GI Joe!

Strange bossman

Hbbm is funny at times... I think he is becoming more soft as he gets older.  Apparently he used to be very scary and would shout at people a lot (including in front of people in a meeting in the boardroom)...

Yesterday was an example of his oddness:

He called me into his office saying "... I've got a problem... there's some brown on the screen... dunno... how to get rid of it or something?"

It was the stationery/background of the email he was replying to.

"ahh, so nothing sinister... I was just worried".  At least he found the reply button this time!

He also has a biscuit on his table next to his keyboard... it's from Friday teatime.  Yum. %-)

A bit later on, he called me into his office to ask me to help - he's got himself into a bit of a loop.  He'd evidently replied to a sent item instead of a received item and merrily emailed himself!

And then, the best bit:

He appeared at his office door (perpendicular to my desk), and showed me his trousers stitching had come apart below the one pocket, saying that he'd have to sticky-tape it from the inside.  He goes into his office, and I hear him moving stuff, probably looking for the stickytape.  He comes back and says "don't come in here now, else you might see something embarrassing..!"... he goes back in, comes out again and laughingly says "just letting you know that there's no lady coming in through the other door, ok??".."ok give me about 3 or 4 mins" and goes back in, closes the door and I soon after hear that RRRRRRRRKKKKKKK sound of a longggg piece of stickytape being pulled and torn.  Eventually he comes out and shows me his handiwork (he seemed rather chuffed with himself)!

Today has been quiet.  I think I overheard hbbm and the other department's not nice boss chatting, and I think hbbm said that he's thinking of retiring because the money just isn't worth it anymore.  He's nearly 70, so that's completely understandable!  I'm really holding thumbs that he retires next year or after, so that I can safely work here until it's time for us to make our moves!

Our wedding + honeymoon plans are coming along nicely!!!  Can't wait!

Contemplation

I think I'm a sensitive, reactive creature. Emotionally sensitive and things affect me which really shouldn't have any impact on me at all.

I will blog about 'usual' stuff now and see if it inspires me to blog more 'thoughtful' stuff hehe... I have so many thoughts in my head right now, and they just don't want to come out!

Things have been busy. The invites are almost 100% sorted - gotta get addresses for a couple of people and then send them off in the post. A few we will hand-deliver. They really do look lovely :)

I have been BORED out of my MIND at work lately. For the most part, all I have been doing at work is filing. I am so bored and frustrated because (as always, where filing is concerned), it is never-ending! Just when I see the end in sight which would be when that dude's filing cabinet is empty, HBBM has urgent (shit) emails to type to people in Mauritius "BLAAAAAAA BLA BLA it's urgent they leave work 2 hours before we do blablabla hold-my-hand-I-can't-TYPE! wahhhh... " and then other work which prevents me from maintaining the upper hand on that filing and then it goes awful again. WHY THE HELL AM I STRESSED OUT ABOUT FILING - jees, is that my sole purpose in life??

All day, at work, I think/mull about the things I COULD be doing at home, useful, NOT-pointless stuff (unlike what I get to do at work)... and every evening, after spending the entire day doing 'nothing', I can't even do those things I had been wanting to do because there's always SOMETHING. Always washing up, or washing, or SOMETHING. Every evening. Same thing on weekends. It's Sunday afternoon now, and almost the entire day yesterday was spent doing chores. So - when is there time to have fun hey? Yes I've griped about this before, but it never changes.

I went through my clothes yesterday, doing a cull, if you would call it that. A long overdue sorting through of clothes. Removing clothes that no longer fit or things I just haven't ever worn in the past CENTURY. It was quite strange. I now have a rather incomplete wardrobe because nothing much is left. It was so strange to dig out the old stuff. Old tank tops, button-t-shirts, quite an assortment of tops basically. They were such a reminder of certain timeperiods, and I felt such a sense of loss. A time which I can't get back, a time which wasn't fully experienced, or not quite fully "lived". Such vivid reminders of particular days, things I would wear with the outfit, feelings and expectations and moods of that time. I guess life is a series of periods, each with their own expectations - and they are rarely fulfilled. Or is it just me? I wouldn't actually know, but it always feels that way.

I suppose it's that problem of reaching +-25 and wondering "so what have I achieved?"... or how much have I grown and changed in the past 10 years. I don't really know. If I think back to those times, in a way, nothing's changed. In another way, so much has changed. I guess I'm still the same person, just living in different circumstances.

I'm not sure what I'm feeling, disappointment perhaps. I guess a person is excited about what is coming, future things, plans, but when they happen, they aren't as huge as they were supposed to be. Being 'grown-up', not that big a deal now is it. Now I get to worry about my hands, how dry they are and wrinkly and stress about how old they are already looking when they really shouldn't! Or how none of my clothes really fit anymore, how they fit me 100% for such a brief time for about 6 months about 2 years ago. It feels so unfair. So when am I going to have that 'carefree' time, where I'm at my best, most beautiful, most impactful, most lovely? Most up-and-coming, perfect? Has it passed already? Why?

I'm so tired. Feel like sitting up on my cliff-top, alone. I'm so sick of ... everything really. Getting home, and there are things to do. Getting home, and hearing the neighbours and their F***ing KID! Like, ENOUGH! ENOUGH damn it. I'm TIRED of hearing them slam their front door EVERY SINGLE TIME they leave or come home. SICK of seeing their car pull up after they've been out, hearing that DAMN CHILD singing BARNEY theme or HAPPY BIRTHDAY...!!!!! Sick of having to constantly be aware of things, like "the washing basket is full/the washing up needs to be done/the bin is full and needs to be taken out/the house needs a clean/things are needed from the shop/the windows need to be closed cos it's dark or raining/my hair needs a wash/my nails need to be cut/WHATEVER!!! I'm so tired of everything now. I'm SICK of doing PERSONAL work for hbbm. Typing up letters regarding the PAVEMENT plants outside his HOLIDAY HOME!!!!! Damn it, damn it all.

I feel fed up... people. I'm fed up with everyone it seems. Mom told me about aunt+uncle, how they fight, argue and taunt each other enough to get themselves into a rage, enough for the one to hit the other because the other challenged them to do it. Their kid stands by and witnesses it. Sick of it... mom not being home, running herself into the ground being OUT of the house when the house needs sorting out and getting into order - she told me how excited she feels when going out on mobile-home holidays and how sad and upset she feels coming home... And people...! I'm tired of it all. I'm tired of how it upsets me. I can't not be affected by it but it's driving me mad. A friend of mine in the US says I should 'change what you can, but things you can't change, forget about'. Easy, it should be. I'm tired.

There's too much to do. I have so much I WANT to do, for fun, recreation, but there's always something else that *should* be done instead. I want to stitch or play games, but I SHOULD go through old magazines and toss them out. I should scan photos in, I should finish the other x-stitches (gifts), I should EVERYTHING. Too much. I'm tired.

News from another planet

Friday was funky! I phoned the PC shop and they'd got their delivery of RAM and so we were able to go buy 1gb each of 667MHz laptop ram! YAY!! When we got home after going out to buy the ram, we plugged in the ram chips and voila! They worked first time! :D I'm now sitting happily with my spiffed up perky laptop. Love this thing! :D

Friday rocked too because I phoned the traffic dept, held on a while and got put through to a cheerful sounding guy at 'collections'. Bang on time, my license was ready, 8 weeks after my test just as they said it would be. Yesterday morning G and I went to fetch it and it's a 100% correct, *my* driving license (my photo, name etc). Just a pity that I'm going to have to apply for a new one in about 4 months' time!!!

Yesterday we also popped in at the aquarium shop. I bought a heater (but found out that the one I thought was broken is in fact still fine), some yum (HURLICIOUS) mealworms for the fish (HURL HURL they're so revolting!!! not freezedried, just kinda... dead in the tin).

Cleaned the tank a little while ago. Still love my fishtank! Gorgeous little fish! It's going to be sad leaving them behind when we move. I will be able to look forward to buying a whole new setup though, and once we get fully settled down I'd like to try my hand at a marine aquarium.

We're busy with the invites now... there's still quite a bit of stuff to organise. I think we're on track though. Later this month the bridesmaids and I are heading off to meet with the dressmaker for measurements and stuff. Eeek!!

