just plodding along

some truths

Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realise you're wrong.

How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent an idiot from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public, I feel like a kid on Christmas morning that just got the gift that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

If Carmen San Diego and Wally ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem.

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

"Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

Was learning cursive really necessary?

Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

extreme slip n slide

this would be way cool if it was real

actually it's way cool either way.

where i am at right now

- i have a head cold
- i am tired
- i am glad it's friday and howie is at home
- i am printing 18 copies of our newsletter
- i have 14 notes to write
- i am eating skittles
- i was first up at 4:15am
- i don't know what to wear today
- i should have my shower
- i have to do some baby food cooking today
- i wonder if oscar will like cucumber
- i wonder if oscar will like rusks
- i wonder if i will get to nap today
- i wonder what's for lunch
- i need to tidy up a bit
- i am taking it one day at a time
- i am loved by Him, regardless of whether i deserve it or not (and i don't)
- i shouldn't eat so much junk
- i wish out printer didn't go through ink so fast

north

my (and oscar's) birthday present to howie was a trip up to the Gold Coast to have lunch with some of our good buddies who we don't get to see enough.

so we were on the 7am train to domestic (which cost us $26.50 each return - blimey!). on arrival at the airport, we discovered all the planes were running late because sydney air traffic control had predicted strong winds that never happened. nice one.

anyway, we took in the sights and sounds of the airport a little longer than expected, and then boarded our plane to coolongatta. we were in the back row. oscar took the first few minutes of sitting time to touch everything with his index finger. including the TV.

there were at least four other babies in the vicinity. oscar cried the most. but he also had fun some of the time

eventually, after seeing a whale as we approached, we came into the airport

after being held on the plane for a while for a crane to be moved, we got off and started walking to kirra beach. a bird crapped on me. nice welcome. oscar thankfully fell asleep in his pram.

we got to kirra beach and found our buddies - penny, andy, miki and bowen! we walked to the takeaway place and had some lunch. oscar soon woke up and joined the party.

he seemed very excited to meet bowen

me and miki

penny and oscar

the boys - bowen, andy, oscar and howie

the girls - me, penny and miki

miki and oscar sharing (in their colour coordinated outfits)

after a bit over an hour together (way not long enough!) it was time to part ways. the beeston/bowen vehicle headed back north, and we started our walk back to the airport

no pants wednesday!

gold coast airport isn't made for pedestrian access. and they must hire birds to enforce that. this time i didn't get crapped on, but swooped at. scared the crap outta me.

anyway, it was nice to be in air conditioning. our flight was delayed by an hour, so we hung in the airport. we got a magnet. very important.

the flight back was much more enjoyable for oscar. good thing, since we were in row 11 this time. before long we were back in sydney

and it was time to train it home. oscar slept from the airport to epping. nice work baby!

so it was a good day. long, hot and tiring, and a little bit stressful, but very worth it to give howie a good present and to see our buddies.

i'm quite happy not to go on a plane again with oscar until he's at least five. or ten. or eighteen.

parmigiana

i made chicken parmigiana last night. well really, i made romano chicken, but with breadcrumbs added (and flour and egg). it turned out ok. needed to do a bit longer (and probably with more oil) in the frypan before the oven to get more crispiness happening. but it was still yummy.

and howie did very well with the meat mallet that i don't think we've used in the almost three years that we've had it. i think we have a lot of things in our kitchen that have been out of their boxes for almost three years, but haven't been used. we'll get there one day.

kick it to the curb

with a the arrival of fuji, we knew that imagetricks just had to go. howie found a new program. i downloaded the free trial but it watermarked the images. so i just decided to buy it anyway - was $US20.

Wondershare iMageFit does the job wonderfully. so lovely to resize photos and they still look like clear photos. you may have already noticed. and it also does batch resizing so i don't have to go through one by one. that is gold.

nooby lunch

today we had lunch with the noobs before howie went off to his TEAR group meeting.

here he is working hard

a little too hard it seems

the noobs gave him a present for his upcoming birthday. i think he liked it.

oscar and his aunt and uncle

twas a very yummy and fun lunch.

reading

tom leaves his books around the place sometimes. oscar often takes advantage.

toot toot!!

today was the first steam train day in a long time. it was good to be back.

in celebration of oscar's first steam adventure, he got new overalls and a train toy (both on sale... yesss!!!)

