yet another catch up...

...But at least I have been remembering to take these pics... although I seem to be getting more and more just before bed-time! haha!

So, here we go: My life from the 9th - 19th February 2009 in photos...

1: Rain! After a few weeks of high temperatures, our grass had turned to straw and the plants were wilted. The start of the rain was a welcome relief!

2: Beeeeeer :) We used the excuse of going to the club to get a replacement card to have dinner and a couple of drinks!

3: Washing up. It just never ends.

4: Bed time! Seeing as I am up at 4:20am to go for a run or do my aerobics, I need to make sure I am in bed before 9:30pm each night.

5: Onslow has taken to jumping on the lounge and squirming around like a worm while he gets into a comfy and cozy position. The rain and cooler weather suits him perfectly.

6: Alyssas birthday! She was so excited by the lighting of the cupcakes.

7: The rain from the 9th is still going! Last weekend, the air conditioner was working overtime, this weekend the clothes dryer was working overtime.

9: Yep. I'm on the obsessed bandwagon. My whole life has started revolving around charms.

10: Everytime I open the fridge the dogs get in the way. I was intending on taking a photo of the contents of the fridge, but Onlsow just happened to make this pic much more interesting!

11: Blue sky at last!!! The first time it has appeared for over a week.

too hot!

wow 3 days of 40 degree heat.. we basically haven't left the house all weekend. The curtains, the blinds, and the awnings have all been locked up since about 8:00am! We did got for an early morning run on Saturday. We left at 7:15am and it was already sitting around 25 degrees.
I was doing my photos for the Project 365 thingo, and I realised that I named them wrong last week.. the one for the 31st should have been for the 1st. The 31st pic was on my phone camera, but I cant be bothered right now to fix it up! So... he we are, starting from Wednesday the 4th:

Dinner for one: Travis' German lessons started back today and I always take these nights to either experiment with new dishes, or cook up some Tofu for myself. Travis hates tofu, and even though I marinate it and make it really tasty, he just hates the texture. But that's fine, more for me!

Pre-packed lunch: Every night I pack my lunch for work. We have: Bircher museli for breakfast; Yoghurt - half goe son the museli, the rest I have with lunch; sandwich with turkey and cheese on Garlic and herb bread and a container of chickpeas for lunch; Black muscatel grapes and a banana for snacks.

Persistent - This plant keeps growing so tall it almost hits the roof. I have tried 3 times to cut the lead shoot off, and every time, it just keeps growing back!

Gimmicks - We were in woolies doing our grocery shopping, and we needed fly spray. At the same instant, we both spotted this particular spray. Travis saw the words "Energy Ball" and rolled his eyes, reaching for the normal mortein. I, on the other hand, squealed "oooh energy ball!!!" and snatched it off the shelf in one quick manouvre. Any kind of gimmick or fancy advertising technique, and I fall for it!

Yep, a whole weekend of temps around 42. All we could do was put the AC on and flop around inside. What better weather than this for laying around on the couch watching cricket?!

On Saturday night we headed up the mountain to get some coolness and to just get out of the house.

I drowned myself in aeroguard but I still managed to cop a few bites on my legs. It was nice and peaceful though, listening to the sounds of the bush and just enjoying the stillness.

Oh, i made some more hot cross buns today! But, instead of putting the cross on just before they go into the oven, I put them on waaay before that and they kinda splattered out by the time they went into the oven! hahaha. They taste sooo good though. This time I doubled the amount of mixed spice, and cinnamon so they are just bursting with flavour!


Anyway I am heading off to watch the rest of the cricket now :)

PHOTO'S!!!

