house brick) so entertaining him was a little bit more difficult but fortunately there weren't too many times we were just sitting around doing nothing.

The Gumbuyah Park toboggan got a great workout from myself and John .. unfortunately the 2 boys were too young to go on it ... so we had their turns for them!!! what a cool ride that is. And for those that haven't been .. you don't even have to walk back up the hill ... a neat pulley system brings you back up to the top!!! Some lazy ass man invented that I reckon :-))

As for the house ... well it seemed to endure the myriad of guests we had over the 2 weeks however at times was a bit squishy. Christmas lunch we had 13 people .... we have a 6 seater table ... you do the maths.

So it was a good lesson to us that the patio area really does need to be finished by Christmas 2008!!

We picked up a lovely outdoor table (8 seater) in the post christmas sales ( half of it paid for dad as a wedding present) so now we just have to hurry up and get this jolly paving done.

As for the heat ... well I think I lost 5kgs in sweat alone and on Saturday I had had just about enough so we signed up for Evap Cooling. Installation is 3-4 weeks away however knowing Melbourne in February, it will get used quite a lot before the weather starts to cool down. And I guess we would have to put it in next year anyway so may as well do it before another price increase (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

The down side is that by being lovely and cool, I don't get a motorbike at the moment but I'm willing to sacrifice being cool on a bike to being cool in the house.

The front garden has been left to fend for itself and unfortunately I paid the price yesterday by having to dig up a billion weeds. I'll stick to what I was doing previously I think ... a little bit of gardening every second or third day is a hell of a lot easier than a whole day in the garden every few weeks!!!!

Anyway .... lots and lots happened that was pretty fun and exciting but I can't bore you all with the nitty gritty's of it all. Needless to say, we had a fantastic christmas and new year.

We are looking forward to the year ahead. My new job is going great and I'm busier now than ever. John also seems to be enjoying his job in Brisvegas (although he's not enjoying the weather ... who ever said Qld has the best weather should be shot). Fingers crossed he heads back to Melbourne at the end of March as his contract states. Wouldn't put money on it mind you but here's hoping!!!

I'm looking forward to updating you with lovely patio pics and a finished front yard soon.

Merry Christmas one and all

Dear readers,

Just signing off for the next week or so while I prepare for the festivities ahead.

The new house will be packed with visitors so we are looking forward to seeing how the house will cope with so many people in it!!!

John will be home over christmas and Tim & Chris (John's kids) will be over for a week before they all go their separate ways again. Sarah, Tim & Chris are now officially step-children so the beatings and brain washing is completely legal now :-))

To all our friends out there in cyberspace, have a very very safe and happy christmas. Eat and drink far too much but more importantly, enjoy the time with those people that you love the most.

2007 has been a stellar year for us .... here's hoping 2008 will be just as great.

Love to you all,
Andy

Editors note

To our readers ... please let it be known that grumpy Santa is not really grumpy and a miserable old thing who won't buy his wife something she really wants :-)

It's just Mrs Clause having a minor hissy fit because she can't get something she wants right now.

Santa is truly, still ace.

:-)

Half way there

Well last night I had my 2 hour 'pre learner' course with Ride-Tek. They are accredited to run these courses and they will also be the people testing me for my licence.

There were 3 of us doing the course... me and 2 guys. They were both in their mid 20's and I had a horrible feeling that the next 2 hours was going to be me watching my back for them hooning around me.

The trainer asked us what our intentions were for riding and why we wanted our licence ... I said that I wanted to commute to work as well as do rides with hubby (even though I wouldn't be able to keep up with his bike for the moment). The next guy had it all planned out to get to a Harley ...... then the second guy ........ wants to ride a scooter to work. Boy did I feel better after that. I figured that perhaps all young guys aren't 'hoons' and I was going to enjoy my 2 hours after all.

We rode the Honda CB 250 ... nice little bike and I felt pretty comfortable on it.

Anyway ... without boring you too much it went really well.

I was booked in to do my test on Friday ... but after chatting with 'santa' I've got a better chance of wearing a size 8 pair of jeans than getting a bike this side of 2010 so I'm reconsidering the whole thing.

