Two Long Weekends. One Post.

Weekend of Moving

Saturday

• My parents arrive early and help pack the last of our junk - I mean possessions, attempt to calm me down, buy us coffee, have a quick squiz at the new place and dash off (well, when I say dash, they did hang around for about 4 hours).
• The Friendly Moving Men arrive. And they really were very friendly, and helpful. And rather 'strapping' young lads (*drool*).
• One flight of stairs down, two flights up.
  
• 4 1/2 hours later our old place is practically empty and our new place is populated by boxes.
• We decide a Transformers movie marathon coupled with beer and pizza on the couch are in order.
• We receive our very first noise complaint. At 9:30pm. On a Saturday night. Apparently, even though we are on the top floor, playing our movies that loudly was like 'living on top of a volcano'. Go figure. We haven't heard from them since.
  

Sunday

• Unpacking.
  

Monday

• Went round to the old place to let the cleaners in only to discover that the housemate who should have been out of there on Sunday was only just starting to remove his belongings as we walked in the door.
• Very angry Aesophia shucked her lovely outfit and gorgeous hair (we had intended to let the cleaners in and then head out to breakfast) and helped move the housemate's junk downstairs.
  
• A very sweaty Aesophia finally gets the relaxed breakfast she was originally after.
• JB HiFi for some things we needed. We also walked out with things we didn't really need as well (5 new CDs for me!)
• Hardware store for those handy wall hook things by 3M - the best thing invented for renters EVER.
• More unpacking.
  

Weekend of Easter

Friday

• Slept in.
• Did mostly nothing.
• Oh, and dishes.
  

Saturday

• Went to the Prahran Market to shop for guests coming over on Sunday and had some gloriously different coffee.
• Unpacked shopping and watched Roju play God of War 3 (awesome awesome game - and I got to brush up on my Greek Mythology).
• Went bouldering (that's like rock climbing across instead of up and without the ropes) at Burnley with a friend who then came back home and we played Rock Band until the wee hours.
  

Sunday

• Even though daylight savings gave us another hour we only got up with an hour to spare before my sister and her boyfriend showed up for lunch.
• By the time they left we had enough time to clear up after them, do a few dishes and then relax on the couch for about half an hour before
• Our guests arrived for dinner and more geekiness. Yay!
  

Monday

• Did mostly nothing.
• Oh, and went to the supermarket.
• Watched some Scrubs.

All in all

• After moving house the Easter long weekend was the BEST break ever. Haven't got much to show for it, but loved it nonetheless :)
  

Boxes and exes, exes and boxes

We are Moving House this Saturday. We've hired the movers, we've booked the cleaning. We've sold the washing machine (the new place already has a spanking new one), we've got a new fridge (the current one belongs to the housemate).With any luck it'll all be done and dusted by early Monday afternoon and Moving House will just be a painful memory we don't wish to repeat any time in the near future. Of course, this whole ordeal means that the contents of the house are currently getting boxed up and you can barely move for the things. And they're not at all lightweight either *sigh*

Regardless, as aforementioned, with any luck, this time next week it will all be a distant and only slightly painful memory.

On to more gossipy topics: Last Saturday evening I was supposed to go to the Massive Attack gig at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Sadly our tickets fell through and I no longer had a good enough excuse not to go to a birthday party. I was still going to make my excuses when I received a desperate phone call from the Lovely Lari, gracing us with her presence, down from Shepparton* for the weekend, heading to said birthday party and in need of support**. So come 7 o'clock, she swings past and after a quick pause at the convenience store for some caffeine we made the trek out to Preston (I will admit it's not the hour long drive to Witchy's place, but certainly a long way from the cushy inner eastern suburbs I call home). As they were not expecting us, we were a welcome sight, it was lovely being a 'nice surprise' for a change.

However, we both - the Lovely Lari and myself - walked in and were confronted by our exes. One for each of us. I had seen my ex's car parked out the front, and on reflection should have expected it and prepared for it earlier as my ex and our Friend are pals, but had to look askance to the Lovely Lari, "am I looking ex-boyfriend good tonight?", thank goodness I was.

It was rather awkward. To say the least really. The Lovely Lari's ex was not quite so much of a big deal as mine, in terms of length of history and stature (being quite possibly literally half the size of my ex), however she had not seen him since the split some years earlier... My ex, M, has not been seen by me since our Friend's Thanksgiving party, and before then, another 12 months on the inside. In fact, last I'd seen him was when I was trying to be nice and polite, we'd caught up for a drink and he was attempting to impress upon me the many and wonderful ways in which he had changed for the better. Turns out this time was a variation on a theme.

