This morning was an interesting one on "the block". What appeared to be a crane, turned out to be a concrete pourer for the slab to be done today !!!!! YAY ! I thought after the rain yesterday that it would be delayed but, bright and early, the utes, labourers and concrete trucks started rolling in. I really wanted to be there today, to watch what was happening, take more photographs to add to my house progression album but I had to suffice with just a few of the stationery machines and will take shots of it tonight after work. With any luck, I shall get home before dark (I have to meet with the kitchen design man tonight after work) and get a good picture to email back to the man (dunno how that is gonna go because my home phone is now out of order for some stupid reason and won't be fixed until Monday afternoon !!!) . I might have to burn them onto CD and use the work email to send, (and this is such a slow connection, any of you that regularly complain about the work computers being too slow, you have rocks in your head, appreciate what you have and the access and money you have available to make your work day easier, cos it's different down here and we are still part of the same company !!!). Boy am I not myself lately. I think it's the constant chasing up and choosing stuff for the house and other things that it's all getting to me. Roll on some sort of miracle to take me away from this for a short time...
I'd like to have a short holiday where I can eat my dinner off a table and sit on a dining chair, do the dishes in a sink that is not situated in a corner of a bench, and have a friend to share a couple of beers with. Won't be long and I will be able to do that and you all better plan a weekend away to visit us when I organise a housewarming in the early part of next year.
On a funny note, the chickens have now shown their gender and the Girl and I were highly amused at the attempt of the little boys proving they were men ! Imagine a frog in your throat (not literally) and trying to ar a ar a arrrrrrrrrr like a rooster. The Girl cacked herself and rang her daddy to share her humour. Lucky she did as his alarm clock didn't work that morning !
Gotta go - better do some work and look slightly interested today.
Ciao
Songbird
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Monday, March 21, 2005
Here we go !!!!
I had a phonecall from The Man this morning, informing me that the pad is about to be levelled on our block. So with that came a list of instructions, "make sure you show them where the electrical cables are, tell them to watch out for the water pipes here and the soakage drain there and make sure they...." and the list goes on. I must admit, I went to water after hanging up the phone as I felt a huge wave of responsibility wash over me (adding to the fact that I will be at least 2 hours late for work) and hoping that I took it all in and REMEMBER where all those things are/aren't etc. It is exciting to know that 26 weeks after they lay the slab that there will be a shiny new house standing there, ready for me to add my flair to it. Watch out furniture stores, Songbird's on the loose. I should put out a tender for it and see who can do me the best deal as I will buy from one place as I would like to deck the whole joint out in one foul swoop and it will probably all come from one manufacturer anyway. Prior to that I have to organise carpets, extra tiling (Not included in the builders package), light fittings (pretty ones), extra cupboards around the place, rah, rah, rah.
Roll on end of daylight saving (I don't know why we a "saving" it anyway, it's not as if you get sun "interest" at the end of the term) all I know is that it is very dark when I get up in the morning and that is WRONG !
Easter weekend is going to be a bit of a fizzer as I do not want to leave the property unguarded for 4 days, we still have no boundary fencing and with a dog, a cat and several chickens to feed that just makes me want to stay home and ???? Anyway, The Girl and I will get up to something, maybe a bit of reorganising (that's always fun) or a day trip to the beach, or visit the festival in Port Lincoln (probably a bit boring for her). We'll see.
I am just really grasping for things to say at the moment so rather than ramble, I should use some of this precious time to organise the things I have spoken about.
So now I take on a new role of Project Manager - wish me luck !
Roll on end of daylight saving (I don't know why we a "saving" it anyway, it's not as if you get sun "interest" at the end of the term) all I know is that it is very dark when I get up in the morning and that is WRONG !
Easter weekend is going to be a bit of a fizzer as I do not want to leave the property unguarded for 4 days, we still have no boundary fencing and with a dog, a cat and several chickens to feed that just makes me want to stay home and ???? Anyway, The Girl and I will get up to something, maybe a bit of reorganising (that's always fun) or a day trip to the beach, or visit the festival in Port Lincoln (probably a bit boring for her). We'll see.
