I was walking along, minding my own business when....

....I suddenly realised I'm going to have to come up with, and start practicing a new signature! I think BabyCakes would be upset if I didn't take his name, despite the fact that I quite like mine, it's served me well for 30+ years!

I think I'll use both names at different times, I certainly want to be Mrs BabyCakes, but might keep my maiden name for Stage Management stuff... I don't know. Maybe it is too much maintenance to keep two names.

The other scary thing about this revelation should be clear to anyone who has seen my signature - it gets comments from the checkout operators at Coles! It's very hard to forge given that if I spend too much time thinking about it, even my own attempts look dodgy! It is very loopy, scrawly, and mostly rushed...

I guess it will work itself out in time.

The cat is still trying very hard to make me live up to my moniker but trying to send me crazier.... I had a guy from across the road come and tell me on Saturday, that if he'd caught the cat on Friday night, we wouldn't have had one... He didn't like cleaning his garage of the spray SHE had stunk it up with at 9:30 at night. That's right, my female de-sexed cat sprayed... I'd be upset too if a neighbours cat did that to me!

I tried to keep her in again, and last night she bolted through an open window - the heat was just too oppressive not to have it open. I don't know what to do, she is fast running off with my sanity and calm, and that's just wrong.

The um, colourful lady next door also weighed into the the cat issue turning up on my door step to discuss it on Saturday morning when BabyCakes was out at work... She saw how upset the issue was making me and turned up later in the day with potted herbs and plants she had bought from a clearance sale, which was amazingly sweet of her. Maybe I should feel guilty for the uncharitable thoughts I have about her, all too regularly? Or maybe she's trying to build up brownie points to blackmail is with later.....

The Future Mrs BabyCakes ?

I'd like to let you all know that BabyCakes asked me to marry him today, and I was delighted to accept!

BabyCakes snuck around to my Dad's place and asked my Dad for permission to marry me (which was granted, thankfully), and today he took me to the city botanical gardens, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I was shaky and teary, but delighted to say yes. He then slipped a beautiful white gold half carat solitaire onto my finger and we snogged for a bit... (very predictable, but hey, I think that's in the contract!).

We have not yet set a date for the wedding, but will let the appropriate people know when we do.

Cat and mouse...

The cat and I have settled into a new pattern. She goes outside now during the day, or at least is allowed to. She sometimes comes back in through an open window (without fly screen) and hides from the neighbours cat. Once she is in to be fed at dusk, she stays inside. Sometimes she meows plaintively at the door but we talk back to her her and she usually comes and sits with BabyCakes and myself.

I still have to keep all the windows with screens closed enough that she can't get enough leverage on them to push the screens out, but this seems to be a workable compromise - at least she doesn't seem as manic as before.

As for the mouse? It was a gift from my brother resident in Texas USA. A few years ago he sent me a geeky gamers mouse (for my computer). It was a laser mouse which had a fan in it, to keep ones hand from getting sweaty. It was a bit odd to get used to, but I did use it in hot weather. Most of the time however, I had the fan switched off as it developed an annoying rattle in it and was disturbingly loud. Last week though, the laser died, and with it, the mouse lost all usefulness and I had to let it go (and buy a new one).

BabyCakes is off today to have fun at the Big Day Out.

Is there ever really a selfless action?

Julia Gillard (deputy leader of the opposition) stated that she believed that it would be ALMOST impossible to get to the top job in politics and be a mother as well. To say the public comment on it has been spirited is an understatement. Look at that comment again.... almost impossible, she didn't even say it cannot be done, she just said it would be very hard. You'd think she had said all women should stay in the kitchen and leave the work thing to men (which is pretty much a paraphrase of a comment I HAVE heard - from a woman). I honestly cannot see anything wrong with her expression her opinion this way.

I want to know why women who do not want children are labelled selfish, men do not seem to have the same expectation. I've seen plenty of women have children to fill a hole in their life.... that sounds selfish to me.

Does it also follow that people who can not have children are non-people?