Just to give you a bit of background (on my ex, because really, this blog is about me, not the Lovely Lari, as Lovely as she is), M and I were together for approximately 2 years. Once upon a time I was madly in love with him (even though he didn't really like Witchy, which should have been a big clue), he was The One for me. For about the first 9 months of our relationship anyway - I stuck it out for the rest of the 2 years in the hopes that with encouragement and basic evolution backing me up, he might change for the better. After that I woke up to the fact that he was not changing like he kept saying he was. He was, in fact, All Talk. Seriously. He had (and still has) opinions on everything. He thinks that because he has seen or witnessed a thing, or once spoke to a guy who did something he is subsequently and expert on the thing and therefore entitled to judge said thing with obstinate vengeance.

So after I got over the awkwardness of seeing him again, I decided that it has certainly been a while and perhaps I should just treat him like any other person again. This attempt seemed to be going well for a little while. We Caught Up and chatted about what we'd been up to, how his family was (his sister got married, cheated [before and during the marriage], got divorced***). And then when we'd finished doing that, being at a party I attempted to join another conversation, only to realise that M was attempting to monopolise my time and be the centre of my attentions, so I had to quite obviously turn away from him to get him to stop talking to me.

And then, after the party had moved from outside (cold) to inside (less cold) and we were all in on the conversation I noticed that he kept trying to comment on everything I said. Just so he could be Involved. He even backed down on something he'd said once I pulled him up on it (one of his ever famous Sweeping Statements), which has never in history ever happened.

All of this coupled with him leaving while I was indisposed in the loo made things very awkward. I'm trying to be Friends with him, and he's trying to impress me. Over 2 years after I broke up with him.

And then it hit me. I realised that he simply has not moved on, grown up, changed or matured since we were together. And not only that, he realises what he's missing and wants back in on the action. And it made me a little bit sad.

The Lovely Lari once postulated to me that it (generally speaking of course) will take a person half as long as the length of a relationship to get over a person. So that if a relationship lasted 2 years, then 12 months later it is reasonable to expect that the previously involved parties have moved on, gotten over things, learned their lessons, whatever.

By all appearances, M has not done this. I know it's not my fault, nor my problem, but I didn't feel that lovely glow of schadenfreude I used to associate with my post-relationship cameos in his life, looking fabulously slim**** and carefree. There was a bit of pity, and a bit of nothing... It was just very strange.

Anyway. Back to the real world. Oh, and boxes... *sigh*

*Or, as she likes to put it, the cunt-ry*****
**It's this Friend we have, he's... difficult... But that's a whole 'nother blog post.
***Mwahahahahahhahahahahahah! *ahem* I never liked her fiancé, he's always been an untrustworthy little worm and pushed her away constantly - totally unsurprised she cheated. Anyway... back to the story.
****I'm at least 10 kilos lighter now that I was when we were together. Go me.
*****It's her own damn fault, she can leave when she wants to, we're certainly not making her stay. Nyer :P

When WitchOne is too stupid to breathe unassisted (or Aesophia's weekend with Witchy)

I have to admit, that is my line, A would never say I was too stupid to breathe unassisted, and in my defence I was coming down with a spectacular flu but here is my take on our weekend of shenanigans!

The weekend was originally supposed to be us along with my kids, going to the Mordialloc Festival and from there possibly home or to a going away party for a friend of mine, depending on time, kids and so on.

Angel boy decided that morning he was too sick to go swimming and so I decided he was too sick to come out for the day, handy as his father who was going for a boys day out was actually going to spend the day at home after some last minute changes. Pixie girl refused to have a sleep prior to going out in the early afternoon and so she was dumped at home too, there will be no bad behaviour in public and if they can't behave at home, they certainly can't behave out can they?


A finally turns up, she's signed her lease (yay, she's not going to be homeless!) and had lunch (I'm sorry WHAT? We are going to a festival, without kids, even with kids, there is food at festivals and it's always interesting! Why oh why would you eat first????) and we are raring to go. Well, I want to be raring but I manage a half arsed W00T instead. I'm so glad it's been mentioned that I offered my GPS because it makes what follows not my fault, man!