Pretty flowers

Well hubby is only 4 sleeps away from coming home ... but this is what greeted me at the reception desk when I returned from lunch today .....

how lovely :-)

Houses are boring

OMG ... did I say that????

Well yeah I did ... and it's only boring because my husband isn't here with me [insert awwwwww here].

So to pick my mood up, I am getting very excited about next week's events ..... going for my motorbike Learners.

Woo hoo!!!!

Bit nervous but very excited at the same time. Tuesday night I am attending a 2 hour pre-learner course at the riding school where they will teach me all the things I need to know to pass the test. Then if all goes well I will go for my test on Thursday.

This is my christmas present to myself :-))

Being a rider from way back, John wants to make sure my first couple of years is on a 'safe' bike (read: boring) so I have a couple of choices ....

The Honda CB 250 ...
or the Yamaha Virago 250

If I pass my test, I just need Santa to buy me one for Christmas.

And I've been very very good ....

Yay for the concretor

Well the concretor was in my bad books for a while. The scenario went something like this:

1. Coloured the concrete with the base colour - which also went all over my deck and the plants
2. Next day top colour goes on and there are some areas that look terrible (like a junior concretor has done it and didn't give a toss).
3. Ask him to look at it but he says he can't do anything about it but the sealer should even it out
4. Sealer gets put on and it doesn't even out the crappy bits but now that it is sealed, he again says can't do anything about it
5. Get home that evening and there are bubbles all over the driveway and the sealer has dried

Not happy Jan!!

Fortunately John got on the phone to him straight away and said that I could have lived with the other bad bits but I wasn't going to pay for it with bubbles all over it.

So concretor bad.

However on a quick trip home yesterday (have been away at a friend's place for a couple of days) I notice that the driveway is all shiny again (from new sealer) and he has also re-coloured it so there are no crappy bits!!

So concretor good!!!

It looks really great and I am so pleased with the end result. It's quite different to everybody elses in the street so we are pleased that we don't look the same!!!

So next weekend it will be re-doing the garden bed around the letterbox as I need to extend it out. Will have to say farewell to my hedge as it just isn't growing very well .. think I need to improve the soil a bit more before I replant stuff.

And you know what that means ... I can go to the nursery and spend some money!!!

Yipeeeeeee!!!!!

We have driveway

Well I think as I was writing about not having a driveway .. they were laying it yesterday!!

They have to come back today and put the sealer etc on it and hopefully clean up the mess they have made!! Was a bit annoyed as the colour they sprayed on is now all over our deck and over the plants. grrrrrrrr

I'm happy with the way it's turned out .... but of course now it makes the portico colour look even crappier (if that was possible). So the re-painting has definitely been moved up the priority list!!

New job .. no husband

Yesterday (Monday) was a bit of a mixed emotions day. Started back at my old employer and it was so nice to hear everybody pleased that I was back. Certainly was a boost to my self esteem with one person commenting 'everything is better now that you're back'.

On the down side, I had to take John to the airport to start his job in Brisbane. Was determined not to get sooky about it as he will be back for 2 weeks over christmas ... but .... as much as he annoys the crap out of me sometimes I love him to bits and the house is very lonely without him.

Driveway still hasn't been done ... and we had a knock on the door from the lady on behalf of the developer of the area to tell us that solicitors letters are going out within the next 2 weeks to people that haven't done their front yard as per the contract!! Eeek. Unfortunately terrential rain down our way yesterday meant that bugger all was going to get done. Let's hope when I get home today there has been some action.

So other than that, the lead up to christmas is going well. The tree is up and looks beautiful ... I bought myself a present on the weekend (which will be from Santa) and is under the tree. Official shopping starts on the 17th December (after pay day!!!).

Only 20 days to go!! Woo hoo.

It's the final countdown

da da da daaaa ..... da da da da daaaaaa..... da da da daaaa daaa ... da da da da da

yeah go on admit it .. you sung along didn't you?? (if you are old enough to know the song).

Well it's Tuesday afternoon ... and I figure that although there are officially 3 days left in the week, I only have half a day left of work.

Andynomics working again??