This has been a bit of a ponderous thought for me for a while. Lots of people around me are having babies. Within my family it seems I'm a non-person as a childless spinster, everything revolves around the children in the family. (I'm sure this is not intended to be the case, but it sure feels like it - supported by the instance of my brother turning up for a family function without the children in tow as they had another engagement - the message was clear that he should not have done such a thing.) Do not get me wrong, my nieces and nephew are delightful children and they bring a whole new dynamic to the group gatherings and I love them to bits, but why are we no longer people worth knowing unless there is a child in our arms?

I suspect this is a very primal issue, procreation is a very strong force, and there are times when I desperately want a child, but there are also times when it scares the living heck out of me/I do not trust myself with being guardian over another life (but this has been the case for as long as I can remember). Why do people have to be so cruel in their derision for people who do not have children?

Why is it, in an educated society are Julia Gillard's comments so reaction provoking? Why is it that men do not seem forced to make decisions of career OR family in the same way women are? Why is it that teenage boys do not think about how to balance parenthood and a career? I'm not talking about pregnancy and birth here, I'm talking parenthood.

On the flip side, if either a man or a woman decided to that they wanted a family, as their largest priority, and did not want to work to be able to spend time with their children, why do we have to poo-poo it? "I want to be a parent when I grow up" is not an acceptable response on career day any more. I would love to meet a man who would be prepared to stay at home with the children and keep house.

Men and women are different. Celebrate it. Difference does not have to imply weakness, indeed our very differences should make us stronger, as teams.

Me, personally, I still oscillate on a pretty much daily basis as to whether I want children. When I knew I did not have an option it drove my every thought. Now that the door is open, I can walk past it without peeking in. (That I desperately wanted what I couldn't have is in my opinion just another way that I am completely human... I believe the human condition is to want what we do not have, it keeps us moving.)

I think Julia Gillard is pretty much on the money though. If you really really want the top job in anything, something has to give, there are only 24 hours in a day - and that goes for men and women. Why shouldn't she be able to leave her husband at home with the babies whilst she pursues her career? I think the witch hunt that would ensue would be of mammoth proportions.

People claim we are civilised and have moved beyond our primal urges, yet when someone decides to live that value, they are publicly vilified. People still make most of their decisions based on primal urges, and more women think with their genitals than would like to admit to it - another perfectly human trait.

If I (with BabyCakes), decide not to have children, it is a selfish decision. If we decide to have children, it will most definitely be a selfish decision. I know that I'll be better accepted with a child on my hip though.

/Rant

My fur-kid is giving me enough grief at the moment, I think I'll stick to that for the moment. The damn cat will not stay inside at the moment. I relented yesterday and let her out during the day. Last night she was relentless in patrolling the fly screens until she broke one and escaped. Do I give in to her tactics and let her out whenever she wants, get another cat to keep her company inside or lock the flat up tighter than a drum when I go to bed so she can't get out?

Egads, she'll turn me grey she will!

Sun, sea, sand, snags and sore spots

I have an admission to make.

I mentioned in an earlier post that BabyCakes had bought a new (second hand) car just before Christmas. What I didn't mention was that it was a 4WD - in fact, if we lived in North America, what BabyCakes bought would be called a "truck". It's big and it's shiney. After some careful consideration, I decided that his all round decency and desire to take his new vehicle actually off road might be enough to outweigh the 4WD factor, and I wouldn't have to break up with him after all. (I've never dated someone with a 4WD, and in the city I resent being surrounded by them. The argument of "I love driving a 4WD, I can see over everything else and get much better sight lines" is an extremely selfish one, and makes my life in a sedan a hellish proposition at times.)
I am very happy to say though, that within a month of having the new Triton in his possession, it has been off road, and BabyCakes and I have had our first real taste of 4WDriving!

BabyCakes bought the "truck" to hold his work samples safely in the back, and not all over the back seat, to not have the joy of an un-lowered, un-skirted car that one does not have to wince at when anyone walks near. It is also his first 4 cylinder car he's ever owned... all be it turbo diesel....


As you can see by the size of his grin, BabyCakes kinda enjoyed it....... a lot! It was good fun, and we had a lovely day with friends.