We're going through Boronia to get onto Eastlink, I call Eastlink and have A's car added to my account and we chat as we drive. I try to keep an eye out for a turn off that we should take but then all of a sudden we're in Frankston, so, let's say Boronia to Mordialloc via Frankston. Hmmm. As you do. Frankston is exactly where it should be by the way, the beach is still there and the roads are still paved with bogans.

The festival. Ahhh. We share a scone with jam and cream in order not to fill up too fast, we find a calamari cup, dear god! The Rebello Strawberry stand was lovely as they let us start from one end and drink our way to the other, we then bought one of everything, except the strawberry cream stuff. Ewwww. We held up the wood fired oven baked nachos stand and partook of the free pizza while we waited for our nachos, we tried more wine and while Ms Thug Chardonnay is a great name for wine, it doesn't make cats piss taste like Bolly, dahhhling. We loved the Outback Spirit stand with all the chutneys and jams and so on, spent far too much there too. The lemon pressed olive oil was a highlight. Absolutely delish and the old selling it just wouldn't shut up, he was lovely but I seriously don't care how many people buy cases of the stuff to give as Christmas gifts, I still only want ONE bottle. Thanks.

Onto the Fairfield Historic Boathouse, we're laughing we're giggling, we're having a wonderful time and we're at the Studley Park Boathouse. It's Melbourne, it's the Yarra river, why have 2 historic boathouses right next to each other with only 1 listed in the Melways? Hardly our fault! Sharing strawberry champagne, staying until the very last second knowing we are going to be late for dinner at Balsamic but having fun being irresponsible anyway, and I do love a hurry up call, makes me feel like my presence is required for the party to start.

Dinner sigh

A was right, they're the Centrelink Mums, but not in the way she means, they actually work there! It was all kids, ALL KIDS!!! The kids weren't even there! I'm not one to shy away from talking about my cherubs, I love them to pieces but sometimes I like to be out and about, so A and I went out for cigarettes and I flirted with some random men just for laughs and we ate and went home. Sad really. Meal was very average, company was ok, service was non existent and I felt ill.

Home to watch movies, A had more drinks than she admits to during the day and evening which I need to point out and next time we get up to mischief, we don't go out dinner with friends of mine that have kids. Plus I think we'll stay at her place so there is much less driving required.

The following day, we walked miles which when I was fitter, wasn't so far at all really. The cafe is one I've been to many times and I was horrified at how they have fallen down in food quality and service, then poor A went home. Sadly the weekend ended on a lowlight. Except for the fact the A was here and we did have a wonderful time laughing at all the things going wrong!

Let's do it again!! :-)

What WE did on the weekend

There has been some confusion as to who was writing this up. I assumed Witchy would, she assumed I would... It's nearly next weekend now so I figured someone had better do it before what happens this weekend eclipses last weekend and we all forget what happened to begin with.

Again, in point form, because I'm not feeling terribly verbose...

Oh, and I'm sure Witchy will interject with corrections (look, I can't remember everything!), I'm not apologising if I get anything wrong.

Saturday

The plan: I sign my lease, head to Witchone's place of abode, we go to the Mordialloc Festival, Jewels' going away do and then head to a girls' night out and get roaringly sloshed, head back to Witchy's, stagger in to bed, wake up hungover and eat something greasy commiserating each others' predicament before I head home and do boring Sunday things like washing.

What actually happened:

• I signed my very first lease ever! Oh my goodness I'm liable for EVERYTHING!
• Drove to Witchy's place (got a call from Witchy: "are you still coming?!?!" - I was about 5 minutes down the road, sheesh).
• Dropped bag o' stuff off and greeted the adorable children (they're adorable because I don't have to wake up to them at 6am) and Velvet
• Jumped back in the car.
• Ooh, backtrack, on the way to the car Witchy offers the use of her GPS unit. I say, well, you know where you're going right?Famous last words I hear you scoff? Correct.
• She says sure, so off we tootle.
• Down the marvellously expensive yet barely used and much maligned Eastlink. I'd never been on the Eastlink until then, so it was pretty exciting.
  
• We started chatting...
• And before we knew it we were in Frankston.
  
