Emotionally wierd

Not feeling my best today - tired, hormonal and on the edge.

Fed up with living like a refugee - the benches were fitted OK on Friday (a day late) but when the electrician came at the crack of nothing yesterday morning he wasn't able to do much because the wall has not been replaced behind where the oven will go and behind the stove. Also, the cupboard for the microwave hasn't been replaced. The kitchen company are apologetic but are waiting on parts, apparently. (More pics will be added to photostream when I can get the uploading thing to work again - more frustration)

Tired - Ishbel had two friends staying yesterday and overnight. My biggest worry during the day was that three would prove to be a crowd and that at some point during the day someone would be on the outer. This didn't eventuate and all three girls had a lovely day. The problem came at bed time. Ishbel now has a bunk in her room so we had two beds but when I brought out one of the boys' blow up camping mattresses none of the three wanted to put up their hands to sleep on it. So I told Ishbel that as the hostess it was her duty. With that she burst out crying, saying she was frightened of sleeping on the floor because of what might be under the bed. I said there were no monsters under the bed; there's no blumming room for them there with all the junk! I pulled the mattress off the bed and put it beside the camping mattress and said there, she'd have company on the floor. On she wailed. I lost it and stomped off to bed myself.

Read myself to sleep. Tossed and turned and was woken about 11:30 by the girls, jumping out of bed in concrete boots (it sounded like). Upstairs to tell them off. Back in bed to listen to Ian snoring.

About midnight a dog started howling. It sounded like it was in pain or something. Anyway, this was the cue for all the dogs in our neighbourhood (and there seems to be a yappy dog in every other back garden in this cul-de-sac alone!) to take up howling too, including Bella in the laundry. It was like the scene in 101 Dalmations when the dogs start barking that the puppies are gone. That went on and off for about 15 minutes then there were sirens going.

Finally the noise stopped outside but Ian snored on and at after 12:30 I could hear the elephants upstairs again and went to tell them off. "What?" was Ian's helpful response. I finally fell asleep again to be rudely woken at nothing o'clock by what sounded like a helicopter outside.

And I've just realised I've got a hair appointment booked for next Saturday when I'm supposed to be at brunch in Leura for my book group.

And it's December tomorrow.

Bah!

My eye exams

Ishbel and I had an appointment on Thursday morning to have our eyes tested. We went in to my work for a while before we went to the optometrists. Here is what she wrote while we were in my office (no changes to spelling or grammar):

Today I am getting my eyes checked. I am at my mums work until nine thirty. I am helping my mum but she hasn't told my to do anything yet. So that is why I am writing this storey. My mum is working at the library. When I got go to get my eyes checked I will not know what to do I will just wait for my name to be called. After I get my eyes checked I will get a sandwich. And then I will go to school.

Ishbel had been complaining of her vision going a bit fuzzy at times. Holly has recently (at 16) been diagnosed with a form of dyslexia. She's always found it difficult to read and thought she was stupid. She's been given a pair of glasses with dark lenses and is reading everything she can get her hands on now. Thought it would be best to check Ishbel out.

She just has a problem with convergence so now has to do exercises to make her eyes converge ie. go cross-eyed. Didn't Karen have the same?

Disaster-ous day

Several weeks ago Blue Mountains RFS brigades were asked for volunteers to assist with a disaster training day. "Might be a bit of a change from cataloguing," I thought, "I'll put my name down." So I did. That was before they notified us of the 4:40am pick up at Valley Heights! Eeeek!

So, on Tuesday morning I got up at 3am and braved the chill and was at the bus stop on the highway at Valley Heights with Robyn, waiting for a bus by 4:40am. It took us down to the Scout Camp at Glenfield where we were directed to a hut where we were given a card which had the details of our persona for the day. I was delighted to find I was 30 years old. My name was Summer and I was going with my friend to private tuition of some sort. Robyn, a grandmother 5 times over, was over the moon to be 28 year old Muriel!

We then went to another hut where, depending on the information on our cards, we were made up by State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers. I was given a large cut on my temple which had bits of shrapnel in it. Robyn had a cut on her back, again with shrapnel. We were also streaked with 'blood' and dusted with 'soot'. The we could go for breakfast. It was a bit surreal sitting having a plateful of egg, beans and toast with a bunch of people with gaping wounds, burns and singed clothing!

While we ate a nurse came around giving us a briefing on how our character would be from the details on their cards - fast breathing, bit dazed, etc.

We were then bussed off to the middle of Holdsworthy Army base. We had a 40 or so minute wait somewhere in the middle of the bush - the first of many during the day - luckily the RFS is well used to "hurry up and wait."