No .... I'm going to work from home tomorrow and Thursday .. then pop in to the office on Friday to drop off my laptop and other bits and pieces then that's me done for this 6 month prison sentence!!

Of course my first day back at the old employer is going to be an easy one as I have to leave at lunch time to take Johnno to the airport!!!

Some people have it easy hey :-))

Greetings from Mt Black - nothing to do with the house..... sorry girls

Howdi all,

Greetings from Mt Black, My office in Rosebery Tasmania. If you think the place looks like a hole in the ground well your dead right...... it is, a bloody big, bloody deep hole in the ground that extends over 4ooo meters deep and they pull all the good stuff out of it. They mine some Copper, lead, and even some gold (between 30 and 50 kg/month, enough to cover payroll Im told), but by far the biggest product they mine here is zinc, some 660,000 tonnes of it last year. my job here is to look at a mine expension that will involve a new flotation line, a SAG mill and a ball mill that will boost the mines output to 1,000,000 tonnes of zinc a year. So the last couple of days I have been involved in a site survey of the mines HV electricity distribution and to finalize the location of several substations as well look at various other bits and pieces for different projects.

Ive been staying in a place called 'top pub', the local hotel where I have been meeting a few of the locals. Good, honest (mostly) straight talking folks that pretty much call it as they see it. The food here has been absolutely magnificent. You can get beautiful tender piece of scotch fillet for $22 bucks, great stuff.

The only bad thing is that this morning I was woken at 5am by the sound of the beer truck reversing, then the sound of the guy firing up the fork lift to unload it. Apparently I should count myself lucky that the guy slept in........ the beer usually arrives at 4am most weeks !!

Well its been a great trip, Ive finished all the stuff that I came here to do, had my trip down memory lane (I was last working here 17 years ago) and had a few good steaks as well, so all there is to do now is to drive back to Burnie, jump on the plane and be back in Melbourne for dinner with the ol ball and chain :)

J

I love this time of year

It's scary to think that Christmas is only 5 weeks away. Why is it that the older you get, the quicker life seems to go by?

2007 has been an awesome year for us. We have built a beautiful house and got married. No, there won't be hearing the pitter patter of tiny feet in the new house so it's a good thing that John's niece was born this year ... that's the closest we'll ever get!!

Sarah is in Grade 5 next year and before I know it she'll be off to high school.

Christmas is my all time favourite time of the year. I love the carols ... the decorations .. copious amounts of food and alcohol .... but more importantly, spending time with the people you love the most.

While there are some disappointments at this time (John going to Brisbane, paving area not done, front landscaping not finished) the joys of the silly season will far outweigh the negative stuff.

So deck the halls and joy to the world ..... heat, famine or flood could not ruin my good mood for the next 6 weeks!!!

A new driveway ... and a runaway husband

So I'll start with the good news.

Driveway has been cleared ready for the concretor to come in next week. Can't wait!!!! Although I've gotten so used to looking at it the way it is, it will take a while for me to get used to having something that looks good (fingers crossed anyway).

We are having stencilled concrete and the pic below is the pattern we have decided on. Colour will be Uluru Red. Bit worried about the colour as I'm sure a printed brochure is somewhat different to the colour the actual concrete will be .. but I'm putting my trust in the concretor that the colour comes out the way we want it.

I guess at the end of the day it's a driveway ... as long as it isn't pink or purple, it's not going to be such a big deal.



So on to the bad news .... my husband of just 3 months has decided that digging holes and building a paving area is far too difficult so he is going to work in Brisbane for 3-4 months to try and get out of it!! :-))

Just kidding about the 'getting out of work' bit ... not kidding about working in Brisbane.

He's off to work on some sort of gold mine or something like that and I'm hoping that he is back by March at the latest.

Pro's:

1. Only have to cook and clean up after myself
2. I can watch all the Seinfeld, Simpsons and Gardening Australia episodes I want to without a smart ass comment
3. I might be able to get my motorbike a little quicker if he doesn't spend his money on booze and hookers

Con's:

1. Will get lonely
2. Paving won't get done until mid next year
3. Who will I nag?
4. With no internet connection at the moment, how will I download the guide onto the Media Centre??
5. Will have to purchase another X-Box 360 to act as a media extender as he will take the current X-Box with him (mind you this one is also a positive because then when he gets back Sarah gets the X-Box in her room as another extender).

