Outfit Win

I asked my husband to take a photo of me in my dress, and this is what I got...

Me: "What ARE you doing?"
Him: "If you were walking down the street anyone could see that."

Mmm, thanks honey. No really.

After I punched him for a while he was persuaded to take this one.  Why the fuss?  Well, this dress is one that was given to me ages ago, but being a touch porked-up I couldn't zip it.  Its sat in the cupboard, until last night I remembered it and wondered 'what if.'

And it fits!!  So today I wore it into the Sydney Opera House to the Baby Proms (Music for Tutus, its like having a private audience with Australian ballet dancers - they are AMAZING - if you have access to a kid grab them and book in for the session next year, right now, don't wait, you won't regret it).

For me, the best bit of this whole weightloss biso is getting back into clothes I couldn't do up.  Yup its nice to see the numbers on the scales going down but what really makes it meaningful is to get into the smaller sized clothes.

At the start of this year I resolved, for the third year running, to lose weight - and this year, I've done it.

• I've lost 10kgs which is (more or less) half way to my ultimate weight goal. 
• Last June I weighed just over 82kgs.  
• Now, in late October, I'm 5kgs off a healthy bmi (so am presently 72kgs and want to get to 67kgs) 
• Once I get to 67kgs I plan to lose another 3 - 5kgs so that I'm in the middle of my healthy weight range.
• And then I'm getting a tattoo or piercing (suggestions welcome)

I'm in no hurry.  I'd like to get to 67kgs by Christmas, but yanno, I'm not going to live or die by it.  This time around this weightloss journey has been reasonably easy (last time, back in 2001 when I porked-up following my divorce, it was an unmitigated nightmare, I hated and resented every moment of it, but knew if I didn't do it I was heading for 90kgs and beyond).

This time around I went in with no guilt, no excuses, no deprivation, no gym joining, no drama.  So if I don't lose weight on my weekly weigh in (have done Weightwatchers and have been attending meetings) then my thoughts are... 'Gah, ate too much, will do better.' None of this, 'oh its been a busy week, I'm stressed, my life is so overwhelming its no wonder...' or 'Crap, I'm never going to lose anything, I'm useless' type thinking.  Just, yup, over-ate, move on.

In short I've been really really kind to myself, and its really really worked.

I haven't exercised.  BUT, I walk about 15,000 steps a day around the house doing housework - WW recommend you do 10,000 steps a day. And I do walk the dog (but its hardly cardio-vascular with all that pausing for sniffing).

So yes. 10kgs off. Fit into wonderful floaty goddess dress AND had photo taken by insane Chinese tourists on Opera house steps (chatted to them in Chinese, they were speechless with surprise, very satisfying ☺) Its All Good.

Row of Lettuce

All different varieties of lettuce.

Cauliflower

We've got a couple of caulis. Only about the size of my fist, but I think I'll pick them soon before the bugs and the weather get to them.

Making Progress

Of course the kids got sick, I mean it wouldn't be My Life without the kids getting sick.  Just when I thought my re-organising blitz could not be de-railed any further I end up with Miss 4 running a high temperature and me sitting up with her all night (and I mean 3hours sleep, all night).

Today however, Things have been more under control, Miss 4 is much improved and I've caught up on sleep (sort of).  I spent the day in the kitchen, making and freezing sausage rolls for Miss 4s imminent birthday party (I use the Masterchef recipe with a pork and veal mince mix - just the ready made one you can get from Coles or Woolies - they taste damn good and are staple at our kids parties).

I also continued in my quest to get the kitchen under control, piles of paperwork and old newspapers have been sorted, chucked or filed.  School dross (from swimming caps to jazz socks) which were strewn ankle deep in an even layer over every surface have been corralled into one large pile that I'll tackle tomorrow.  AND The clean laundry avalanche has been beaten into submission.

Miracle really.

In other, unrelated news, I have come across a new fly catching device.

Classy (or should that be glassy) eh?

According to some scurrilous home remedy website, I fill my glass (until half empty) with dilute apple cider vinegar, then cover it with glad wrap with holes in it.  The flies, attracted by the fruity smell of the vinegar, crawl through the holes and are trapped and awaiting DOOOM.