I am just really grasping for things to say at the moment so rather than ramble, I should use some of this precious time to organise the things I have spoken about.
So now I take on a new role of Project Manager - wish me luck !
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Onward and Upward !!!
Time for me to dribble on again !
Today we have virtually signed up for the new home and it has been a weird experience. Some people take months, even years to "design" their dream home and we have gone through all that in a matter of weeks. The Man and I agreed on a pre-designed plan (with our adjustments) in a couple of days, we went tile picking and spoke with the kitchen/cabinetmaker (needs more fine tuning there) and looked around in Truscott HiFi to sort out the oven, fridge (bought a new twin tub during that exercise) and picked out the bricks, roof and window frames. Whew !
Now all we have to do is wait and fine tune colours, cupboards, tiles, pick carpet and other tiles which are not included in the Hotondo "package". But wait, there's more... because we sign up with Hotondo (a franchise) we get a 42" plasma screen tv and a home theatre package when the slab is laid - How handy (IN A CARAVAN ??????) I shouldn't be ungrateful because it is a nice surprise but I can't see us unpacking it just yet. Will stick with the donated 1980's set from The Salvation Army for the time being - does the job just fine. Don't spend a heck of a lot of time watching it anyway.
It rained last night, the first time since we have been in the new van and boy, I can't wait (NOT) for a decent storm - gonna be noisy ! Might have to move the van into the shed if it gets too inconvenient.
Have found a morning day carer for the Girl and the family is beautiful. She now has 2 older brothers (13, 9) and a younger one (2), it's like we are part of their family - that's why I like them. So that's one hurdle down, plenty more to go. I have had a great start to the week though, getting more and more organised and knocking off a few jobs to do with the house/farm and also spending more time at work actually doing what I get paid for. Today I have got down to zilch in my IN TRAY and can get outside to do a few other things that are on the agenda like updating registers and a bit of auditing.
What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger !!!
Today we have virtually signed up for the new home and it has been a weird experience. Some people take months, even years to "design" their dream home and we have gone through all that in a matter of weeks. The Man and I agreed on a pre-designed plan (with our adjustments) in a couple of days, we went tile picking and spoke with the kitchen/cabinetmaker (needs more fine tuning there) and looked around in Truscott HiFi to sort out the oven, fridge (bought a new twin tub during that exercise) and picked out the bricks, roof and window frames. Whew !
Now all we have to do is wait and fine tune colours, cupboards, tiles, pick carpet and other tiles which are not included in the Hotondo "package". But wait, there's more... because we sign up with Hotondo (a franchise) we get a 42" plasma screen tv and a home theatre package when the slab is laid - How handy (IN A CARAVAN ??????) I shouldn't be ungrateful because it is a nice surprise but I can't see us unpacking it just yet. Will stick with the donated 1980's set from The Salvation Army for the time being - does the job just fine. Don't spend a heck of a lot of time watching it anyway.
It rained last night, the first time since we have been in the new van and boy, I can't wait (NOT) for a decent storm - gonna be noisy ! Might have to move the van into the shed if it gets too inconvenient.
Have found a morning day carer for the Girl and the family is beautiful. She now has 2 older brothers (13, 9) and a younger one (2), it's like we are part of their family - that's why I like them. So that's one hurdle down, plenty more to go. I have had a great start to the week though, getting more and more organised and knocking off a few jobs to do with the house/farm and also spending more time at work actually doing what I get paid for. Today I have got down to zilch in my IN TRAY and can get outside to do a few other things that are on the agenda like updating registers and a bit of auditing.
What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger !!!
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Unbelievable !
The generosity of everyone and know (and some that I have only met once) is overwhelming to say the least !
I don't know how to put into words how we appreciate all your kind words/thoughts and the support you have given us in this time of tragedy. I use that term loosely as the only tragedy we suffered was material (and some emotional) but I'll say it again, we have each other.