• I got out the Melways - a tad late some might say - and figured out where we were, how far away from where we should have been and how to get there.
• Once we found Mordialloc (20 minutes up the road), we managed to find what was probably the only un-timed free park in town.
• Onward to the festival! It was as every smallish festival should be, crowded, hot, noisy and lots and lots of good food and alcohol to spend our well-earned-but-never-quite-enough money on.
  
• Sweet & savoury preserves, lemon infused olive oil, tortilla, beer, calamari, wine, wood-fired-oven-baked nachos, strawberry bubbly, strawberry liqueur and strawberry port.
• Time to head off to Jewels' thing.
• Back up the Eastlink.
• Second time lucky (Studley Park boathouse? Nope, Fairfield Historical boathouse) we found it and proceeded to share around the strawberry bubbly and socialise.
• Tore ourselves away to head to the girls' night out, you guessed it, back down the Eastlink (yes, I have now seen enough of it).
• Balsamic in the Mecca of the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Eastland, which really should have told me all I needed to know - don't let the fancy pictures fool you.
• We met up with three of the loveliest Centrelink Mums ever. You know the kind, can't talk about anything other than their children and husbands/partners/exes - even on what is supposed to be a debaucherous evening out where you forget all that stuff and let it all hang out (where appropriate, this isn't a hens' night).
• The most exciting part of the evening was joining Witchy outside to watch her smoke a cigarett.
• After three cigarettes, some very average food and worse service it was decided that I would start feeling sick, so we could actually have an enjoyable debaucherous evening on our own (Roju has filming rights), turns out Witchy started feeling sick all on her lonesome, which was both handy and unfortunate.
• We got home (me asking along the way, seriously, why are you friends with people like these?!)
• Halfway through 10 Things I Hate About You, Witchy piked. I waited 'til it was finished.

Sunday

• Breakfast at a lovely little cafe in The Basin (not the one in your bathroom). Sadly the food, coffee and service did not match the setting.
• Dropped in at my parents' place on the way home for food, little cousins and conversation.
  
• Got home, showered, left again.
• Visited the cousin and had what was my second drink for the entire weekend.
• Went to the Lucky Coq and had my third drink with some friends, for for a birthday celebration.
• Home.
• Bed.

Overall

• What started off as a fantastically fabulous weekend, sadly lost its fizz around dinner time on Saturday... We'll have to try it again sometime - this time with better food, more alcohol and without the Centrelink Mums.
  

Stuff and nonsense.

Wow, what a week so far. We ignore November and December because they were my first 2 months in this job but Jan = 15k, Feb = 30k and March is on track for 60k.

I'm in sales. Figures are all. I just wish I could count better.

Anyhoo, work is taking over my life, at a time when I want to be all into the Lara Bingle/Michael Clarke fiasco (who doesn't love a good bust up with nudey pictures and rude hand gestures?), I want to help Velvet start up a new business and get out of his crap job, I want to sort out Aus Post with their shit customer service in regard to lost mail and I want to read some good books. Here I am, at work. *sigh*

Oh, I'd love to spend some quality time with my kids too, just for laughs and stuff. Maybe stop Angel boy from going too feral. Starting school was not the greatest idea, they teach bad stuff and I'm not seeing a great deal of reading or counting improvement.

So, this weekend, A and I are going out! We are taking the kids as Velvet is also going out and apparently a boys day out with go-karting, pubs and the casino isn't kid friendly. I honestly don't see how but I'll let it slide this time and he can pay it back later. hehe

A doesn't know it yet but if she is staying at my place then it's fabulous as we have the Mordialloc Festival during the day followed by an evening saying goodbye to and celebrating the birthday of a good friend of mine, Jewels. She's going to live in Nepal for a year and so we must go say goodbye!!

It helps that both Jewels and A are vego, no, I don't know why, I just think all vego's like all religious people, should know each other by first name and be friends. Am I unreasonable? Possibly. Do I care? No.

See you next week!

