homemaking

I am having a couple of days at home to catch up on study - my break from uni has been cut short due to an impending supplementary exam. However, I am not off to a good start - yesterday attending Sydney in Bloom with mum, and now concentrating on catching the blog up with our lives. Some time later the garden will also need a weed.

I have been quite consumed with tweaking this and that in and around our house, mainly the garden, although some painting and curtain making has been carried out. For your viewing here are some of the before, in progress, and after photos. Special mention is made of the help - the constantly appearing 'help' in the fluffy fur coat, and the trusty green trousered help.

Painting - before

side

back

courtyard

After
Curtain Making

in the way and cute

pattern matching

curtains finished

In the Garden

potting production

wash dog

b's favourite flower

waratahs

I went to Sydney in Bloom with mum today, and bought these waratahs for B, whose back is making him a bit miserable at the moment. I think we might consider growing some waratahs in our backyard.

I am also considering making a mosaic like this one for the backyard. This was part of one of the garden exhibits at Sydney in Bloom. As we have been clearing out the jungle in the backyard we have been finding heaps of sandstone which would lend itself very nicely to similar creations.

butterfly mosaic

winners are grinners

generally the mail does not bring us much joy these days, its usually bills, bills and more bills, especially now that we are on a self imposed ban from ebay. So you can imagine our surprise with the receipt of a letter congratulating us on winning the Gardening Australia Festival Grand Prize. This generous gift was bestowed on us for taking out a Gardening Australia Magazine subscription. Our prize???? A 323L Husqvarna Trimmer and edger attachment.

When we have tamed the backyard with of course these new pieces of equipment we will be creating the following vege patch and arbor, both exhibits at the Gardening Australia Festival.

vege patch

arbor

Peter Cundell you're my hero! We'll be back again next year to renew our subscription, and could you make the prize either a blower or mulcher this time, I think we're on a lucky roll now.

circus

circus

The circus is in town, well at the local park, which is 2 minutes walk from our place. B and I took Macc for a walk to check it out, but there wasn't really anything to see, just the big tent and lots of caravans, no elephants, ponies or anything, oh well, it was a nice evening for a walk.

ssssunday

this blog presentation is brought to you with a 's' theme happening...

Officially the day commenced with swearing as at 12.01am and mid-view, we discovered we had hired a rather scratched copy of Spanglish.

With six/seven hours sleep we woke to light shower of rain and so took the opportunity to plant out the plants purchased yesterday at the Indian Bazaar, which saw us get totally soaked. Breakfast (raisin toast & a cup of tea). Phonecall to A, and an invite to join us on a Sunday drive, (she might as well have stayed the night) and the 'S' theme was offically born....

Spear....
First stop was a trip to the buddha belly. I had in my mind a way to hang some of the smaller framed pictures down our hallway, without having to put up a heap of picture hooks. I could get one of those timber rods with the carved ends from Bali used to hang quilts, this would require just two hooks to hold the rod, and I could hang the pictures from that, it would be something like a picture rail. With three in stock, a purchase was made of a 3 metre rail that, on the walk back to the car was dubbed the spear.

Seafood....
Next stop was Newport for fish and chips. Unfortunately the seafood shop we had travelled to visit was no longer. Instead it was fish and chips at a seafood takeaway chain. Not quite to the standard of the old fashioned one that has been levelled to the ground.

Sink or Swim....
To get to the nursery at Glenorie we took the scenic route which required a trip on the car ferry.

Ferry View

Nice House

Snake....
Shortly after we got off the car ferry, and still following the 4wd towing a trailler that had also been on the trip across Berowra Waters, we came to a stop. A snake was making its way across the road - we think it was Diamond Python.

an evening of art

commencing my 5 day weekend was an evening of art with mum and the littlest sister. The Art Gallery of NSW is open late on a Wednesday which was perfect for us girls to view the Margaret Preston exhibition. Her woodcuts and still life's/bowls of flowers have been a favourite of mine for as long as I can remember and have inspired my limited art collection.

A couple of my favourites from the exhibition were not however, related to flowers and included noah's ark, Christ turning water into wine (for no religious reason, they just made me laugh), and a still life of fish.

B has agreed to get me the catalogue, so when he does I will upload the pictures.

nephews

I have the most beautiful nephew, introduced on this blog in May 2005, as William Zachery, now known as William Thomas.


