Now where did I hide my sense of humour...

Well, after my last little fiasco I thought I would outsmart myself. As you know by my previous missive, I had a wake up call booked for 2.15 but the taxi was due at 4. "Beauty" I thought to myself, "I shall wake with the call and get a few of those things that I have to do done then, and go to bed (relatively) early."

Well, that woulda been fine except for my psyche or whatever darn control I have over my sleep and dreams. Because I kept waking suddenly thinking I had missed the call or that the taxi was already here and I hadn't done stuff - see the time, roll to go back to sleep and dream I was busy, busy, busy doing all the things I had to do!!! So even my sleep was tiring... Don't you hate that?

So when the call came, I busily did all the things I had put off doing... As a side note, I had been (I thought successfully) fighting a UTI all week - well, I was wrong on the apparent success rate of my method, and it was nasty! And then the taxi arrived 15 minutes early so a few things I was going to do in that last 15 minutes got shafted - like burning the work disk and invoice to present in person - oh, and putting my train ticket into my handbag...

That got sorted (to the tune of $22) fairly easily. My excessively excited and independent Miss was soooo looking forward to the train trip!

Once the train started, she wanted to investigate the facilities. I could see the door from my seat, so let her explore. After a while, I thought she must be testing all those interesting little automated extras only a train bathroom can offer - but even that was taking a while. I did hear a child crying, but thought someone must have a toddler on board. When I finally got up to investigate, my daughter came out of the toilet in tears. She did not have the strength to turn and pull the handle of the door and felt she would be locked in for the whole trip!!! Bad Mummy moment there...

However, her other independent forays were more successful. She colected copious paper cups of water (handy with my condition), made friends with the canteen ladies and won the hearts of a few elderly ladies as she pushed the buttons to open doors for them .

Weekend was great - busy traipsing all over Brisbane sans car and the UTI developed into a kidney infection so maybe not so great. But my Dad is powering in recovery; saw some friends; and daughter had a great evening with extended family on her Dad's side.

Eddie was very, very glad to see us when we got home, as although Jean had done a great job tidying my house for me (done with the best intent, I am sure, and I must remind myself to put out vacuum cleaner for her next time I get her to feed the cat) the main aim - feeding Eddie - was a bit of a bust. She didn't find all the delicacies Eddie likes in the fridge, so gave him the emergency cat food - which Eddie only eats if there is nothing else to scrounge - but she also gave it to him in his water so the ants wouldn't eat it... He loves us for more than our winning personalities and looks, really!!!

My special someone was also crook over the weekend - and not just with longing thoughts of me, either. He is currenly sweating out the latest thing going around. I am so glad that Desparate was on as it did service a smile or two for both of us.

So two days later - daughter is massively tired, I am groaning with movement and have given in to taking some pain relief (am on antibiotics as well), have a ginger cat shadow tripping me up, have a long distance darling sweating in bed 330km away and whipping the spare room into shape for influx of brother, sister-in-law and their 3 kids for tonight.

Maybe I will find that sense of humour in there.

I am amused

Well, I have to be really, as I have played quite a nasty trick on myself. I booked train tickets to go and see my father and his new knee in Brisbane this weekend, and the choice was leave early morning and arrive morning OR leave mid-morning and arrive mid-afternoon. As we are having a day off school anyway I went for the first option and get the full extra day experience.

Anyhow, when booking I noted the timetable had 2 early morning trains (not Saturday morning, however, hence the day off school) and had kicked myself afterwards for telling the train dude to go for the earlier one (4am) rather than the one after (5am) - I did the maths, failed to carry a 1 or something and thought it was shorter rather than longer time on the tracks...

So anyway, on my list today were many things, including book the cab and the wake up call. When I booked the cab, the girl was quite surprised that I was to go so early as people usually caught the 5am train. "Um, yep, that would be because the rest of the region is much smarter than I" I told her and she laughed (because what else can you do) and told me a cab would be here at 3 to allow for any time requirements at the station (and, you know, that 15 minute drive to town may take 40 minutes because of traffic at that hour).