I really wish weekends were 3 days long. I don't see what's wrong with an 8 day week. I don't mind working 5 days, but the weekend being 2 days is too short. I'd love a 2nd Sunday so that I can just relax and NOT do anything I HAVE to do, because all that would have been done the day before. *sigh*

I stitched a bit a couple of nights ago. Here's GI Joe as he is now:



I don't really have much else to blog about. My head was full of thoughts and inspiration the past few days and now that I sit down to blog, it's all gone.

I just looked at the fishtank from where I'm sitting and I can see the male congo tetras showing off how manly they are, puffing and prancing and challenging each other. They're such narcissists! :P I think the reason everyone in the tank is showing off is to redefine *their* space. I moved all the floating plants around so I probably changed the "territory boundaries". The hatchetfish are probably going to 'fight' with each other until the plants grow/move back to where they were.

Cosmic imbalance

Strangely enough, this year seems to be one of imbalance or dischord.

It's unfortunate because our wedding is this year and a lot has been achieved already this year so far.  I got my drivers' license, got moles out, etc... long-term things.  The wedding plans are going well, the honeymoon plans are going well too.  But then other things are going wrong.  Very wrong.

Some occurrences this year:

My budgie (living with mom & sis) died earlier this year.

Sis bumped mom's car with her car - broke the headlight on mom's car - expensive to fix and it's still not 100% sorted. 

Sis & mom's arguing/situation.

Sis's work shit:  govt dept did a job-satisfaction survey and no one is happy. Solution?  Tighten the contract wording so that no one can change jobs. Sis's library has 4 members of staff (including the cleaning/book-repair/non-counter working lady).  1 of the 3 counter-working ladies is resigning.  HOW THE HELL CAN YOU RUN A LIBRARY WITH 2 MEMBERS OF STAFF??  Sis is stressed to the max which affects everything.

G's sis's dog was kidnapped by her ex... from her new home (rented).  Luckily she had bought a puppy just a short while before.  She moved back in with their parents and then G's parents' dog passed away (on G's bday).

G's sis was in a car accident (no injuries), car was a write off but insurance paid out.

G's folks have to move again.

My sis was in a car accident (no injuries).  Car 1 slammed on brakes, car 2 slammed on brakes, sis slammed on brakes but didn't stop in time and hit car 2 which hit into car 1.  Bad enough?  Sis's insurance writes the car off (it's an old citi golf)... and will not pay out because one of her tyres had a bald spot which "would have been the cause of the accident".  Her insurance will not pay for car 2's repairs either.  What now?

I dunno. Just felt like blogging that.  Nothing much is going on these days (bloggable)... Work is the same, driving me crazy with lack of stimulation and excess of boredom.  Wedding preparations are taking place.  Honeymoon plans.  Sorting through old junk.  But I'm not feeling particularly restful or "happy".

Dude

Such a beautiful Little Dude! ♥

131/361

My countdown as of today stands at 131 and 361.  131 days left til the wedding, and 361 working days left for me here.

The weekend was fun - went to the house that M&J were housesitting.  The dog + cat there are weird.  The dog doesn't play with a ball or toy like that, she plays with PEBBLES.  Large driveway/plant bed pebbles.  And she plays with the cat - biting him around his entire head.  Very strange.  It's a very nice house though and we had yum pancakes.

Saturday G and I caught up with the chores, and then G read and I sorted through my box of papers.  Getting there, slowly but surely!

On Sunday I drove to mom's house and G and I hung out a bit with sis and got stuff down from in the ceiling.  A whole box of teddies, my box of cars, my luggage set and some other odds and ends.  It's going to be fun sorting through them,  I will clean all my cars, probably wash all the teddies but it might have to wait til summer for me to do that because they will need a long time in the sun to dry!

I then drove from mom's place to G's folks' place.  Was very enjoyable.  I felt a bit "eek" at first but it went very well.  On the mountain pass I took (on both trips) I drove at about 50kmph because of all the tight bends and my not being so used to the car... but then when we went on straight bits I went faster and left the cars behind me way behind! 

I had my first road-block too!  There was a road-block near G's folks' place, in front of the police station - there are a few bays along the road there and I was directed into the front one and I was trying not to hit the traffic officer or mount the kerb and I must have tipped the brakes a little hard coming to a stop.  I grinned like a doofus at G and wound the window down and the traffic officer said "hi there license plskthx" so I handed my big goofy temporary licence paper out the window.  She looked at it and said "you just passed your license recently...:)" probably wondering wtf I was doing driving an Audi... buahahah!!  She walked around the car, probably checking the numberplates, came back to the window and handed my licence back... said "have a good evening - and next time a bit less hard on the brakes".  Hehehehehe!!

We spent quite a while at G's folks' place, and when we left it was dark and VERY misty!  So we had a nice slow drive home.  G got stopped at the same roadblock but the guy just said "do you have your licence sir?" and as G began to take his wallet out of his pocket the guy said "no no, don't worry, you do have it?" "yes" said G.  "Are you sober?" "yes, definitely" "Ok have a good evening" and that was it!  Strange...

I really want to finish with those papers now, and get back into stitching.  Golden Ice is very neglected now!

Oohhh, in other news, when we got home from work on Friday, I popped out of the car to check the letterbox.  There was a puffy envelope in it, addressed to me.  A friend in the UK had posted me a cross-stitch chart and some fabric she had left over from when she did the design.  I'm going to stitch one for my mom and one for G's mom :)  Get them framed and present them to them before the wedding.  It's going to be SO FUN!!

Ok I have a PILE of filing to do so I'd better get to it - yay only 361 days left!

Uhhhhh

Once again I have a post titled "uhh".

Hbbm isn't at work til 2pm today, and I'm doing filing which I haven't been able to do until now.  It's quite a lot.  I must admit I've been "taking it easy" and listening to my ipod while filing.  Hbbm didn't leave any work for me which makes it easier.

One small problem though - I don't FEEL LIKE FILING!  I guess I never do :P  Right now I feel like doing other stuff like wedding planning... little things like that.  Hardihar... little... maybe to the company it'd be little but it's our WEDDING for heaven's sake, it's NOT a small thing.  Large enough for one of the bosses to take the day off in preparation for his daughter's wedding tomorrow... will I be able to take time off like that? HAHAHA... ummmmmmmmm well probably not?  Because I'm using my leave for honeymoon... I'd have to put in for unpaid leave for the Friday before the wedding.. yay.  Unpaid leave, my favourite!

Ok anyway, I hope this blogpost works better than the previous one.  It seems that when I put in a blank line in the email it converts it to two in the blogpost.  Will check it out later.

The night before last we clipped Dude's nails again... we haven't played with him much lately which isn't a good thing.  Poor neglected Dude.  He had a lot of fun that night though!  Well, nail clipping was fine this time again, except for his two inner back toes.  They were very long and his foot wasn't positioning properly on the perches.  Now he should be fine.  With those toes G had to hold him in a little blanket (he doesn't like the nailclippers around his butt evidently, but then, who would?)... for the other nails he sat on my finger and allowed them to be clipped.  Brave Dude :D

In other news - my sis had a fender bender yesterday.  She's alright, the car bumper, bonnet, lights and stuff are a bit damaged, the driver's side door doesn't open, but the car she bumped into was worse off - it was between two cars and being bumped from behind by my sis bumped it against the car in front of it.  Not good!  I guess things like that just happen so there's no point stressing about it.  Not that I can talk, not having ever been in an accident. 

I did have a dream, however, about driving off an EXTREMELY high bridge over a rocky river.  It was very freaky - G and I were in the car, driving around a wide sweeping bend and I suddenly realised that *I* was the one driving (I didn't KNOW?!) and that I should be buckled in.  I pulled the seatbelt across and took my other hand off the steering to buckle up and next thing the car hit the barrier and launched into the air.  I think G's words in the dream were "oh fuck"...  I was busy trying to decide whether it'd be better to crash down with the seatbelt on, or if it'd be impossible to unbelt myself and swim out if the car became filled with water... all that time we were soaring through the air.  I woke up before we actually crashed though.  MAN that was a freaky disturbing dream.

What's with that?

Ok this is going to be one of those rant posts :P  I don't recall ranting for a good while now so it's about damn time!