What I did on my Labour Day long weekend

Saturday:

• ENJO demo
• Coffee at my cousin's place with his recently-out-of-hospital partner
  
• Braved the weather - navigating a marvellous detour to cross the railway line as all the underpasses were flooded - to get to a friends' going away do
• Continued said do at the GB (I won the best-of-three-rock-paper-scissors-who-gets-to-drink match) with a couple of beers
• Grill'd for a late dinner

Sunday:

• Fresh bagels with delicious home grown tomatoes for breakfast
• Drove through more weather to Hepburn Springs (just past Daylesford)
• Lunch at Reuben's
• Bought a hat
• Coffee at Breakfast and Beer
• Assassin's Creed when we got home (turns out Roju loves it when I steal the controller and get all geeky on him)
  

Monday:

• Trained into the city with the lovely Roju
• Coffee with said Roju
• Mag Nation and loads of magazines waiting for friends
• Undies Monday
• Lunch at Camy Shanghai Dumpling House on Tattersalls Lane
  
• 1000 £ Bend for a coffee and the Letterhead exhibition (one artist per letter of the alphabet - pretty awesome)
• Attempted a couple more galleries but they were closed (what do they think this is, a public holiday?!)
• Found a cool Japanese t-shirt shop
• Max Brenner - Mexican Spicy Hot Chocolate (dark chocolate with a blend of red chilli, nutmeg, pepper & cinnamon)

All in all:

• A lovely weekend, caught up with friends, got to be all lovely-dovey with Roju all to myself for a change and got out and about. All in the space of three days - it was almost like being on holiday!

A small boast and other short stories.

In this, the first 3 days of the month I have sold almost 15k of product, now, taking into account that fact I earn 1% commission, that's sweet fuck all but, taking into account 15k is all I sold last month I anticipate this months crappy commission cheque to be less crappy than last months.

Just sayin'.

Now, remember that crush I talked about a while ago? Good. He's back. Hmm. I don't care now. So there.

What else is going on? I'm unwell, I thought it was hayfever, it hung around like a bad (lack of) smell, and then I got worse and thought maybe it's a headcold, but now it's even worse and I think it might be the flu. See sales figures and payment terms above, I can't take time off and so I shall keep plugging on. Cheers for me.

I need a new car. I am driving a small Hyundai which I don't own as I don't own a car but that's ok because I have a fiancee with 2 cars and since he can't drive both I steal one every day. He may or may not realise this and I doubt he'd care in any case but the fact is he has never said that I may drive his cars. Nevertheless, I need a new car. I'd prefer new, I like the Getz and there's a car out with a shoe rack in it, I'd like that one, if it came in blue. The car not necessarily the shoe rack however, having the shoe rack match the car may not be bad at all. Unless the car interior is another colour adn then having the shoe rack in the car but matching the outside of the car could very well get confusing after a few drinks when I'm looking for different shoes to wear and realise they are still in the car. In the shoe rack.

I really like the idea of a shoe rack in the car. How many pairs do you think it can hold? Would I start leaving for work shoeless because I've left my shoes in the car? Or would it be possible to install a shower and coffee maker in the car as well so I could just get up in the morning, get the kids going and then stagger out to the car to get ready for work? Time saving, especially if I also had a chauffeur so I could shower while tootling along the freeway.

No, that way lies madness, madness I tell you!!

Has anyone noticed small children are demanding? 4am I wander out, check the house, search for the missing fiancee (youngest childs bed) and have a cigarette before wandering back to bed. Youngest child (Pixie girl) comes running out of my bed (hadn't realised she was in there) and yells at me. ME! She's 18 months old, I'm 33 and she can just quit the role reversal now I say, as I hurriedly put my cigarette out and meekly carry her back to my bed to continue the (apparently) interrupted cuddle we were having in my sleep.

Now. Back to work you.

Dieting, eating, dieting and eating..

Well, we got a comment regarding the diet from Janet with a diet of her own. So, I feel it prudent to post them both here so I can find them again next time I decide I need them.

The Souper Soup Diet (thanks Janet)

http://www.lillieross.com/soup23/

And the nice one that I like...

http://grazia.ninemsn.com.au/beautyandhealth/goodhealth/820839/the-thin-by-friday-diet-the-four-day-plans

Which I have just realised is the "Thin by Friday" diet, something A called it a while ago and I didn't register the name. Lucky I knew what she was talking about.

I can't endorse either diet as the Souper Soup one has never worked for me, something about cheating and so on I guess. Moving on..

The Thin by Friday diet did lose me a couple of kilos but again, I think I cheated a few times. KFC on day 2 may not have been the best idea.

Frankly, I still stand by Dr Joshi's Holistic Detox (Google it, I got too many results to choose one). I found this diet changed my palate (until I changed it back, by force) and made me feel healthier, happier and so on, without cutting out alcohol. I did like that bit.

But really, if we cut out the eating of crap, we probably wouldn't need to diet and therefore the weightloss industry would fold and we wouldn't have anymore guilt trips! YAY!

