Posts

Showing posts from 2011

Last post for 2011!!

Image
I posted a question on Twitter today asking what people suggested to make New Years Eve a bit more exciting for those of us who stayed at home. I got some great responses - dressing up & making dinner special with special dishes etc, playing games, making a video, making a time capsule. All great ideas. I went with the special dinner idea mainly. The kids loved it. We had a table cloth, actually set the table (rather than grabbing the cutlery off the rack), candles & wine glasses. Of all that I think the kids were mostly excited about the wine glasses - oh & the fact they had 'proper' plates, not the melamine ones they usually use! I cooked one of our favourites - orange chicken. I thought this could be the start of a new tradition - although M did point out it was only one of his favourites! I suggested we take a vote next year! One thing Bissy learnt off her aunty a few years ago was clinking glasses & saying 'Cheers'. She learnt this rathe

15th Wedding Anniversary at O'Reillys

Image
The 30th of November was our 15th wedding anniversary. Normally this is where an appropriately embarrassing wedding photo would be placed. Well none of our wedding photos have yet to make it into digital format so I'll insert a more recent photo. I decided we needed to go away for this momentous occasion. I'd worked out a while ago he had 4 days off & had lined up my parents to take care of the kids. I then went about organising a suprise location for our anniversary trip. We both enjoy photography, so I started looking for some kind of photography workshop. I came across the website for Trekabout Photography Workshops  who just happened to have a 2 day workshop on the exact weekend Peter had RDO's. To top it off, the workshop was at  O'Reilly's  in Lamington National Park - where I'd been wanting to visit for a long time. It was a suprise - right up until I had to tell Peter which way we were driving. Once I said we were going North, but not to t

Travelling

I've been away since Wednesday. First it was Armidale for work - we have workshops a couple of times a year & it was Armidale's turn. It was basically cold & wet both days. Because I had to drive to Sydney today, I decided to stay last night in Tamworth. I'm glad I did - for some obscure reason I've been waking up at 5am. Very annoying - even this morning I was awake that early, but fortunately sort of went back to sleep. So by the time I drove the hour or so from Armidale to Tamworth yesterday I was pretty tired. Mum & Dad brought E over to Tamworth today so we could drive to Sydney. We have a week of appointments (therapy & Dr's) at Royal Far West in Manly (more about that during the week). We had a pretty good trip, despite following a frustrating driver through Cessnock & having to hit the brakes because of an idiot overtaking on a corner. We stopped a few times. First was lunch at Wingen <iframe width="425" height="

Kitchen Renos Part 3

Image
We had the place where we got the kitchen from assemble the cupboards etc. So putting that all in was relatively easy. Not that I was there when it was done! It was basically all put in while I was at work! I took these pictures a week or so ago. So the sink was in, but the water wasn't on yet. The stove & cooktop were in & working. And already you could feel how much extra space there was. This is the wall where the old stove was - the wall cupboards have been put on since then Our flash stove which actually shows the temperature as it cools down. The space is where the dishwasher (YAY) goes! Over the long weekend, Mum, Dad, the kids & I went to Tamworth to spend a few days with my brother who came up from Sydney. It was kinda timely as we didn't have to worry about having no water in the sink etc (though that was fixed pretty quickly) Learning to use the stove is shall we say interesting!! It's touch & has programs that you have to r

Kitchen Renos Part 2

We didn't get much done on the kitchen during the week. Pete had 3 night shifts then a day shift sooo that was him out for the week. I had several trips to the next town, normal work + unwell kids (last week of the school term is always a struggle to keep the kids well & able to go to school). [[posterous-content:pid___0]]Since we haven't managed to get a plumber in to move the drains for the sink & sort out gas lines, I didn't think we'd be doing much this weekend. But we did. First Pete & our nephew pulled the wall cupboards & old exhaust fan out. Then the cupboards on the left. [[posterous-content:pid___1]]And then the tiles. I got to swing a hammer for a while (and felt it this morning!). We basically had to chisel them off the wall, they were certainly stuck on well. I did about half, our nephew did the other side. Did ok except for the last bit - there's now a bit of a hole in the wall near the sink. Pete brought back in one of the old benc

Let the Kitchen Renos begin!!

Image
We've been talking about doing renovations in the kitchen for years. We had filled in part of the back verandah about 13 years ago - but the space wasn't practical for much & it ended up as a dumping zone mostly for my craft stuff. It kinda kept getting put off -- until our stove caught fire last year. Fortunately the worst thing affected was the stove, but there was enough damage that we would have to replace cupboards etc. So the insurance company agreed to pay us the money so we could extend it as we had planned. So this is the alcove that we put on years ago. Where the new plaster is on the wall - that's where a sliding door used to be. We had to take it out to fit what we wanted along that wall. The sink is going under the window. The opening on the left is where the sink is now. Originally, before the last reno, the archway was a window. Pete's dad helped us with that work & he built the shelf. He built it to last apparently - it took Pete quit

T2 Notebook

Image
T2 is a really cool Tea shop. We've bought tea from them for a while, mostly specialty ones - it's a bit expensive for everyday drinking.  When I started making the notebooks, I had a T2 box sitting there & thought it would be a good way of using up some of the paper scraps I had after making the photo ones. I played around for a while & got a nice mini sized notebook. I can get 5 notebooks out of a box. The front & back I make into one notebook (so the ones with the big T2 on them in the photo below). The others I use a back cover made out of a cereal box. At first I used black tape on the spine, but I'm not sure if it will stay stuck.  Now when we go to T2, I'm on the lookout for different tea boxes!! And yes I'm guilty of buying the tea just because of the box! Lucky we don't live closer or I'd have way much more tea than we already do.   

