Sunday 29 January 2012

A wet weekend

Where did this weekend go?  This time a week ago I was telling my kids to get organised for bed as they had the first day of school on the following day.  Now it's a week later and it feels like groundhog with the same message to them again.

Inspite being mostly a wet weekend I didn't do a great deal outside the house. But I managed to go on big walks around my local community in the rain.  It was a nice feeling to walk in the rain too! 

The girls resumed back to bowling this week too and I had my weekly league to play tonight.  Further details about this will be found on my sporting report blog.

What's on your agenda for this week?  Going by my diary looks like I will have a full on week with afew errands to do and places to go.  Whatever plans you got, I hope your week will be a good week.  If you have to travel, have a safe destination!

Friday 27 January 2012

This week was Back to School for a new year of learning in Queensland schools.  But it was only a short week because not all grades resumed back to school on Monday while other grades started on Tuesday. 

Not sure how everyone is going to cope as the new national curriculum was introduced as well.  Apparently I have heard from other sources, today's teachers are using the computer method of teaching their students in their classrooms.  This computer method has a program to be used daily and if the student is absent for some known reason for even one day they will miss out what they learnt.  Guess the good old days of using either the white or black boards are long over.  It might sound good to have all of Australia learning at the same time but I feel this new curriculum might make a huge impact on some students who have a learning disability. 

All kids had Thursday off because it was a public holiday known as Australia Day.  Being a wet stormy week most of the Australia Day activities that are generally be held outdoors was cancelled.  It didn't bother me because I already had other plans on that day.

Back to School meant it was back to business with scrapbooking meets and bowling leagues for my kids.  A further report about scrapbooking has been issued in the craft diary blog.  Once my 13 yo bowls this weekend I will send a report about the girls bowling after this weekend in the sporting blog.

Have a good weekend!

Tuesday 24 January 2012

Back to School

The summer school holidays are now over.  Amazing how quickly the six weeks went.  Half of these school holidays my kids were away in Hervey Bay. While they were away I managed to do some spring cleaning upstairs and caught up with two friends.

Other times when they were at home, we spent alot of time at the shops and seen nine new released movies at the cinemas.  We had seen Puss in Boots twice (my favourite movie), Arthur Christmas, Dolphin Tale, Alvin and the Chipmunks 3, Happy Feet 2, The Muppets, We Brought a Zoo and War Horse (only my 13 yo seen this movie with me and a friend of mine). Majority of the time I enjoy animated movies but I did like We Brought a Zoo as well.  I am sure there is a couple more movies I would like to see before summer ends next month.

As for the movie titled "War Horse" I won't be wishing to see this movie again in a hurry as there was so much true fact graphical scenes filmed. One thing about this movie I had a better understanding about our ANZACS who sacrificed their life to save our country.  Also I can see what kind of life my grandparents would of had to experienced because they were only young children when WW1 hit.

The kids are now back at school this week.  My 11 yo daughter was back at school yesterday and was introduced to the new national curriculum.  My 13 yo daughter was back for a new year of learning today.  I was quite surprised to hear she came home with homework already.

I think it might of been the wrong week to start back at school because we are experiencing the start of a real wet week.  In the last 12 hours we would of had around 100mm of rainfall which of course filled up our swimming pool very fast.  I heard there is flash flooding about but seriously I don't think we will experience the repeat of 2011 floods as this rain will die down in a day or so. This rain might be great for our lawns and gardens but it aren't good when you have to travel for school routines and attended to other events thoughout the week. But once that lovely sunshine of ours comes back out after her time out in the clouds, it will be hot and very sticky again.

Speaking of rain, it's quite heavy outside now.  At least we all will sleep better tonight.  Time for bed to sleep anyway because I will have another busy day tomorrow.  Goodnight!

Sunday 22 January 2012

Movies and more movies

Good evening followers and readers!  How was your weekend?  This weekend was more a movie weekend and watching abit of tennis too. 

Yesterday morning I taken the kids to see Happy Feet 2 at the cinema. It was the only one session left in the morning so I thought we better go before we missed out.  I am glad we went because I feel it is better then the first one.

This afternoon my eldest daughter and I went to the cinema with a friend of mine to see War Horse.  Believe me it was quite a long movie and it definiately isn't suited for young children.  The movie is about a horse who survived the WW!.  Due to the graphic nature of war, I am not planning on seeing this movie again. I don't think there was not one dried eye in the cinema as there were alot of lives lost.  A good thing about this movie, I now have a better understanding on how ANZAC DAY was introduced.