Children, parties and random drunken shenannigans...

Angel boy turned 5. Big boy 5 years old and he got to keep his birthday present for almost 24 hours.

I should start at the beginning.

2 weeks prior to his birthday we knew it was going to be big when I pulled out his kindergarten class list from last year and stated reading out names with the follow on, "do you want this kid to come?" and started expanding on the follow on with "do you want this kid to come as well?".

To add insult to injury, when asking him to clean up his room with the eventual threat of toy removal the reply was "I don't care, I'll get heaps more for my birthday anyway".

Oh really sunshine?

So, we found ourselves with almost his entire kinder class from last year, friends and their kids and new school friends from this year, all in all about 30 kids and then some parents dropped theirs off and said they'd be back later! These kids are 5 and the parents don't know us!!!!! So, thankfully I'd hired Batman to keep them amused for an hour and a half or I think I would have lost my mind, Angel boy was a mad man with all these friends and presents and did I mention presents? Then there was cake and Batman (or Batman and cake) and then there were presents and he'd had a sleepover the night before and it was so excitingtooexcitingforwordsandohmygodhaveyouseenthepresents???????

Let's point out here that I think the presents were the highlight of his life.

The following day, hungover and struggling to remember my own name I had the joyful experience of the "clean up", it wasn't so bad except for the damn presents, Angels boys room had been trashed and of course, it's his job to clean it up as I am no slave but he didn't want to, he was tired and simply couldn't be bothered and wasn't it still his birthday anyway?

Dialogue -

Me "Angel boy, can you please clean up your room"

Him "*grunt*"

Me "Angel boy, that would be now please"

Him "*whine* I don't want to"

This went on for a bit and then..

Me "OK, clean up your room or I take a garbage bag in there and clean it up for you"

Him (thinking, new threat, don't believe her, cry anyway) "NooooOOOOOoooo"

This went on for a bit too and then..

Me "right, Velvet, garbage bags please"

All hell broke loose.

So I took away all the toys he'd left in the lounge room too, they were his new ones.

HA! One for the good guys. He may get them back by the time he's 6.

As for drunken shenanigans, me + bourbon + absolutely no time to eat during the day + hayfever drugs = very sick the next day. I walked down the street and used my cleavage to get a free stubby holder, I mean, a free stubby holder? WHAT THE? It's a Woodstock branded one and that makes it twice as useless!

Aren't you glad you weren't there A? :-)

Teeth, overrated in any language.

Wow. I went to the dentist today. A lifetime of ignoring my teeth and generally mistreating them (chewing ice, toffee, not brushing them regularly etc and so on) has come back to make me pay. You always think that some people are just born with weak teeth or they really didn't look after them in their youth, but whatever the problem is, it is not going to apply to you. No way no how.

It's lies. Look after your chompers people, you may be sad about the dentist bills later in life. Today was a cool $1,000. Do you have any idea how many pairs of shoes I could buy for that?? ANY IDEA AT ALL?? Hmmm.

Next visit, in 3 months will be $1,100, this will finish off the root canal started today, this is the 2nd root canal for this tooth and as it is my back molar, I would like to keep it. I lost its neighbour when I was pregnant the first time so I'm running short of teeth in that side of my mouth.

The receptionist appears to like me, I filled in the paperwork they give you.

Name - check.

Address - check

Who is responsible for your bills - me, my health fund, a random sugardaddy if you happen to know one who's willing.

Any serious illnesses in the past - terminal pregnancy

Were do you work - *insert company name here* for all your xxxx needs

Poor love, she was in stitches trying to input the information.

Then after telling them how much I dislike the dentist, how it scares me etc, I fell asleep during the procedure, three times. I'd wake with a start, the dentist would ask if I was ok and I'd nod and promptly doze off again.

I think I may be their favourite patient right now. And I think I like them too. Lovely people even though they do charge me a fortune just to walk in the door.

Too many aprons

At least as far as Witchy is concerned, there is no such thing.

Witchy and I finally caught up for the first time in ages again on the weekend.

I brought her Tupperware, a lovely skirt of mine that she's had her eye on for ages and another apron. After purchasing the apron I thought it might be prudent - if a little late - to check with hubby (or however we refer to him in this blog, I forget) if another apron might be taking it too far. We both agreed that it might never be possible.


