Adventures Of Milly The Elephant Trainer

How to make awesome decorated sugar cookies.

2011-12-23T23:05:00.000-08:00

I have been asked by a few people how I achieved my lovely sugar cookies and as I don't have a lot of time right now here are a bunch of links to things I read so I worked it out myself

My gingerbread recipe

http://sweetopia.net/2010/11/gingerbread-cookie-recipe/

or if you want plain sugar cookies, this Nigella one:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/cut-out-cookies-recipe/index.html

Both recipes hold their shape when baked and most importantly are delicious!

Next you make up the royal icing, which is very easy:

http://cakejournal.com/archives/how-to-make-royal-icing

Then you colour it and thin it to the right constancy and once you decide on your design you start piping and flooding:

http://cakejournal.com/archives/how-to-flood-cookies-with-royal-icing

This is an example of the marbling effect, it also shows a royal icing recipe, but it uses powdered egg whites. It's just easier to use fresh ones as they are easier to get.

http://sweetopia.net/2009/06/cookie-decorating-tutorial-general-tips-butterfly-cookies/

This is an awesome website to get some of the equipment you need, ut I got most of mine from my local Kitchen Warehouse and then Home Providore's bake shop in Freo.

http://bakingpleasures.com.au/

At the very least you need:
piping bag (disposable ones are best)
piping tips (from size 1.5-3) for piping lines
piping tips (from 4-5) for flooding. You can use smaller ones, it just takes longer
Gel food colouring, the colours are far better and much more true than supermarket ones
Couplers, these are the plastic thingos that keep the tip in place, you need one set os couplers for each bag and tip you use.
Cookie cutters. If you just have round ones at home already you can do a lot with them, but fancy ones only cost a few $ each.
Tooth picks to help spread icing
damp cloth to wipe nozzles as you pipe.

Fun things to get:
Pearl dust
food flavourings to make the icing less plain tasting
Edible glitter, sprinkles, balls etc
Edible pens to draw on fine details
And about a million other things if you want to get carried away

I hope that's a start, ask me anything I've missed in the comments.

Happy baking

Daveigh's birth story

2011-06-03T12:44:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how quickly the small details of Daveigh's birth are leaving my memory, and so with that thought in mind here is the story of her birth.

It was Tuesday night, dinner was a rush and then off to the hospital, not to give birth but to attend the hospital run birthing class. They talked about induction, cesarians and other such things. We got to see the little gloved finger thing they use to rupture your membranes if need be; both Tony and I are struck by how small a hook it is and we talk about how it's almost like a hang nail. I muse that given how small it is I'm surprised more babies don't break their own water bag really easily.

At this point in the game we had been to quite a few birth classes already, and this was the last lot, it was the second week, and then there were 2 weeks of classes to go after that. I was starting to feel like we were on the home stretch and getting used to the idea that the 'birth day' wasn't too far away. But at the same time far enough away for me to not have to think about it too much yet, after all I had at least a month, plus I was convinced she'd be born late. If I had to put a bet on it at that point I would have guessed I wouldn't give birth for at least 6 weeks.

So our class finished and I was feeling antsy, I had been sitting around the house all day and I just didn't feel like going home yet so we decided to go into to Freo for coffee. By the time we got home it was about 11pm and by the time I went to bed it was almost midnight. No sooner had I fallen asleep than i needed to pee. Up I get, waddle to the bathroom, do my thing and then waddle back. I pull back the covers off the bed to get back into it, lift my leg to get up on the bed and a warm trickel rushes out! WTF!!??!! Did I just pee myself? I must have just peed myself because I'm not due for four weeks and there is NO WAY that can be my waters!! I tell Tony, he doesn't seem worried, and rolls over and goes back to sleep. At this point I am trying very hard to convince myself it was just pee and that as I'm so late into my pregnancy it makes perfect sense that my pelvic floor isn't doing it's job and it MUST be pee. So I get cleaned up and go back to bed, it's late I need to sleep. My mind is going a million miles and hour and I can't sleep. Up I get to the loo again and another rush of fluid without me doing anything. Hmmm....nah it's still just pee. Then I start to feel cramps. I tell myself it's just psychosomatic, this CAN'T be the beginnings of contractions, I'm just making myself feel this way. I tell Tony i'm going to stay up for a bit, see what happens. More water, every 5-10 minute fluid just comes from nowhere and I'm starting to think this might actually be it. I call St Mary's maternity ward 'just in case' to speak to one of the midwives and get their opiion. I'm told, yes that's your waters and you need to come into the hospital. I hang up in disbelief and wake Tony.

I"m not ready! I haven't packed, i don't have all the baby stuff sorted that I was planning on. Tony and I both fumble about for things to pack for the birth. Fit ball, pjs, birth plan, bathers for Tony so he can get in the bath with me, a change of clothes, stuff for the baby. Oh my God, how big will she be? Being so early she'll be tiny right? Do I even have tiny baby stuff? I was preparing for her to be a whopper! Gargh! All in all it took us a good 2 hours to get ready and leave the house. I text my doula Cath and let her know. Being that it's about 2am and it might be some time before things get going I don't want to wake her too much, but I want her to be prepared so when she gets up in the morning she knows what she's in for. Poor woman was supposed to have this month 'off' as far as births go, and here I am going into labour!

We arrive at the hospital and calmly make our way through emergency and speak to the triage nurse who shows us up to the maternity ward. We are taken to the birth suites and I'm checked out, she confirms that yes it's the start of labour and my waters have broken. We arrange to be given the birth suite attached to the ensuite with the bath, thankfully it's free and we get moved. There is a lady across the way giving birth and I can hear her grunts and cries. Oddly her distress doesn't scare me, it just makes me excited that soon I'll be meeting my daughter.

Labour in real life isn't like the movies, your waters don't break and then in 5 seconds flat you're screaming, panting and pushing. In real life it can be a very slow process. All I'm feeling at this point is some light crampy sensations. They are getting stronger, but still nothing worse than period pain. Both Tony and I are acutely aware that we may be in for a long night and we both settle in and try to get some sleep. I of course am too excited plus the crampy feeling makes it hard to sleep so I give up.

The sun rises, it's morning and we get a visit from my Obstetrician Dr Holmes, she tells us that as I have gone into labour early, my pregnancy is no longer 'normal', so I can't have a water birth, however she is happy to let me use the bath for analgesia, I just can't birth in it. She also warns me not to use it too soon, not until I'm in establish labour or labour can stop. I agree with her and she leaves us to get on with it. Nothing much is happening at this point, a few little contractions here and there, but nothing you'd call actual labour. At some point our doula Cath arrives and we ask her advice on getting labour properly started. Throughout my pregnancy one of my favourite books was Ina May Gaskin's 'Guide to natural childbirth' which is also one of Cath's favourites. In it Ina May talks about how 'it takes a lot of love to get a baby in there and so it can take a lot of love to get her out'. Cath reminds me of this and so leaves Tony and I alone to get some love going on. She also asks the midwives to give us some time alone. Oxytocin is what you want happening to get labour going, and being close and loving can really help, so the labour make out session begins! Amazing how some kissing and cuddles actually gets things happening, I manage to have a few proper contractions and it feels like things are starting. But to cut a long story short here, the contractions won't stay and things keep stopping. Dr Holmes has been in to check on me a few times and after an extremely painful VE she tells me I'm 100% effaced (woo hoo!) and 3cm dilated. She comes back again at about the 12hour mark and as she sees I'm not in established labour she recommends we start a sintocin drip to get things going properly. The problem with your waters breaking is you only have a 24 hour window before they start to worry about infection. Also if I wasn't in labour so early they would have done a strep swab and know if I had it, but we hadn't done that yet, so we didn't know, this adds to the need to keep things within 24 hours just in case I do have strep which can be very harmful to the baby.

Having to be induced was one of my big fears when I was pregnant, my Mother was induced with me and as a result had a very traumatic birth, and so I was convinced I would too, but by the time it was suggested I was ok with it. To be honest I was getting bored of nothing much happening and wanted to get the ball rolling, so in my mind, if that's what it took then that's what we'd have to do. I was already being hooked up to the fetal monitor every hour for about 20 minutes (so annoying!), and now I was to be hooked up to even more machinery. In comes the machine that measures out the sintocin, and I'm hooked up to a bag of IV fluids as well. Your blood pressure can become quite low so they keep the fluids up just in case; this has the added effect of making you need to pee a lot which is bloody hard to do when you are having contractions AND have to drag a machine with you into the toilet.

It didn't take long for the 'proper' contractions to start. By about half an hour in they were pretty intense and I remember not really being prepared for such an intense feeling so quickly. Despite my steely resolve to do this all drug free it had the effect of making me cry, I think part of the crying was for the loss of my 'natural birth' plan and part was due to the sudden overwhelming sensations the contractions brought on. I really needed to let that cry happen and I felt better for getting that out of my system, once the tears subsided I was able to get on with the job of dealing with what I was feeling. Some people say labour contactions are painful, but I wouldn't say that 'pain' was in anyway the right word for me to describe it. I would just say they are extremely intense. For all you party animals out there, have you ever been so high it was almost too much, that the intensity of it really made you introvert right into yourself and you were in a whole another place? Well if you kinda get what i mean by that, then that in a way was what i was experiencing. It was a battle to not clench my jaw and scrunch my face and fists. As each wave came over me I had to focus very hard on staying loose. As unnatural as that seems, tensing up would only make the contractions feel worse. Sound also played a very important part in dealing with each contraction. I couldn't have been silent if you threatened to kill me, but I was able to have control over the pitch of my sound. I did some experimenting at the beginning trying different sounds, and as all the books tell you, making low guttural sounds really reduces the pain; the kind of high pitched squeals that I wanted to make only made the contractions feel worse. Again this took a lot of focus and burying myself deep into my own thoughts, but I did it. It occurs to me now that labour is such a mind game; that your ability to weather each contraction is all about your mind set, not your tolerance for pain. It's so very different to dealing with 'bad pain', something that hurts because your body is being damaged. Labour is 'good pain' something you feel because your body is working hard to do it's job at getting your baby out. It really is true that our bodies don't force upon us anything that we can't deal with. Yes it's hard and intense, but also yes it's very much something that we as women have the capacity to endure.

I'm not entirely sure how long I laboured on the sintocin, but at some point Dr Holmes came back to do another VE to see how far I had progressed. I was expecting her to tell me I was 7 or 8 cms, after all I had been working very hard with these contractions and felt like I must be getting pretty close to the pushing stage. NOPE! She informed me that despite all of that I was still stuck at 3cm!! i was devastated! By this point I was getting rather close to the 24 hour time frame and there was no point continuing the sintocin, as I wasn't progressing, it was time to get the baby out and that mean't a cesarean. I was so tired and dejected by this news that I agreed. I'm sure if I pushed it she would have let me try for another few hours, but I knew in my heart of hearts I wasn't going to get anywhere. So with a C-section now agreed upon a surgical team was to be organised and I was to be taken into the O.R. Unfortunately for me this takes time, and so I was left to continue to labour away knowing it was for nothing. That's when I started to lose my mind. I could cope when I felt like I was getting somewhere and it was all for a reason, but when my mind set changed knowing there was no longer any point to these contractions it got VERY VERY hard. At some point I tried the nitrous gas, and I was sucking that stuff down like it was my only source of oxygen. Even though they turned the sintocin drip off, it was still in my system and so the extremely intense contractions continued.

They were finally ready for me in the the operating theatre. An anesthetist had been found and Dr Holmes was ready to operate. I was on a bed they had to wheel from the labour suite to the O.R., what an agonsing trip that was!! Being moved whilst having a contraction is just horrible and I felt like not a single person who was helping wheel me into surgery seemed to care what I was felling. Every bump, every time someone touched me would just send me through the roof. By this point my low guttural noises had given way to me simply screaming. I had my eyes closed the whole time not wanting to be inhibited by seeing faces of people I didn't know, I just needed to scream. I think the words 'Oh my God!! Make it stop!!!' were screamed out numerous times. We finally got to the O.R. and I remember saying to Tony in absolute desperation 'This is going to be an only child, I can't do this again' at the time I was never more serious in my life! I lay there for what felt like an eternity trying to stave off the next contraction, nope, here it comes, as the anesthetist dicked about and talked to me about the risks etc of the spinal he had to give me. All I could think was 'shut the fuck up! Just give it to me NOW!!!!'. So I signed some forms, for God only knows what. Seriously, it's hardly proper consent to make a labouring woman sign something. I would have signed over the baby at that point if it had meant they were going to get on with that spinal. Finally, finally, finally relief. The spinal was in, my legs went tingly, the contractions stopped, my body relaxed and I flet soooo good. The anesthetist rolled a cold roller all over my body to see if I could feel it, nope I couldn't they were good to go! Poor Tony was feeling pretty overwhelmed and distraught at this point I tihnk, but all I was feeling was the massive relief of no more contractions.

