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So now I have a month off! YAY!!!
Yes, I have a whole month off on holidays. Some of it is spoken for, a weekend down south, a weekend with sons inlaws from Wales, a class or two in wirework and beadmaking. But most of it will be spent on ME, with ME and for ME! Yes, it is all about ME. (Well, I knew that of course!) So in the morning, instead of getting up at 5am and going to work... in the traffic... on the M1, I will be lolling around the house. Putting my feet up, turning off the phone, the radio, the TV and insulating myself from THEM. I will not be listening to any whinging, whining, moaning and groaning about other staff, the work, the researchers, the boss. I will be listening to ME.
It is supposed to rain pretty much all next week. NIIIICE! Cooler and just right for working over the flame (well except for the humidity which my oxy generator doesn't like). I have some new glass to try out so am happy to fool around with that for a week. Hubby will be working and training for the Sydney to GoldCoast ride by bicycle. Raising funds for homeless kids so a worthy cause and enough to keep him busy and out of my hair.
One of our staff members (one that I am particularly fond of) finished up today to go to another facility next door. She is only 23 and I like her. Very smiley, a bit silly at times, big heart and not an ounce of malice in her soul. She spent a good part of the afternoon at her lunch, crying about leaving as she has been with us for almost 6 years. The boss told her if she really doesn't like her new job she can come back to us but I told her that it was time she spread her wings and got some experience elsewhere. Once she grows up and gets a little tougher, she will be a great facility director. I am going to miss her badly.
bye
www.kiva.org and other things
Yes, I want to put a plug in for KIVA, the gift that you can keep giving. I like the idea immensely and am sponsoring two micro businesses in third world countries. The idea is that you have a share portfolio that you can start with as little as 25 dollars US. You join KIVA, deposit at least $25 US into your portfolio and then you choose which prospective entrepeneur you wish to support. Other people join in until the loan is complete and that money is lent to a thirdworld micro business borrower. This is usually a small group of people (4 - 6) often women, single mothers, very small business owners. They use the loan to to better thieir business, maybe increase their stock, perhaps by buying a bulk amount at reduced prices, and then sell their stock or whatever through their shop or little busness and pay back the loan. Then you can relend that money to someone else. Of course, perhaps they will default on the loan, that's possible, but the record of most of these people and the organisations that oversee the loans is very, very good. Most loans run from 6 months to 18 months depending on the amount. check it out! They get to maintain their dignity and get a helping hand. And that same hand can help again later! Also it s not so much that I can't coninue to support my other favorite charities.
Other things
Next doors are having a party. I have done some lampworking demos for them, shown them around the reptile collection and now I am going to bed. They are all a bit drunk now and that's boring.
Night!
2008 and it's raining again but beads to show
Absolutely cracker of a Christmas and New Year! Number One reason was that it was cool! A cool relaxing event rather than the usual "I'mmmmmmmm mmmeeeeelllllllltttttiiiiinnnnnnnng!" thing where you hang around the aircon all day and all night. We even had a baked Xmas Dinner! And enjoyed it!
Haven't really had a stinker of a day yet at all. I am sitting here at 5pm, no air con going, and feeling (Yes unbelievable but true) a little bit too cool. Like I need sleeves in my TShirt. In January. Bloody wonderful.
For the last.....10-14 days it has been gusting wind and raining on and off. The sky will be blue one minute and the next it's raining and howling. Then it's stops and the sky will be blue or just overcast again. Weird. It's like it rains for a minute, then it takes a walk around the block to come back and do it again. Not enough rain to break the drought but it's really making a difference to the soil. It actually feels moist at 4 cms deep. Now if we got some droughtbreakers, at least it wouldn't all run off the baked ground.
I am back to work tomorrow after 6 days off as I worked through Xmas time. It's been lovely and makes me want to give up work altogether. I am taking long service in Feb probably for a month. Maybe I need to talk Hubby into going back to WA to work so I can become a 'Lady who lunches" That would be great. Oh well
I have been making beads like crazy to fulfil some deadlines. I don't know why I get myself into 'deadline' stuff as it only stresses me out and stamps on my creativity. I did get some testbatch glasses from Double Helix which I haven't used yet but will on the weekend. 
These ones I did the other day but today I am doing Kaleras on a press I borrowed and which I like very much. I actually thought they would be indistinguishable from nuggets but they look quite different and wearable. The goddess beads are for sale, well so is the heart but I haven't listed it yet.
well, need to go and eat something that hopefully I take time to cook first!
