just plodding along

kicking it old school

i had a very delightful lunch yesterday with an old friend. good old tim dabinett. we had noodles and rice in the park. it was great to share some stories, particularly to hear about the trip to PNG he had just been on. 'old school' friends are the coolest. i'm hoping to catch up with another, liberachi, before she moves to byron next week.

and speaking of old school friends, cathy bell asked me to be her matron of honour! how exciting!! i've never been a bridesmaid before and in the first few months of next year, i'll be one twice for my two best friends! hoorah!

got our fix

last night we watched three episodes of las vegas. we hadn't watched it since tuesday last week i think! oh my goodness me. i don't know how we survived.

we had hamburgers for dinner last night, the idea sparked by the left over pineapple from the night before. good job us. i'm sure guido likes a bit of meat every now and then.

city of churches

we had a chunk of money left over that we were given and didn't spend with the UK trip, so we've booked ourselves a little getaway during August.

it's only a few nights away, but it will be nice just to hang out together and enjoy the serenity before guido arrives later in the year.

so we are going to adelaide. strange choice you may or may not think. we were thinking cairns for a while. but it's a bit touristy and expensive. then we thought melbourne to tie in with a work trip Howie has. but decided no go for that. so adelaide it is. i've never been to adelaide, so that is a winner.

now i get to have the fun of working out what adventures we can go on in adelaide and surrounds. howie's excited about all the public transport and the train museum. i'm not sure what i'm excited about yet, so i have to find something.

hoorah for holidays!

half way!

we had our 19 week scan today. the lady used the word "perfect" a lot. which is nice to hear.

so guido is looking good. as you can see:

and there are more pics here if you're keen

thanks and no thanks

i am thankful that it hasn't rained all weekend. that would have been a bit of a bummer.

i am thankful that there are people in the world who care about other people in the world. and are doing something about it.

i am thankful for a few things i hope to take away with me. i am only one, but i am one, and i can make a difference.

i am thankful that i got to the city and back last night without any problems. and i am thankful for a GPS in my phone, even when I don't obey it.

i am not thankful for the car full of males who drove past and yelled at me walking on cleveland street last night. and when i didn't respond, they told me i was ugly. nice.

i am not thankful that two nights on a not so posturepedic mattress have given me a sore back.

i am thankful for the topsest husband. he is cool.

flexible

enjoying the flexibility of this conference. last night howie and i left and got some food. heathcote maccas is open 24 hours AND has free drink refills.

today there are a few different sessions to be involved in. i'm being a bit of a roadie for howie. i got to tape down cables last night. hardcore.

looking forward to tonight's swan game. not looking forward to navigating my way there and back.

chop

i just had my first proper haircut in two years. by proper, i mean done in a hairdresser place, not just by my mum or me.

last one was just before our wedding, because the hairdresser doing my hair on the day wanted it cut, since it hadn't been properly done before that for about five years.

i haven't really had a good look at it. i'm just hoping it's less annoying. my hair was so long and there was lots of it. so now there is less of it. and it even has fancy things like layers. whoa. but not too much.

time to finish packing and head off down south in the next couple of hours.

reserved seating

I wonder how pregnant i need to be to warrant the special seat on a train or a bus. like how obvious a bump would i need that someone would stand up for me if there were no other seats.

I don't actually feel the need for that (yet), but I wonder if people wait til you are really obviously pregnant, rather than not being sure if maybe you're just fat.

Although, reading letters to the editor in things like mX, and other newspapers, it's a strong possibility that no one will ever stand for me if i need it.

smelly

the liquid soup in our work bathroom has been changed from whatever floral scent it was before. it now smells like that gross pink medicine you had as a kid. you know the one with the little pop out monster pictures you got after each dose?!

yuck!

petrol queues

does anyone know the etiquette for petrol stations?

so i pull up, wait my turn, and fill up. if it's just me in the car normally i will try and be as quick as i can in store paying, and then jump in and zoom off quickly when i get back to the car to allow the person behind me to get their turn faster.

however, if someone is with me, and they are filling my car up for me, is it polite to move the car forward enough for the person behind to start filling their car when my friend goes in to pay? is it expected?