Tony was holding my hand, and there was a big blue sheet like screen above my chest so I couldn't see what was happening. Five minutes in and there she was, a baby plonked on me right up near my face. I always thought I'd cry or have this overwhelming sense of emotion, but I was so numb and drugged out of my mind, so it was like 'Oh wow, it's a baby, cool'. I remember looking at her and just hallucinating all these wiggly lines all over her face. I couldn't focus on anything and felt like she was about to land on my face. It was all a bit much and so Tony took her for a while and got to hold her for the first time. He tucked her up inside his scrubs shirt and kept her warm whilst I was being sewn up. I hope he got to feel all those lovely emotions; I feel a bit robbed that due to all the medication I was on I didn't.

12.15pm on the 12th May 2011, that's her birthday. It felt odd that Thursday was her birthday seeing I'd done most of the hard work on Wednesday, but that's how it goes. Exhausted and in a drugged haze the three of us were deposited in a shared room for our first night as a family. Thankfully they let Tony stay overnight with me on a fold out cot bed. Little Daveigh was in one of those awful hospital perspex cots and I was hooked up to a million things in bed. Despite not having slept for almost 3 days I barely got any sleep, I think I was in shock that it had all happened. There she is I am a Mum, her Mum. Wow.

Four nights in hospital and I'd had enough, it was time for us to go home, and now here we are. Daveigh is a little over 3 weeks old, I'm healing up nicely. Breastfeeding is coming along, and tonight I am very pleased to report she has slept in her pram almost all night. Up until tonight we've only been able to get her to go to sleep whilst being held. Such a simple thing but such progress! Knowing we've achieved this tonight makes me feel like I might get to sleep normal hours again in the not too distant future. Life as know it has changed forever, but so much for the better.

Baby Gigantor!

2011-04-29T15:07:00.000-07:00

I considered trying to write a non-pregnancy post, but lets be honest, this is what occupies my thoughts day and night. AND it's not something I can ever forget about. I am constantly reminded that I have a baby inside me. Whether it's a foot under my ribs, my aching back, waking up at 3.30 in the morning or having to pee every 10 minutes, I just can't get away from it. The closest I've come to not feeling pregnant is floating at Freo pool. that was sooo good!

SO here I am, 6.10am on a Saturday morning, two cakes in the oven (been up since 3, might as well bake!), and on my first official day of maternity leave. It's a funny thing this type of leave, in my mind I have so many things I want to organise and clean, but the reality is my back can go at the slightest of things so I may not be able to do nearly half of what I'd like to get done.

If one more person says to me 'Not long to go now', I will seriously punch them in the face! No actually I probably won't, my baby shower is today and I'm bound to hear that at least a dozen times. Considering people will be giving the baby and I gifts it's probably bad manners to punch anyone in the face. I am however sick of hearing it. It could be anywhere from 4-8 weeks. If it's 8 weeks that's AGES away, if it's 4 weeks, that's still quite a bit of time. If I was due tomorrow sure, but I'm not, so just let me enjoy the last month or two in peace.

Another freak out post Ob appointment. I don't have gestational diabetes, however my blood sugar spike is too high, which means if I don't watch my blood sugar I will grow a gigantic baby (she is already bigger than 'normal'). If I want a natural birth, drug free and in water a gigantic baby is going to make this harder, and make it far more likely that I will do permanent damage to my pelvic floor and possibly bladder/bowel. So what is my first reaction? Cry! I then had to get myself together because I went to work afterwards. Was a grumpy bum all day, trying very hard not to think about it too much and not cry at work. Tony picked me up and I couldn't hold onto the worry and fear anymore. CRIED. LIKE. A. BABY. Poor Tony.

All I can say is thank God our doula Cath was visiting us that night. She has this magical way of putting things into perspective and making me feel so safe and like I can do anything. We talked about it, we talked about the realities of it actually being a big baby (only 1.8% of births) and how ultrasound measurements can be off by up to 20%. I think what really scared me to start with was that I felt was I doomed, that I was having a big baby no matter what and that I had no control over this, so why even try. But now I feel calmer and so much more able to cope I am giving this my best shot. My diet has been changed dramatically, toast/cereal for breakfast has been replaced by eggs, bacon and the occasional tin of baked beans, lunch is no longer a toasted sandwich but a salad or veg with some kind of meat. Snacks are cheese or natural yogurt, and dinner is meat and veg. I have very little will power when it comes to diet usually, but the prospect of being the cause of potential damage to my body during birth is enough to sort me out. If she is still huge and I've done everything right I won't feel bad, turns out I just grow big babies. But if I don't make any changes and she's massive and I have to have a cesarean or something I am going to be so pissed with myself!

Another positive thing I should consider too is that my sister Jane had the exact same blood sugar reading, she was told to watch her diet, she didn't really and Ollie was a normal 7 pound something baby. When my sister and I were born, neither of us were big babies, and I don't think Tony was a big baby either. So genetics is on my side!!

I go back to see my Ob in a few weeks, so I will be very interested to see when she measures the baby etc if my strict non carb low GI diet has had any effect on retarding her excessive growth.

My babyshower is today, and it is going to be so difficult to not eat all the yummy cakes and things on offer. I made brownies for my work goodbye morning tea yesterday and I managed to resist those, so hopefully today will be the same. I think if I just let myself have one sweet treat then it's all down hill. Much better to just say no to it all. I did notice yesterday how I got just as much enjoyment from watching my work friends enjoy what I cooked as I would have from eating it myself.

Land whale

2011-02-18T19:08:00.000-08:00

That's me, the land whale, well at least that's how I feel. I've got a good 3 months to keep growing, but seriously I feel absolutely huge already. I have no idea where the rest of the baby is going to go. But it does fascinate me, our bodies ability to adapt and change so quickly. I just hope once the baby is born my body will respond as quickly to regain it's former shape. I've never been a bikini model, but I'm alright with where everything usually is and how it all goes.

I've been reading Ina May Gaskin's guide to childbirth of late. In it she describes the amazing capacity women's bodies do have when going through childbirth. She speaks about it all with such wonder, grace and joy that I can't help but be looking forward to the birth of my little Moebe and seeing just what I have the ability to do.

So often when meeting new people and they realise I'm pregnant they ask me 'are you scared?', as if childbirth is something I should be scared of, that it's a thought that should terrify me. But I'm not, I can with a quite clear conscience say 'no, why should I be?', and it kind of saddens me that the vast majority of young women in or culture look upon the prospect of childbirth in their future as something to be feared rather than something to look forward to, a right of passage that will build upon their lives and character. Not to mention the reward at the end! I must admit however it was something that scared me too until I started to read everything I could get my hands on about how positive childbirth can be.

I'm so glad that I have had so much time to get used to the idea of the birth, and that the time has allowed me to change my thought patterns and to believe in my own abilities. I've always been a fit and healthy person, so why should birth take an unexpected turn and be something out of the norm? My blood pressure is always perfect, I feel well, my ultrasounds always look good, so really, there is no reason to be worried. How lucky for me to be having my children in a time where there can be a balance between all the best medical help and allowing my body to do what it's built for.

Losing my shit

2011-02-06T18:17:00.001-08:00

I've never been one of those hormonal crazy women, one minute they are happy next they think it's quite reasonable to remove your testicles simply because you looked at them sideways. I've always been level headed and even on days where I know my hormones are making me feel not myself I can recognise that, and not let them get the better of me. Keep to myself, and not get mad at silly things that would not normally bother me.

NOT TODAY!! Nope, today Melinda's full blown crazy evil twin came out with avengance. It really is quite phenomenal just how much these baby hormones can make me lose control and be completely irrational. It makes me wonder how many women we dub 'crazy', 'immature' or 'irrational' are just slaves to their own hormone fluctuations, and i am just one of those lucky women that this doesn't usually happens to in much of an extreme.

So this morning, the alarm went off, as usual I lay in bed thinking about what I would wear to work today. Blank. More thinking. Nothing. Plan B, get up, rifle through wardrobe and chest of draws only to be accosted by clothing that is too small, or hand me down maternity clothes from my sister that are miles too big. The only things that do fit me right now are way too casual for an office environment (stripey cotton summer dresses a plenty). Oh wait here's a top, nope it has a great big moth hole in the front! Shit! It's OK, here is another one, fuck it has paint on it??!! Give one of Jane's maternity tops a go, look like I am wearing a sack. 5 minutes to go before I have to leave for work with Tony. I have nothing on but pants and a bra, have had no breakfast, no shower, nothing ready for lunch, no makeup done and of course nothing in which I can leave the house wearing. MELT DOWN!! It is all too hard, I lose my shit, call work and tell them I'm sick and not coming in, and promptly dive back under the doona to cry my heart out in frustration and disappointment at my feeble self.

Tony is gone, the feeling of being rushed and stressed is over; with a hot cup of tea in hand and a loving look from a worried Shinny sitting at my feet I manage to pull myself together. I feel quite exhausted from that little mental roller coaster, but I must try not to be too hard on myself, I know I'm not actually that crazy woman, I'm just doing the best I can with the tools I have, and all I can expect from myself is to do what feels right and what I can cope with at the time.

No waiting for my Mum to come pick me up and take me clothes shopping. We will not have a repeat of this tomorrow!

2011

2011-01-01T09:42:00.001-08:00

Another year has passed, and so I thought I'd jot down some of my thoughts on last years successes and what I hope to achieve in this fresh new shiny year.

2010
*Biggest achievement was getting pregnant. It's not as easy as you think you know!

*Lots of cooking, lots of feeding friends and hosting dinners. In case you haven't noticed I get quite a bit of joy out of feeding my friends and family. As time goes on, it seems to fill more and more of my life and I find myself dedicating more and more time to it.

*Do a job I don't hate. It was nice having a pleasant job all year. After the last one, I really needed that time to regroup

*Making the garden productive. although my garden is stupidly huge, and in all reality I don't think I'll ever make the entire garden manageable, I have managed to make part of it useful. My veggie patches are all full of yummy things that grow, and I only hope I can bring them happily through 2011.

*Living a loving life. I love that I can tell my friends I love them, that I tell my family I love them, and that I truly do fall in love a little bit more with Tony every day. Life could so easily be a big black hole, but with lots of people to love and cherish, how can it ever be?

2011
*Being a Mum. Obviously this will happen one way or the other, but I hope to be the kind of Mother to my child that my Mum was to me. Warm, loving, open, dependable, caring, patient and brave.

*Build a beautiful life. Well really this is just a continuation of what I'd been doing in 2010. But I guess what I mean is to surround myself with loving people, comforting food, lovely experiences, a welcoming home. It's all these simple things that really make my heart sing, and so I hope to continue to build on what's already there.

*Give Tony (and me) the kind of family life he wants. To build something that is new and ours, to create our own traditions, and start the journey that will be our family.

So no diets, no weight loss, no budgets, no drinking less or any of those cliched resolutions, just family. That's what makes us happy, and that's what I want for this year. I think I might pull it off too!

Delicate

2010-12-06T05:55:00.000-08:00

Somedays I feel as if I'm made of glass, that the slightest misdirected word will cause me to shatter. Pregnancy for me feels such a delicate state of being my tough outer layer feels stripped away and my whole life feels exposed to the world. The more my growing belly protrudes the more people feel they can touch and feel me, prod me and ask me peronal quesions. For loved friends and family I don't mind, but for others I struggle to not tell them to piss off and mind their own business.

It's hard to express how personal and private this whole advenure feels, and I wonder if i will ever get used to being able to share it with others. Maybe one day.

Update

2010-10-11T00:41:00.000-07:00

Well Nigella and I have gone off track somewhat. It took me weeks to get up the courage to make the 'steak and kidney steamed pudding'. And once I actually got started I couldn't bring myself to use kidneys and added extra mushroom instead. The pudding was nice, but by God it took some work! First you have to make the steak filling which gets slow cooked and all up takes about 2 hours. Then you let it get cold (read: wait till next day), before making the VERY fattening lard based pastry and boiling it for two hours.

The end result was very tasty, but it wasn't so tasty that I would go to all that effort every again. Next onto Cornish pasties, which I've actually been looking forward to making. I've got the next two days off, so if I'm doing OK I'll see if I can make some. Must buy turnips though, which is annoying as I can't get them in my organic veggies box right now. I might substitute for parsnip or something.

In garden news, the snowpeas are coming along well, as are the broad beans. I'm dying to try and recreate what I made with broad beans at Al and Renee's a few weeks back. Broad beans just cooked lightly in butter and garlic. Absolute heaven! They were so good, it was even worth the terrible wind they gave me. Poor Tony! :)

I planted tomato seeds a few weeks back which I'm yet to see sprout. I have an awful feeling they won't germinate for some reason, which will be very disappointing because you can't buy seedlings of the Heirloom varieties I'm trying to grow.

All in all though the garden looks lovely right now, and I find myself popping outside just to make sure it's all still there every time I have a quiet moment at home.

And everything changes

2010-09-27T10:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (27 Sept) I found out that I'm pregnant. I roll the word around in my mind a bit and it still seems all so unreal. I don't feel very different, I certainly don't look any different (yet), I just have a little white plastic stick with two pink lines that tell me I am.

It has taken longer than I would have expected to get to this point, and so now that it is here I'm not entirely sure what to think. Excitement of course, a little bit of fear, and mostly disbelief. For a while I wondered if I had all the stuff in the right places for this to happen? Maybe I was born with my fallopian tubes up near my arm pits, and my uterus just didn't exist? Well that obviously isn't the case now is it?