Tonight I have stayed up quite late to watch all the Jurassic Park movies on TV. It was on a freeview channel.

Time for bed now!  Goodnight!

Thursday 19 January 2012

Holidays almost over

Good evening readers and followers!  How was your week?  This week is the final week of summer holidays for Queensland Students.  I think after six weeks is long enough but my kids were away for half of these holidays so they were probably glad this summer was long. 

Of course our weather pattern was nothing like last summer.  More sunshine and hot days this time round which I am sure it was ideal for most beach holiday goers.  I never went into the sun a great deal this summer but my girls would of consumed alot of vitamin D intake as they spent most of their time for three weeks at either the local beaches or waterpark in Hervey Bay.

You can tell summer is here because our regular TV shows are off aired and we have cricket and tennis season on instead.  I am not a cricket fan but I will sit and watch an odd game of tennis.  Right now the men's single match is played in Melbourne with Hewitt v's Roddick which I am sure most tennis fans know who they are. 

Being the final week of school holidays, we had quite a busy week purchasing and finalizing our school's booklists and uniforms ready for next week.  For the public system, school resumes for all primary grades and a couple of high school grades on Monday.  While all other grades in high school resumes from Tuesday.  It will be a short week because we have a public holiday known as "Australia Day" on Thursday.

On Tuesday we had a fun day out with a friend of mine by going to the movies and social bowling. For the movies we went to see PUSS IN BOOTS in 2D as my friend hasn't seen the movie.  If you haven't seen the movie you will have to now wait until the movie reaches DVD because the screening of this movie might be now over at most cinemas.  When we went it was only one time session per day and it was quite early in the morning to see it.

Happy Feet 2 is another movie I would like to see but I hope it is still available to see this weekend as I seen when I purchased the tickets on Tuesday they only had two time sessions in the daylight hours now. I thought this movie was released on Boxing Day so I was quite surprise it will only last a month at the cinema. Maybe the rating of this movie isn't as good as I first thought then.

Goodnight all and sleep well!

Monday 16 January 2012

Kids are back!

YEAH!  My kids are now back home safe and sound.  They arrived home at around 4pm yesterday so it was nice to spend an hour with both of them before it was time to head off to bowling.  Of course I have seen them in three weeks so I received millions of hugs and conversations from both kids at one time. That was a challenge for a person to absorb all that information in one go in their mind. 

It's obvious the girls had alot of sunshine from either attending the local waterpark or the beaches because my eldest daughter is now quite tanned and while the second child has fair skin is quite sunburnt still.  And looks like they might of grown an extra half inch too as I noticed the difference when they walked in.

Last night it was a full team back into action at bowling.  Like last week we were lucky to win only two points again tonight.  We played against the number one team of 2011. But on the standing sheet right now it is one of the new team starting this year is on top of the ladder while we are closer down the ladder floor. Of course it is only very early into the season and we still have 44 weeks of play left which anything will change before the season ends in November.
 
This week is the final week of summer school holidays which means we will be busy getting all their school supplies and uniforms ready for next week. 
 
Have a great week! 

Saturday 14 January 2012

Lonely Saturday Night

As I sit here quite relaxed after a hot spabath in milky chocolate bubbles, it's after 9pm here on Saturday night.  I am currently listening to great music from my local radio station....97.3FM. Not sure how long I have been listening to this station but I think I started listening in the very early 21st century when I was channel surfing at the time to find something good to listen to one day or night. 

Over twenty years ago I would of been out raging at nightclubs with 80's and 90's music, enjoying the single life and had a better body build. Those were the good old days which at times I wish I was still that young again and free. Guess now I am going through the mid life crisis as they call it.

As I grow older and older with grey hair strips throughout my hair and gained afew extra pounds that I don't like seeing myself in the mirror, I am an old married mum with teenage kids.  Well... one of them is definiately a teenager and the other one is a pre-teen.  Most of the time they drive me crazy with their sibling rivalry stunt, almost every day of the week.  Don't get me wrong, I love my kids but there is times I am just about ready to pull my hair out.

I am home alone this weekend as my DH is away for an overnight stay at his parent's house.  You see he went back this weeknd to pick up our kids and they all come back tomorrow afternoon.  Normally I would be over the moon to have my home alone time but I think this time I am feeling different.  Maybe because I miss the kids so much as I haven't seem them in three weeks.  We had regular phone contacts, just it isn't the same thing as seeing them in person on a regular basis.  It's very rare for them to be away on holidays without their parents for this long and I remember why I don't do it every holidays.

