Surely it's not Monday?

Wow. Something is getting eager. I accidentally published this post without any content. It could be that I am home from work, full of snot. Alright perhaps I exaggerate, half full. Today this cold is affecting one side of my face. Tommorrow it will take over the world. Well, the other side of my face anyway.

I think I mentioned previously about a large phone bill run up by the Teen. It was so much higher than previous that we thought there may have been some mistake with the bill. We've been meaning to get it changed to the Teen's name, but it is proving difficult to manage the timing. I had checked about the procedure and it seems that she needs 100 points of ID. Driver's license, atm card, etc. That works. Later I found out it couldn't be a learner's permit. That kind of puts a stop to things!

We can't get it changed to her name anyway while she is here because I have to sign paperwork and provide ID at the same time. We can't do it when she goes back home because the store where she opens her account needs to sight signatures and ID for both people. Sigh. I asked about termination fees as we are about 18 months into the contract. No, it would still cost somewhere in the region of $400 to do this. Sigh again. So, for the next 6 months or so, the phone stays in my name and when the contract expires she can get her own account and I won't renew.

We did upgrade the plan for no penalty. For an extra $10 a month, text is unlimited and that should stop the over the cap spend!

MOTH drove me to my lift on Wednesday. Zman doesn't pick me up from home; we drive to a service station on the way and I swap cars there. On the way, I looked out my window and there was a pee wee, racing along side. He kept up very well and scared the bejeezuz out of me when he dived toward the car! I thought we were destined to collide for sure! But no, he swerved at the last minute. Whew. I'm awake now.

Today I've noticed a sign down the hall that says Men At Work. Why? Do they not normally work? I'm aware there are offices down there, but it's sad to have to put a sign out to let people know you are contributing. *yes, i know, it's really for the tradies doing the new cabling*

I have a performance review this week, and my supervisor set up a meeting time on the calendar. Hers, not mine. She forgot to invite me! The review goes well as can be expected - she's only been supervising me for a couple of months so can't really say a lot about my previous year's work performance. I don't like these things, I don't think they are an accurate measurement of what I do. Actually, I don't like anything I do being measured. However, it's also supposedly a tool to let me plan my career path for the next year. Ummmm. Well. I don't know what I want to do for the next year. And I won't know till it comes up. What sort of planning can I do for that? I don't like to plan my career path - I might not be in the same job next year. I do have a couple of new tasks out of it though I suppose. No more time to be bored!

Thursday I'm on the bus, reading. We come to a halt. I'm leaning toward the window to see what's ahead. Roadworks? There is a lot of buses in a line! Turns out we've all just arrived at the traffic lights at the same time. How terribly boring! I was hoping for a bus breakdown. I love the big tow trucks they use to haul them off.

Thursday night is shopping night. We buy meat from the butcher, who has an open store front in the centre. Lovely people and good produce. We make our choices and MOTH goes to the counter. I'm standing at the store front, not in the actual store. The butcher greets MOTH with a cheery How are you. MOTH replies, Can't complain, she'll hear me. They laugh and the butcher raises his voice a little. Can you just leave for a moment? MOTH and the other butchers in earshot laugh and I call from the front I HEARD THAT! It sets them all off again. Very friendly staff there.

It's Friday and I'm on the bus settling in for the ride. Suddenly the driver slams on the brakes and I nearly do a face plant into the seat in front. AND nearly dropped the iPad. Close! Stupid skirt stuck to the seat but I didn't stick to the skirt!

It's Saturday and I've nothing exciting planned. I sleep in a little longer than usual and then I'm up to clean up after Jerome and grab some breakfast. The Teen and I had planned to make churros today. I have a recipe and I'm curious to see how it goes. It looks simple enough. But she's still asleep.

She doesn't wake till late then some friends call her to invite her out that night. A friend of hers has landed a job and he wants to celebrate. She's gone that afternoon and says she won't be home for dinner. She doesn't like what I have planned. Thai red curry chicken with rice.

Sometime around midnight a voice calls at the bedroom window. Mu-um, oi, can you unlock the door? I thought you had your keys? So did I but I don't. MOTH got up and let them in. She tells me the next day that they went back to the party and didn't get home again till 4am.

