What a Show!

Last night I went to see Ninky perform in Southern Stars. The show was amazing. I have to admit that I thought that because it was a bunch of school children (well, a BIG bunch -2800 to be precise) it would be somewhat amateurish. I am thrilled to report that I was wrong. The theme, the costumes, the props, the sets and most of all the performances were really really professional. The babysitter was a bit late arriving, so I missed the opening act but I saw Ninky on stage twice. She looked great and she really did look like she was having a ball. When it was all over I had to go outside to meet her. That sounds like a simple thing to do but the reality was much different. Can you imagine the chaos of 2800 children departing an entertainment centre? Well add to that the chaos of at least one (conservatively) adult for each one of those children, departing patrons and players from the Rugby League finals at the stadium next door and the normal Saturday revellers out in a busy part of town! It was INSANE. I waited for nearly half and hour and eventually Ninky found me. She was cold, hungry, exhausted and had blisters on her feet but she was very very happy. We fought our way through the sea of people back to the apartment. We bid Emma the babysitter farewell (Roo was fast asleep) and then it was time to get Ninky sorted out. She had something to eat, told me EVERYTHING about the night, spent 10 minutes trying to scrape the stage make up off and then she got into bed. About 30 seconds after her head hit the pillow she was asleep. I wasn't far behind her.

It is 0750 now and Roo had been up for an hour playing with Lego - of course! He has been happily drinking milk "shots" (the little UHT milks) out of the fridge. Ninky got up to go to the toilet, gave me a weak smile and went back to bed. I suspect I will have to wake her up so that we can check out in time at 1000. There is an ALDI just up the street and I plan to call in there and get most of our groceries for the week. On the way home we will stop at the Terara veggie shed and get some of their lovely locally grown fruit and veg before heading home.

Here are some more pictures.

Hoo Roo

Well, spring has sprung as they say and the Seaside Daisy that lines the path to our front door has leaped to attention.

Beautiful.

Sore little Ninky feet - dancing has a painful side!

After the show.

Showing of her programme. It is scary how much older she looks with that stage make up on!

Below are some pretty flowers that are putting on a show in our garden around the patio at the moment. I love spring!

Life and pictures

It is not long now until Peter comes home!!! We are so excited. 33 more sleeps actually. Not long at all.

Right at this very minute Roo and I are sitting in a lovely serviced apartment in Wollongong. Roo is playing with his lego (what else would he be doing), I am dabbling on the computer and Ninky is performing a the Southern Stars Spectacular at WIN Stadium. She is doing the matinee performance right now. I dropped her off about an hour ago and there were just hundreds and hundreds of kids everywhere with parents and teachers. The place is crazy. I was fortunate enough to be able to book us into this apartment (which is really lovely) right beside Win Stadium. As I sit here I can hear the Junior Rugby League Grand Finals being played (of course I only know that because I looked online to find out what it is!). There is certainly a very enthusiastic crowd over there. I have to pick Ninky up at 5pm and bring her back here to have some dinner and then have her back over there by 6:15pm. I was going to take them out for dinner but apparently it is absolutely crazy around her in that hour or so between performances, so we just have some frozen dinners to heat up, which is going to be so much simpler. After I drop Ninky off I will come back here with Roo and wait for the Dial an Angel babysitter to arrive and then I will head over to watch the performance. Afterwards, I will meet Ninky and bring her back here and we will go to sleep and last. She is exhausted. I am sure she probably has dark rings around her eyes but I can't tell because she already had the thick stage makeup on when I picked her up this morning. Tomorrow we will have a sleep in before heading up. On the way home I will get some groceries. Then late afternoon we have to head up the hill to get Benny and Polly from the dog hotel they are staying at. Busy busy busy.

Well here are some pictures of things, creatures and people.

Ta-da

Well I am still here! I thought I had better make a post before the end of August otherwise this blog would look abandoned!

Life continues here. We are counting down the days until Daddy/Peter gets home. It was exactly 6 weeks yesterday until we see him. We are all VERY excited.

I don't have much to say at all really. Ninky and Roo are really well, the animals are well (although Black Chook 2 is not so well because she died earlier this month) and work sucks as usual.

I am now going to slap up some pictures for the benefit of my darling husband.

Hoo Roo

Roo the Lego Master and one of his creations.

Roo relaxing before his swimming lesson.

Oops! Didn't see that one coming!!

What do you want??

Dressed up for the Book Week parade. Ninky is Aunt Josephine from Lemony Snickett and Roo is Artemis Fowl (from the book of the same name). Artemis is a child criminal who battles with underground fairies and farting dwarfs!!

Purr soaking up the sun.

Ninky - dressed up and excited to be going to see her very first live concert - Pink!

One VERY excited little girl!

Roo and his DS Lite

Barry and Tongue

Dory and Barry enjoy some grass.