Bye
midgee and bundjalung
I stood around for an hour waiting for the manager to arrive so I could have a private chat with him about staff issues before the staff descended upon him. I waited down by the river where we park. While there waiting , then chatting I casually brushed off the little biting insects and then wandered off to do an audit in another facility. There was an increased itch that night, to the point where I woke scratching. I woke up next morning with 21 huge itchy gungy lumps weeping lymph. Mmmm so that's what a midgee bite is like. So next afternoon I visited the chemist looking for the 'midgee cure'. That would be Polaramine antihistamine she says. So I go home and take one, yep. It works, no itching at all...but that's cause I am facedown asleep on the bed within an hour. No dinner, no coffee, no nothing but a slurry mouthful of mumbly words and then incessant snoring so my husband says. It does say it can cause drowsiness and not to drive. I got up this morning for work with the worst case of morning stupidity and a killer hangover. Now the itch is back but I am afraid to take any more Polaramine. Polaramine1/Midgees 2
The saga of the next door neighbour continues. Yes, I got her a job at my workplace (not hard as we are desperate for staff) as a casual employed for 5 days a week for a 3 month probation. Unfortunately so far she has taken 42 full days off and 7 halfdays off. The director is not pleased and neither am I. What do you have to do to get staff who want to work? . We don't slave them and we pay well! OK it can be smelly work but geez, she says she wants to work 5 days a week but has only done about 3 weeks where she turned up every day for work. So they are putting her on a month to month contract til she either shapes up or they sack her. She was crying but I have washed my hands of it and told her to deal with the Manager and not to come to me.
The newest staff member started Monday a week ago and finished on Wednesday last week. He was asked to shift some sacks of pellets and went all red and blotchy and came out in hives. Allergic. Bye bye! One of the staff asked if we were going to emply him in some other area and I said,"In waht other area is he qualified and where he won't come into contact with rodent chow pellets?" That would be a NO.
We attract people of indifferent intelligence. All out material handlers bar one, are MMmmmm....how to be kind?............Dumb as rocks?.........no............80cents short of a dollar. The exception is a Muslim doctor who is improving his English and trying to find a job and having trouble getting people to see past the Iran on his passport. He is sweet, hardworking and smart. Trouble is the uni won't reemploy him on his present visa. We won't be able to replace him with anyone like unfortunately.
OK, more interesting stuff to me at least. I rang my mother last week to inquire about her family history. well, you know, life goes past, people die and before you know it the family history is gone and unrecoverable. Anyway I always knew we had aboriginal great-great grands but I didn't know much else until my sister did some tracking a few years ago. Anyway the story is:
My mothers grandmother was Jane Mariah (probably common law wife as my mothers says she doesn't think they were married). She was the daughter of a Bunjalung woman from Cabbage Tree Island just south of Wardell and married? a Carter man from Jiggi way. Her grandfather was from NT and came down with a drive of cattle to somewhere and ended up on the coast. My sister and I plan to visit Jiggi and surrounds as Mum says that's where they were raised and we should still have family from both sides around there. Apparently Jane and her sister Lily were taken when they were 12-13 to Sydney to be trained as maids or whatever they did with half castes who were 'rescued'. Anyway Jane ran away when she was fifteen and came back to Cabbage Tree Island and her sister Lily did also a couple of years later. Lily married a jeweller or something and Jane ended up a farmers wife. Mum said she was a fairly tough old woman and not very affectionate. So it will be interesting to find what other family still lives in the area and what records there might be. First thing I will check out will be Jiggi school records.
And for everyone who reads Real Tart, you can catch him on http://realtart.blog.co.uk/
and wait for some breaking news on the progress of his books! Looking forward to that.
Bye
BAT45
What is budgeting? Epic
Hubby says we need to have a strict budget to pay off this debt we have accumulated and while saying that he is carefully not looking at me. No, because looking at me would mean he is saying I ran up this debt. It al started when he lent 15,000 to his sister who is still paying it off. Then he lent 15.000 to his parents, who have paid it back and then he lent 15.000 to his friend who took six months longer to pay it back than planned. But it also meant that in no time at all there was 45.000 out of the account and it was paid back in dribs and drabs but never fully because he decided we needed a new fence yada yada yada. It was a slow erosion more than anything but started by him. Meanwhile he has bought $5,000 of art and god knows how much he spent on Moorcroft and studio glass. A handmade cedar hall table and mirror . I need to get over the injustice and just budget I guess but if I am having to account for every dollar so will he from now on. We desperately need to recover the leather lounge suite though. Much more than we needed a new painting. I should have put my foot down earlier but he is normally such a tightwad.