The scenario was a bomb on a train and a bus. There was a blown apart train beside a train station platform with steps leading down to a pedestrian tunnel and a bus, also blown open, which had a pig carcass over the back of one of the seats. We had to find a position (again according to what our cards said) and I took up position in the tunnel. Then a horn went off and we were off!

The man beside me had a piece of piping sticking out of his stomach so I took my cardigan off and wrapped it round the pipe and started shouting for help. And for my friend I was supposed to be with. The walking wounded helped people out while everyone shouted for help. It seemed like a long time before the police arrived but they didn't come in (making sure they didn't get in danger) so we shouted more for them to come in. We had a lot of fun with the pipe - at one point it was spitting rain and the man ("Randy, 26, who was shopping with his girlfriends" - obviously gay) was saying he hoped he didn't drown! We were also popping jelly babies down it.

Eventually (we are guessing it was about 20-30 mins) they finally sent in a sniffer dog before the NSW Fire Brigade (not our volunteer service) came in and stretchered my man off for treatment. As well as the Police and NSW Fire Brigade there were nurses, paramedics and chaplains.

As one of the walking wounded I was given a green 'Walking' tag and corralled into an area and my 'details' taken by a policeman. We had a bit of fun trying to wander off from time to time, only to be turned back to the group. At one stage a girl and I decided we were walking home, we had kids to collect from school. The lovely fireman that caught us let slip that they thought it was a terrorist attack. Terrorists! He then spent a few minutes desperately trying to backtrack on that one!

After another long time (we had no idea of the passage of time because we weren't allowed watches or other jewellry, mobiles or anything else with us) we were bussed back to the Scout camp. Now we had to wait to be interviewed by the police. We were sat in some chairs in rows. The first row were taken in to see the detectives and some people wh0 had been sitting at the back and the sides took up the seats. When they were then taken in next there was a lot of booing and shouting and we quickly established a kind of queue, which was not immediately apparent to the police, and woe-betide anyone who tried to jump the queue!

Summer had seen a criminal looking man in a green shirt with a black backpack so after giving my statement to the detective I was taken to another detective for another interview. I'd not been given any more information than I'd had seen a "criminal looking man in a green shirt with a black backpack " and was unsure how much we were allowed to make up but the detective told me to just go for it so we had a bit of fun. The man next to me was having to sign his name "Kylie" There were heaps of cross-dressers on that train!

The second surreal moment of the day came when the Police decided they didn't need to interview the dead after all!

By the time I'd been interviewed for the second time and had got as much of my 'wound' off as possible, the canteen was closing (Robyn and I'd not wanted to leave the chairs to go and get our lunch because we were really close to the front and didn't want to lose our place) and the bus we'd come down on had left. I ate my lunch in about 4 mouthfuls as I went from canteen to bus queue. It was at least 4:30pm by then.

One of the Blue Mountains boys had been given a huge gash on his (bald) head. He didn't wash it off and was hoping to get home with it I think. Unfortunately all the others taking photos with their mobiles alerted the SES and he was made to wipe it off in the end. Dan might post that photo - he had his mobile and took a photo or two.

It was after 6pm when I arrived home but my day wasn't over, I had a quick shower to wash out the rest of my wound and then headed out for a Tanderra meeting.

Looking for culinary inspiration

Being without the full range of kitchen equipment is really challenging my already culinary challenged menu planning. How apt that today I came across this Random Recipe Generator.

Here's one I might try on the family:

Mangoes Crumble
Serves 3

You will need:
60ml whipped cream
1 mango
120ml tabasco sauce
140ml brandy

Instructions:
pre-heat the oven to 210 C
slice the whipped cream
stir-fry the tabasco sauce
spoon the whipped cream onto a warmed plate
fry the tabasco sauce
sauté the mangoes
flambe the whipped cream
microwave the mangoes
stir-fry the brandy
bake for 30 minutes and serve hot

Yum.

Not only does Barack Obama know how to hold a book the right way up . . .

President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.

Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS's 60 Minutes on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tic, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.

But Mr. Obama's decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring. According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a president who speaks English as if it were his first language. "Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement," says Mr. Logsdon. "If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist."

The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, "Okay, subject, predicate, subject predicate -- we get it, stop showing off."

The president-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. "Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.