Every where I turn, there is an offer of assistance ! Even the Nursery that I rang today to order some lawn (to suppress the dust) told me to come around and pick up a "recovery pack" of trees and products from donations from his suppliers. He even put me onto a local man who could supply us with lawn quicker than he could and that man offered us a 10% discount because we were affected by the bushfire. It is amazing how people can get together and assist each other. It puts my faith back into mankind to know that in a bad situation, all forget their prejudices and social standing and chip in where they can. In my old home town RD, I know that there are people working for us behind the scenes and I personally have messages sent saying how strong and positive we are, believe me, I want to give up already at times but know that we have to keep going and it is going to be a long (probably not hard, but inconvenient) haul to rebuild.
We put up a little (3m X 3m) garden shed on the weekend to act as a laundry and will have a bit of storage space to tidy up a bit (storing stuff in those plastic rolly containers) with clothes and blankets etc as the van does not have a lot of storage space and being the messy people that we are, it doesn't take long to make the place look like a bomb has hit it ! I have to go to the Salvation Army storage shed at lunch today to pick up a cupboard to store all the little things like laundry powder etc, brooms and anything that can get out of the van so I can have more room for the everyday stuff that needs to be kept inside. The pad is clear, the bricks have been removed so we don't have to look at the remains and can start to envisage our new home. The plans have been sent off to Adelaide for a quicker process (apparently the fella here would take longer) and the gentleman we have been dealing with is pushing it quickly (he is so nice, and The Man knows him from ODO from years ago - BONUS !), the building company owner is also pushing for any donations from his suppliers and we have come up with some clay pavers from Hallet bricks and he is working on Lysaght for the iron for the roof ! See, there is sunshine all around. I feel rather weird being in this position and would rather be the one on the giving end, not the receiving and it is hard to say Yes sometimes. My Boss here said that you must have done some good in the past as it is all coming back to you now, dunno about that.
The Girl had her first day at the new school yesterday and it was a bit traumatic for her. I guess it was her day to let everything get to her with losing her cat (no offers of cats please, I think that another family member is so keen to have this job to herself) and having all her possessions lost in the fire, new school (doesn't really like the uniform), new teacher and new people. Well, when we dropped her off, she was visibly upset and didn't want us to leave, the teacher and I made eye contact and that was our cue to leave her. Different story when we picked her up, Yay I had a great day at school and made 3 new friends ! Whew, kids are so resilient, I wish I had some of that coping strategy sometimes.
I took the day off work yesterday to sort out some things for the new place and to do the school thing with the Girl and in my travels, walked past a gallery with lead light items in it. Voila, an identical piece of leadlight art was hanging in the window and I promptly went in and bought it, I also got a dolphin one for the Girl as a present seeing as she was upset that morning - went off a treat with her, she said "this is beautiful Mum, thanks" What a girl ! The selection process of the interior of the new house is going off reasonably well too, The Man and I are agreeing both ways (ie. he gives in a bit to me and I give in a bit to him as well) ! We are jumping the gun a little but I need to paint a picture in my mind about things as I tend to process them a little more methodically and as a stubborn Taurean (starsign for the uninitiated) I take a little longer than most to come to a decision. We have taken the tact of going into one supplier and sticking with them so as not to confuse the issue with too many choices (eg tiles, benchtops, cupboards, carpet, you name it) although there is enough choice to confuse the even seasoned interior decorator. Did I mention that the building company offered me a job as their interior decorator ? I might even pick up on my studies of this and swap ship once I am qualified - who knows - see, more sunshine glowing. I'm not busting to leave this job but maybe I can do something I love instead.
Stay tuned ...
I don't know how to put into words how we appreciate all your kind words/thoughts and the support you have given us in this time of tragedy. I use that term loosely as the only tragedy we suffered was material (and some emotional) but I'll say it again, we have each other.