Bubba Barry and Ninky

Purr catching some rays

A Very Long Time Between Posts

Gawd - I practically forgot I even had this blog. My grand plans for documenting change have pretty well been ditched. I simply underestimated how busy I would be caring for two kids, keep a big house, caring for a HUGE menagerie AND working full time. C'est la vie. This will just be a regular blog that gets updated when there is something to say. No biggie.

So, the weather here is lousy. It is wet (and has been for the last few days) and miserable. Thankfully it isn't too cold. I feel sorry for the poor old chooks and the duck though because their pen is a swamp (and sooo stinky too) and they don't look happy about it at all. In fact when I was outside a few minutes ago, I witnessed one of the disgruntled tenants of the House of Chook executing a high flying escape into the garden. Time for a wing clip I think. That should be fun without Peter. Ninky will be all girly and "ooohhhh yuck etc" and Roo really doesn't like chooks at all. I might have to wait until Mum and Jon come down the week after next and get them to help me.

Ninky and Roo are both well at them moment, although having said that Ninky does have a bit of a cold at the moment. They started school holidays yesterday for the next two weeks. They both got good first semester school reports. Ninky's was actually excellent, scoring top marks for effort in every single subject. Roo didn't do so well academically though but the teachers comments about his behaviour, personality, contributions and effort were amazing. I am proud of both of them.

Ninky is a really busy girl at the moment. She is just involved in so many different things. She is currently rehearsing for Southern Stars which is a dance and music spectacular for primary school students from this region. She is part of a school choir which will be participating in an eistedford (sp?) next term. She came in the top three out of 16 in the shot put selection at school and I think she will be representing in a local competition. She also did very very well in her swimming lessons this term. Ninky seems so happy these days. Moving here really has changed her life.

Roo is also doing well, although he is not involved in anything the way Ninky is. He loves his lego and loves playing with his mates. He is happy though.

Project "Clear The Crap Out Of The Garage" swings into action this week. I am not looking forward to it. I am hoping to be able to park at least one car in there before Peter gets home. Peter and I sorted out about half of it before he left. But I still haven't managed to get rid of the stuff we already I identified as no long required. Plus there are the kids two old mattresses and the other half of the garage to arrange. I am just going to suck it up and get it done. There are so many other projects that I want to get done outside but I need to get this done first. Wish me luck!

Ninky and Roo are off to a 5 days school holiday camp at Berry on Monday. They are both really looking forward to it. There is lots of packing to be done and it is going to take me ages to get their names on everything. I am really going to miss them. It is only four nights but it will really be the first time I have stayed here alone since we moved in. Although can you really ever be alone with six insane cats running around the house?

Well, it's going to be a busy weekend. I have to bath Benny the Elderly Maltese because he needs to be seen by the vet. The poor boy has pus leaking out of one of his ears and is walking lop sided. The house needs cleaning, washing needs to be done and shopping needs doing. Plus I have to cook some cup cakes because we are off for afternoon tea to our friend's house to say good bye to them. They are moving to Canberra and I am really going to miss them both.

That's it for now. I will slap up some photos and go and get some work done.

Hoo Roo

A Nice Sort of Day

Not much to report today. The weather was not too bad. A bit breezy but the sun was shining. It was definately cold though with a top of about 16 degrees.

Ninky was meant too have her friend P over to play today but she called to say that she was sick. So today I took the kids to the Nowra Wildlife Park. I am so glad we went. It is such a lovely place. Right on the banks of the Shoalhaven river. It has loads of beautiful trees, lush grass and tall cliffs. There are quite a mix of animals from goats and camels to wombats and crocodiles. I really loved the camels and the marmaset monekys. Those monkeys are cute and really really tiny. Only abou the size of a very small kitten. They have a fantastic slide there that is really really high and Ninky and Roo must have had about 20 turns on it.

When we got home I pretty much spent the afternoon cleaning all the dog hair and dry dirt off the patio area. It looks so much better now.

I had better call it quits here. I have a pile of photos to upload (and blogger is so slow for that) and then I have ironing to do and dinner to cook.

Hoo Roo.

A Looooong Weekend

I am forever meaning to sit down and do a blog entry but something else always seems to distract me. No excuses now though. I am here and doing it!

It is the Queens Birthday Long Weekend here this weekend. Our little town of paradise by the sea has been over run with visitors towing flashy boats and driving cars with a family's worth of bikes on the bike rack on the back. The out of towners are easy to spot because whilst the locals are wearing warm jackets, jumpers and pants, the visitors are stoically ignoring the bit of the calendar that says WINTER (and the weather reports!) and trying to will it to be warm by wearing sarongs, singlets and board shorts. Seriously! The local supermarket was predictably crowded on Friday. I knew it would be but at the moment I decided that I need something I temporarily forgot that it was a long weekend and would be over run with Terry Tourists. I won't be making that mistake again in a hurry.

