It's just a playground battle......

Last night Pam and I went to see The Feelers at Brewers Bar 'Stadium of Rock' at the Mount. This was my birthday present to Pam for the 20th.

Firstly we met at Stars and Stripes for a quick bite to eat. It was good to just sit and catch up, just the 2 of us. Haven't seen much of her since she moved to Aussie (obviously). When we do see each other, it's usually surrounded by her many hoards of fans, so hard to get some time to just chat.

From there we went straight to the venue. As always, they didn't start on time, so we just hung around "chatting". Ok, it was more like yelling, as a tin shed carries sound far, especially with hundreds of people in it!

Ewen Gilmore (the "Westie" comedian) opened for The Feelers. A weird combination, I thought, bit he's one of my favourite comedians, so that was half the appeal to come. Must admit that most of his jokes were old ones, but you still find yourself laughing at them!

The Feelers did an acoustic set straight after Ewen, which only lasted about 6 songs. Then they had a break. Talk about dragging it out!!

Ewen came back after the break and did another set. The Feelers then came out and did a great show! I surprised myself by actually knowing quite a few songs of theirs! It's great when bands do their old stuff, even though I knew quite a few of their newer songs. Still would love to go to a concert where I can sing along to every song.

Concert finished about 12am so I just headed straight home.

Thanks for a great night Pam! Hope to do it again soon!!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas was like any other year......lots of people and lots of food!

It started about 8am for me. I just couldn't sleep any longer. I'd only been off work 2 days so wasn't completely in holiday mood yet.

I fluffed around the kitchen getting bits and pieces ready......including my Christmas cake! The one I've been building since I finished my cake decorating class. The cake store ran out of things to make leaves so I only had my 2 practice ones to put in the spray. It was meant to be a nice long spray to stretch across the top of the cake, but ended up being a little posie. Still quite nice I think. Shame about the writing though. I slipped doing the M in Christmas, so the AS is jammed on the end.

My sister Jo arrived about 11am to help set things up as Mum and the Morten family (minus Brigitte who's in Vietnam) were arriving at 12pm for lunch. I made some yummy scones, which looked great after about 15 mins - but for some strange reason, I just looked at them, then shut the oven door and went upstairs. Left them in there for about another 15 mins! They weren't burnt, but they were dry and brown. I was so disappointed as I was really looking forward to nice fluffy scones.

After lunch we opened presents! I must say, I did quite nicely!! I got a breadmaker, air bed and electric pump (you know the ones that run from your car lighter!) plus heaps of other little bits and pieces, making up quite a collection of gifts!

Rach's family (Mum, Dad and sister) came over about 3pm, just in time to meet Rach as she finished work. Yes, poor Rach had a 9 hour shift at the resthome, starting at 6am!

So everyone sat around and chatted for a few hours before we decided to start putting together food for dinner.

Allan (Rach's dad) was in charge of the BBQ!

We had enough food to feed an army, as everyone seem to bring enough to share with everyone. Rach made her first pavalova, which she should be very proud of the result. I've never seen a homemade pav look so......round?!! So perfect really?! Well done Rach!

I will be eating leftovers for a week!

Partially fixed

Well my car went to the garage yesterday...........$153 later...........I have 3 new V belts (fan belts I think?)

Next year is the big one.........a new gear box!

One good thing, they checked my cambelt and that has been done so isn't in need of replacing just yet! PHEW!! That alone costs the same as a small country!

Yay, only 3 hours of work left til Christmas holidays! I'm so excited!!!

I need to harden up!

Saturday was spent hiding inside from the rain, watching movies. There was a brief disruption to it when all of a sudden I saw something out the corner of my eye. Oh yes, we had a leak! Right into the Christmas tree, of all places! So pulled the tree out of the way, shoved all the presents against the wall and jammed a bucket underneath. Yesterday the tree was still wet in the middle. As you can guess, we won't be turning on the lights any time soon!

Sunday, my Mum and Jo came over. Mum brought over her loppers so we could attack the plants down the drive (so we could get out of our cars!). Both of them ended up helping me for about 4 hours!! We cleared the driveway, the plant growing on the gate and fence by the front door and cleared out the herb garden. It's only cause it hosed down that we stopped. Those black clouds sure roll in fast!!!

So this morning I have a few aches.....mainly my back and back of my thighs. I had the job of picking up all the clippings and lugging them across the backyard to the compost heap! Can't complain too much as Mum and Jo didn't really need to help! THANKS GUYS!!!

Yay, only 6 days til Christmas.........and only 3.5 days of work left for me!!

I baked again!

My workmate had her 25th birthday on the 14th so I made her a cake (she doesn't bake). I wanted to have a play around with piping work, cause I haven't done much of that.

So I made the cake (sorry, I did a packet mix cause I haven't found a good chocolate cake recipe yet). Just put the cake frosting from the box on, then made up the piping icing (Royal Icing is the correct term).

We found out her favourite colour was blue, but it wasn't meant to come out as bright as it did. So below is photographic evidence of the cake, though I'm not too proud of it. The shells around the bottom were made from icing too runny, so it started to loose it's shape. Plus I wasn't good at writing numbers.

No, the 35th wasn't a mistake.......a wee joke we had with her at work.

I just want to cry....

I took my car to the garage yesterday for a check-up, cause it was making some funny noises I hadn't heard before.

The damage:
3 new fan belts
AND
a new gearbox

The bearings in the gearbox have gone but it costs more to replace them than to get a new gearbox! So getting the fan belts next week and save up for the gearbox for next year. A second-hand one STARTS at $600.......HELP!
And knowing me, I'll need a new cambelt shortly. It's overdue for one. They are going to check it out next week. That will be something to do in the new year!

So this also means I don't get my full discount on my Contiki holiday for next year, as I have to use the money I saved for that to pay for parts for my car. Oh the dramas!

It's taken me overnight to process the whole thing, but I've calmed down now. I think I was so worked up yesterday cause the receptionist was as useless as tits on a bull, plus she kept talking down to me. Rude cow!

Well that's my little rant for the moment. Nothing else exciting to report at the moment.

Just over a week til Christmas Holidays!

2 weeks til Christmas!

I can't wait for the Christmas holidays! It's already getting sticky hot here now, so I would love to be able to just relax, read a book and sit outside in the nice weather - stuff having to go to work! Only 10 more days of work.

Just helped my sister move this weekend, causing more stickiness! It is hot as it is, let alone moving stuff around. We managed to avoid showers for a little while, for her and Louise to move her bed. That was the biggest thing. Louise borrowed her boyfriend's ute, so we could just throw the bed on the back. Everything else could be moved in Jo's car. Luckily she doesn't have much stuff, so only took a couple of trips (one she did herself earlier in the week!).

Other than that, not much else has happened this past week. Cam and Rach are still on the Gold Coast for another week, so another week of quietness around the house. Craig is barely home, and when he is, he's not much of a talker.

And one last thing..........I'm going to the U2 concert!!! I didn't plan to go, but Cam, Rach and Tobi sat on the phones for 45 mins last Monday morning to get tickets. They had a couple spare, so decided I'd heard so much about U2 concerts, that it would be dumb to miss out just cause I wasn't sure. I still have a couple of months to listen to their recent album to get to know their songs! THANKS GUYS!!!

All alone.......

Well, I am now home alone as of 5 minutes ago. Cameron and Rachel left on a 2 week holiday (well just over 2 weeks) so there will be a lot of quiet in the house.

Craig hardly makes a noise, that's when is home. He's currently away on business until tomorrow, but his job requires him to up and go so often, that I'm likely to be home by myself a lot.

So anyone who is bored, give me a call!!! I've got no plans!!