Every where I turn, there is an offer of assistance ! Even the Nursery that I rang today to order some lawn (to suppress the dust) told me to come around and pick up a "recovery pack" of trees and products from donations from his suppliers. He even put me onto a local man who could supply us with lawn quicker than he could and that man offered us a 10% discount because we were affected by the bushfire. It is amazing how people can get together and assist each other. It puts my faith back into mankind to know that in a bad situation, all forget their prejudices and social standing and chip in where they can. In my old home town RD, I know that there are people working for us behind the scenes and I personally have messages sent saying how strong and positive we are, believe me, I want to give up already at times but know that we have to keep going and it is going to be a long (probably not hard, but inconvenient) haul to rebuild.
We put up a little (3m X 3m) garden shed on the weekend to act as a laundry and will have a bit of storage space to tidy up a bit (storing stuff in those plastic rolly containers) with clothes and blankets etc as the van does not have a lot of storage space and being the messy people that we are, it doesn't take long to make the place look like a bomb has hit it ! I have to go to the Salvation Army storage shed at lunch today to pick up a cupboard to store all the little things like laundry powder etc, brooms and anything that can get out of the van so I can have more room for the everyday stuff that needs to be kept inside. The pad is clear, the bricks have been removed so we don't have to look at the remains and can start to envisage our new home. The plans have been sent off to Adelaide for a quicker process (apparently the fella here would take longer) and the gentleman we have been dealing with is pushing it quickly (he is so nice, and The Man knows him from ODO from years ago - BONUS !), the building company owner is also pushing for any donations from his suppliers and we have come up with some clay pavers from Hallet bricks and he is working on Lysaght for the iron for the roof ! See, there is sunshine all around. I feel rather weird being in this position and would rather be the one on the giving end, not the receiving and it is hard to say Yes sometimes. My Boss here said that you must have done some good in the past as it is all coming back to you now, dunno about that.
The Girl had her first day at the new school yesterday and it was a bit traumatic for her. I guess it was her day to let everything get to her with losing her cat (no offers of cats please, I think that another family member is so keen to have this job to herself) and having all her possessions lost in the fire, new school (doesn't really like the uniform), new teacher and new people. Well, when we dropped her off, she was visibly upset and didn't want us to leave, the teacher and I made eye contact and that was our cue to leave her. Different story when we picked her up, Yay I had a great day at school and made 3 new friends ! Whew, kids are so resilient, I wish I had some of that coping strategy sometimes.
I took the day off work yesterday to sort out some things for the new place and to do the school thing with the Girl and in my travels, walked past a gallery with lead light items in it. Voila, an identical piece of leadlight art was hanging in the window and I promptly went in and bought it, I also got a dolphin one for the Girl as a present seeing as she was upset that morning - went off a treat with her, she said "this is beautiful Mum, thanks" What a girl ! The selection process of the interior of the new house is going off reasonably well too, The Man and I are agreeing both ways (ie. he gives in a bit to me and I give in a bit to him as well) ! We are jumping the gun a little but I need to paint a picture in my mind about things as I tend to process them a little more methodically and as a stubborn Taurean (starsign for the uninitiated) I take a little longer than most to come to a decision. We have taken the tact of going into one supplier and sticking with them so as not to confuse the issue with too many choices (eg tiles, benchtops, cupboards, carpet, you name it) although there is enough choice to confuse the even seasoned interior decorator. Did I mention that the building company offered me a job as their interior decorator ? I might even pick up on my studies of this and swap ship once I am qualified - who knows - see, more sunshine glowing. I'm not busting to leave this job but maybe I can do something I love instead.
Stay tuned ...
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Bushfire - Bugger !
Hi folks
Let me firstly say that we are all fine. The house is totalled but we still have all our machinery and sheds, might even set up temporary accommodation in the wool shed (always said I looked like a bit of a sheep with my hairdoo !).
The devastation around here is immense and it will be sometime before our beautiful area regenerates and is restored to its original beauty. It was heartbreaking to see the dead sheep on the side of the road and yesterday equally heartbreaking to watch them digging big holes to bury them all. I passed a property that was spreading hay for their animals and saw the horses, cows and sheep running full pelt for the food. That is a really big problem here as 95% of the food for the livestock is now toast. It looks like a great big brown sand dune around here. Another thing we have to be careful of is the still smouldering trees as they can fall over onto the road at any time. We had a couple of big trees go on the property yesterday.