So you get this little test that tells you you'll be a Mummy in 40 weeks or so, but you are also aware that not all pregnancies go to term and result in a healthy baby. In fact 20-25% of pregnancies miscarry. That's basically 1 in 4 of my friends. I know my Mum miscarried before she had me, so the threat is certainly real. This leaves you in the predicament of wanting to be really excited and to make plans, but not wanting to let yourself get carried away just in case.

Today I have felt little twinges, and tiny cramps. From what I read this is most likely due to the embryo implanting itself into the uterine wall. At this stage our baby is the size of a poppy seed.

Everyone seems to have different names for their unborn child, and so after discussing the fact it's so small right now, it's basically an amoeba, we've started using the pet name 'Moebe. The last two nights both myself and my tummy have had goodnight kisses from Tony, which is quite funny.

So tomorrow I will be making my first obgyn appointment. We have to decide do we want to go private and finally use the private health insurance that has been costing us a fortune the last 4 years (but still has some out of pocket expenses), or do we go public the whole way and pay nothing. I think I like the idea of private, plus Mordoch SJOG hospital is 5 minutes from our house, so that would be very convenient. But if cost is prohibitive, I'll just try and get into Kaleya like Janey did, she was really happy with her treatment there.

There are about a million and one things flying around my head, and I must try and just take one step at a time. Exciting time ahead.

Lists

2010-08-14T00:49:00.001-07:00

Someone asked me the other day 'does doing all this cooking mean you use a lot of flour?', to which my answer was 'no, just lots of butter'. And so here I am writing a mental shopping list of ingredients I need for my next few recipes and my star ingredient 'butter' is as always at the top of my list.

So I'm a good way into the book now, but I would say I've still only covered about a 5th of the recipes. Cakes are done, biscuits are done, and I now move onto a few muffin recipes and pancakes.

Biscuits of note include Ricciardeli which everyone at TFG loved, with their irresistable chewy almond sweetness. I am also impressed with the Irish Blue biscuits. A savoury biscuit using lots of blue cheese. There were 3 savoury biscuits in all, none of which I would have chosen to make had I not been making everything. The 'hot discs' are almost like a water cracker, and I find a certain delightful satisfaction that I can make this sort of 'store bought standard cupboard fare' myself. The oatcakes were interesting in that it lead me to making my own version of baby rusks. Saskia Hyndman seemed to enjoy the one I made her and I plan on making a batch for Josie as well. When Ollie gets older I'm sure I will make him a batch too.

Next recipe is Strawberry Shortcakes which is a very traditional American recipe, and then Blueberry Muffins which will no doubt make their way to West Perth and be eaten with gusto.

Filled cakes & fruited cakes

2010-07-07T22:48:00.000-07:00

Ah so many cakes since my last post! I have now finished the filled cakes section, am almost through fruited cakes and will be onto biscuits before I know it.

I'm quite surprised that I'm still doing this, I'm one of those people with a short attention span who gets bored easily. Obviously this little project of mine is interesting (and yummy) enough to keep me going. I'm also surprised at how quickly cakes leave my kitchen and make their way to other people's homes, and tummies. I must have at least 2 social occasions a week where it has been handy to have a freshly made cake in the kitchen, and the rest seem to have been readily devoured by hungry mouths at TFG. Tony's 'cake reports' have been a little lack luster of late though, so I'm relying on mostly my own opinion as to how good the cakes are.

So The courgette cake way AMAZING. Filled with lime curd and slathered with cream cheese icing. The Victoria Sponge was nothing like a sponge, but still tasted nice. The Boston Cream Pie managed to do a total back flip off the cake plate onto my kitchen bench. Despite this looking like a possible disaster (and at this point I envisioned myself having a tantrum on the floor a la' 'Julie and Julia') it was quite easily put to rights. The Autumnal birthday cake was a total triumph and ended up looking like something a professional cake maker would make, and I will certainly be making that one again. The 'icing' was incredible. It was basically a cooked meringue. But not in the traditional sense where you put it in the oven and the outside goes all crispy. This was meringue that was cooked as you whipped it with a handheld beater. So you end up with this fluffy, sticky, marshmallowy coating on your cake. It was full of maple syrup too, so it had that gorgeous golden, toffee, earthy taste that you can only get from really maple syrup.

Onto 'Fruit cakes', and there has been Banana cake which has walnuts and sultanas in it. Very nice and moist, but Banana cakes don't overly thrill me at the best of times. After that a Rhubarb and cornmeal cake. I thought I wouldn't be able to make this due to it not really being rhubarb season, but low and behold I found some! It was $8 a kilo though, and so I only bought a small amount, substituting the rest for apples which worked very well. The polenta (corn meal) gave the crumb a lovely grainy texture and helped soak up the juices of the fruits within the cake.

Tonight I go home to make a marzipan fruit cake. I adore, no LOVE fruit cake. It is my one weakness, and so I am very excited to be making this! Instead of the usual mixed peel it contains only sultanas, dried pears and cherries. So it does away with the sometimes nasty bitter mixed peel. Instead the recipe calls for a teaspoon of orange flower water. I doubt though that such a delicate flavour like orange flower water will even be noticed in this cake, and so I'm not too worried that I can't find it. I will use a drop of orange essence instead.

My students seem to be enjoying the steady stream of cake also! Being 15 and boys they are veracious eaters, which has also helped with using up cakes.

Two or three more cakes then I'm onto biscuits. I'm still trying to cook a cake a night, so hopefully by the weekend I will be onto biscuits. The first of which I think is rosebud madelines. I've always wanted to make madelines, they look so pretty and delicate. The sort of thing you'd serve as a petit four with tea.

Until my next post
Happy eating.

and the cooking continues

2010-06-21T19:51:00.000-07:00

In my last post I had made the easy almond cake and was about to try Gateau Breton and I'm pleased to announce both were a huge success.

The almond cake was beautifully easy to make (as the recipe promises) and a moist marzipany delight to eat. The gateau Breton, although easy to put together, was a bit more fiddly in the cooking process. I had to cook it quite a lot longer than the recipe suggests, however I suspect that is due to my terrible cheap and nasty oven rather than Nigella's recipe.

None the less, it was worth the mucking about and was amazing! It doesn't look like anything much, but the chewy butteriness of it makes it simply divine. This recipe gets 4 3/4 stars, and I will certainly be making it again.

I have also now made the almond and lemon cake, again another incredibly moist cake, and the zestiness of the lemons cuts what can sometimes be too much sweetness. I especially found this advantageous having sampled so many cakes of late. you do find yourself getting a bit sick of eating the same thing. 4 stars.

Last thing I have cooked is lime curd, or lime butter. My Mother used to make lemon butter quite regularly as children and it was one of my FAVOURITE things in the entire world to eat. My sister and I would go through a jar in a matter of days, applying it to everything we could think of! Ice cream, toast, biscuits, cake and even by the spoon full on it's own straight from the jar. For some reason I always harboured the idea that it would be difficult to make, but having now made it myself I am blow away by just how easy it is! The only 'tricky' part is making sure you stop cooking it at the right time so the egg in it doesn't become scrambled and the whole lot splits. You want a lovely velvety smooth emulsion.

Although the lime curd is at the back of the book and I kind of intended to make everything front to back it is something I need for the 'courgette cake' that I will be making soon, and so I thought it best to make it early. At the rate it's being eaten, I may have to make a second batch for the cake.

Next recipe is a lemon syrup cake and that is the last of the 'plain cakes' chapter! Chapter two and we move on to 'filled cakes', the first of which is a classic Victoria Sponge. You know the type your Nana makes filled with jam and cream. Old fashioned simplicity at is best I feel, and a great one to share with friends as it should be consumed as soon as possible. The cream in it means it won't keep very well.

How to be a Domestic Goddess

2010-06-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

In times of financial 'famine', it's nice to have one of life's simplest pleasures at my finger tips. How can anyone feel poor and down about their life when their kitchen is filled with smell of butter, sugar, warm spices and other delights? For me life's riches are held in the joyful look in a friends eye when they take that first bite into something you've made with love and care.

Never in my life have I gone through more butter, sugar, eggs and flour! I thought as my hens started to lay eggs that I would never be able to use all their eggs up in time, instead I am finding myself buying store bought ones to make up the difference. Of course now having chickens and seeing their delight at scratching in the dirt I am always mindful of buying the best welfare eggs I can afford/find, and I encourage you to do the same too.

So my current project is to cook Nigella Lawson's 'How to be a domestic Goddess' from start to finish. I have a million cook books, but I have always used them for inspiration instead of following a recipe to the letter hoping to arrive at what the picture in the book tells me I should have accomplished. With this thought and realisation in hand I wondered what would happen if I did follow the recipes? Would I find a hand full of precious recipes that will become family favorites for years to come? Will I cook something that someone else will enjoy so much that it becomes a favorite tried and true recipe for them? Or will I just put on 5kg? Although at the rate I am sending cakes to The Frontier Group with Tony, maybe it is the TFG boys that will all put on 5kg and not me!

So I am 3/4 the way through the first chapter which is on 'Plain Cakes'. The kind of basic base cakes that you can tart up in a myriad of ways. I am finding it an odd sinful pleasure writing little notes about each recipe in the book itself. The angel on my shoulder tells me I am defacing a lovely book, the devil on my shoulder thinks it's a wonderful idea and that I am just improving on what is already before me. This time the devil wins and so each recipe gets a brief note about how it could be improved, or what I could have done better (over mixed, cake tin too small, could do with a pinch of baking powder, eggs cold instead of room temperature, oven too hot etc, etc) and then my score out of 5. Here's where I'm at:

Madeira cake: 3* - a very plain cake, but good none the less. Would be lovely cut into layers with jam and cream.

Easy Almond Cake - I made this today but am yet to taste it. It looks lovely, I'm going to guess it will get about 4*

Rosemary Loaf cake: 3 1/2* - similar base to the Madeira cake, but with chopped rosemary throughout. This is what I sent Tony to work with today. An odd thing to add to a sweet cake, but I found the subtle spicy green of the rosemary was just lovely. Next time I make this I am going to add the zest of a lemon and twice the rosemary. I ate my slice with stewed apples, definitely a winning combination.

Next will be Gateau Breton. Nigella describes it as a cross between shortbread and pound cake. This looks like the kid of short buttery confection my Mum loves.

So be warned all those who come to Alonso street or work at TFG in the coming months, you will be plied with cake! I would also love to hear your thoughts if you get to try any of them. Good, bad, your rating out of 5 etc.

Happy Cooking!

Because I can

2010-04-14T01:03:00.001-07:00

Did you ever as a kid wish you could be locked inside your favourite shop and then have a ball that night whilst no one is around?

Well today I kinda did my version of that. The shop is quiet, no one has been in here for hours, I'm bored. Solution: do some stupid stuff.

1. Pretend to dance a waltz with a hat rack
2. try out every chair
3. talk to the ceramic rabbits, ask them for some advice on your love life
4. prance about wearing matching garden apron and gloves
5. turn off the main lights so only the lamps light the place and pretend your hunting for fairies.

It passes the time.

Score

2010-04-10T20:18:00.000-07:00

Today when I went to go talk to the chooks, I saw my neighbour 'the garden lady' start taking plants from her car boot so I went over to say hello. Normally I score all kind of little seedlings and the like, but today was a super mega score, I got 2 lemon trees from her for nothing!!! (note my excitement with over use of exclamations) One a Myer lemon and the other a Eureka lemon. No backyard is complete without a lemon, and this is something I've been wanting for a while. They are quite sad looking all leafless and spindly. One had a huge big green lemon hanging for dear life to an arched over branch. Despite lack of leaves, they are still well at truly alive, which attests to the hardiness of citrus.

I think half the fun of these plants is they are a bit sick to start with, and I get to nurture them and bring them back to life. Sometimes however there seems to be nothing wrong with them, and it feels like I've unlocked a cheat code in my 'gardening game' so I get unlimited free plants!

So first step, remove the fruit, that means the plant can stop putting all it's energy into trying to reproduce and can concentrate on leaves and root systems. Next prune back all the spindly stuff to encourage new healthy strong growth. After that, find the perfect spot, dig a huge hole, fill it with all kind of yummy stuff, I might even take my time and fill it with rotting veg scraps from our kitchen over the next few weeks. If I do that though a very thorough dog proofing will be required. Lots of blood and bone will go into the mix as will extra trace elements, magnesium and iron chelates. Might even take some soil from the chook pens as it's full of high nitrogen chicken poo. Then plant my little babies, stand back and whatch them go crazy. Any fruit formed in the first 12 months should be removed for the same reason as before.

Quick lesson on citrus problems:

*Loosing it's leaves - not enough water. If your plant is in a pot, it doesn't take long for this to be a problem over Summer. The heat we had did a real number on my kumquat despite what I thought was regular watering.

*Green veins on leaves, the rest going yellow - iron deficient, very common in Perth's alkaline soils, use iron chelates. I use the powdered form in water that way the plant can use the nutrient faster. Or use a trace element rock mineral that has iron.

*Leaves curling - citrus leaf curl, usually cause by a fungal infection, I use eco rose to fix this, it's an organic anti fungal with no withholding period for the fruit, so you can spray then eat fruit straight away.