After much gushing over said items (Witchy) and children (me - they're so cute and I can give them back whenever I want!) We then proceeded to Catch Up.

Love, life, the universe, everything. It never ceases to amazing me that it doesn't matter how long we've been apart, we get together again and it's like the conversation never stopped. It's marvellous. There are very few people in the world I am lucky enough to have that sort of relationship with and I am eternally thankful for every one of them.

Following on from my last post - with all the stressing and having way too much on my plate, on top of it all I went for a job interview yesterday. My housemate's workplace have a few $1,000 a week cash in hand positions going. From what my housemate told me the job could be performed quite easily on a part time basis - three days a week. So I thought I'd be able to keep my cushy job and this new one and pay off my rather extensive debts in a few short months. However at the interview the impression was definitely that it was a full time job on offer and that part time wasn't going to be on the table for quite a while, if ever. *sigh* That said, the job was going to be sales and not-exactly-cold-more-like-lukewarm-calling - something that is completely NOT up my alley. So I guess it's all's well that ends well. And I'll just have to pay my debts off slowly like all the other normal people.

So now I'm still trying to end ties with Tupperware and ENJO. But I also want a pantry full of Tupperware and a cleaning cupboard full of ENJO - so I need to do the 'staff discount' thing until I'm done... However being grossly in debt and all that means I can't just get it all at once. *sigh*

Speaking of grossly, I've put on weight. And I don't like it. So I'm doing something I've never ever done in my life before: I'm dieting. So far so rocky. I leapt off the bandwagon with avengence last night, however am back on today... This diet thingy is a four-day-wonder, which I mix things up every four days (excellent for those like myself who suffer from a short attention-span). And I cringe every time I read those words - anything that tells me I'll lose 5 kilos in 3 days* I know is bunk. But this time I just can't help myself. I've stopped exercising, I'm not eating as well as I'd like to be, so maybe, just maybe, if I kick-start myself into action, then I just might get into the swing of things and all of a sudden cruising at my ideal weight won't be difficult at all.

Here's hoping.

Does it ever all really work out anyway?

Can I be a more content person with less money, less to do and more time for myself?

Experiment Happiness**: beginning now. I bit late, but better late than never right?

Right?

* It actually says 2 kilos in 1 week, but still. I know that optimum weight loss is 1 kilo a week, I haven't completely lost it.***

** or Contentment - that'd be a good place to start...

*** Yet.

Keeping up with the Joneses

Or however you feel like spelling that...

Not to be outdone, I'm updating my side of the universe to keep up with Witchy :)

FYI missy, you ARE indeed "not. that. bad." That's why we all hang around.

Anyway, back to me.

Things that have happened (in roughly chronological order) since - well - forever in point form so as not to blather on for too long:

~ I finished my Diploma (HD's all round, thank you thank you).

~ 2 year anniversary with the love o' my life (how do I know? Well, I suppose I don't, but right now, it feels pretty bloody amazing... Don't shatter my dreams k?).

~ I got sweet talked into being a Tupperware Lady (old, saggy and a tendency to wear floral patterns and/or twin sets: optional extras).

~ Got a housemate - interesting times.

~ Got my very first credit card.

~ I got sweet talked into being an ENJO (look it up, I can't be bothered explaining right now if you don't already know) demonstrator.

~ Christmas with the whole fandamily.

~ A lovely quiet New Years.

~ Hung out with the father-in-law for a few weeks while he graced us with his presence.

~ Got stressed. I mean really REALLY stressed here.

~ Got quietly pissed off at my friends for being entirely unsupportive. Seriously, how hard is it to reply to a freaking email - doesn't take up much time and a little caring goes a long way... *seethe*

~ Got more stressed (see above).

~ Decided I'm not doing nearly enough for myself and have had a serious re-think about life, the universe and everything... And decided to ditch both Tupperware and ENJO... Sometime in the near future. Tupperware after I've kitted out my kitchen, and ENJO after I've kitted out my house... Friends and family henceforth get a 20% discount off (which makes it wholesale price) all products.

~ After the f*cking landlord raised the f*cking rent for the THIRD time in 18 months* had a hissy fit and am now looking into high interest savings accounts and home loans and house/unit/duplex/terrace/apartment/hovel/shed options and desirable suburbs. Verdict: it's bloody expensive. Sadly, it's the only way I can get the windows fixed when I want and don't have to feel like a second class citizen any more. I rang the agent and had a word in her ear about it, she told me I was taking it too personally. Really, I'm taking MY HOME too personally?!