A group of friends (4 couples, which shall be known as Rastas and Primrose Goddess, Mr and Mrs C and the new Mr and Mrs K) have been talking about going camping together for a few weeks now, there was talk of getting away before everyone went back to work etc. but that didn't happen.
It was decided amongst the group to go up to Bribie Island to have a look around at their camping sites, and generally have a nice day out.

On Saturday we met promptly at whatever time people could get there as close to 8am as possible at the jumbo service centre at Caboolture/Burpengary before we started our convoy to Bribie and all the little stops that needed to be made on the way (checking geocaches, permits, batteries, food, water, air etc.).

We made it to the car park before the access road to the beach at about 9:30 am from memory, and that was where BabyCakes and my adventure and learning curve really started.

The drive down the beach stopping a couple of times on the way to get to know the area and for Rastas to get some GPS way points, was pretty uneventful. We took it slowly, asked our questions and got our answers, were taught some beach driving etiquette and stopped for some morning tea (very important that!).

We then drove to the limit of our access (to the light tower) and once again Rastas took way points and we had fun looking at all the shells and pebbles on the beach.

I have to say at this point that the pebbles and shells were a high point in my day. The simple beauty of them, even the fact that one can still find amazing shells on the beach and the amazing colours we saw were a delightful antidote to a week where one night we turned on the news to have a story on murder, bashings, and a rape all within the first five minutes.

Nature has a special way of grounding me and giving me hope that sometimes I desperately need. It is almost always from simple beauty of light, colour and texture that I find that peace and awe for the world we live in.

Even the fact that there were

creatures in the shells, living in beautiful shiney homes. The pebble that Primrose Goddess found, with natural holes through it was amazing, and we were told it is also supposedly good luck to find such a thing... It certainly was a lucky find to see it.

We then headed off to find a spot to set up for lunch. Rastas had sourced us a magnificent and amazingly easy to erect sun shelter, and BabyCakes unpacked his much loved Weber Q and we had a very civilised BBQ once the wind was blocked from the from the Weber and it was able to be lit.

While the food was cooking Mr K set up his kite, which quickly grabbed Mr C's attention and they had a blast until it unfortunately got caught in a dead tree on the edge of the dune. I think the 20 minutes it took to free it from the tree, and untangle the strings kinda put a dampener on that fun. Rastas set up his high powered binoculars on a tripod so we could have a look at a passing container ship (I saw the caravan on deck first!), and once it had gone from sight, we could get a pretty decent view all the way up the beach to Caloundra, which was pretty cool.

After lunch Mr C could not resist the lure of Rastas' kite which was bigger and fancier than Mr K's kite (so Rastas tells us). There seemed to be a bit more control in this kite and Mr C spent quite some time keeping it in the air on a very very blustery day.

We all got a bit distracted by the kite and/or sitting around digesting our lunch and chatting that by the time we were all packed up and on the way back to bitumen we realised we'd left it a bit late to leave.

The tide was coming in, the beach was getting smaller and the sand we were driving on was quite soft. We followed tracks that someone had left before us, which was both a blessing and a curse. The track was not particularly straight and the ruts were getting huge. BabyCakes found it quite fatiguing on his arms to control the vehicle. When we had loaded up and headed out, we had planned only to stop at the service station to re-inflate tyres as necessary, but I can tell you we were all delighted to see the car park, which seemed to take forever to get to, and upon discovery of an ice-cream van there, we stopped for a celebratory ice cream cone. BabyCakes needed to unwind the tension a bit - not that the tension stopped him grinning from ear to ear.

On the way out we passed someone getting towed out and Rastas stopped to give water to a vehicle that had overheated, certainly not a day to be out and about by oneself.

The drive back to the city gave BabyCakes and me lots of time to chatter about the fun we'd had.

The new "truck" had got dirty, it had been off road and we'd been 4WDriving in probably the safest company we could have.

We had even been invited back to Mr & Mrs K's place to go for a swim in their pool!

The cars were all washed on the way home and we had an encore BBQ at Mr & Mrs K's for dinner. The pool was delightful for the pre-dinner swim, it cooled us down and cleared the grit of sand and sea spray from us. Mr K even helped BabyCakes out by using the high pressure cleaner on the Weber Q, making it almost sparkle (it would have been very sparkly with more de-greaser).