Unfortunately the nature of John's work is that this will be happening for the next 20 years or so, so I've learnt to just suck it up and deal with it.

He's off to Tassie this week for work and as he was packing he said "When I go to Brisbane, can I send you a load of washing each week?".

Good thing I wasn't holding something very sharp and pointy at the time.

:-)

Ok .. so stop your winging

OK ... I had my vent before regarding the heat and our lack of air conditioning. Hoping to gain some sympathy from my cyberspace buddies, I was quick to learn that my women friends are far more willing to empathise.

The men however ... [scoffs loudly]

So, I have decided to post a good news story instead.

As most of you know, my job for the last 6 months has allowed me to 'work from home' (or as John tenderly puts it 'shirk from home'). This has enabled me to visit loads of nurseries and do work in the garden!!! (I'm pretty certain none of my bosses read the blog so I've no worries about getting sprung).

On the down side of course, is the fact that for 40 hours a week I have been going slowly insane due to the lack of work and I think some of my brain cells have even died off with lack of use.

OK OK ...... I'll give you time to have a giggle to yourself about the fact that:

a. you didn't think I could lose any more brain cells
b. why is the last 6 months any different to the rest of my working life
c. insert own comment here

Anyway .... I have been lured back to my old employer. Something I am very pleased about. Won't go into the detail about why I left to start with but basically it was a BAD move. So at the prospect at going back and starting a new career is very exciting. It is also only 20 mins from home (although I have to tackle the Monash car park in the morning) but if I can leave early enough in the morning, I should avoid most of the traffic.

Of course the downside is that I will actually have to work quite hard and unfortunately visits to nurseries will be postponed to weekends ... but, it's a price I'm willing to pay.

Oh .. and the other cool thing (no, not the weather ... literally) is that I have been given permission by my other half (yes ... he actually wears the pants in the relationship ... except for 'pants off Friday') to get my motorbike licence and buy a motorbike.. which I will do by this time next year.

So .. woo hoo!!! Very very excited about that as I have wanted one since I was a kid.

So for those in south east Melbourne ... I'll give you plenty of warning when I get on the road. :-)

#1 Regret

For those that have previously built or in the process of building a house, there are always the 'I wish we had thought of that' or 'Dam, I wish we put an extra one of those in there'.

While there are a few of those niggly, not very important regrets, there is a HUGE one that has to be rated as the number 1 regret of this decade.

NO AIRCONDITIONING!!!

[insert angry face here with a gutteral growling sound]

'We'll be fine' we said ... 'we've lived with no air con for years now' ....

Well dam it ... I want air conditioning!!! I'm getting older and crankier and a bad night's sleep due to the heat doesn't help the situation at all.

Quite simply, for the saving of a few thousand dollars during the build ... I can only say 'We're idiots'.

Must be off now ... my sweaty fingers are causing concern for the laptop.

A cute baby and a cool looking deck

Some piccies!

And here is the reason for our trip to Brisbane ... our gorgeous new niece, Grace. Got to be the 4th cutest kid in the world (behind Sarah, Tim and Chris of course).

The deck fairy

We have just spent a lovely 4 days in Brisvegas (although the weather was crap) attending a christening.

Arriving home very bleary eyed and tired at about 11:15pm last night, we pulled up out the front of the house and I admired how beautiful my petunias were growing ... how many roses have come out over the weekend .... and then the front step/deck caught my eye. It was finished!!!!

I pointed it out to John and he said "oh great .. the deck fairy has been".

It was a great surprise but we still can't work out how our fairy got into the shed to get the wood and finish it off!!!

It looks absolutely fantastic .. he has done a brilliant job. Can't wait for the driveway to be done now... hurry up concretor!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now if we only had a paving fairy, life would be almost perfect.

Winged Rats, The tale of stumpy the Pigeon

Howdi,

I was sitting at the train station the other day, watching a nearby asian couple fed a growing flock of pigeons on the platform. When I sat down, a group of them came over to me looking for a feed.