Sunday I'm wondering what to have for dinner. And it suddenly dawns on me that I have found a recipe yesterday for creamy garlic prawns. Now I have the opportunity to try it! The Teen likes prawns too. I wake her to ask if she wants some. Yep she says and goes back to sleep. I go and buy prawns. They are expensive, but they are garlic flavoured and have been completely shelled. I can live with that.

I wait for her to wake. I still want to cook the churros. She's still sleeping. I decide to start anyway. I've never cooked them before and I'm not sure how they should turn out. Uh oh. The recipe looks straight forward BUT! Do I take the boiled liquid off the heat before I add the flour? Do I add the flour all at once? Do I wait for the liquid to cool? I don't do any of these things and it turns out a little sticky. Did I say a little? I'm not sure if I should abandon the job. I decide to keep going anyway. I have to squeeze the mix through a piping bag and cut off the 'sausages'.

They were a little doughy but tasted fine. After I finish, I wake the Teen. Get up. We have churros! Yay she says and it's the fastest she's moved for a while.

Sunday night and I can't wait to start cooking. Garlic prawns is one of my favourite dishes. MOTH hates prawns so I have to find him something else. I've promised him mushrooms with bacon and onion. Bugger! The Teen also likes mushrooms and she's only left him a couple of small ones. I have to bulk it with bacon and onion!

I have both dishes going at the same time, with the rice cooking in the microwave. It's all going really well. I'm even standing at the stove stirring a pot with each hand. MOTH likes his mushrooms although he points out that the sauce is much creamier than he was expecting. He usually ends up with a lot of liquid in his concoctions. He says it was perfect. Alright, so I probably put him on the spot but I have to ask!

The garlic prawns are DIVINE! I MUST NOT LOSE THIS RECIPE!

Maybe I can do it again just for me. *drool*

Rain? When did that happen?

It's raining today as I make my way to the bus. And water seems to be dripping into my shoe. What's that all about then? From my umbrella too. Sometimes things just seem to be out to get you.

Jerome is turning out to be a cute handful. *pronounced jeremy* Yes, he's a VERY good jumper and loves the kitchen bench. I've now learned that I can no longer be a slacker and I have to make sure that I either wash the dishes or stack the dishwasher straight away. I can't leave them unattended anymore or that cute little bundle will be up there and sampling the leftovers.

He seems to have settled in well in typical cat fashion and has begun slowly taking over the house. Being a kitten he still gets the 'rips' late in the evening, tearing around the house and often running into the wall near the windows. Last night he tried to fold himself in half in otter like fashion while trying to play with a very small toy. Entertaining.

It was brought to my attention last week that I had been rather remiss and failed to mention the Car. Yes. With a capital. The one that Zman bought. I love it! Brilliant! It's a pleasure to slide into every morning. It's black. With red racing stripes. The interior is colour coordinated leather, black and red. Sport seats. And smoooooth. Zman plants his foot and the car answers straight away. None of this hang on a tic I'll get there business!

Thursday MOTH informs me that Jerome can open the french doors. I don't know why this surprises me - cats can do those things. We decide to leave the doors open at night now.

Thursday is also a regular bus home night. Zman attends french class *ooo oui madame!* A lady catches my eye as she gets on. Wha? What's going on there? Let's start at her feet. Her little canvas mary janes are purple with white trim. Her over the knee socks are striped - purple, pink, white and possibly the odd black one. She has a long knitted cardigan. Quite a dainty looking thing. It's lilac. I can't see what she has underneath, it's hidden by the cardigan. Wrapped around her shoulders is ..... a purple shawl. At first I think she is hedging her bets by wearing two, but no. It's only one and it is two shades of .... purple. It has purple pom poms. Her hair is tied back with a curly pink and white tie. Nothing like a dash of colour coordination, is there.

Friday morning, I have a doctor appointment and I've let MOTH off lightly. I will take the bus to work and he can go home. I leave him in the shopping centre car park and when I return the car is gone. Well, alright, I've been gone for a while and the phone has been turned off. No message. He must have gone then. Oooh! Look! My bus is there waiting. I dive on. Then text. Turns out he'd nipped down to the service station for fuel while he was waiting. Ah well.