Ugh - taxi at 3 meant I would have to be up before that point - so I rang the wake up call service and let the computer know when to book my call, and I know me pretty well so made it for 2.15am.

Well, I went on my merry way and ticked off lots on my list, and then tried to see if stopping the second last stop rather than go right into Brisbane I would be at the station near where my mother is staying any earlier.

So, I looked at the timetable to see when it would arrive in Caboolture.

"That's funny" I thought "but the 4am train only goes Mon-Thu and I am going Fri?" (I tend to think in abbrev form when reading timetables)

So, I looked at my ticket.

And then I laughed - one of those whinnying, loud intake of air, high-pitched laughs.

The cab girl laughed at me too, and wanted me to tell the world that she was right all along so I just did.

Unfortunately I cannot think of a way to tell the computer not to call, however...

Other things have made me laugh of late - for example this...

Oh, and today Moreena made me laugh: read this and then this.

A woman I have discovered recently with real guts is Tokyo Girl Down Under. here is a post about her real estate agent. I know, I know, they're not all like that!

There were more, but I have to pack, put the car away and look at my house throught the eyes of a stranger so I don't scare the lovely lady next door (another Jean - can you imagine?) who will be feeding Eddie - twice a day and a little milk if he is pining at times throughout (ha ha ha). Not much really.

However, first I have to call my honey, and that can take a little bit of my evening - its a ritual I enjoy for as long as I have to, but maybe one day there won't be that 330km and phone line between us on a Thursday evening...

I've Done a Bad, Bad Thing

On a blogsurf yesterday, I found a poster bemoaning the fact that the new Desperate episode they had watched would be the last for a few weeks.

Oh no, I thought (not being smart enough to look at the date or location of the poster) and went to see what her analysis of the latest episode was...

Well, of course, the date should have made me go Hmmmm... I thought for some reason she was from Perth, WA (that is Western Australia for those with different geography coordinates)... I swear, I knew not what I was doing...

Because, you see, there are rituals attended upon important programming. You get your core group of fellow devotees and you natter about what happened and what's going to happen and what you think might happen - and given my geographical coordinates, this takes a lot longer now.

Not like when my flatmate lived in the same house as me, my sister the same city. Not like when I didn't have someone special and I didn't have someone special away during the week and I didn't have someone special away during the week and hooked on Desperate.

No, now it is a long, drawn out process involving 3 separate phone calls over the next few days. And so I don't get my post Desperate fix as instantaneously as once upon a time.

(Also very much not like when I had someone special and no computer contact, phone contact or physical contact... Try a long way away and hooked on Desperate texting the analysis!)

Anyhow, so yesterday I saw the blog that mentioned Desperate and I was not yet saturated on Desperate and I saw a link

and




I



clicked it.....


Oh My Goodness.

My saving grace is that I have NFI what it was all about, as the date should have been in the future - long, long into the future according to Australian Television Programming Standards, where someone has a concept that a well aged Desparate should be considered fresh - a sort of Olive Oil of the entertainment industry.

(And no, I am not giving you a link to the post, because either (a) I don't want you to follow me down that path; (b) I wish to hold this little bit of kryptonite as my own; or (c) I have no idea on which blog I found it.)

What a Wonderful Weekend

We just had a fairly wonderful weekend. The cyclone did not hit - so wind was not unbearable and squally rain did not happen - but the waves were good enough to play in and we actually got some major "to do" issues dealt with.

Our Friday night ritual is fish and chips. When flush, we allow others to do the cooking for us - but when our moula has been flushed away, the trusty old stove top does the hard work. (If the darned oven worked it would be healthier but we are not big on the chip part of the equation generally). Always a large salad is concocted with a side dish for my super fussy child - I am a HUGE fan of salad with lots of veges and colour and fresh, fresh flavour.