I am pretty cranky at myself for taking the O2 generator down to my mothers! I knew I shouldn't shift it but did it anyway!! Now it is playing up and damn it! When I was sorting out a few rods of glass to take I realised how short I am of white and clear but I got 400 in sales so I told Hubby I was ordering glass. I would like to order 1.000 worth but will be good and get 300 only. It doesn't add up to much glass though. 1/2 pound of this, pound of that before you know it, that's 300 and it is only a smallish box of glass that arrives. If I spent a thousand and got them to send it in 3 boxes it would be a substantial saving but hubby would flip his lid since I have already spent 1000 or more over the last 6t months. Damn it.
He is talking about still working the mines but I said if he does, I will probably stay in Bris and leave work and bead full time. Working for three weeks and having 5 days off doesn't appeal for any sort of money, especially the flying back and forth. He could still have his cycle over there and I would look after his animals here. I would still be happyish, but miss him like hell. If ther were decent accommodation I would live over there but there won't be any, there never is. I suppose a big caravan would be OK if I can fit my studio in. somewhere?
Well, have things to do unfortumately. Life always intrudes!!
So life is interesting....in a Chinese curse kind of way
Yesterday.
I was planning to leave work early (about 12.30) to pack up the car for a trip to my Mothers to give a class in lampworking to a group of women who wanted to know more. At 11.30, coming back from lunch (we start early so eat early) my most reliable and knowledgable staff member crashed her motorbike into a powerpole. She met some guy and decided to catch lunch with him near to work and came back on a street she hadn't previously used. Doing 60k over the crest of a hill on this little sidestreet and realised too late the the road didn't continue down the hill but took an abrupt turn right. Luckily there was a handly powerpole there to stop her! She is home now (not that anyone there would bother checking on her) with a thigh like a football, a buggered knee and shoulder and throwing up. I wanted to go get her and she could stay at my place for a few days but she says her brother will be home soon and take her to the doctors. Why she would get in a car with him, I don't know, as I am sure he spends 20 hours a day, higher than a kite.
The manager rang me to say,"why didn't I tell him that he was rostered to work this weekend?" Excuse me? You are the manager, not me and I am pretty sure you can read a roster sheet. The rule is and has been for years, if you are going on holidays and due to work a weekend, you swap it out with someone else before you go so no one else has to be inconvenienced. What was stopping him from doing what he expects other staff to do? Grrrrrrr
Long service leave is due to be taken next year so in Feb I am taking a month of it off. Anywhere but there for a whole month!
On the bright side of life.........I am apparently healthy and doing OK. I think I must be a natural pessimist.....on the bright side.....I had a nice day today. My O2 generator worked oK after its trip in the back of the car, the gas didn't run out, I took enough glass. One only baby Mertons monitor has hatched but others will be hatching soon enough. My eldest just finished getting his teeth capped and came home to show me. They were crooked, the front ones that is, and one had a chip from a work incident. They were straight up and down and even, but not lined up as one front one had a slight turn in it so he had them ground and capped. Mind you, had he allowed me to put braces on when he was 14, this wouldn't be an issue now.
Well, I need a nanny nap
Bye
I am a cheap drunk
I have had one glass of wine and already my head is a bit wobbly balancing with trepidation on my neck. I figure I needed alcohol after my day and still the rest of the week to go!
Today I sent off 3 shipments of live animals and one shipment of samples. A lot of mucking around and running downstairs every time the courier serivce turned up. It was a scrabble to find enough gel packs but I eventually found some and took the opportunity to order ina bunch for next time.
The problem is when you order for transport for a shipment interstate, they don't seem to bother to email you back with a confirmation! When you are organising multiple pickups its easy to over look that and then (well me at least) panicking at the last minute wondering if I actually ordered that courier for that time. This morning I went straight to work spinning down blood samples for pickup at some unknown time during the day so I was a bit flustered all day then because I didn't get a chance to get my head on first thing.
Then we had an interview right in the middle of packing the live animals which I had forgotten about until she rang to ask where I was. But we so badly need the staff, I dropped everything and went. I haven't done too many interviews before and this guy had a midline facial deformity (probably a severe cleft palate) which took me by surprise but he seemed on the ball in the interview and it isn't like we had too many applicants. Hope he settles in OK.
One of the newer staff is thinking of leaving. She is a mature age woman with no confidence and I had a crises last week with her when she thought she wasn't doing any good work and I reassured her that we were quite happy with her work. I thought shewas OK then but apparently not. I don't have time to handhold someone who should be able to decide for herself so if she is going to leave she bettter do it now and not over Xmas. Otherwise her reference won't be worth having. Yeah, I can be a bit of bitch when people don't make an effort to minimise disruption.
I better go and have another drink
Technology and I are not friends
In fact, at times we are barely on speaking terms.
On Wednesday, in a fit of bytesized optimism, I purchased a new mobile phone. My last phone was very basic i.e.