It was not really until we got home, and stretched out in front of the TV and promptly fell asleep during the pay-per-view movie we had ordered that we realised how tired we were. It wasn't until I woke up on Sunday (in bed) that I worked out just how all pervasive the muscular aches were. I'm not sure if they came from the tension of the drive off the beach, the general jostling of the 4WDriving experience, or from some kind of hypersensitivity to all of the above due to pre-menstrual hormones, but my goodness did my body ache - EVERYWHERE!

I'm glad we went on Saturday to give us Sunday to recover, and rediscover the sand that managed to find it's way into everything...


ohhhhhhhhhh..... is there anyone more bitchy than a group of boys discussing their 4WDs?

No flies on us.... ?

On the weekend BabyCakes and I made fly screens....

It doesn't sound that exciting, but being able to keep the cat in and allow a bit of airflow - that's magic! There is also the added bonus that we should be able to expect that flies, mosquitos and bugs should stay outside...

It was satisfying to have a half day project that involved both BabyCakes and myself, that also makes a HUGE difference to our lifestyle. (The fact that it was a reasonably cheap project too also helps!)

Admittedly, it hasn't been 100% successful, yet. At the kitchen window, the cat has worked out a way to use her weight (presumably), to pull the fly screen away from the frame. The first night we discovered this, the second night we shut the window, the third she escaped again, but fortunately I managed to find her and bring her back inside (the neighbourhood is surprisingly quiet at 2am, and the cat surprisingly trusting...).

I think the problem can be solved with putting the screen in upside down from how it was previously installed, and hiding the spline join in a spot that a cat can't leverage easily.

Yesterday, BabyCakes' first day back at work after the Christmas fun, I had fun looking at the Ikea website, and I think I found the dining table I want. BabyCakes prefers this one though, so I guess we'll have to take a trip to Ikea soon (what a shame!). I think the light wood will be a mistake against the wood look floor I plan for the whole flat (that picture seems to indicate that it might though. I just wonder if it might all be too much wood), and the white table also matches a coffee table we both like - it has a display drawer under the glass top.

I have plenty of time to make all those sorts of decisions, not much of it is going to happen any time soon. The bills are making light work of the impressive bank balance I thought I had! Rates and Body Corporate fees have come in again, with Body Corporate finally working out that one bill cycle had been lost, so that doubles the amount due... BabyCakes bought a new (second hand) car before Christmas, and forgot/didn't realise the stamp duty cost when changing over registration, so I helped him out and covered that lump sum till he can afford to pay me back.

My youngest brother and his fiancé announced during their Christmas visit that they are expecting a baby, so their wedding plans have stepped up a notch, and it looks that trip to Perth for a wedding is imminent before the birth of my next niece/nephew.

Babies, babies everywhere!

Yesterday BabyCakes' cousin gave birth to the first child of all his siblings and cousins (who are so close in age and grew up so close to each other they might as well be siblings). There is a new baby boy who weighed in at 8 pounds 10 ounces, and is 50 cms long. He doesn't yet have a name, but proud parents and baby are all happy and doing well. The father of the new baby boy is also BabyCakes' boss just to make everything that little bit more circular!

BabyCakes gave me a bread maker for Christmas, and I can smell that a loaf is almost ready, and, I think that this might be my best one yet - it is looking quite spectacular. It has taking a fair bit of trial and error to get the balance of all the ingredients right (most of my loaves have been on the dense side). I have been making them all from scratch though, no pre-prepared mixes, which is quite satisfying.

This loaf looks like it'll be fantastic for my lunch!

Resolution.....

...to be less wasteful.

This includes:

recycling, even when it takes more time i.e. wash out the cat food tins and recycle them rather than being lazy and tossing them...

only putting the kettle on to boil when I really really plan to make the cup of tea, rather than boiling it twice for one cup....

turning off appliances when I'm not using them....

eating, or freezing leftovers, instead of storing them until they go incredibly manky, and then possibly throwing away the container it has been stored in....

that sort of thing.

I think that with some thought and commitment that none of this is impossible, and is something I should probably do anyway, which makes it ripe for a resolution.