here we are on our way from the TEAR office (our feeding and sleeping base) to central

there was an engine at each end of the carriages. we were in carriage A, so at the front for the trip to clyde, and at the back on the trip back. yep that's right. a huge trip all the way from central to clyde! gotta start off small

yay for steam train buddies joshy and sam! with the rear engine

steam!

sam and joshy at the rear engine again

oscar at the front engine, standing behind the yellow line like a good boy

i love this pic of joshy and oscar

howie and the reflection of the train going through burwood

yay for fun adventures

it was great hanging out with sam and joshy. and oscar did so well and seemed to have a good time.

after the trip ended, we went our separate ways. oscar and howie then had a nap in the TEAR office before we got an express back home.

a good day indeed.

changing of the guard

howie found a use for his tax return. he decided (and peer pressured me!) that it was time to replace Toffee. particularly after our expedition to Chatswood the other week. and also because he was getting increasingly slow - probably because my endless importing of photos.

so we welcome Fuji to the family. he is a 13-inch MacBook Pro. A little brother for Mac Daddy.

the new and the old

i'm so glad that Macs are so very much the same as each other. there's a few little bits and pieces to learn, but all is good. although there is about 1000MB of updates happening now through my mobile internet... tick tock.

i'll miss toffee though. he was my first computer and has definitely served me well over the last few years.

nerdburger

we are magnet freaks.

and i was disappointed we didn't get magnets at albury, seymour or yass during our melbourne trip.

and as i don't care about seymour, i emailed the visitor centres at albury and yass to ask if there is a way to purchase a magnet online.

the albury people were lovely. they sent me one as a gift.

so if you're ever on the road to melbourne, stop in albury.

the yass people got back to me too, but their magnets are on order. i'll have to pay for that one.

shifting house

Dr Lock is coming this afternoon to fix the front door. Again. Hopefully this time it'll be a little more flexible, so go with this flexible house! And hopefully it will mean less disruption to Oscar while he's trying to sleep, no longer using the backdoor as the main access to the house.

We can hope.

anagram

what's an anagram of your name?

find out here

with my full name, i get 'jerk fine, inane whore'. nice.

ho hum

life can be pretty boring sometimes.

bob in bob on bob

oscar and daddy have so much fun

as an aside, do you get the title of this post? i'm so clever.

exhaustedness

since getting back from melbourne i have been incredibly tired. and have a sore eye and sinus at times. i don't think i'm sleeping any worse than usual (what i would give for a solid nights sleep - and it's not even Oscar's fault!). i guess i just haven't recovered from all the driving. and normally i'd be able to nap whenever and recuperate. but not this time. i hope that sometime soon i'm feeling more energetic.

shave head, raise dosh

i'm thinking of shaving my head in aid of raising monies for TEAR.

in anticipation of me actually deciding that i will do it, i've made this to keep track.

so if people do start making donations, i guess that locks me in to doing it!

in my head, shaving your head is just something you have to do once in your life. as a girl i mean. but i'm sure lots of other people don't feel the same. so it's not something i'm afraid to do. although it is a little bit scary. it'll always grow out.

hear that dad? it will grow out. i love you.

home

our holiday is finito.

we got home around midday today after leaving yass before 8am and stopping off in picton.

i think oscar is happy to not have to be in the car any time soon. but again he did very well - had some good snoozes.

it is nice to be home. i am very much looking forward to my bed. oh boy am i.

yass

in the morning drizzle, we left melbourne behind us. thanks for having us!

we drove through to glenrowan - the ned kelly town.

we had some scones with jam and cream at a little cafe where the lady wanted to up-sell everything. if it wasn't pottery, it was her two bedroom unit to rent. friendly but funny.

we continued on towards gundagai for afternoon lunch near the 'Dog on the Tuckerbox'

where there was a 'Baby on a carboot tray'

we both had little vegetarian eagle boys pizzas.

then a short 100km trip up the road we got to yass, where we are staying tonight. there's free wireless internet, but it's sometime very slow or very non-present. but better than my mobile broadband.

had grilled fish for dinner, and howie a chicken burger. watched a doco on airforce one. and hope it's bedtime soon.

almost home.

st kilda

today we decided to head to st kilda. we headed off to chapel street by foot (with oscar enjoying being held by mum then dad then mum then dad etc) to catch the 79 tram. after a 78 already passed by, the driver of the next 78 told us that the 79 doesn't run til 6pm. whoops. and he said he'd tell us where to get off and change to get to st kilda. what a nice tram driver man.