 

Sometimes, you just wish you could bash someone over the head.  Yesterday I had a moment like that.  Scenario =  Lunch time at the office:

 

I come into the kitchen, armed with my lunchbox (2 slices of toast) and tin of hot choc + mug.  I put my lunchbox down by the griller and I  say "I'm next!! :D" to a friend-colleague who is busy toasting her sandwich - she replies "there's no queue! :)" - so I go about washing my cup and making hot chocolate... I grab a knife out of the drawer and put it on my lunchbox, put my mug next to the kettle because it's still busy boiling, and get a plate out of the cupboard and put it next to my lunchbox.  Turn back to the griller area and this BLOB of a colleague from the other dept has jumped the queue.  She's plonked her lunchbox etc next to/around my lunchbox, and already put her sandwich on the griller next to my friend-colleague's sandwich!

 

I was SO annoyed that I just made my hot chocolate and brought it to my desk.  Went back, and it's still the same... like hello?  What is with that... jump the queue?  Surely ANY normal person would SEE lunchbox, cottage cheese, knife, next to the griller and ask "anyone in the queue?" just to make sure...?  But no, f*** whoever is actually waiting to use the griller.

 

I come back after going to the loo, and now my friend-colleague's taken her sandwich off the griller and someone ELSE had stuck their damn sandwich on the griller next to Madame Blob's sandwich.  By now I'm so annoyed I pick up my plate+bread, cottage cheese and knife and go and wait at my desk - I'd rather seethe at my desk than become enraged in the kitchen... but HONESTLY!!

 

After about 10+ minutes I go back to the kitchen and the griller's free.  The lady after Madame Blob is sitting on the chair next to the griller (which interferes with using the griller but that's another story altogether! see below) but thank god she's less than half the size of Madame Blob who usually plonks her ass there and will not move or move her stuff so you have to lean all over her food/awkwardly take the griller-grid off the griller almost tipping your bread out the other side so as not to knock her stuff.  ARGH!!!!!

 

Where the hell is your brain + consideration for other people?  Ok background - Madame Blob has pissed me off in the past by sitting essentially hogging the griller.  Her offering to plug the griller in and turn my toast for me is NOT going to help... to elaborate a little: the griller is like most grillers out there - it does not toast evenly.  To get evenly toasted bread you have to rearrange your bread slices.  So by offering to do it FOR me you just piss me off more!

 

Another rant, also a longterm one:

 

What on earth is the point of finishing the loo roll which is on the holder (not an industrial-style one like you get in shopping malls which are locked), and taking one from the backup-holder and balancing it on top of the empty cardboard still on the holder?  It is *hardly* a strenuous exercise: 1) remove cardboard roll from holder, 2) put new roll on holder, 3) take cardboard roll and put it in the bin when you leave the loo... VOILA!!

 

WHAT IS SO HARD ABOUT CHANGING A LOO ROLL?  No, seriously.  I want an answer.

Clearing out stuff

This weekend has been great. Today is a public holiday. We went to G's folks' place yesterday for Pop-day lunch. I HAVE to get that recipe - chicken + veg on rice... yumMY!!

I've been doing some clearing out this weekend. I finally dragged out the packets of papers+odds and ends and boxes of junk and sorted through them. I now have a box of magazine pages I tore and kept over the years - have to go through them. I have a box of stationery/writing paper/stuff like that, and I have another box of odds and ends like slinkie, HP chocolate frog cards, keyrings and stuff. It is so liberating tossing out such a lot of stuff - for example I'd kept a softcover A4 book which was my matric geography project. Yay... wtf?

Anyway, I now have a clear idea in my mind what all I still HAVE. It is no longer this insurmountable PILE of junk. It's great because now that I have gone through it all, I have a better idea of what all I will have to take with us to Aus.

Next on the cards (after sorting through the box of magazine articles), is fetching stuff from mom's place. There are bags and boxes of toys and stuff that are stored in the ceiling cavity (and possibly, although I doubt it, in cupboards). THAT's going to be a challenge. Toys that have been kept ever since I can remember... games, books, puzzles, teddies, etc. I also have to fetch my dinky-cars (a BOX of them). I have a plan for them once we've moved to Aus. Basically a wall-display, like a printer's tray, with a space for each car, with transparent perspex doors to keep all the dust out. The cars are by no means in good condition, they were played with and left outside and some were even lost in the sandbox for a while, but I'm sure that a whole wall's worth of cars will make a nice, memorable display!

Anyway, there's still a lot of stuff to go through, but I intend on bringing all of my stuff to our place, even if they are in boxes and bags, because then at least I will be able to sort through them in my own time. I can't believe how liberating this all is! Preparing for the wedding is one thing, preparing for the honeymoon is another, and clearing out junk? Now that's a long-term thing but it's great... if I do it all gradually, there will be less stress when we have to move. Also it refreshes in my mind what all I have, and it makes having our own home in Aus more of a goal and not just a dream because I can envision where our stuff will go. I hope that our place will have 'display walls', which I can use to hang up Warpony, Heremia and Golden Ice. At the moment, we only have 1 display wall, so the latest completed cross-stitch goes there. Heremia is there now, Warpony has been demoted to another part of the lounge where he is all but neglected!!

What I want to do this evening is go through some pc games we have. I have Captain Claw, LOTR (seems to be the first one that came out), we have Sam&Max Hit the Road. I want to install them and give them a bash :)

I'm very frustrated about my laptop though. I'd kept a ripped copy of all my CDs on it so that I was able to listen portably, and now I'd burnt almost all of it to DVD so that we could play them in the car. ALL of it except for about 3gb has been successfully burnt and deleted off my laptop. The last 3gb for some reason refuses to be burnt. I don't know whether my DVD drive is giving trouble or whether it is Nero itself, but it burns perfectly until at the end it says "burn failed" (at the lead-out). I'm SO fed up because all I want to do is get rid of that 3gb of music! I cleared a lot of stuff off my laptop (pics, videos, music, docs etc), so it's all but empty now... but ARGH that 3gb..................................

I also want to buy more RAM for it. It's such a great laptop, but now as the programs update and everything gets suited to super-specced machines, the RAM is showing itself to be insufficient (512mb). I still love this laptop though, everything else is 100% with it :D

I think that's all for now... I'd love to do some stitching but I don't know how likely that is what with these games.. ;)

Sushi!

I tried and succeeded to make inside-out california rolls (uramaki). They were quite a bit larger than I'd intended, so we both were rather full afterwards.



No other news for now... ;)

Progress

This is what Golden Ice looks like now. He is definitely equine now!



At the moment I am at home, sick, kicking the last bit a cold in the butt. My boss is away, I was very sick on Monday but had to go to work because he was there that day before going on a business trip. Yesterday I went to work because he was going to leave me work to do which wouldn't have been fair to leave for the (also sick) typist to do. So today I am at home, keeping warm, getting better.

Last night G and I went to the huge shopping mall (not so nearby). Were sposed to do odds and ends shopping like getting vacuum bags and chopsticks but do you think in a mall with 400 shops in it you would find them? Ok granted we didn't look in every single shop... but still. Sheesh...

We did however pick up a 2nd copy of Diablo II's expansion pack. Now G and I can go on missions together :D We tried it out last night and it was VERY fun!

I had a lot I was going to blog about but now after reading stuffs on teh internetz, I am uninspired.

And now

I am sick with a cold. W00t!

I'm feeling all stuffy-headed right now... and not being up for much means I can finally do some housekeeping on my laptop. I've just cleared out an emailbox and still have some more to do. It's all old stuff I've just left lying about and I think it's time to clear it out. Just like having the study upstairs tidier than before, this feels uplifting too.

Friday night, we went to Synd and had soup and chilled and chatted. Sat morning bright and early G and I headed off to FH for me to have my hair highlighted. Didn't take too long (2hrs total), and then we popped to Mom. She impulsively bought a budgie on Friday, and he's very cute but at such a young age we can't tell yet what he's like. Or in fact whether it IS a he. The whole story of how mom bought him and then went shopping (leaving him in the box in the car!)... just brings it starkly to my mind that mom's thinking is not really clear and logical, and well... will it ever be? Her response to my exclamation and saying it was not right to keep him in the car while shopping (she could have dropped him off at home and THEN gone shopping!) was to say (basically) that after that experience he must be enjoying being in the cage! *sigh* I don't know... if she can't see what's wrong with that, then I dunno.