1. It had an alarm that I knew how to set that would wake me on time, every time.
2. It had a calender function that I could put meetings and deadlines into and it would beep encouragingly at a preset time beforehand AND I could set it on vibrate only if in a meeting.
3. It had a clock face on the front so I knew what time it was when I glanced at it.
4. I could use it to make a phone call or receive a call. And it was loud enough for me to hear it.
5. The font etc was big enough to be easily seen by my rapidly aging eyes.
Now this new phone, has only a few buttons more, a lovely bright colourful screen, video and camera, mini Card memory, music storage and playback. The drawback is, it needs to sync to my laptop and it won't. I can't find the buttons that actually do anything besides flip me back and forth into the black hole that is Nokia hell. Those buttons I knew well. Gone. That simple menu that I understood. Gone.
I think they design these phones to suck us into thinking we are not stupid savages when all the time they know we will stumble and fall off the mobile cliff into 'What can't you understand, it's simple, you old fogey!" I have no self confidence, I have mobileorexia. My old phone friend is disabled and nonworking so I can't even go back to the womb.
I have an Ipod (I didn't buy it, I won it at work as a prize in a survey of our maintenance department).
That was over a year ago and I still don't know how to put a pic on it. I had a minidisc player and I could mostly use that, well the simple functions (I didn't buy that either, a gift from a son). I have recently worked out how to use the GPS Navman but now it's broken (wasn't me! Just happened, I swear).
Just when I start to think I should be more feminine, I get hit in the face with the fact that the only machines I operate with any savoir faire are a microwave, a washingmachine and a fridge. According to the received opinion of admakers, that's all women should know too.
Just as well I created a semi reliable operating system called, 'Number 2 son' which will get my little demon machines working. Ah, the creative side of womanhood. 'if you can't fix it, birth a creature who can.'
and left the toilet running all day
Yes, that would be my husband, last out the door today with the cistern stuck on flush. Son came in a 4pm to use the shower and found the toilet on permanent flush for......10 hours. The guilt! The guilt! in the middle of the worst drought in decades! Now I have just come upstairs and found the shower dripping like a river and he is in bed asleep. Something will have to be said tomorrow.
I am working overtime for four hours then coming home and cooking a BBQ for the two sons and their ladies. Jenna (eldest ones fiance) and Malinda (youngers' girlfriend) haven't met yet so it should be interesting. They are both very nice girls and I like them a lot. Anyone that could hogtie eldest into engagement is worthy of respect and admiration as he went through girlfriends like nobodies business before. And any girl that could pry youngest out of his computer chair to participate in a life has my undying gratitiude.
Today I made beads, hearts with little twirly tails in mother of pearl glass and pink with pearl pixie dust over the top. Also MOP and teal withpixie dust and lastly, lavender and pale blue transparent glass with pink dichro inside. I was quite pleased with them going in the kiln so I hope they look as good coming out.
I am on the xmas party committee at work and one of the members has insisted that we don't call it a 'Christmas Party" that it should be called 'An End of Year Party" due to the number of Muslims, Jews, and Non Christians that are our colleagues. That would be one Muslim, one Wiccan, no Jews and the rest pretty much athiests. I tried to point out that Santa is not a Christian symbol anyway but she is sticking to her beliefs. SIGH!..................GRRRR
Night all
Galleries and moolah
We can't resist my husband and I. We have no will power and there no "NO" in our vocabularly. We are supposed to be on a budget and yet we find ourselves bring home a few thousands dollars worth of art. OKAY, two peices are for the boys for Christmas (might as well start them on the road to addiction) but the big investment is for us. It isn't home yet as it is being exhibited in a showing in December in the city but after that, it will be coming home. Where are we going to put it? Somewhere nice, somewhere good, somewhere that is not already stuffed with objects. Somewhere out of the sunlight as this is a painting this time.
This is our first piece of aboriginal art and it spoke to both of us about connections and history, his and mine. It harks back to the celts and similarities between these two cultures.
Our youngest son moved out today and in with this girlfriend so Hubby has loaded up the trailer and they all drove off to the unit. I was tidying up the garage, checking the boxes that were left to see if they were his, ours or other sons. What do you think I found? Something my Hubby has obviously socked away thinking,'she never goes in the garage'. A box full of Moorcroft. A big, big box full of Moorcroft. So do I shut my mouth and wait to see if it appears at Xmas or mention it? Mmmmmmmmm Is it mine or is it his or is it ours? Veddy Interesting.
That's all I have to say about that, Rinny
I just visited Rinny's blog (whereupon I have to say, Rinny! time to put fingers to the keyboard again.