This weekend was little Will's Baptism. Here he is resplendent in the christening gown that mum got when I was christened 35 years ago and that my sisters and brother (his dad) also wore.


Big brother Max also wore the same gown 3 years ago.

neighbourly

last night a 'date' was booked, B and I were going to the movies, but we didn't quite get there. One distraction followed by another, and we decided to stay in. One of those distractions however was most welcome, and came in the form of dinner from the neighbours directly opposite us.

We couldn't believe it, the neighbours have 6 sons and 3 of them came bearing dinner just as we were about to head out the door. It was quickly decided that it would look rude of us to head off for the movie straight away (eat dinner later), so a raincheck was made on the movie.

How different it is in our house in the 'burbs as opposed to the townhouse development where you would think people would be more neighbourly.

PS. Dinner consisted of some sort of homemade sausages, seafood salad, lebanese bread, a very garlic dip, and some other sort of dip, and the best green salad ever (it was very lemony and even had tiny bits of lemon with the skin intact in it). YUMM! and thank you neighbours.

locked out

our house is (almost) secure. I know this because B lent his house keys to a friend yesterday, for the day, which ment that his house keys were not on the same key ring as his car keys. The outcome of this was that when he got home from work, realised he should have put petrol in the car and decided to go straight back out rather than leaving it to the morning, he grabbed his keys - the car keys.

I had been invited on the trip, and clad in pj's, socks and a jumper (I wasn't getting out of the car) I didn't have my handbag/keys. I did the responsible thing though of asking B if he had his keys when I was waiting for him on the front steps, and he said he did. However, just as he closed the door, he realised he had his car keys and no house keys! TOO LATE.

Out in the cold a phone call was made to the only person with a spare, but since that call went to voicemail we had to think of another way in...cutting a long story short, thank goodness for the poor maintenance undertaken by the previous owner and the use of silicon to hold in the window panes (in the only window without key locks), and thanks to dad for leaving the window repair tools with us. We managed to break in without too much effort, at the same time as cleaning up one of the three panes that need the silicon removed before the putty can be replaced.

Office Cat

At the new house Jasmine has taken to sitting on my lap whilst I am at the computer. However, this afternoon was serious business as I was making at start on my assignment for my Strategic Management subject so my lap was not on offer. This caused Jasmine something of a dilema - where the empty wastepaper basket looked good until she got in it, not really enough room to get comfy, next stop was squeezed between the printer and the in-tray, but she didn't last too long here either. Her final resting place was a box in the corner where she is now still fast asleep - sorry no photo, maybe it was the flash used for getting these photos that was the real problem.

validation required

at the moment I feel like I am swimming against the flow. I have so much I want to achieve but have so many things that need to be progressed first before achievements can be realised. Uni and work are real endurance tests for me at the moment. Uni in particular, the last subject I did was a real challenge, especially with B in hospital and what seemed to me like a slow recovery that followed, and even after achieving an overall mark of 58.5% still being failed. I have lodged an appeal but do not like my chances. So that means even if I successfully finish this semesters subject there is a distinct possibility I will be repeating 'Accounting' from last semester. I am seriously thinking about taking a year off uni, but as I don't like things hanging over my head, I will probably battle on.

Compounding my mood:
~ the WWW (no, not the world wide web) has struck again. My message to this person is - we are over it, OK. You won. We are getting on with our lives and you should too. I cannot be bothered by your latest stunt - it's just mean.
~ I would like to give my friend P a hug, her dad has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, I think it's cancer.

I am hoping to return shortly, with a more positive post. I am knitting a scarf, I might share some pictures of that with you next time...

I am still here

I feel compelled to write something just to let you know that I am still here. So here goes. B is back and has gone again - back tomorrow night. I am suffering here on my own... I have unpacked most of the boxes, and found places for most of our things, although, we have a distinct lack of storage, and what does look like storage aka one of the built in wardrobes, has no shelves. A trip to IKEA is needed.

In addition to all the unpacking, I have spent the last 3 weeks at work and on weekends working on the house, namely replacing glass which I would have given up on if it were not for dad (and mum providing the sustenance). The glass is all replaced now and after a productive weekend the light is replaced in our bedroom (brought with us from the old place), we have wall lights in the dining room, an austrian blind and curtain material has been purchased for the bay window, a new letterbox is in place, and more of the privet has been chopped down.