even just if it's me in the car myself, is it the kind thing to do? or will the station think i'm bailing?

i'm sure knowing the answer doesn't really matter.

postman pat

getting mail is the funnest thing. particularly when it's parcels and packages. that is the coolest.

although today we have to return a package. we ordered a new light for the buddies, because they need their UV goodness. but when it arrived the globe wouldn't work. i'm sure it didn't help that the light ficture is a pain in the butt. but the old light does work, so it must be the globe.

so we get to post back a big fun tube, and hopefully receive another one very soon.

unfortunately i don't think we have any other mail to expect.

maybe people will surprise us with fun parcels of fun. maybe.

karaoke

for some reason our neighbours are singing karaoke in their backyard with a microphone and PA. it's quite loud, and all songs we don't know. but we're still sitting outside on the back porch listening to it. i think more because it's nice to sit in the sun.

thankyou cityrail

this morning as i bought howie and my train tickets with a hand full of coins i somehow managed to drop a $2 coin down a different slot. i listened as my coin bounced down into the innards of the machine.

a cityrail man was standing next to the machine as i exclaimed my disappointment to myself at losing $2. the man decided he was going to help me get my money back. off he went to get the keys while the next person bought their ticket. then the next person had to wait as he attempted opening the machine. a padlock flew along the platform, he used the wrong key, and then the door wouldn't open anyway. in the meantime i said, that's ok, it's only $2. i felt bad that a bunch of other commuters were standing in line waiting thinking the machine was broken.

he gave up but told me he'd open it later and leave the money for me on the counter to pick up. i said thanks. and then got on the train, while the 10 or so people waiting to buy their ticket missed it. whoops.

anyway, as we got back after work i thought why not see if it was there. my expectations weren't high.

a girl was working in the booth. i approached with a smile and said "i lost $2 in the ticket machine this morning..." and she said, "ah yes, we opened it up and could only find $1.20". and gave me that. i smiled and said "that's better than nothing" and thanked her.

maybe there was an 80 cent finders fee that they don't tell you about.

but anyway - thanks cityrail for a valiant attempt at returning my money.

recently

we hung out with tom last night.

all the intercoms and conciergeness of 'his' place is still confusing to me. i'm glad howie knows the go.

tom cooked us dinner.

butter chicken - his specialty. i've never had butter chicken before (besides some of howie's sauce and rice when he gets it at pakwaan). it wasn't bad. tom did a good job.

my job was to move the steamed veggies from their plastic bags to the plates. i didn't do a very good job, and got fired.

oh well.

we also watched the wednesday night line up. excitedly, hamish was on spicks and specks.

and gruen was good as has always been so far.

hollowmen was ok. i'm still not sure it's must-see for me. it's clever and all that. but meh.

today is glebe day. we're running a little behind schedule - our normal train has already left, and we haven't even brushed our teeth yet. i think howie's taking it a bit slower after working for TEAR every day except one over this past week, before starting another two days now. i'm happy to involve myself in the slow pace as well. after all, it's more his gig than mine at the moment.

electoral roll

with our move came changing our address details with a few places.

thankfully not everywhere, because a lot of places just go by postal address, so our PO Box does the trick and obviously will remain unchanged.

but one place we did have to change with was the electoral roll.

and yesterday i received my letter confirming the changes. and it told me i'm now in bradfield. gross.

i'm not really sure if that's a step up, down or to the side of having been in berowra.

poke

last thursday i thought that maybe i was starting to feel guido. but i wasn't certain - i thought it couold just be gas (nice!).

but then the same twitches have been happening each day since.

so that is fun! guido is making his/her presence known. which is awesome, and weird.

it feels like when you get a twitch in your eye. but in my abdomen.

we're 18 weeks tomorrow.

living

barb is away this week. paaartay!

no not really.

living with barb so far has been pretty easy. she's quite laidback, and very friendly. there haven't really been any dramas. we kind of all do our own thing, but at the same time, it all works together. this arrangement seems to be working quite well. hopefully she thinks the same! at least for a few months.

we're still working on the long term plan. we have some assurances of funding. we have very generous and kind families. so hopefully soon things will be more concrete, and we can move forward.

and hopefully at the same time, someone who owns a nice house with what we're looking for and where it needs to be, will decide they want to sell.

and all before guido arrives.

i am so in love with nutrigrain. nothing else will do for breakfast.

for the record

i have no desire for an iphone

eating

we had a family lunch on wednesday to celebrate family events.