Anyway, he seems a cute enough budgie... and we hung about and had a bit of lunch and then came back to our place. Yesterday night S & L and I were going to a restaurant/wine bar for a bit of fun, but at 13:40, when we got home from mom's place, I was already feeling that all too familiar feeling in the back of my throat/in my nose that means I am getting a cold (or something like it). As the afternoon progressed I felt worse and worse, and headed to bed for a nap. Woke up at about 4pm and felt so rotten I had to sms S and tell her that I just wouldn't be able to make it. I'm very disappointed. Murphy is a real tool... grr. *sigh*!!

This week HBBM is away again (TueWed+Thur). I'm very glad about that but it doesn't mean I won't be busy. He's probably going to leave a TON of work for me, and if he doesn't, the other guy who I do filing for will more than likely have a lot of filing for me to do.

I still can't believe I passed my drivers. I keep having 'flashbacks' or things prompting my memory, and then the re-realisation that it's over and I don't have to worry about that "pre-trip inspection test" again! It's done! Finit! Yay!!

Things are coming together for the wedding. At the moment we are organising the invites and stuff. I'm still waiting for the coffeeshop/bakery to send through their quote. I'm disappointed but she did reply to my query saying that she'd send it, they were just hectically busy this week. I shall wait and see. We're going to email the venue about catering shortly, that really will be a huge load off our shoulders.

I'm so excited though, seeing how things will fit together. I can't wait to see everything finally ready! The colours and everything will look WOW!

Dude is so cute. He really is a special little thing ♥

And that is all I feel like blogging about for now. I'm not exceptionally inspired right now, what with having a head full of cotton wool...

Sushi 'n stuff!

I'm really sleepy right now so I'll blog a proper blog some other time, but I just wanted to post a pic of the fashion sandwiches we had tonight. The avo we bought a few days ago hoping for it to get softer didn't in fact get softer. So our sandwiches were sans avo. But they were tight enough for me to cut up AND eat with chopsticks!



And my progress with Golden Ice.

California Rolls version 2

2nd attempt: FAR better than the first attempt:

Google erm, maps

Sushi making part 2

We tried our hands at making maki (california rolls). Came out alright - needs a bit of work but I'd say a good result for a first try!

Stuffs

The pic above is from a photocopied page, from an artbook. Something else on the page must have been photocopied for some shit art project in high school and thankfully I kept this pic. It is so lovely, and now I'm on a mission. I want to find out who the artist is and/or what the artwork is called... I would love to get a print of it, or have it charted for cross-stitch. If anyone happens upon my blog and knows (unlikely chance!) or if you know of anyone who may know or can recommend a website to submit it to/web-group I can ask PLEASE let me know.

Ok what's news this past while. I'm still in disbelief that I've passed my drivers' test. I keep thinking of things, like technique approaching an intersection, and realising "hey!!! It's over!". I'm so glad.

We made sushi again - the 2nd night - we used up the 2nd half of the salmon we got. It was just as delicious and neater than the first attempts:



It's definitely a "keeper" recipe!

I've been in blitz-mode lately. I've basically kicked my boss's ass and cleared up his office. Now that's no little task: he has 3 bookshelves FULL, he has his desk, a table (4 seater) and a 2 couch+coffee table. And the floor. Originally basically ALL of them were covered with piles of paper (except for the bookshelves - the 2 were "recent additions" to his furniture. He now has a virtually clear carpet (apart from a few apple-boxes worth of old/personal/non-work related stuff (his own stuff, I'm not going in there) and his work satchels. His couch+table set is clear, and on his 4-seater table, there are piles of paper which are for ONLY 2 projects. Not 580, but 2. It is quite an achievement I think. And "his" area of my desk (basically a landing area for all his incoming paperwork) is whittled down from about 40 separate overlapping piles to 6. I feel so relieved. The 2 projects on his table in his office... well let me just say that there is a LOT of paper for him to go through.

And then at home, too, I've been blitzing. I've finally tackled boxes which contained my "stuff". Slowly but surely I went through them and unpacked stuff that could be unpacked, and went through some stuff. Threw away quite a lot of stuff. I got rid of a lot of school diaries (who needs to know what they needed to remember to take to school for home economics on 23 April 1995?)... etc. I have SUCH bad hayfever from it, and I am only now realising/remembering that that's how I woke up every morning when I was still living at home: all that paper and junk was in my bedroom. DIE PAPERJUNKRUBBISHCLUTTER, DIE!!

It's also very soul-lightening. Getting around to tackling these seemingly huge obstacles. It seems like a 2' x 2' x 2' box, but inside it is maybe 2 shopping bags of papers. So much easier to tackle like that! It's all for a good cause - not just for weight shedding, but also it's good to slowly prepare for the big move like this. That way, when we do eventually have to get down to it and start packing/throwing away, there's less stuff to wade through and decide about. SO DAMN EXCITING!

On the emigration note, apparently (according to Migration Expert), Aus has increased the visas available to people going to Aus. Which is great - will mean we have more of a certain chance of moving there. We're probably going to get started with the application mid-next year. According to a book we got on migrating to Aus, you get about 9 or 10 months to migrate after the visa has been granted. So if we apply in say July, if it's granted during 2009, we will be able to migrate ASAP after G's commitment is fulfilled. Very exciting stuff! I am however keeping it all out of my mind (as best I can!), while we concentrate on wedding + honeymoon plans.

This blogpost is turning into quite a long one, but my blog is essentially my ramblings so... :P

Ok so yes... emigration is looking more and more like a YES FOR CERTAIN, and I'm so excited about it. BUT... I must focus... wedding... honeymoon. We're going to go to Sydney+Brisbane, via Singapore. I really cannot wait. Essentially it's going to be a honeymoon + scouting out the place, all in one. It's going to be so awesome seeing both cities, knowing that we'll be living near or in one of them not long after the honeymoon (about 1.5 years). It's going to be fun experiencing the different climates. Brisbane sounds nice, less hectic than Sydney but the humidity might be murderous. Sydney sounds great, with lots to see and do and a lot of buzz, but it is a very expensive place too. We'll have to see. Hopefully Brisbane isn't too humid and we can live there!

I'm so excited to see Singapore too... I really saw nothing of it (apart from meeting May and having a light supper with her and her Mom). I really can't wait to venture out of the airport (with my new Hubbie!!!! ♥) and explore. According to Uncamo, Singapore has DELICIOUS sushi - YAY!

Today we went to S's work and discussed travel plans (she's a travel agent). We've got tickets now, G just has to make payment and then they can be ticked off on our list. We need to get travel insurance - probably with G's bank... also visas (I'm going to phone the visa company I used for my India + Aus trip to find out how much it costs through them). I can't wait to get the Singapore+Aus dollars - something about that makes everything super-exciting and REAL. I still have Singapore$50 from my Aus trip - will probably keep that for special though - for when we move to Aus?

EEEEEEK now everything's getting too exciting. With regards to wedding preparations, we're pretty much in step with what should be done this far in advance. I've got a time-line checklist and we're good. We're going to look at cake makers in a moment, and then all that's CRITICAL to arrange is catering. That's a biggie, and then we're just about in the homestretch! Too exciting, as I said.

Anyway, let me post this and get on with cake-maker-choosing with G. Then I want to STITCH cos I haven't stitched since BEFORE the drivers' test... and that was A LONG TIME AGO ALREADY!!! GI Joe is wailing at me "stitch MEEEEEEEEEE" hehe.

Kthxbye!

Culinary adventures!

These are pics I've taken of recent exploits into the world of cooking:

Chicken Ratatouille:



Chocolate cake:



And SUSHI!!! Fashion sandwich:



The ratatouille was a surprise supper for G's birthday - I recruited him for manning the frying pan (browning the chicken and stirring everything as it cooked). Then after supper, he made a chocolate cake, as well as the icing. I spread the jam & cream between the slices and added the cherries and vermicilli.