We have met the neighbours to the South, and that is another story......

On the buses….

Over the last two days, I feel as though I have done nothing but sit on a bus!!! Yesterday, after the day’s conference proceedings, I jumped on the Llandudno Tour Bus, which went around town from the North Shore to the West Beach, which by way of chance is the home of Alice (Alice in Wonderland) and that of Conway. Conway, is best known for Conway Castle.

Conway Castle

Conway Castle

Alice In Wonderland

Alice In Wonderland

Then, in the evening, we had a function (sponsored by Syngenta) out at Kinmel Manor, Abergele. This was a great function, where I teamed up with some fellow aussies from Western Australia. We sat down at a table in towards the centre of the room, when all of a sudden, the MC for the evening announced the arrival of the Ladymayor'ss and her Consort and they came and sat at OUR table! And, what's more, we also had the CEO of Syngenta also at our table! How embarrassing, but it did have its pluses. That is, when it came to getting dinner, we were the first table to go to the Buffet to get served!!!!!

Then today, the day started early with the technical tours and for me it was off to Edgebaston Cricket Oval, where in two weeks will see the Test match between the Australian team and England in the ashes battle, and toDunstalll Park Racecourse. We had an additional stop that was not advertised to Birmingham City Football Club, and wow what a stop.
So, after a very long day, here are some more pics….

Edgebaston strip

Birmingham City Football

Llandudno garden

Rear Grt Orme

This must be a dream…

Monday 11th July 2005

If so, please do not wake me up! I feel as though I am in the French Riviera, Monte Carlos or some other exotic location. In fact, in today's welcome by the Lady Mayoress and fellow Council member, we were told that this place is the 'Preferred Resort Location for many Brit's' and it is not hard to see why!

This morning, after waking at around 5.30am local time, I went for a walk along the Promenade. It was already so warm that I went for a swim in the little pool at the Eastern end. Then upon returning to the hotel and showering and getting dressed, I went downstairs for another hearty breakfast before heading to the first day of the conference. You know, what I actually came here for!

The day lingered on and on, and I finally got to meet two of the absolute gurus of the Turf world. They are Jim Beard and Prof. Bill Adams. Two of the worlds most highly regarded Turf Scientists in the world.

Anyway, the day continued on until 5pm, which marked the end of the day, so it was now time to hit the town, beach or what ever. I took the swimming option after getting some more pics of the place. Remember though, it is still daylight here until 10PM! That is, the sun is STILL up, so a walk along the Promenade quite late is very comforting indeed.

So here are some more pics:

Llandudno houses

Llandudno Pier

Grand Hotel from Pier

Grand Hotel footings

Little Orme view from hotel
Orme view from Hotel

Pics added, so go BACK!!!

Pics added, so go BACK!!!

Tremendous view

Today, I walked up to the cable-tram that takes you to the summit of the Great Orme. This, at first, looked rather... umm scary, but once we were on our way, it was quite peaceful. It took about 20 mins to reach the halfway house, here we change cable cars, and then about another 15 mins to reach the summit. From here, it is a spectacular view of Llandudno and its surrounds. All I can say is a picture tells a thousand words!!

Llandudno street

Llandudno square

Llandudno shops

Llandudno prom night

Llandudno Prom

Grt Orme half view

Crossing meeting

Decending

City view

City views

Cable Tram

What a beautiful day….

The day started with a lovely breakfast, served approximately 2 hours after waking (6.30am). I had orange juice with corn flakes followed with a 2 x Danish Bacon, poached egg, sausage and tomatoes all served with toast and coffee. After which I scurried on upstairs to my room to wait for the call from Australia. And I waited…. Waited and waited…. In the end I called to confirm the number, (previously sent via SMS) and thought to be a fax by some (L). L was rather surprised to hear from me but excited all the same, and proclaimed that she had just seen off the MIL & FIL and was about to call. So I hung up and within minutes, she had called through as promised. After about 1 hour and 10 or so mins, we decided to call it a morning (for me) and a night for her, as there were more important things to do. For me it was to climb the Great Orme, and explore the sights of Llandudno and for L it was a long soak in a hot tub!

