Sunday 28 February 2010

Master 4 And His Aunty!

Watching a movie last night and a conversation starts up between Miss 6 & her father.

Himself - "Do you like my scratchy face?"
Miss 6 - "No, it's too scratchy. You look like an Uncle."
Himself - "What does that mean? Do you have to have a beard to be an Uncle?"
Miss 6 - "Well yes, Uncle D has a beard and he's an uncle."
Me - "Yes, but the other Uncle D doesn't have a beard and he's an uncle."

Master 4 - "Yes, but only Aunty's have beards."

Unsure as to which Aunty he may be referring too????

Thursday 25 February 2010

What Can You See In The Picture?


You  saw a couple in an intimate pose, right??

Interestingly,  research has shown that young children cannot identify  the intimate couple
because  they do not have prior memory associated with such a  scenario.?

What they  will see, however, is the nine dolphins in the  picture!?

So, I guess we've  already proven you're not a young innocent child.. Now,  if it's hard for you to find  the dolphins within 6 seconds, your mind is SO corrupted  that you probably need help!?

OK, here's  help: look at the space between her right arm and her  head, the tail is on her neck, follow it up. Look at her  left hip, follow the shaded part down, it's another one,  and on his shoulder..?

OH, S U R E  , you see them NOW!!!!!!!?? 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I received this email from a friend a few minutes ago. I, of course saw the dolphins straight away (?).

I asked Miss 6 to come and have a look. To tell me what she saw in the picture.

Can you guess what she saw?

Bet you can't!!!!



A monkey man with 4 arms and legs.


How does this work if she's got no prior knowledge of a monkey man with 4 arms & legs?
Or maybe she has......
 

Sunday 21 February 2010

George Michael - Perth Concert

(borrowed from Zimbio, click to see more)

We went in with way too high expectations obviously.

The man looked fantastic (obviously leading a very happy life). He had some very nice moves on the odd occassion he danced. He sang (when he could get through a whole song) beautifully. I loved his policeman outfit - although I'm sure I was not his targetted audience :)

The problem we had (and maybe it was just the 4 of us girls - the people around us remarked it was "by far the BEST concert they had ever been to") was that it was very obvious from the first few songs that he just didn't seem to have the stamina to get through an entire song. You can see by the photo above that he was pointing to us to help him out - which I know is very common at concerts and, don't get me wrong I LOVE LOVE LOVE to let my band/singer of choice know that I can sing as well as them ;), but this happened on every song, and for a good 1/2 of each song - except for a cover of The Police's Roxanne which he sang the whole way through (and did a great job of too).

He seemed to fall into a pattern (which obviously worked very well for him) of 2-3 slow songs and a fast one, followed by a very high stool and another slow one.

The concert started 1 hour later than advertised, and an hour into it he took a 25 minute break, came back on for 4 more songs, one encore that NOBODY recognised as the encore - and I challenge anyone to tell me they knew he was finishing then and there. He said "bye Perth, love you" and walked off never to be seen again. Lights on and away we go!

Very disappointed, although in all fairness to GM it was a horribly humid night and, being indoors it was stifling and he's just come from a nastily cold winter. I think the Promoter has a lot to answer for this concert.

Originally it was to be held at Members Equity which is an outdoor venue. That would have been great (and perhaps we wouldn't  have had to do a heap of the singing ourselves) and I'm certain GM would've felt a whole lot more comfortable onstage than he obviously was last night.

I wouldn't be surprised if we never see him back in WA again.

Boo to the promotors for not looking after us the paying (quite big bucks too I might mention) customers - and the performer. Maybe with your future artists you should try to be a little more concerned about their comfort than the bottom dollar?

To George - I really hope you had a great stay in Perth, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your tour.

A Week of Exercise - Nearly Killed Me!!!


My running partner and I have been getting up at around 5.15am every morning except for Fridays (kids have swimming lessons before school and it's just too hard to squeeze my half hour in before them). We swim Monday, run Tuesday, swim Wednesday and run Thursday. It's only for 1/2 hour but it's better than doing nothing at all.

Last week I decided to add water aerobics into the mix so Wednesday evening I toddled off to the with one of the bookclub mums. We had a spa afterwards which was a fantastic treat. I cancelled Thursdays run because another mum and I were starting our Pilates beginners course at Liv Pilates. I figured I didn't want to over do it :)

Then on Tuesday I joined a ten pin bowling league. Stop laughing now!!!

It was fun. Surprisingly. And I was terrible at it. I'm used to playing with the kids either on the Wii, or when we go the bowling lanes the barriers are up and I never get a gutter ball :)

So this week was a week of rest, except for the Pilates on Thursday night. Next week, straight back into it. This stomach is NOT going to shift itself you know.

Is this what's commonly known as 'A Midlife Crisis'?



Wednesday 10 February 2010

Master 4 - Mathematical Genius...

Driving in the car this morning and Master 4 starts telling me about this trapezoid. Can any of you cast your minds back far enough to Yr 9 Maths (I'm assuming that was when we learnt about mathematical shapes)? I had to google it
When I asked him what a trapezoid was he told me it was a triangle without a pointy bit at the top!

Not too bad for a 4 yr old is it?

Monday 8 February 2010

The Blogs I am Getting Paid For (woohoo)

I have another part-time job. Well, when I say part-time I mean I'm only getting paid $10 per blog so it's really only a twice a month job - and it's quite low paid, but I'm writing and people are actually reading and enjoying what I'm saying so I'm loving it. Not going to be able to retire on it, but I guess that's not what it's all about is it?


