Nervous Nellie...

... is nervous. It's been raining again. The Bruce Highway is closed. Will the visitors be able to get home??

A sick day today. I haven't been feeling too great the last few days and since I have a Dr appointment this afternoon, I decide to stay home. I mentioned last week it was to check my medication. I had been on the higher dose for a time. As a trial I thought, with an increase in this med and a decrease in that one. But somewhere along the line, I got the old script for the lower dose filled *odd for me because i usually destroy redundant scripts* and that's where the confusion lay. I'd spent the last month swapping me back to the lower dose of this med and higher dose of that one.

Sigh. Getting older is such a crock.

On the way to the Dr appointment MOTH and I travel along the motorway. At this point it's four lanes, including the merge lane. Traffic is light but there are four cars in the inner two lanes. Two in the left, two in the right and offset so that viewed from above, there would be left, right, left, right.

It must have been an interesting sight as the two in the right lane indicate and move left. Immediately the two in the left indicate and move right. Beautifully choreographed!

One of the GTs has been spending his lunch time out in the *loosely labelled* canteen area. He's been making friends with one of the water dragons. It seems to be bearing fruit as he proudly, with a huge grin plastered across his face, shows me a photograph of the lizard sitting on his lap. Apparently it climbed up the leg of his jeans while he was sitting eating lunch.

It's 5.30am and I'm in the kitchen prepping my work lunch. The cats are sitting grooming themselves, waiting for me to serve them. *yes joe, there is a heck of a lot of fluff getting about from those two!* Sometimes Jerome can get a bit snuffly when he gets his nose deep into his fur. I can hear a strange honking noise. Wow. Jerome is really getting into it. I listen some more. Suddenly I realise it's MOTH snoring! The bedroom door is open and the sound is drifting down the hall...

It's been raining a lot lately and the humidity has set in. It's so muggy that it feels like I have been standing in a light mist!

I always wear long skirts. I'm really not a jeans/trousers/short skirt kind of girl. Today's skirt is giving me trouble. I keep rolling over it with the castors of my work chair. Uh oh. This is not good. I'm stuck. My skirt is stuck in the castor. Dang. I stand up. Yep. Stuck. I try to pull it out. Nope, it's not budging. I think about stepping out of my skirt for some manoeuvrability. Usually I'm the only one here but today someone else is in early so that's not going to work either. Eventually I free it. And almost repeat the same thing next day. Different skirt, same style.

I'm at work and on the phone to MOTH. *luckily!* I burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggles. One of the GTs has a huge grin on his face and is outside the office door. He is on the top step - I guess his entry swipe card is in his pocket - jumping up and down trying to bring the card close enough to the proximity reader to unlock the door.

The house is full this weekend. A music festival is on in town and I'm expecting visitors. I discover there will be six of them. And a kitten. No problem. We'll just bbq dinner. One of the young blokes is helping himself to sausages, bacon, bread and salad and he grins. I am seriously pleased, he says, with the amount of food here.

Penny *the kitten* is small, cuddly and a bundle of purring, fluffy fun. The boys don't take to her. At all. Well, we didn't expect much else really. They are cats after all.

The concert is today and The Elder and friends head out, leaving The Teen and I to spend the day together. She's the only one not going to the festival. We decide to watch movies. I'm clever this time - I've made a list. MOTH drops us off at the video store and as we look at the shelves, I realise I've left the voucher stuck to the front of the fridge. Bugger. The retail assistant overhears me and tells me she'll let me have them for the voucher price anyway. WIN!

The Teen has been at me lately to watch Across The Universe. I've never heard of it before. It's great, she insists. It's got heaps of Beatles songs in it. Are they original? No, covers, but they are very good covers. Sigh. Don't think I'm going to beat this. We pick three movies, one she wants, one I want and one we both want. We end up with The Three Musketeers, Final Destination 5 and the one I've already mentioned.

Watched that one first and ..... I'm very pleasantly surprised. The covers are good. There are no songs that I would say are butchered. And the actor who plays Sadie has an amazing voice. Wonder how come she didn't switch to the charts. Isn't that what they usually do these days? Wait ... it was made 2007. Maybe they didn't so much back then.

