Daggy Decor

This is the bed head in one of the hotels I stayed in during my travels around country Victoria! What the photo doesn't show is the super-saggy mattress!

Stop the world, I want to get off!

PHEW! What a month I've had. I've been travelling all around regional Victoria doing negotiation training for lawyers, and I've also been up in Brisbane for meetings, and I managed a weekend at Mum and Dad's place in Northern NSW so that I could take Ange to meet them and Corky Dog. In the middle of all that I got the flu, spent four days in bed, but then had to get up and travelling again probably a bit too soon. I've still got a very annoying cough, three weeks later. I've also just managed to finish my first linguistics assignment for this semester.

What am I thinking, trying to study while work is so busy? But it's the last subject for my Arts degree, which I have been studying part time for well over ten years now, so it's more than time I get the darned thing finished. If I had more time to study it carefully I think I would really enjoy it, but I've had to do it in such a rush that it wasn't that much fun at the time. Hopefully I'll pass though!

Playing with Corky and Kimmie at Mum and Dad's place.

Corky's best meer cat impersonation!

Ange and I at Byron Bay as the sun was going down.

My week in pictures

Dinner with Amanda and Claudia

Craziness at Blonde on the Rocks



Jamie's Birthday Present

Jamie's Birthday LunchAnge, Jamie and Max

Babies, children and work

That's been my life for the past few weeks. Not my babies, not my children, but definitely my work. In between struggling to keep afloat with all that's going down in my day job, I've also done a bit of babysitting recently. God, I even changed a nappy! I have to say I was blessed with kids who were pretty angelic the whole time I had them in my care. Here is what I learned:

1. Things are not always what they seem:

Playing in front of the distortion mirrors with Ange and Jamie, after having just seen the latest Harry Potter movie.

2. If all else fails, put on a DVD with cartoons.

Finding Nemo was a big winnner!

3. Stay away from bizarre playground equipment:

Freaky fish-lizard thingies were not such a big hit.

4. Swinging is the most fun thing to do in the world:

4. A muzzie is the best protection from scary monsters:

5. It's important to rug up while watching sport:

6. It's hard to take your own photo and hold a baby at the same time:

IKEA Rage!

Sunday morning IKEA trip was nearly the end of me. Towards the end of our journey through the store, pushed along by the mass of men, women and prams, we realised that we hadn't written down the shelf details to find the flatpacked items near the store exit. Back we went, like salmon swimming upstream, trying to relocate the items we wanted to purchase. Diligently, we wrote down the aisle and shelf details and returned to the flatpack area, only to find that a couple of the items did not appear where they should have been. Eventually, we found a sales assistant, who explained to us that some of the items were actually available in a different part of the store...back where we had come from. Back we went, this time like salmon swimming upstream while pushing a large trolley with flatpacked parts of incomplete furniture on it. We find the area in which the additional part of the furniture is supposed to be stored, but guess what...there's none there. After finding another elusive sales assistant, we were informed that they were out of stock of that particular part. Arghhhhh! Back to the flat pack area to get our next item, which of course is not where it's supposed to be. Instead there is a small notice "Please obtain this item from the main furniture aisle". So back I go yet again upstream. Eventually I find the damn stools, but they are locked to the wall. Another sales assistant tries to avoid me, but eventually I corner her and ask her to release one of the stools for me. She says she has to make a phone call first. I stand close by, to make sure she doesn't run away. She has a lengthy conversation on the phone (how hard can this be?) and eventually hangs up to explain to me that she is not 'authorised' to release display stools to customers, but that there are 80 of them in the flat pack area. I beg to differ, explaining that there were no stools on the shelf, but a little sign saying to get the stools from the main furniture aisle. She then explains that the sign was referring to the main furniture aisle in the flat pack area. ARGHHHHHH! I head back to Ange, who is not answering my frantic calls on her mobile. When I find her she says that her phone has no service. Apparently IKEA is a mobile phone service black hole, just to make the whole experience a little more challenging. We go back to the flat pack area to look for stools. Can't find them anywhere. But I see a flash of yellow out of the corner of my eye and pounce on the unsuspecting sales assistant and demand to be taken to the stools. He looks panicked but then directs me to an enormous pile of stools just near the checkouts. ARGHHHHHHH!

Finally we escaped from the IKEA vortex. They should offer free counselling at the exits. Honestly, next time anyone suggests a trip to IKEA, I am going to recommend rolling in some broken glass instead - honestly, it will be less painful.

Bedding

Just down the road from my apartment is a church yard. One of the buildings has a wide veranda around it, and in the summer one or two homeless people sleep there. A couple of months ago when it started to get cold, I was walking past early one morning on my way to work. I noticed that the man sleeping on the veranda only had a thin blanket and was shivering. I immediately decided to get out my spare blankets and old doona and leave them on the veranda on the following weekend. The next day, however, as I was walking past to go to work, I noticed that someone beat me to it. On the veranda was a big pile of mattresses, sleeping bags, and blankets. Other people obviously noticed too.

Since then, it has become much colder, almost freezing, at night, and a few more people have been sleeping on the veranda. I guess it's warmer with a few bodies together. This morning I walked by at about 7am, and it was about 4 degrees celcius (just above freezing) and as I looked over at the bodies huddled under the blankets, I saw something rather touching. A cat was curled up on top of one of the bodies, fast asleep and obviously making the most of the body heat, and no doubt also giving a little comfort to the person sleeping below.

This afternoon I was walking home with my just-purchased sets of new sheets for my bed, and as I walked past the church yard I suddenly realised the enormous luxury that I take for granted on a daily basis and I was suitably humbled.

Brazilian Wax

This is hilarious!