Saturday morning, I set V the task of putting new trainer wheels on 'Salina's bike - I know, she is 7 and should not be on trainer wheels, but with the facts that until recently she lived in a hilly, smoggy suburb with an overprotective mother, until even more recently she still had that overprotective mother and no helmet AND that if they are not there she takes on learned caution and is not on the bike I am willing to take all admonishments with the knowledge that they will be taken from the wheels at some point in her life - it is a bit like toilet training and breast-feeding - IT WILL NOT BE AN ISSUE AT 16!!

This experiment (V putting wheels on bike) was also a learning curve - I found that he does like to have access to the instructions when dealing with mechanical matters, that graphs work better than very convoluted instructions with lots of references to (A) bolted on to (B) after affixing (C), that graphs work better upside down if the bike is upside down and that V doesn't need the help of a 7 year old to do his work!!

We also finally all had helmets that approximated our headsize, so pumped the adult bike tyres and pedalled across to the beach for a test run - it was so quick and easy!!! You could see the cogs falling into place in the little one's head - we then went further afield to a favourite playground and raced back home!! I was so proud of us all!

Well, after a morning like that, we had to find another "to do" item to be done immediately. And our chosen task was "The Bed Job".

Background briefing - when I moved up here, I gave my bed to a friend rather than add it to the large list of things for the removalist, as there already was a bed here - and I thought that it would do until I bought another.

Well, it did until another bed became available (unfortunately money gets frittered very easily by me on such frivolities as car repairs, groceries and fish and chip splurges).

The first bed was originally my parents bed, and they bought it when it was a top shelf item when they got married. They were married in 1965. Bed technology has come some way since then... For a start, there are less springs to squeak and pop as you (ahem) roll over in bed. I will miss the handy bedside tables attached to the bedhead, though!

The new bed is a double ensemble - bought in the 1980s and is a "large double" (in that straightlaced era there was not the option of a Queen available - no doubt a few people baulked at that). Okay, again is a parent's hand-me-down and the wheelie bits are fairly shot - we now have a complete set of bricks holding it above the floor - but oh, the bliss, the silence - the added luxury of testing a "triple ensemble" concept with the original mattress on top - very bouncy and liable to encourage tumbles from the corners!

We then celebrated by togging up and cycling over to the beach again for a splash, with the little one and I doing bike tricks on the old skating rink while V wet his surfboard. Upon arriving home, a disappointed child wanted to do more - so more was done, with finding a new playground, discovering new streets, casual waves at previously unmet locals and a few twinges in my very untoned rear end.

We arrived home to the aroma of the crockpot roast, and the trimmings were made and placed on the table - when the only spot of doom to mar the weekend occurred.

Let me just say that I have learned a few lessons in my time as a mother - some recent, some long ago, some very bad lessons and some apt. But I continue to learn. And there are many teachers - the child, other parents, innocent bystanders and books... I am in the process of reading one at the moment that, while not going to apply as gospel, has given me a few nuggets.

Anyhow, the lesson that had to be learned by my daughter was one concerning grace, consideration and eating what is put in front of you. She fairly well failed all three, and Mum applied a principle - I failed to placate and tolerate, instead, with the good doctor's words ringing in my ears that "children do not starve in 1 night", sent her to bed.

Of course, I am a wuss and she did eventually get fed, but she has now realised that she set off some consequences that may not have been triggered if she had just shown a little grace and consideration. Because I have now learned that by being ruled by her ever decreasing food preferences I am doing noone any favours - and so she has been assured that not only is a lot of food she has never seen before going to join our menu, from now on 1 item of everything will be on her plate and she will eat it with grace.

By Sunday morning we were all over it, and made pikelets as a friend was coming over for a playdate. Even if I do say so myself, I have finally cracked the pikelet code and I make pretty fantastic pikelets these days!! Not having an oven, the recipe gets a fair workout.

