This weekend...

Updated below...
This weekend, was a weekend of highs and lows. Saturday, another unseasonal warm day, we were up and out very early... 4am for me, as I was watching the live telecast (Internet) of the delivery ceremony From Airbus of the new A380 to QANTAS. Here is a screen-shot from the ceremony...

VH-OQA Delivery Screen-shot

Source: Airbus LIVE stream video of ceremony (Screen-shot)

After that was done, we were off to the Orange Grove Organic markets for a bit of breakfast, and to try and settle down the morning sickness for L. One of the Turkish Gonzlemes (Spinach & Cheese) did the trick, whilst I had the Egg & Bacon roll, YUMM! It was then off the the Indian Bazaar over at Riverview College, the High School that the BIL went to in his youth. This is an annual event, pilgrimage even, for the family to get together and have a morning tea and try and grab a bargain, with the school raising money for the Missions. A quick call into the MIL (she was off to a School Fundraiser) and down to the Nth Beach's to visit Nan & Pa and give them our news, as they are about to go into a nursing home for some respite care. A quick stop into the BIL home on the way to give him the Orchid we got at the morning Markets for his birthday, and we were home just before dinner! That night, L had a slight spot, and an early night was called for to reduce stress...

Sunday morning saw a return of the headache & morning sickness, but all did not seem ok... But, we kept on with the plans, and off to Holroyd Council's Pet Fest, to visit Jamilla as she was the 'Mascot' for the day...

Pet Fest 2008 Mascot

Pet Fest 2008

L, being incredibly busy at work, had to go off to work to meet up with her colleague and continue on the Annual Report, and I went of to the 'other B's' place for little B's birthday, she is 3...

Birthday Girl with Dad

Birthday Girl with Cake

I had a call from L saying that she was on her way home, and I had just left to go to Petbarn, as Macc's food was on special ($15 off!). When I got there, all of 5 mins before closing the doors, one of the staff was there with a Water Dragon on his shoulder, and an Albino Corn Snake in his hand! I finalised my purchase and put it in the car, grab my camera and returned to grab a couple of photos...

Albino Corn Snake

Albino Corn Snake

However, tonight, was the worst. The slight 'spotting' from yesterday, had turned into a flooding Murray and very bright. I called the Clinic to discuss with the After hours specialist, and unless it eases over night, we will be off to the clinic tomorrow for an assessment. If it gets worse, and I can't see how, then we will be off to the hospital sooner! Needless to say, L is devastated, and so am I!

3.04am (AEST) UPDATE: Ok, at 10.30pm (just after I posted this blog) we were off to the emergency ward at Westmead Hospital. We were seen to fairly quickly and a lot of tests were done. We are just home now, and have to re-attend the 'EPAC' Clinic (Early Pregnancy Assessment Clinic) early tomorrow (or is it today, like in 5 hours!)! Cramping has settled, whilst bleeding has subsided significantly. Initial bloodwork is good, a couple of little tid bits, but good all the same, and her hCg is 8,400! Will know more later...

Call the police; somebody stole the weekend!

Over the last weekend, an unusually warm one at that, we had a major attack of the 'lazy's', that is, not much was done! Well, not quite, there was a fair bit done, just nothing that really needed to be done! We did however, catch up on a lot of the videos stacked up to the side of the TV from mid-week shows that doubled up, shows that were on whilst we were busy and that sort of thing...
Saturday, which was meant to be 27 degrees (C), actually turned out to be 32 degrees, so after a quick jaunt to a sale (photo's and a separate post all to itself is warranted here...) where we L spent more than our recently instigated daily budget. After heading home and getting some house and garden work done, L went off to work, yes, on a Saturday afternoon!
I managed to get a bit of washing done, and although I was supposed to get the citrus sprayed (stick bugs on the Lemon) and the weeds sprayed as well (Onion weed in amongst the Roses), these were not able to get done due to it being really gusty! So I just had a spa instead...
Sunday, was a very lazy day... L went back to bed (headache, and feeling overly nauseous) and did not take to long to go back to sleep... I went upstairs to work on the new computer, and went down to see if she would like a cuppa. She was actually sound asleep! After she awoke, we decided that we will go to the shops for a bit of 'therapy' and some lunch before coming home to catch-up on those videos. During this, we both fell back to sleep, and when we woke-up, L went upstairs to continue with the report upstairs, whilst I got dinner sorted.
When she eventually came down, this is the site we saw on our bed...

Jasmine on tapestry

Jasmin on tapestry

Now L has been working on this tapestry for a little while now, and of ALL the bed she could have picked to sleep, she HAD to sleep on it!