1 - I picked 250g of chillis and the trees are still full of them! Some were put in Olive Oil and most have been frozen to see me through Winter :) The chillis this year are HOT! OMG I used to be able to put 3 chillis in whatever meal I am cooking, with this years crop though, one is generally enough.
2 - Bored and hot. This is a typical bored photoshoot in our house.
3 - When the sun goes down, the candles get lit. Travis hates having the lights on when we watch TV and I hate being in the dark. Candles are a nice compromise.
4 - Not the best Australia Day (see previous entry).
5 - I did get this swanky new phone from work though. The one that was in my bag was about 8 years old.. a super old Nokia 3310: Anyway they wouldn't replace it for me becuase it was still working.. even though the battery would last all of 6 hours LOL
6 - The beast of a car that work rented for me :) Apparently they couldn't get anything smaller and I was well pleased!
7 - Sitting side by side while we watched TV.
8 - I had the day off work and baked hot cross buns. Donna Hay is my hero. Whenever I need to bake something, I reach for her Modern Classics 2. Whenever I need dinner ideas I reach for modern Classics 1. Whenever I have random ingredients in the pantry, I reach for Off the Shelf. She's my go-to chef!
9 - We had our first beer explosion. Not sure when it occured, but it was discovered on saturday. I had been smelling a berry/yeasty type of smell in the spare room for a few weeks now, and just thought it was from all the brewing equipment. Obviously not.
10 - I snapped a shot of the dining table before going to bed. My sister gave me this wine holder for Christmas and it's adorable! She gave Travis a matching dog one and they look great together.
11 - Reunited!! My car has no damage to it, and was in perfect condition. As much as I loved the green car, I am so happy to have this one back. While it's not technically "mine", I did pick the type of car, and I did pick the colour. I'm quite attached to it :)

Absolute Mayhem

Well things are slowly getting back to normal. It’s been one majorly hectic week! It all started on Australia Day when I offered to work and help out with the celebrations. Council was putting on a big event with dog fashion parades, special guests, rides - the whole shebang. I rocked up at 12:15 and my job for the day was to take the registrations for the dog fancy dress parade. And it just so happened that I got to play with a lot of dogs ;)

Anyway as soon as I get there, I get whisked away to help put up a marquee, and was told to just put my bag in the Council tent along with everyone else’s stuff. There were 4 people in the tent, cutting up temporary tattoos, and decorating the stall with Aussie flags and streamers.

About 45 minutes later, I am done putting up the marquee, and I wander back to the un-attended Council tent. I notice my jumper on the footpath about 5 meters away and think it’s been blown away by the wind. I pick it up, and go to put it back on top of my bag, just to discover that the bag was gone. There were cameras and other bags sitting in the tent, but my bag was the only thing that was missing. Everyone split up and helped look in garbage bins, in the small crowd, and in the parks, while I borrowed a phone and rang Travis to tell him to cancel the credit cards.

In the space of 25 minutes, the bag was gone, and 3 transactions were rung up on the cards. We called the Police, and they came out and I was able to give them my statement. Not only was my wallet and all my ID in the bag, so were my house keys and car keys. The car was still where I parked it, and I told Travis not to leave the house at all.

At 4:00pm Travis’ parents came in to drop off my spare car key so I could get home. The car was still there, waiting for me, and it didn’t even occur to me to move it. I should have, because at 6:30 when I went to leave, the spot was empty and the car was long gone. Another phone call to the police, another statement and I managed to get a lift home with my work colleague.

That night was a bit scary. Knowing the thieves had my car which had a full tank of fuel AND my work fuel card in there along with my address and house keys. We bolted all the windows and doors, made sure the dogs were kept inside the entire night and turned on the front and backyard sensor lights, as well as the sunroom lights.

The locksmith came first thing the next morning and we got the locks changed. The car was a company car, so I took the train in to work and they gave me a ute to come home in. LOL I have never driven a ute before and I was a bit lost when it came to trying to operate the column shift for the first time! The next day, they hired me a car from Avis for me to get around in. No news about my stolen car, but the funky, bright green SV6 Commodore with the Body Kit was a nice supplement!

We went to Katoomba on Saturday night and came back home to a message on the answering machine to say that the car has been found “in tact” and the police have towed it to a secure location. It was going to get finger printed on Monday.

On Monday (yesterday), I rang the mechanic at work and he picked it up, checked it all out, and sent it back to Toyota to get the locks changed. Then they washed all the finger print dust off, and detailed the inside before delivering it to my office on today (Tuesday).

Surprisingly, there is no damage. There are a few small things missing – my new Pink CD, my water bottle – a funky bright pink Tupperware one with a secret bottom to put keys in when you go walking – My cancelled E-Tag and my cancelled fuel card. Most everything else was untouched… Funnily enough, the house keys were also in there, which I was VERY excited about because they had a special key ring on them. The keys are of no use, but I was a bit sad to lose that key ring!