Funny. I loved the blog about a decade on and visiting the school reunion. Safely, boringly, I have been to a high school reunions because, well frankly, it was the worst time of my life and not one I would want to visit again. That being said, I would only remember about 5 people anyway as it all passed in a haze of misery. People would say, ' I remember you and......blah blah blah" while I looked at them in a fog of blankness. The only two school friends I have met since leaving, one got married at 17 and one got married at 25. The 17 yr old left town and the rest didn't as far as I know. The 25yrold still lives in her parents house as she divorced after three kids. Eck! No, definitely not worth remembering any of it.
At work lately it has been a race who could complain about muscle injuries and pain the most. The winner is a girl who went home fine and came back with her arm in a elbow support and sling. She has filed for workers comp. Can't beat that. I just take my ibruprofen every day at 7am and forget about it. What can you do? It's the nature of the work. I am twice their age so some muscle pain is to be expected.
Had a seminar at work today which for a change was interesting, informative and timely. The last one was so boring the boss was going to sleep in the front row. It wasn't the topic so much, it was the speaker. To be fair, I think he had a bad dose of the flu but to be evenhanded I think he should have stayed in Melbourne and not made us suffer too. He kept losing the thread of his talk and spoke in a v.e.r.y. monotone voice. The eyelids just got heavier and heavier til you take to rubbing your face vigorously every couple of minutes.
Exciting times at work. The boss chatted with me today about future plans and asked me about going to the new facility. I told him I would be just as happy staying in the old one which surprised him, I think. Anyway he was talking about splitting the double facility into two seperate entities and I think now, he's thinking he will get me to manage one and M to take on the other. Suits me. The new Manager of the Brand New Facility (where I was supposed to go and where I know all the staff having worked with and for them for 5 years) said she was tired of the researchers asking for me. She said she was going to put a sign up saying 'Bat45 can be found on the end of this phone and here is the number'..Kind of nice. Even though most of their research is now in the other new facility with other technicians, they keep coming to me to find out stuff. I suppose its habit but its a rewarding feeling just the same. Ah, indispensible ol' me.
No, truth be told, no one is indispensible and if I died tomorrow, no research would be lost. That's the way life is.
Well, off to bead on the torch. Had the last couple of nights off and we are going upcoast tomorrow to a gallery opening. I still have to hem up some pants for it too.
bye
Little bit fearful, little bit worried. Kitty, where are you?
So Kitty, the inveterate poster, has not posted for a few days now. Not since she said in her last post how depressed she was and how she was staying in bed all day. I commented but she hasn't replied. I worry that either, she is sunk in the depression so deep that she is just laying there or worse. I wish she would post something, anything.
Come on Kitty, just say you are still here, just not posting. Any word what so ever. I don't know what to do.
That's the trouble with blog friends etc, you don't know much but what they say. They could be anywhere, doing anything. If I knew where she was,...well I wouldn't send the cops after the last effort they made. but I would send the Salvos or someone.
Rundown from Sundown
Father IL sent a package on the 30th of October. That's fine. He has just had heart surgery and Mother IL is away down in Victoria. The plan was he would return home, Meals on Wheels for a fortnight and nurse would call everyday to check on him. He's OK, it's just precautionary. Trouble is the package was also stamped at the PO of the town nearest the farm, he was NOT supposed to go until Ma IL had returned home. That indicates he may have driven a good 500k from home out to the station/farm and might be staying in the house alone. Mmmmmmmm
Ok I rang him at home and he is still in Rocky. That's strange. The parcel has two Rocky PO postage labels dated 30 Oct 07 on the front with my address plus a registered Post Sticker., On the back is the Springsure PO inked stamp dated the 31stOct with the return home address in Rocky He said he wrapped it in brown paper that was a new roll so that stamp didn't come from reused wrapping paper either. That means that he posted it in Rocky, and it made a trip out to Springsure, got stamped, and then onto Brisbane. Must be just a strange coincidence.
It is kind of cool here tonight. I should be torching but I am just too tired. I tried to have a nap when I got home but to no avail. Anyway, the mossies ate me alive down there the other night. I didn't think to spray and I was concentrating on the melted glass and didn't even notice till I turned off the burner. Now I have four very inflamed bites on the bottom of my calf, two on a foot and one on my ankle and they will take at least a fortnight to fade. ECK
Still waiting for my Merton goanna eggs to hatch in the incubator. I should take a pic for you! They still look good after 7 1/2 very long months. I keep thinking maybe today, maybe today but no. There are 12 (a couple a little smaller) but they are all still white and round so the babies are still alive. Last time it took a month from the first baby to pip its egg, until the last one was out, so only 71/2 months in total. This time they are running a month late. I sold one as she didn't get on with the pair. And I think I will keep 3 out of this clutch of eggs.
