Today Lizzies school photo came home. It's not really until you get older, that you can appreciate that the only purpose of the school photo is to give you a good laugh about 20 years down the track after a few drinks with friends.
So every year the school class photo comes home and I have to pick out the best looking boy and the prettiest girl. Always quite stressful and this year I must say, quite hard. Honestly they're about the ugliest bunch of kids you could find. They really need a hairdresser to go through there for a good clean up for the boys and a lesson in bleach for the girls.
So we have a big year 10. Over 200 kids. I say
she's pretty
No she's not, she's the one who punched brooke in the face.
Ok - well, she's pretty
She's a bitch, I can't believe you think she's pretty.
Sigh, well he looks nice
OMG - he's the one who said I had a fat arse
Hmm, what about him
he's, like a psycopath
Anyway, they were a funny looking mob. All these funny looking boy/men. Sort of boxy and gawky with big hair. And all the girls have the same hairstyle. Thinned out to a sort of skull cap, with long ratty ends and a long side fringe that hangs in your eye. I call it a crossover flap. I hope they all get a good laugh out of it one day because they're probably all home in tears tonight after seeing it.
Anyway, here's me. Told you I was a mad cow. I was probably checking for a throat infection or something.
Flyguydesign brushes - check him out, the best.
Show us a painting or piece of art you have hanging on your wall. What room is it in?
Submitted by Strive2Be.
This art hangs in my lounge room. I painted it at school one day when I was 5. My mother framed it and had it hanging in her house but after she'd had it there for 40 years I guess she felt she'd done her duty, so she gave it to me.
It is called Corroboree (obviously, as you can see) and I guess we were learning about aboriginal customs because a corroboree is like a kind of festival the aboriginal people have with singing, music and dancing around a fire. And I think it usually celebrates a tribal event.
I haven't painted anything since. I'm like Harper Lee who wrote To Kill A Mocking Bird - only ever produced one masterpiece.
It is 0 degrees this morning which is way below my favourite 28c degrees. However I have to race off and out into the cold to grocery shop and when that happens I always seem to have to deal with a fool of some kind. But I am not in the mood to be messed with today.
Messing with Charlie because he always looks cranky and dark.
And Betty catching some rays. Because I know I always bitch and moan about how cold it is, and its not really. We have very mild winters. We have about three weeks where the days are about 15 degrees and the rest of the time is quite pleasant. Take today - even though its the middle of winter I can get around in a tshirt and cardigan and not have a heater on.
Anyway, Betty, she can always make a comfortable spot look uncomfortable. She sleeps on this old lounge seat.
But she likes her head to hang off the edge.
Then every now and then she likes to have a wrestle with her sheet. She gets it on top of her and wriggles around under it with her feet up in the air. Sometimes I find her walking around the backyard still in it because she's stuck.
And here she is just being her general attractive self. Sunning the tum.
How does my panadol back and neck pain caplet know it's for my back? Why doesn't it think its for my headache? If I have a headache as well as a back ache, will it only make my back feel better, but not my headache?
And if, as it says on the pack, it is absorbed twice as fast as regular panadol, why don't they just make regular ones like that as well. Do some people like their pain to last a little longer?
It's like that cream A Little Bit of Relief. Yes please, because I don't really want a lot of relief. Just take the edge off it thanks.
So I really have to wonder when I'm at the shops looking at all the different pain relief tablets if they really are different at all. On Saturday I noticed there is regular pain, back and neck, tension headache, migraine headache and period pain. Surely they must all be the same thing.
Anyway the back pain ones aren't working at all. Maybe they found another little pain somewhere I was unaware of and fixed it instead. I found something called movalis in the pantry so I had one of them. Said it was an anti inflammatory. Guess I should go and google them.
Oh dear - theres some interesting side effects
vomiting of blood or material that looks like coffee grounds
bleeding from your back passage
swelling of the face, tongue or lips that could make swallowing difficult
lol - they say if you experience any of them - you may need medical attention. Doh, you think?
And a quick Lloyd travel update. So since last sunday he has been to Pisa, then on to Florence. From Florence he went on to Rome for a couple of days (where he said he has been eating a lot of gelato). Off to Pompeii (jealous) then on to a ferry to Greece. Then he spent the last three days on Corfu.