The two flies that somehow sneaked in through the backdoor that Someone left open apparently did not see the memo about this.  They spent most of the day flying near, but never landing upon, my cunning device - eventually one fell victim to the dog, and the other my much used fly swat.

I shall give it another day or two, but I'm not holding out much hope.

Squash

The squash plants have just started to flower.

Ripe Strawberries

Ripe Hokowase Strawberries

And ripe Chandler Strawberries

They taste even better than they look.

☺

Progress so far

Organising the house is Not Going Well.  Am better today, but taking it easy, And have actual work that pays actual money so concentrated on that.

Still, just to illustrate the scope of what I'm up against, here is a before picture of the playroom.

I took this about two hours ago and, incredibly, it presently looks WORSE.

Still, I am not daunted.  I will tackle the playroom or have a damn good excuse tomorrow.

I have written a list of things to do (mmmm, lists) but its huge and boring and irrelevant to anyone but me so I won't post it (unusual I know).

The task of getting re-organised is a large one, but, due to the War on Clutter of last May, I'm thinking its not going to be totally horrific - no doubt I'll find out for sure when I actually do something.

sigh.

Ella's Rose

Ella, our first Cavalier, died of a tick bite a couple of years ago.  We planted a rose for her, and it flowers profusely in October and November.

Flat on face at first hurdle

There is nothing quite like being utterly derailed within hours of making fine and fundamental resolutions about your life - it is as if The Universe is sniggering at your pathetic attempts to exert some control over your random existence.

Well Universe. Bite Me.

I will overcome your 24hour bug.  It will not dissuaded me from having a tidy and organised house. Hell no.  I, am on a mission.

But right now, if its okay with you, I'll just stay here, curled up in bed, and wish a slow and painful demise on the person who inflicted this thing on me (can I just point out here that noone else in them my family has it, yet).

There is a chocolate bavarian in the house and I do not want to eat it.  Yes. That sick.

In the meantime here is a before photo of the kitchen.

Yesterday, before my world crashed down upon me, I cleaned the kitchen to within a centimetre of its life, scraped all the spatter crud from the tiles behind the stove, de-crumbed the toaster and everything.  Sadly I didn't get time before the school run to attack the oven.  You can no longer see into the oven through its window, and when I tell people the inside is actually light blue they laugh a lot.  I also didn't get to the cupboards, the pantry, the fridge, the microwave, the floor, or the knife and fork drawer which is growing some kind of black mildew.

I did, however, wipe the swatted fly guts off the window sill.  It was totally gross and made me wish I had not banned insecticides from my house.

The dog disappeared into the clean clothes avalanche and returned with one of those St Bernard brandy containers around his neck and icicles hanging off his ears.  There are things fermenting in the laundry and I don't have the words to describe the kids bathroom.

Yup. Its aaaaaaall good.

Getting Un-Overwhelmed

I've got a lot on right now.  Not that I'm complaining (for once), I always have a lot on and that is how I function best.  Bored me is a very sad thing to see - I lose the will to live, give up on everything and forget things like when I last washed (myself, the kids, my clothes, whatever).  That said, I constantly tread a fine line between having a lot on and being overwhelmed. In the last couple of years I've learned where that line is - I had to after my complete meltdown of early 2009.  One thing that I know well is that if I have the house clear and clean, and have plans for meals and activities, then a massive chunk of overwhelmedness magically disappears.

Life is busy.  With a new job, latest book going along nicely, kids and school stuff, and constant guests over the last 6 weeks its been more ridiculous than usual.  I knew this time was going to be a challenge, and I purposefully let the house go and decided that the weightloss journey was on hold. (I have maintained the weight I was at, and have 5kgs to go to get to my first goal of a healthy weight/bmi - woo hoo).  I knew there was only so much I could handle, and instead of trying to do it all and ending up back on drugs, 5kgs heavier and sick as a dog, I took steps to keep some semblance of balance going.  And it has worked.  It really has.