Now I hate pigeons, they befoul the cities statues, they carry diseases, they are in effect winged rats and I feel more should be done to get rid of them. The only thing that stops us is that they are perceived by many as 'cute' with people feeding them at every oppurtunity (sorry bout the spelling F7). Its weird because you wouldnt see people feeding rats now would you?

I was just contemplating stoving the boot into one of them when I noticed one of them was different and was hobbling about. Closer inspection revealed that the bird had lost all the toes on one foot, leaving only a stump where his toes would have branched out from his leg.

I christened him 'Stumpy'

As much as hate pigeons I couldnt bring myself to inflict further injury to a disabled pigeon, I figured life was tough enough for him already.

So I kicked one of his mates instead.

J

It's finally happening ....

the driveway is going in mid November.

Woo freakin' hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cannot wait to finally get this done. I think it will really make the front look better and hopefully compliment the garden and paths.

Of course our 'fly by the seat of our pants landscaping techniques' have made it all come undone yet again when I realised that my little garden bed around the letterbox will need to be extended to the deck area. Of course the plus is that I get to go to the nursery and buy some more plants!! Just hoping that my little hedge plants will survive a move .... lots of seasol, love and talking to should do the trick.

Show us ya' deck

Not quite finished ... but almost there.

Not dead yet

I was just checking on my plants and was very excited to see that the Bird of Paradise that was on it's last leaf, is actually looking a bit healthy.

It has some new growth and fingers crossed it is going to come back.

I also noticed that we are about to get our first bottle brush flower (Purple Cloud Calistemon) which is pretty exciting!!

Yes, small things make me happy :-)

Haemorrhaging Money

Andy is 'shirking' at home yet again today..............

As many of you are aware I sail on Saturdays and one of members of the crew is soon to be Andys boss again. After the race on Saturday I said to him 'for gods sake Seppo (he's an american from some place called n'york), get andy back to work with you ASAP as she is running about 'doing' lunch with her mates and boosting the profits of the local nurseries spending money while she is supposedly 'working' at home !!

As she dropped me off at the train station this morning I asked her what she had to buy today. She correctly answered 'wood for the deck........ ' , but then followed it up with '......but I also might just pop into a nursery just for a look'

Dear reader, Andy going into a nursery for a look, is like an alchoholic popping into a bar ........ just for a look

But then again its also like me going on ebay 'just for a look'

Peace out :)

J

Stage 6 started

8:00am Saturday morning and John jumped out of bed, quickly finding something to wear because Dave was coming to help put the posts in for the front entrance deck thingo.

Of course there was a tight deadline to adhere to ... 23 degrees, slight breeze and he was going sailing for the day so there was much to be done before he left!!

So step 1 complete and we have 3 pink posts at the entrance (pink so we didn't run into them and knock them while the concrete was setting).

I'm at home tomorrow (working .. ha ha) so after lunching with a friend I'll head down to Mitre 10 to pick up the wood that we need for the bearers. Then stage 2 will be complete on Monday then it's Dave on the job to finish off the deck.

I did get a giggle when we were talking about what needed to be done though .... Dave was trying to be extremely polite about John's 'lack of knowledge with deck building' and made it blatantly clear that as he wanted the job done 'properly', he didn't want John to participate in Stage 3. All I could do was giggle. Of course it was me that received the middle finger :-)

Photos of the front ... at Stage 5

Stage 5 complete

Well yesterday I worked from home (read: worked in the garden). I enjoyed the morning driving around various nurseries, working out who had the best plants and were reasonably priced. Ended up going to my favourite nursery on Blackburn Road.

I also had a delivery of river pebbles for the garden beds and the path. As opposed to the black pebbles that were trialled and then painstakingly removed, I will NOT be removing these pebbles. Not that I want to .. they really look great.

So Stage 5 is now complete (photos to follow when hubby sends them to me).