So off I went downstairs where I met the lovely owner’s wife. She was commenting to the head of housekeeping to my size (6’3”) and so on, and after about 20 mins or so, it was all about me the colonial lodger whom needed a longer bed! Not that there was anything wrong with my bed (or view) apart from the fact the wardrobe at the end made a lovely stop for my feet!!! So, they decided I needed better and I was moved as a ‘Person of size’! Can you believe it? When I have watched Airlines on TV, they use this line to make a person pay for two seats! I hope they are not going to charge me for two rooms!!! But, seriously though, they are truly lovely people here as they even offered to do my (small) amount of laundry, and I get to use their Internet connection!!!

Why I here you ask? Because the stupid Department of Environment and Conservation gave me a laptop with NO Internet to connect to, bloody idiots!

A comedy of errors…

The day started with fond farewells with Auntie Pat. We walked up to the nearby bus stop and I jumped on the No 53 to Liverpool Lime Street to catch the train back to Manchester Airport. Once on the train, which was full by the way, there were two young girls travelling chatting on how one of them met this Australian guy, “6’3” he was” in a rather strong scouser accent. Anyways, they trying to determine what was 6’3” so me being me couldn’t resist myself stood up and said in my strongest Aussie accent, “about this tall!” They then asked if I was an aussie, (as if they had to ask) and that was about the end of it as the train was approaching their stop.
Next thing you know, we were pulling into Manchester Piccadilly, where I had to change trains (huh) to the airport. Upon arrival, I was informed that I had to go out and catch a bus, which is when I panicked as I had to catch a shuttle to Llandudno at 2.30! Well, out I went and catch the bus I did which seemed to go on for ages. I arrived at the airport at 1.45 and tried to find out where I had to go to catch the shuttle. After looking around for a while, there was nothing to see that might indicate where I was going so I went to the information booth for some help and was told that there were a few other delegates here and we would be called.

Move ahead to 4 pm when there was no sign of any shuttle so we huddled together and decided that we now had to get our own way there. I went off to the car rental people, where 4 of the 5 had nothing and the last had one for 86 pounds. The lady from Sygenta had a driver and a mini bus for 156 pounds and off we went.

After arrival I found the hotel (very VERY nice) and unpacked. I then went off in search of dinner (1.20 pounds of chips) ate dinner, went for a walk, SMS ‘L’ and off to sleep.

Ormescliffe Hotel

101 view

while you were sleeping addendum

or should it be 'glass replacement 101'. I didn't get near the privet, and the glass is yet to be replaced in the windows ......

Glass replacement lesson no. 1
Measure the frame for the window pane twice ..... did that to the nearest millimetre for no less than 15 window panes.
Measure the frame from the outside ..... or you will be out by up to 1cm .... and this is where I went wrong.
Have a first aid kit on hand (pardon the pun) .... for the repair needed for the slicing of finger whilst handling freshly cut (and wrong sized) glass .... something I didn't have on hand (pardon the pun), so am now sporting a strip of old flannellette nightie from the rag bag wrapped around finger with masking tap holding it in place (thank you, mum).
Stay calm when all goes wrong (thank you, dad) have a cup of tea and piece of sweet bun, continue to spend the rest of the day chiselling out putty, measure windows twice from the outside and with a metal ruler (dad came prepared, he had a feeling about this job), and if you're as pathetic at the home handyperson stuff as I obviously am, and have a great mum and dad, they will come back during the week to finish the job.

Next weekend ... 'pointing 101' or remortaring brickwork.

while you were sleeping

please excuse me, but I am not sure which email address I am meant to be using to converse with my husband.

B, I must apologise for the dozen or so SMS's I sent you this morning (your night), it was lovely to get your SMS to say goodnight/morning. I did try calling but the number you gave me at the B&B went to a fax machine. I should have tried the mobile (by the way can you please get that 2 card thingy for your mobile) however, I just do not know which number to call. It took me some time to work out the area codes and Miss Jas (the little witch) had left me a wet present on the floor, so that by the time I rang and got the fax machine, and sent the SMS's, I was quite worked up.

Anyway, so far whilst you have been sleeping I

• have moved quite a few of the pot plants off the front lawn and out back, including the lime, it looks quite good.
• mopped the floors, I figured if I had to clean Jas's mess I might as well do the lot.
• got the ladder out and attempted to reach the gutters out front (it looked like rain) but gave up when I realised the ladder was about a metre short and I could do myself an injury.