Fathers Day 2008

Sunday, we celebrated Fathers Day here in Australia, and this year, it was like all others... Lots of food, lots of family & friends! The last couple of days, we had a lot of rain, too much actually, and on Saturday, we must have gotten around 50mm! Saturday, was so bitterly cold, we thought we had gone back into winter! All concerns of a nice sunny Sunday were under a cloud, pardon the pun...

However, Sunday morning we woke to a beautiful sunny day, still a little cool, but warming up all the same! L went busy preparing a Sour Dough and Berry pudding (with chocolate as well), vacuum the house, whilst I went about putting things out on the nature strip for the Council clean-up, and then prepared the "Asian Greens", which seems to be a regular request! Now, for the past 4-5 days, L has been quite ill... Really bad headaches, nausea and the like, and by the time we were leaving, she seemed not to bad. The nephews M&W were really pleased to see us, and and little W (3 years old now) was asking me to take him up to the park. A promise was made, but (thankfully forgotten) as I was not feeling the best, he went on his way playing with his toys. By mid afternoon though, she had gotten much worse, and we called it a day, and went home to rest. L was promptly in bed by 6pm, and when the 'medications time' arrived at 7pm, I took these in and she went back to sleep and not to be seen again until the wee hours of the morning...

Here is a few 'shots' of the day to enjoy...

Father's Day 2008

1. W Paul Lucky & M, 2. M & Lucky pictures, 3. M with Lucky, 4. I with Rosie, 5. M on Fathers Day, 6. B with Riley, 7. M with Olympic Panda Baby, 8. Fathers Day Pudding, 9. W Olympic Baby

Things come in threes... Hope not!!

OK, so why is it that SOME things, come in threes? Well, I hope that this will not be the case for now!

You see, this time last week, the dishwasher had started to 'pack it in', and we were shopping for a new one. L looked out the Choice website to see what was the most Water & Energy efficient, whilst I looked for these at special prices on the net.

The recommendation (from Choice) was the ASKO, but at a list price of $1800, I was horrified! So, I went to task to see what/where I could grab a bargain. The best we could find was for $1399, and I was almost on my way to go and make the purchase. I had sent l an SMS of this, but this went without being answered. I then made a call to 2nds World (forever hopeful) and low and behold, they had it listed at $1149! Again, an SMS was sent, and as it was nearing the stores closing time, headed off to make the purchase. With about 15-20 mins to spare, I got the call to BUY, BUY BUY!!! Got it home, and installation was a breeze and we could not be happier with a nice new, stainless steel dishwasher...

But, then it came, the computer in the upstairs study, decided that it did not want to start up anymore... It boots up, but then simply hangs with a black screen... I mean, it is fairly old, so it was off to see if the previous weeks special at ALDI was there and managed to get one...

So, there is TWO problems we have had this past week, lets hope there is not a third...

Wordless Wednesday # 29: - Its SPRING!!

Spring has sprung downunder...

Tulip

Tulip

Rhubarb

Pink Rinunculous

Callistemon

Bromiliad

wordless Wednesday

We have a new PC!!

Well, after 8 glorious trying years, the old PC had finally given up the ghost! Over the years, I have replaced hard drives, video cards, RAM and even installed a Wireless Network Card not that long ago (6 mths) so as it can work with our new provider. BUT, alas, on Saturday afternoon, it finally 'spat the dummy' with it not wanting to boot up.

So, what were we to do? I went off to get another one of course, and even though it is an ALDI model (MEDION), I could not be happier!

The specs are as follows:

• Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium
• Phenomenal performance - Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q6600
• Massive - 2048 MB DDR2 SDRAM
• NVIDIA® GEFORCE® 8600 GSgraphics with HDMI connection
• Huge 500 GB SATA hard disk
• High Speed Wireless LAN 802.11n Draft
• 8 Channel High Definition Audio
• Network controller Ethernet LAN
• Integrated USB memory card reader
• ...and much more

So, now with access renewed upstairs, I will need to put it onto the home network, and the I have more than enough storage and speed, for the photos etc, so normal blogging will resume shortly.

Here are a couple of pics of the old beast, cabling and of course, the new beast!


Old PC

Cabling

New PC

Thematic Photographic: - Colourful! (Commelina cyanea)

Thematic Photographic: - Colourful!

Commelina cyanea

So this is how it works:

1. Every Wednesday evening, he will post a new Thematic Photographic entry.
2. Each entry has a unique theme. This week's is...colorful.
3. You post a similarly themed image over on your blog.
4. You paste a link to your entry in a comment over with Carmi, or here as well.
5. If you've already posted something that fits (on a blog, Facebook, MySpace, wherever) simply post the link to the existing entry.
6. You may post one per day, many per day, one each day of the entire week, whatever suits your fancy. This is all about sharing, so feel free to share to your heart's content!
7. Please share this link with friends, too. He wants this thing to being photographic happiness to lots of people - and we need your help.

