RIP Sarge

Today was Sarge's last day. We decided to call the vet as he was not in a good way. A sad day but he is now sleeping peacefully.

Lightning Strike !

Kapow !
Yesterday was one of those days where you just know there is going to be a fire somewhere and there was. The day started off with no power as a storm had come through and taken that away so we meandered around until about 9am when it returned. We then headed off in the truck to take a load of barley to the silos and we saw smoke to the South. We thought "hmmm, maybe we should head home". We called into the neighbours house as they were reaping there and asked what they knew about the fire. It was South of Lincoln and had started by lighning stricke the night before so we continued on our journey. On the way home, we stopped (like all good rubberneckers do) and looked at the smoke in the distance. It was a warm and very windy day.

Later in the afternoon, a storm emerged. Great for dampening the fire. But (she says) with the storm came more lightning and I spotted my first lightning fire strike yesterday and it spooked me a little. The Girl freaked as we could see the flames. it was weird, you see the lightning hit the ground, then a small orange glow (which makes you think, is it or isnt it) then the confirmation as it grows and shoots up the hill. It was pretty much over before it began but it still scared me. I went to get my camera to take a shot but, it was out before I could get to it. I reckon it would have been about 8-10 kms South of us.

and then..... We had an almighty magnificent thunderstorm and it was b e a utiful (for those of you who have seen Bruce Almighty, that's how Jim Carrey says beautiful). It took out the power again at about 10pm ish and we just layed in bed (the 3 of us) and watched the sky light up purple like someone was throwing lightning bolts willy nilly into the night. Spectacliar (I know it should be spectacular but I like the way I say it, like binocliars another of my idosyncrasises).

All of the seasons in one day.

Birdies in the Trees

We think these are baby falcons. The Man calls them chicken hawks, whatever, they are pretty little birdies anyway.
NEWS FLASH... after much deliberation I have determined that these are juvenile Nankeen Kestrels or Australian Kestrels.

Makybe Diva

Well, there she is. The pride of Port Lincoln (even though she has never set hoof on the soil). Whatever, it is a magnificent piece of artwork and I duly hope that no effen vandals deface her. Although it would be nice to hop up on her and have my picture taken. Not possible as there are security cameras positioned on her 24/7. A VERY, VERY expensive monument.

What's been going on ?

2 more weeks gone (I suppose it's almost 3 weeks since my last blog), and what have we been up to ? The Girl went on a camp for 3 days to Whyalla with a group of children that were affected by the bushfire. There was some sort of Government grant they received that funded this trip. They went to OneSteel and had a tour of the plant, visited the big ship, went roller skating, 10 pin glo bowling, leisure centre - swimming and ate lots of junk food (mind you, she wasn't too impressed by the junk food). I missed her terribly on the first night, it felt like I had just lost my right arm as she is always by my side. But it was good to have a break from each other for a few days. I often thought about ringing or SMSing the teacher to let her know that we were thinking about her but left it just incase she got homesick. As it was, she called us on the final night at 10pm on the teacher's mobile and asked us to call her back. She was fine, just needed to hear Mum's voice.
We went for a cruise to Port Pirie earlier this week to be rid of the caravan. We found a buyer that would meet us there, hand over the dosh and take it back to Adelaide. Long day but it was good as I managed to catch up with a very dear friend of mine at Napperby and I cherished the time we had together. I am planning to go over again and see her for a couple of days on my own. We arrived home around 11pm that night pretty shagged and straight to bed.

Just yesterday we went and picked up a 1969 Bedford truck that The Man picked up at a clearing sale for $100. It is of the 4WD variety and, I'm told, will cope better on the hills during the winter with the seed and super (fertiliser) unit on the back as opposed to the other one that the unit is on now (all I know is that it is the green truck, dunno the make). The area that we got the truck from is Mangalo and nearby there is a wind farm. As I was driving my cruiser, I was in awe of the "beauty" of the magnificent towers. I know it sounds weird but they are in such contrast to the nature around them but they symbolise how powerful nature is and environmentally, are saving nature. It was one of my in my head kinda moments.