Stage 6 is the entry deck ... we are relying on a neighbour to help us so we have to fit that in when he is able to. He is the king of the decks (that's decks with an 'e'). :-)

On an unhappy note however, I think one of my Birds of Paradise plants is going to die. He is looking very brown and unhappy and I have been told that no matter what I do it won't come back to life. I'll try cutting off the bad leaves and see if that helps. :-((

To my dear husband

Bite me

:-)

Ahhhh the Joys of Mobile Phones

Lonely Old Me..........
The minister for war and finace left town yesterday to go to Sydney for work. I spent the day at work planning the mischief I was going to get up to at home that night..... feet up on the coffee table, watching episodes of Stargate SG1, geeking out with my computers, eating macca's, Playing my xbox 360 and if I was feeling extra naughty, NOT USING A COASTER (HAHAHAHAHA Im so evil :-) ).

I was nearly home when the old boot called to nag me about how I dont listen to my voicemail messages. I listened intently, said 'yes dear' in the appropriate places and then told her that I was missing her too and if she felt the need, she could call me again later that evening to nag me some more if it made her feel better.

I was told in a rather loud voice the GET F'D !! Im hoping she meant that Im on a promise......... but Im tipping it will probably mean the couch again *sigh*

I am convinced dear reader that the original intent of a mobile phone is not to make business easier, not to make it easier to call and say that your caught up at work and going to be late, but rather to make it easier for that special someone in your life to give you an earful whenever she feels like it.

Still, I am looking forward to going to pick her up from the airport tonight :)

J

Brown thumb? I think not

OK ... so for those that have been following the saga of the front mud patch, you will remember that it has been a bit of trial and error. More error than anything (we remember you dear Nandina's).

Anyway ... after having a look back at the old pics of when we first put in the front garden bed, I think you will agree that something is going right because we have growth!!

This is the pic I took on the 17 July when we first planted the front bed:

Well this is the same garden bed (minus Nandina's) on Saturday ....

and my very first Rose!!!.....



And the new garden bed to the left of the house. From this ...



to this ...

This weekend I am hoping to put in some of the feature 'pebble' areas and plant up the little bed on the other side of the path.

Then will be the hebel wall, followed by mulching the rest of the front .. then finishing off the path.

For those that are interested, planted in the garden bed above are:

- Camelias (1 red and 1 white)
- Calistemon (1 red and 1 yellow)
- 3 x Bird of Paradise
- 4 x Boronia (the pink flowers)
- kangaroo paws (yellow and red varieties)
- Agapanthas along the border (white)
- Dietes (front border)

Cool huh! I like it anyway :-0

Marriage and landscaping don't mix

A little while ago I posted that John and I should never try landscaping together.

Well it appears in the moments of wedded bliss we forgot about our previous attempt and got stuck into digging the holes in the back yard for the paving area.

Went something like this ....

A: "Why do we have to dig so many holes?"
J: "Because they need to support the paved area. Just dig the hole will ya."
A: "But we're not holding up the Great Wall of China ... we are putting in some pavers."
J: "Just dig the hole will ya."
A: "Why are you over engineering this?"
J: "JUST DIG THE HOLE AND STOP YOUR BITCHING".

Aaaaah the joys of married life :-))

On a positive note however, ALL of the holes have now been dug (yes, I only dug 2 and the hero did the rest!!) and we have some of the biggest pieces of wood in the universe to act as the posts.

The front yard is starting to look good now. I have made a garden bed to the left of the house and have graded the front yard ready for finishing off. We are going to make a small feature wall out of Hebel blocks and in the next couple of weeks we are hoping to have the front deck finished.

We have also agreed that we will get the driveway done by Christmas so hopefully within a couple of months all I need to do is water my plants and keep the weeds out.

Andy out

Always check the contents!!

Lesson learned ... always check the contents of your purchased project PRIOR to throwing out receipts.

The aforementioned clothes line that should have been in use by now ... is sitting lonely and unusable at the moment.

John worked out that some bits were missing ... I'd thrown out the receipt (der to me I guess) ... and our old friends at Bunnings wouldn't do anything without a receipt.

anyway ... after a bit of a sob story to the girl at Bunnings that his wife was going to nag him beyond recognition, she felt sorry for him and said we could take the bits out of another clothesline and they would deal with the manufacturer. God love them :-))

Andy's brown thumb

I may have a brown thumb, but if enthusiasm is an indicator, it far outweighs the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing in the garden!!

The weekend was a very successful one in terms of work around the house.