We had the insurance assessor out on Wednesday and we sat him down on our outdoor table (that table is of a plastic nature and was about 4 feet away from our totalled camper trailer - d'oh, that would have been good to have right now - and the bloody table survived !) I said to him that I would love to offer him a cup of tea but I couldn't quite track down the kettle at the moment - see, I still have a warped sense of humour !
Please don't be sad for us, we have each other. The girl is having fun shopping with her Nanna getting new clothes and toys. Yesterday I went to buy a laptop from Truscott Hi Fi and the gentleman that I always see there when I buy things (my NEW stereo is trashed - bugger!) gave her a Hot Wheels laptop and a game for the PC. People are so kind here. I had a bad moment in K-Mart yesterday, standing in the aisle trying to not look at everything and all I wanted to do was close my eyes as everything I looked at reminded me of things that I did have. But that is the key to it all, they are just things and can be replaced.
At the moment, the company is putting us up at a Motel in Port Lincoln and we are treating it as a little holiday, poor Sarge though (our doggie), he is sleeping in the smokey smelling ute in the carpark.
Thankyou all for your kind wishes and I know you all want to help in some way, can you do this for us - keep on thinking of us and help us be strong.
Onward and upward, and on the positive side of all this, we will have a new home, collect new things, and above all, that stuff that we hoarded and didn't know whether we should keep or not... well, the decision has been made. All of our families have photos of us and the girl and my Mum has a video of her as a baby that I copied off for her - good idea !
Take care all of you !
Let me firstly say that we are all fine. The house is totalled but we still have all our machinery and sheds, might even set up temporary accommodation in the wool shed (always said I looked like a bit of a sheep with my hairdoo !).
The devastation around here is immense and it will be sometime before our beautiful area regenerates and is restored to its original beauty. It was heartbreaking to see the dead sheep on the side of the road and yesterday equally heartbreaking to watch them digging big holes to bury them all. I passed a property that was spreading hay for their animals and saw the horses, cows and sheep running full pelt for the food. That is a really big problem here as 95% of the food for the livestock is now toast. It looks like a great big brown sand dune around here. Another thing we have to be careful of is the still smouldering trees as they can fall over onto the road at any time. We had a couple of big trees go on the property yesterday.
We had the insurance assessor out on Wednesday and we sat him down on our outdoor table (that table is of a plastic nature and was about 4 feet away from our totalled camper trailer - d'oh, that would have been good to have right now - and the bloody table survived !) I said to him that I would love to offer him a cup of tea but I couldn't quite track down the kettle at the moment - see, I still have a warped sense of humour !
Please don't be sad for us, we have each other. The girl is having fun shopping with her Nanna getting new clothes and toys. Yesterday I went to buy a laptop from Truscott Hi Fi and the gentleman that I always see there when I buy things (my NEW stereo is trashed - bugger!) gave her a Hot Wheels laptop and a game for the PC. People are so kind here. I had a bad moment in K-Mart yesterday, standing in the aisle trying to not look at everything and all I wanted to do was close my eyes as everything I looked at reminded me of things that I did have. But that is the key to it all, they are just things and can be replaced.
At the moment, the company is putting us up at a Motel in Port Lincoln and we are treating it as a little holiday, poor Sarge though (our doggie), he is sleeping in the smokey smelling ute in the carpark.
Thankyou all for your kind wishes and I know you all want to help in some way, can you do this for us - keep on thinking of us and help us be strong.
Onward and upward, and on the positive side of all this, we will have a new home, collect new things, and above all, that stuff that we hoarded and didn't know whether we should keep or not... well, the decision has been made. All of our families have photos of us and the girl and my Mum has a video of her as a baby that I copied off for her - good idea !
Take care all of you !
Monday, January 10, 2005
Paradise "Un"Lost
What an amazing couple of weeks !
Where do I start, and you know me well enough that I will go all over the place with this.