The pond in the Mertons cage has a quite expensive submersible water pump in it which has stopped working. We don't run it in Winter but in summer you definitely need it to keep the water liquid! Luckily it is still under warranty so hopefully they will fix or replace it soon. We got a lend of another but it is way too small for the size of the pond which is 6' long x 4' wide and 30" deep. I told hubby to pull the filter out and just let it circulate the water otherwise we are down there pulling out the filter every 1/2 hour to wash it out and now the sons and visitors have gone, there must be better things to do!
Dinner and conversation
Just come back from dinner with Chica. I had a nanny nap and woke up laaatte. Found I had exactly one hour to get showered, dressed and drive 35 minutes across the suburbs. If I hadn't got a bit lost, I would have only been 10 mins late. I got confused when the street I was looking for didn't appear but finally worked out on I was on the wrong side of the railway tracks........well, nothing has changed there!
Dinner was very nice and we had a good chat about family, life etc. She is a very good conversationalist and holds a lot of similar opinions so we have a lot in common besides some Christian names in the family. It was nice to catch up.
Today Ma IL and I went back to Browns Plains and I did get that graphics tablet and Ma IL bought a couple of clothes....well so did I. I know, I didn't really need them...only just wanted them.
I have the tablet hooked up but the pen tracks are shakey as hell. Looks a heart monitor with a heart attack ongoing. I tried to calibrate it but the curson disappears as soon as I go to the calibration screen. I might take it back and wait for a better one. We'll see.
Tomorrow night, Paul and I will be alone for the first itme in ...well...weeks it seems. Woo Hoo!
Tomorrow, Paul and I are going to Byron Bay for a look around at the glass places. Colin Heaney stuff and whatever else we can find.
Night
The Beat goes on
So my Da in law has returned home to Rocky and my Ma in law is flying to Melbourne on Wednesday. Son won't be home will next weekend so Hubby and I will be having sex again. It's very offputting knowing every loud sigh can be heard in the next bedroom.
Da IL has made a good recovery and is getting Meals On Wheels until Ma IL gets back home in a month. I spoke to him tonight as this was his first day of supplied meals. Vegetable soup, Roast Lamb and vegetables, Sultana custard. Too much vegetables in the soup he said, too much meat in the roast and the dessert was so so. I figure he might be hard to please. I told him to give the extra meat to the dog, only eat half the soup and stop eating dessert. Problem solved. He didn't agree.
So brother in law has caved and is driving Ma IL to the airport on Wednesday. Just as well otherwise words would have been exchanged.
So I went to Aldi's yesterday after hubby reported seeing a graphics tablet (USB) for $69 there. I always wanted one so went to have a look. Took Ma IL with me after we dropped of DA IL, find someone to open the locked cabinet but No, he doesn't have akey. Manager has only key and he is away. Box in the lock cabinet is display only and guy can't find the actual item out the back (Why have a locked case of empty boxes I wonder). He says come back tomorrow and I say I would rather phone before driving all the way across 5 suburbs. He says "Theydon't hand out the store number, it is against policy". ???WTF!!! So I give him my business card with number and say phone me please when the manager comes in with the key. Long story short.....no phone call.
Big storms all last night so I am knackered today. The thunder and lightening kept me awake on and off all night. Got a heap of rain, so much that it dripped into the computor room. Hail, small hail. Rain, screaming wind (but not gusty) and lightening. NOICE! I had to get up and shut the bedroom window because the wind making that hollow scream as it whistled past and around. Then it was too hot. Turn the fan on, then it's too cool, Turn off the fan and open the door, still too hot. Shut the door, crack the window, turn on the fan and point it at the ceiling practically.
Having dinner with a mate from BlogNow tomorrow night. I like her very much so am looking forward to that. We have the sorts of conversations that are usually reserved for the best friend that you have known from school and whose brother you dated.for a while. I don't really have any best friends from school as I was glad to see the back of the part of my life and they stayed in my hometown so we fellout of touch. Two got pregnant young and married. One got married young and pregnant. I did too but some 5-8 years later. Seems like a lifetime away. Well, it was I suppose.
My Sis IL is the best friend and my mate Tania is another. I don't need or want many since those sorts of relationships require enough dedication from me already. So C is another best friend now. Three is plenty since there is always myself to keep me company when I want.
Tho....Cat is amazing and interesting. ..........Quirky.......
And the family issues go on.