And the sushi? Well, I'm a relative newcomer to the delight called sushi, and have pretty much become addicted to what is called locally "california rolls" and "fashion sandwiches" (with salmon). I've been craving it INSANELY for the past while but it being far away from payday, we can't really afford to go out for supper now (we're fine, just paying for wedding stuffs!). So I read up online and found some sushi recipes. This evening we stopped off at the local grocery shop and bought ingredients! The only thing we got which differed from the recipes was smoked salmon instead of raw salmon. First of all, we don't really want to risk getting sick from bad fish, and also you can't really buy small quantities of frozen fish. Now we have some salmon + avo left over for MORE sushi, tomorrow night! Can't wait! Think we may try our hands at making california rolls - will post a pic of those too! I'd say this was a pretty good result from a first try EVER!

AMPED

That ^ is currently one of my FAVOURITE emoticons!

Why on earth am I so amped... well lots of reasons. This has been a fairly busy weekend, Friday night we went to M&J's place and had vetkoek, mincemixture and cheese for supper. Sat morning we actually slept late, and then jumped up and took Dudelbum to the vet for a checkup. He was so well behaved and unperturbed. The vet evidently had quite a good understanding of birds (when I phoned beforehand the receptionist told me that he's the one they send all the birds to!)... Dude was so brave, even though he had a stethoscope held against his chest - it was bigger than his head and he did struggle but he didn't go frenzied. Sweet Bumble!

When we left the vets', there was a hatchback car parked next to G's car, with a HUGE dog in it (might have been pyrennese mountain dog?). The window about 10" open and the dog was barking out the window and foaming so much the whole door was splattered with drool. I was worried G's door would be flecked with drool as I opened it to buckle Dude's cage into the back seat but it wasn't thankfully. Wow but that dog was HUGE! That's obviously the dog's car!

Then we drove to G's folks' place - took Dude with us to their place else we'd have been late cos we were going out for lunch to celebrate G's bday. Had DELICIOUS lunch in perfect weather outside on a deck at the harbour.

Their huge Rottie passed away the night of G's bday, sadly. When we went there on Saturday their boxer seemed sad still but at least she and G's sister's Jack Russell had become friends so she had company at least to take her mind off it.

RIP Tristan

Sunday we went out to Sis's G for a birthday lunch! I drove to his house - quite a fun drive. I just need to get the hang of such a completely different car to the instructor's car! Lunch was very yum and it was a very enjoyable afternoon/evening :D

Tonight we are going to do a lot. On our way home we're going to the shops to pick up bread+icecream (G has a plan), and a scale. We are going to get back into our exercise routine and get FIT! I want to be slim and toned for the wedding (and for after that too!), and it's going to be so fun to do the exercises and increase our energy levels. Generally, exercise is a good thing!

We've worked out an exercise timetable (basically every 2nd night), which gives us a set routine to get used to and it also gets our minds into gear to do things effectively. We will be less likely to waste 5hours sitting in front of the computer - because our time will be a little more structured, we will fit more in. On the off-nights, we will be able to do other things, like make wedding arrangements, relax and pamper each other, or just do the things we do as hobbies for a longer time than on the exercise days. Tonight will be a bit hectic because it's Kickstart day! Gotta do chores too as we didn't really get to on the weekend and they can't wait until the coming weekend. So tonight we won't really be able to blob around much.

Ok that's all for now - hometime!!!!!!

I am now...

...A LEGAL ROAD HAZARD!!!!

I passed my drivers' test!

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so relieved, I can't believe it's over already! I'm SO happy - and now I can focus on the wedding plans, without stress of juggling between lessons and planning!

YAYYYYYYYYYY :D

To blog or not to blog

Luckily I don't have to make a decision like that - I can just blog!

So much has been going on lately! It's really been a hectic 4 weeks. It isn't finished yet, I think only by this weekend will it be "finished".

Tomorrow morning is my driving test. I have no clue whether I'll pass or not, I'm not speculating and getting my hopes up, but I am really wishing and holding thumbs that I pass because I really want it done and finished so I can start focusing on other things now (and not spending so much money!!). I'm pretty much worse than broke at the moment (owe G some $)... so I really want this done now.

About 2 weeks ago I had 3 moles cut out of my neck. It WASN'T pleasant at all, but I'd decided I wanted them out (after having 2 others out and NOT MISSING THEM AT ALL!!! - and relishing the fact that I don't have them anymore), so despite being a total WUSS and terrified, I went and had them done. I'd taken off that Friday (to have the surgery), the Monday, Thurs and Fri were public holidays, and I'd taken the Tues+Wed off so I basically had quite a few days to recover. It wasn't so much that it hurt a lot, just that had I come to work those 2 days, I'd have had to be receptionist, which entails taking phone messages for everyone who is on leave, cradling the phone in my neck and I DOUBT that that would have been very good for stitches/fresh wounds. So anyway, I had a nice long time to recover and relax. One BIG hurdle overcome!

At the moment Dude is at the 'grandparents', we had arranged for pest control to come in one last time just to ensure that NOTHING could have survived. They had to cancel so I've been missing Dude since Thursday night. Pest control is coming this evening, so we'll fetch Dude afterwards.

Yesterday was Mother's Day and we spent the day visiting the mothers. We spent the morning at G's parents' place, had delicious cake+biscuits and stuff. The gifts we'd given her were PERFECT! I have a feeling we should go back and buy 2 more similar things for next time!! Then we went to my mom's place, and had KFC for supper! A nice treat and a nice time spent at the Moms.

I'm so bored at work today - my boss is away, I've got drawings to sort out and some other stuff to do but I really don't feel like it. I wish I could go home and study the driving stuff (memorise the pre-trip inspection test etc), AND go wash up (we have a small pile to do before pestcontrol comes by... it was late, we were tired.. washing up blallllaaahhh)... would like to go tidy the place a bit and ALSO go STITCH! I haven't stitched for such a long time now and I really want to make some headway with GI Joe (nickname for Golden Ice). I'd also like to play a bit of Need for Speed or Patapon or Locoroco... haven't played games or done much FUN stuff for such a long time because we've been so hectically busy! I think this weekend will be declared Relaxation Weekend. I think we should stay home, stay warm and do our own, fun things the entire time.

*sigh* there are so many things we still have to organise for the wedding. First priority on the to-do list is caterers. I think we might go with the venue's caterers, but we'll have to discuss menus and things. Next will be cake. We have a clear idea of what we want, we just need to find someone to make it. I want to get my hair dyed this weekend coming up - a pre-view of the colour I want for the wedding. I think it'd be a better idea to get the dyeing done a week before the wedding, and have the hairstyling done on the day. I've found a hairstyle.

Ok... as far as wedding preparations are concerned... what is already decided/booked is:

photographer, minister, musicians, venue, decor+flowers, dressmaker, dress designs for wedding dress + bridesmaids' dresses, materials for dresses have been bought, my jewellery is sorted, we have a design for a cake, G's mom is doing the invites, menus+table layout cards, we're going to be doing the favours ourselves.

What we still have to arrange/organise/etc:

caterers, cake-maker, need to get shoes, make-up + hairstylist, would I need a fake tan (very light!!), need to sort out the marriage contract, arrange transport etc, um... that's all I can think of at the moment.

It's just TOO exciting, and I'm really impatient to get started. Also, we have the honeymoon to plan too! We've decided we're going to go to Singapore, Sydney and Brisbane. It is all too exciting and will be a lot to plan + organise.

This past weekend was busy - but fun. Met up with S & L to windowshop, have cake/supper and see a chickflick. We saw Made of Honour which was VERY cute! Had the most delicious pasta for supper before the movie - SO divine!

Ok I think I'll post this before it turns into a huge long unending block of blog-text!

Golden Ice is taking shape

Yay!



Things have been so hectic lately!

I've been having loads of driving lessons - my test is Tuesday at 8am. I have a driving lesson that same morning, at 6:30. EEK! I'm just holding thumbs and praying that it doesn't rain. I've been watching the weather reports online and have had no reassurance at all because they keep changing Tuesday's weather. Argh!

Anyway I'll blog the rest tomorrow maybe... bed time!

Golden Ice so far

He's taking shape!

GI

Heremia!

The frame choice and framing board colour came out PERFECTLY!!

Golden Ice

This is the pic I took last night but never got round to posting:

Monday....

Today I'm satisfied.

Happy. Things are going well.

This weekend was busy, but good. We got Dude back on Saturday afternoon. Man, did I miss him! It was almost a whole week.