But, its time to get it all back on track.  I've got a kids party here in a few of weeks, we're in the downward slope to Christmas and long school holidays, and now is the time to get it all together before chaos descends again.

sigh.

There was a FROG in my HAIR

Barring the odd thunderstorm the weather lately has been divine.  So yesterday morning I was outside working on reformatting possibly the most mind-bending form ever.  Things were going along nicely and I thought I was nearly done, when I realised there was another half a page of information I hadn't put in yet.  Once again, defeat was snatched from the jaws of Victory. Or something.

Being deeply irritated over this I pottered off and weeded the sweet-corn bed (which has produced about 4 sweetcorn plants from the rows and rows of seed I put in - I hate gardening).  When I returned to the laptop, I found I had company.

A teensy-weensy frog had joined me, see there, next to the yellow smear (which is the remains of melted yellow crayon btw - never leave crayons outside if the temp is 40+, makes a bloody awful mess)

Being a 'Real Woman' I elected to catch the frog With My Bare Hands and put it somewhere it bit more friendly and dog-free.  Normally I'd pop a glass over it and scoop it up on a magazine or something. But No. I had to be a Real Woman.

I pounced on the frog, who apparently was way ahead of my lightening reflexes, it panicked jumped onto my arm, I panicked, it panicked more and headed for the nearest cover - which happened to be under my hat - you know, where my head was.

This is what I was wearing (am smiling with my eyes, and yes, my hat is on backwards, what of it?), and the frog disappeared under my hair behind my ear.

I won't go into the next events, suffice to say there was a great deal of girly shrieking which set off every dog in the vicinity.

The frog, having more of a brain than me, bugged out quickly, landed back on the table with a plop - and waited quietly until I'd calmed down, and fetched a glass and a magazine.  It is now living happily in the weeds behind the cubby house.

Yesterday was my day for wildlife it seems.

Friday

So far today we've had a lost possum on the roof (he's now safely tucked in his tree and we've left some apple slices for later).

I have had to put up with this vehicle parked in my driveway, lowering the tone of the place to unseen depths - it has BACKPACKER written on the side.  BACKPACKER.

 It also has a backpacker in it.

And, given the overwhelming amount of inside work I have to do (house trashed, no clean clothes for the children (and I mean none), book to write, paid work to complete), I have given up on it all and will be outside for the rest of the day, and takeaway for tea.

Those are red currant bushes at the back there, getting along nicely after we put them in a month or so ago, and rhubarb at the front.  It was transplanted a couple of months ago (it got too much sun where it was before) and thus far is thriving.

Mummy, please, pleeeeeease stop singing

It was my rendition of "I'm freeeeeee, freeeeeefalling" that reduced her to this...

We've had a rash of discombobulated fairies at our house today. Clearly there are OHS issues I need to address. Poor fairies.

And, I'd just like to update everyone on my slightly over-confident claims about never buying chamomile tea again.  The brew resulting from my carefully picked flowers tasted exactly like water, was a pale urine colour and had one boiled spider and four boiled beetles in it.  Yum.  I think the flowers are too young and I need to perfect my de-beetling technique.  That'll teach me.

sigh.

Sexxy Knitting

So Mumndad are back from the UK, and today I went and had a browse through Mum's machine knitting pattern books.

Her: Get your hand off my arse

Him: You're sitting on it

Him: Does my moustache turn you on?

Her: No, but that chappie with the tight trousers and the bouffy hair over there does.

Him: I'm only smiling like this because of these trousers

Her: You have no chin or neck

Him: You look like that tarty one from Ally McBeal
Her: You can make a career out of looking vapid?

From Living the good life:
Her: Honey, did you f*rt?
Him; Sure did hun! 

Anyone with a caption, leave it in the comments and I'll whack it up here :)

Also, how the hell do you spell bouffy? buffy? boffy? booffy? boofy?

sigh.

No TV and a lot of ALL CAPS blogging

Further to my 'I am so introverted, I find this blogging biso so haaaaard,' waaaah-fest of last week (I HAD INLAWS, PMT and NEW SCHOOL TERM, okay?). Next time I start heading in that direction, someone point me to the following sign...