I was among the very few who actually made a resolution at the quite cocktail and BBQ night that BabyCakes and I went to. We had fun, and saw in the New Year exactly how we wanted to. It was good.

Best wishes to everyone that reads, I hope you have had a great Christmas and New Year, and 2007 brings you everything you need.

Some Days Are Good Days, and Some Aren't

Christmas day was delightful. BabyCakes and I swapped gifts early in the morning before we headed out for the day.

I had a great time watching my nieces and nephew open their presents and having fun. It was great to catch up with family. BabyCakes' mum was feeling a bit better and ate a bigger meal than she had in days. It was a nice day full of fun and family... and lots of food.

Today, well today is not the best day I've had. Perhaps a little too much alone time, perhaps too much thinking about others' comments.

Sometimes I wish a big hole would swallow me up and I wouldn't have to think any more.

A Pound of Flesh.....

My door is installed! Hazzah!

The installer turned up today to install it, and wouldn't you know, the poor guy was starting his first day installing doors for this company.

He was fabulous, I'm very happy with the service he gave me (I guess the corporate dogma hasn't had a chance to kick in yet), despite all the interesting problems my quirky little flat could throw at him.

It turns out my hinges are part of the door frame (all metal, all the time), and the door frame is kinda back filled with concrete. This meant lots of traipsing up and down stairs for him, to cut and fit the door properly, and the concrete bit made it more difficult for him to drill out a new hole for the deadbolt. I'm not sure how long they usually allow to fit a door, but I'm pretty sure it's not 2.5 to 3 hours! He even helped poke the hinge pins out through the layers of paint so I could take the door off to seal it underneath (which, curiously, he said builders in a lot of new places don't actually do which makes him (and me) cringe).

My new door is in, and I'm excited....

I'd been disillusioned by the project, the roller coaster of my week.

The first excitement was starting by deciding to strip and paint the door jamb before the new door was installed.

It was very closely followed by the frustration of underestimating/not allocating enough time to actually complete the project. So I did about half to three quarters of the job then.

The next day, I decided it would make things a lot easier if I took out the carpet under the door (as planned), and then I'd be able to get alllll the way down to the bottom of the frame.

It was hard work, but mostly fun, especially when I worked out that the best way to get the metal strip that keeps the carpet to the ground at the door up was not by trying to be delicate with it, but to get the claw of the hammer in there and get a bit physical!

The mess was strangely satisfying and very much made me feel that I owned the place, more so than anything else I'd done here.

The carpet was even more manky than I'd realised, and I was delighted to throw even a small piece of it in the bin!

In the process of pulling the carpet up though, I managed to damage the old door even more than it was!!

More of the veneer came off, and the bottom rail of the door kinda fell out...

It was together with masking tape for the last couple of days of it's life!

Anyway, with my powers of destruction having had a chance to stretch their dormant legs, I decided I should get the door jamb finished before the big day (new door installation), arrived.

So on I went, to discover why there were so many layers of paint on the door frame and stuff...

Stripping paint is an AWFUL job, and to make matters worse, I'm not convinced that I helped my cause by stripping it... I thought I'd stripped it pretty well, and sanded it OK... 'till I put some layers back on...

Then, to add insult to injury, after just one coat of the actual paint (on a base coat), I decided to let the cat out of the prison of the bedroom, to discover that the paint I'd put on was enough to make it really hard to shut the door (and it took off some of the paint!!!!!). I then noticed the horridly wonky cut, which explained all kinds of jams!

I left it at that point, and decided to wait for the new door cut by a person who sees the merits of a straight line.

Now, I have to seal and paint the door, finish of the door jamb, and hope that there is room enough in my gorgeously straight cut door to allow for all those layers of paint!!

I worked out why my door frames are a funny colour....

Inside my flat, the door frames are painted teal green, the same as the front of my front door.

In preparation for my door being installed this week, I went out and bought paint for it. It's expensive!! The one litre minimum makes it even more so... enough paint for 16 square metres, to paint what will probably amount to just over one square metre once one makes allowances for all the glass.

I figure the previous owner (with their seeming reluctance to spend money), bought a can of paint and figured that they *had* to use it on more than just the door given its expense. So, now I have teal green paint to strip away, so that I can paint it white... vivid white.