*Track marks all over leaves - citrus leaf miner, use a white oil/soap solution to suffocate the fuckers. Or just cut out the damages leaves from the tree and throw them in the bin.

*Wart like things on the branches - gall wasp. Cut them off, put in a plastic bag and throw in the bin.

If you treat all these problems organically as soon as you see them you'll never have to get out the 'big guns' and use anything toxic which can hurt birds, frogs or even you.

Happy Gardening!

I heart

2010-04-01T00:26:00.000-07:00

Planting a garden in a pot hole, cute overload.

A garden tour

2010-03-21T18:01:00.001-07:00

A quick look at some of the weird and wonderful fruit trees I am collecting

It's been a while

2010-01-26T19:46:00.000-08:00

Ah how life has slowed to a comfortable pace in the last month. I still feel like I'm catching my breath from time to time, and so quiet days pottering about at home have gone a long way to remedy that. I'm almost there, still need a little more time.

The wedding was such a wonderful day, and the memory of it will be etched in my mind and heart forever, but oh my how I'm glad it's over. I don't think I have ever in my life put so much thought and effort into something. I think the effort paid off, but I'm glad I'll never have to do it again. If that's not a reason to never split and get remarried I don't know what is!

Work is still great and at a gentle pace. I love days like today when I have the shop all to myself dotted with the odd customer and phone call. Water features trickle in the background, scented wood shavings float their fragrances past me in the warm breezes from outside and quiet piano music lulls any listener into calm tranquility. I must admit I am getting slightly tired of the same old music. I would change it except that we sell it, and so this means I have to play it. Eight albums that all sounds the same on constant high rotation. Oh well if that's the worst part of my job, I think I can cope.

Tony has started coming home from work at reasonable times of the day which is lovely. It's so nice to now be able to share the work when it comes to cooking dinner, feeding the dog, checking on the chickens and well just generally being able to enjoy some daylight together.

I feel like we're slowly clawing our way back financially. It's going to be a good 12 months of us being boring, but future Melinda and Tony will thank me for my strict ways. I can't remember the last time I actually had money to go buy a new dress or pair of shoes. Gone are the days of blowing $600 on a clothing shopping spree. In fact the mere idea that I ever did that (and it was quite regularly too) horrifies me! My idea of 'new clothes' is now unpacking clothes I put away in plastic tubs a year ago and forgot about. Amazing what you forget you have.

My little flock of chooks are doing so well now. Lucky still insists on roosting in a tree and as of last night the second Ancona (which is yet unnamed) has taken to doing the exact same thing. I go to check on them as the sun goes down and two little feathered creatures peer at me out of the tree canopy softly clucky away as they get settled. Funny birds. The rest are quite content to do what normal chooks do and roost in their hen house. I can't wait to be able to get eggs from them. I think my Anconas will be the best layers, and so I need to construct some nesting boxes for them to brood in. By the time I actually get an egg from one of them it will turn out to be the most expensive egg ever laid!

The way I'm feeling about life these days I'd be quite happy to go live down south somewhere have a hobby farm with chooks, goats, ducks, geese and maybe even a Dexter cow. In case you're wondering no that's not a murdering cow that by day is a blood splatter analyst, Dexters are a miniature cow that act almost like the family dog! I'd love pigs too, but then what would be the use, I couldn't bring myself to have one killed and they can't produce any secondary food stuffs like eggs or milk, so in my day dream farm, I don't think I'd have pigs.

If not down south, a life in the English country side would be nice for a while. I watch these gardening shows set in the UK and the rich soil they have to play with is something us WA gardeners can only dream of.

Somehow though I doubt I can convince Tony of any of this. Ah well, I could do a lot worse than our little home in Cooby.

My new fave web site

2009-09-17T09:13:00.001-07:00

Don't judge my hair

Check out the goth couple getting married....FREAKY!!

I shouldn't have gotten up today.

2009-09-01T23:52:00.000-07:00

Today I drove over an unseen pothole and subsequently got a flat tyre. I was not too far from a Midas car servicing place, so I drove as far as I could, and pulled into a little slip road very close by and stopped. By this time the tyre was totally flat and I didn't want to drive on my rims. I couldn't have made it to the auto place, but a 30 second walk wasn't going to hurt me.

I walked the 30 seconds up the the autoshop and made my way into reception where I explained very politely ' My car has broken down with a flat tyre just a few meters around the corner, is there any chance someone can come and help me as I don't know how to change a tyre.' The man told me to hold on a moment, and he walked off to go and speak to someone.

An older man whom I assume was the manager came came into the reception and told me 'sorry we can't help you, we're not insured if my staff leave the shop'.

'But it's only 30 seconds walk around the corner' I explained. The man just shook his head and proceeded to tell me the guys up at some other autoshop all the way in Freo might help me.

I was absolutely stunned. Seriously, no one will help me? Nope, not a soul. No offer to use the phone, no offer to give me a lift up into Fremantle, just 'we can't help you, can't you be someone elses problem, go away.'

At this point I call Tony not knowing what to do. I decided to call the RAC and just pay the extra for 'on the go' membership. He gives me the number, I hang up and try to call. MY PHONE WON'T WORK. FUCK! I keep trying for the next 15 minutes, nothing. I can't call work and tell them I have a flat tyre, I can't call the RAC, I can't try and call my Dad to see if he's home, I am stranded.

In the end I left my car and caught the train to work. Tony later came to change the flat tyre.

I am still totally dumb founded that MIDAS Autoshop in North Fremantle would not help me. As I finally drove home I read their sign 'Friendly local service'. I don't fucking think so. Wankers.

My Garden in Pictures

2009-08-31T04:33:00.001-07:00

The bees are loving all the flowers in my garden. I think that's a good sign for potential future bee keeping.

The whole vegie garden.

This is where my compost bin used to be. The coiled thing is a zuccini, it's amazing how they keep growing in a circular pattern. I think mine is on it's last legs, it only has boy flowers right now which will never turn into fruit.

This was Tony's project last weekend. He took my one huge compost bin and broke it down into 3 more useable bays. One bay for compost to leave and let mature, one bay to keep building, and one bay for twiggy sticky stuff that won't break down very fast.

My curcubitacea patch. Mostly cucumber, zuccinin and button squash.

My Root vegetable patch. Carrots, parsnip, radishes and beetroot.

My stunning potato and lettuce patch, which has as many cosmos flowers and mizuna flowers as potato plants.

And now the last patch, beans and brassicaceae.

Today is only the second day I have put my chickies in their outside home. This chicken coop is really a rabbit hutch, but as the are small birds it's the perfect size for them. Right now I am just getting them used to the cooler weather outside and everything else that goes with being outside. They are now back in their inside brood box so they are warm overnight.

So much beautiful fruit growing on in my strawberry patch. I can't wait to eat the first one.

This is the prettiest part of my garden, it consists of purple sage flowers, orange nustursium flowers, hot pink geranium flowers and little white rocket flowers.

The Boo enojying the outdoors with me

These are just out my back door and make me smile everytime I see them, they are so pretty and bright.

An experiment

2009-08-26T06:35:00.000-07:00

Today I've started an experiment with my carrots. About a month ago I planted carrot seeds of 2 varieties. The problem with carrots is they have really tiny seeds and so it is very hard to sow them finely. They tell you in all the garden books to mix the seed with river sand then sow it, but I don't know what river sand is exactly nor can I be assed finding out, so I just tried my best to sow it finely.

The seedlings are now of a decent size, and I need to thin them out. There are so many seedlings it feels like such a waste to just pull them out. The problem being if you don't, the carrots don't have room to become a decent size. They almost stay kind dormant in seedling size till they have the room.

So to my experiment. I read somewhere that an awesome (though time consuming) way to get perfect carrots is to make a hole in the ground with a broom handle, dowel or something similar, fill it with potting mix, then put a carrot seed on top. The carrot will basically grow to fill the potting mix hole.

So I have done a similar thing, instead of using carrot seeds, I've used my pulled out seedlings. Hopefully they will grow to fill the compost filled holes I've placed them in creating a lovely sized and shaped carrot.

I may need to thin my original carrot plot further as they grow. The next lots of seedlings I pull I am going to throw into a stir fry, green ends and all. You an eat the whole lot when they are little. Really delicious!

The simple life

2009-08-11T09:05:00.000-07:00

You know that feeling you have as a kid when the world is exciting, that the simplest, most wholesome things make life exciting and good and just so enjoyable? Well that's how I feel today. I have gone about my entire day with a huge smile on my face and a flutter of excitement in my heart all because of my garden.

I look out at my garden and I see so much potential, so many things I can do, not to mention the 'fruits' of what I've already done. Right now my veggie patch is on the cusp of exploding. I have 3 kinds of beans in the back plot near the compost bin. That's borlotti beans, Cherokee wax, and purple king. Also in this patch I have some kind of mystery brassica, I think it might be cauliflower but I don't know as this was a labelless freebee from the lady across the road. Also I have from her a single majestic kale plant with it's lovely grey curly leaves.

The next plot is full of potatoes, bright pink cosmos flowers, lettuce and the bastard weed that is nettles! Today I harvested my first lot of 'new' potatoes. New potatoes are the small ones with the fine skin that are still young. While 'bandicooting' these little gems out I was reminded of the nettles stinging me like some kind of protective security for the potatoes. Even now hours later I stil have red welts.

Next plot has neat rows of early carrots, red core carrots, radishes, golden beetroot, long red beetroot and parsnips. In addition to all that some lovely thyme, coriander that has self seeded from last year, some swiss chard (again another freebee from my lovely neighbour!), and some spring onions. I've staggered my planting of carrots in hopes that when one crop is almost done I will have another one coming up.

Last plot, closest to our back door will soon have curcubits in it. So that's cucumbers, squash, zucchini and the like. Up until a few weeks back it was growing a green crop of mustard which has now been turned back into the soul to add organic matter and help kill off any nematodes from the tomato plants I last grew there.

Other edible plants of note in various spots are a native Australian finger lime, a granny smith apple thanks to Al and Renee, my ever producing rocket patch, an artichoke that is finally taking off and becoming quite large, sweet potato, more herbs than I can list, a doughnut peach, silverbeet, papino, zucchini, pinkerbelle apple, lots of strawberries coming on as well as blueberries. Also I have found about 5 brocolli plants growing straight out of my compost bin, which if the most awesome discovery! The original plant I had never did much it just bolted straight to seed. With these I might actually get some broccoli from them.

I'm just so excited about all the fruits and veggies that my garden is starting to provide. I also love finding different ways of using plants. Did you know if you cook them you can eat sweet potato leaves? You can also eat the leaves from carrots, beetroot, as well as silverbeet as salad leaves when they are small. When I plant carrots seeds, you have to thin out the seedlings, but instead of throwing them in the compost, you can eat the entire plant in stir fries!

Today I said goodbye

2009-06-18T02:23:00.000-07:00

I've not be to a funeral before today. I drive past Fremantle cemetery almost every day in my comings and goings, often with a small reflection for those in the car park there for the remembrance of a loved one. More often than not they are all older people, no doubt there to celebrate the life of someone who had all the years the could have possibly wanted.

Leah was only 29, and the darkness was too much for her, so she chose to leave us. We were never close friends, but I always think of her fondly, and remember her as one of those people who was all smiles, and lites up a room. She only went to my school for 2 years, yet she was loved by all, such was her big heart and her infectious smiles.

So we came together, old Ionians a plenty. Sister Mary, always remembering everyone no matter how many years have passed. Grief was too much for some, and for others, they seemed numb, still disbelieving. We listened to stories of her life, the joy she brought her friends, and how very much she'll be missed.

Time came to say our final goodbye. Family and closest friends went up to her coffin first, to write words of love and goodbyes on the casket, and to place a flower, or a kiss. I watch her best friend, who I know quite well just fall apart. She walked back shaking, heaving and broken, saying her final goodbye to someone she loved so dearly; it was like she didn't want to say goodbye, because then she would really be gone. She sat in front of me comforted by her Mother, and as her Mother tried to console her, my heart broken a little bit too. I can't begin to imagine the depth of her grief.

It was my turn to say goodbye, I made my way up slowly to her casket. I stood and looked at it finding it so hard to believe that in there lay a dead girl, one who had been so alive. I touched the casket, and to my surprise it was very warm. I wished her peace, but could not help but wish I believed in heaven. Some faith would have been a comfort today, instead it leaves my mind reeling with thoughts, of is this all there is?

Now I'm home, the birds still chirp, the sky is still blue, children still play and life continues. Not even a second of time stands still for anyone, no matter how much they have been loved. So we must continue on, taking our sorrow with us, time ever passing, hurts mellowing, but never forgetting.

R.I.P Leah, I'll always remember you.

Now I have all this spare time to spend on the internet...

2009-05-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

This load of hilarity kept me entertained today:
My life is average
Tweeting too hard
Awkward Boners
Not always right
Lolwigger
Passive Aggressive Notes
and for Magdalena, Emma and Kirstie
Apostrophe abuse
and the most nauseating thing about this one is I think I've been guilty of this kind of behaviour myself

The latest...