The day before the truck excursion, I went for my regular gym jaunt and BOY THAT WOMAN NEEDS A GOOD BASHING (just when I get back my arm and chest muscles, I would be the perfect candidate to give her a flogging). She worked me really hard on my biceps and triceps and any other ceps that looked like they needed a workout ! I think we did a little over the top and I will have to let her know next week as I don't want to feel like this again for 2 days. Hopefully it will come good tomorrow and I can get back on the rowing machine as right at this moment, I couldn't rip the skin off a custard. By the way, I have shed 18kgs and am halfway to my goal. It is a magnificent achievement but it also disgusts me that I let myself get that way. I have been swimming once a week too when The Girl goes to her swimming lessons. I just do laps for 30-40 mins (i'm only managing a poor version of breast stroke and back stroke at this stage as I cannot breathe on freestyle). I've seen some people bring flippers and a mask with a snorkel so I might give that a go just to give the body a total flogging. Wednesday is a chockers day for exercise as I go for a 5km walk (this is an everyday thing), then 30mins of personal training and then the swim. I don't like to go into town too many times if I can help it so I try and do as much as I can in one day.

We have been doing some fencing too, I have confirmed that I am unco with a hammer. I was getting better with knocking in the staples but on the first day, my contribution was about 10% compared to The Man's. (the cat just jumped up onto the desk here and pushed his butt into my face and is now licking my fingers as I type - YUK ! - he is no longer on the desk).

So that is what is going down
Au revoir

ps. I went to a singing group last night called Sing Australia and it turned out to be a rather large group of mainly 50+ people who love to sing. I may/may not go along to the Cummins or Tumby Bay group, undecided if I wish to pursue this avenue. www.singaustralia.com.au is the site, saves me explaining it all. Let me just say that it was an experience and I met a lovely 82yo lady from Tumby named Daphne.

and done !

Hellooooo again
The pergola is finished !!!
Those boys worked in the wind today and they did a great job.
Looks great hey !

Next job - pavers.

Hockey 1, hockey 2, hockey 3...

Ta da !!!!

The hockey sticks arrived with the builders this morning and we have progress! They are doing a fantastic job too. Very neat, very tidy and very expensive. Hope it's all worth it in the end. Sitting under the pergola on the pavers (not organised anything there yet) enjoying a bevvie, or even having breakfast out there in these wonderful spring/summer months. Now all I need is a paperman to come 18kms in and deliver the morning paper to me (wishful thinking). Should be finished tomorrow just in time for The Man to come home and inspect.

I call it... "The Michele Factor"

No matter what it is in my life, whether I order a loungesuite, buy a product off the supermarket shelf, build a house, buy clothing, there is a little "Michele factor" lurking in the background. I'm not complaining, I've actually learned to live with it. If a store says it will be here in 6 weeks, it wont, it will be here in 8-10 weeks so I just factor that into the equation. The reason I say this is that the pergola will be delayed (at this stage they will return on Monday) because they are missing a vital part of it (the "hockey sticks" that connect the existing roof to the new pergola) and cannot commence without them. Oh well, it was a hot and windy day (again) so it probably turned out the best for them anyway. I love the attitude of the bloke that sold it to us (oh, well, there's not much we can do about it), that's not what he told me, that's what I heard from the builder. He hasn't rang me to apologise as yet and I don't expect him to either. If it was my company even if it wasn't my fault, I would still smooth things over and rev the crap out of the supplier (Stratco musn't have very good quality control). Anyways, photos of progress will start next week sometime I suspect.
Yesterday was a glorious day and I took the girl out to Dutton Bay for her to go for a horsey ride.
She is pictured here with her cousin on the back of Keira and Bernie is leading them. Midge is Bernie's dog. So there we were, 2 horses, 3 dogs, 3 kids, 3 adults all trekking around the beach and then the other 2 adults took the horses for a bit of a gallop over the scrub after the kids had a ride.

Me, not interested in the slightest in horses. I'm afraid that The Man is going to have to play the fiddle with this little adventure when it unfolds.