It was very nice of their Grandparents to have this opportunity to be with them because they don't see their grand-daughters very often. They live in Hervey Bay which is a four hour drive from our home address. Most weekends last year we were at one or more bowling alleys as my daughter/s were involved in bowling leagues and tournaments.  So it was impossible for the kids to spend time with grandparents no 2 (that's what I call them to avoid confusion which grandparents, the kids talk about).

It seems we live in a sad world this century.  I heard or read too much of the news lately about the tragic events happening this year throughout the globe.  I thought Mother Nature did her best last year but it seems other events are taking over in 2012. 

Only today I found out a friend has lost her relative this week.  I do really feel her pain as it is only been less then five months ago since I lost a relative myself.  As I grow older, it seems I keep on losing our friends and relatives or seeing them suffer some form of illness. And it is getting harder and harder to deal with the death of someone special in my life. Is it because I have known the person for too long in my life?  Boy!  Why does our life have to be so challenging?

Well.. guess that's all I got to say and get off my chest about being feeling sorry for myself.  After a good soak in the tub I think I should feel alot better in the morning after a good night's sleep.  Goodnight all!

A hot week

Hi followers and readers!  How was your week?  I didn't do much this week because we had a heatwave for a couple of days.  The temperature here reached mid high 30's and stayed high until around sunset.  Normally I enjoy summer with early 30's temperatures but once the temperature gauge reaches past our normal body temperature, it becomes unbearable. 

What surprise me more was our pool water was fairly cold still. You think being hot for afew days the water would be like having a bath but it wasn't.  I think the pool being inground kind might have something to do with the water remaining cold.

On Wednesday afternoon I spent an afternoon catching up with a friend. We have been friends for the past two decades.  We first met up at college when we both studied a six month office course in the early 90's.

We had lunch at a nice cafe and hanged around at the shops to stay indoors to keep cool. For me it was more a spending spree as I shopped at a couple of stores.  My friend taken me to this music store who still sells vinyls. I was over the moon and couldn't believe my eyes to see vinyls and more vinyls.  Most of the vinyls varied in price from $2 to around $70.  The last time I can remember buying a vinyl would of been when I was a teenager. So I grabbed afew vinyls from the past.  All I need to get is a turntable to play them. 

I only have one more sleep to go and the kids will be back at home after their three week holiday in Hervey Bay.  My DH has gone up to HB this morning to pick them up.  But he will stay overnighter and come back with the kids tomorrow afternoon.

It's been good to enjoy my quiet parenting break but at the same time I missed the kids!  The kids have been ringing me regularly to chat with me or their Dad so poor old Grandma is going to have a nice phone bill, the next time the bill arrives at her address. 

Speaking of bills we had our electricity bill and my car rego paid this week.  When you next receive your electricity bill you might noticed the ambulance cover won't be on it.  Apparently the Australia Government removed this and they are going to fund the ambulance for us.  YEAH RIGHT!  They will get their money back somehow from all of us.

Never realised until I heard on the radio that yesterday was Black Friday.  Generally that happens when it's school holidays, I intend to forget what day of the week we are up to.

I am not really a superstitious person about Black Friday but I think yesterday I would have to say it was more my lucky day.  While I shopped for afew grocery items I came across Kellegg's Pop Tarts on the shelf. Now I haven't seen these for afew years now so it was delightful to have them back.  Pop Tarts are quite expensive for a pack of eight but they are more my breakfast treat when I get tired of consuming boring toast in the mornings.

What's on your agenda for this weekend?  While I said earlier I will be home alone for majority of this weekend as my DH is away.  I plan on using my final "ME" time to get afew things done around at home.  Thank goodness this weekend's weather will be more comfortable to be outdoors.

Whatever plans you got, have a good weekend!

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Hervey Bay

I only have five more sleeps to go and my kids will be coming back home.  They spent half of their summer school holidays at Grandma's.  She lives in Hervey Bay with her spouse of 45 years.  It was a nice break from parenting for me but at the same time I miss the kids present at home.
Hervey Bay is situated in the Wide Bay area and generally it is a four hour drive north of Brisbane but you have to travel into Maryborough first to get to the bay half an hour later.  For our international readers, you might heard of Hervey Bay is well known for whale watching which intends to happen throughout our winter season to late spring.  I haven't been out on a boat to go whale watching but I heard it is a lovely experience to do.

It has been four years since I last drove up to visit the extended family members but my husband intends to visit his parents a couple of times per year and stays overnight with the kids while I have a something else on at the time. But this time he decided to spend a week up there from Boxing Day to New Year's Day with the kids while I enjoyed my home alone time without them being present.