Wait up. Penny and Sheldon seem to be arriving at an uneasy truce.... Jerome. Not at all.

A couple of my visitors were heading home today. But it's been raining too much and the highway is flooded. Again. Stupid summer. I ask if it's going to cause a problem for anyone? We think it might for Harry. Elder points to her crew. His boss is okay with it, he's an unemployed hobo, Burrich doesn't have to work till Tuesday night and I'm fine. Harry has checked and his boss seems alright with it, although his mother is not pleased.

This morning I have fingers crossed that the highway will open again soon and they can head home safely.

Cat! Get off that!

Kitties. They have a way of getting their own way, don't they.

A quiet week this week.

I've taken to driving to work 4 days a week. This last fortnight has worked out far more economical than the bus fare. I wonder how long it will continue now that fuel has jumped to around $1.50 a litre??

A VW classic! It's headed the other direction. Every panel is a different colour. A regular hodge podge of colours. I'm guessing it might not be intentional because it's not shiny. Make it so!

My birthday provides an opportunity for a day off. I intend to stay on the couch. All day. Catch up on my tv viewing and practice my negotiation skills. Maybe I can get MOTH to make me breakfast, lunch and dinner. I don't get to spend it on the couch.

I'm up early so no breakfast in bed. But I get bacon and a fried egg for breakfast. He's even sacrificed one of his round egg rings. Usually I prefer my eggs 'free range' in the pan, but MOTH likes order.

MOTH begs me to accompany him to the Village. I get dressed and go with him. He buys me a soft serve vanilla yoghurt with a forest berry puree. It's from Wendy's. Yes, here Wendy's sells icecream and hotdogs. Not burgers. The soft serve is delicious and the berries a wonderfully tart contrast.

Birthday money from Mother has arrived. What to spend it on? Decisions, decisions! I try on several items of clothing. That, or a new book. I'm torn. I eventually decide on the apparel.

Last weekend MOTH trimmed the trees. The branches are still in the yard waiting to be trimmed to put in the canvas bag. I trim some of those and give Fred a hand grooming. He's still shedding his winter coat. The patio looks like a black rug where I haven't yet swept.

I let MOTH off making lunch. *generous i know!* I don't feel hungry when he's ready for his. He cooks me dinner; chicken kiev with vegetables with icecream and Sara Lee cheesecake for dessert. Wicked!

I've just had a script filled but when I look at the box, the colour is different. I look again and the dose is different. Wait up a minute now! I'm confused. The script indicates it's been dispensed before. Many times. The pack that I've just finished shows it was dispensed last December and that was the last repeat. I'm not game enough to take the higher dose. I call the surgery to check. The receptionist tells me I should be taking the higher dose. Now I'm really confused. I make an appointment to sort it out with the doctor.

The visit is swift and we decide to leave it at the lower dose. I just don't know how that twist happened...

The Sounds of Silence

A great song really. But that's what I've got here - I'm first in again. And today it looks like three of our six carparks have been lost to interlopers. They aren't marked as reserved, and one chap I spoke to this morning doesn't intend to stop using it until he's told officially that it is reserved...

I'm in the bus hurtling home. Or is it to work? I can't remember. A stop sign catches my eye. Bright red octagonal. STOP and some wag has written underneath "it's hammertime".

Relaxing on the train on the way home from work. I've not decided if I like the train better than the bus or not. The guard this afternoon is a chirpy chap. He's reminding us of the quiet carriage rule. No yelling, no loud musical devices, no cartwheeling, no dancing ... although dancing could be ok if it's quiet... Several of the passengers in my carriage are chuckling quietly to themselves. Being a guard must be a boring job.

There's police tape cordoning off one of the city bus stops. I wonder if it's for real or someone's idea of a practical joke? What could have happened there? There's some substance on the wooden seats, but no obvious traces of blood...

The stove has spit the chips again. That's twice now. It seems to be shorting out and one of the elements gets very hot. MOTH told me last time the repairman looked at it and determined the problem to be one of the controls. The pot of tortellini boiled over a day ago. I wonder if water is getting under the control knobs and that's causing the short?