I took about 116 photos of the day and took some rippers. If you're interested, go to www.ringo.com but you need to let me know first so I can get you on there. I wont have put them on there just yet, it takes a little while seeing my camera takes 8 megapixel photos, i have to downsize them all individually to make them easier for the user to upload them quicker.
2 more days and the girl goes back to school and I get a couple of days totally on my own before The Man returns home FOR GOOD !

It's Windsday (as Winnie the Pooh would say)

Bloody nora ! It's blowing a gale here today - not stepped outside since 8am this morning for fear of being sand blasted (I only went outside to turn the valve off to the tank which was overflowing, been filling up the tanks with soak water from the windmill). There has been a fire close to Port Lincoln today and I heard that at least one house has been totalled. It's a northerly wind so it won't be coming our way but I believe it was all under control around 12.30 this afternoon.

I reached that milestone with my weight (no it took more than the crap to shift it). I have been held up with the weather because it has been windy for the best part of a week. The only day it wasn't was yesterday, so I went for a walk. Today, The Girl and I did a "Heart Moves" DVD aerobic exercise (for people who haven't exercised in a long time or who have heart conditions or are old, etc) and I plan to get onto my new air rower for a spell.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, the pergola will start to take shape. I must set up the fire unit on the back of the ute to make sure that no sparks get away from the fellas. They specifically asked for water to be present, I like their forward thinking, very responsible.
This is the package of the pergola before.......

Oh what a beautiful morning !

I have begun walking of a morning and this is the scenery. How magnificent. From my house to the neighbours boundary fence (and back again) it is almost 5 kms. Not bad eh ! Still, I've only done this 3 times (due for another run this morning, oh and it's 5am at the moment, must have had enough sleep) but I reckon I'll be committed for the short term anyway. I haven't weighed myself as yet but am confident of reaching another milestone very soon. It's nice having The Man home, albeit a little weird as we've been on our own (The Girl and me) for so long.
Day one of my hols is depicted as shown, day two windy and warm, day 3 a bit cool to start with but fined up to a nice day, perfect weather for holidays (need more rain for the crops but it doesn't look like we're gonna get any soon).

Reminiscing and Moving forward

As I sit here typing, I am almost doing cartwheels (internally) as I count down the hours until I begin 3 months long service leave. The Man is coming home for good today (although he has to do one more last trip to pack up) and it is the beginning of the school holidays. The Girl is having a birthday party sleepover tomorrow night and I am so close to having lost 15kgs all it is going to take is a decent crap to jump that hurdle (sorry for those that may have been offended by that last remark but you know me). So the song in my head at the moment is "I'm on the top of the world looking, down on creation...." you know the rest. I even recorded it on the Florists voice mail for a larf.

I have been keeping a lot of emails from my friends to maybe write something someday. I had a bit of spare time (are you kidding, it's very boring here at work, I had oodles of time) to read through a few of them and it was really touching to read some of the good wishes that were sent our way after the fire. I don't want to harp on about it but it just shows how far we've come in almost 2 years. It has been quite a strengthening time for me and I'm all the better for it. I know in life I need big challenges to keep me ticking, that one done, the next is my health and it looks like I'm on the right track with that one too.

What a larf, I went swimming for the first time in umpteen years (proper swimming, not sitting in the pool with the florist under an umbrella with a bevvie in the backyard) and boy was that hard. Great workout though. I challenged the fella who was doing laps for a race, he was much much much much more fitter than I but he had a sense of humour.

Looking forward to having time off with all of us home and having more energy to help out with a few projects that we have planned (chookhouse, fencing, ROCK PICKING - YUK, stable or something for the proposed horse, and we should be getting our pergola soon so that should be up before christmas, then we have somewhere to sit outside, then pavers and the list goes on (and on and on and on).

Just wanna say I'm really happy at the moment and looking forward to recharging after a challenging period of time.

Stay tuned...........

Hippo Birdie Tori !

My baby is nine today and the poor bugger has a loose tooth (I mean hanging by a thread kinda loose tooth. You know, the ones we hang onto because it is just toooooo painful to pull it out but painful that it is there, obstructing every thing that passes within 50 feet of it). She had a little win on the radio station today. She won a Wendy's shake (the surge of sugar will surely rot the remaining thread!!!).