Friday evening sis, her bf, me and G went out for buffet chinese/sushi. Very yum! Saturday morning I had my lesson - there are only 4 more until my test (excluding the one the morning of the test) EEEK!!!! But I'm not really stressing. I have to memorise the pre-trip inspection... but apart from that, it's not really under my control. If I do everything perfectly but the examiner is an asshole, I will fail. If I usually do everything perfect but make a single (bad) mistake, I will fail. It's not really something that I can do myself, it depends too much on the circumstances and the examiner. I will try my best but that is all I can do. If I fail, I still have plenty of time to do a re-test. I will just have to wait and see.

We went out for lunch with G's folks and long-lost cousins of his dad! Long story there but basically long long long lost cousin of his dad retraced his family and found them here. Very nice people, the cousin and his wife. From the UK, they're visiting the country for about a month I think.

Sat evening we went to W&S's place for a braai. Muahahah that was an entertaining braai! :D I even got to see guitar hero in action - G gave it a try hehe.

Sunday afternoon we had stitchathon. G and I had gone to the mall to get medicine and brunch, and we got a scanner too (I've been meaning to get one)... I'm going to sit down for about a year :P and scan every photo from G's folks' and mom's photo albums and burn them on CD. There's no point in our making reprints of them all, just to lug them overseas when we emigrate. So we will have them burnt on CD - that way we get just a CD or 5 to take with us, and we can give G's folks and mom a CD of their photos for backup. A lot of them are already badly faded.

On the emigration note - I've added a countdown widget to the side of my blog. I figured that G's committed to his company until the end of March 2010, so we can take 1 April 2010 as our earliest emigration date. It seems so far away, but then if you think: the wedding is 200 days away, by the time the wedding day has arrived there will be 200 less days til we leave! At the moment it's 716, and it will be 516... it's just so fast!

I've started on Golden Ice. We had stitchathon yesterday, I got quite a bit done then and also later that evening. It's going to look STUNNING!!!! The bright, clear tones against the black fabric. Wow! So exciting and envigorating!

What else is news.......... not that much... I'm currently folding about 12830kgs of architectural drawings... at least I get to listen to my ipod while I'm busy. I have some filing to do upstairs, but all in all hopefully today will be nice and stress-free. Hbbm comes back tomorrow - yay!

Laterzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!!!

And now...

Golden Ice - by Kustom Krafts

My next project. He is HUGE... compared to the ones I've done before. I've sent Heremia away to be framed, I'll post a pic of her when she comes home (Wednesday).

I've already started to plot Golden Ice: I've glued the copied chart pages together to make one big chart, and now I'm in the process of stitching a grid on the fabric so as to accurately follow the chart. It is such a large design and it isn't entirely stitched, so there is more margin for error I think. I decided to do Golden Ice first rather than Gentle Strength because GS is bigger and the entire design is stitched.

Tonight we're fetching Dude. We were supposed to go fetch him Monday evening, but the pest control company messed up. They were supposed to be at our place at 14:00 and G went home to meet the guy, but they never pitched. I phoned in and the woman said they were running late blablabla so basically it was sorted out and done yesterday at 17:30. Our place is now 100% roach free (as far as we can gleefully tell), and we can fetch Dude! Man I have missed him like mad!

Today feels bleh. Why are Thursdays always so bleh? It's aggravated by the fact that I have to do switchboard duty on Thursdays. I'm getting the feeling that I need to be solitary now, sitting on a mountain top, looking out over the ocean... free and alone and peaceful. Quietness.

Heremia Finit!

Here Heremia is. Warpony's had his eye on her for quite some time, I have a feeling they're a match made in heaven!

Heremia, last night

Stuck

I'm uninspired right now. I have a lot on my mind, a lot of ideas and things I want to do. Things to organise, things that are only to be organised in the future and things that I want to finish.

Heremia is one thing I want to finish. It is time now. I want to try this evening, and hopefully by tomorrow she'll be done.

Some things are reaching breaking point. I don't know what the outcome will be. I can't see... I don't know where it's going. I'm almost afraid, scared of the outcome. It might tip too far over.

I'm stuck at work right now. My boss left at about midday, he's on leave until the 15th - a skiing holiday. I have work to do but I don't feel like doing it. It's a Friday afternoon... who feels like doing any work? It's not urgent work either, but I cannot go home. That's all I want to do. As I type this I'm starting to feel sleepy - a nap would be good.

I think I have found my wedding ring. I've printed a pic off the net - want to have it made up because you don't find this style in the shops at the moment - it's not in style right now. It's a nice simple ring, but it matches my engagement ring. G has to find his now, hopefully we can get them made up soon... we still have a lot of time but if we get things done sooner rather than later we have more time to enjoy ourselves closer to the time.

OH YAY so he PHONES IN and DICTATES MINUTES!!!!!!! It's 16:30 for fuck's sake!

And a proper blog post this time

I was online earlier, wanted to blog while G was still asleep. It was a beautiful, quiet morning and I'd just come back from my driving lesson - did parking and cos I hadn't done any parking for about a month I was rather rusty.

I got sidetracked, however, and by the time I'd finished reading all my addictions (livejournal, facebook, the pond, etc) G was awake and it was time to head off to his parents' place to fetch Dude. So I quickly posted the pic of Heremia and shut down.

Dude was at "the grandparents" from Thursday evening until this morning. For the AWESOMEST reason EVER: Rentokil came yesterday to DE-COCKROACH our place! ♥ I had previously arranged for pest control to come, but as detailed in a previous blog-post, they arrived 1hr late and it didn't actually happen. Rentokil was fantastic. The technician arrived on time, he was professional and friendly and did a very thorough job. He worked for about an hour and a half... we weren't gassed out, and he explained quite a bit to us. We currently have the entire kitchen unpacked in the lounge. It is quite cluttered and of course "disruptive" having everything out of place, but I'M SO HAPPY!! The disgusting offensive revolting UGH things are DYING! The guy sprayed stuff almost everywhere, and put dots of gel in special places that they'd go and munch it. Apparently it's delicious to them and kills them very quickly. Hell, while the guy was still busy there were already some dying! I'm so elated!! It's like a dream come true - I can see one now, and point at it and go MUAHAHAHAHA, safe in the knowledge that it's going to die very very soon :) ok so I'm evil... WHATEVER! :D

G and I went out for supper last night - to give the place a bit of time to "settle" (although there was hardly any smell at all). This morning was my driving lesson (as mentioned above), and then we headed off to G's folks to fetch the Dude. Stayed for tea and biscuits and enjoyed the chattering from both Dude, his uncle Pookie and the finches. Dude and Pookie even jointly made a wolf-whistle (can't remember which one but one of them did the up-note and the other did the down-note!)

Dude is happily back in his place in the lounge, tinkling his bell like usual.

Despite being a 4-day week, this week has been BUSY. Quite productive though - we managed to meet up with a decor/florist company (on Wednesday after work) which was great. I think we have found our people for the wedding! The other company hasn't got back to us, and it's already been 3 weeks. Their loss, I say.

We also went to the doc on Thursday - my feet have been itching like mad which seems to be a mad-outbreak of chilblains. Afterwards we dropped Dude off. And then Friday we had Rentokil over. YAY quite a good week.

As you can see from the previous post, Heremia is Coming Along. I really cannot wait until she's finished and I can take her to be framed. I'm really eager to start something new now - she's taken under a year - roughly 10months (if I finish soon). I really can't wait, I think I'll start on Gentle Strength next - the colours are totally different to both Warpony and Heremia (both mostly orange/brown) as Gentle Strength is 99% greys. I guess after all the grey on white fabric of Gentle Strength, the orange (and blue) on black of Golden Ice will be a good change, and then there's Motion which is mostly grey/cream on blue...

Before I start on Gentle Strength though I am going to do Damask Rose (purse), which is a kit G's mom gave me for Christmas. It shouldn't take long at all to do, and I've asked her to help me stitch it all together when I'm done.

What else is news in our world. Not much. The wedding plans are coming along. All that seems left to arrange is the cake, catering (and drinks), we have to find rings, and then the outfits have to be made/hired. Oh and transport to/from the wedding, and of course, the honeymoon.

The neighbour has been away for a while - we are so glad!!