Lifted from Naomi's wonderful blog http://www.sevencherubs.com/

Gah.

So as we all know the UNIVERSE HATES ME.  Lately it has demonstrated this by making the possums in the wall pee all over the electrics that run the television.   Not surprisingly this has led to a great deal of blown fuses and singed fur/wee smell down that end of the house.  In the interests of not burning the house down we have - with much agony - turned off that circuit and therefore WE HAVE NO TELEVISION.

Sob.

We nearly had NO INTERNET, but hubs, somewhat wary of giving his wife a total nervous breakdown, fixed that problem within the first ten minutes.

Its not all bad. As we have internet, so we have iView and access to kids TV and Reading Eggs - though I do have to sacrifice the lappie and keep calm when it gets covered in another layer of sneeze, or even better, sneeze with peanut butter toast in it.

Yes. Life at my house is like living in a 3rd world country it really is. I mean this morning I could not even find the cheese slicer.

But then I did.

Um, anyway.  Things in the garden are looking super-duper awesome right now :). The tomatoes are about to get all tied up as they're growing about 2cms A DAY (I shit you not).  All those weeds in the photo are actually self seeded tatsoi and rocket.  Just goes to show slack-arse gardening has its benefits (I dumped a heap of bolting plants in that garden bed last year, and look at it now!!)

Hubs and I love our chamomile tea each evening before bed, and tonight, for the first time in years our tea will be made with flowers fresh from the garden.  Chamomile is another keen self-seeder so I'm hoping that I've bought it from the supermarket in teabags for the last time.

Apart from that, was up until 11.30pm last night writing party invitations for Miss 4 (we do her party early as she has a near chrissy birthday).  Despite this, I'm suffering from a hefty dose of denial about the whole thing and will worry about all it next week.

sigh.

A cold and windy Saturday

We've had one hell of a cold snap.  27 deg yesterday and a top of 9 today. WTF??  Accompanying this has been gale force winds, sitting on 60kmph and gusting up to 90.  Its been impossible to go outside and so today I've been stuck inside All Day with two children who are beyond crabby.  I've coped reasonably well, hidden in the bedroom, glued to two laptops designing possibly the most kick-bottom database There Ever Was.  Srsly.  When the bickering outside the door started to impinge on my concentration I just turned my ipod up a bit louder.

What? I explained to hubs that I am Earning Money, and must not be disturbed.  Was not, under any circumstances surfing the net or laughing at lolcats...

At one point I emerged to find the house spooky quiet.  Had those pesky aliens been visiting again and whisked my family away?  Had hubs finally lost it and taken them to Maccers without seeing if I wanted one of those chocolate malteaser sundaes??

Well not exactly, No.

Hubs had instigated a game of hide and seek.

I walked through the laundry twice without thinking anything of our laundry basket and the purple trug.

 And even when hubs said we should investigate the contents, I was somewhat perplexed.

Until...

I love that she even has a snack in there with her.  Apparently it'd kept them both completely silent for a good twenty minutes.  Genius I reckon.

One advantage of the weather is that we've got the fire going and are using up the last of the wood, and I got out the last of the bottled nectarines to make a crumble for dessert.

Shall be bottling more when they come in season this year, as they've been a wonderful reminder of summer during the cold winter months.  Didn't really think I'd be one for preserving fruit, but these were well worth the effort.

Garden is somewhat bashed around, and my poor broad beans have had several large branches land on them.  It is so not my year for broad beans. The tomatoes are lying flat and forget about the snowpeas, they've been shredded.  Shall do proper inventory tomorrow, but strawberries still ripening so its not all bad.

Not admitting anything...

When I have PMT I lose a lot of things, the ability to deal nicely with d*ckheads on the road is one, and the ability to put together an outfit is another.  Yup.  Hubs always knows That Time is upon us, when I emerge from the bedroom in a t-shirt with a stretched out picture of one of my book covers on it, black bra glowing underneath, a long black skirt split up the thigh and my trusty brown shoes.

Here is todays outfit... which I wore to do the shopping, out in public, in Hornsby.

