Goodbye 2019

This will probably be my last blog for 2019! I have noticed I haven't barely blog a lot this year. I will try my best to do more blogging in 2020. Here's hoping 2020 will be a better year for a lot of people. We had mother nature causing disasters for a lot of people to lose everything or lives were lost this past few months. Also lost a lot of celebrities throughout the year. I have seen on Facebook that some people will be glad to see 2019 gone. Could say this year was more a good year for me but I hope next year will be even better.

Sadly I have two friends who are terminally ill with their medical condition and I might be expecting the bad news I don't want sometime in 2020. One friend has stage 4 melanoma caner and she's been talking about leaving her family to travel to a different state.  The other friend has a heart condition which can't be operated. I saw him before Christmas and he looked ready to leave Earth. Its not the memory I want!!

I have this week off from my volunteer work which I hope to get some abit of spring cleaning done and watch a cinema movie or two. Probably dine out on Saturday night at the local footy club. Next Monday afternoon I will have a job interview at a childcare centre. Wish me luck! I was surprised this morning when the Director phoned me and discovered the centre was opened. They used to have centres closed for two weeks over the Christmas and New Year. It was good for staff to have time off back then. But I heard a lot of business don't allow employees have time off before Christmas anymore.

This festive season sure went out the door very fast. How was your Christmas? On Christmas Eve I had my volunteer work. The warehouse closed at 1:30pm. Rest of the afternoon was spent on the final Christmas shopping. In the evening we went to the city to attend the 6pm Christmas Mass at St Stephen's Cathedral in Elizabeth Street. The church was quite a full house!  A lot of people had to stand either both sides of the church wall or at the back entrance. We were sitting at the back row on the seats.

We had a quiet family dinner at Monique's house. We had present opening before dinner and played games with my 3 year grand daughter. Jade (who's almost three months) had her first Christmas which she won't remember. She was given baby clothing, bed linen and baby toys. Krystal mostly received gifts with either The Wiggles or Frozen image on the items.  I received a Lion King Monopoly game, a small move around craft organiser, a star wars t-shirt, some money and scratch its which they are still inside the Christmas card not scratched. I could be rich but my chances of that happening is very slim! After dinner we went around locally to look at a couple of houses with good light displays. 

On Boxing Day we had afternoon tea with my parents. In the evening we went to the cinema to see the latest Star wars movie "The Return of Skywalker". Don't want to be a movie spoiler but sadly "Princess Leia" had died in this movie. It's kind of expected to happen as Carrie Fisher had passed away on this day three years ago. Her mum "Debbie Reynolds" passed away on the next day. That was a very sad time of the year for that family.

What's your plans for New Years? I have volunteer work and probably nap afterwards. I am not sure what will do in the evening. I don't even know if there will be any fireworks happening as I heard some areas banned them because of the bushfires still happening in some areas of the country.

Better go as I have snail mail to post off this afternoon. All the best for a happy and safe New Year. Good luck with any new endeavours you may challenge yourself to do in 2020. Safe travels on the road too.

My annual newsletter

Hi everyone!  How's your year being going? I had a pretty busy productive year. During semester one I managed to have some relief contract work as a teacher aide at one primary school. I mostly worked with additional needs students and junior grades. During term one I done a lot of walking to and from the public pool as all grades had their swimming lessons. In March I completed my first marshalling of the Cross Country which I actually enjoyed. I see can why PE teachers love their job!! Within two hours all grades had run/walked around the school grounds. In August I was involved in Senior Sports Day by being the starter for 800m track events for all age groups.

 

In term 4 I was introduced to volunteer work at Lifeline where I worked with two other machinists in creating recycled goody (ie cloth) bags to sell at all Lifeline stores in South East Queensland. I would spend up to 15 hrs per week on sewing bags. I used to sew my own clothing long before I had a family of my own and now I should consider get back into sewing again.

 

What a year I had! Besides catching with my some friends and relatives throughout the year, the biggest highlight of the year is my eldest daughter: Monique got married to the father of her child on 2^nd March 2019. They had their wedding ceremony in a park's gazebo at bayside area while the reception was held at a community hall nearby with over 60 guests of mainly family members and closest friends.

 

Another big highlight of the year: Monique and Steve had their second child. A baby girl name Jade was welcomed into the world on 29^th September 2019. At the present time she looks so much like her grandfather (ie Steve's father). She weighed in at 9lb 7oz. Most of the wedding guests knew about Monique's pregnancy as Steve had made the annoucement during the speeches at their wedding. Monique was only ten weeks pregnant at time of announcement.