Yesterday was a quiet day. Ninky had a sleep over at her friend P's house on Friday night. So that meant that Roo slept in my bed with me. We had a lovely snuggle yesterday morning before getting up to potter around (me) and play Xbox (Roo). I had to pick Ninky up at 1000 and then we stopped in a the hardware shop to buy a puncture repair kit. Ninky somehow got a flat tyre on her bike. Well, more acurately, Roo got a puncture on Ninky's bike because they have taken to swapping bikes lately. I am not sure why. So sometime between now and Tuesday morning I am going to have to dig the memories of how to fix a flat tyre out of my brain (could do it with my eyes shut when I was 12 years old!) and fix that tyre. I am sure there will be a lot of swearing which will probably be followed by a lot of Googling and You Tubing as I search for idiot proof instructions.

Yesterday I finally got my Tumbleweed Compost Maker assembled. I have very very sore fingers tips today because that thing took no less than 16 screws and nuts to put together. Of course I could not work out how to use the nut-tightening-thingamabob joey whatsy that I found in Peter's tools, so I had to finger tighten all of them. Hopefully it will hold together until I either get Lovely Step Father Jon to look at it or Peter comes home - whichever comes first. The Tumbleweed was an absolute bargain at the local rural supply place. I have been researching them for a few months and they had them on sale for $180 which was about $40 cheaper than the cheapest I had been able to find them on line. Bargain!

Anyway, the whole reason that I HAD to put the Tumbleweed together was because I had decided that I HAD to clean out the chooks. The poor things were swimming in their own filth and it was positively disgusting. I don't have anywhere in this environmentally backward shire that I can dispose of used hay and chook poo so it seemed that the only option is to compost it. That really is going to be the best thing because our soil is very poor and sandy here so compost will improve it greatly. So I spent about two hours clean out the chook yard and chook house. I also had to dust the chooks and the duck with powder because they have some sort of mite or lice. Probably from all the wild birds that feed on the excess grain on the ground in their yard I would think. The end result of my hard work is that the chook yard now looks and smells a lot better and I like to think that the chooks are a bit happier too. At least I should be able to get some eggs that are not covered in poo now. Not that the girls are giving many eggs at the moment. There has been a marked decline in egg production now that the cold weather is here.

Yesterday I discovered that the @%$&^% cats (most definately Barry or Ginge) peed on Peter's couch. Specifically they peed on Peter's seat on Peter's couch. (Calm down My Love - it's taken care of). I screamed when I found it, I abused the cats, I threw things and I rang the vet to enquire about the cost of euthenasia - would I get a discount for multiple cats?? Then I knucked down a got cleaning. It certainly doesn't smell anymore. When it is dry I will spray it with a special spary to ensure that the smell is gone to discourage any other furry bastards from using it as a toilet. I am thoroughly fed up with all these cats. I am sick of the mess, the filth, the smell, the noise and the work it creates. I am going to pull my finger out and get that bloody our door cat area made. That is of course if I retain my self control and refrain from having the bastards put to sleep.

Poor little Roo has woken up this morning with a terrible cold. Streaming nose, red eyes and a sore throat. Poor little man is miserable. I was planning on taking them for a bush walk and to a park today but I will wait a little while to see how he is. I have plugged him full of cold medication so hopefully he will perk up a bit soon.

My mother came through her lumpectomy with flying colours. It is definately cancer but there is no evidence of it in her lymph nodes. Great news! So that means that she only (only? easy for me to say) has to have 6 weeks of 5 days a week radiation treatment. Then that should be the end of that. I am glad. Selfishly of course. I am just not ready to not have a mother yet - I am not finished with her!

That's it from me for today. Nothing terribly exciting happens in this part of the world. Actually, I have to say that I like it like that.

Over and out.

Time Flies

Wow. Can you believe that tomorrow is the last day of May? I can't. Gosh the time is flying. I know that everybody says that sort of thing all the time but seriously at the rate that I feel time is passing at the moment I think I will celebrate my 79th birthday next week!

Well this week has been a massive week here in my world. Just so much has happened. Some stuff good and some really bad. I will start off with the worst part and hopefully finish this post on a high note.

My Darling Mother was this week diagnosed with breast cancer. That really sucks. However, she is being really positive about it and just sees it and something to deal with and move on. Next Tuesday she is going in for a lumpectomy to remove the lump and then find out what the state of the cancer is. Whether it has spread to lymph nodes etc. This information will determine what course of treatment she will have. At the moment, at the very least she will be having radiation treatment 5 days per week for six weeks. That is something she is not thrilled about. If it has spread to lymph nodes then she will probably need chemotherapy. Anyway, fingers crossed next Tuesday will go really well and radiation will be all she needs. I am not too worried about it for the simple fact that she isn't. If she becomes worried then I fully expect that I will have a meltdown! Mum gave up smoking at the age of 60 (she is 66 now) after having smoked since she was 14. She said to me the other day on the phone when she was telling me about the cancer that she "could really go a smoke right now". I said to her "Once you are diagnosed as having a terminal condition you can have a smoke and NOT before then". She laughed her head off! She told me later that she put that quote in an email that she sent to some friends. She's a character my Mum.