Thematic Photographic: - Colourful

Carmi (WrittenInc) has done it again with his Thematic Photographic this week. His installment is 'Colourful'.

No I was wondering do I go down to our Spring Walk and grab some shots of the bulbs flowering, but no I have done that already, so I thought I would show you all something a little, well, weird...

Titan

Titan

Titan

Titan

It is colourful, but in a different way, and it smells kinda like rotting meat, but I really do like it for it's somewhat uniqueness. Do you agree?

So this is how it works:

1. Every Wednesday evening, he will post a new Thematic Photographic entry.
2. Each entry has a unique theme. This week's is...colorful.
3. You post a similarly themed image over on your blog.
4. You paste a link to your entry in a comment over with Carmi, or here as well.
5. If you've already posted something that fits (on a blog, Facebook, MySpace, wherever) simply post the link to the existing entry.
6. You may post one per day, many per day, one each day of the entire week, whatever suits your fancy. This is all about sharing, so feel free to share to your heart's content!
7. Please share this link with friends, too. He wants this thing to being photographic happiness to lots of people - and we need your help.

We've been awarded the “Brilliant Weblog Award”!!

We have been awarded The “Brilliant Weblog Award” by Maribeth at Dackel Princess.

Her award came from over at DianeCA’s Metamorphoses. I have been a fairly long time reader of the "Dackels", and I just love to read about the trials and tribulations of the posts. I have also been inspired with how 'M' has been going with her weekly trips to WW and her successes every week.

I have also enjoyed seeing how other countries spend their time in the opposite climatic conditions to what we have here 'downunder'! Whilst she had endured the snow, thick snow, we basked in summer, and now that we have winter, it simply does not compare to her winter in the USA!

So, thanks mate for the award, its a beauty!!

Now it is time for me to nominate a few people that I enjoy reading.

The rules for this award are:

• The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
• Link to the person you received your award from.
• Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
• Put links to those blogs on yours.
• Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.

I now have the honor of sending the award on to seven other bloggers. Seven?? Hmm, let me think...

I, WE have very different choices here at burntofferings, but here are my picks: Expatmom, Authorblog, Canberra's Got Style, WrittenInc, mr.monkey.suit, The Toy Society & Meet me at Mikes.

The owner of the bed is...

Macc has, stricken ALL over the house, various beds of all shapes, colours and sizes. He even has 'ownership' of the sheepskin that is beside the bed! This is not the problem, however, but it is more of a problem for Jasmine! You see, she will look longingly at it, but look out if you were to pick her up and try to put her on it! She will wriggle, squirm scratch at you if she even thinks you're going to place her on the bed. She will even be so quick as to be off it in less than a millisecond!

BUT, the other day, I was upstairs in the study on the computer up there, it has a better sitting position for me. I turned around to find miss Jasmine on HIS bed! I thought, who took my kitty?! Anyways, Macc must have known something was amiss, as about 20-30mins later, he came up to find HER on HIS bed! He looked, sniffed, looked at me as if to say... "well go on, get her off MY bed..." In the end, he gave up, and sat himself beside it, and dropped his nose on it just to rub it in that he was still the OWNER of the bed!

Bed owner is...

Thematic Photographic: Patterns

Ok, so here we go again with Carmi's (WrittenInc) 'Thematic Photographic.

Everyday, I come to work and have to endure some amazing sights. If not Sydney Harbour, the Harbour Bridge, Opera House etc... but that of WHERE I actually work. It really is an amazing site with lots of really cool things all happening at different times throughout the year.

So, here are a few shots of this weeks theme of 'Patterns'. The pattern being replicated throughout the shots, is an arch. In the 'Greenbow', you can see how the flower stem from the giant Agave is arching under the weight of its stem.

Greenbow

In this shot, the soft arching lines of the lawn under the Ficus Tree is there to somewhat protect this old girls root lines. It is also a different species of turf to that of the main species that does not require as frequent mowing, and is also shade tolerant.

Tree of Light

And finally, in this shot, you will notice that the fungi have a somewhat phallic appearance about them, however, they still have a very arch appearance about them as well.

Fungi Sydney

So, don't forget to go over and see Carmi (WrittenInc), comment there (and here as well) just to share the comment cheer and to see some wonderful interpretations of 'Patterns'!

Thematic Photographic, SIGNS: IVF Transfer Room 2

Again, whit credit to Carmi at Written Inc, here is this weeks 'Thematic Photographic'!

This is sort of how we spent yesterday, Wednesday Sydney Time, with it being a 'double day'!