So that’s been my week. I’ve ordered a new E-Tag, and I can’t wait to get that because this whole needing $2.75 x 2 everyday and having to stop to pay the toll is doing my head in!

In amongst all that, Onslow has still been having his arm dramas. Turns out he also has Elbow dysplasia in both elbows and it is something can not be operated on, unlike the hip dysplasia that he has. So we just have to manage it for however long it can be managed for.

He had an injection directly into the elbow on Saturday and he seems to have responded really well to that. Prior to the injection he was only getting up twice a day at meal times. Once he had eaten he would lay back down again. Yesterday he was almost back to normal, walking well with just a slight limp, wandering around the house whenever he hears food being prepared or eaten, and even getting up to go the toilet when we tell him to. (Yes, our dogs will wee on command, it’s fantastic!)

Although, the cheeky thing will only wee in the front yard now and takes FOR.EVER to get back inside, pretending he needs to do a poo then rolling on his back and being all cute when he gets told to get back inside. All these are normal Onslow-traits which we haven’t seen for over a week ;)

Anyway I think this post has gotten big enough now. I have so many photos to catch up on from the project 365, but I might do those tomorrow. I am very proud of myself for remembering to take a photo every day. Even Travis has been very camera happy and is always grabbing the DSLR and taking random pics, just in case I forget to my “photo of the day”! hahaa

Catch ya later :)

Friday at last!!!

Wow what a week this has been! I have been run off my feet at work; it’s just been so crazy. So many people complaining about dirty food shops, noisy air conditioners, overgrown properties, water running from the gutter, noisy roosters…. The list just goes on. At least it has made the days go by quickly though.

So here are the photos from the 20th, 21st and 22nd. Todays are still on the camera and I cant be bothered getting up, getting the card reader, picking one and fiddling with it. LOL

It’s getting towards the end of the school holidays, and already the traffic is starting to increase. I took this photo with my mobile phone when I was stuck in traffic on the way home. *sigh* I love school holiday periods. The thought of going back to spending 70 minutes on the road to come home is not appealing.

I have no idea how this dragonfly ended up in our living room at 6:00am.Unfortunately it was very low light, and as had landed near the light switch, I didn’t want to disturb him in case he flew away, which is why the photo is a bit grainy.

And this was yesterday.

We woke up and Onslow was not using his left front leg. At all! And because his back legs / hips are still not as strong as they should be, he was really struggling to get up.

Anyway I had to go to work so I caught the train in, while Travis (who is able to work from home if he needs to) drove O to the vet.

Several X-rays later and it’s come to light that he also has severe arthritis in his front shoulders. And just like the leg, the left arm is the worst. She thinks that he just gave it a big knock and that’s why its all flared up.

While he was under, we also got her to remove the cyst which was between his toes. We got it checked out last year, and because it’s not cancerous or anything, they didn’t want to knock him out (again) just to remove it. You can’t really see the bandage in the photo, but when he stands up he looks like a pirate with a wooden leg!

Last year, for the first time ever, he made it through the entire 12 month period with no expensive vet bills, no surgeries, no x-rays and no issues. Let’s just hope this shoulder gets better and doesn’t go the same way as the hip and needs an operation….

Oh yesterday when I decided to train it in to work, Travis told me to get the 7:04 train which gets me to Strathfield at 7:45, and give me ample time to walk to work and be there before 8:00 (which is my starting time).

Anyway we pass Homebush and I pack my book away. I wonder why the train isn’t slowing down, and then I just watch as the train hoons past my station. So I sit back and wait. I had 5 more pages to read, but I didn’t want to get my book out again and look like an idiot. There were no other stops until Central. So I got off just after 8:00, got on another train and got to work at 8:30.

Fortunately the train trip home was uneventful. I think the morning was pay back for me not getting Travis from the station on Wednesday arvo.. he left his phone at work so he was unable to tell me which train he was on. And instead of just going and waiting at the station for him, I stayed home and continued preparing dinner.