Being the middle of summer right now the kids would be enjoying their time on the beach or visit the latest waterpark the city introduced to be open for the locals about two years ago. From what I heard the waterpark may be opened all year round as the pools might be heated to use over the winter months.  Then again Hervey Bay doesn't really have cold winters like some people have in the western parts of our state. 

SInce the kids have been away on their holiday up there, they intend to phone and speak to me twice a week but tonight it was my only nephew (as he has been staying up there as well) I spoke to as well for the first time in four years.  He and his parents moved up to live in Wide Bay area, four years ago but it's about half the travelling time for him to visit his grandparents then we have because we live further away from them all. 

Before you even suggest about moving up to live in the same town as them, the answer is no.  I have no intentions of moving to where my inlaws live. Hervey Bay might be the ideal bay town to live at but I have serious issues with my inlaws. We don't see eye to eye with alot of things in life.  To me the less time I have to deal with them, the better my life would be without them being a nuisance to my society. But I don't stop my kids seeing their Grandparents. If my husband is happy to travel, I am happy with that decision for him to go ahead and see his parents whenever it suits him.

Besides my parents still live in Brisbane and they are the only closest relatives I got down this way. And what I had to experience with my father's health crisis in 2010, I think moving to a different city is the last thing I should have my father to cope with right now.  I am the only child my parents had given childbirth to and moving away from here would break my Dad's heart.

And on top of all that I have my kid's education to be concern about. Changing schools might not be the right time of the year now because I have the eldest girl in high school. She settled there happily with new friends and her curriculum report is excellent. As for the other child she is now going to be at the final year of primary school.

Most of my other relatives live in Central QLD or Sydney which I intend to visit them once every 5-10 years. Guess I am thankful I have afew relatives who have an internet connection and have the opportunity to email chat at times.  That reminds me I am overdue to see the ones in Central QLD.  I lost another Aunt last year!  I was planning on going up in early 2011 to see her and my other rellies and friends but the Queensland Floods put that plan on the back burner.

Monday 9 January 2012

Heatwave coming

As I sit here, we are currently experiencing 35 degree heat outdoors and it aren't even the lunch hour yet.  Been school holidays still, I am sure our beaches and waterparks will be busy today with many people of all ages trying to cool down. 

Our festive season is over for another year and some employees who were lucky to have time off over Christmas and New Year probably gone back to work this morning.  In two weeks time the kids will be back at school for a new year of learning.

How was your weekend?  My husband and I had a busy weekend as we decided to work on a couple of projects outdoors while it's mostly fine weather about. This time twelve months ago, it wasn't fine.  If I can remember we had rain and more rain for about a month.

After afew trips to our local gardening store, we came home with two ute loads of crushed bark for the front gardens and created a wooden planter box to start growing vegies in the garden on the side fence towards the back.  But the first box has afew strawberry plants instead.  Apparently this breed of plants bare fruit for most of the year. But it will be interesting to see how many strawberries I will get to see coming inside as I am sure my darling little children will get to them before I would.

It was back to bowling to start league last night.  I will report the progress later on in my sporting blog but right now I will just say it was nice to be back to play and catch up with other players after a six week break. My team mate wasn't there as she's still away on holidays but she will be back to play with me next week.  Actually she wasn't the only one absent as I noticed a couple of others weren't there either.  We also lost a couple of teams but gained two new teams as well. 

What's on your agenda for this week?  Not really planning to do much outside my square but I plan on enjoying my final quiet week at home as the girls will be back home from their holiday this weekend. I will be out mid week to catch up with a friend to have lunch at a shopping centre. 

Whatever plans you might have scheduled for this week, have a good week! And remember to stay cool on a hot day/s this week.

Saturday 7 January 2012

New beginnings

How's the start of 2012 been going for you? I had a busy week preparing many scrap pages ready for yesterday's first meet of the year.  It was a 12 hour workshop held at a local school's staffroom.  I wonder where this school got their funding from or what strings they pulled from QED as this room had too much of a luxury compared to other public schools in this state. Further details can be read from my craft blog.

But I might of forgotten to mention about the menu for the day. We had to BYO lunch but dinner was provided from the organiser at the workshop.  Luckily for her there was enough luxuries there to cook and clean afterwards. We had cold chicken, ham and a variety of freshly made salads to choose from.  For dessert a cheesecake and some other interesting dessert (made from slices of chocolate cake, fruit and ice cream mounted into a large jelly bowl to freeze until ice cream sets normal) was consumed.
 