The other child and mine played wonderfully (even though I got some insight into a few factors that may be affecting my child's friendship skills) and we all got to frolic in the waves again.

So - the whole weekend was spent in swimsuits basically, we played lots, ticked our requisite 2 to do check boxes (well, more as we also tidied the house and did those chores that sort of seem to be required to stop the wheels from falling off) and spent most of the 44 hours available V time having fun!

How was yours?

Surf's up (maybe)

The rumour is that those two fluffy swirly things to the North East may join together and make themselves into a cyclone, travel South along the coast and look to land somewhere between Mackay and Maryborough - maybe... So there may be some real swell here - I know of 1 lovely gentleman that hopes so, anyway. And I also know of about 1 million (not personally) who would like it to hover a little further South and target catchment areas.

But if you have looked at and pondered over weather maps for as long as I have (I have known what a trough looks like since I could take notice of the television), you know its best not to count those chickens.

But hey - its a nice segue into what is on my mind this morning. I thought I would take you on a little surf of my own.

Since starting this blog I have gotten to know a few different sites to the ones on my blogroll, so I am going to use at least one tip given to me here: scribbit: Five Good Blog Tools (and Three Bad Ones) | A Blog About Motherhood in Alaska and update my blog roll - but before I do that, I will take you to a couple that have tickled me in the last week.

I will start with Crazy Trace - this woman inspires me as she does so much - I don't think I will ever get there, but maybe one day I can be a super mum too!!! She rides, exercises, is a committee bee and parents (for a fair bit solo) 3 children. I don't ride, don't exercise, have a lot of good excuses for not being on committees and am flat out being a mediocre parent to my 1 darling even with weekend assistance.

I love to check in on Semantically Driven, another Mum doing it alone in SA.

RootieToot at Because Its Personal seems to have it all together also - she may not admit to it, but she runs a pretty tight family (and blog)!

Baggage And Bug was one of the first blogs I started following, and Baggage remarkably looks after 3 foster children and her own adopted daughter!!

Adventures Of Teacup is a fairly recent blog I have been reading and enjoying - another mother who can do it all and be craft at the same time.

Miscellaneous Adventures of an Aussie Mum is dealing with a baby and a toddler and keeping a sense of humour and streams of consciousness running - more than I could do!

In Everybody Needs Therapy the TherapyDoc covers lots and lots of issues that can really affect, well, everybody.

Kill the Goat was one of the first blogs I came across and enjoyed - still do!

One of the first bloggers who ever commented on mine before I had found her was Strauss at The Brave - a very brave Aussie mum in Canada.

Shishyboo is another I found through the link to link to link method.

I first met Janeen at Diary of a Single Mum on the Edge through MomBlogs, and also read her "amateur" blog (as opposed to "professional") destinations - journeys of a restless mind.

At Kari's Couch they had a fun trip to ER this week.

I have just discovered Magic Bellybutton who has just discovered she is a nerd. lol - I may not have been long in the blogosphere, but my citizenship at nerddom is set in stone.

Slacker Mama seems to be having a fun March, already.

Mommy Has a Headache has just started giving advice.

Of the men, I have just discovered Rainy Pete; Geese A Plenty always gives me a chuckle (case in point - the sugar substitute post); and Single in the City is going to have a wild Mardi Gras!

Of the uberblogs I lurk at (hey, these guys get 50 comments for blinking - they don't need my statistics!), there is Suburban Blis; Where am I Going and why am I in this handbasket; Oh the Joys; And I Wasted All That Birth Control; dooce; Stay at Home Motherdom (among others - but you get the drift).

Believe me, this is only about 30% of what I read in the week - I wonder where all my spare time is? - but I am culling (about 15 are on the "notice" list) - however I keep finding new nuggets (about 15 are on the "check out" list). Sigh.

So, I have a question - what do you like to read in blogland - what makes you cull?