 

Krystal is now three years old who looks more like her Grandma (ie Steve's mum). She attends Kindy three days a week, one morning at playgroup and has swimming lessons on Sundays. Also she was introduced to ten pin bowling. Some weeks she might socially play a game with somebody else she knows well. Watch this space to find out if she will become like her mother and be introduced to league play in the near future. Krystal had her family birthday celebrations at their home address in July. Her party was The Wiggles theme as she loves them! Emma is her favourite character.

 

We had made a couple of weekend trips to Hervey Bay to see Rachel this year. The last weekend visit was last month!  We went shopping and visit the Story Bank (ie Mary Poppins Museum) in Maryborough. She plans on coming down to Brisbane in 2020 to celebrate her birthday with me.

 

Still ten pin bowling at the same centre but I was introduced to a new singles league as the old league of three seasons decided to transferred to a different centre. I have stayed in contact with afew people. I had my 50^th party by social bowling with some past league players.  Next year I will be playing at a different centre. Also might consider a touring league where you play at different centre once a month.

Still been creative with my papercrafting by attending to regular workshops. I found new two consultants who live more local now and host regular meets per month on some weekends. And lucky me managed to attend two weekend retreats at Brookfield. Consider all the workshops I attended to I managed to create some wedding scrapbooking pages and work through other projects during the year. 

In October I attended to a live concert performance at Kedron Wavell Services Club (ie RSL club) with my friend. We had dinner at a restaurant then went upstairs to seen ABBA Live who performed to ABBA songs for 2½ hrs. Were you an ABBA fan in the 70's? What was your favourite song?

On 5^th December Monique and I had a day trip to Lismore to attend to McLeod's Daughters Reunion in the city hall. The afternoon event was for fans to be involved in a Q and A session to learn more about the actors and their life on the show. Monique was the lucky one to take advantage to ask a good question and two of the actors answered her. I had planned to ask a question but another fan beaten me.

Have you noticed how much spending we all intend to do leading up to Christmas and the public holiday goes out the door so fast? This Christmas will be a just quiet one with local family members. All the best for a happy and safe festive season with your families. If you have any travel plans, make sure your destination will be a safe journey. Good luck with any new endeavours in 2020!

Start of Spring season

WOW! Where is this year going? It's now halfway into spring here in Australia. But our temps have been more like summer in SE QLD as we had a couple of hot days with storms and rain finally here. On last Thursday evening we had a good crack of a thunderstorm here. Over 80 000 homes had lost power from anywhere between 1-3 hours.

 

Monique's baby was welcomed into the world at 9:45pm on Sunday 29th September. She weighed in at 9lb 7oz and quite long (similar sized to a 3 month old baby).  They named her Jade! She is quite an observant child and loves her tummy time! I wouldn't be surprise if Jade becomes an early walker by 9 months old as I was told last week she had her first roll over. In her first week of life she was trying to strengthen her neck muscles.

Sadly my contract work at the school ended in August. Since then I have been looking for work and doing volunteer work at a big op shop warehouse. I was doing 15 hrs per week sorting out incoming of donations of clothing and manchester for a month but now I am sewing goody bags from recycled fabric. My job is to add company labels to these small bags. Last week I done almost 200 bags by myself. I love it!  Just a shame I can't be paid to sew. Not sure if there is any machinist jobs out there. I should have a look online after this blogging is done. Then again maybe I should sew some items to sell. I used to sew my own clothes when I was in my teen years. I kept on doing it until I got married and had a family of my own.

Last month I had time off (for two weeks) because I had a skin cancer removal off my upper back. It seem to be all out now and no further treatment was required. The surgery cut is long as a finger but the tumour was thick as a thumb. Rachel had a blood vessel mole removed off her face too. And a cousin of my Dad's had major back surgery last month. He was transferred to a rehab unit to get physio and training to walk again for about three weeks. My Dad and I went up to the hospital over two weeks ago to visit him. He progressed so well that they sent him home last week.

On Friday night I went out for dinner and concert with my friend at a club.  The concert we saw was a group called ABBA Live who performs 70's songs from the original ABBA band. The function room was full of people of mostly over 40 who sang and/or danced for over two hours. Who remembers ABBA songs? What was your favourite song? There is afew songs used from Mamma Mia musical movie I like. If you can remember Muriel's Wedding they used a couple of ABBA songs too.  

