Photos

Ebay

We are hooked on Ebay - in a good way - but hooked.

So far our purchases include:

new battery for my Nokia mobile - RRP $70 - Ebay $.99 +$7 delivery
water filter - RRP $300++ - Ebay $110
ink catridges for printer - RRP $35 - Ebay $25 for 4!
cordless phone with four handsets - RRP $199 - Ebay $134

And husband dearest has bought ties and tee-shirts as well. So far no duds - touchwood!

Nowadays we look on Ebay first. The other tip we’ve found on the internet is if you are wanting to buy something from Hardley Normal (you know the retailer I mean) check out the price with JB Hifi. Apparently they are trying to beat them out of the market and will go lower in price - we saved a heap of dough on our Topfield Masterpiece PVR. What is a PVR?

Soon some photos…

Still in my thirties

Just.

Yes feel free to wish me very happy returns. Tomorrow is the big day.

:)

Jobsearch

My husband has applied for a job. I should be happy right? But I’m not.

No I am unhappy. First of all I’m not convinced it’s a step forward. I want the guy to be happy and fulfilled right, not just earning money. Hey we can always sell the house.

Secondly, my idyllic lifestyle where I walk out the door and he takes care of the family and the house, deals with the washing, thinks about the dinner, vacuums, makes sure he’s there for when the kids get home from school, organises after school snacks, takes the kids to practice sessions, does the grocery shopping etc etc etc, is over as soon as he signs up.

Yes, I will lose my wife!

I SO understand you men of the fifties and sixties now!! Wow you wouldn’t have known what hit you. Life is cruisy when you basically are single, and with a wife at home YOU ARE! Want to stay back for a wine after work - no worries. Want to work back an extra half an hour to finish that report - sure. Even twenty minutes makes a difference when you have to be home in time for kids finishing school.

And the relief and not having to THINK about dinner. Let alone cook it. It is bliss I tell you. ***

I haven’t even mentioned what happens when the kids are sick or have pupil free days or are on holidays…

Even my modern male didn’t realise how much work it is to keep a family ticking over. My fervent hope is now that he has some inkling life will not go back to the bad-old-days. Surely now that he knows all that somehow happens even though I work full-time, he will pick up his fair share.

And for those of you who are male with a family and reading this, think twice about whinging about doing the odd bit of housework.

***By the way, I have a friend who has instigated a “get-your-own-dinner” night once a week in her family just so she doesn’t have to think about what to feed them for just one night a week. You go girlfriend!

What if petrol was $10 a litre?

What if petrol was $10 a litre? How would your life - our lives - change?

We were considering this as we drove into Subiaco yesterday for a quiet lunch at the Subi Hotel (very nice too) - would we have travelled even to Subi? Unlikely. We would be more likely to cycle or walk to the high street near us - plenty of restaurants there - and who would serve us - how would they get there? Presumably by train or they would live locally. In fact our entire society would change - a medieval village society would emerge - except - and this would be the big difference - we would be connected by the virtual world.

Imagine it - $10 a litre! Filling up your car would be ten times the cost. My little car takes about 50 litres. It’s about a tank to and from Dunsborough. Would I go south if it cost me $500 in fuel? I would think about it more than twice.

Getting to Rottnest would become prohibitive - sure I take the public ferries but already they are pricey - imagine what it would be like if the fuel price soared?

Small country towns would simply disappear. The cost of transported goods would skyrocket.

We would look for local work - send our kids to local schools - hope that the public transport system could cope with what would be a HUGE increase in patronage. It would have to expand - but there would be a long transition time where it couldn’t cope.

And these are just a few of the ways our lives would change. Seeing friends who lived beyond cycling distance or easy public transport would be very difficult - and expensive. Would we keep a family car? It would be a luxury.

We would be a lot fitter. Our local communities would be enriched and invigorated. The corner shop would become profitable. Perhaps we would look to cyberspace for our employment in order to save on transport. Our lives would change immeasurably and maybe not for the worse.

So why wait til the price of fuel forces us to change? Why not embrace public transport and allow ourselves the choice to go down south if we want to? Should we be thinking of the car as a privilege rather than a necessity now rather than wait until we are forced to let our personal transporters sit, idle and rusting, in what in the future may be more garden to enjoy.

Teacher for a day

Well an hour or two anyway…

Today I was the guest speaker in number-one-son’s class. 28 eleven year olds, one teacher and one assistant. I was talking about my job and I think I did okay. If I could have remembered a few more famous people that I’ve spoken too (as opposed to The Wiggles) I’m sure my street cred would have gone higher… or if I had actually served overseas… but we had fun and they are a nice bunch of kids. The lollies went down well. I guess I will hear how it went after school after the playground reviews.

I have a lot of admiration for their full-time teacher let me tell you - boy does she keep them in line!

They were a bit tired as the night before had been the parent visit night and concert so they were up later than usual. The concert was The Snow Queen mostly performed by the grade 7s but the 4-6s were in the choir. It was terrific - brilliant acting and singing. Then we saw the art-room which was amazing - their art teacher is an inspiration. Totally impressed.

Afterwards we visited the kids’ classrooms and saw their work. I loved it. They were so enthusiastic about showing us what they’ve done and it was nice to see the interaction between them and the rest of the class and their teachers. A happy night.

Sunday Idle

Weird day today. Because the cricket was on we were on standby and they were waffling about rain so we went in and de-constructed the program so not time wasted and I had a good session at the gym. Got home - son had lost glasses again! Couldn’t find them anywhere. Not happy.

Luckily BandM at the rescue with distracting wine from Barossa Valley so soon in a good mood and playing reasonable snooker.

Now at home ready for an enjoyable round of Idol - it’s eighties night and I am expecting to be transported back in time. Must organise 80s party for 40th…

Drop ins

Gosh I haven’t been a good blogger have I - sorry regular readers but nothing much has been happening…

On my days off this week husband and I went shopping for bits for the house. We had several drop-ins on the weekend - which was great - we love the drop-in (much better than drop outs!) and we love showing off the new look for the house. And generally the comments have been very positive.

It seems the newly created breakfast bar is very successful - yay - but of course while the bar is in we have no stools. So rather than have our guests stand around wondering where to park their butts we decided stools had become our new priority.

Of course we wanted Very Groovy stools, Hip stools, Stools that make you go Ahh stools… all these stools are very expensive. Some of them more than $800 EACH! And that of course is ridiculous. Anyway after trailing around the groovy design shops we ended up in Freedom and sat on a relatively groovy stool for $129. Bargain. Well. It seemed like a bargain after all the others!!!

And leather-like is better than vinyl isn’t it. Isn’t it??

We also finally got round to getting bedroom furniture for the kids and I’m going to plug Drew Cary at Bedshed Claremont here because I grew up with him (although it was his brother Doug who used to beat me up - I guess it was his way of showing affection!) and because he was brilliant at getting what we wanted almost immediately. Awesome stuff. Also what’s the point of having a personal blog if you can’t endorse your mate’s business if you want to.

It’s not like I was expecting fruit salad in the middle of winter…

Party Photos

Finally my sister’s painting

I’m very tired today. Stayed up too late having too good a time! Thanks for a great party guys.

Today mum sent my sister’s painting. I like to call it “Angry Tree”. I just love that tree.

This is what she says about the painting: I’m (the woman) is in a boat with angry red and orange man who is actually a spigot! Blame our brother for the tree who told me to unleash the power in the tree and paint what I really thought!…yes!!!! hmmmmm!

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