We did the Roxby thing last weekend, sorry if we didn't see ya. Was just a sneaky trip up to catch up with the Man but it turned out that he spent most of it at work. Never mind, he should be home for good soon.

Moi, well I have lost 13.3kgs so far and I thought with the episode at the pub on Friday night (although, the Florist would have called me a wuss as I piked about 12.30, not used to it any more) and the fact that I didn't diligently exercise that I would have freaked on the scales this morning but voila, I managed to lose 1kg from the week before WOO HOO. This is my last week with Robyn from Health Crusaders and it has been well worth the money. If all goes well, I should be at my target in 6 months (well my birthday is in May so I should be able to get there by then if I keep up the good work !)

Only 4 more days of work, I am taking 3 months long service leave and I guess will be busy helping the Man do things. We are going to build a chook house, stable for the horse when the time comes, I guess I've heard him SOOOOOO many times say "come and pick rocks" so I guess that will be on the agenda, but he will also have to spend time sharing the domestic duties as well.

I love this photo !

It was never clear from the start (because the camera focussed on the shower instead of them). But I still love it !

A Milestone !

Okay, this is getting pretty personal, but as you are all friends, I choose to share.

I HAVE LOST 10 KILOGRAMS

Short but sweet blog.

About face !

You may think I'm mad, but it is with great thought that I decided to not pursue the job of Personal Assistant.
I had a phone interview with the Recruitment Consultant and she sounded very excited. In other words, the interview went extremely well. She then told me on the following day that the Business involved would like to interview me next week (tomorrow in fact), all going well at this stage. But then I had time to assess the situation and after some soul searching, I couldn't come up with more positives for going than staying put. Here are a few...

• 30 hours a week - 9am till 3.30pm (school hours)
• Long Service leave - 3 months off from October this year till January next year and the opportunity to do it again next year.
• It's a pretty cruisy job and I can definitely make it more challenging
• and most of all, the time I wouldn't be at the NEW job I can spend taking Tori to swimming, take me to piano lessons and/or singing lessons, go to the gym once a week, go to Heart Grooves classes once a week (very low impact aerobics for defective heart geriatrics)

So there are the most important things, pretty easy decision really, I mean who wants to get home from work at 6.30 each night and have to do all the domestic stuff when I get home around 4-4.30 now and can do it at a leisurely pace. Decision made.

Ciao

Health Crusaders

I have lost 9.2 kgs in about 9 weeks and it is all due to me calling this lady, Robyn Harris. Before you say, "Oh here we go, another diet" let me tell you one thing. You will either reject this information, not require this information, or take this information on board. Yes it does cost money, (personally, it has been well worth it, and no, I am not getting a kickback from this, it is just good information that we all should know about).
Here is the link to her website www.healthcrusaders.com.au
Enough said.

I had my phone interview on Wednesday (thanks to all of you for your wishes of good luck), and am feeling confident about it. I could have another interview next Wednesday so I need to buy some interview clothes as the clothes I do have are getting baggy and look silly. Baby steps and I will deal with each step as it comes along.

Stay tuned...

Boy am I excited !

Rewind... Monday 14th August 2006 - "I might put in for this job in the paper. Personal Assistant - client unknown as yet, suspect it is the Stehr Group, oh well, will call the recruitment agency and ask a few questions"

Tuesday 15th August 2006... "Shall I put my resume in, or not. Gotta throw my hat in the ring.
2pm submits resume and covering letter online.
5pm phonecall from the recruitment agency to thank me for putting my resume in (she asked me to submit it on Monday after we briefly spoke - "I want to see your resume").

Interview Wednesday 9.30am TOMORROW - woo this is all going quite fast and I am not even sure what I am doing yet ?

Stay tuned..........

As Time goes by ...

Wow, I knew I hadn't blogged in a while but 3 months ???

I suppose life has been quite normal and nothing to report. I have been diligently dieting and have managed to shed 8 kilos, and it has been very, very easy. All you people wanting to shed a few shades, get into low GI (glycemic index) cooking/eating and you will never look back. I do a little exercise (as much as the cardiologist allows me) and am feeling much, much better (on the cardiologist note, my septum hasn't changed in 5 years so it's all still going fine, never will run a marathon or dance the night away but can manage sitting and drinking red wine quite easily - as was discovered a couple of weeks back when the Iceman and his lovely lady and I partook in quite a few quality bottles of the "memory drainer".