G's parcels arrived from the online shop we use. Awesome! He'd ordered the Nemi book for me (it came back in stock at a time that I couldn't make a purchase). It is FUNKY... really love Nemi!

Ok I think I'm gonna post this and then GET STITCHING!!!!

Heremia

Nom Nom Nom

This just cracks me up EVERY SINGLE TIME!

Melancholy

For some reason I feel very melancholy this evening. I found this pic somewhere online, and it made me feel so sad for the past.

My grampa used to have a car like this, a maroon, automatic merc: right-hand drive, towbar, wood-panelled dashboard etc.

This pic takes me back to when I was small and pretty much in awe of the car. I must have been about 4 or so, maybe even 3. My cousin wasn't born yet so I was probably between 3 and 4. I remember how spotlessly Grampa would keep the car. It was polished and pampered and so well kept. It was really beautiful. The pic makes me remember it so clearly. The colours and textures, all the small details of the interior.

Then, after he died (when I was about 9 or 10), Gran moved in with my uncle and cousins. The car was left out in the garden, and my cousins played in the car and the sun destroyed the paint on the bonnet.

Uncle decided to move about 6 hours away, and he sold the car. After letting it fall into disrepair, it was probably sold for virtually nothing. It could have been sold years before, to someone who would have kept it and maintained it like it should have been. It could have been sold or given to my parents, although mom's thought is that they wouldn't have had the money to keep it and fix it if something went wrong.

I feel such sadness and regret about this car. I have dreamt of driving a similar (if not the same) car. It would have been great, to drive the car, to own the car, keep it like Grampa kept it. I would have cherished it. But it was wasted. Thrown away as if nothing, worthless.

I doubt I could buy a car like it, or one like the one my parents had... it just wouldn't be the same. It wouldn't be that particular car, and I would never be happy. I guess I will (one day) buy a normal car - but what cars these days are any good? Well made, quality and worthwhile? Everything is plasticky and junky and not made to last. I couldn't feel dedicated to something like that.

The Cardigans - For What It's Worth

One, two, three, four

Hey baby come round
Keep holding me down
And I'll be keeping you up tonight.

The four letter word got stuck in my head
The dirtiest word that I've ever said
It's making me feel alright.

For what it's worth I love you
And what is worse I really do
Oh what is worse I'm gonna run run run
'Till the sweetness gets to you
And what is worse I love you!

Hey please baby come back
There'll be no more loving attack
And I'll be keeping it cool tonight.

The four letter word is out of my head
Come on around get back in my bed
Keep making me feel alright.

For what it's worth I like you
And what is worse I really do
Things have been worse
And we had fun fun fun
'Till I said I love you
And what is worse I really do!

For what it's worth I love you
And what is worse I really do.
Oh

For what it's worth I love you
And what is worse I really do.
Oh

For what it's worth I love you
And what is worse I really do....

Impatience...

There is too much I really badly want to do.

I haven't blogged in ages - things have been busy :D

I happened upon this funky webpage- a supermarket in Aus (Woolworths)... it's so exciting to think of the stuff we'll buy there, like breakfast, coke, pet food! EEEEEEEEK now I'm uber impatient to go there already!!!!!!!

I'm waiting (impatiently hehe) for stuff to arrive from the online shop I buy music and stuff from. Deluxe (2cd) Best of The Cardigans, Millennium Fever by Apollo 440, Try This and Can't Take Me Home by Pink, Hits and Rarities and Detours by Sheryl Crow, as well as D-D-Don't Stop The Beat by Junior Senior. CAN'T WAIT!

Things have been so busy lately, I'm so glad this weekend is a long weekend. Sat morning we're going to try go to the traffic dept to get G's address changed with them. We still have to sort out this damn security gate - I need to email the owners of our place to find out whether they are/were able to get a quote or whether we should just get our own quote. I'm also desperate to get pest control in to treat the cockroaches. I'm SO SICK of those disgusting things, I really can't take them anymore. They really are everywhere now. There was even one on our bedroom wall (upstairs!!) a few mornings ago. *hurl*

What else is news...

I need to go make tea asap - need tea!

We're waiting on quotes from a decor/florist company for the wedding. It's been 2 weeks.

Friday night past G and I met up with W&S, L&X and R&N for supper at a burger restaurant. Exotic kinds of burgers. Very yum, lovely place, except my food was wrong at first and then took AGES to be replaced! I was eating my meal while everyone was already done with their desserts. And the atmosphere at the place (between staff) isn't too hot. They're very impatient and disrespectful of each other, for eg they all work at the till for their own orders, and someone must have left his slip on the machine and the next dude tapped him impatiently on the shoulder and waved the slip in his face and the guy snatched it and chucked it on the counter (he was busy with something else at the time). Just not a great attitude towards each other, and strangely I find that that kinda thing affects how I perceive the place. It affects my dining-experience. I am left to wonder what it is that causes them to be so unhappy, is the pay bad? Are they overworked? What is wrong there?

Anyway, enough deep-philosophy stuff for now. Saturday we pretty much bummed and slept late (after I got back from my driving lesson). It was so nice - the neighbour and her evil satan-spawn were not at home, so we actually got to enjoy our place with peace and clean air. It was lovely, and it lasted all the way to Sunday evening - we got to sleep late on Sunday too! Bliss!!!!

Sat afternoon G and I went to different shops - I bought 4 snails and some plants for the fishtank. My other snails had died and the algae completely covered the front panel of the fishtank. The new snails have cleaned off almost the entire pane already! Yay for apple snails ♥

We also popped by a shop and I bought 2 boxes of Need for Speed Carbon - collectors' edition (PC DVD). Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, it won't play on my laptop. But luckily X lent me his copy of NFS Underground 2. It ROCKS... Ok I'm starting with a pretty cruddy car (a Nissan something blah), and I'm dying to get back into my bright yellow Mitsubish Lancer, but it's still fun! Just is weird (after playing NFS Carbon on the PSP and being completely immortal) that you can 'total' your car and lose a race because of it!

Sunday afternoon we popped over to L&X's place for stitchathon. G took his guitar and stuff with - X was having a guitar lesson. L, S and I stitched. Heremia is looking good, I just feel so impatient to start something else now and to have her framed up on the wall. L gave me charts that she's got lined up to do, a series of Zen ideas: balance, longevity, prosperity and wisdom. She has ordered the book so I can keep the charts. I've placed an order for the book too - then when I do eventually get round to doing designs from the book, I will most likely be in Aus by then, and we can do a kinda simultaneous stitching thing - showing each other our progress online. For now though I'm just eager to finish Heremia.

Hmm what else is news. There are rumours that 2nd May (Friday) will be given as a 2nd public holiday. 1st May is a holiday, and this Friday is both Good Friday and Human Rights' Day. So in order to compensate everyone, we *might* get the 2nd May off too. Rumours rumours, heard it on the radio this morning so might well happen!!!! Everyone at the office has already put in leave for the 29th and 30 April, and the bosses were going to make us take compulsory leave on the 2nd (which I'm annoyed about cos I'm saving my leave for the honeymoon!)... but hopefully we will get that day as a holiday - problem solved. I'm just not looking forward to being receptionist on the 29th and 30th April - YAYYYYYYYYY.............

That is all I can think of for now... will post again when the need arises.

Heremia!

Here's a pic of Heremia:

Day after my birthday :)

Lots to blog about.

First off: Pinkleaf has popped out an arm!

G's mom gave me 2 violet leaves in a pot a couple of weeks ago. One of them (a white violet) was 100% fine, the other (called pinkleaf - a pink violet) looked really damaged - dried out and the top half had gone crinkled and brown. I picked the dead bits off pinkleaf, and have waited in anticipation for the day that they'd put out some new leaves. The white violet almost straight away started putting out new leaves, but pinkleaf was hanging on, a half-leaf, soldiering on trying not to die. It's been like that for a good while now. The half-leaf never wilted, it stayed thick and strong. On Tuesday, I poked around in the soil around it, hoping to see signs of life. There was something there... it looked a bit like something that might grow into a leaf, but I wasn't sure. I covered it up again and left it to its own devices. This morning, pinkleaf has an arm! It popped out an arm! I'm so glad. It means both of them are going to be 100%. Once a few more leaves pop out (from pinkleaf) I'll transplant them separately in their own larger pots. YAY I'm so thrilled! I've been keeping G's mom in the loop with their progress, and we've both been rooting (!) for pinkleaf.