Karma’s a bitch……

photo catch-up

14/1: Another 40 degree day saw us go for a quick swim in the pool after work. When travis' training swims fall on these hot days, it's better to go at 7:00pm rather than in the middle of the day. And it means I can tag along and have a bit of a splash too :)


15/1: So bored and hot. I hate sitting at my desk all day, but it was way too hot to leave the office. I had so many inspections that needed to be done but just couldn't stand the heat!


16/1: Friday night saw us spend the evening organising our gear for the ADventure Race. Camel backs, energy bars, first aid kit, safety gear, clothes, sports drink... I was so excited!


17/1: The aftermath of the race. My legs were filthy, cut and bruised. Not to mention sore!


18/1: My 2nd attempt at making bread by hand (ie no bread machine to make the shape for me) Im getting there. This one at least looked like a normal size and a normal shape. And its very tasty! I left the sourdough started to ferment for almost 2 days. Next time i might try 3 days. See how strong I get the flavour.


19/1: I love water. I drink so much of the stuff, at least 2litres a day, up to 4litres in really hot weather. The more I drink, the more I want.

Still here!

Well, it’s day 19 and I am still doing my photo a day :)
Not that you can tell.. they are all on my camera waiting patiently for me to bother getting them off and processed. But I have been taking them :)

Today I am still recovering from Saturdays antics. Travis and I went in the Kathmandu Adventure Race and after getting lost a few times early on and having to backtrack a bit, we finally crossed the finish line after 6 gruelling hours. LOL At least we weren’t last! There were about 10 teams still behind us when we got to the final kayak leg.

We were expecting a clearly marked out course with a nice, easy fire trail to run along. Wrong on both counts!! They gave us a map which they had marked the various checkpoints on, and it was up to each team to figure out the quickest path to get to each one.

As for the “runs” well, I don’t know about anyone else, but when it comes to boulder hopping over massive rocks in the middle of the Nepean Gorge, I don’t do that much running! I did a lot of crawling around on all 4’s, sliding down rocks on my bum and climbing up steep embankments however…

I can understand now why the equipment list included things like a compass, one of those silver emergency blankets, a whistle, and a decent first aid kit! I have a few cuts and bruises from barging my way through thick shrubs which had thorny branches but apart from that, I pulled up ok! We had a blast. I was a bit delirious on the last kayak leg and found it hilarious that massive lengths of Elodea were getting caught on my paddle and then falling off and landing on my head and down my back. I was laughing so hard that I wasn’t looking where we were going and we ended up getting stuck on a rock in the shallow water. Twice. Travis was very unimpressed at that point.

That afternoon, I showered and pulled on my skins to help my poor aching muscles to recover from their ordeal. We treated ourselves to a nice dinner at Hubertus’ Country Club where I ordered the Gypsy platter. My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when it came… one huge chicken schnitzel, one huge veal schnitzel, one delicious Kranksy, 2 crumbed mushrooms, cabbage, baked potatoes, and a side of some kind of beetroot salad, a garden salad and the best potato salad ever! I ate all of the salad and all of the vegies, but only half of each schnitzel and half of the kranksy. I could have kept going but I didn’t want to stuff myself. I was nicely satisfied after burning off 2,500 calories during the race :)


Sunday was spent doing house work and washing and grocery shopping. Nothing overly exciting. I made the snickerdoodle cookie recipie I found on Kate’s Blog a while back, and had another attempt at making a sourdough bread from scratch. It turned out really well! The shape was much better this time around :) So much so, that it was the subject of my day 18 photo!

DIY girl

Yep.. I do love a bit of "DIY action". On Sunday I decided to try my hand at making sourdough bread without the bread machine. It tasted great, but the shape was a bit dodgy LOL. That was the day that I also decided to put my own red highlights in my hair. I used foils just like the hair dressers do! And today, as I was leaving the house for work, I decided I needed a haircut. Not wanting to wait for an appointment, I grabbed the scissors and cut a fringe, as well as some layers around my face. And I must admit, I love it!! I love it even more than when the hair dresser does it :)

Not that you can tell from this pic, but there was something about it that I loved... I took it in the reflection of the mirror. There were sharper ones, there were ones that showed the entire new hairdo... but they lacked something that this one had.

Well Australia are now batting in the 20-20 cricket so I am heading off to watch a bit before I go to bed :)