Work has been absolutely flat out this week. I think I attended more meetings this week than I have ever attended in any other week in my working life. I hate meetings so much. Especially the meetings that I have to attend not because I will get something out of it (or think I can contribute something) but because someone else thinks I should be there. It is always those meetings that seem to go longest and there is always somebody that seems to always want to talk talk talk when you can sense that everyone in the room just wants to get out of there! I had to deal with someone this week whom I find very very intimidating. I had to tell this person that they had to do something that they did not want to do. As predicted they did not take it well but thankfully I had the person's boss there to keep them in line. If he wasn't there then it might have been very ugly. Generally speaking I love my job but there are some people that I have to deal with that give it a sometimes unpleasant dimension.

Ninky and Roo are doing well. They seem really happy at the moment. They seem to be coping well with their beloved Daddy's absence. They had their first private swimming lesson with Scott this week. That man is with out a doubt the best swimming teacher I have ever come across. He dishes out praise left right and centre and shows infinite patience with the children. I watched him not just with Ninky and Roo but also with the class of kids before my children's lesson. Anyway, I was so proud of Ninky and Roo. They really listened to Scott and gave a big effort. The lesson is only half and hour and the improvement from the start of the lesson to the end was staggering. They came away from that lesson all pumped up and full of confidence. In the car on the way home they kept talking about how they want to be Olympic swimmers. I told them if they want to get into swimming seriously then I will support them 100%. I am glad they are enjoying it. They need an interest. I don't think either of them are particularly interested in team sports. So it looks like swimming will be "their thing".

All the animals are well. Driving me nuts - but other than that they are OK. Barry and Ginge (Mumma's two little boy kittens) went of to be neutered, microchipped and vaccinated this week. Ginge whinged all the way to the vet and climbed around the cage but Barry just sat there looking pretty. When we arrived at the vet Ginge cotinued whinging and climbing but Barry was shaking like a leaf. I felt so sad looking at him! Poor little boy. Anyway, they both went well with their little operation and although they were a bit drowsy in the car on the way home, once they were home they raced around like nothing was wrong with them. Mumma and Tink are going off in about two weeks to be desexed but I think it is a bigger operation for females so I don't think that they will come home racing around.

My indoor cat fence finally arrived yesterday. It is a simple set up with nodes that I put where I don't want the cats to go and the cats that I want to keep out wear a collar. When they go near a node they get a mild tingle from the collar to deter them. I am only putting it on Mumma and the kittens so that I can keep them out of the bedrooms. They have a nasty habit of peeing on the carpet and I am sick of it. Purr, Dory and Tinker don't do it so they are fine to go in to the bedrooms. Also, it will enable those three to get away from the kittens. They aren't too keen on the kittens at the moment. I don't blame them. Barry and Ginge can be very annoying!

Well, Swine Flu panic has well and truly set in this week in this quiet little part of the world. I drove past the health centre at work yesterday and the scene was just surreal. They have set up a flu triage area in the garage at the end of the centre. I could see the medics in white sperm suits (head to toes white paper suits) and masks, gloves and goggles tending to the line of people. Honestly, it sent a shiver down my spine. It looked like a scene out of one of those doomsday movies like "Ebola" or "Out Break". Poor Ninky and Roo came home from school the other day scared to death that they are going to die of Swine Flu. Between the "good hygiene" talk they were given at assembly and all the playground whispers, they had come to the conclusion that they would contract Swine Flu any tick of the clock and die. It took me nearly an hour to explain to them what the real story is. They seem to have got a handle on it now. It is scary though. I have been to a number of different health authority websites and the disease appears to be spreading fairly quickly despite the Governments attempts at containment. I told my staff yesterday that if they feel that they have flu like symptoms they are to go straight to the triage centre and not come to work. That is the thing that will help this disease spread most quickly. All the "martyrs" who will "drag" themselves into work and infect others.

Well, it is dark and rainy day here today. It rained most of yesterday and bucketed down overnight too. We are going to have a very quiet day at home today. Ninky and Roo have put in some very specific request for some lunch box treats for next week (choc cupcakes, choc chip biscuits and coconut biscuits) so I will probably make those today. I also need to spend some time standing over Roo to get him to do something about the state of his room. I know that I said that I am not worrying about them anymore but I can't get in there to even put clothes away now because the floor is absolutely hidden under a pile of stuff!

Hoo Roo