Sadly you cannot properly see the black ankle socks I've got on, and I've taken off my sunnies (which I would've put back on for the photo, so you could get the full effect, but I appear to have lost them somewhere between the car and the house).

Hmm.

Updated to add: 1. I did tidy before I took the photo, that is my version of tidy, and 2. The marks that seem to be on the jeans? Not dirt. No. Mildew growing on the mirror.

Spring Flush

I am still not fully happy that its October. Long school holidays and (gulp) christmas are starting to loom, today Miss 4 had her kindi orientation, plans for her birthday party are underway (God Help Me), I'm starting to get all squinty-eyed about turning 39, and the year seems to be slipping away.

Though things happen much more slowly in the garden, its still going off out there.
Tomatos and basil (and weeds), now 20cms tall or so.

Corn (and weeds)

My leafy greens, with lettuces just starting to bolt, and celery nearly ready for harvest.

This bed is where the chook pen used to be and grew our amazing winter spuds.  We've now got artichokes coming along at the top left there, beans planted along the fence, zucchini and squash are in there and a heap of carrots.

The strawberries are going off in the front garden.  Here is our first ripe one, and see all those unripe ones still to come!!  I've got over 100 strawberry plants out the front now and they're all dripping fruit.

Rather chuffed actually, given our usual paltry offerings when it comes to fruit.

The apple trees have burst into leaf in the last couple of days, the citrus are all weighed down with sappy new growth and millions of flowers, my beans and sunflowers are jumping out of the ground and we'll be harvesting the first of the broad beans on the weekend.

Bliss :)

Unblocked, like a toilet.

So I've had writers block. BAAADLY.

Usually I'm dedicatedly (which is a nice way of putting obsessively) goal motivated, and I potter along with my books... beginning, middle, end and then delete most of it and rewrite (which I always claim to enjoy, god knows why), then delete most of that and rewrite, then delete... well you get the picture.

But, since the start of the year I've been struggling.  The book has come along, but excruciatingly slowly, and even last week I was feeling sick whenever I opened the file to force myself to have a crack at the next scene.  Physically sick.

Then I went away, and had a break.  I stepped outside my life for a few days.  I resolved to do things differently (most of which have fallen at the first hurdle).  I thought about myself, and thought a lot about the blog and how lately I'm struggling to write personal stuff - yes, yes, I know you don't believe me.  But actually, I'm pretty introverted - though mostly my urge to have a voice and tell the world and make people laugh overcomes that introversion - but for some reason its been taking more effort of late.  I've been feeling the need to shut the door on the world.

Don't worry.  This isn't one of those, having-a-break blog posts.  Someone asked me the other day why I write.  Embarrassingly (for a writer) I didn't have a quick answer and said urrr, and looked vague.  But hubs and I have since come to the conclusion that I write because I think too much and if I didn't write some of it down my head would explode.  Excellent reason methinks.

I do think a lot.  And if I'm not writing books then I'm writing blog posts or long loooong emails to all and sundry.  Just because I was blocked writing fiction doesn't mean I haven't stopped writing all day every day.  And just because I'm feeling uncertain about putting myself out there on this blog right now, doesn't mean I'm going to stop it either.  Yes, I make no sense.  Just ask my husband about it.

Anyway. Caitlyn Nicholas unblocked...

I was planning on doing a  post on the care and feeding of celery today (with photos), am still undecided if it would've been more interesting than this, or less. (That's a rhetorical statement btw).

So I'm in the front garden this morning, weeding, and suddenly, from nowhere I feel like I just have to sit down and write.  And so I did.  All afternoon.  No pain, no angst, no need for the program that stops me surfing the net.  Just focussed writing.  No internal editor telling me that I can't, shan't or won't.  Words going down onto the page which sometimes even surprised me - I had no idea that the sex addicted Max was whoring himself out to all the local grannies OR that the heroine's drunken father was once a legendary spy himself.

The ideas just landed there all by themselves.

Gah.  Hello muse.  Its been a while.

Anyway, ye gods, school tomorrow and I'm not even sure if I've got the lunchboxes out of their bags from last term.  Time to unglue myself from the lappie and hope that its will all come together tomorrow as well.