so we got off at carlisle street and caught another tram to st kilda.

we got there and headed for the beach and then realised we were walking passed luna park. so we decided to pop in and have a look

unfortunately oscar was a little small to go on any ride. "you must be this tall to enter"... almost!

ding ding!

was quite different to the sydney luna park. much smaller. seems much more kiddie friendly. the rides are all quite small and pretty old school. but it looks like good fun for the family, if the family doesn't include anyone shorter than 120cm.

from luna park, we walked down towards the beach.

and oscar had his first feel of sand. thankfully he didn't even try to eat it! doesn't take after mummy just yet

we then wandered around to find somewhere to eat that would satisfy us, and provide a safe and comfortable place for oscar to feed as well. we ended up in grill'd. it was a bit pricey, but yummy. howie had a beef burger, and i ordered pumpkin cous cous with lamb skewers. yummo.

after lunch we went back to the tram and made our way back towards south yarra. we had to change trams and had fun walking to the next tram stop

oscar did very well for being up for such a long time! and we had a fun little trip to the sea side.

the rest of the arvo we hung at home - watched a bit of the swans game on tv (which was being played only a couple of kms from us at the 'G). have slowly started packing. and had our gourmet dinner of pasta, veggies, tuna and cheese.

hoping for a very good night of sleep. because we're driving through to yass tomorrow. google maps tells us it's 611km and will take 6 hours and 58 minutes.

would you like some pizza with your mushroom?!

last night david came over and we got some italian. this is my pizza. i'm not a big fan of mushroom. too bad!

friday and saturday

the last two days went as follows:

friday
had morning tea with Gabrielle, Raquel and Archer in Blackburn. i didn't end up taking any photos, partly because i forgot and partly because i was embarrassed to. but now i regret it! ah well. it was nice to meet up with them.

fortunately, howie's conference finished early and was also in Blackburn, so we picked him up and came back "home". after oscar had a sleep we went to the park again. oscar had fun on the swings again, then didn't seem to fussed with the slippery dip.

the heavens then opened momentarily so we ventured back home.

and had fun mucking around a bit - oscar has come up with all kinds of strange and funny smiles and faces. very cute.

saturday

this morning we went for a little walk along the yarra. it was a very lovely day.

after an oscar sleep and eat, we ventured into the city by train. we disembarked at southern cross station and walked to the rialto towers for the melbourne360. we caught the elevator 55 floors upwards. it was pretty tall.

had a pretty good view as well. from inside and outside.

looking down towards flinders street station and the MCG

after that we headed back to the station and caught a train home for oscar to have another sleep.

once he awoke and fed, we headed off again! this time we caught a tram - oscar and my first melbourne one ever. oh my was he impressed, if this photo is anything to go by

we got off just before southbank

this time we were going up eureka skydeck. 88 floors up.

the view was pretty good.

the problem was it was very touristy. and not just there being lots of people. it was more gimmicky, if that makes sense. so i actually preferred the other one.

by this stage oscar was a bit too tired and getting grumpy, so we headed to flinders street station to make for a more speedy trip home.

now david is over and we're having Italian takeaway for dinner.

(I reckon imagetricks is getting worse at resizing my photos. i REALLY need a better photo program)

winter wussbags

i didn't take any photos today. wasn't really anything to take photos of. oscar and i did visit howie at lunchtime. a practice run for tomorrow's drive to blackburn when we meet up with Gab, Raquel and Archer for morning tea. oscar and i also went for a long walk along chapel street - not incredibly pram friendly, but hey. we went to coles to get me some beef hot pot for dinner. yummo.

but what i did want to blog about has been alluded to in the title. i've noticed whilst walking and driving around, that melburnians rug up. it's general knowledge that winter in melbourne is not warm - so i brought long sleeved tshirts, jumpers and a puffy jacket in anticipation. but it's hitting 16-20 degrees each day. i'm fine in a singlet and a long sleeved tshirt or jumper. but i am surrounded by people in long sleeved clothing covered by coats, scarves and beanies. it's really not that cold. not at all. howie thought maybe they know it gets cold once the sun goes down, so they dress in preparation for the end of the day. but why wear all that stuff in the middle of the day? very strange.

so i've decided that a lot of melburnians are soft.

swing

this afternoon oscar and i went out in search of a park to play in. we didn't have to walk too far.

oscar had his first go on a swing.

even just sitting in it is fun!

and here we go

yay!

he really seemed to enjoy it. and who wouldn't :)

i also couldn't resist popping him in the rocking thing - it's a turtle!

still haven't seen much of melbourne. maybe on sunday.