We had our first visitor since we have permanently moved and he stayed for a few days and it was nice to catch up with him. Played a bit of music (he was a member of the band that I used to play in) and drank and had fun. The Man, the Girl and myself then took a day trip to a place called Baird Bay (near Port Kenny, Sceales Bay and next on is Streaky Bay), to look at 2 acres of beach front property. Beach front ! NOT. Well, technically it is closer to the beach than Roxby but it wasn't worth even considering as it was extremely isolated, and the beach was not worth the effort of the 300+ metres (as described in the paper). I mean, if the beach was glorious, it would have been a definite go-er. Anyway, we went into the township of Baird Bay (the other property was about 5 kms out of the township) and looked around there for more prospective purchases. To cut a long story short, the property we enquired about was $350K and it is around a 4 hour drive away from the farm. Not so bad but I think we'll look a little closer and somewhere that is a little more populated. When you go out to your shack, I reckon about an hours drive would be better. (that is the average price of beachfront property around here so I think I'm gonna have to work a lot longer if we want to do this, or maybe buy a caravan or.... whatever, something will come up!)
So onto the next day...
We went to The Man's, Sister's in-laws shack about 40kms out from our farm. Took the boat as the kids wanted to have a go on the "Monster Tube" and the Brother in Laws boat motor was not built for the task of dragging screaming people around on an oversized, tube at excessive speeds. I even had a go. Yes, I braved the wrath of The Man at the helm of the boat promising that he wouldn't go too fast - HUH ! I thought having his sister in there with me would be a small guarantee that he would be gentle - HOW WRONG WAS I. We survived, and I waded back into shore to drink more beers. That night, we had freshly caught whiting for tea and drank some more. We didn't intend staying the night but I'm glad we did.
The next morning The Man and the Brother in Law (BIL) went fishing (it was a stinking hot day and I declined for the better of sitting on the deck of the shack, watching the 2 boys and the girl, canoe around in the bay, then return to get supplies of a fishing rod, cockles (freshly caught), some snacks, water and a reload on the old sunscreen). That was cute - they were out there for hours and had an absolute ball ! The older boy sat with the Sister in Law and me trying to con us into taking him to the next popular town to go cruising for chicks. We were quite happy to just sit and read so he missed out this time.
The Man and BIL returned with 8 whiting (not many but they are at the shack for another 3 weeks so I am sure that there will be more fish tomorrow!) then we all went out in the BIL's boat around to another bay and this is where things get magnificent !
Whilst travelling to this other bay (name will be omitted as I'm gonna keep this secret spot to myself), we were blessed with the presence of no less than 6 dolphins - imagine the girl's excitement when she saw some real life dolphins ! Woo Hoo, I can tell you, I was pretty excited too ! It was so cool to have seen them playing at the bow of the boat, weaving and bouncing out of the water. They seemed to be reasonably small so they may have had a couple of young'uns with them. We stopped at the bay and the girl went of with her favourite aunt, collecting shells and discussing life in general. The Man and BIL were busy collecting (and eating) fresh cockels for the future fishing planned. I went for a swim in the crystal clear water and whilst floating, realised that I am only 40kms away from this place and if I really wanted to, I could drive by there after work tonight - this truly is a magical place !
I'm in awe of how beautiful this region is. I'm gonna leave it at that today and hope that when any of you come to visit, we'll share this beautiful place with you.
Where do I start, and you know me well enough that I will go all over the place with this.
We had our first visitor since we have permanently moved and he stayed for a few days and it was nice to catch up with him. Played a bit of music (he was a member of the band that I used to play in) and drank and had fun. The Man, the Girl and myself then took a day trip to a place called Baird Bay (near Port Kenny, Sceales Bay and next on is Streaky Bay), to look at 2 acres of beach front property. Beach front ! NOT. Well, technically it is closer to the beach than Roxby but it wasn't worth even considering as it was extremely isolated, and the beach was not worth the effort of the 300+ metres (as described in the paper). I mean, if the beach was glorious, it would have been a definite go-er. Anyway, we went into the township of Baird Bay (the other property was about 5 kms out of the township) and looked around there for more prospective purchases. To cut a long story short, the property we enquired about was $350K and it is around a 4 hour drive away from the farm. Not so bad but I think we'll look a little closer and somewhere that is a little more populated. When you go out to your shack, I reckon about an hours drive would be better. (that is the average price of beachfront property around here so I think I'm gonna have to work a lot longer if we want to do this, or maybe buy a caravan or.... whatever, something will come up!)