I won't be sad to see the teal green (a colour I usually don't mind), go. Call me old fashioned, but cornices should be white, and so should door jambs... or at least neutral, or part of an explicit design feature...

I can't imagine why anyone would have wanted to draw attention to my unevenly fixed frames!

How do they get these results?

If you believe everything you read, star signs correlate to traffic statistics... Nifty.

However, What I don't understand is how they get the statistics...

Worst
Libra
Aquarius
Aries
Pisces
Scorpio
Taurus
Sagittarius
Capricorn
Virgo
Cancer
Gemini
Leo
Best

So... we're assuming that we believe this at this point, that's interesting enough reading... they give the obligatory reasons why it is all so - that's fine. These figures are supposed to come from a combination of stats about accidents and tickets and then they go on to give the stats on tickets and accidents separately...

What I don't get, is how they get the main results they are spouting, to tout their book...

Lets take a look:

Their List
Worst	Accidents	Tickets	Total of Rank
Libra	1	5	6
Aquarius	5	3	8
Aries	4	2	6
Pisces	7	1	8
Scorpio	2	7	9
Taurus	8	6	14
Sagittarius	6	11	17
Capricorn	3	4	7
Virgo	9	10	19
Cancer	11	9	20
Gemini	10	12	22
Leo	12	8	20
Best

What I have done, is given a value for each sign as to how "dangerous" it is... 1 equalling the highest danger and 12 equalling the lowest danger. I then added them together, and in theory, the lower the number, the more dangerous the driver is.

Given this basic statistical modelling of the data they have presented to the world, I see that the rank should look a little more like:

Worst Total of Rank Libra 6 Aries 6 Capricorn 7 Aquarius 8 Pisces 8 Scorpio 9 Taurus 14 Sagittarius 17 Virgo 19 Cancer 20 Leo 20 Gemini 22 Best

That moves the list around quite a bit. Unless there is some serious weighting to some of the figures which there could be... (there might be more accidents caused by Aquarians than Capricorns, so therefore they move up the list as "dangerous drivers")... but they don't mention this on the page, in fact they don't mention any figures on that page other than 100,000 drivers and the rankings. (I'm a Capricorn by the way, so my star sign looses by me bringing these figures to the world's attention ;))

Personally, I think the proportion of people to star sign would be an interesting stat to look at with or without the claim of month of birth to accident/ticket ratio... I doubt that people in a non-geographically diverse area are statistically born all year round (if you took a world wide sample, you're more likely to get closer to an "all round" birth rate)... there is a strong likelihood that there are three or four star signs that are more prevalent in the study - and therefore, surely by pure virtue of being more populace, statistically more likely to have accidents/get tickets?

I dunno, I just juggle numbers to get the answer my boss wants half the time ;)

I also heard that 77% of all statistics are made up on the spot....

ba-dum-dum-ching!

Maybe I should troll the website for some figures on gender to accident/ticket ratios... they prolly have some somewhere, if they want to sell a book about it...

Oh, and one last thing, what the hell is the "My Name is Earl" reference got to do with the damn story, or book for that matter... he got hit by a car, and then tries to modify his behaviour - oooo his star sign must be a Libra, or Aquarius, or..... If the driver that had hit Earl had read the book, such "hilarity" like "My Name is Earl" might never had existed...



...on second thoughts, this book should be recommended reading for all fictional/Hollywood drivers!!

*rreooooowwwr* !

I Think My Boss Has Left The Country

I *think*.... He keeps changing his flight!

This means that I should hopefully be able to go 24 hours being able to plan my time myself. I do know that while he's on the plane he is planning to write another two proposals - we're not quite done yet, and for this work we get the added bonus of trying to work across significant time zone changes!!! yay!

On the up side, my boss wrote me a really nice Christmas card and gave me a generous bonus (over twice any bonus he'd given me before). BabyCakes wonders if he's trying to butter me up for not giving me the pay rise he promised for October... Ah well. I can't complain too much, there are plenty of people who would line up for my job, but I wonder how many of them could actually do it....

I'm just looking forward to a bit of a break.