I'm on the bus and almost at the stop. I decided to go all the way into the city instead of doing a change at an earlier stop. For some reason, I don't like the change because the buses at the change stop on the side of campus WHERE THERE IS A HILL. The others don't. So, all the way in. We head down the tunnel *the stop is underground* and suddenly come to a halt. The bus in front is also just sitting there. A couple of minutes go by and I'm wondering what the holdup is. I can't see! Oh. Turns out it could possibly just be the fact that the bus in front was at the very end of the platform and we couldn't go past.... anticlimatic!

But it's Friday afternoon! I'm ready to leave. Zman has been off sick today so I'm catching the bus. A beeping sounds. A light flashes. Wait! What? It's 4pm and the fire alarm has gone off. I tell the fire warden - Admin2 - that if we get the evacuate alarm, I'm gone for the day. Sure enough off it goes and so do I. Whoo!

The Teen is out Friday night. All is quiet. Till Jerome thinks it's dinner time. We've taken to feeding him the same time we eat.

Saturday morning late I get a text. Mu-um! Can you come pick me up? Can't you get the train? No, the electronic ticket *go card* has no balance. You have no cash? No, nothing. MOTH is reluctant, but I like the idea of a drive to somewhere new. We plug in the navigator and off we go. MOTH blows raspberries in her general direction while she tries to send us through the city. I have no idea why she is trying to do that; it is northside, but you don't need to go through the city to get there.

Wait, is she confused? Is she not calibrated properly? MOTH has a general idea we need to get to the north-west. She's sending us city direction. Still. We're headed for Enoggera. We eventually get there. And then Karen becomes useful. Wonderful. We pick up the Teen and head back. We've disconnected Karen. Whoops! Missed the turn. We go around the block and head back. We know which corner we're looking for. Teen pipes up from the back. Can't we just go up Windsor Street? Whoa! It's the street we want and we've nearly gone past it again. Look at that. It's Windsor Street. Smart little cookie.

The rest of Saturday Teen and I spend watching a Harry Potter marathon.

It's finished Sunday. Then what? I play WoW for a little while. Teen sleeps on the couch. MOTH facebooks at the other end of the house.

Last night, after a little research while watching a Bones rerun, I download a chat program for the iPad. I know it's not going to be much use outside the house or off campus *i don't have 3G*, but at least I can sit on the couch and watch telly while I chat to MOTH at the other end of the house, right?

Right.

Sometimes I wonder....

... how I keep from goin' under. No, not really. It was a lead in to something else.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only person in existence who tries to keep in mind when I'm standing on the bus platform that other people are trying to see around me. I try and stand against the wall, or if I need to shift, that I'm not blocking someone else's view. Too much.

I nearly missed my bus home on Tuesday. Everyone was milling around like Brown's Cows. Don't ask me about the cows. Cause I just don't know. *my parents might, being country people and all* I couldn't see a darned thing. Even standing up. My bus was due in shortly but hadn't yet appeared on the arrivals/due board. Then the crowd parted and there was my bus, right at the end of the platform. Stupid inconsiderate people....

On Wednesday, I found a seat on the morning bus that I did't have to share! Yes! A rare occurrence. We got through the 'burb and down on the onramp on the motorway. The bus pulls over. The driver is out and looking at something. He's back on the bus and telling everyone that we seem to have picked up a bolt of some sort and he has to decide if he can continue or have us swap. Off we go again and we end up detouring to the nearby bus depot. He's out again, and busy conferring with someone. A third bloke turns up and discussion continues. He's back on the bus telling us he'll get the bus behind to take us on. Some get off the bus. They're shepherded back on to wait. The second bus pulls up. It's 3/4 full. They sandwich us in as much as possible, but 5 people miss out. We pull out and I'm like, darn! I should have volunteered to swap out. Would have added to the adventure. Ah well.

Made it to work, but late.