Now .. are you sitting down? I hope so because what I'm about to tell you will shock you. May even render you speechless for a moment.

John didn't go sailing on Saturday, and instead put up the clothesline and installed the doggy door in the laundry.

.........................................................................

Just giving you a minute to digest that piece of information. As unbelievable as it sounds, yes it did happen.

My darling husband did an excellent job installing the doggy door and while Zach and Roxy took a bit of time working out what it was for, they are now enjoying the warmth of the laundry whenever they feel the need to get out of the weather.

The posts of the clothesline are in, giving it the week to cure properly, and then we will put the rest of it up so I can stop using the dryer!! A lower electricity bill will be more than welcome.

While hubby was out the back, I got stuck into the garden bed down the left side of the house. I've decided that nurseries are my favourite places (the plant kind, not the baby kind) and I spent quite a long time choosing what are hopefully unkillable plants. I hear the Nandina's laughing at me now ... from their dirty grave.

Although the plants are quite small now, I'm hoping that they grow up well and the garden bed looks OK. Looks good at the moment anyway .. well, better than the mounds of dirt.

I planted some Kangaroo Paws (which i love) but am hoping that I did enough preparation of the soil as they need good drainage. There are also some other natives in there (the names escapes me right now) but they are pretty cool looking plants.

Photos will follow once the mulch is down this weekend.

Green thumb?? I think not

OK .. so let's pretend that gardening is all about trial and error. Having said that, I have made an error :-))

My lovely Nandina's that were planted under the front windows have died and slow, and possibly agonising death.

While a few plants dying is certainly not a huge concern, the fact that those plants are supposed to be 'unkillable' is my major concern right now. If I can't even keep a bamboo plant alive, how the heck am I supposed to keep anything else alive??!!!!

On a more positive note however, my wobbly hedge is looking great and growing very well and the roses seem to have a bit of growth on them so ... maybe it's the Nandina's fault??

Will be planting another species in their place over the weekend ... probably a dwarf Hebe. Will posts pics on the weekend.

This blog dedicated to the Nandina lying in the compost mound.

The clay .. that is now rock

Well, it feels like rock anyway!!

Because the weather was so sensational on the weekend, we decided to spend a day in the front garden. The plan was to level all of the mounds of dirt, and start to get the garden bed on the far side of the house ready for planting.

In accordance with the instruction from my newest friend on TV Peter Cundall, we bought some blood and bone, cow and chicken manure so that we could dig it through the garden bed.

I don't know if you have ever dug clay .. but it's a royal pain in the butt. Of course we appear to have had no rain over the last 3-4 weeks, and when we started to dig, it's as hard as a bloody rock so all it does now is break into smaller rock-like pieces.

Grrrrrrr.

So even though we levelled the dirt (sorry, levelled the rock-like pieces) and put the poo through, I'm struggling to believe that it is going to break down the dirt and make it lovely for the plants.

Not sure if I'm supposed to be watering the dirt/rock/compost/poo or if I just leave it to do whatever it is that it is supposed to do.

Double grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

What a frustrating process. Why oh why can't I win tattslotto and hire Jamie Durie to come and do my landscaping.

Sigh

3 month inspection ... and the road base .....

Well blow me down with a feather, we had our 3 month inspection by PD yesterday. It was actually overdue (on account of us enjoying a leisurely sail around the Whitsundays) and I just can't believe that we have been in the house for that amount of time. I still get excited every time I walk through the door!!

More scary is the fact that there are only 4 more pay checks before christmas!!!!!!! aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Anyway, we only had a couple of minor things we wanted them to fix, but by the end of the inspection, we had 13 things on the list!!! So glad that the guy knew what he was looking for. Most of it was external stuff (on the brick work) but there was also a couple of things in the tiling that he noticed. Thank you PD man!!!

Now ... on a far more exciting note. Remember the road base that has been sitting in the driveway (that I'm too embarassed to even look at a date to see when it was delivered) .... well ..... it's now down the side of the house!!! I spent all yesterday afternoon moving it (one dam wheelbarrow at a time) and have spread it down the side. Still need some more to get to the end of the house but it's starting to look like a path now. Will go looking at pavers on the weekend and will start calculating costs for getting this side done. Not going to do anything more than a path with some pebbles and will do some potted plants but it should look nicer than an uneven length of clay soil!