~ Cleaned out just about all of the crap from my room! Oh my goodness, the space we have, it's brilliant! So now my lovely little flat almost looks exactly like I want it to! Yay!

~ Fell off the wagon (ie: stopped Weight Watchers and exercising), put on nearly 5 kilos and am now attempting to leap back onto the wagon with a vengeance.

~ Got so stressed and tired I popped a blood vessel in my eyeball (that was shocking I can tell you - looking in the mirror about to do my eye make-up only to find a bloody big red spot next to your iris. Of course, the amount of House MD I've been watching recently can't be helping).

~ Having decided that I no longer want to do Tupperware and ENJO and actually want to do what I want to do (photography, Montessori education [meaning I want to teach it, not just learn about it], a few day trips here & there with my lovely young man, some chill time on my own and some socialising with my friends - but not so much that I get sick of them [or they get sick of me, which I suppose is an option, but really, I'm wonderful, so why would they?]), I just want it all happening NOW. Unfortunately, life isn't like the movies and you can't cut out all the boring bits like when they go to the toilet, clean their rooms, take out their rubbish or have to do their taxes** so I have to just work through it *sigh*.

~ Blew up the starter motor in my car ($500 no sweat).

~ Continue to procrastinate at work (case in point: this post).

Sooo... I think that brings us about up to speed. And oh look, I still managed to blather on a bit - go me :D

As you were.



* By $80pcm 18 months ago, then $135pcm 12 months ago, and now another $90pcm this time. We've sent off the 'we're not happy Jan' letter however I doubt it'll do much good. Apparently it's still within 'current market value'. Of course, taking into account that Melbourne*** is the 8th most expensive place to rent IN THE WORLD, that doesn't actually mean anything good.

** Unless it's a plot point vital to the - uh - plot.

*** In case you're interested, Sydney is the 2nd most expensive.

Toilet Training

Wow.. Toilet training a baby again. This sucks. With Angel boy it was all easy, at 18 months old I dropped him off at child care with 5 changes of clothing, no nappies and the simple instruction; "make it happen". Within about a week we could take him out without nappy on and not worry about the upholstery on the car or the pram too much. Easy. *sigh*

This time, different child care centre, same routine but it seems to be so much harder! Why on earth can't they keep an eye on my Pixie girl and ask her if she needs to wee. After all, don't they watch her when she's there anyway?

Kids. Ahhhhhh. Love'em!

On the road again...

It's time to restart, I have been avoiding this blog in the vain hope that all of last year hadn't happened, or if it did, then it wasn't as bad or as badly handled (by me) as I'd feared.

After reading last years posts I found out one thing about myself, I'm not so bad, even when I'm falling apart and life is killing me slowly (with his song, killing me slowly, now I'm thinking "About a Boy" with Hugh Grant and I hate that movie.). I may not be all grace under fire and sunshiney la di da but I am still, not. that. bad.

So, that's my personal boost done, let's get down to business. Angel boy had his first day at school yesterday. Wow. My baby boy, my little man, my tiny angel. Taking that first step away from my apron strings. Next thing you know he's going to be getting girlfriends, into fights with boys (no doubt at least one), getting his licence, passing or failing exams (passing or there may be repercussions) and from there, a life of his own. Just wow. I got all that from one little old day at school. Clever aren't I? He loves school and looks adorable in his uniform, in case you're wondering.

Pixie girl is toilet training and has moved into the toddlers room at child care. She's amazing me every day with her manners, yes at 18 months old she has manners, she says "pardon" and many many many more words, sentences and simple concepts. She also impresses me with her inventiveness at staying "up", this kid can climb a person like a monkey climbs a tree and if you try to put her down without her permission, she somehow manages to lift her legs to impossible heights, like almost around your neck, in order to cling even tighter and stay where she wants to be. It's funny, when you have the time to laugh about it.

I'm working full time again. There was a slight issue with that for a minute, they wanted to extend my probation. I said no. It took them a while but they did see it my way eventually. Thank GOD! More on that another day as I will be updating more often now I'm not scared to come back and see negative comments. After all, there are so few comments, and none bad (thankfully) that this is almost like talking to myself. But without the weirdness should I get caught doing it in public.