Mini Monday

Mini as in a small post!

The peppermint chocolate meringues were deeeelicious.  Everyone liked them.  So a definite do again.

I went to the physio this morning and she massaged my neck and shoulders (and did some other really painful stuff!) and has given me some stretches to do to try and keep that area supple.  It seems as if the neck is the cause of aaaaaaaalllll my back problems!

I cleaned upstairs (the living area) and it looks lovely.  Tomorrow - downstairs (scary) unless I catch up with the Mermaid for lunch.

Fireman Sam and his housemate dropped by for coffee.  It was lovely to see them and they were off to the beach.  She has not long got her motorbike licence so he takes her out for rides.  An army girl - really sweet.  In fact I think he'd be better of with her than his current girlfriend but none of my business!

Himself got my bike down from the hooks in the garage and pumped up the tires for me so this afternoon I went for a lovely ride.  I was initially only going for half an hour but it turned into an hour.  I'll feel it tomorrow, I'm sure.

Himself is on his way home so will go and hang out washing and do domestic stuff.

Chris suggested I become a kept woman ... I would love to but would feel guilty that I wasn't contributing to the household coffers.  She is bringing up grandkids so her existence is justified!!

Sunday dot points

• Himself turned 60 last year ... you'd think I'd remember to put THAT in my wrap up!
• One, Two and I played 9 holes of golf this afternoon.  It was a good time.
• Himself is cooking roast beef for dinner.  THEY will have spuds cooked in a bucket of olive oil.  I will have spuds sprayed with a smidge of oil.
• I am making peppermint chocolate meringues from a WW cookbook.
• I have found the WW recipes are much improved on past years.  They are more satisfying and taste better.
• I am dreading the coming week - Himself is back at work and I no longer have all the Christmas rushing around to justify my existence.  I shall clean the house, tidy cupboards (a big job), catch up with a couple of friends, see my parents and go to WW on Friday.  I might also treat myself to either a manicure or a massage on Friday.  I have books to read and DVDs to watch.  And walks to take and a bike to ride.
• I should be OK.
• I shall start to peruse the employment sites.
• At least I'm not in a state of panic and distress about going to work tomorrow!!!  And THAT is a huge improvement.

Reflections on a year

2009 (in no particular order)

• I started sewing again
• I quit my job
• I persevered with my personal trainer
• Two and One moved closer to us
• Three turned 21
• We went to FNQ and had a stressful time with The Aunt but a glorious time in Port Douglas
• I made some new friends - on line and in the flesh
• My golf game has stagnated 
• I rejoined Weight Watchers and lost 8.5kgs and then regained a couple over Christmas
• I have hardly told anyone that I rejoined WW (or Big W as Himself keeps calling it!)
• The Mermaid had a terrible year but it all seems to be sorted by the end of it.
• My parents have become very frail
• My brother's marriage ended but he has found someone new who seems lovely and makes him happy
• Himself got an awesome tattoo.  He had it coloured just before Christmas and I'll post a photo when I upload my latest batch.

I love my new macbook.  It's slightly different from the old one (which Two will take and get fixed) and has a new trackpad which I thought I was being dumb about.  Himself booked a session with a Genius at Apple and it turns out the trackpad is faulty.  I bought a Mighty Mouse (the older version) and am finding it is actually easier to use.  The pad will be replaced soon under warranty.

New Year's Eve was full of people.  One went to watch Ebs dance but Two, GGF, Three and His Latest were here as were some neighbours, Dr. Teacher, his new girlfriend and his and her kids.  We watched the storm come across the bay and then the fireworks at midnight.  All in all it was a great evening.

Since then Himself and I have done very little.  We have entertained 6 out of 9 days and are knackered.  He is cleaning the oven as I write this.  Good man.  I HATE that job.  Actually he has cleaned the oven since I was pregnant with One and he didn't want me breathing the fumes.  

As I mentioned above I rejoined WW last year and lost 8.5 kgs in 8 weeks.  And then put a couple back on over Christmas but am back on the straight and narrow.  I have found a leader who is brilliant and that really does make a difference.  I also haven't told too many people which also seems to help.  I know some people like to tell everyone but I find the fewer who know the easier it is for me.  

Himself and I went for a walk down to the beach and back this afternoon.  I can't get over how cold and windy it is after the stinker of a day we had on Thursday.  Melbourne for you!

A neighbour has started a book club and invited me to join.  Our inaugural meeting is in a fortnight and the book is The Time Traveller's Wife.  I bought the book last week and read it over 2 days finishing this afternoon.  I loved it.  I have no idea what happens in a book club but at least I've read the book!  Not sure if I want to see the movie, though.  I find that books I enjoy don't translate well to screen because the bits I like seem to get left out or the writing style is lost.

Time to go and make the salad.  Eye fillet steak, salad and corn on the cob.  Yummo!

Happy New Year, everyone and thanks for the comments.  Two has transferred some of my files across but I think I'm going to have to find all my old favourite journals the long way.  I apologise if I haven't left comments where I used to ... if I've lost you I'll find you again and life really has been horribly busy of late.

I'm not dead

But Himself managed to kill my macbook.  He decided the screen was too dirty and drowned it.

This happened the week before Christmas and I was dependent on using an old clunking PC.  NOT HAPPY!

Santa obviously heard my cries and gnashing of teeth and replaced the soggy macbook with a sparkly new one.  One of which, by the way, Himself is not allowed within 10 feet.  Until I can get my kids to wave the magic techno wand and access my files I am struggling to remember address of all my old favourite sites.  Please leave a comment if I read you and have appeared to have gone AWOL!  I am slowly getting back by reading the sites I remember the addresses of and sifting through their blog lists or comments but what a time consuming task.  Mind you, I've stumbled across some new interesting blogs ... like I needed more.