This weekend I am going to get back onto the front yard and start getting the soil ready for the garden bed down the side.

My little hedge plants are growing at a great rate of knots .... the Nandina plants however aren't doing so well .. poor little things. Might give them all some fertilizer on the weekend and give it a couple of weeks to see if they perk up. Otherwise .. I think it's off to Nandina heaven for them and I'll find something that I can't kill!!

Oh .. and I'll stop writing wedding stuff on here and update the wedding page. Will gradually update over the next couple of weeks with photos etc and the eventful day!!

The Deed of Power has been signed

Well it's done. I am now officially an old married woman :-)

I must say that it doesn't feel that different except when you have to remember what your new name is!!!

The wedding and honeymoon went brilliantly. Will bore you all with more detail over the next few days (change of venue, weather conditions etc) but we are so happy with how it all went. John is a huge spunk and looked gorgeous (as he always does) and both Min and Sarah looked fantastic. There were a few other weddings at Daydream Island on the day and we got lots of comments about how great the colour of the dresses were.

The guests had a great time and we had a lot of laughs throughout the day. Fortunately not many tears were shed .. just enough to make their speech sound sincere :-))

Looking forward to seeing the professional pics but I have put some on here that we got from one of the guests.

And as much as we enjoyed being away, it was lovely to come home to our beautiful house ... with everything still where we left it!!!!

Single one minute ...

Nagging bitchy wife the next!!!

Amazingly this is not John blogging .. this is Andy!! I've come to realise that as much as I never wanted to be, I'm just as painful as any other wife ... 'pick up this', 'do that', 'don't do that'. :-))

Anyway ... I just hope that these moments of naginess don't send him packing in a few years time!!

Today is my last day of work ... well, last 'day' is an overstatement. Last couple of hours more like it :-)). Tomorrow is cleaning house day, finalising the packing and lunching with friends then we head off to the Whitsundays on Wednesday morning.

The road base is still in a pile in the driveway and the backyard is once again full of tiny swimming pools, but never fear, upon our return this is the first thing we will get sorted out.

So I bid blogging farewell for a couple of weeks, in preparation for an inundation of crap upon my return.

Catch ya later alligator

Progress is slooooowwwwwwwww

Well I think I posted a pic a couple of weeks ago that showed a pile of road base in the driveway that needed to be moved to the side of the house.

Aaah yes .. I recall now that I posted when my beloved was FAR too ill to move from the bed with the only movement being his hands (to enable him to play X-Box 360) and his mouth to call for refreshments.

Anyway .... or ... anyhoo for some people ....... I'm embarassed to say that the road base is still in the driveway and we have done nothing about it! This weekend we are going to have to get off our ample rear ends and get it moved before we go on holidays.

Now ... at this point in the posting, I would advise all men to stop reading and to look away as the next section is wedding related. .................

(pause)

OK .. I think the boys have gone ... amazing how the word 'wedding' can scatter the male species.

I thought I'd post some pics from the lead up to the wedding day (which is now only 13 days away).

Here is Sarah in her outfit ... I call her a junior bridesmaid but I keep being corrected and told that she is a 'flower girl'. personally I think she's too old (10) to be a flower girl so I'm sticking to Junior BM. How gorgeous is she?? She's really looking grown up. I'm not sure if she actually looks anything like me (I think she looks more like her dad) but probably a good thing if she doesn't have any of my looks as she gets older!!!!

This next shot is me at the hairdresser getting my hair done ready for a hair trial (before and after shot)

This last shot is of Melinda's dress (my BF and BM). She made the dress herself and I'm so impressed!!! I must admit that I was very nervous as I didn't want it to look like it was hand made, but she has done a fantastic job. I think the colours are beautiful and against the beach, they should look awesome!!!

And here is Min and I .......

Sing it with me ...

Spider pig, spider pig
Does whatever a spider pig does
Can he swing
From a web
No he can't
He's a pig
Look ooooouuuuuttttttt
He is a spider pig