Photos

I have spent the weekend sorting out our photos into an album. There are lots of them. I haven't finished yet, but I am about halfway there, and they are looking good (if I do say so myself).

I haven't gotten around to posting anything yet about our trip, so here is a link to some photos I have managed to get uploaded to Flikr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeybird88/sets/72157604801827152/

New Blog

I have decided to set up a separate blog for our holiday photos and stuff.....so once I have that sorted I will post the link. Might take me a little while to organise!!

So we have been back almost a week now.....back to the real world indeed! I was shocked and amazed to discover I did not put on any weight while we were away. That is a minor miracle. Considering all the rubbish we were eating.

I went this morning for my first morning run in about a million years. I really need to get into a routine, so today was the first go! I didn't run for the whole time, but it felt good. I will be able to build myself back up. I've heard that the Bridge to Brisbane has been changed this year, and my parents aren't going to do it, so I am not either, since they were my ride there...anyway, I will be looking for some other runs to get into.

We're Back

Yes, obviously we are back home.....and back at work. I have a billion photos to sort out, and then I will start to post about our trip..... which was fantastic!!!

Celine Concert (31st March 2008)

We were picked up by the Limo and taken to the entertainment centre, which was very cool indeed!! Luckily I had the camera in my pocket, as they were searching people and not letting cameras in. They didn't see mine. Once we got through security, we had to find Robyn Bailey from 97.3FM. This was quite easy, since we had just heard her on the radio describing the shoes she was wearing, so we recognised her as soon as she walked through the door. We then had to wait around for a really long time in the foyer. Some Sony people arrived and gave us a sticker to wear, and told us that there would be a group photo taken. Eventually we were taken out into the back stage area. We then waited here near the stage door for a really long time. We saw Anthony Callea (the support act) walk past us and onto the stage to perform, and then he came off stage and walked past again. He really is very short. Then, after standing in the corridor for what seemed like forever, we were taken in to Celine's dressing room to meet her. It was quite something. She was all done up and ready to go on stage. She really had a major presence about her. (I am not a big Celine fan - that's Janet's department, but even for me, it was a big deal). So we got to shake Celine's hand (I think all I said to her was "hello") and then we had to group tpgether for a photo. Janet jumped in immediately and managed to be right next to her, so that was exciting! And then it was all over an we went out to our seats. Janet swapped her ticket back with her Mum, since the ticket Janet had bought was in the third row. The tickets from the radio station were way up high, so Pam & I sat up there and Janet was up the front. I got to try out our new camera's zoomability.

waiting.....

We are in major countdown mode....half an hour till the Limo picks us up for the concert.....and after that we countdown to leaving for the airport.....yay!!!!! Bags are packed, all is organised....I hope!!!! I should think that I won't be updating this blog till we get back...lots to share then I am sure!!!!

The concert was cancelled!

Yep, the Celine concert was cancelled last night. I didn't believe Janet when she rang to let me know. So we will try again on Monday which is when it has been rescheduled till. And then Tuesday morning we fly away!!!!

I've been thinking of some of the things I am looking foward to on our holiday.

1. Hotel showers with no water restrictions. I can feel several longer than 4 minute showers coming on.
2. I get a month off cooking dinner. (I like to cook, but it will be lovely to have a break!!)
3. No work!!
4. And of course seeing new places, meeting up with friends and all the usual stuff you are meant to look foward to!!

Getting closer!

The count down is getting into single digits! This time next week we will be on a plane! I do believe we leave at something like 11.30 on Tuesday. I'm not so clear on the time details. But its around then.

Right now, there is another count down occuring....yes, tomorrow night is the Celine concert. Not just the concert, but the vip limo ride to the concert and the actual meeting back stage of Celine.

So this is a rather BIG week.

I just booked us onto a night tour of Alcatraz for next Thursday. Last time I went on a day tour. I think a night tour might be a little scary. But I can be brave. And hopefully not be sea-sick on the boat ride over there.

Lions & Monkeys!!

We went for a walk on Saturday to the video shop to rent a movie. Okay, I guess I should actually call it the dvd shop these days. Or perhaps I could just call it Blockbuster. You get the picture. It was a very exciting walk, because on the way we saw monkeys & lions!!!! Cool bananas!! Yes, there is a circus in residence at Waller Park, and we cut through the park on our walk. So we got a close up view of the monkeys and lions. Who were rather stinky.

We eventually found a movie to watch. There are never any good movies there. I am not sure why. Its not like we go out and see every movie ever made, so there should be lots of movies that we haven't seen, but want to see. But there never seems to be. We ended up with the movie "History Boys" I won't recommend it. It wasn't terrible, but it was a bit waffley for my liking. Maybe next time we will find something good?

all sorted!