2sday

oscar and i haven't really done much thus far. we're kind of just doing what we do at home, but not at home. and without westie. so sad there is no westie.

anyway, yesterday was very low key. we went for a walk to chapel street. that was about it. i did make progress on oscar's room though - nice and dark now.

hopefully the tape removal on monday doesn't result in paint removal. eep.

oscar's still enjoying his welcome present

today we met up with ben and erica in the city. it was good fun. and oscar had a great time with ben, which was cool.

and that meant catching a train. woo!

and erica had made oscar a little present - thanks erica!

today i've also got to battle the washer/dryer. and watch crap on foxtel. oh my gosh there is so much crap on foxtel. but still, i found myself watching the kendra marathon. dear oh dear.

fun times.

NSW - VIC

some pics from today

we weren't long into our journey when we discovered we were crossing (only slightly) into the no fruit fly zone. i'd been all good and brought bananas (which we ate yesterday), apples and mandarins with us - along with our jatz, chocolate, muesli bars and gummi bears. but it was bye bye to the fruit. although we did discover we missed a mandarin. whoops.

the cheeky baby boy decided today was no socks day. and eventually eat my own foot day.

once we got to our apartment, we gave oscar his "welcome to melbourne, please be a good boy" present.

this is the beginning of the transformation of oscar's bedroom.

we bought "duck power tape extreme" this afternoon. it has 1001 uses! and tomorrow i will try to cover up the window with the doona cover in an effort to bring a bit less light into the room. i hope that's one of the 1001 uses.

i have no idea what oscar and i are going to do all week. we have plans to meet up with people on tuesday arvo and friday morning. but that's it. and i have no idea what's in melbourne or what's worth seeing or doing. particularly with a 7 month old. any suggestions?

vic-tor-eee-a

coming to you live from melbourne.

we have arrived.

oscar was wonderful last night and slept 12 hours straight! howie and i certainly didn't follow suit. our bed wasn't very comfortable. maybe we need to get a portacomfybed to go with oscar's obviously portacomfycot.

we left albury at 8am. stopped off at seymour at about 10am, with oscar having had a good nap in the car. must have been good because he was snoring. things didn't quite go to plan with his eating though, which took an hour on and off.

eventually we continued on, and trusting my phone's gps, we travelled through a very industrial area and a very multicultural area as we entered melbourne. we also happened to drive straight through the CBD which wasn't the plan. and past the MCG (demons must be playing this arvo). eventually we got to our apartment at about 1:30pm. oscar hadn't slept at all and was totally excited about that.

he's asleep now though. and i suspect howie is too.

the plan for the next little bit is to find a coles or safeway and stock our kitchen up for the week. i need to put on my chefs hat and make oscar's food for the week as well.

so no rest for me just yet. oh boy am i hoping that this bed is comfy.

over halfway

we left at 7:30am this morning. and we were in lavington (albury) at 2pm. we had one real stop. and despite the occasional "oops" i stayed less than 10% above the speed limit.

the adventure begins

we stopped off in gunning so oscar could have something to eat. after his milk, he finished off a whole jar of pureed apple. piggy! we also had a little play in the park (no swings as they were all covered in bird poo!)

i figured it was time for someone else to drive.

after checking in to the albury motor village, our home for the evening, we went into town to find the information centre (existent but empty) and an albury magnet (no deal).

albury is pretty old school

and how very country town-ish! - "mate street"

oscar was a really good boy today. he had two naps, and wasn't too upset about being stuck in the car for so long. i'm hoping that he's ok tonight. it's the first time he hasn't slept in his own room since we came home from hospital. and his first night in the portacot. so we'll see how it goes. hopefully well because i'd like some good sleep before driving the rest of the journey tomorrow.

up before the sun

tis a long day that has already begun. i woke up at 4:10am, rather unexpectedly and unpleasantly through no fault but my own, and have been awake since then. howie has been awake since 4:50am. oscar didn't wake til 5:45am.

soon we will set off on our 600-odd km (so google maps tells me) to albury. google maps tells me it'll take about 7 hours. i don't think they factor in breastfeeding stops.

me thinks it will be a long day. hopefully not followed by a long night. unless that long night contains a long deep sleep. if it does, then bring that on!