Christmas was great.  Very tiring but great.  Three days of celebrations with a mix of friends and family.  Next year I will see if I can do it smarter so I can get to enjoy a bit more of it.  But we had a ball.

The low bit was not having Two and GGF around as they had to go to Sydney for GGF's family.  I wouldn't have minded but the poor kids had a miserable time and no space to themselves.  They slept in the lounge room so couldn't go to bed until the last person had retired (and I am taken aback at the lack of thought of some of them choosing to sit up and watch a movie into the small hours even when they had a telly in their room) and then having to get up when the first person was up and about.  We picked them up from the airport this afternoon and they are so relieved to be back.

Tomorrow we will do Christmas part 4 for them.

And we have NYE here.

Thank god it really is only once a year!

I'll be back ...

Officially unemployed!

As of Wednesday I am a lady of leisure.  I keep an eye on the job market but am not in any hurry and will probably seriously look to return to work around March.

Next Tuesday I'm catching up with my mates from the old job.  I am looking forward to that as they are a couple of really good people.

A lot of the pressies have been wrapped.  This is such a good thing as it sometimes takes me longer to wrap the damn things than it does to buy them!  Two more shopping trips should see the end of the buying.  Then I need to sew and bake.

Himself is in Sydney tonight and Three is about to head out so will cook myself some lamb cutlets and brocollini and settle down with a mag and some music or a DECENT television show!!

Still need batteries for the camera but photos are coming ... promise!!

I KNEW I was injured!

On Friday I went to the club for dinner with Neil and Sooz.  Another couple were there and Himself was elsewhere (work Christmas lunch and an old school chum catch up).

We hadn't been there long when I started to experience the aura that preempts a migraine.  I haven't had a migraine for nearly 5 years and at first I hoped that I had been dazzled by the light glancing off something metallic.  But no.  I didn't want to go home and sit there by myself wondering whether it would be a doozy and didn't want to put a dampner on the evening.  In the end I told N & S what was happening and rang Three to bring me some drugs!  He was on his way out and called into the club, bless him.  3 neurofen, 1 maxalon and several glasses of sav blanc* later and the visual disturbances and word finding difficulties had subsided and the tingling weakness in my hands was less.  On Saturday I woke up with the residual headache which didn't go away as it normally does.  I wasn't sure whether the migraine had been caused by stress or hormones or had a mechanical cause.

*This is MY cocktail for treating MY migraines and is not to be considered the norm or in anyway recommended!!!

Yesterday I did some Christmas shopping and my lower back and shoulders were very sore.  Fortunately I had a physio appointment yesterday evening and told her my woes.  Apparently when I fell over in Chadstone a week or so ago I suffered a form of whiplash and that was the cause of all my problems.  I was thrilled to know that there was a cause but, oy, the pain after she poked and prodded!  Thank heavens for neurofen!  Today the stiffness is better and the headache has almost gone.  JOY!

So.  On we hurtle towards 25th December.

On Sunday I decorated the tree.  I will post a photo when I have replaced the batteries in my camera and tidied the house a bit! I am very happy with the way it's turned out.  I went with a silver and red theme this year.  The stair banisters are decorated with red and gold balls and bows!  My napery will be red and green so the place should look very christmassy.

Two rang yesterday evening asking us to pop over.  They had bought their first decent sized tree and decorated it and wanted to show off.  It's gorgeous (bigger than ours - is that some rite of passage when the kids' trees are bigger than the parents'?) and they are so house proud.  It's just a shame that they will not be there for Christmas but will be in Sydney.

I have knocked over most of the shopping.  I still have to get some bits for Three who is proving very difficult his year.  I need to fine tune my lists and go to the butcher (TODAY!).  And I have a heap of sewing to do.  My plan is to get the pressie shopping done today and/or tomorrow and then focus on the hand made stuff.  If I have time I want to make some biccies to have on hand for the unexpected people that you like to have a little something for.

So on that note I shall get started on my lists.

Christmas is just around the corner.

Some people have already put their tree up and decorated it.  Mine is in a box in the garage.  At least I have a tree in a box in the garage.  I bought it last week when I went shopping with Three (and fell over!).  I managed to kill our artificial tree last year.  I might get around to assembling and decorating the thing over the next few days.  Not sure what else to do for decorations this year.  We'll probably put the lights up on the balcony again.

I have been buying presents here and there without proper lists of who needs what.  I really need to sit down and get those lists done so I can knock the shopping over sooner rather than later.  I bought Himself a blood pressure monitor today!  How romantic!  He will be thrilled with it.  Well, what else would you buy a 60 year old overweight male?

I also need to sit down and get my food lists and menus sorted.  I'll concentrate on easy finger food with some bbq stuff thrown in as well.  It gets expensive so I should start stocking up on that stuff as well.

This was last Christmas Eve.  Yes the photo's a bit blurry but you get the idea.  I hope the new tree will look OK.  It's much smaller than the old one.  Last year we went for a green and gold theme (from memory). We have done blue and silver, gold and silver, red and gold, and all the colours over the years (once we stopped using all the kids hand made stuff that they used to bring home from school and kinder).  I thought they'd miss their offerings but they like the themes.  This year the tree will be mainly silver with accents of red.  At least it will if I can get my act together!  I also need to buy some silvery table cloths and runners as my current ones are gold.

Himself dropped my stat dec, pass and keys back to work today.  I can now consider myself unemployed.  One more pay which will have my holiday pay included which will help with Christmas and then I should work out what 'budget' means.

Dinner's ready to go into the oven (mustard and dill chicken parcels with steamed brocollini and spuds).  I am enjoying a rather noice savvy blanc.  Himself has gone to the gym and Three should be home soon.

Life is pretty damn good (and will be better once I get Christmas under control).