2009-05-08T00:45:00.000-07:00

It's been over a week since leaving my job, and I am amazed at how freeing this whole thing has been. I feel like I was given my soul back when I walked out the door and left Zenith; and now I feel as if I have control over my own destiny again. I'm living my life, not having others map out how it will be played for me.

So today I went along to the creche that Liz works at to meet the ladies there, and they have offered me some work, so yay! It doesn't pay heaps, but it's some income for the time being. Also it will allow me time to work on the Emma Page thing. As an added bonus I get to us the gym there too, which will be great. It will be lovely to be able to do that with Liz straight after work.

I'm excited about Emma Page as I've always wanted to essentially work for myself, but I've never known how I should go about it. Worst case scenario, if it doesn't pan out all I have lost is some time. Best case scenario I make a partial income out of it, and I get to work the hours I want to.

I'm really keen on not having to work full time. The idea of going back to a full time job just makes me feel incredibly panicked and anxious, so if I can avoid that I will. I'm sure I'll go back to a full time job at some point in my life, but I think for now my sanity couldn't take doing what I was doing.

What was Tony's old study is half cleared out ready to make room for a student. Renee has offered us a loan of the single bed they had in Holland Street when they had students with them. The thing I like about it is you can elect to have students that only need a month, or a couple of months, and have a break between people. We'll start with a short stint, see how that effects our lifestyle and go from there.

Hell is Zenith

2009-04-24T06:07:00.000-07:00

I can't remember the last time I was this miserable and down about my life. I have had the worst day at work in recorded history today.

I have just applied for 2 new jobs.

I am truly dying in my current position, and can't wait to shrugg off this black cloud that has been over me for the last year.

Anything has to be better than this. I'd even sooner scrub toilets.

It's been a while

2009-04-08T01:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted anything here for an age!! So I thought I'd do a quick simple thing. I like this idea, it makes you think. I stole the idea off 'Throw the Rice' whilst searching for wedding ideas. So what you do is highlight what you have done and leave the rest. I've changed a few to be more relevant to Oz.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited The Gold Coast
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Sydney Harbor Bridge
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Ayers Rock
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Benn a guide/scout
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma.
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Daintree
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year's Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Giant Prawn in person
96. Swam at Cable Beach
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Not too bad an effort I think! 48 out of 99.

Character Strengths

2009-01-21T07:38:00.000-08:00

I found this to be interesting. Discover your character strengths in 15 minutes.

I'm not surprised by the first one, in fact when I read the list of character strengths I thought that would come out on top, but the one about wisdom is a surprise. Also 'spirituality/faith/God' stuff came out last.

I often wonder if there is a bit of a gap in my psyche with that stuff. Would I be a better/smarter/stronger/nicer/calmer person if I did something towards spirituality? By that I don't even necessarily mean 'God' as such, but more wonder at the world and our place within it. I guess in a sense I see spirituality to be a humbling experience where we consider the bigger picture, and realise there is more to it all than just ourselves.

Your Top Character Strength

Capacity to love and be loved
You value close relations with others, in particular those in which sharing and caring are reciprocated. The people to whom you feel most close are the same people who feel most close to you.
Your Second Character Strength

Gratitude
You are aware of the good things that happen to you, and you never take them for granted. Your friends and family members know that you are a grateful person because you always take the time to express your thanks.
Your Third Character Strength

Perspective (wisdom)
Although you may not think of yourself as wise, your friends hold this view of you. They value your perspective on matters and turn to you for advice. You have a way of looking at the world that makes sense to others and to yourself.
Your Fourth Character Strength

Hope, optimism, and future-mindedness
You expect the best in the future, and you work to achieve it. You believe that the future is something that you can control.
Your Fifth Character Strength

Humor and playfulness
You like to laugh and tease. Bringing smiles to other people is important to you. You try to see the light side of all situations.

Spray on pants

2009-01-20T06:48:00.000-08:00

According to Judah Friedlander and his 'bad art' collection this is the gayest poster ever

A fruitful weekend

2009-01-11T06:46:00.000-08:00

Tomatoes, eggplants, zucchinis and home made bread ala Tony Polony!

Reflections

2009-01-07T01:24:00.000-08:00

I was thinking today back on the year that was 2008, and to me it felt like the year of struggles.

First was the struggle to pay off debt and to try and get ourselves into a position where we could be candidates for a loan. There was also the struggle to find the house itself, months of trawling through home opens and online real estate sites. Then the struggle to have someone accept our offer to buy (don't even get me started).

Work was a nightmare for me in 2008, I spent the first 3/4 of the year hating my job and being consumed by worry, and feeling like a total freak who doesn't fit in even slightly. My self esteem, previously at an all time high was wittled down to a nub.

I think the saving grace for me in 2008 was my relationship with Tony. Everything about it is just effortless, well maybe not totally (we all have our moments), but it feels like it's all so easy. We just seem to complement each other so well that it's very rarely we have any conflict, and if we do it's so minor it's almost not worth worrying about. I think the fact that we both have easy going personalities helps too. What could become an argument, we both find we just let go, and walk away from.

So onto to 2009.

I guess what got me thinking about this post is today at work I had one of those moments where I stopped and realised that I feel so entirely different about my job. I would even say I love my job (as far as jobs go that is). Sure I still have one person who can make my life hell, but I'm choosing to not let her get the better of me. She can shove it up her ass.

So I'm at a point with work where I know what I'm doing, people look up to me, ask me questions and have some respect for me. I in no way feel like the new girl who knows nothing and everyone thinks is weird anymore. Having another fellow vego on board, and now 4 staff (previously just little old me) who live South of the river, makes me feel like I'm just normal.

I'm blessed with finding that I make friends easily, but recently I feel like my work friendships are getting to a deeper level. I know more about peoples lives, and I'm better known, and therefor understood; which makes a massive difference.

So work struggles over, house struggles seem to be non-existent. We just live, and enjoy; pay our mortgage and go about our day in our cute little nest.

I feel like we did the hard yards in 08 setting the foundations for the future we want, and I would like to think we'll get to enjoy some of our hard work this year.

New babies

2009-01-06T06:09:00.000-08:00

I got a Bunnings Voucher for Christmas from my Dad and today I spent it. I now have a dwarf pink lady apple tree, otherwise known as a 'pinkerbelle' (how cute!), and a doughnut peach. Doughnut peaces are kind of flat with a dip in the middle and well look almost like doughnuts.

I've planted both and now look forward to seeing my babies grow, mature and produce fruit.

Did you know this existed?

2008-11-27T19:41:00.000-08:00

A web site specifically designed to find public toilets! Not only that you can save your favorite toilets if you register and log in to 'My toilets'. Admittedly a handy web site for those with tiny bladders, but still rather odd.

Stranger still I stumbled across this web site when I was looking for web site for the Cooby library.

Be my singing lesson be my song...

2008-11-22T05:43:00.000-08:00

Sitting in my study I'm listen to the last lingering drops of rain as a pleasant night time shower comes to an end. The garden will just love this extra bit of water, but I can't help but imagine with the rain comes all the snails who just love to eat my poor little tender seedlings.

My back aches, and all muscles are weary after a big day of gardening, but I am pleased to say the results are well worth it. It amazes me how every weekend the garden looks more and more loved and cared for.

So I am now the proud owner of 3 Manzanillo olive trees where a garden of nothing but little white rocks once was. It has taken me near on forever to removes the little fuckers from the garden bed, but you'd hardly know they were ever there now. What kind of moron fills a garden bed with rocks, seriously? That can only ever go badly, and despite what you might think about them keeping weeds down, nope the things grow right through, and are harder to remove cause you have to get rid of the rocks to pull it out.

SO in addition to my olive trees I've also planted some pretty pink petunias, and some colourful snap dragons. I remember being fascinated with snap dragons as a kid, the little flowers opening and closing like a dragons mouth.

I was lucky enough to have a few left over to put in my front yard too. I did have some sunflower seedlings planted out there but they have all now disappeared, some little animal has made them it's dinner. Grrr! I think next time I will have to grow them larger before I put them directly in the ground, that way they might stand a chance.

So in addition to my olives, I have also today planted the butternut pumpkin and watermelon seedlings that I grew. I've planted them all the way at the back of the garden behind the garden shed.It's snail country up there, but I hope that I removed enough snail habitat for it to create a barrier. Also I have sprayed around each one a product called 'slug it'. It's a harmless copper solution that when snails or slugs slide over it they get a zap like an electric shock. Apparently the copper reacts with their slime and creates a chemical reaction that gives them the zap. I hope it works,because I don't like to put snail pellets down; I'd never forgive myself if Bosca ate them.

Also in gardening news we have a bit more lawn! We've been buying a few rolls each weekend or so and slowly we're building up to have a quite nice green lawn area. Tony is an absolute gem when it comes to digging out the weeds and laying this stuff, it's now a big enough area for a picnic!

This may be about the strangest sentence I have every blogged, but today I fell in love with mulch. We have had a bag of it sitting by our back door ever since we bought the house. It was pretty obvious that the previous owners mulched almost everything they could to make the yard look nicer, and they had a bag left. I've looked at it time and time again thinking I should use it for something, but have never had enough motivation. Today however after battling too many damn weeds in veggie patch number one I decided to break open the bag and mulch the garden to keep out the weeds. I couldn't get over what a difference it made! Not only would it keep down weeds and keep in water, it made everything look amazing! So inspiration now at full throttle I went down to Bunnings to get more. 5 bags of mulch later and what were horrid sandy garden beds looked beautiful and lush, amazing!

Lastly, behind the grass area is a small limestone wall that creates a little terrace, and behind that I am now growing more sage that self seeded from our ginormous sage bush that was here when we bought the house, ginger mint, little purple violets that also self seeded, and rhubarb. I have had the rhubarb seedlings for about a month now but not known where to put them as rhubarb will grow for about 3 years, that being the case you really need to think about where you put it. I read a funny thing the other day saying how rhubarb loves a freezing winter, but it the ground doesn't freeze where you are you can dig up the root stock, and put it in your freezer. Then when it's frozen solid for about a month re-plant it and you'll have the best crop of rhubarb you've ever had. As fascinating an idea as that if, I don't think I'll be doing that.

After all this hard work, watering, toiling, pulling weeds and mulching you may be wondering if we're actually getting to eat any of this? Well we're eating heaps! Today I harvested all our beetroot, which was being swallowed up by my gigantic tomato plants.Not only am I keeping the beetroot itself, but the smaller more tender leaves of the plant as these are beautiful to eat like a lettuce leaf. They have the earthy sweet taste a bit like the beetroot. Also we're still eating our mixed lettuce, they just go on and on, as does the rocket despite it having gone to seed. The dwarf snowpeas are still flowering and fruiting, and taste just amazing. Our two (now 3) strawberry plants keep producing fruit, and most days like a little red present one is sitting there ready for me to eat , yum! Our apple cucumber has mounds of fruit, 4 of which I picked today. Our tri-coloured chard or silverbeet is going mad, and we can't eat it fast enough, and lastly our herbs are just devine!

Veggie Patch

2008-11-17T04:12:00.000-08:00

So a few weekends back Tony and I bought some seedling trays, seed raising mix, and most importantly seeds! I've not grown anything from seed in my whole life, and have prior to this point imagined it to be some very difficult elaborate task.

So I have now successfully sprouted sunflowers, watermelon, butternut pumpkin, yellow beetroot, radishes, carrot, purple king beans and zucchini. I've planted the sunflower seedlings along the fence that my veggie patch is on. I've put the zucchini near the compost bin hoping that any nutrient run off from the bin will help the zucchinis grow big and strong. The purple runner beans are along the other fence, and I am hoping the grow nice and big, and cover that ugly fence! The flowers of this bean are supposed to very pretty so here's hoping to that too.

The topic of compost can be so amazingly complex you have no idea! I have now read a few books and multiple web sites on the subject to try and give myself a rounded idea of how it all works. Most of my compost is made from weeds we have pulled from the garden. Some purists will say never to add weeds as the seeds can then grow when you use the compost. However if you can mange to to achieve hot composting you should be able to kill off the seeds. Anyway,my point to all this ramble was going to be that I used some of my compost today. So it wasn't from my traditional compost heap in the corner where I've tried to do it all 'by the book', but it was from just a great big pile of weeds that I add and add to as I pull the bastards out. So I turned it, and at the bottom was quiet usable compost. I was expecting that the whole process would take a lot longer to be usable. The top layer is mostly dried and and still whole plants, but the bottom was teaming with slaters, millipedes and all kinds of friendly little garden bugs helping to chew up and break down the organic matter.

So I'm just so excited to keep adding and adding to my garden. Slowly it just keeps evolving, getting bigger, better and more interesting. Also today I planted an artichoke, which from what I saw at the APACE garden in North Fremantle grows to be a beautiful noble plant. Lastly I planted asparagus, which is such a fascinating plant. It will need to stay untouched for about 3 years before we can start harvesting tasty spears from it, and each Autumn/Winter you cut all the plant away down to the soil and basically let it hibernate. This amazing little plant lives and keeps giving you it's yummy spears for about 30+ years. I have read tales of old farm house gardens being tidied only to find ancient asparagus plants still growing as well as ever.

