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.