IVF Transfer Room 2

Your turn: Here are the Thematic Photographic guidelines:

1. Carmi will post a new entry every Wednesday evening.
2. Each entry has a unique theme. This week's his theme is...signs!
3. You post a similarly themed image over on your blog.
4. You paste a link to your entry in a comment over at Written inc and maybe here as well.
5. If you've already posted something that fits (on a blog, Facebook, MySpace, wherever) simply post the link to the existing entry.
6. You may post one per day, many per day, one each day of the entire week, whatever suits your fancy. This is all about sharing, so feel free to share to your heart's content!
7. Please share this link with friends, too. We like when lots of folks have fun with photography.

Non Operational Internet, Moving Mother and a Family RANT...

Yesterday, our ISP had a bit of a 'meltdown'... From the time we got home after L's appointment, we had nothing but 'Unable to connect'! This was sooooo frustrating, as there was so much to tell!

But I will leave that for another post or L will tell you over at her blog.

BUT, now, things have returned to normal (ISP) and we are back on air. But today, I am home sick with the flu, which L is in the final stages of and given it to me (nothing like her caring sharing attitude, hey?). Even though today here in Sydney, it is a lovely morning, ice on the windscreen of the car, a small amount of frost on the grass, it is actually turned out to be quite a nice warm day of 16 degrees. Lovely weather for a rest and relaxation don't you think!

My mum is moving house today, and even though I had wanted to go out and assist, as I do not think I can muster the energy. She does have a removalist after all, and she completely understands how we are placed at the moment (IVF) and can not help anyway! My brother is out there, as with my nephew from my (apparent) sister. I say apparent, as we had a falling out just after we bought our house three years ago. We have not spoken since, well I have to her, but unless mum has been there, there is never a reply, so I no longer bother with it all really. I don't know why she is still carrying on after all this time! Anyways, end of rant... She has to have everything out of the house by 2.30pm BUT she can not move into her new house until AFTER 2.30pm. It is called a simultaneous settlement. I am glad that when we moved, we still had the old house that we could take some time to move things across, much easier!. So, with only 2 hours to go, and the removalists in, good luck mum!

WW # 28: Tea-riffic

Just a 'small' collection of the order... She will be drinking tea for years!

Tea-riffic

wordless wednesday

Here it is, the SPA!

OK, so as you know, we have been kinda busy with Chinese Teachers on Home-stay (first a week with two, followed by a week of three) and with the house painting. We now have only two bedrooms to go, so that will be done in a couple of weeks as one bedroom in particular, will have major work to be done with regards to the rendering...

But, as in previous posts, we did say that we would be getting a spa. First there was the purchase, buying the Gazebo (now a Pavilion), pouring of the slab, construction of the Pavilion and finally delivery of the spa. It was a very tight 'squeeze through the Garage (you could here the bubble wrap 'popping' as it went through...) and then up onto the slab. It was no mean feat in getting it there with one of the tyres on the trolley 'popping' and going flat!

When the B.I.L and Co were building the Pavilion, I got L to go to Bunnings to get some electrical cable for some lighting I was intending to do; one externally that the F.I.L found for us, and the other to be above the spa itself for some additional light. This one, a Chandelier, we actually got from IKEA!

Now these photos were taken at around 5pm last night, and was when the sun was going down and the light was low... It was also after a storm we had that left some parts of Sydney with 'Soft Hail' or a rare event of 'Snow'! (Read and see a video here)

Spa in Pavilion

Spa in Pavilion

For now, it's done!!!

Whilst over the last two weeks we have had some Chinese teachers staying with us, we are now on a 12 day break before we get another couple of teachers. In a separate post in a couple of days, I will tell you all about the latest lot of teachers. So, without having to prepare additional dinners etc, we can now move back onto 'normal' blogging!

After just over three years, we have finally (and almost all) painted the interior of the house. Not that it was all that bad a colour, but its amazing how just a wall vent almost falling off in one bedroom led to the whole house being painted!

Painted lounge room!!

1. Kitchen, 2. Kitchen 250708, 3. Laundry & Kitchen, 4. Lounge Room 250708, 5. Lounge Room: - Courtyard, 6. Lounge Room 250708

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

For now, we're done, but with two bedrooms to go, we are approaching the finishing line. After this, and we have already started looking at pricing, we will be replacing the bench top in the kitchen to a granite one!

Who said that the painting was over???

Just when we thought it was all over (for now), I came up with this brilliant idea (not) to paint the lounge room & kitchen on my way home from dropping off the new set of Chinese teachers. Oh what a fool am I!

So, here are a few 'before' shots just to show you what we had. Apologies for the mess as we had started to move things first, THEN decieded to take some photos!

Lounge Room: - Courtyard

Lounge Room: - Courtyard

Lounge Room: - Backyard

Laundry & Kitchen

Kitchen

All things being fair and good, it should all be finished tomorrow (fingers crossed... It is approx, 45-50m sq!)