Have a close look at this picture ...

Notice anything missing ?

The containers have gone - YAY. No more the Sowetto, township. Yes there are still a few things to tidy up, the trailer is slowly being filled with junk the little shed will be relocated when it finds another purpose, and the lean to will become part of the horse establishment when that time comes. The little van, well, I'm not sure what we are going to do with her at the moment. It acts as more storage for the time being and if we have more than one family of visitors, then she is another room.

We are in the (long and drawn out) process of getting a pergola/bull nose verandah designed for the western side of the house and that is proving difficult. The original plan was to have a Stratco Outback verandah but the only 3 colours you can have are white, cream and beige Woo big colour choice and with the colour of our house, BIG YUK ! So, the bullnose in the same colour as the roof (ironstone) is plan D (probably more like plan Z with the amount of changes we have made to the whole structure).

The girl and I went to see Renee Geyer last night, what a voice, what a woman. I was about 10 feet away from the stage and was in awe ! The first act was a fella on acoustic guitar and some wanker left their mobile phone on and it rang while he was playing. (Insert F*&khead here!). The fella (I can't remember his name which is going to make it hard to buy a CD of his, when he releases it in 2 months time) handled it well though and say "must have been for me". Funny bugger.

Today I had hoped to actually get outside and play in the sunshine but it has been raining quite heavily off and on so who knows what I am going to do. For a start this, after that, maybe cruise through the cookbooks, plan the weeks meals, do some washing, ironing, housework (I liked it better when the sun was shining).

3 weeks

I think, with confidence, that I can say I have successfully given up smoking. They say it takes 7 days to make a habit and 28 days to break one so whilst I have 7 more days to go on breaking one, I have successfully taken up another, exercising. You see, I bought myself a cross training machine (basically a bike without a seat, with arm poles) that I currently spend 15 minutes on each night (5 kms of varying intensity) and have already managed to knock off 1.5 minutes for the 5km course - WOO HOO ! I will continue with this until it becomes too easy then try another program (there are 10 in all). It is relativley a no-brainer as I pop on my i-Pod (courtesy of my AMEX reward points) and 4 or so songs later, I'm done. This has helped me drop 3.5 kgs. Baby steps.
Work is starting to get a little busier, I'm grateful for that, it's no good being bored at work especially when you worked your rrrr's off in the last job to come into something really BORING at times. I opened my big mouth and scored some extra work from the Operations Manager which was good, got to use the rotting brain for a while.
We are so proud of the girl, she has done very well at school this term, her reading and spelling skills are above average and she is a valued member of her class. The teacher had nothing but praise for our clever little girl. Her piano teacher is impressed with her as well. Now she wants to do dancing classes - where do I fit it all in ?!?!? On top of all this, she is dead keen on getting a horse. That will happen when the Man stops work up North and comes home to stay. When that happens, then I can start on my interests.

Still soldiering on.....

I must say with my head held high that it has been almost 2 weeks without a smoke. I know it doesnt sound like a long time but for anyone who has successfully given up it's a great achievement. Of course I still habitually crave for a durry but that is all that it is, a habit. Enough of that, onto other things.

Last weekend we went to Coffin Bay to try out the Girl's new sand sled (The Man bought it for her ????? Bought it for himself more likely). Armed with my trusty Digital SLR we climbed up the sand dunes at Long beach and sledded, snapped and rolled down the hill. Got some great shots (will post them later). We went for a drive after that to a place calleed Kellidie Bay and surprised ourselves by bumping into some Roxbyites and ex-Roxbyites. A couple of beers later and we headed off. Turns out they were at the shack for a 40th birthday. Called into Coffin Bay again for some fish 'n chips for tea and bumped into another ex-Roxbyite and sat out on their front verandah and gas bagged for a while. Great Day.

