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.

Inside Tumut Library

So have found Wend, and am now tucked in comfy chair with laptop and dongle, waiting for closing time.  I had no reason to mention computer dongle then, except I always find utter glee in the word dongle.

Tumut Library. A bustling hive of bustling.

Next is a trip to Woolies (getting milk), and then the saleyards (meeting with person about sales tomorrow, or something, I just follow around now...) and then home to Wend's place. Where, I have been assured that we can park the X-trail in such a way as to make sure that cows do not lick the windows.

But I WANT cows to lick the windows. The X-trail needs cow-lick cred, also they may have better luck with 450km worth of stuck on bugs than the windscreen wipers.

Am pretty sure will be off radar, phone and internet coverage wise, in very near future. I know. Deep breaths.

Deeeeeep breaths.

Tumut

At library, next to find Wend...

Gundagai

400 kms

East of Gundagai

Yass

Lunch in Yass.

320 kms behind me and about 200 to go.

Mittagong

Spent first hour avoiding caravans and remembering what id forgotten.
A lot of things as it turns out. Also 4 cups tea before a long drive
is a bad bad idea.