Thursday we're tootling along on the bus and I see a huge yellow duck at the ferry terminal. Some promotional thing. Sure wouldn't like to be that bloke. But I don't have enough time to find out what they are promoting.

I have finally sent in an application for a position outside the Uni. Today I have an interview with the recruiting agency. I'm not sure what to expect. Turns out to be just the recruiting agency interview to get me on the books, and to discuss the job I applied for. She'll send my application in anyway, but thinks there are other applicants with a lot more industry experience. If I get an interview, then it would be Friday, again on Monday and the offer made to the successful candidate on Tuesday. This is way to soon for me, and thankfully I don't make it to interview. The job would have been great, but I'm holding off the search until the new year.

Saturday morning, around 1am we leave to travel to the Teen's location to visit my folks and collect her. We intend to arrive early so we can spend as much time as possible on this rush visit with my family. MOTH doesn't worry too much about visiting his. Both parents are deceased and he has no interest in his siblings that live in that area. We arrive around 8am and I don't feel tired. It's great to see them and the kids are happy to see us. *well, they seem to be anyway*

We're introduced to the new puppies. Little tearaways they are!
The younger kid latches on and has to show me every new thing he has since I visited them last. This keeps me busy for some time.

Sibling Mouse arrives just after lunch. Haven't had a chance to catch up with her for a while and it's good to see her again. For some reason, Facebook and MSN just aren't the same as hugging.

I'm dreadfully tired but there is no rest for the wicked in that place.

It's off to bed fairly early as we are expecting to leave mum's at about 8.30am to meet Elder for coffee.

We are ready to leave on Sunday morning and suddenly I can't find my sunglasses. Oh no! I can't function without those. I can scrunch up my eyes but it's just not the same. After a chase all over the house we eventually find them. They've fallen back into my backpack with my clothing. Silly glasses. It delays us of course, and it turns out Elder has arrived before us and saved us a seat.

We chat and share food. It's a lovely day although the sun has a lot of bite, it's cool in the shade. We drop her back off and spend a bit of time looking for the boots that the Teen was chasing. No luck. This of course makes us late to collect the Teen.

We arrive at the Teen's current abode ready to collect her. She's packed up but there is a fair bit of stuff. We load it into the boot and at the same time, I check with her about the boots. Nope, we've been looking for the wrong ones. The Elder knows where the ones she's looking for are. We've arranged to swing by and pick them up on the way.

Last thing to collect is Jerome. The Teen's cat. We've not met before and he turns out to be a soft black kitten with no tail. We put him in the carrier and he starts to cry.

He cries for a couple of hours. Eventually when we pull over for a break, we decide to see if he'd like it better if the carrier door is open. He has a harness so Teen can keep him under control. He's quiet for the rest of the trip.

We get home at 7pm. It's going to be tough to remember to keep the doors closed and not leave things on the kitchen bench!

Little black ball of cuteness anyone?

Waiting till Wednesday

My car pooling buddy has a new car, but I won't get to see it till then. w00t!

The week has been a little topsy turvy. The Elder and Subs have still been visiting. I arrived home from work Monday to find that they had been summonsed to return to their place of origin. Apparently Sub's mother insisted that his brother had some work for him and they *him* were to return immediately. Of course this wasn't financially feasible since neither of them would be paid till the following Thursday/Friday. She was eventually convinced that they would be returning on Sunday.

This threw Elder off centre - she wasn't ready to go back.

On Wednesday while travelling on the bus I noticed that the smog seemed really thick. A little thicker than usual. Then I noticed it was white, not the usual dirty brown. Maybe it was smoke or something rather than smog? Or maybe it was still smog, just a bit cleaner than usual? It lasted a couple of days and I could even see it on campus. I didn't hear of any fires in the area. But that's not unusual since I've not been doing the old lady thing and following the news headlines this last week or so.

I was crossing the road in the city, heading for my swapover bus. *i take 2 buses every day each way. just lately the second bus in the morning has been late, or simply not turning up at all and meaning i have to wait for another 15 mins or so for the next one* A good looking young man crossed the other way. He didn't really look comfortable in his suit. Cute! thinks I and then I notice his tie is a little too wide for his collar and there is a large thread poking out of the collar as well. It was all so *squeeeee* and a really hard job not to straighten it all for him!