With the giving up smoking, I've been a bit conscious of the food that goes into my mouth so I could be killing 2 birds with one stone and (dare I say it) lose a bit of weight. Been scouring all the low-fat recipes on the internet and some great books and the whole family should benefit from this. Made this yummy pasta carbonara with what seemed like a truck load of mushrooms (I'm not particularly fond of mushrooms) and it was b e a utiful !!!!

Nasty, nasty habit.

It's only been 7 days (and I wouldn't say I've kicked it yet) but I've attempted to give up smoking and so far (fingers crossed) I will succeed !!! It has been relatively easy, living 20 kms from the nearest shop, being ill from the flu and some inner strength that I must have stored in there somewhere (I think that is the last of the inner strength, I may need to regenerate some more of that) and voila ! I'm feeling a little better already (I say little better as I think giving up on a cold was a wise/unwise thing to do as I am still coughing etc (I wont go into TOO much detail, but you get the gist).

(wait for the photos, the %$#@*& blogger is not working AGAIN !!!!!!!)

More photos. The foggy one was taken this morning and the cows (get some beef in your teeth, ya know like get some pork on your fork - I thought it was funny) well, they are rogues, they escaped from the paddock down the road and came to visit us. Turns out they were here before the fire last year and thought it was so nice, the first opportunity they got, they came back. Their Dad came and took them home about a week later.

The power of pictures

I've got a new camera ! Woo Hoo !!! Still having fun trying it out, learning how to use it, and taking loads of photos. Up early this morning, waiting for the agronomist to come out and do some soil sampling. So took the opportunity to take some more pictures (not this one).

There was a wicked sunrise the other morning and the tripod came in handy for that. The colours were just immense. No filters, just me and the camera. Cool Hey !













Other than that, not much happening. Oh, The Girl is starting piano lessons next week, she has joined junior choir at school, does recorder once a week and has swimming lessons as well. Keeps me busy anyway.

Ciao

Nankeen Kestrel

We had a little visitor at work on Monday, a Nankeen Kestrel. Being from up Northern SA and working where I did, made me concerned for this little fella as we thought he might have hit the windows at work and was just collecting himself before recovering and flying away. But.... I think it was more than that as a couple of hours later he seemed to be deteriorating so I called around and finally found out that the local Parks and Wildlife people were the ones to call (no Enviro mob on tap here !). They didn't hold out much hope for him and I haven't rung them back to see how he faired.

Blinded by the locals

Woo Hoo ! It's starting to all come together now. We have had verticals installed in the Family/Dining, Music Room and Spare room and venetians in the kitchen. The roses you can see are for valentines day - 15 roses. The Man is still a romantic after all.

I have been madly printing off photographs lately and putting them in frames about the place. If anyone has any photos of us, that I can have or even borrow so I can scan them, please send them to me via PO Box 1402 PORT LINCOLN SA 5606. Any would be greatly appreciated.

The tiles will be famous !

I know some of you may have thought eeewwww, what is she doing putting those tiles in her bathroom, some on the other hand, thought they were lovely. (Check blog June - tiles) Well.... they are going to feature in a commercial for the tile shop that we bought them from. Woo Hoo !

The curtain lady is coming tomorrow to fit tracks to the loungerooms and put up vertical blinds on the 3 sliding doors and slimline venetians to the kitchen window (they will probably be open most of the time, but for security and light diffusing purposes, we decided to have them).

The man has been busy moving dirt about the place preparing for some landscaping, just gotta get someone out there to do some concreting to start us off. I think I may have had a win with the pattern pave (no one we know of does this in Lincoln, but through talking with various people, we may have tracked down some stamps and may have to do it ourselves but we could have some assistance which would be good). That means I get the patterned concrete and The Man has his wish for no pavers. You know how it is with ants, weeds, movement etc.

The painter man came late last week to finish off a few jobs so that about tidies up the maintenance on the place. The plumber came out late Friday to look at our Hot Water Service as it has not been behaving lately and it turns out that one of the transformers had shorted out. At his boss's disgust (ie. the HWS rep should have replaced the transformer) he replaced it and we are now using the entirety of our Hot Water rather than the top half of the tank. I had a long shower this morning to test it out and voila ! it works a dream.