The Little Girl Who Was Forgotten

2008-11-16T01:34:00.001-08:00

Emo bedtime stories

This might cause me to jinx myself

2008-11-13T05:43:00.000-08:00

I sometimes get the sense that the movie the Matrix wasn't too far off, or what the writers of 'the secret' were banging on about is actually real.

I have an incredibly lucky life, and some days it feels like it's almost to good to be true. I sit here and ponder my life, what I have (and by that I don't mean material possessions), how I got to where I am, and the future lined up for me.

For a long time, through my teenage years and early twenties I let life live me, I was a victim to the world around me. I felt like nothing was in my control, I didn't have choices, I just had chores, obligations; and society had certain expectations of me, which I would bend my will to for fear of being 'weird' or disliked.

I don't know when it changed, but sitting here now, I have sense that I can make ANYTHING in my life that I want, happen. Granted not everything happens as quickly as I would like, but ultimately all of my dreams and wishes are coming true. Oddly though, a few things I have thought that I always wanted, now that I can make it happen, seem less important, or off the radar all together.

If I think about the current run down, I like my job, in fact I like it a lot now it has changed, and I am comfortable in my work place. Tony is the best thing to happen to me EVER. I love my house and my little garden, I think I could be content forever amongst my tomatoes and beetroots. I have more friends than I care to count, and not just acquaintances, but really great genuine friends. My family are amazing, I live in a wonderful country, I have the most loving little doggie, and well the world in my oyster.

All this does however lead me to think if everything is so great all the time, will the lack of contrast, lead to unhappiness? By that I mean you can't enjoy the ups without the down to compare them to. I like to think not, and if life gets me down, I'll just go do something about it.

Here are some of the things that spin me out:
*This time last year there was no way we could afford to buy a house, I thought we'd be 5+ years away
*When we got the house I thought we'd be sooo poor, but with two very generous interest rate cuts we're saving a bomb, and living comfortably
* I didn't think we could afford to get married any time soon, but now we're making it happen
* I didn't think I'd be very good at gardening, but my garden looks amazing, I even inspired Steve to grow some veg!
*I thought I'd be about 40 by the time we could do the kids thing, now we're talking about trying as soon as we're married
*I thought my job wouldn't get better and I'd leave after a year, but a new job was offered to me out of the blue

Life just astounds me, and I've never been so content and so lacking the need to want.

Upside down dogs

2008-11-10T04:24:00.000-08:00

Are freakin' hilarious!!!!

How does your garden grow...

2008-11-08T03:40:00.000-08:00

I can understand why gardeining is such a popular hobby, why people dedicate their lives to the persuit of a beautiful landscape, and why Bunning's must be making an absolute killing.

Today I worked hard, I sweated, I shoveled, I lifted and I raked. Now we have what almost resembles a garden that is loved. Tony pulled out a big ugly plant near the vegie patch, and replaced it with some roll on lawn. Not much lawn mind you as Bunnings only had 3 rolls left, but we though we'd start with that and see where that takes us. It's just enough lawn to have a picnic for two.

I whiper snipered the weeds, so it almost kind looks like a rough lawn. Also I planted some seeds for the first time ever. I've always though seeds were probably more trouble that they are worth, but after spending about $3 a punnet on carrot seedings only to get 4 carrots, seeds seemed a bit more sensible, and a real way of saving money on vegies.

So now I'm about to have dinner, and enjoy what will feel like a deserved hearty meal.

Agreed

2008-11-05T03:12:00.001-08:00

Thanks etsy

Stuff goin on

2008-10-26T21:21:00.000-07:00

So a few things have been happening of late, one I've been offered a different job at my work. I can't say too much on here because it's not official yet, but it will make me a lot happier and give me some great new skills.

The second thing is we've set a date for our wedding. So the 27th Novmeber is going to be the date we finally get hitched! We've hired the Royal Fresh Water Bay Yacht Club in Mosman Park for the reception which is just beautiful. The room we want to use is upstairs and has a huge outdoor wooden deck that over looks the river.

After much pouring through magazines and websites I think I've decided on a colour theme as well, Tony seems to be ok with it, so that's a releif. I found it's suprisingly difficult to make a colour choices, but I got a lot of inspiration from the Martha Stewart web site which I just love! She has so many clever simple ideas. Lots fo cute haloween ideas too.

So today I am home sick from work, I had no sleep last night after a bout of REALLY full on allergies. I woke up feeling exhausted, snotty, itchy and just generally awful. So I called work and said I am staying home today till I feel better. I feel a lot better now that I've had some sleep, and a shower, but I'm trying very hard not to scatch my face.

We've just ordered a Jamie Durie Gazebo today s well, seeing I am home, they can deliver it today to us today. I hope we get lots of use out of it, it's nice and big so I think we will, plus it will give the doggie one more place to shelter in the rain and from the sun.

Wedding

2008-10-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

So we're going to do it, we're actually going to start to make plans. Today I have booked the royal fresh water bay yacht club in Mosman Park for the 27th of November 2009. Put it in your calendar peoples!!

Hopefully the celebrant is available on that date as well.

What a great idea

2008-09-21T19:51:00.000-07:00

After a number of discussions amongst the girls my work place has decided to do a 'biggest loser' style competition. So we weigh in every week, and it's based on percentage of body weight.

We start 1st October, and the winner is announced at our work Christmas party.

It's so much easier to lose weight when you have the support of other people.

Sad

2008-09-21T19:08:00.000-07:00

Poor Bosca, I felt so mean leaving her at home today when I left for work. I hope she doesn't rip up the garden. She was pretty well behaved yesterday when we were out there with her. As long as she doesn't lie on my veggie patch I'll be happy.

Our girl with the little white socks

2008-09-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

The first night is always the hardest with a new pet. You wonder will they sleep, will they wee all over the house? Will the bark in the middle of the night? Will the destroy my garden in the cover of darkness? and all manner of other things.

But no, not lovely Bosca, she has been perfect.

I get the feeling she was just following her Kennel Routine. Go to bed when it gets dark, then wake up first thing when the sun is up. She slept right through the night not waking us once, there was no surprises on the floor and not a peep out of her. I had to giggle though waking up to a little brown face, paws up on the side of the bed seeing if I was awake yet to play.

She can't decide who to follow around the most yet. She keeps going between Tony and I, in and out of each room. She seems some what curious at the dog in the mirror in Tony's room, and just wants lots of pats when she sidles up along side me and gives me a doggy smile.

So now we're off to to City Farmers in Hami Hill to find a bed that is a bit bigger. ALex and Renee kindly donated to us Honey's old bed and kennel. She kinda fits into it, but you can tell she is used to something bigger as she tries to stretch out but can't. Also we're going to go get some doggie shampoo (she needs a bath), and a comb or brush to get rid of loose hair.

How much is that doggie in the window

2008-09-20T06:32:00.000-07:00

Today our house took on a new warmth, a new little life has entered our family and already our hearts. Bosca the little brindle staffy chihuahua cross.

So we left the house at about midday with a sense of excitement, nervousness and anticipation. Would we find the right kind of pet? Would we find what we are looking for? Would the reality of looking after a dog be too much?

So to Sheneton Park Dog Refuge we went. We entered the compound, and made our way into the tiny office block. After a brief conversation with the lovely staff we were given a map of which dogs where were and sent on our way, making a bee line for the small dog kennels.

I was actually surprised by how many small dogs they had, a few of which we were interested in. One little guy called Charlie took our interest first. He was a fox terrier X and about 18months old. Between each kennel, or run there is a piece of poly pipe in the wall to allow water to drain out, and we watched as he squeezed himself through the poly pipe into the adjacent dogs run twice.

Also a quiet tiny Jack Russell called Virginia took our fancy. She was very small and fine, looked quiet relaxed and docile. So we went back to the office to find out more about these two doggies. Here we learnt Virginia was quite sick with a lung infection of some kind, and thought better of that as we can see ourselves affording large vet bills.SO next onto Charlie who from what the lady read to us sounded fine. A little bit of a terror, but noting I didn't think we could deal with.

So we told the lady we'd like to explore the Charlie option more and she gave us some forms to fill out. In no time all the questions were answered and the forms handed back, we were then requested to wait for one of the dog handler to come and talk to us about how well we would match Charlie and visa versa. So we sat and waited, talked of Charlie and how he might fit in.

To our disappointment the lady advised us he needed to be homed with someone who is home all the time, and that we wouldn't be suited to him. At first I felt really upset that they didn't think we'd be good enough for him, but after the emotion died down I could see the reason in her decision, and I could see Tony was kind of relieved not to get him. I think Tony wasn't prepared to have to deal with such an excitable dog.

She said she'd keep our info on file and that new dogs come in all the time, so we can come back from time to time to see if any more suitable dogs. We thanked her and decided to go back for a second look, and that's when we not only saw Charlie escape from his run all together and do a runner (dodged a bullet there), but we also came across Bosca. She was sitting quietly in her run, watching as people came and went, generally being calm and well behaved.

Now Bosca is not the sort of dog we had in mind, we both went in there thinking we'd get some sort of Jack Russell type thing, and Bosca certainly isn't one of those. So a Staffy Chihuahua cross sounds like an odd mix doesn't it? So she has a chocolate brindle coat, and is stocky and short like a staff, but she has a pretty sweet face which has the chihuahua characteristics. She's very gentle and kind, sweet natured and loving. I think she's going to be just like one of the family.

Mary, Mary quite contrary how does your garden grow?

2008-09-15T03:55:00.000-07:00

I'm obsessed, my garden has wrapped me around it's weed infested landscape, and I can't help myself!

So as per my previous post, you know I planted the first vegie patch plot. All was going well for about the first 4 days, until one morning I came to check my little green babies only to find a number of them had disappeared! I couldn't work it out to start with, they we're totally gone. Not just a leaf or two nibbled on but gone! After some consultation with my Dad we decided to check the plants at night to see what was getting into them.

So armed with torches we ventured out. At first we couldn't see anything eating the plants, but once we looked at the rest of the soil we could see lots of tiny movements coming from crickets! And not just one or two crickets but LOTS of the little fuckers.

So to the Internet (at annoying dial up speed), and we read how garlic and chilli mixed with white oil and sprayed on the plants will put the little guys off. So we put the lot in a spray bottle and off I went to marinade my plants. So far it seems to have worked as nothing else has been eaten.

Yesterday late arvo, early evening I also planted some dwarf snow peas and some multi coloured silverbeet, along with more thyme and marigolds which also help but bugs off.

I just can't wait for everything to grow big and strong so I can eat it!! :D

Composting

2008-09-07T19:15:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we finally got a chance to start doing stuff to the garden. Tony made a brilliant compost bin, and we both weeded a vegie patch each.

So we now have the following in our garden:
*Carrots
*Apple cucumbers
*3 types of tomatoes
*yellow capsicum
*beetroot
*mixed lettuce varieties
*rocket
*thyme
*oregano
*basil
*marjoram
*lemon Balm

I can't wait till we can start eating them!! :)

Also
i read a book on composting from cover to cover. Who knew it was so
interesting! The book was written by an English guy, so it will be
interesting to see how composting in the Australian climate is
different to the UK. I wouldsuspect compost is produced much more
quickly given the heat, but we will have to make sure we keep in moist
and not let it dry out. at this stage our compost is made of weeds,
paper we used for packaging, blood and bone, sea sol, and some urine...yep that's right, apparently it's good to get the compost started due to the nitrogen in it.

Home

2008-09-06T02:18:00.000-07:00

This is my first few hours at home alone. I just want a week of this, doing nothing but enjoying the quiet, the bird songs and the sun coming through my kitchen window. Tomorrow we start the garden.

One left, one right that's how I organise 'em

2008-09-04T06:56:00.000-07:00

Today I went to buy bras at Booragoon, and so I pick up my usual size in a few different styles, only to find that I fit into a D cup!!! What??!! Seriously?!! That can't be right.

Well it seems putting on weight has at least one advantage! :)

Thank goodness

2008-08-28T03:48:00.000-07:00

Settlement is tomorrow as planned, I do wonder though what day it would have been had we not jumped up and down and made a fuss.

So first thing tomorrow, we're off to the bank to have big fat cheque written up, then we are off to the settlement agent with said cheque. After that at 12.45 settlement takes place. I'm not sure yet what we have to do for that, but we will find out soon enough.

With any luck we might be able to move some of the smaller items tomorrow afternoon, leaving only the big stuff for Saturday. I like the idea that we can unpack the kitchen stuff tomorrow.

Both Tony and I are exhausted after a day of packing and sorting. We've thrown so much stuff out, which is rather cathartic!It's very lucky that there is a verge collection in about 2 weeks, so we've been able to dump a whole lot of crap on the front lawn. Already half of it has been picked up by people, who no doubt will make use of it. It's nice to see what is junk to us being of some use to someone else.

Will it ever end?

2008-08-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

What dramas yesterday! Here we are a day later and we’re still unsure as to how it’s all going. Kirstie madly did the ring around for us yesterday to try and help us get things on track (what an angel!), but it seems a case of Keystart blaming the settlement agent, and the settlement agent blaming Keystart. I don’t know who to believe, and quite frankly don’t’ care, I just want it done.