All I Want For Christmas is My New Front Door

Today is the 53rd day after ordering my door.... I had to call them, because whilst the door is in the state, it's not unpacked yet, which means they can't call me (?).

The upside of my phone call this morning is that I have a fitting date!!!! Next Wednesday (61 days after ordering, but who is counting....) they did offer that I could get it installed next Friday, but I passed on that idea, I need to allow two business days to chase them up if they decide they can't fit it on the day they said they would. It would be a damn shame to have people turning up to our Christmas party giggling over our old door!

8 and a half weeks after order, my door should be fitted... YAY!

I heard a worse story though, my Dad ordered a new front grill door months and months ago, they finally had someone turn up to install it (having taken out the old one and making quite a considerable mess of the tiles etc.), and the door was too big by 40mm..... They sent 3 people out to measure the space before it was manufactured for the space.

They forgot to allow for the thickness of the frame... so, they took the brand new door back, to re-jig it all - probably taking a whole heap more time too, and they left the hole where the door was to go - my Dad had to put the old one back in so they had some sense of security!

At least my door is wood... if it is too big, they just keep cutting till it fits! If it is too small, I think I will cry.

I want a Kitchen = Only the Chillens Get Christmas Presents This Year

Don't get me wrong, I have one, but it's just not a very good one.

In the mid-seventies (when my flat was built) people needed a sink, a stove, a fridge, some benches and some cupboards. They didn't have a microwave, a blender, a food processor, a rice cooker, a breadmaker, an electric frying pan, a wok... their kettle probably was on the stove top.... so the single fridge power point and one double point for the toaster and hand mixer when required by the good little hausfrau was plenty! The good little hausfrau seemingly was much tidier than I too, back in the days when a 45cm deep bench was big enough!

What this means for my little flat is the now standard 58-60cm deep cupboards and benches are going to make my kitchen feel like an aeroplane galley...

I'm going to need some serious thought to design and look into some space saving type gadgets, which I'm sure basically translates to "I'm going to need to spend a heap of money on a tiny space, and no one will realise quite how much will have been sunk into it".

Oh, and I think I've decided on plastering pretty much my entire flat... my ugly walls are driving me nuts, and I want to paint!

I have finally decided on colours too - I think. I needed/wanted to get colours sorted out before my door eventually gets delivered. It will need to be painted to protect it, and I'd rather paint it right the first time.

After some bad experiences with sample pots looking nothing like their chip colours on display, I now know what colours I want, but they are from all different paint companies! I plan on taking the samples to one of those colour matching mobs and get them made up with the same paint, but in the colours I want.

Basically it will be pretty much white (with a hint of blueish purple to it, but just a hint), then the master bedroom will have a very dark blue feature wall, the front door will be the same colour, and it will be the accent colour for the bathroom. The lounge room and second bedroom will have burgundy feature walls, and it will the accent colour for the kitchen. I think two strong colours are more than enough for such a small space. The doors, architraves and window sills will be in a very white white gloss.

So while I have a fair bit of work to do before I can seriously expect it, I really want a new kitchen....

Some people have too much time on their hands

My brother sent me the following in an email:


This has just about taken the top spot for my most favourite vid ever.
sound is a must.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoGuoXuLmsk


I don't know which is more disturbing, the first bit, or the second bit.....

maybe I just don't get it!

An Email I Recieved....

A week or two ago my sister-in-law sent me a link for the thousand hand guanyin.

Unfortunately, at the time, the link she sent me to was down because of bandwidth restrictions. Today I tried to check it out and encountered different problems, so I whipped out my trusty google page and found this link which provides a few "mirror sites" of a sort - hopefully you can find one that works for you.

It really is quite a spectacular sight on its own, but when you realise the troupe is 21 deaf mute "dancers", it really does transport the spectacle to an amazing feat of human discipline.

I'm Getting Old and Grumpy

Every time I don't get the service I expect, I tend to wonder if I'm being unrealistic in my expectation. Having said that, I'm really not happy with the process of purchasing a door. I had no idea that it would be so troublesome. Today I called the door company *again* and spoke to someone else. The conversation started like this:

Her: "Good afternoon, welcome to *insert company name*"
Me: "Good afternoon, may I speak with *insert name of rep who sold me the door four and a half weeks ago, happily taking my money....*?"
Her: "No "
Me: "Er, may I talk to someone about my order?" etc.