Yay, our computer is fixed!! I might be able to get some stuff done on it this weekend. What I really need to do is send our trip itinerary file to myself at work so that I can make use of my lunch time and find directions from train stations to hotels and useful things like that. Because I have no idea of where we are staying off the top of my head.

I think I have Jeya booked into the pet motel now. I have at least spoken to an actual person who wrote down the dates and took my phone number. The conversation ended with, "we'll see you then" So I take it that means all is ok. Apparently their email intermittently does not work - I would suggest they should remove the email booking option from their website in that case! Their answering machine is also on the malfunctioning list. The lady told me that I didn't leave a phone number, or that the machine cut out. It was the machine cutting out. I definitely left my number. Anyhow all sorted now.

Janet has a lady coming over on Monday to sort out the cats. It is a pet sitter. I have warned the girls to not let her sit on them. I can't believe how much this holiday is costing. Well I can believe. But its crazy. The animals alone are costing us something crazy like $35 a day. And they are not going anywhere.

3 more weeks till we leave!!!!!

Sunsets

A layout I did for the current Nature Theme Challenge at Scrappity.

Computer gone!

The computer man took our computers brain away last night to see what is wrong with it. He was going to test it and let us know what our options are. He rang this morning, and it looks like not much is wrong with it. SO good news there! We are getting him to upgrade the memory while he has it, so it should go faster. Yay!!

Its less than 4 weeks to go till our holiday!! Double YAY! (YAY YAY!!!!) We still haven't sorted out the cats or the dog yet. I emailed the pet motel for Jeya, but they haven't answered me. So I better call them or we'll be stuck! Janet is sorting out the cats. I think we have decided on pet sitters for them. I didn't want Jeya all alone in the backyard for a whole month, which is why we are taking her to the pet motel. The cats will be happier if we leave them home. Thats the theory anyway. So we may have to send all 3 of them out to work to pay for it. Animal accomodation is very expensive!!

I think one of our TV's died this morning also. It was one we were given, so we can live without it. Its just the trauma of having to unplug everything that is connected to it and working out how to reconnect it all back up to the old tv. And then rearranging the living room again. Oh the drama of it all! haha. It was still working this morning, its just that the picture had a kind of green tint to it, so everyone looked kind of sea-sick.

Wet Weekend

Yay! We were allowed to use the hose for 1 hour on Saturday afternoon. We washed our cars. I have never washed my car. We've taken it through the car wash a few times, but I have never actually washed it with a hose since we got it last May. We haven't been allowed to. So I briefly have a shiny car again. It is kind of embarassing to admit how much joy was had from actually turning on the hose. We sadly had it stretched out into the front yard 3 hours before we were allowed to use it. Theres nothing like being prepared!!

Before the excitement of being able to use the hose, we sorted out our little garden bed next to the letterbox. A few weeks ago we pulled a heap of scraggly plants out of there, and now we have completed the make-over by adding some rocks. It took 2 trips to Bunnings to complete the job, because we didn't quite buy enough rocks, so I had to go back and get 1 more bag of the red ones. We like it.We spent Sunday afternoon in our nice dark lounge room watching episodes of Party of Five Season 1. Nice and relaxing!

We are also experiencing some technical difficulties with our computer. The keyboard and mouse are not working when they are plugged into their proper ports at the back of the computer brain. They do work when I plug them into the usb ports in the front (the only spare ones) This is not going to work because then I have nowhere to plug the camera or my flash drive in. So I am having to upload photos at work. I will have to call the place I got the computer from and see if they still exist so we can get it fixed. Perhaps a certain little cat has been playing with the cords behind the computer and has broken something.

Blind Photos

So here are a couple of pictures of the new blinds. They look better in real life!

New blinds are up!

finally!!

We spent Saturday afternoon as prisoners in our house, since we had to wait for the people to come and install the blinds between 12 and 5. So of course they arrived at 5. And of course it was the hottest day ever (well in a long time anyway....) But we now have lovely new blinds. Now if I was clever I would have taken a photo and posted it, but we are no longer so snap-happy when it comes to our house. Once upon a time we would take a photo of every tiny change we made. But no more. I'll get the new blinds to "say cheese" tonight.

The Blind people are coming!!

The Blind people are coming on Saturday. Not visually impaired people. The people that will put up our new Blinds! The Blinds that will mean that people can no longer see into our house! The blinds that will not be shredded by naughty cats. So yes, this is very exciting. Kind of mysterious too, since I have had absolutely nothing to do with choosing the Blinds. Apparently they will be the colour of our drainpipes. Sounds kind of bizzarre hey!! My job on Saturday morning is taking down the old ones. I have already had a go, and this will be easy, so no problems there. It will be interesting to see what the place looks like with some sparkling new Blinds!!

it worked!

three cheers that the mower worked and I got the whole yard mowed without it breaking down. Hip-Hip-Hooray.