The girl has begun swimming lessons once a week at the Leisure centre, has joined the school junior choir and will be starting recorder lessons soon. Now that her social calendar is being filled, I better get things on mine !

Ciao
Songbird

January, February.....

My, time is flying already !

Firstly, drugs are a wonderful thing ! Sarge has a new lease on life (well he's doing a lot better, albeit a dicky leg from arthritis) and is back to his old self again. I know, I know, he will go one day but at least he's not in any discomfort or pain at the present moment.

We are s l o w l y gearing up at work, 'bout bloody time. I'm nearly going bananas here. I noticed that there are a few good jobs back in Roxby that would suit. I should get The Man working down here and me doing the fly in bizzo. Enough said.

My poor Grey Landcruiser (everything seems to be breaking lately) did the frog hop down the Lincoln highway last week on my way to work and busted it's engine management system ($600 for the part). Talk about stranded, thank goodness for mobile phones.

The Man and the Girl are surveying the area for landscaping.
I've just re-read this blog and boy do I sound like I'm having a good old whinge - life's great, just having a few hiccups to give me something to do with my time. Starting at 9am is a real bonus, no more super early mornings for the Girl and me ! The reason for writing this particular blog was to update Sargies condition and I couldn't think of much more to say (but I've said more just now, haven't I..........)

Bye

Hippo New Dear (Happy New Year)

New Year, new look blog.

G'day from us and here's hoping that you all began the year on a high note and that it will continue for 2006.

On Wednesday 11 January, The Man, The Girl and I went to the Black Tuesday Memorial, held at the Wangary/Marble Range sporting complex (oval) to remember what happened 12 months ago. As we arrived, I heard a lone piper playing as they were transferring the memorial bench to a tent for the dignatories to lay remembrance tributes and thought, "this is not a good idea to be here" because it brought up a lot of memories (that and the fact that bagpipes make me cry when I'm euphoric !!!). They also had a large screen and showed pictures of the time and one that got me the worst was a farmer taking aim at a sheep (to euthanise rather than burn). I kinda wished I wasn't there in the first 5 minutes. After that, Jane Doyle and John Fitzgerald were presenting local musicians who performed various songs/tributes and other speakers included the Goveneress (is that a word ?), Premier, Deputy Premier and Leader of the Opposition. The most touching speech (there really isn't a word to describe this emotion) was the mother of the 2 young children who perished in the fire along with her mother and her father suffering severe burns (he survived). To watch that woman stand up and speak on behalf of all the families who lost loved ones and to cope with her own grief was incredible.

Okay, that part done, we have moved the big van off the pad, ready for resale and the little one (we're keeping that) has progressed onto the pad and has pride of place where the big van used to sit. Mainly to stop the lean-to (that My Dad and The Man built since the annexe decided that it was too windy one day and rrrrripped off !!) from catching a gust of wind and rolling down the paddock. It's dyna bolted to the concrete but we're not taking any chances with the gusts that happen here at times. I have commenced my 9-3.30 hours at work and already it's a dream. I actually manage to get to work 1/2 an hour early but that will change when I have The Girl in tow !

The home is looking wonderful, Mum made some curtains for the lounge, The Girl's room and our bedroom and I have just ordered some verticals for the 3 sliding doors and slimline venetians for the kitchen window. I know this is gonna sound weird living out in the scrub but it will give us a bit more security by being able to shut these when we are not around, believe it or not, people do come out here snooping about.

Sarge ! Well, Sargie is not well. We took The Girl to her Auntie's place in Lock for a little holiday and The Man and I returned home Saturday night to find him limping on his back leg. With no obvious signs of distress, we would give it a couple of days to see what develops. Well, Monday morning nothing had changed so I took him to the vet and they informed me that he has a "horrible" heart (bit callous I thought), heart murmur and arthritis in his back leg. Boy, I can tell you I was a little upset talking to the vet that day. He's been with us for more than 14 years and I shouldn't expect him to live forever but....... Anyway, he's on heart tablets and arthritis pills (and before any of you say you wouldn't bother, he's our doggie!) and that should give him a little quality of life in the twilight years. If we are told he is in pain, then things will change.

Anyways, hope you are all well and happy.