Sesamoidectomy

Yes I've had something removed! I didn't even know it was the name of the operation until I saw the paperwork at the hosptial. http://orthotics-4-heel-pain.com/sesamoiditis/  (a random site I googled to show what bone I had removed) I had the operation 3 weeks ago.  For now I'm walking with one crutch, on the heel & right side of my foot. With a particularly attractive black shoe thing with velcro on the top & a hard sole so I can't bend my foot. I can scrunch up my toes when I'm resting but I can't bend it the other way (think of when you're walking, & you have your foot bent up ready to take the next step). From the top of my big toe down to the base of the ball joint was numb after the operation - would have hated to feel the pain if it wasn't! The feeling has been coming back into it though it's still fairly numb in spots. There's lots of tingling & today a bit of stinging so I think it's all going ok. I hadn't rea

Sydney CBD trip

Image
Today P & I went into the city to see the First Emperor Exhibit at the Art Gallery. It was about the First Emperor of China & the entombed warriors that have been discovered around his tomb since the 1970's. We caught the bus in to the city. For someone who grew up in the Hills District when public transport was not as widespread as it is now, this is fantastic! One bus, virtually across the road from my brothers house, all the way into the QVB. Granted it took 1.5 hours, the seat was a tad hard & it was bumpy at times, but not having to stress about city traffic is wonderful! When I was at uni, I gave up taking the bus to the station. There was only 1 or 2 in the morning & the same in the evening. The one time I caught the bus in the middle of the day it took so long to go home I decided it was better to stay at uni & study than do that again! Coffee & a wander around the QVB was first on the agenda. HobbyCo is in the QVB, so P looked there whil

My first big fish

Image
I've been fishing for probably about 30 years. Don't remember when I started or even why I started! I know there's a photo of me at about 8 or maybe younger holding up a tiny fish. My Gramps or Great Uncle Bill would take us when we were younger. As we grew up it was up to us to deal with the hooks, rods & prawns. We'd only go when we were on holidays - on one memorable occasion (can't remember exactly where it was) we managed to make a small jetty collapse! My sister & I would help our foster brothers with their lines etc. Thing is we never really caught anything. The boys would sometimes catch little ones, but that was about it. When I married P, we also only fished on holidays - same thing. I nearly caught a stingray once, it took off before I landed it, same thing with an octopus. The last time we were in Narooma (about 2 years ago), I caught about 5 from memory, all thrown back because they were too small. We're definitely not experts when it co

Photo that didn't work yesterday!

Image
I've been trying a new way of posting & had trouble yesterday with the first lorikeet photo. So here it is again! M took this one

Lorikeets

Image
There are a lot of friendly Lorikeets that like to come & hang out in front of Mum & Dad's onsite caravan. The first time they came they didn't need any encouragement, and seemed to be cranky that there was nothing for them to eat! Now there is always some bread (yes I know not their usual diet) for them to share. Lorikeets gathering outside the caravan. I think M actually took this one. Today I spent a while taking photos of them on P's camera. I got some good shots even with the not so ideal backgrounds. The sky has been grey all day, so any shots that included sky ended up very dark. They come up pretty close to us, but fly away quickly if anyone gets too close. After a while some of them fly into the bottlebrush that is next to the caravan. It's flowers are pretty sparse though - it looks like a lot of lorikeets have been chewing on it. It was funny to watch the pidgeons & plovers too. The plovers acted all shy when there were only lori

Happy New Year

Image
We are on holidays in Narooma at the minute. It's on the South Coast & is a beautiful area. View Larger Map New Years Eve We had a pretty quiet New Years Eve. Dinner outside, nice wine (& a particularly nice sweet cider from Orange) & family made for a lovely evening. After dinner we walked around to the wharf to watch the fireworks. E isn't particularly keen on fireworks so we didn't get too close! We all had glow sticks on as did many of the other people out & about.When we came back M decorated the front of the van with them (with assistance from me) Not the best photo, but you get the idea! It looked pretty cool. The white lights underneath are solar powered star lights.  Next up were sparklers - a whole lot of sparklers! Even SJ who is very cautious around fire & heat was right into it. If it got too hot she'd drop it on the grass. M stuck heaps in the pots at the front of the van & went along lighting them. My camera didn'