So I thought I'd better share the links incase they disappear FOR EVER.
How To Store Your Books 
What To Do When The Power Is Off? 
The Big Book Cull 
Will You Buy My Books?
Get To Work!
Competitive From Afar
My First Post 



Enjoy
xx

Saturday 6 February 2010

Our Crazy Garden


We have been growing various veges since we moved in together 15 years ago. Last year we decided to remove part of our back lawn and establish a proper vege patch. I even wanted to install a chicken coup and have some lovely free range eggs, but we thought the dog might enjoy that a little too much and didn't really feel the kids were ready for THAT kind of reality check.

The garden has had it's successes and it's failures (as all vege gardens do). We were hugely enthusiastic about it when we started it, but over the winter months our "gung-ho" approach became more of a "bugger, I will give you $100 if you go and water the garden" chore. But we've revived our interest in being a little self-sufficient and sewed a heap of seeds last Autumn.

Himself wanted to grow pumpkins. 

Now, I have watched many gardening shows and I know that pumpkins need room to spread out (much like myself when I sleep) . I did explain that when the seeds turn into pumpkin plants they are going to need space, but was told "it's ok - I know what I'm doing you know!" so I left it to him.

Now, the initial problem with planting our various seedlings was that he did it. Without my knowledge. So he was a little unsure as to which seedling was which (I had them labelled in their trays but...) so they were just planted.

When you plant pumpkin, zucchini & cucumber seedlings - they all look alike. The thing is that cucumber and zucchini really need to be grown on a trellis so they are off the ground. Pumpkin, on the other hand, should NEVER be grown on a trellis, for very obvious reasons.

Have a look at this. It's a very weeny pumpkin. You might take note of where it's growing?

Vertically.

Straight up the fence.
 
 
It is in the process of learning to live on the ground - but apparently pumpkins do enjoy the trellis lifestyle.

Now, on a sadder note. You may have read that we have some fish in a fish pond. They do tend to get replaced on an annual basis because they seem to get a little too much kindness.

Well it seems we may just be waking up tomorrow to a pond full of fish that are floating upside-down.

Again!

Someone in our family - who shall remain anonymous to protect his identity - was trying to add some nutrients to the pond. Nutrients that are kept in a bottle on the top of the beer fridge. Nutrients that are kept in a bottle, right next to the bottle of tea-tree shampoo we use to wash the dog. 

Can you see where I'm going with this?


And the comment I made earlier about trying to shield the kids to the realities of farm life? I'm pretty sure they will be fine. Miss 6 has already made a comment about "another trip to the fish shop"...

     

Friday 5 February 2010

An Old Flame Has Reappeared ...

You know when you sit and chat (and have a few drinks with the girls) and you talk about your first big crush? 

The first guy (or girl) that made your heart go boom diddy boom. 

The first guy that made your face turn bright red, just by walking past. 

The first guy that made you talk you like you had a mouth full of cotton balls, and turned you into someone who couldn't string a sentence together to save your life.
 (Just to clear this up before I get into trouble - I did actually marry the MAN who caused this to happen to me as an adult, but I am actually talking about the very first one. Go on, you know EXACTLY who I'm talking about).

Well, I have just recently rediscovered my "first crush". He was a boy from my high school. A very cute, blonde haired, brown eyed(I think, memory isn't what it used to be and it's entirely possible I'm substituting him with Zac Ephron) young man who was 13, the same age as me. We seemed to have a mutual fascination right from the very first day of school. But it was defintely a distance crush. Neither of us spoke to each other until we were around 15. 

Those were the days!

Do you remember the conversations with your friends - someone would come up in the playground (or undercovered area) and say "Such and such wants to go around with you, do you wanna or not?" and that would really be about it. Such deep and meaningful relationships!!! It's a wonder they ever made it past a week - or did they?

Well, my secret crush and I never got that far. In fact, I think the reason he was a secret crush was because nothing happened to shatter that ideal. 

We didn't speak to each other for 2 years, and when we finally got to a party at an age where we could maybe have a "quick pash" I was seeing one of his mates, and that lasted for 5 years. We would run into each other occassionally at football games (my partner at the time played football with him) and we actually managed to have adult conversations - by that stage I had managed to remove almost all of the cotton balls from my mouth.

I actually managed to forget all about him (unless we were having a girl's night, full of wine, reminiscing about our secret crushes) until my boyfriend (now husband) and I were travelling around Western Australia and ended up in the same small country town as him and his girlfriend. He and my husband started going fishing together.

That was a little uncomfortable, let me tell you. Watching your soul-mate and love of your life wetting a line with your secret crush.

But, I have to tell you - after having a bit of a chat with my secret crush this week - there is no more cotton balls in my mouth, not even an inkling of a boom diddy boom. In fact, I had a giggle and chatted to Himself about it afterwards. His memory of my first secret crush was that he was a bit of an idiot and hoped he'd grown up since we last saw him!  

Funny how he'd managed to sum up this boy so accurately. 

Makes me very, very happy that my first crush managed to stay a "secret" crush.

Maybe your first crush should stay just that way.

Whether it's secret or out there for the world to see. Whether it was George Michael (remember, we are talking the early '80s here - he was just best of mates with Andrew Ridgely !?!), or Dave - the guy in English class that had a flat-top hair cut and wore very tight Faberge jeans and Adidas sneakers, and had a stone-wash denim jacket, these guys (or girls) taught us what to look for, and what NOT to look for in later life.

Now feel free to have a little daydream about your first crush. Go on, enjoy the moment and then thank the Universe for what you have now. You'll appreciate it more I promise!