No boiled egg for breakfast for me!

We had a meet and greet bbq this week. At work, so that people working in different sections on lower floors could meet everyone else. I know that we and Property and Facilities were invited but I don't know if anyone in any of the other buildings was there. I met a couple of people so duty done.

After we'd eaten, some of the GTs decided to go for a walk to check the path that leads back to the main University campus. Apparently there is one. Admin2 decided to join them and I declined to head back to the office. It's the middle of the day, sunny and hot and I'm not that stupid. Errrr energetic. Ahem. The rest came back some time later but no Admin2. Apparently she had left before them. The manager who had gone with them was worried that she may have missed the gate. She was quite concerned. The GTs? One appeared almost as concerned, one confused, one pretended to care and me? Me? I was totally meh. She'll be right. Probably stopped off somewhere. Didn't sway the manager. Eventually she found her way back. She'd stopped off at the ladies ...

And it made me think ... I'd be a very good First Aid Officer. *i'm supposed to do the training* In the words of Froggy summing up - Oh. You've cut your leg? And it's bleeding? Well, looks pretty terminal to me. Just wait there for 5 minutes while I call the Coroner for you.

And MOTH laughed and agreed!

February, how do I love thee?

Not because it's St Valentine's day. Every day that I know he's in the house or waiting for me to get home from work is Valentines Day.

Nope, it's my birthday month! I get a phone call from my mum, the kids might text me and we don't do anything special. But I like it's my birthday. Odd, considering I don't like getting old.

The office move has happened and I think I'm all settled in. We're out in the middle of the scrub and there are no close facilities. But the office is much nicer. Another group from campus has been moved out here as well, so there is talk around the water cooler that they may be opening a canteen at some point. See. I said there were no facilities...

There are six car parks out the front of our building. I'm standing there and looking back at the office front door.

This is from the front corner of the building looking out across the back fence ... so to speak. The car parks are behind me. We are closest to the gate and there are other buildings further down the hill (behind the guard rail)

And here is my new desk.

Certainly more space, and the boxes are gone now.

Being surrounded by bush, there seems to be a variety of wildlife about. Not including me of course. *heh i'm wishin* Today as I look out the door *me desk is directly opposite the glass front doors* I see two bush turkeys run past.

I'm bored and step outside briefly. On the path outside is a water dragon.

I'm on my way out to the "facilities". There is a unisex one in the office but I prefer to head for the single sex ones below. Unfortunately, I have to exit the building on our level and come in again below. There is a butcher bird family on the grass. One of the chicks looks injured. It looks up at me with bright black beady eyes before fleeing. Must have been trying to figure out what I was ... *quiet in the peanut gallery!*

Whoa! There is a teeny gecko I've nearly stepped on. I pick it up and place it outside. Probably it will get eaten by a bigger one. Or belted up for tresspass. I might not have done it any favours at all.

MOTH has another sleep test tonight. He will be fitted for a CPAP machine. I finish work early and we head to Maccas for dinner before he heads off to the test. We walk past the outdoor area to the tune of high pitched screams. Sigh... But on a lighter note we espy two boys wearing morph suits! One is bright blue with a matching curly wig; the other is bright yellow. And I've left my phone at home tonight! Argh!

I look at the yard. It's been raining and it hasn't been done for ages. I'm sure I can see tigers. And I can't find the stepping stones to the gazebo anymore. I pull some weeds, taking care to avoid the HUGE spider that's built a nest among the taller ones.

Repeat that process the next day, although today MOTH is mowing a couple of patches. I watch him carefully. The day is humid and hot and I don't want him to over do it! Maybe I should think about mowing occasionally? ... ... nah!

We head out to the shops this morning. It doesn't feel right. The centre doesn't hold the markets any more. We decide to put fuel in the car before we head in. While MOTH works the bowser, I notice a young man in full leathers. He puts on his helmet and I see it sports a bright blue mohawk!

Plenty of oddballs out this week.

But that's ok, Bones is back! But I'm not sure about this Bones/Booth/Happy family thing...