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.

A birthday celebration x 3!!!

Yesterday, we had a celebration... Not only ONE birthday, but a total of THREE!!!

The day started out lovely, sun was shining, birds were singing... We even had a spa nice and early at 8am! Our Chinese visitors were having a sleep in, and we had a peacful breakfast. After the visitors had their breakfast, we loaded up the car and headed down to Bicentennial Park for the Birthday Parties.

When we got there, Tables were being set up, and nibbles weree dispersed around at each table as people were arriving. Both the babies were here already, and naturally, we took over baby holding duties!

BBQ was alight and 'The Boys' were over cooking, and I was sitting back and thought, as it was getting a little cloudy, to check the radar on my mobile phone... It was not looking very pretty, as there was a cloud front coming from the NW, and a similar front from the SW, both heading for Homebush! I mentioned this to the organisers, and we started to move the Grandparents into the undercover area, just in case! Food being served and a gust of wind, and slam bam thank you mam, it POURED down! Not only this, but the wind made the rain almost horizantle as well! With the wind, the temperature also plumeted, and it was very bitter, so the decission was made to go to Ya Ya's house near by for desserts and coffees (YUMM), as well as the opening of presents...

Now you can watch a slide show here or here are some shots to see anyway...

Birthday x 3!

1. Rosie..., 2. Rosie's 'Ice Cream Cone' cake, 3. Rosie 1st B'day, 4. Hat-Riley....-MOB, 5. Riley walking, 6. Riley's 'Blue Bear' cake, 7. Lou & Rosie, 8. Nan's 89th B'day, 9. Oh-Paddy.... Blowing out candles, 10. Riley and Alexandra rolling, 11. Will riding his bike..., 12. Rosie, kiss from mum...