And so from a new traveller to an old one. Papa in the fifties/sixties
I know I've written anzac under this one but I'm not sure thats what it is at all
Artistic endeavours
Mum and baby
balancing act
I love to read. From now on when people ask me what I do I'm just going to say I read. I read every day, twice a day at least. I read when I have lunch and I read when I go to bed. If I can't sleep or wake early, I read. I try and spend most sundays reading all day.
When my children were babies I read to them and as they got older they read to me. And I loved all those childrens picture books. There are some beautiful books out there but also some not so good and its hard to tell by the cover. So I was pretty pleased to read about this site lookybook through the week. They have a stack of picture books that you can flip all the way through. You can check them out and if yu like them there is a link and you can buy them. Good idea I think as it is hard to judge a book by its cover. No Lynely Dodd unfortunately. I could spend hours in this place. Worth a look if you have kids. I like Bad Kitty - a good read.
Show us the last thing you bought.
Well its funny you should ask. I've been having a bit of a shopping spree lately and buying myself reckless wants instead of carefully considered needs.
It is incredible the amount of money you have left at the end of the week when two children leave home. My grocery bill alone the last couple of weeks has made me skip with joy for the rest of the day. If anyone has a teenage boy they know how much they eat. So now that he's gone I have money to spare.
Now I know I could pay it off the loan but I decided that I'm just going to have a few weeks of spending. Its been years since I've just bought something for myself that I didn't really need. Usually I have to weigh it up with who needs school uniforms or sports shoes or all those other things annoying children seem to need. Food.
So I bought this little cigarette case - even though I don't smoke.
But I keep my notes in it
And then I bought myself some Anna Sui lip gloss and it's nice and not sticky and smells beautiful. And you can just mash them up together. I'm a great one for mixing lip sticks.
And then I bought this little wallet. Which doesn't really apply to me because I always read the manual from the start before I use a new appliance. Which is why I know how to use the appliance. I should give it to my husband who gets the appliance out of the box then madly begins pushing buttons. And has in fact been known to break things before they even get used. i.e. electric heater. The first instruction in the book was DO NOT PUSH THE RED BUTTON before bla bla bla. But by the time I'd opened the cover he'd already pushed it.
Then I bought a pair of pyjamas and I'm waiting on a bag to arrive then thats it. Back to saving.
This is Charlie. He lives two doors down. He finds life quite confronting. And although he's not a cranky boy like he looks he might be, he doesn't like to be looked at and he doesn't like to look at anyone.
He likes to catch the morning sun on the roof of my car. The size is fur not fat. Every summer he has a shave as he gets all knotted up. Never mind how dirty my car is. We have strict water restrictions here so no outdoor hoses at all allowed.
Not looking
Pretending I'm not there
Even when I get right in his face.
Almost
See, he's a beautiful boy.
I had an email from Lloyd saying his phone wasn't working even though he'd set it up for roaming and could I ring Optus and see why.
I immediately passed this job onto Daz. That is one of his jobs. Dealing with phone matters, taking animals to the vet, cleaning up childrens vomit and picking up dog shit. (I pretend I don't see him throw it over the neighbours fence.)
So of course before you get to speak to a customer service person at optus (who I think is sitting in India), you have to first get past the robotic recorded voice that asks you questions to decide what department to send you to. I kept hearing Daz saying loudly Moow-biile. Because usually the recorded voice says - did you say manadarin? I just say - yes, because she gets confused and passes you onto an actual person.
So he got past her and waited for 30 minutes to talk to someone who said
I can't tell you anything without a password.
So we send Lloyds girlfriend a text - whats the password. Lloyd says he uses one password for everything so its probably that.
Daz repeats the whole 30 minute wait - gets to the service person and explains the situation again.
Do you have the password
Daz tells the password
That is not the password - it will only be four digits. But hang on he doesn't have a password set up says service person.
Daz says - good - then lets talk.
No, Lloyd will have to ring and set up a password.
He can't ring, thats the problem, his phone doesn't work.
Then he'll have to go to a public phone and ring.
So you want him to go to a public phone and stand there waiting for 30 minutes to set up a password?
Yes, this is what I'm wanting.
So Daz comes out and says
So now I'm going to have to ring back and pretend I'm Lloyd and set up a password.
So he waits another thirty minutes and speaks to someone else who doesn't even ask him for a password. Just his birth date and address. He then tells him the phone is set up for roaming but it doesn't work in a lot of places. In fact there is a long list of places it won't work and you're better off going and getting an international sim card.
Every now and then I have a moment where I wonder why we left optus years ago. Then I am reminded.