A month has passed since school holidays began.  Back to school sales have started because the kids go back to school in two weeks time.  My kids are still away on holidays and we will get to get straight into school organisation as soon as they get back home next weekend. I could purchase some stuff without them being around next week but it's abit impossible to buy new shoes when they aren't around to try the new shoes on before I purchased them.
 
When I was out buying the groceries at my local supermarket this week, guess what I saw?  Easter stuff already out on the shelves.  And it's only the beginning of a new year. I am sure most people would be trying to get over their festive season celebrations right now.  Most people who have school aged kids would be more concern the costs about their kid's school supplies then worrying about Easter.
 
Does anyone follow tennis?  Currently the world game matches are played in Brisbane which the finals are on this weekend.  Apparently one of the ladies from yesterday's craft meet went along to one of the matches recently.  It was her Christmas present from her own family to watch a day's match.  She told everyone yesterday her favourite player is Pat Rafter (who is now retired and I am sure there is a court named after him) and he literately run into her by accident.  She was over in cloud 9 which we think she still is because she was raving on about Pat all day!  I wish someone famous would accidently run themselves into me but I don't like my chances of that one happening in my lifetime.
 
What's on your agenda for this weekend?  Today my husband and I have been busy in the front garden.  We went out to the gardening store to purchase two ute loads of earthy red crushed tree barks to put into our gardens.  You should see the front yard now.....its so fresh and bright!  
 
Tomorrow night my bowling league resumes back after a six week break. It will be nice to catch up with other league players and play in our friendly competitive games for another full season.
 
Whatever plans you might have for this weekend, I hope it will be a good weekend for you and your loved ones. 

Monday 2 January 2012

Welcome 2012!

Happy New Year everyone!  It's already into the second day of 2012 in Australia.  My life is now going back to normal after my quiet New Year celebrations ended.  I didn't need to drink alcohol to wake up with a hangover because I already suffered the consequences of copping a migraine on NYD.

My plans to meet up with a friend on NYE didn't work out the way we wanted. Neither of us drank any alcohol because we both travelled in our own vehicles to and from our destinations. My friend lives on the other side of Brisbane so we met up at Logan Hyperdome to have dinner at Sizzlers.  After dinner we hoped to go social bowling (as both of us are league bowlers) and catch a movie at the cinema but to our surprise both the bowling alley and the cinema closed early.  The shopping complex was becoming a ghost centre so we drove in our own vehicles and met up at Mt Gravatt in hoping their AMF bowling centre was opened but no... it wasn't either.  By this stage I was getting quite cheesed because I don't believe in drinking to get highly merry and drunk while waiting around for the time to hit midnight. 

I had to call into the nearby service station to fill up my vehicle with premium unleaded fuel.  While filling up I noticed one part of the shopping centre at Garden City looked to be abit busy with parked vehicles.  I asked the service station attendant if the cinema at Garden City was opened. She replied she didn't know but my friend and I decided to take the chance and meet up there.  But the cinema was just closed when we showed up.  In the end we decided to hang around Pancake Manor and have our dessert there.  We stayed around this area talking until around 1am and then went home.

Looked like a club nearby upstairs was opened as we heard music going so I asked about it but the bouncer said it was a private function.  I believe it was false  information given because I noticed alot of younsters dressed inappropriately and are from a different culture entering this club. If this bouncer wouldn't allow us to enter because of our age and culture, that is blunt discrimination!! After a while I was glad we didn't walk in because the bass of their modern music they played at the club was far too high.  It might of been the reason why I copped a migraine by the time I arrrived home.

It's been quite a long time since I have been out on NYE so it was quite a shock to discovered most businesses that normally open until late on most days of the week closed early.  I will ask when I return to league bowling why they closed early.  I got a feeling it has something to do with wages to their staff at either double or triple time. Or the employees didn't wish to work because they prefer to party instead.

It was a very short notice plan to go out on NYE as both myself or my friend didn't want to be home alone, feeling sorry for ourselves.  Both of us have been through some form of crisis in the last few years and our festive seasons are generally the hardest time of the year to deal with.  Neither of us wanted to hanged around huge crowds at Southbank so that is why we wanted to do something different then the rest of the crowd.  But I think both of us learnt that lesson about NYE.  If we ever go out again on any future NYEs, I am going to make sure to find out what's going to be open on the night of NYE before we take the opportunity to just show up and be hopeful to do anything fun and sobber. 

Inspite trying to be the opportunist for the night with a disappointed outcome, it was worth to just been out of the house for afew hours and spend time with my new found friend from bowling.