The Elder was still upset by the summons home and still not ready to return. She's not a cuddly child and you don't get into her space when the darkness circles. Subs STILL has't worked this out and got grumpy when she kept pushing him away. He stormed off. So, the first time since they arrived that I get alone time with my daughter, and I have to spend it keeping the dog at bay. I just managed to get her lifted when she got a piece of bad news *she and subs now have to pay rent. the equivalent of a 3 bedroom house, and they live in a 1 room shed on the back of sub's parents house in town. his sister lives in the house* and I have to start all over again. The sooner she is shot of that lot the better I say.

Friday MOTH had his appointment with the surgeon to discuss an operation he had been referred for. The hospital which had been given his case was not one of the usual suspects and we hadn't heard of it before. We plugged in Karen, hoping she could guide us. Nope. Apparently the map is quite out of date because the hospital didn't even exist. I did manage to find it on Google maps on my phone, although it probably cost a fortune in downloads. I read and reread MOTH's appointment letter looking for a street address. Eventually I found one, but it wasn't obvious it was the actual hospital address. It just looked like a head office address. *rolls eyes* Totally helpful! We keyed the street name into Karen and bingo! Found the street at least. We'd just have to play it by ear from there.

We were a little worried that it would cost a fortune for parking, but when we got there, not a parking metre in sight. Brilliant. Not a free parking space either for that matter. We drove around a bit and eventually came upon a spot in the front row where someone was pulling out. Whoo!

The consulting rooms were in a new building just off the main entrance. It wasn't a long wait and we were shown through. The consulting surgeon went through some things with MOTH and discussed options and the risks associated with the surgery. MOTH's name is now on the waiting list for surgery and it is expected it could take around three months to be done. Not a worry, the surgery isn't major and will only be a day visit. Provided there are no unexpected complications.

Saturday I managed to drag Elder out of the house. We had determined that we would cook some of the mini quiche treats that she likes so much. We left the house, drove about 5 minutes up the road to the supermarket. We picked up the ingredients and some extras *violet crumbles! peppermint chocolate! toblerone!* and took the car over to fill it. We had been there a few minutes waiting in line when Elder got a text. What are you doing? How long will you be? Are you coming straight home? *sheesh already!* We got back and he insisted she take him to the bike park. No, she said. I don't want to take the car out again cause I don't want to use the fuel. If you need to go, ask Dad. Fine, I won't go then. I asked MOTH to take him - I wanted to spend some girl time! MOTH was wonderful.

We ... well, I ... made the first batch of treats, got things set up to watch a movie. Clutch Powers! The Lego movie. About ten minutes in, he came home. And promptly put himself as close as possible to Elder and didn't move.

So that pretty much sums up the total amount of time I got to spend with my eldest daughter for the whole time they were there. *sigh*

Sunday they left at three am and we were up to see them off. Father's Day and MOTH slept in until after eight am. I stripped and started to remake the bed in the guest room, but noticed that the cotton blanket really needed a wash. I put it on to soak. MOTH and I went out to the shops and picked up custard and golden syrup. Can't have lemon sago without custard says I. And MOTH agrees. I phoned my father to wish him happy Father's Day. My dad is a little unusual. Not for him the awkward silence and then I'll put your mother on. He chats. Although nowhere near as long as my mother. She answered the phone, we chatted for a while. She put dad on, we chattered for a while. Then she took the phone back and we chattered for another time. Time to hang up so I can start dinner.

Fried rice for dinner and sago for dessert. Gosh, I'm soooo full. So full in fact that I can't stay awake much beyond nine pm. No Bones tonight, I've let MOTH have my telly to watch CSI.

And I'm still trying to see if I can convince Elder that she should probably relocate back to here. Solo.

Ta Dah! The Bed.

After canvassing outside opinion, the vote seems to be a valance. :)

So here is the bed. As it is, in all it's glory. I'm thinking of two more pillows and a valance.

The question is ... what sort of valance would suit best?

Opinions anyone?