Better go and prepare myself for another job interview now. I had a job interview yesterday afternoon which I don't think I was a successful applicant. The interviewer didn't really asked me a lot of questions like most people do. I was pretty much out the door within ten minutes. After the interview I called into another childcare centre up the road from the interview venue to see if they were hiring any new staff. The Assistant Director said not at present time but she was happy to accept my resume copy.

 

Until next blog:  Have a good term! There is only seven weeks until summer vacation hits.

Semester one, 2019

Where is this year going? Almost six months have passed since last posting. I had a busy semester one as I was working casually at a school as a teacher's aide. At first it was just work for afew hours but since April my hours increased until mid August. I won't know until next week if my temporary contract will be extended until the end of this year. You see I was the replacement of another staff member as she retired from the workforce.

Other then work I only attended to afew craft workshops on some weekends. But last weekend I was away for a craft camp with ten ladies staying at a large 2 storey house with seven bedrooms, three bathrooms and a large kitchen. We had to take our own breakfast, lunches and Friday night dinner. We had a 60s theme dress up and roast dinner on Saturday night. During the day we had fun with trivia games. Over the weekend I was busy journaling information for my daughter's pre wedding album. She will get two albums. The second album will be all about her special day.

In March my eldest daughter got married at bayside with around 70 guests. At their wedding reception they made a surprise announcement of being expectant parents again. Baby No 2 is due in late September. Their first child turned 3 years old this month. Two weeks ago they had a party in the Wiggles theme. The guests had to wear something in Wiggles colour. Majority of the guests won either blue or red shirts. Majority of my grand daughter's presents were either Wiggles toys or Frozen theme clothing or bed linen. I gave her a Frozen shirt and other clothing. She attends Kindy two days per week and loves it!!

Got afew things to do this weekend which I better sign off here and make a start. Half the day is almost gone already.

Have a good weekend! A great thing about weekends I can get to have a sleep in on most days. During the week I am up before the sun rises.

Not a good start to 2019!!

Goodbye January!  Where did the last 31 days go?  Australia is now into the last month of summer but I wouldn't be surprised if summer temperatures continue into parts of autumn. While SE QLD had mostly a dry summer, areas in North QLD had many mm of rainfall from tropical lows or low category cyclones which has caused a lot of flooding from Townsville and further north. It would be nice to see some good slow rainfall down this end of the state as our grass is pretty much gone brown everywhere.  Meanwhile in mid west of USA they are experiencing a deep freeze (with temperatures well into the minus).

In January Australia had two public holidays.  Besides the world celebrating New Years Day we had Australia Day on 26th January.  It was just a very quiet day for us!! In the evening we dined out for dinner at the footy club.  I had a roast lamb meal!!  After dinner we went to the cinema to see Green Book. Have you seen it?

My year had started with the return to afew craft meets and bowling.  I joined a new league as the old league was transferred to a different centre.  For craft I was introduced to a new venue. Either on Monday or Tuesdays we can do free papercrafting of either card making or scrapbooking for 6 hours.  I attend once a week on Mondays. The meet itself is free to attend but the store owner would prefer you to purchase at least one item.

This weekend I have two scrapbooking workshops with new consultants. Saturday's meet has her workshop for twelve hours to do your own projects but I don't think I will be there for that long. More likely between 8-10 hours the most. Sunday's meet involves a learning class to create a page or two.  I used to do this kind of workshop years ago with a past CM consultant when I lived in Logan. Both new consultants (for different companies) live more locally which I hope to plan to continue visiting once a month if this weekend goes well. I am thinking of giving away attending Ipswich workshops because of the travel distance and its costing me more money then its really worth. My goal for this year is to create many scrapbooking pages I can because I haven't done a lot in the past 2 years due to study commitments.

My start of the year has not been the best with news.  I had my mum in hospital for two nights for further tests to be done as in late 2018, a bowel test came back with some abnormal findings.  She is okay at the moment. Just a bruised arm from all the needles she had. She had a colonoscopy, a cardiogram and other tests done.  From her colonoscopy they removed afew polyps. She goes back for her annual heart check in mid February.

A couple of weeks an old friend phoned me with belated festive season greetings.  I had known him and his wife since bowling in a league in the very early 21st century. They would be around the same age as my parents and they treated me like another daughter of theirs.  I had left this league about 4 years ago. He told me over the phone he has been diagnosed with bone cancer, Mind you I was at a craft meet at the time he phoned my mobile number. 