Last day of the holidays comported with usual grace and aplomb

I have two rules when blogging, first, don't blog funny stories about friends and family who live close enough to set your house on fire, and second, never ever, not ever, blog when drinking.

Right now, I am not technically drinking. No. You see there is a small pissed fly going around and around in my glass of cabernet merlot, and I shall not be drinking again until I manage to move my exhausted behind from the table, toss the wine in the sink and then pour another glass.

It has been one of those days.

• Just as hubs left for work the dog started barking, he rushed outside, drank the contents of his water bowl, rushed inside, woke Miss 4, woke Miss 6 and then barfed all over my much treasured bedroom carpet.  I am so over that dog.
• Then, before I'd even had a cup of tea I get an email from my mother explaining that my pony plan was not such a good idea.  (My mother is in the UK right now and so technically she can't set my house on fire, also she never ever reads my blog - HI MUM, you know how you thought I lost my virginity to that young fellow who accidentally stayed overnight that time? WRONG, so very very wrong).  But yes.  I'm 38 years old and my mum has told me I can't have a pony.  Miffed or what?
• Then, because the last time I actually bathed my children has slipped out of living memory, and because yesterday the lady at IGA looked at the brown stain on Miss 4's arm and said 'is that a birthmark?' (I said yes) I decided to clean my children.  They both laid eyes on one small pink plastic pony bath toy thingy and WW3 commenced.  My god the howling, screaming and finally slapping (them not me) - they were so busy being horrible to each other that they didn't even notice when I pulled the plug out.  Separate baths from now on.  It might take longer, but my sanity needs all the help it can get.
• Then I fed them - an entire loaf of bread, each slice with butter and vegemite, AND it was bought white bread, no-name brand.  My utter parenting failure knows no limits. 
• Next it was into the car, the bickering had not abated with the insertion of much food, and I elegantly fell off the end of my rope in the driveway by howling 'BEEEEE QUIET' at the top of my voice.  You know that silence that falls, the one where all your neighbours have just had all their assumptions confirmed.  Yes. That loud.
• Then, after picking up the in-laws it was off to the school clothing shop to get Miss 4s kit for next year (yes early, but they like to do it that way and who am I to argue??).  Commence whirling around on the chairs, monotonously kicking tables and crawling across the floor shrieking 'I'm a puppy, I'm a puppy,' and making high pitched yelping noises.  In an effort to maintain the farce that I am actually a competent parent I first tried hissing, then snarling and then wondered if I could actually put them in a half-nelson face-down on the floor without being obvious.  
• Next on the agenda was lunch. In a cafe. A cafe filled with ladies. Ladies who lunch.  God. Help. Me.  A conversation commenced about the appalling nearby toilet.  Miss 4's ears pricked up.  "I need to go to the toilet," she said.  "I am not taking you to the toilet" I said, as she'd been recently. And so we continued for the rest of lunch, the more I said no, the more she wanted to go see the appalling toilet.  Finally it got to me.  "I am NOT taking you to the toilet," I snapped, just as the entire cafe had one of those quiet moments, when my voice rang out and heads turned to observe me denying my 4 year old child the dignity of the bathroom.  I took her to the toilet - well, actually she squeezed out a teaspoon of wee behind the car in the carpark.  It is a horrific public toilet.
• After 'rest time' - when the kids refuse to stay in their rooms and I shout a lot about consideration for others and obedience and sounded more and more like my mother - we had some outside time. Actually it was good.  Miss 4 pulled up one of my tomato plants (was hastily replanted) and Miss 6 entertained herself floating leaves on our dark green pool.  I sat on a bucket with my head in my hands and mentally relived the whole uniform buying experience.  It was all going well until Miss 4 announced she'd done a poo. In her pants.  "Look Mummy," she said. And indeed, there it was.

I tidied up that catastrophe and poured the first glass of wine. Hubs arrived soon after, bearing a Chinese take-away and I poured more wine and decided that the only thing that'd improve the day was to tell the entire internet about it.

sigh.

Pink Lemonade, still Pink, less Cordial – a miracle? Also win $1,000

Sponsored by nuffnang.