1. debbie and james' engagement
2. my dad's 55th birthday
3. my grandma's 82nd birthday

wednesday was the only day most people could do. howie wasn't most people.

moody

it's probably good to be able to tell that hormones are playing with you. i don't think i'm too bad, but i am finding that i get annoyed/angry a lot faster than normal at the moment.

like today, there was a traffic jam because of an accident just a few hundred metres from where i needed to be for an appointment. it took much too long for my liking to get past the emergency vehicles - the police particularly got an F in traffic management. i was quite vocal, inside my car that is.

then tonight, howie and i weren't paying attention to the pizzas we'd made and put in the oven. and we burnt them nice and good. that made me poopy. because i wanted the pizzas and because it was a waste of food. so in the end, dinner for me was a plate of pineapple, tomato, capsicum and carrot. howie had ham sandwiches.

tick

my sister, mother and i went wedding dress shopping this morning (teachers taking advantage of school holidays you see!).

firstly, did a bit of a check of how a particular bridesmaids dress will work, and seems to be a go-er. i'm a little worried about my level of self-consciousness for the day, but what can you do. i think most people will know that i had recently popped out a baby and will forgive any unsightliness.

then debs tried on a few dresses, having no real idea of what she wanted. and only about seven or so dresses in, she'd found three she really liked. that was soon narrowed down to two. and then quickly to the one! sweet! nice work sister. i must say, you'll all be very impressed on january 3rd.

las vegas

yesterday we had lunch with tom. then howie decided he wanted to experience westfield. which seems to mean going to bing lee and jb hi-fi. in jb we saw las vegas boxsets for very good prices. tom said borders might be able to do us a better deal. so off we went.

and borders delivered. the first three seasons of las vegas for less than the price of a non-discounted one season. thats my kind of deal. i'm excited because i haven't seen most of the first season, and that's about to change.

howie also got our lounge room set up, so we can watch DVDs, sbs (top gear) and abc 2 (scrapheap challenge). we don't get channel 7 though. care factor is quite low. but it's kind of fun to have that space now too. we're gradually getting things set up/unpacked/packed away. funny little limbo land.

the gift that keeps on giving

we still have a good number of movie money vouchers to work our way through - thanks mum!

so tonight we went to see 'hancock'

i'd only heard about it in the last few days, and wasn't dying to see it or anything, but was interested. i like will smith. i like charlize. i don't mind jason bateman after juno.

and i quite enjoyed this movie. there were lots of little bits to laugh at throughout the first half, starting from almost the first line. and i did like will smith in it. i suspected something was up early on, which then led into the last half. the laughs kind of slowed a bit towards the end, but hey.

was a dandy way to spend a friday evening.

16 weeks

This morning was our second Ob appointment. It took all of two minutes - we should think of questions to ask to get more value for our money!!

But he did take my BP (122/64 or something) and we heard the baby's heartbeat on the doppler (about 155 bpm).

So all is looking good and normal so far. Which is nice.

And because it's a monthly appointment, it's kind of funny to walk out the door and have the reception lady say "have a good month!".

certainty

tax time! i like tax time, because i like filling in forms. i suppose i should do e-tax but that ruins all my fun. although the ato probably likes e-tax better. they don't need to read handwriting or anything. maybe i'll fill in a form for my own records (and fun) and then do e-tax. then everyone wins.

getting sick

well my body stood up as long is it could in the face of a full on two weeks of work and moving. now it's given up and is letting the cold take over. i am predicting a lot of yellow/green goober. the poo about colds and being pregnant is you can't take anything for them! besides panadol, and i don't really want to take that. fortunately it's only my second cold since being pregnant. hopefully the last too!