After more giggling and laughing at my comments and calling me "Darl" several times (which I can usually accept in the vein it was intended, today the familiarity of it annoyed me no end), she told me she'd have to send more emails to head office and call me back tomorrow... I've had the "email head office" used at me in several phone calls, I'll be pleasantly surprised if someone calls me back before I have to start chasing them again...

The four weeks it was going to take to make my non-standard door was up last week... they were waiting on glass... non-standard of course.... and now the "lady" I spoke to today tells me that I might not get my door in this round because lots of people are waiting...

GGGGGggggggRRRRRRRAAAAAAAOOOOOOoooooRRRRRR!

A *large* door company advertises a sale, takes money for doors on order.... and then cannot supply the doors... I was barely prepared to wait the four weeks... it'll be a minimum of six weeks, and could well be more.

No Fuss? My arse!


To top it all off, my door handle on the existing door is getting exceedingly cantankerous, but it was supposed to be replaced last week.... (about the same time we had to start allowing an extra 30 seconds to be able to get in or out of the place, to deal with the stupid handle).

< /rant >

My Boss Leaves The Country in 3 Weeks

My Boss is off soon for his annual jaunt across the globe, so between now and then, I might not have much to do much of anything beyond the basics and work in the next few weeks. After he leaves the country, I'm likely to have a lot more time to do stuff, like write blogs...

We had a lovely, but quite busy weekend but we got to catch up with friends, spend some time with BabyCakes' recovering mum, both of us worked, did some shopping, tidying and drank too much booze (not while tidying or shopping, but with the friends)...

We bought margarita glasses, and a stick blender thing that can crush ice.... roll on summer!

I also "helped out" filling in a Roy Morgan survey - it was huge, and then they left even more booklets to fill out over the next week or so. I'm not sure it had the total effect they wanted, sometimes I find myself not watching TV or listening to the radio so I don't have to write it down... Trying to remember *which* half hour you listened to the radio at the end of the day is harder than it sounds...

Eloping Has its Charm

Do I really need to say much more?

Dad found some wedding book things at his work, and he brought one home for my sister and I to look at (or put ideas in our heads... neither one of us is engaged). I've had a flick through, and combined with my recent dress buying trip... I get a title like the one above.

Weddings are starting to scare me - a far cry from the romantic idyll women are supposed to expect/want/crave. Despite knowing that elopement is not really an option, I can understand how it happens, and I'm not even engaged!

I do know though, if I ever get married, it is going to be as small and as un-fussy as I can manage it! Anyone that knows the size of my family might have their doubts about how successful I'd be.


All I know is that weddings are big business and big money... but for some reason marriage counselling/support/advice is not... the cynic in me wonders how long it will be until the lawyers start advertising in the bridal guides... (or am I so new to the industry that I just haven't seen it yet?)

I want my marriage to be a lifetime, and the wedding just a day...

BabyCakes Suprised Me!

Whilst I was away in Sydney trying on dresses and hanging out with my brother, BabyCakes not only cleaned the flat and did all the laundry.... he painted the bedroom ceiling! It was a lovely surprise, and completely unexpected, even more so because he has spent a great deal of time telling me how much he hates painting!


This is what the cornices used to look like (and still do in the vast majority of the flat), the past owner, in their infinite wisdom, made them part of the wall, painting them the same colour. This is not how cornices are usually painted, and was one of the many things that bugged me about the flat! I think BabyCakes was more furstrated by the weird and somewhat concerning sticky tape marks on the ceiling, which obviously held a poster of some sort to the ceiling.... at apprximately his crotch level when he was laying on his side of the bed!! - needless to say, those marks are now gone!


The cornices have been reclaimed as part of the ceiling, the ceiling is one colour, and looks neater. I've been told not to look at the drip marks and the one spot that for some reason the paint decided to bubble. For a far from perfect starting surface, a newly learned skill, and a completely unexpected project, it is absolutely fantastic.

I'm lucky to have found BabyCakes, and luckier to have him want to stick around!