Have my inlaws visiting at the moment. Dad was flown down from Rocky to have pacemaker put in very quickly when they realised his heart was going down to 34 bpm at times. He, my husband and his brother all have slow heart beats but 34 is extreme. Dad is still playing tennis at 78 but has had a couple of falls lately and now they think he probably had little faints and just thought he tripped. Anyway, he has had the pacemaker in and is feeling well enough to go back to Rocky by himself while Mum continues down to Victoria for 3 weeks. He will have homecare visiting while she is away but probably doesn't really need it but it will just ease our minds. So, the warning was very short and it was considered somewhat of an emergency to have this pacemaker put in so he was flown down and my husband took 4 days off to drive up to Rocky and pick up his Mum. Then he spent the next two days taking her back and forth to the hospital. Then he spent a day taking her around to the rellies and picking up his Dad from Hospital etc etc etc. Tomorrow, Dad flies back home. I have taken two days off, Mon and Tues, to stay with his Mum (She has TIA's occasionally and shouldn't really spend too long alone). Needless to say, neither of my husband TWO siblings here can take any time off to spend with them or even take them to the train or airport! I am really pissed about it. It seems to be taken for granted that we will do all the running around........ I willl have to say something about it this time. His brother rang his mother up and said, jokingly?, that my Hubby isn't the Number 1 son just for that cause he would have had other reasons to go to Rocky! Jeeeeesssussss!
Today I spend 7 hours in the company of peers at a social meeting of beadmakers. Gosh its a great group of women (and 1 man) We have a great time and yak. Today we met at Mt Coot tha picnic grounds and it was more social. Some people brought their families but mine were all busy and anyway, it is really 'ME' time. ....What time isn't "ME" time anyway??? Haha We had a couple of people do demonstrations of silversmithing and wire weaving, just to do something different. My friend couldn't go but I got her some freebies to make up for it.
Improvement comes on cat feet
I have been making glass beads now for two years. I assumed I had improved but its like watching your children grow, you know it happens but you only see it in hindsight. Today I had a very successful beadmaker come for a 'playday' where we just yak and make beads and talk about making beads, experiment etc. Yesterday I took a few sets over to her place for a playday and she insisted she needed another day. I showed her my beads and she went ooohh ahh. I swapped a set with her, not because I particularly wanted hers but because she wanted mine. Not the ooohah ones though whcih I am going to sell. Anyway, today I was amazed at what she doesn't do than at what she does. She doesn't buy glass off the net, so she is paying full price retail. I buy most of my glass from America because:
a. I am not paying for the retailers markup here which is on glass that they buy from the same places I do
b. I can access more colours, more types because retailers here will only buy what they think will sell, not what is available. Understandable but limiting
c. I can get discounted prices for volume so I normally buy in a group with a couple of friends.
The killer has been the conversion rate
from US to Aust and the shipping but it is still cheaper even with that on top.
Now I understand why she is so keen to buy any excess glass from me! She doesn't make her own Murrine which is easy enough to do, she doesn't use any tech tools but now she has tried mine, she is planning to get a set for Xmas. Anyway the point was that now I realise that while I like her beads (she has a very fine sense of colour and detail) in actual fact she is still making the beads she made two years ago, whereas I have moved on. It was a bit of an eyeopener. I think she needs more playdays!
A very good lampworking buddy who started at the same time as I has recently made a quantum leap in her beadmaking. She was stuck in the groove but I said why don't you try.....She had been making the same beads over and over in different colours. Suddenly she is making beads that are different and exciting. It is great for her and it came from playdays with me and others. You really need to stretch and look around and gather influences from everywhere.
So out of this, I have looked at my work with new eyes and realised how far I have come.
Naturally perfect....almost
I just has a visitor who brought around his sick bearded dragon. My sis-iin-law met him at work and he was saying his male was sick this morning and he rang a vet and was told to bring him down. When he got there the vet said she didn't know anything about reptiles! And recommended another vet, WTF? My SIL rang me up and I said I would see him. So when I saw it, I told him that I didn't know either!
Anyway I said to him that the best reptile vet in the area is 'blah blah blah' but, in my opinion, he would be better off taking it home, putting it in a hot box, in the dark and letting it alone to make up its mind whether it would recover or on. You can buy nice beardeds for about $100 and the vet costs to find out the problem would probably be 4 times that with no real chance it would live anyway. Reptiles and birds are like that, if you can see they are sick, then they are really, really REALLY sick! They wait until death is just around the corner before showing it. I also said that either, it ate something nasty or something nasty tried to eat it. It doesn't have respiratory disease, it isn't metabolic bone disorder, it was fine yesterday, eating and running around. I suspect an internal injury as it was living with big bluetongues and they love to bite so possibly a crush injury of the stomach. Maybe a little cane toad got in the cage. A little peace, warmth and quiet might help it decide to live. If it was a baited mouse or snail, then all bets are off.