(By Andy Borowitz, BorowitzReport.com)

Robs crazy weather day

Today I played cricket in Blackheath, a little town about 5 minutes up the road from Katoomba. When Dad and I arrived at the ground at about noon the sun was out but it was very windy so we had jumpers on while we waited for the rest of the team to arrive. The game started at about 1 o'clock and after about half an hour it started to rain a little but it was only light even if the wind was making it horizontal. This sprinkling went on and off for about 45 minutes then got a bit heavier so we retreated to the cars while we waited for the bad weather to blow over. But it didn't. After a few minutes small bits of hail started falling then on to full blown snow. This is Australia!!! It isn't supposed to snow in summer!! Anyway the weather did blow over soon so we all went back on to the pitch and played for another 20 mins and during this time the sun re-emmerged and people were taking the jumpers off because they were to warm. Then the bad weather returned. Then went away again. And came back. And went away. The opposition team ended up on 100 runs and we were sent into bat. In the end my team won in with only about 3 balls left to be bowled. I didn't get to bat although I did open the bowling and got 2 wickets for 7 runs off 5 overs.
A wild day.
Rob.

You may have seen this one before . . .


Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewellery applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NBA 5.0, AFL 3.0 and Golf Clubs 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and HouseCleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.

Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?

Signed,

Desperate.



DEAR DESPERATE,

First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewellery 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1. Please note that Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Cooking 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck Babe!

Tech Support

The Ernies

One of my favourite awards, the Ernies are awarded for sexist public comments. The annual Ernie Awards have 10 categories and are decided by the level of boos, jeers and stamping of feet at the women's only event held at the New South Wales Parliament.

This year the Golden Ernie was awarded to the Mayor of Mount Isa, Councillor John Moloney for suggesting that ugly women should move to Mount Isa, in NW Queensland where men outnumber women 5:1, to find themselves a husband. "May I suggest if there are five blokes to every girl, we should find out where there are beauty-disadvantaged women and ask them to proceed to Mount Isa," Cr Molony said. But it was when local women retaliated against the comment that Mr Molony earned his golden Ernie award by replying, "The protesters are blaming me for their looks."



Winners of the Silver Ernies, from whom the Golden Ernie winner is chosen were:

• Western Australia's Treasurer Troy Buswell picked up the Political Ernie for snapping the bra of a female Labor staffer, making sexist remarks to a Liberal MP and famously sniffing the chair of a Liberal staffer.
• The Nine Network's John Westacott won the Media Ernie for his comment that "Sheilas do health and consumer stories - you want your blokes, your main guns, doing the real news stories."
• Professor Mark Wooden from the University of Melbourne won the Industrial Ernie for saying - at a National Press Club panel discussion no less - that "The pay equity gap has got a lot to do with the fact that women are not prepared to work longer hours."
• The hotly contested Elaine Award, "for remarks least helpful to the sisterhood", went to federal MP Sophie Mirabella for her comment during a debate in parliament about taxpayer funded staff at the lodge. Pointing to Deputy PM Julia Gillard, who does not have children, she said "You won't need his (Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's) taxpayer funded nanny, will you?".
• On a positive note, the Good Ernie Award "for boys behaving better" was a dead heat between rugby international Brendan Cannon, and transport company Veolia.
  Cannon said, "I don't want my daughter Phoebe growing up in the country where almost all women will be victims of physical violence or sexual abuse during their lifetimes" and the Veolia transport company was acknowledged for applying to the Anti-discrimination Commission for exemption from the Anti-Discrimination Act, so they could exclusively employ women drivers "because women are better drivers and gentler on the buses."

I also wanted to update you on our veggie babies

All are doing very well and growing up big and strong

The tomatoes, strawberries and herbs - now and then

The salad babies now and three weeks ago

The zucchinis and eggplants now and three weeks ago

Kitchen reno

I've been at home the past couple of days as the kitchen is renovated.

We've gone from this . . .

to this . . .

and now this . . .

Take a look at the slideshow here for more pictures.

Next week the Caesarstone bench will be installed along with the dishwasher, wall oven and stove top.

The weekend that just was . . .

I was out to book group on Friday night. We'd been reading The empire of the sun by J. G. Ballard, a story about a boy caught up in a camp near Shanghai after Pearl Harbor. It was a good read and we had a good discussion but several of us also stayed on to watch the movie too.

We were out to dinner on Saturday night to Steve and Bec's place to celebrate Steve's recent birthday. We didn't stay very late, mainly because we were nagged to go home by Ishbel. Steve's boys had their friend, Ben, having a sleep-over and once Ben's parents went home I don't think they were giving Ishbel much time.

It was a good job we did go home when we did because Catherine arrived on our doorstep about 5 minutes after we got home. She'd left a couple of books at Heather's house on Friday night which I'd picked up for her. I'd taken one back to Penrith Library when Ishbel and I were down there during the day but I still had another one. Catherine stayed for a cuppa then we were able to get to bed - I had plans to be up for RFS training early the next morning.