Yesterday we finished booking the rest of our trip. So we are all set now...bring on April!! Okay, so we still need to get a bag for Janet, and maye a few warm clothes, but apart from that we are all set.

We even met our newest neighbour on the weekend. We have now spoken to the new people about 10 tims more than we ever spoke to the old ones. She even offered to feed the cats for us when we go away. Wow. A big difference from bug-a-lugs and b****face.

we need a goat.

yes, a goat. It would probably be more effective than the lawn mower at the moment! I took the mower for a service lmost 4 weeks ago. Because it was blowing out smoke. Not a little smoke. Great big clouds of smoke. So it had its service, along with every other mower in the world. I picked it up yesterday. I had great visions of myself going home and zipping through at least the front lawn, so that it would be all nice and tidy for when Janet came home (she was working late - so not home till after 8).

The first issue to occur was that the starter cord did not retract properly when I started the mower. This was a new problem. Never had any starting issues before. But anyhow, the mower was up and running. yay. halfway along my first sweep of the footpath, and the smoke started coming out as per usual. So I stopped the mower and stomped back inside. (All along I could see the neighbours across the road in their lounge room watching me...that only makes everything worse..grrrrr).So no mowing. I tried to ring the service shop but of course they were closed. So a text to Janet to have a whinge. So after a counselling session on the phone with Janet I slinked out the front to retrieve the mower.

I have this morning taken it back to the service centre. And managed to convince them that they did a crap job. (The guy tried to tell me that it was normal to burn a bit of oil, but after he took it out the back and tried it told me he wasn't happy with it and I had every right to bring it back. thank you.).

So just now I have recieved a text telling me that it is once again ready to pick up. Hopefully this time it is actually going to work properly. We shall see.

It would be nice for our house to no longer look like it has been abandoned. Beware, anyone trying to visit is advised to byo machete.

A few new layouts

I have to look up the credits for this one when I get home.

Credits: Flergs Strawberry Delight mini kit

credit: Amanda Walters Apirations Kit

we went to the Movies!!

You'd think with all this rain we've been getting that the dams would be filling up a bit more than they are. I guess they built the dams in the wrong places. Oh well, we have a lake in our backyard again.

We went to the movies yesterday - we saw "the Jane Austen Book Club" and I just loved it. It was a good happy movie. Well apart from the first 10 minutes or so, which had me slightly worried, but it was onwards and upwards from then on! I liked how the ladies were allowed to "look their age" big fan of that. And well I just love Maria Bello, so that helped me along with giving the movie 2 thumbs up. I spent half the movie trying to work out where I knew the actress who played Judging Amy's daughter in this movie. I got it in the end. She played Shannon in Lost. Well I think the dark hair certainly suits her a lot better than the blonde she had in Lost. so yes I really liked this movie!!

They have introduced "allocated seating" in the movie theatres. This is kind of strange. Having to choose where you will sit before you go in. It also means getting to the theatre early to ensure a good seat. I now feel the need to question the ticket seller about the size of the theatre. This is important, because you have to choose if you want front, middle or back tickets. These options are greatly different depending on the size of the theatre. I mean a couple of weeks ago we chose back tickets for a small theatre, and were actually in the very back row. Yesterday I chose front of back tickets because it was a huge theatre. What will they come up with next! Gone are the days of rocking up to the movies and choosing where to sit based on the cleanliness of the seat, and the whereabouts of the other movie goers!

new toy!

We bought ourselves a new toy on the weekend. No, not that sort of toy. A lovely new digital camera. We used my Christmas bonus money, so we got a much better one than we would have otherwise. Its a Panasonic Lumix. Its got a 10 x optical zoom and about a zillion different settings. But it takes good pictures in "even a dummy could use this" mode. so it suits us nicely! If we had waited to buy it we apparently could have gotten it duty free from the same shop, but we want a good amount of time to get used to driving it before we go away. Suffice it to say that Jaspa, Jeya & Monty have been getting sick of being told to sit and look cute for the camera.


We went and saw the movie "Juno" on Saturday arvo, we both enjoyed it. And we saw some previews for movies that we actually want to see, so thats good for a change!!

I went for a good run yesterday arvo. Good in that I actually went! No, it was also good, because I like to run. Once I am doing it. Its the getting out the door part that causes me the most difficulty. Once I am out there its fantastic.