I am now waiting for mum and dad to arrive so that we can cut down some of the privet and replace the broken window panes. It is not going to be fun, it is a really horrible day, with howling winds that are icy cold. I have the heater on and am huddled under a quilt at the computer at present.

On a pleasant not though, I have discovered that sitting at the computer and looking from this window I can see Centerpoint Tower. Another reason why the Liquid Amber must go.

I will ring you around 6ish my time, I am guessing that they might switch the phones to fax after a certain time. Although could you check the number you sent me?

L

a day of mixed fortunes

Well yesterday, I went down to Furness Vale to visit Gaynor with whom we stayed with last year. Gaynor is a relative of 'L's Manager Ruth. So I caught the train down and changed at Stockport for the final leg into Furness Vale. But, when I got off the train, I knew I had to walk up the hill up a very narrow road and turn at a Y junction but which one was it?? After about 30 mins or so, I gave up as I was getting more than a little and not wanting to get LOST!!!!
When I did get back to Liverpool, I had a 'date' with Auntie Pat to go to the Bingo here at the Retirement Village. It would have been a hoot except for the fact that I had a 'quick' lie down at 6.20pm which ended up being a 2am wake-up!! WOW I must have been dog tired.

Today, in about 20-30 mins actually, I will be off back to Liverpool Lime Street station to catch the train back up to Manchester Airport. It is from here that the conference organisers have put on a shuttle bus service into Llandudno. So hopefully there will be some spectacular scenery that I can get some photo's of. And I promise that when I get to the hotel I will send across some pics!!

Oh, before I go, today marks the return of summer here with temperatures ranging from 26-28 degrees!!!!

what happened to summer????

Ok, now some of you might be thinking huh bad luck, but I thought I was coming over to the UK for a summer. But, I am saddened to say it is not the case as it is bloody cold here!
After all of the good news from yesterday with London being granted the Olympics, it went into chaos this morning with the bombings in Central London. Big news over here really, but we were still to hear about it when my brother 'D' called here to see if I was alright! Mind you, Liverpool is nowhere near London!!!!
Today, we walked along the Mersey River where there are about 30-40 bronze statues positioned along in the sand. Very weird really with all these statues either well out of the water, just in or way out in the 'surf' so to speak!!!

Mersey exhib

Pat on Mersey
We also went up to my Uncle Joes place who has recently come out of hospital. After that, we came back to the flat and I had a 'quick rest' which ended up being a full on sleep with Auntie Pat knocking at the door at the time that we were due at the restaurant for dinner!!
After a yummy dinner, I am now back at the flat and about to go and have a well earned sleep.

my god it's wet in Japan!

Hi, and welcome to Japan,
I arrived after the night flyer of QF21 to Narita. I was really lucky in my seating, as I changed my pre-assigned seat, in an attempt to get an exit row. The seat I was assigned was 20C (aisle) but when I got onbord, there was almost no leg room as it was up against a wall!! The lovely check-in agent gave me 65K, which was not obly a window seat, but 2 window seat!!! There was a tonne of leg room, even though the child in front was for the most part of the first 3-4 hours, putting here seat up then down then up and then down. Thank goodness her mother finally got jack of it and told her to stop it or the plane will fall out of the sky!!
Looking out the window here in the internet cafe, all I can see is rain, rain and more bloody rain. The approach was almost not visible due to the low cloud (rain) and it was a bit bumpy.

Narita airport

We arrived a little late, even though we left Sydney early. I had a quick look around here for any goodies to bring home, but I will get them on the return I think.

pikachu

Well best be off for now, and I will add in the pics when I use the laptop so stay tuned!!
Note, Japan time is 1 hour behind!

off to warmer climes....

Passport..... Check

Passport..... Check again (I am British too you know!!)

Ticket(s)..... Check

Greencard to exit Australia..... Check

Bags packed..... NO!!!

Well, guess I know what I have to do over the next couple of hours then!!!!!
Well one and all, it is off I go, but it will be a couple of days until I get back (almost) full time online. So until then, it will be a matter of internet cafes and the like. Actually, I recall that in Tokyo airport, there is a nice window view in the Internet cafe, maybe I will go there again whilst I am in transit!!
Hoo Roo until I get to the other side!!!

See ya