About 1am I heard Ishbel come in to the room. She just started to tell me she was feeling sick when she vomited - luckily she was just near the bathroom door and most of it went in there, but in there all over the place. It was a while before we had her cleaned up and the bathroom sluiced out! I don't know if it was something she ate during the evening (asking around no one else had a problem) or if it was brewing anyway. She'd had the day off on Wednesday complaining of nausea. Then she'd been fine and eating like a horse again by midday. When she complained of nausea again on Thursday morning shortly after having run round the garden with the dog I told her she was going to school anyway.

Ishbel slept with us the rest of the night - thank goodness for the king bed. Not that I slept much - I find it hard to get back to sleep again once I'm disturbed and a couple of times I was just about dropping off and a dog barked (not Bella) and I was awake again.

When the alarm went off at 6:30 am the last thing I wanted to do was go to training but we'd promised to pick Kieran up so off went Jamie and I. Rob had a cricket match so he couldn't come.

It was a good training session. We took the truck out to one of the lookouts and ran a whole load of hoses out and down into the bush. It was hard work hauling the hoses back out again but it was fun. We took a detour via Sharon's on the way home. She'd taped Taggart for me on Friday night - the one programme I can watch where the people don't have an accent!!! We'd been unable to use our video player on Friday night (when Taggart is screened) because the child lock had managed to be put on. None of us knew how to take it off and we'd lost the manual. By lucky chance our friend Jim came round on Saturday afternoon and took it off for us. Jim repairs TVs, DVD and video players for a living and has come in handy a few times recently.

The boys have their School Certificate exams this week. After that things wind down for them at school. The schools aren't allowed to start the Year 11 syllabus. They're allowed to leave school if they have a job and wanted me to write a note to that effect. Guess what answer they got? Jamie has a week of work experience at Ian's work and it's not long till Robbie goes off to Japan at the beginning of December. We have an orientation day for that this coming weekend.

Barack

Heard this on the radio the other day and loved it:

School website

Ishbel's school has a new website. Guess who's on the front page with her pals Ellen and Renee.

Take a look here. She's in amongst the Olympathon photos in the Gallery too.

Another weekend in paradise

Can I remember as far back as yesterday? Hmmmm. The usual shopping and chores.

Friday was the Total Fire Ban Day. Yes it got very warm, about 4pm it was 34C in Springwood but no fires broke out. Not sure if I'm disappointed about that or not!

Robbie had a cricket match yesterday afternoon. It was raining (and cold again) so I thought it'd be called off but it wasn't. He wasn't very happy when he got back. They'd lost again but only by about 5 runs. Ah well.

Ishbel was invited to play at Elki's for the afternoon. Once she got there we got a call asking if she could stay the night so I went over with her night gear later on. We then took advantage of not having a short person and took the boys to the pictures where we saw Burn After Reading which we enjoyed very much. Afterwards we went to find something to eat. We could only find a Hog's Breath Cafe open and we didn't enjoy it very much at all.

As you know, I tiptoed out of the house at the crack of nothing leaving the three boys snoring and went to RFS training. By the time I got back Ishbel was home and we got ready for visitors.

We were visited by Joanne and her friend, Janet, Adam (Janet's 8 year old son) and Chris (Joanne's 15 yr old). Janet comes up every Sunday to do Joanne's grocery shopping and we'd been talking for ages about her paying our new house a visit.

The chlorophyll babies are doing really well, especially the ones in the crates. The others in the flower bed are having to be protected from the snails, slugs and Bella - she has suddenly developed a penchant for digging. Not happy Bella!

Christmas in Valley Heights

We had an unexpected snowfall on the Valley Heights fire trail this morning. I'm hoping I'll be able to post a picture or two later.

Our RFS training session this morning was on pumps and pumping. We draw water from a creek using a pump into the tanker then pretend to fight a fire. I was pump operator today. It's a tricky business, keeping the water pressure at the right rate, making sure you are sucking water and not blowing it at the right time and vice versa and keeping an eye on the rest of the team to see if the water is being delivered at the right rate. It's an exercise we do from time to time, each time I pick up a snick more.

This morning for the first time in all the time I've been in the RFS we used fire fighting foam. It's used for covering burning oils in car crashes and the like. And it looks just like snow, both on the ground and, if you point the hose at the sky and let it fall, in the air. Two of the fellas took photos on their phones so I hope they don't forget to upload them.

The boys are wishing they hadn't stayed in bed after all.