So where are we now? Well, we’re still in limbo waiting to hear more from the settlement agent. Tony plans to call her this arvo and find out what’s going on. At this stage we’re sticking to our moving date, and we'll do whatever it takes to make sure it all happens as planned.

So to all those helping us move, we’re still on for Saturday and we’ll let you know as soon as we know for sure what’s going on.

Keystart are pricks

2008-08-25T20:31:00.000-07:00

And so is my fucking settlement agent.

So, I have not been contacted by my settlement agent once, I've had to call her 3 times now. At what point will she decide it would be a good idea to contact me and let me know what's going on?

So I called and she has now told me unless they get the paperwork back from Keystart by 12pm tomorrow our settlement won't go through on Friday. So basically we're fucked, and it's not going to happen till God knows when. Which would be fine if not for the fact that this will make us HOMELESS for a week!!! Fuck I'm so furious right now!!

Do these people live in fairy land? Where do they think I'm going to keep my furniture, on the friggin street?? Why has no one called me to say there will be a delay? Is it that hard? And why despite me getting everything to them REALLY fast is there a delay AT ALL????

So unless we can convice the people we are buying from to let us move on Friday/Saturday regardless of settlement. Well, I don't know what the fuck we'll do. I'll move all our worldly possesion to the nearest park and live in a fucking tree until Keystart pull their fucking finger out.

FUCK!!!!

I never thought I'd see the day

2008-08-20T00:41:00.000-07:00

I have just cancelled my rental direct debit payments. What a simple yet satisfying thing that was to do.

This will be the first fortnight in a very long time that I haven't paid some form of rent. I think it's only just now it's really hit home that even though we have a huge mortgage, it's essentially an investment. We're investing our money and we can expect to see it back at some point in time.

Only a little over a week to go.

I should be excited

2008-08-12T07:04:00.001-07:00

Instead I am terrified. I'll get used to it.

Some days I hate myself

2008-08-09T06:35:00.000-07:00

I need to lose 11 kg just to tip myself into the 'normal' weight category. In fact if I lost 23 kg, I'd still be in the 'healthy' weight range...scary! I can't even begin to imagine how I would look if I was that thin. Once when I was going through a really stressful time in my life, I went down to about 60kg, and almost all my friends at the time said I looked awful and too thin, not like myself and that I need to put on weight. Hard to imagine that was ever so.

Last week I ran twice, and walked to and from the train twice, so it's a start. Although when I do exercise a lot I get so hungry, always catch 22. Stupid fucking body, I swear I was one of those gorgeous thin women who could eat what she liked in a past life, but was a total bitch, and this is karma! I look at cake sideways and I get fat.

Which leads me to think, why do I care so much? How I look and my image is such a small part of who I am. My thoughts, opinions, love, friends, family, achievements, beliefs and all those things are far greater parts of me than my looks. We live in this society where women's worth is based around looks. Once your looks fade, you are less important in society, or at least that's how it feels. I don't want to accept that, I want to believe otherwise about women as they age.

Ani Difranco once said "I am not a pretty girl, that is not what I do"
It makes me think about my conundrums too. Is that my goal in life? To be beautiful always, is that something to realistically strive for? I don't think so. I am under no illusions that I am beautiful, I've always known that I am very plain. So this in mind, maybe it is time to stop putting so much pressure on myself about my outside appearance, and maybe work on the inside.

I'm not saying become a fat unhealthy slob and let myself go, that's not it. I'll always try to be healthy, but it's about being a realist. Youth fades, I'm almost 30, and some days I feel it. Instead of trying to grasp the slippery tendrils of my 20's as the drift into the past, I want to embrace being older, being wiser, being stronger and being more confidant. Being someone people look up to, being someone who does the right thing in this world, and who cares deeply about those in her life.

My confidence has slipped a lot since this new job, in fact it eats away at me everyday. I hate it, I fucking hate it, but I don't know what else to do with my time. So I will try and make the most out of it. I will learn all I can, I will accept their money, and I will tell them to kiss my ass as soon as I am in a position for something better to come along.

I think now more than ever I need my friends to help me remember that I am loved, and I am fun and people want to be around me. But instead I hide, hibernate and stew in my own stupid thoughts.

I'm just not myself at work. Generally I think of myself as a funny person, but if you said 'don't you think Melinda is funny?' to someone I work with they'd look at you like I have 2 heads. Actually I'm only funny with a select few. I think I'm hilarious around Tony, the funniest part is I make myself laugh so hard I almost cry, and he has to say a serious word like 'cancer' to calm me down. I guess it just depends who gets my humour, it's not everyones thing, and I have to feel very confidant that someone will laugh for me to crack a joke.

You know when you're not comfortable with a group of people and you just come from such different backgrounds your on totally different wave lengths? Well that's how I feel at work. I hear myself say things and I think I sounds like a weirdo creep. I'm sure no one else really thinks that, but I get stupid thoughts in my head, so it easier to say nothing and be the nice quiet boring girl. Mmmm safe!

So lots to think about, lots of demons to wrestle, and much strength to find. I know it's there, I've had it from time to time, in fact I've been down right proud of it before, I've even had people remark on my strength.

So time to take responsibility for my life again, and time to live life and stop wallowing on the couch. Life can be better than this, I just know it. It's not like life is bad, in fact my life is generally good and there are parts of it like my relationship with Tony that I feel are almost perfect and everything I could ever ask for, but there is always something that isn't balanced. So for now I need to work on me. Rambling now, need to do some more thinking, might do this lot in my head, not on this page.

ciao

3 weeks to go

2008-08-07T01:09:00.000-07:00

That's only 21 days!!!

In other news I told the real estate people to stick it up their ass yesterday, quite satisfying really. Hopefully it is leased quickly and we won't have to keep paying rent past the day we want to be out.

mush

2008-08-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

My love he has the strength of a thousand men, his eye captures beauty and moulds the fantastical. He creates a place in this world that is my home, for my head and my heart, a place where I am happy. We've been here before and we'll be here again this love of mine and I.

The business

2008-08-04T19:31:00.000-07:00

I got business cards for the first time today. I was little dissapointed as I asked if I could have 'Captain Awesome' written on them. I guess just my real name will have to do.

Worried

2008-08-04T01:14:00.000-07:00

Someone I love might be sick, really sick. Despite my brain trying to be optimistic and tell me it will all be ok, I can't shake a feeling of dread.

Yesterday they cried on my shoulder and I told them everything will be fine. If I don't believe myself, how can they?

4 weeks to go!!

2008-07-30T18:58:00.000-07:00

Not that we're counting or anything.

Bright as yellow

2008-07-29T05:50:00.000-07:00

Life and all it's brilliance stretches before me, bright, shiny, welcoming and beckoning. In all it's colour I can only see the good, which is so blinding, the sadness our world weeps can't been seen in this moment.

Love and blessing abound, life is sweeter than the fresh winter grass, and the dewey mornings. I feel I am almost able to tell my life how it should be, and then it is so. What a gift!

4 1/2 weeks

2008-07-27T05:09:00.000-07:00

Time is flying by so quickly and we're hurtling towards moving into our new house. I am hoping after this weekends stat decs we're up to date with all the paperwork Keystart want.

I can't seem to stop myself driving past the house at all hours of the day just to make sure it's still there and that I'm not imagining it. Knowing that it is unoccupied makes it feel senseless that we have to wait so long. I wish all this finance stuff didn't take so long and wasn't so involved.

So of course I've been dreaming about houses, gardening, DIY and just generally what life will be like after we move. Tony made a funny comment the other day about how life's never perfect. So for us we've made a trade off, financial freedom for house freedom. It will suck being poorer than poor, but I think I'd make the same decision a thousand times over if I had to.

Also I've been looking at doggies online from the Shenton Park dog home, can't wait to have a fur baby at our new house!

5 weeks to go

2008-07-24T01:09:00.000-07:00

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

This is on TV tonight

2008-07-23T01:14:00.000-07:00

I hope lots of people watch and give some thought to the process animals have to go through to become our food.Going vegan isn't for everyone, but it's not hard to eat a bit less meat and eggs, or even to choose to buy only organic free range eggs and chicken meat.

As consumers we have the power to change the way things are done. If no one buys caged chicken products, they'll stop selling them. Simple.

I'm home

2008-07-22T21:12:00.000-07:00

So I've just come home from work 'sick', but the frustrating thing is I'm no sick per-say; I've just got a really painful strain in my right shoulder which hurts every time I type, use the mouse or just generally try and move. So no point staying at work, I'm better at home where I can have a hot shower and lounge on the couch with a heat bag on my shoulder.

It's a challenge

2008-07-16T00:06:00.000-07:00

I wonder just how much money can we sink away in the last few weeks of being mortgage free?

What women really get up to in the bathroom

2008-07-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

From one of my favourite shows 'Green wing'.

It's all coming together

2008-07-12T15:33:00.000-07:00

It's 5.30 am and I can't sleep because I'm too excited. My brain continues to go a million miles an hour with thoughts of veggie patches, warm wooden floors, a future of laughs and families being grown.

It feels like this is the first really adult thing I've done with my life. I'm proud of Tony and I that we've found a house that meets all our requirements. For a while there I honestly thought we would have to settle for something not exactly perfect, but nope! It's got everything we want.

Wooden floors - check!
Quiet street-check!
Affordable price-check!
New kitchen and bathroom - check!
Built in robes -check!
Large block-check!
Decent sized bathroom-check!
Neat and tidy-check!
Bath -check!

So we're going back for another look today, and this time I'll really let myself think about where our furniture fits. Up until now I've been trying to stay a bit aloof about the whole thing (with not a lot of success mind you!).

I know where still not totally out of the woods, we still have to get the 2 thumbs up with the building inspection and pets inspection. But the house seems so well cared for I'd be extremely surprised if anything was wrong with it.

I'm also starting to think about what we can do to make it better. One thing it does need is a shed for Tony, he needs a place where he can be a boy, make a mess, be creative and get away. Other thoughts include adding more to the kitchen, as there isn't a whole heap of cupboard space and bench tops. Also I'd love to have a dishwasher installed.

Holy F@ck!

2008-07-12T02:55:00.000-07:00

We got it!!!

Third time lucky?

2008-07-12T02:32:00.000-07:00

We just made an offer on this house. I hope we get it, it's even more perfect than the last one we offered on!

Features include: aircon, security alarm, retic, jarrah floors, new kitchen, new bathroom, large block, built in mirror robes, newly pained, raised vegie patch beds out back.

Hopefully we'll here back about it today!

Nice work!

2008-07-09T18:27:00.000-07:00

So last night I gave blood for the 5th time. This was to be the first time giving blood since going (mostly) vegan. My iron levels have always been OK, hovering around the 125 mark (with the cut of mark for too low iron is 120). Also my blood pressure has always been decent at about 120/75.

So I was expecting borderline iron levels, but guess what? they were at an all time high at 135!! And my blood pressure was about 110/70. Nice work! Seems the vegan thing agrees with me.

Death

2008-07-06T04:44:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I've watched too many TV shows about death and sadness, stories of great love parted too soon by death. So now I think upon the great love I have, the kind of love that is better than in the movies, and I can't help but feel a great sadness that one day one of us will be without the other. It might be years, months, a week or just hours; but I think if I am left last, it will kill me. Eventually.

Morbid I know.

Wonders never cease

2008-07-03T00:17:00.000-07:00

There is a girl at my work who is about 23 and does not understand what the equator is, nor does she get the differance between countries and continents.

After enjoying our chat on the best place to get your fake nails done I asked if she'd join me in a conversation on Thompsonian Esoterics. She declined.

People who can't park!!

2008-07-01T23:49:00.001-07:00

Today some idiot in a cooper Mini has hit my car in the car park. Not only this, they have not left me a note!! If it was not for a girl who works with me telling me she saw the whole thing, I'd be either driving with a buggered bumper bar, or paying a huge excess to get it fixed.

I left her a note saying 'I have a witness who just saw you hit my car!!!! You have damaged the read bumper, expect to hear from my insurance company'.

She then left me a note to say "so sorry, whine, whine, my mirrors, complain, complain, opps, I'm a moron, whinge whinge, I got my licence from a gum ball macine, *tear*".

I called her, gave her a serve, told her she should be ashamed of herself not leaving a note to start with, how she will inconvenience me and my partner because we have just one car. I also told her I expect a hire car when our car is being fixed. She tried to talk it down, but I was having no more crap. "I work in insurance lady!! I know how this works, deal with it"

Once again, I'm all fired up...anyone else wants some?

Why do I bother?

2008-06-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

I've just spent my morning making pancakes for all my 'work mates'. Now come lunch they've decided to have a BBQ. Not a single person has given me any though, and asked me if there is something I might like to eat. Nope it's steak and sauasgaes or nothing.

I'm sick of being invisable.

Interesting

2008-06-25T21:53:00.000-07:00

I was musing a few blog postings back about what makes a Millionaire, and here is the answer.

Garrrr

2008-06-18T20:19:00.000-07:00

My boss keeps using this baby voice every time he talks to clients on the phone, it drives me nuts. I want to staple a pack of pampers to his head.