Today I received two packages of special glass from the US. Woohoo! going down to torch some beads and see how it turns out. Nice coolish day for it too. In summer I have to keep a face cloth in icy water by me to wipe the sweat off my face and neck as I sit over the torch burner but winter, its just a pleasant way to spend the day.
When I left work yesterday, a storm was rolling over us like the wrath of God and it was a bit scarey to start the car and drive towards the endless gloom. For whatever reason though, it slipped sideways and I only got a little rain and other suburbs got the hail. I was glad to park the car in the carport under shelter though. I like storms but not when I am driving in them. I did stop and pick up some salmon for dinner and they came in twos so I ended up with four. Which was just as well as when I got home, my hubby tells me youngest is bring home a girl for dinner. He hasn't brought home a girl for 6 years! She was really' nice too, though very nervous initially. She was bubbly and funny unlike the previous 'serious and deep' ones who turned out to be a psycho's. So I made grilled salmon with hollandaise, Potato rosti, broccoli and mixed julienned vegetables with a tiny bit of garlic and butter. He was happy and since I haven't had to do much in that way for him, I was happy that he was happy.
Sanity free zone
Chica pointed me to this blog by 'disgusted'. It's a woman and feminist free zone by some poor sap. He is an angry little thing too. A bit of car wreck in action really. Still, maybe while he frothing and ranting on the blog, he isn't out murdering someone.
I have a friend coming over tomorrow with her sister to have a go at lampworking. I wouldn't take a student at themoment without a better ventilation system but the thought is there. Worst thing is....I have stopped buying biscuits and crap so have nothing for morning tea. Damn it, that means a trip out. I was raised to offer drink and food to visitors almost immediately they stick their heads in the door. When I visited America, we went to a meeting of friends at a womans home. We were there for 2 hours and not once was coffee, tea or water even offered. Strange.
I went shopping yesterday and bought 1 meal of meat , vegetables and stuff that ended up being 3 small bags of groceries and the total was 92 dollars. I nearly fell over backwards. I am still hoping for a chlorophyll shot and just standing in the sun will be a meal. No washing up either.
Well time for bed, us sluts and morons (as per Disgusted) really need some beauty sleep!
Bat
Chica returns and this bloody charm exchange
Chica has posted a blog again after 6 months and it was so nice to see. I hope she posts again soon. I am only visiting 3-4 blogs now regularly, Kitty, RT,A on Vox and Chica. I occasionally drop in on the Rabbi but she says she will be posting even less as life gets busier.
I, weakly, agreed to participate in a charm exchange. It is slowly but surely driving me nuts. My imagination seems to have flown the coop and it is due in two weeks. I have to make 20 charms and now am down to 2 weeks! I am not a deadline type of person. I also have a bead calendar to make deadline on but at least I have already made 2 or 3 beads that I can enter. The stress of it all. I mean, how hard can it be but I just can't seem to get it together!!! I will never, never do this again, EVER!
Youngest son is in the wars. Yesterday I came home from work and hubby handed me a baggie with 'herbs' in it. Apparently he found it on the laundrey floor. Of course, he doesn't front up the son, it is my job. This is not a biggie, I don't like it, I don't want him to be indulging but seriously, I did it, my husband did it, way back when. Trouble is, son is somewhat laidback about work etc at the best of times and this is something he doesn't need and I worry he will overindulge. I don't like his few friends but at 25, that is something I don't control or try to. Anyway, I handed it to him and said where and who found it. Unhappy father, unhappy mother and seriously shamefaced son. I pointed out that his fathers profession would make it a serious impediment to fathers future employment if this were found in our home. Then, son came upstairs for dinner and trying to make Dad happy offers to get him a glass of wine. While rummaging in the fridge for the bottle, son manages to break off the the fridge cheese door. SIGH! He says he will try and get another but that is hopeless. Obviously son knows nothing about 3 yr old fridges and the impossibility of spare parts. Now this morning, son drops iron and breaks it. SIGH. Son needs to leave home.
Hubby is set for his Grafton to Inverel race this weekend. I will be glad when it is over. For one thing, I won't have a car this weekend while he is away unless I borrow sons which is manual and not nice to drive. I have gotten lazy since getting an automatic. Also hubby had to get a new wheel after dropping his front wheel into a drain, there is a couple hundred. And he is gone all the time training, doing a thousand a week. I told him he would have to clean out the garage and hang his bikes as you can't get under the house for stepping over bikes and wheels and packs of tyres, and helmets and gloves and computor thingys and snakes cages and lizard cages and fridges and incubators and desks and books and wine and then motorbikes and wood and paint and more wood and stuff and more stuff. It is ridicuous. He says he will pack anything saleable into the trailer and take to the weekend markets but he has been saying that for a couple of years.
Well, I should be washing up from dinner last night.
See ya
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