So onto the next day...
We went to The Man's, Sister's in-laws shack about 40kms out from our farm. Took the boat as the kids wanted to have a go on the "Monster Tube" and the Brother in Laws boat motor was not built for the task of dragging screaming people around on an oversized, tube at excessive speeds. I even had a go. Yes, I braved the wrath of The Man at the helm of the boat promising that he wouldn't go too fast - HUH ! I thought having his sister in there with me would be a small guarantee that he would be gentle - HOW WRONG WAS I. We survived, and I waded back into shore to drink more beers. That night, we had freshly caught whiting for tea and drank some more. We didn't intend staying the night but I'm glad we did.
The next morning The Man and the Brother in Law (BIL) went fishing (it was a stinking hot day and I declined for the better of sitting on the deck of the shack, watching the 2 boys and the girl, canoe around in the bay, then return to get supplies of a fishing rod, cockles (freshly caught), some snacks, water and a reload on the old sunscreen). That was cute - they were out there for hours and had an absolute ball ! The older boy sat with the Sister in Law and me trying to con us into taking him to the next popular town to go cruising for chicks. We were quite happy to just sit and read so he missed out this time.
The Man and BIL returned with 8 whiting (not many but they are at the shack for another 3 weeks so I am sure that there will be more fish tomorrow!) then we all went out in the BIL's boat around to another bay and this is where things get magnificent !
Whilst travelling to this other bay (name will be omitted as I'm gonna keep this secret spot to myself), we were blessed with the presence of no less than 6 dolphins - imagine the girl's excitement when she saw some real life dolphins ! Woo Hoo, I can tell you, I was pretty excited too ! It was so cool to have seen them playing at the bow of the boat, weaving and bouncing out of the water. They seemed to be reasonably small so they may have had a couple of young'uns with them. We stopped at the bay and the girl went of with her favourite aunt, collecting shells and discussing life in general. The Man and BIL were busy collecting (and eating) fresh cockels for the future fishing planned. I went for a swim in the crystal clear water and whilst floating, realised that I am only 40kms away from this place and if I really wanted to, I could drive by there after work tonight - this truly is a magical place !
I'm in awe of how beautiful this region is. I'm gonna leave it at that today and hope that when any of you come to visit, we'll share this beautiful place with you.
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Oscar the Cockaleechie Kitten !
OWWWWCH !
We have a new addition to the family in the shape of an 8 week old kitten. Traumatic as it was, I don't mind the little bugger (even though he tried to rearrange the veins in my right arm whilst I was trying to save him from the dogs that were at the place where we got him from !). The reason for the 27 or so scratches on my arm is also the result of attempting to put him in a box for the trip home. (The man said it reminded him of those games where an object comes out of the game and you have to whack it - I believe it was called whacker - how original, anyway I do recall scoring a few free tickets in my youth on that contraption). I had to nurse him wrapped in a towel (that had cat excrement on it !), for about 30 kms until we made it home. So Oscar is now slowly getting used to his new abode (the dog has been banished to the outer) and the girl was perturbed by the fact that this cute little kitten could do so much skin damage to her beloved parents in the quest for her desire ! I guess the fact that it wasn't ripped from it's mother early and placed in a pet shop and conditioned from an early age was a huge factor in it's timid behaviour.
The man has been playing on the tractor today, doing a spot of ground rearranging. The back of the house will have a pergola and paved area and whilst he was in the mood, the tractor was employed - but wait ! What do front end loaders and ground have in common you ask ? Underground electrical cables of course, and yes he found it ! That had ceased the supply of the house water pump (until the extension cords came out), but wait, there's more. Today, infact a moment ago, the house water poly pipe (which he was extremely careful to keep avoiding), jumped out of the dirt and managed to cut itself on the loader bucket - IMAGINE THAT ??? So, another patch job until that gets fixed properly. And where, I hear you ask, was I whilst this was going on ? As far away as possible from The Man as I tend to get annoyed with him talking to the machinery and blaming it for all his short comings !