I would like to apologise to things that come in small packages that are crap. This post is not about you. Nope. It’s not about…

• Insects (of any kind; with a special shout-out to ticks, fleas and the mutant ant flying things that are podding under the washing line).
• Spiders (which are arachnids and not insects and thus require a separate dot point)
• Eyeballs (have you cut one open? I have, it was ewww. I’ve also dissected half a sheep with a hangover (me not the sheep) but that’s another blog post)
• Cooties (highly contagious, especially from girls to boys, maybe fatal, nobody knows)
• Sand (in your shoes; in the car; in your bathers, causing chafing)

Then there are the things that come in small packages that are awesome...

• Babies (extra specially awesome when asleep)
• Jewelry (of any kind, am not fussy)
• Chocolate cream eggs (best by the dozen)
• $1 coins (I wish I had a million of them)
• Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (though one of them is quite enough for me)
• Peas (what? I love peas… oh go on, give peas a chance…)

What are you ranting about??
Well, Cottee’s have double concentrated their cordial and downsized the packaging. They’ve done it to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in landfill, and want everyone to know that though the bottles are a 1 litre size they still make the same 10 litres of drink as the old 2 litre bottle, and at the same price.

Orange-Mango Spider
So take, for example, an orange-mango spider – no not the crawly kind – the old fashioned, fizzy, ice-creamy milk bar kind.

Ingredients

25ml orange-mango cordial from the new 1litre bottle (or 50ml from a 2L bottle)
1 litre cold lemonade
Vanilla ice cream

Proceed as follows…

1. Measure your cordial.

Even Miss 4 finds the new sized bottle easy to handle

You only need half a much

2. Add lemonade and stir. Pour into a glass.
3. Insert ice-cream

Identical drinks, the one on the left was made using half the amount of cordial from the new 1 litre bottle

Did someone say $1000 up for grabs?
Yup. Hell yes.

All you need to do is leave a comment about something awesome that’s come into your life in a small package. I’ll send off the top 3 responses to Cottees and they’ll pick the winner from all the participating blogs.

The competition will be open until 22nd October 2010 - I will then send the top three responses off.

T&Cs here

Nuffnang Competition Blog post

☺

Home safe

Car ticked over 2000ks as I drove up to home last night, around six-ish.  Drive up from Canberra was horrific and I will be quite happy if I never see the inside of a car ever again.

It was an amazing trip.  I met so many incredible people, had a look at their lives - which were so different to mine - thought about my life, got the iPod stuck on going through my music collection alphabetically (A-ha will always be the top of my list), thought about how things are working out at home, planned things, ate crap, got lost in Canberra, and nearly ran over a nun.

Also, I may have bought a pony, and have only just realised its October.  When did that happen?

Canberra

So the odyssey continues... have arrived in Canberra and 1500kms of driving since Thursday has caught up with me.  Just want to lie on floor, watch dvds and eat my lean cuisine.

Didn't have strength to take any photos, but its Canberra, think tulips (floriade is on).

Also daylight saving.  What the??

Harden

En route from West Wyalong to Canberra. Just under 1500ks behind me.

West Wyalong

So last night we (as in Stu and Wend) packed the truck, and headed out of Tumut to West Wyalong.

We got here around 8ish, and I spent the night in the swag in the back of the car.  It rained all night, and this morning it was all ankle deep mud and drizzle.  Yesterday morning it was all ankle deep cow poo and sub zero temperatures - so am feeling things are improving.

My boudoir...

The campdraft kicked off around 9ish.  That's Stu btw.  Kicking some serious campdrafting ass in the Maiden (young horse) competition.

So am in horse heaven and plan to remain here until tomorrow when its off to Canberra :)

Not part of the plan

X-trail being jump started off the fork lift at Agstock (thanks
Lloyd!). One new battery later and we are ready to hit the road to
West Wylong.

Cattle Sales

Brief respite at Agstock, then back to the yards to auction the cattle.

Tumut cattle yards

At the yards. Current temp ONE degree.

Morning

Yes it's stupid o'clock. Off to saleyards to sell some cows.