I have meeting minutes to type now. I really don't feel like doing them right now. I feel like blogging. I guess I should get started soon but I'm sure it's alright.

Things are carrying on, with X and Y. This whole erupted/erupting mess is still going on.

On Sunday we went to G's folks' place for tea. It was lovely seeing his gran again. His mom also gave us a whole stack of photo-albums for us to look through - I've been dying to see baby pics of G for AGES now and finally I got to see them. :D SO DAMN CUTE!!! It's so funky seeing everyone back then. G was such a blondy!

I worked on Heremia a few nights back. She's coming along so well, I really can't wait! I will stitch a bit more (maybe tonight) and take a pic.

Tuesday G and I left work early, to meet up with a florist/decor company. It was very tricky getting into their place off the road but we managed! It was nice though, had a very brief but intense chat. The main woman seems very visionary, "we can use this, and this, and this". Her office has a glass pane on the one side and while she was talking it seemed to me as if she was looking at different decor items in the next room. Only after a while of looking in the direction trying to see what she was looking at did I realise that she's not actually looking at these things, she's picturing things!!!! I felt a bit of a moron, it seemed so comically set up I felt as if she (or her assistant) were inwardly amused at my expense! But anyway, they're going to send their quote sometime (hopefully soon - we have no idea how much decor+flowers would cost).

Yesterday was my birthday. It was a good birthday, I think :D Didn't feel like going to work. We got up extra early to go buy cakes for the office before work, else I'd have had to go sometime during the morning.

Got a box of chocolates and a card from a colleague... Today she gave me 2 koala keyrings and a Sydney calendar - she said another colleague complained that she was giving gifts away ie it's bad manners, but she said she would rather give it to someone else who would want it/need it than throw it away wastefully. It's a lovely calendar and the koalas are cute. Just the sort of thing to get us started with Australiana! ;) I was looking at houses for sale in the Sydney area yesterday, and there are some pretty funky places out there! Makes me wish time would go quickly (next year etc). This year is going fast enough thank you very much!

G gave me a box of chocs and a packet of choccie sweets - my favourite! There's something else though which was delayed which is sposed to come today... Can't wait!!

G said he was planning something for my birthday supper, but it was a secret. I honestly had NO CLUE where we were going. He wouldn't give me any clues at all. So we got ready yesterday evening, and G drove us to the Waterfront. We walked through the whole waterfront (justabout!), and arrived at the gangplank/steps going onto a boat. It was a 5 course, 2 hour cruise around the whole waterfront. It was so nice in there and the weather was PERFECT! It couldn't have been better if we'd planned the weather system ourselves! We sat at a window, and the whole night we watched everything go by as we gently sailed around while having supper. It was so nice seeing the whole place lit up at night, the lights like stars. The food was delicious! As always with a buffet, there's too much to eat if you took a bit of everything that you liked! But I got a good YUM plateful of food and enjoyed it a lot. A really special, romantic evening :D

Ok, now on a totally different note - I REALLY HAVE to get started with these minutes... :(

I can't think of a clever or expressive post title...

Things are progressing... I have a lot of clarity on the issue now, but everything is still frustrated. It's almost like it is partly cloudy - clear with occasional clouding over.

After chatting to mom a lot over the past few days, I have insight into the issue, and yet, I am unable to do anything to sort it out. It is not something that *I* have to sort out. Can't go into details, but it is not for me to fix, this problem. There have to be consequences for actions which affect people close to you. You can't expect them not to react accordingly if you do something which hurts them. It doesn't work like that. Commit the crime, do the time, in a way. You have to face the music.. and what's frustrating is that she's not willing to. Argh!!!!!!!

Had a driving lesson today (none last week, none Saturday coming). It seems to be going alright... I don't know how well I'll do in the test, I guess at least I'm getting experience enough.

Need for Speed IS SO AWESOME! I defeated the 2nd boss and won a 2nd territory - defeated a crew. I was able to upgrade parts in my car - like NO2 and the turbo etc... and BOY OH BOY I can tell! Gotta get used to the handling now. I have to get the hang of hand-brake turns too, it's becoming more crucial than in the previous 2 levels. Still wanna get a nice sig/avatar of my car though....

What else is news. Dude is cute. G is sweet and special.

G's gran has come down from upcountry for my birthday. I feel very touched - she is very eager to "make it" to our wedding - she's 83 and seems to feel very time-limited I suppose. So I'm very honoured that she is coming down for my birthday. She really is sweet :)

G and I mowed the lawn earlier. I found a HUGE cricket in the gutter but it got away - it went under the fence between our places so hopefully it will find its way into the neighbours' place and keep them awake. I am getting more and more tired of waking up to this woman sharing her high-heel shoes with us through their tiled floor. Lady, if you're going to take an hour getting ready, walking all over your place, LEAVE THE HIGH-HEELS TIL LAST!!!! FOR PITY'S SAKE!

I dunno... it wouldn't seem so annoying if they didn't do other ANNOYING things - like scream, smoke, slam the doors, etc etc. It is baffling... why do they HAVE to SLAM their front door every time they go out? Ok if she's carrying the brat on her hip and her hands are full ok.. but he's 2, lady, he can walk! Surely he can manage the steps since you yourself live in a 2storey place? Nope, you HAVE to slam the door. And what's so dumb is that because a) I'd feel like an idiot and b) they're out whenever we go out/come home, I wouldn't actually slam OUR door to give her a bit of her own medicine... I'm more and more tempted though!

Heremia is paused. For now - I wanted to stitch a bit tonight but I was so tired after supper+washing up. S, L and I are going to meet up on the 16th to have a stitchathon/wedding chat... they're going to be my bridesmaids and we're going to chat plans and ideas! Can't wait!

It's X's party on Saturday this weekend coming. He's back from Sweden - it'll be good to see him again.

N is back from (UAE? Dubai?) - we met up with him for lunch and he came by our place for a short visit.

What else is news... not sure - will have to blog again if I think of things ;)

Ongoing shit

It is just getting worse and worse, more complicated and more shit.

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

New projects

I tried out some demo cross-stitch charting programs, and found that out of DMC Pattern Designer, Pattern Maker, PC Stitch, Stitchcraft and X-Stitch Studio, Pattern Maker is the best. You only get 4 days to use the demo, but it is the full version and you can save and print the charts you've made. DMC Pattern Designer and one of the others are basically the same, just different splashscreens, and they have horrible colour reduction and if you are using a photo to make a design, it doesn't work well at all. The other two were alright, but Pattern Maker's handling, rendering and functionality put it WAY above the rest. Definitely worthwhile trying out, if not buying! I'm pretty much overloaded with designs I have waiting to be done (Heremia in progress, Damask Rose purse, Gentle Strength, Golden Ice, Motion already), so I doubt I'd make use of it often enough to warrant buying it... but I've charted two pics already, so now my list of "to-dos" has grown. I doubt I'd even finish half of them before we move to Aus, but hopefully I will have finished all of them before we become Aus citizens...

It's Saturday night... we've just spent a relaxing day at home (after sorting out stuff at the traffic dept and meeting up with G's folks for brunch).

And I've just been looking at baby budgies - googled them. Awwwwwwwwwww they are TOO CUTE! I so wish we could take Dude with us to Aus... then we could let him start a family... :( but for the time being they don't allow most animals into Aus.

That's all for now.

I can't believe you...

I just CANNOT BELIEVE!

I can't believe that you'd tell your OWN SISTER to "ask someone else" to be bridesmaid.

I CAN'T believe you... I just cannot comprehend. After showing NO FUCKING INTEREST AT ALL... and being scathing about the dress... and asking "jees, why are you being so prickly?!" when I try to talk to you about it, now this? "I've thought about it, and I DON'T want to be your bridesmaid".

THANK you, is all I can say.

Thank you for being AN UNBEARABLE, backstabbing, self-centred, self-serving, INCONSIDERATE, selfish BITCH! Bitch is too tame a word... but I can't think of anything else right now.. FUCK YOU BITCH! I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU!

I CANNOT believe you...

FUCK YOU!

Heremia

A pic of Heremia!