What a bunch of close minded knob jockies

2008-06-16T00:53:00.000-07:00

Culture-less fuck wits

We didn't get it

2008-06-10T01:18:00.000-07:00

It's dissapointing, but I'm trying not to take it to heart, instead I'm trying to treat it as a learning experience.

Something even better is bound to come up.

Torture

2008-06-09T19:26:00.000-07:00

We made our offer on Saturday morning, it's now Tuesday arvo and we still don't know what the go is! I've rung and left messages, I'm going to try again at lunch time, I hope we get an answer soon because I'm over it.

People are F-ing A-holes Part 2 0r Asses like a Japanese flag

2008-06-08T05:51:00.000-07:00

I am guessing most of you have read Tony's blog, and will understand why we're having a hard time sitting down. That's right, because someone is trying to give us an ass fucking, and it hurts!

It seems to me just a little too convenient that a house which has been on the market for 3 months with not a single bite, 3 hours after we've made an offer gets a mysterious offer from another couple. Now is it just me or does that sound like complete fucking bullshit and that this ass hole real estate agent thinks just because we are first home buyers we are idiots!?! He's picked the wrong couple let me tell you, I'm ready to stand my ground on this.

Yes we would love this house, but there are plenty more houses in the sea, and we're in no mad rush to buy any old thing. It has to be the right price as well as the right house. So as they all say think with your head not your heart, and that's what I'm doing.

Will we get the bargain of a life time?

2008-06-06T21:00:00.001-07:00

Now we play the waiting game, will our offer be accepted or won't it? At the very last minute I decided I'd offer $5,000 less than originally planned. I was expecting a fight on my hands with the real estate guy, but he didn't bat an eye lid or say a thing except 'OK' as he wrote down the figure.

So from here, he has gone directly to the man who is selling the house to present him with the offer, and so we hope that we will hear if our offer has been accepted very soon.

It was interesting when I asked his about the seller and how long he has lived there. he said 'since it was built in 1968'. So apparently him and his wife lived there with their son since day one. Obviously the son moved out when he was old enough, and his wife died about 4 years ago now, so it's just him. He is keen to sell and buy something in the country to retire to. I'm hoping this means he will very seriously think about taking our offer.

Once we finished signing all the paperwork etc the real estate guy said 'I have to ask..' and basically went on to fish for us being able to afford a higher offer. I put on my best sales person hat, and went on to explain how we were mostly looking at units around the $350,000 range and though we might be able to stretch ourselves to that house at a low offer, but as it is we're pushing it to the most we can afford. It scares me how well I can bullshit sometimes.

So between the seller's story and my story, I am hoping we can get it for under $375,000. I feel confidant that we're in with a good chance.

We're so close

2008-06-06T03:39:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we have a guest to come visit us in the morning; that guest is a real estate agent. We hope to make him an offer he can't refuse. Actually even if we offered him $1, it would still be an offer by law he has to present to the seller. I'm a curdled mix of nervousness and excitement, I'm not really sure how I should be feeling.

So if you're interested click this link to have a look at the house we're hoping to buy. At the moment it looks like someones Nana lives there, but I don't think it will take me too much to make it like a home.

So here are the stats: 3 bed, one bath, big 760sqM block. Jarrah wooden floor boards under the lino, neat and tidy front yard, big shed out the back, and just generally not having to deal with strata assholes! Yay!!

So we are going to have a few conditions when it comes to making our offer. We will be wanting a termite inspection, a building inspection, proof from the council that the patio and shed got approval, and lastly being subject to finance.

Watch this space to find out how we went.

I keep asking my brain to think and I'll I get is

2008-06-03T01:51:00.000-07:00

DEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Lifes simple pleasures

2008-05-31T07:09:00.000-07:00

We just went for a walk in the rain and it was beautiful. I played in the puddles and kissed my love under a tree as the thunder and lightning filled the skies, and lit the night.

Tonight I go to bed a happy girl.

People are fucking ass holes

2008-05-27T01:21:00.000-07:00

I've just been told by my real estate agent that we are in breech of some strata laws by having pots and a table on our porch. Instead we are supposed to have nothing there at all.

What kind of nasty wankers have decided now all of a sudden to target us with this petty demand? Don't they have better things to do like clean up the graffiti on the walls, or evict the noisy little fuck wits who live in our block somewhere and wake us up at 3am during the week on a regular basis. What about the shit for brains who leave furniture in the wheelie bins room. Or the moron who owns a cat in the complex?

So I have to kill my plants, and I have no idea what I can do with our table. But we will have no place to eat and have people over now.

In case you can't tell, I'm absolutely fuming right now, and I'm ready to give someone a piece of my mind. They better watch out cause I'm ready to start kicking asses and taking names.

Things are gonna change

2008-05-26T21:20:00.001-07:00

So after last nights meet with the mortgage dude, we are that little bit closer to having our own home. In preperation for it we've decided to start living as if we are paying a mortgage. So just a heads up to expect us to be extra poor, and turn into even bigger Nana's than we already are in order to save some money.

I don't care if I have to live of rice and vegies for the next 2 years, I'm so excited! :D

It's the new black!

2008-05-26T20:15:00.000-07:00

I have today just signed myself and Liz up to do Burlesque dance classes. It's basically the new pole dancing. Actually, now I think of it, it's the old pole dancing. Anyway, I can't wait it should be great fun.

The art of the tease! Who knew taking off a glove could be so beguiling.

Upside down and inside out

2008-05-26T06:34:00.000-07:00

Today someone managed to make me totally devastated and then absolutely elated all in the space of 15 minutes. What a talent.

Weekend

2008-05-25T06:01:00.000-07:00

* Dinner at Mexican Kitchen
*Consoling an old friend
*Catch up with the Freo crowd
*See some local music
*Go to the railway hotel for the first time ever
*Family morning teas and dinner
*More talk of houses
*Home opens
*New TV-Might Boosh, Harvey Birdman, Big Train & Nighty Night
*More recipes for my cookbook
*Afternoon naps
*Chocolate pudding

What a yummy weekend

Houses

2008-05-18T18:46:00.000-07:00

So we though we may have potentially found a house on the weekend. We looked at it briefly on Saturday and were interested enough to make an appointment to go and see it again on Sunday.

Since doing the looking at housing thing I've been reading up on 'first home buyers tips' all of which seem to mention to 'thinking with your head not your heart'. It certainly is a difficult thing to do when you're talking about buying a property that you hope to grow a family in. It doesn't get much more personal and emotional that that.

Many tipsters also talk about making a list of things you want and won't compramise on, which I have done in my head, and I know what Tony wants too. the idea being if you are getting emotionally attached, it allows you to logically stop yourself if it doesn't meet your needs.

So anyway we went along on Sunday with my parents as a second set of eyes. They both though the house was lovely, and very livable, Mum and I talked about what changes you could make to update the kitchen, Dad and Tony talked about how great it would be having a huge shed. Then the real estate agent points out that if Roe highway ever does end up going through, Forrest road (which is very close and you can already hear) would become part of the proposed Roe highway. So you'd have big noisy trucks and just generally a constant stream of traffic day and night. Despite the fact the current government has scrapped it, it doesn't mean it won't happen at some point, really it's inevitable. So after that little nugget of information we also found out the property was tenanted till November. The real estate lady seemed pretty sure the type of lease they had we couldn't kick them out till the lease expired. Their rent was pretty cheap too, so by the time you detract ours from thiers we'd only be ahead $60 a week.

So we thanked the woman, and drove back to our house for some lunch and further discussion. At this point I was still thinking, despite Roe highway, if the price was right (being a fair bit less than the asking price of $415,000) it would still be worth it for maybe 4 years of so, and that I really liked the house itself.

As I was preparing lunch, Mum was watching what I was doing and we were talking foodie stuff on and off, then she brought up a really good point. ' If you have to wait till November to move in anyway I wonder what kind of houses will come up between now and then?'. She had a really good point. I think part of my rush to snap up that house, and ignoring the logical reasons why it wouldn't be the ideal place to buy were because that was the first traditional Cooby cottage I'd seen on the market in about 2 months, and that's exactly what we want (but on a quiet street). I was thinking with my heart and ignoring logic.

So giving my brain time to slow down, putting emotion aside and being logical about the whole thing (after all one my non-compramises was to be a quiet street) we came to the decision that we could most likley find something better. The other thing too is that we haven't gotten our finance pre-approved yet. Hopefully we can sort that out very soon. I am told you have to fill out a bit of paperwork making an offer subject to finance. So it will be much easier and more attractive to sellers if we can make an offer with our finance ready to go. An offer with finance guaranteed, and no wait time for us to sell our existing home will no doubt be far more attractive than the average person. Also it occurs to me that a lot of people will be waiting for the reduction in Stamp duty in the new financial year before buying a home. Being new home owners buying under $500,000 we are exempt from stamp duty, so we don't have that restriction.

So it was a struggle, but heads won over hearts and we continue the search. Next week we meet the finance guy, so hopefully that is sorted soon too. I'm still hoping we can be in a house of our own before Christmas.

Wii

2008-05-15T07:18:00.000-07:00

I just bought a Wii fit, and it's AWESOME!! I can't wait to use it more regularly, and track my progress. At the moment I have a 'Wii fit age' of 34, so I'm sure I can do better than that! It wasn't even expensive at just under $150 I hope it proves to be money well spent.

Next time any of you visit team Telinda you'll have to see what your Wii fit age is too. :)

It's nice to be home

2008-05-11T01:30:00.000-07:00

And so we return to real life, bills, work, family, dirty laundry, un-made beds, dusty shelves and just the general reality that is my day to day life. I am so glad I decided Tuesday would be a better day to go back to work rather than Monday, so one more day to enjoy at my leisure.

So to sum it up we had a lovely trip down South. Highlights being Adam and Kirstie arriving, touring wineries, driving to Augusta and all the way down to cape Leuwin. I think having a decent amount of time to spend, it was nice being able to have a busy and, then a slack day. We really got the best of both worlds by filling our days to the hilt and other days of not leaving the couch.

I'm the master of subterfuge

2008-04-30T16:30:00.000-07:00

This week has been insanely busy, and in a number of ways I wondered if I'd ever get to today without some sort of bursting. My brain busting from too much work, or just general garden variety bursting with excitement about Tony's birthday surprise.

So I've been awake since about 3.30am thanks to some of our bogan neighbours who decided that is an excellent time of day to do some drunken man wrestling on the path outside out bedroom window. Yay!

SO once awake, I couldn't help but start thinking that Tony would awake soon-ish (5.30am), and then I could spring him with his surprise. So I lay there with a silly grin on my face, wriggling about and being restless till 5.30 came around.

Once it did, I told Tony he wasn't allowed to properly get out of bed till he opened another present. So I gave him a wrapped up flat package, which he ripped open. He had a confused look on his face when he was reading it. I think it was a combination of being sleepy and not with it yet, and not really understanding why I wrapped up an annual leave form. SO I couldn't stand it and shouted out 'You don't have to go back to work till the 13th March!'. Then a big smile spread across his face. It was however still tinged with confusion, and so I continued with my surprise plan and handed him the new small and flat present. He opened this one which contained the details of the place we are to stay at.

So all has now been revealed, Tony is pretty happy I think. He's gone back to sleep for a while now. I think the idea of staying bed to sleep in was far superior to a 6am bike ride in the pitch black and cold to work. :D

I'm so glad I managed to pull it off, he honestly had no idea.

Thanks to all those how let me organise 'fake' catch ups with them to throw him off the scent. Now I'm just hoping the apartment I have rented is as nice as the pictures look.

See you when we get back XX

I love being alone

2008-04-28T05:24:00.000-07:00

I've always enjoyed my own company, and time away from others. Tonight I sit at home after an extremely busy day at work (oh my God, you have no idea!), on my own, and I'm happy. For me time in my own head space away from other people is about the best way I can relax. Even at lunch time, I love to leave the noisy office and go for a half hour walk, clear my head and just generally be away from people.

I reckon if I was stranded on a island (with all the mod cons of course) for a month just on my own I'd be in heaven.

Working in my sleep.

2008-04-25T01:39:00.000-07:00

My job has finally gotten interesting and good, this last week I have been more busy than I can every remember, and I've been forced to use my brain A LOT! So it's made the week go very quickly, and I've learn a lot.

Now the down side to all of this is that I now also work in my sleep. Last night I woke up about 3 times, and every time I went back to sleep I dreamt I was at work, working hard, doing what I've done for the last week...Argh! Not too restful, or the best way to start a long weekend.

As much as I've enjoyed work this last week, I shall look forward to a time when work is just work and it doesn't occupy my head space the way it does now.

The crystal ball

2008-04-15T00:06:00.000-07:00

I feel like I'm finally stepping into real adulthood. That the last vestages of childhood are slipping away never to be worn again, but always in my fond memories.

I predict the next 5 years to encompass huge changes in my life and in Tony's, and the thing that I find the most exciting is that it's all tangable now. I see it all clearly in my future, people, places and faces are all there and very real.

The challenege now is to enjoy the journey.

Life steps

2008-04-13T06:20:00.000-07:00

I think we've worked out a way we can buy a house. My prediction is we'll be in our own place within less than 6 months.

More coming soon....