We have a very sick cousin.  He would be the around same age as my father. My dad told me they attended to the same schools. Of course its expected when you grow up in a country town.  My cousin had three mini strokes and a block artery is found in his neck. An ex-neighbour (who I still stay in touch with time to time) has a blocked value in his heart. His wife said the doctors won't operate because they feel he won't survive during surgery. The strangest part what I seen as a prediction from an Facebook app stating I will expect a death this year. I prefer not to happen but sadly its part of our lifecycle to deal with. 

Better go as I have many scrapbooking pages to prepare for upcoming craft meets.  Have a good February! 

Welcome 2019

Happy New Year everyone!  Hope you had a great festive season with your family.  Consider all the spending and preparations we all do leading up to these public holidays, the celebration hours with the people we love intend to go out the door very fast. 

 

My youngest daughter has been in Brisbane since Christmas Eve.  Majority of her stay has been at her sister's house but I managed to have a week with her. She returns home on 13th January after we have my parent's 50th WA party.

On Christmas Eve we had dinner at a local pub then went to Christmas Mass at church. Our family Christmas dinner was at my eldest daughter's house.  Boxing Day we were with my parents in the afternoon. We were first greeted by the neighbour's cat at the gate. He is a cute young cat who loves to hang around with my cat.  Our cats didn't want to know my grand daughter but she was very keen to chase them. What did you get for Christmas?  I got a couple of DVD movies, a ceramic cup of BB8 (a robot character from the latest Star Wars movies), a Brisbane edition Monopoly board game, a plant in a little tea cup set and other little miscellaneous items.

Its already the fifth day into 2019! We had a quiet NYE by having our annual supper picnic at a nice park until 12:30am. Local fireworks went off at midnight for about ten minutes. On NYD we went to the cinema to see Aquaman. On Wednesday I had a day at home doing some spring cleaning while Rachel went to  a waterpark with her sister and partner and two friends of theirs. Yesterday we went to Old Petrie Town.  Its a mini village street up in olden days with afew houses (as businesses now) and a couple of small museums. On Friday nights they have local flea markets and free entertainment until 9pm.  We came home with afew reading books. For $15 I got two books on 50 shades sequel, one on craft and three of the old Golden Books series. I used to read them when I was a child.  This time I will read them to Krystal.

 

This month will be busy watching tennis on TV and returning back to a couple of craft workshops and bowling.  My old league has been transferred to a different centre to start play on 13th January at but I am staying at the same centre I have played at for the past three seasons.  The Manager at the centre has introduced a new league starting on 20th January but the starting time will change to 6:30pm.

Better go and start preparing my craft workshops ready for this month's meets. I have three weekend meets this month.  One of them is scrapbooking only for 9 hours and preparing pages ready for upcoming meets intends to take time to prep.  The lady who runs this group has changed the venue too! Apparently the old venue hall hire charges went up quite high!!

Have a great weekend!

 

Christmas v's Weather

This may be the last blog entry for 2018.  Next week will be Christmas and I have been busy with break up parties, catching up with a small group of friends and Christmas preparations and shopping since my course ended last week. Tonight is my bowling break up party and prize presentation at a community hall near the bowling alley.

Don't know if you had heard but we had a tropical cyclone Owen further up the QLD coast that hit land for the second time this summer.  I think the cyclone started to form in the Coral Sea about a month ago. Because I was so busy with assignments I didn't catch all the reports about this cyclone.  All I really caught that Owen didn't want to leave the country in a hurry. I assume the cyclone cross the coast as a low category TC and moved towards Northern Territory border. But I did hear: once it got to NT it done a U-turn and came back to QLD again as a Category 3 storm. The cell hit inland about 3am this morning.  I haven't had the TV on today to know what report damage was done.  But I am pretty sure it hit in a low populated area. Since the storm has downloaded to a tropical low and its forecast to travel down in a southeast direction and reach as far down as Sydney in afew days. Brisbane has been forecast to have a storm and heavy rain to arrive tomorrow but I am not so sure if this low will even reach as far down this way.  Even when I looked at the radar online, the rainfall doesn't look really that heavy. Its looks to be more light to moderate in most areas down the coast. From radar, it seems to be more rain from a normal low and a tropical low is following. Been chatting to one of my long time friends via Facebook this morning for over two hours. She lives in Central QLD and she was telling they had a line of thunderstorms passing thru all morning. 

Better sign off as I need to get ready for our party tonight. I won't be drinking because I am the taxi driver for other people.  All the best for a safe and happy festive season with your families and loved ones. Remember: Don't drive naughty, drive nice this festive season.