Now, my turn. What's a person if they can't take the piss out of themselves. Let me start with "I am okay, nothing happened to me !"
Ahem... i crashed my car
Yes, I was driving down our picturesque roads, turned the corner, looked into the back of the car for a second and voila, I was in the scrub "dancing with trees". Luckily, I was only travelling very slowly and I think my Guardian Angel was very alert at the time ! The worst part about it was that I had to report it to the police as it was more than a thousand dollars damage. "Are you injured M'am, Only my pride !"
Anyways, the car is in the crash shop and it should be all fixed next week.
Christmas was good, we travelled to the big smoke and spent a few days there and then back up to Roxby to clean the house (SOLD) and back to the farm the next day. New Year was a bit of a fizzer as that was the day (New Year's Eve) that I crashed the car.
Oh well, it is 8pm and we haven't even thought about tea yet, (the cat has been fed, of course !) and I don't hear the trickling of water outside so I am assuming that the water pipe has been repaired so it will be safe to go outside and complete the inspection of The Man's excavations.
We have a new addition to the family in the shape of an 8 week old kitten. Traumatic as it was, I don't mind the little bugger (even though he tried to rearrange the veins in my right arm whilst I was trying to save him from the dogs that were at the place where we got him from !). The reason for the 27 or so scratches on my arm is also the result of attempting to put him in a box for the trip home. (The man said it reminded him of those games where an object comes out of the game and you have to whack it - I believe it was called whacker - how original, anyway I do recall scoring a few free tickets in my youth on that contraption). I had to nurse him wrapped in a towel (that had cat excrement on it !), for about 30 kms until we made it home. So Oscar is now slowly getting used to his new abode (the dog has been banished to the outer) and the girl was perturbed by the fact that this cute little kitten could do so much skin damage to her beloved parents in the quest for her desire ! I guess the fact that it wasn't ripped from it's mother early and placed in a pet shop and conditioned from an early age was a huge factor in it's timid behaviour.
The man has been playing on the tractor today, doing a spot of ground rearranging. The back of the house will have a pergola and paved area and whilst he was in the mood, the tractor was employed - but wait ! What do front end loaders and ground have in common you ask ? Underground electrical cables of course, and yes he found it ! That had ceased the supply of the house water pump (until the extension cords came out), but wait, there's more. Today, infact a moment ago, the house water poly pipe (which he was extremely careful to keep avoiding), jumped out of the dirt and managed to cut itself on the loader bucket - IMAGINE THAT ??? So, another patch job until that gets fixed properly. And where, I hear you ask, was I whilst this was going on ? As far away as possible from The Man as I tend to get annoyed with him talking to the machinery and blaming it for all his short comings !
Now, my turn. What's a person if they can't take the piss out of themselves. Let me start with "I am okay, nothing happened to me !"
Ahem... i crashed my car
Yes, I was driving down our picturesque roads, turned the corner, looked into the back of the car for a second and voila, I was in the scrub "dancing with trees". Luckily, I was only travelling very slowly and I think my Guardian Angel was very alert at the time ! The worst part about it was that I had to report it to the police as it was more than a thousand dollars damage. "Are you injured M'am, Only my pride !"
Anyways, the car is in the crash shop and it should be all fixed next week.
Christmas was good, we travelled to the big smoke and spent a few days there and then back up to Roxby to clean the house (SOLD) and back to the farm the next day. New Year was a bit of a fizzer as that was the day (New Year's Eve) that I crashed the car.
Oh well, it is 8pm and we haven't even thought about tea yet, (the cat has been fed, of course !) and I don't hear the trickling of water outside so I am assuming that the water pipe has been repaired so it will be safe to go outside and complete the inspection of The Man's excavations.
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