From Machele and Tamyka.
Well you did have adventures on you trip back to your lovely little sanctury. you had a full days driving but at least you discovered new places.What a surprise to find 'the gang home'!!!! What a pity they aren't hanging around for Xmas!Not much to report form down here, life is pretty mundane with work, making dinner, doing washing, cleaning up, making lunches etc. Not much time for anything else. Work is busy again this week because its the end of month...everything has to be up to date.I'm sitting here straining my brain trying to think what I can tell you but nothing is coming to mind.ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm no, nothing, I think the lights are on and no-one is home. Very sad really, oh yes I have some news, I picked up my clothes from the Postie party and they actually fit!!!! Think they look ok.I have my work Xmas party on Saturday night at Hunchbacks, think its a theatre restaurant. Friday I have my stress test. Friday night Tamyka has a party. She is actually busy wrapping Xmas presents at the moment. Yes I've got quite a few things. If you are thinking of getting me something please don't do anything extravagent....I was thinking a really nice present for me would be to have Gerard wash and detail my car.....oh hang on I just realised I'm not bringing it up....silly me.... Wish this brain would work. The other day I caught myself trying to open the petty cash tin at work (which I have the key for) with a paper clip. Couldn't for the life of me work out why it wouldn't open, I honestly thought I was using the key but no it was a paper clip....am I going mad!!!! On that note I will go and get some sleep and hopefully the brain will operate better in the morning.Talk soon.Love Machele and Tamyka.
Two weekends in a row in Melbourne!!
Well I am back from Melbourne again, this is the second weekend in a row and it does get just a little tiring. Mind you it is past midnight now and I am wide awake as usual.
This weekend was again a busy one, I left here on Friday afternoon, as usual not organised to get away early. Hey what is new? Got to Moorabbin about 5.45pm, stopped at Yarragon for a break, had a delicious drink of carrot and celery juice which kept me going the rest of the way. Machele and Tamyka were waiting for me to arrive and we headed out the door to Southland shopping centre for some "retail therapy". I bought a portable gas hot plate and some cute little gas cylinders to go with it as I have tried some silver jewellery making and need either a kiln (too expensive), blow torch or gas ring to cook the silver clay to a solid state so the gas ring was the cheaper way to go.. Seeing we are electric cooking otherwise would have used the gas hotplates if we had any. Anyway, Tamyka finally got a re charger for her phone, seeing the one she left behind here with me never reached her house after I posted it to her, mind you I did send it to no 10 instead of no 11, it just did not turn up!!! What else did we do? Well we looked at telescopes, yes I still want one! DVD's, dragonfly jewellery, clothes, Cd's and a bit more. By this time the shopping centre was starting to close down for the night, we had left it a bit late for tea, but managed to find a piece of lasagne, chips and pizza for our meal!!! Ended up staying up a bit too late that night, got to sleep about three am!!
Was planning to be at Little Bits at about 9.30am the next day, but woke up on and off just enjoying the comfy bed I was in and just could not come to complete consciousness. When I did finally wake up and stumbled out of bed to find my watch, I was thrown into chaos as it was 10.30am!!!!! By the time, I got in and out of the shower and got to the shop it was 11.30. Lesley had a "free make and take" happening at the shop in the morning because one of her customers won a prize simply from buying some papers from the shop and filling in an entry form for a competition this particular company was running with their paper products. It was run Australia wide and June won the prize. It was for $100.00 of products from the company and a free two hour class for herself and 9 friends to be held at the shop where she had bought her goodies. Well that was Little Bits and so the shop was also rewarded with the ladies running the make and takes in the morning so other customers could have a go at using their great products also. It was lovely to catch up with some of the girls there, no sooner had I sat down to have a play too, it was time to pack up, have lunch and get stuck into the class. We all had a great time, would you believe we covered an "empty" paint tin!!!!!! with gorgeous papers, ribbons and bits and pieces. They all looked great and with using the same stuff it was amazing how different they all looked. Then we made a gorgeous album, again with the lovely papers and again they all looked different even though we all had the same papers and embellishments to use. I left the shop after 5pm. We had planned to go to the movies and have a meal out, but decided it was too hard to decide on a movie and I had not made Kate's birthday card and her birthday was the next day (sunday), plus had other things to finish and load some movies onto the girls computer from my camera of Tamykas tap concert. We ended up getting some chinese take away for tea, a big let down from the yummy italian we were going to have. Stayed in and we all got some work done.
Machele and I ended up staying up til 2am on the internet as I have found a second cousin of mine in England who's grandmother is the sister of my grandfather!!! My Mum's dad. Boy is it exciting and a bit overwhelming to find there are so many relatives out there. One family had 12 children and another had 8. Gee I sure did let the family tree down by only having one daughter!!!! Any way this second cousin is going to send me more info on the family and hopefully we can finally find out who Mum's dad was and where he came from!!!! Yes it sounds mysterious, but is probably very simple. My grandfather was kicked out of the house and away from the family after he gambled the house they were living in.. And I bet it was not on the pokies!!!! and get this.... before World War One, he took off to America to """pick oranges"""" then went to Canada and came back to England and then married my grandmother and then off to the war. He was one of eight children. Somewhere down the family line there is some Jewish blood.. explains the "family" nose!!!!!!! My great great great grandfather William Keen was a blacksmith!!! born in 1800 and my great great grandfather Malachi Keen was a Shepherd born 1842, then my great grandfather William Keen was a cab owner born in 1862, and my grandfather was Malachi Keen born in 1892, not sure what he was!!!! One thing they certainly wanted to keep the two names going!!!! Anyway we found it very interesting and amusing. Will be getting more info later on about the family, it has taken all these years to find out anything, unfortunately mum never knew when her mother or father were born or married or death dates. Which makes it a little bit difficult to find out any info.
Sunday was difficult to rise out of bed again early. We had to be at Dandenong station to pick up Gerard as he came down by train. It is Kates birthday and we wanted to surprise her with her dad being able to make it after all for her birthday lunch and tea. We had a lovely lunch time at the Wheelers Hill pub with Machele, Tamyka, Kristy, Kate, Matt, Gerard and I. We left Tamyka and Machele after lunch and Gerard and I called into Margaret and Graeme's to say hello and then onto Matt's place where we had a wonderful barbeque meal and the most delicious garlic prawns. For me to say that is amazing as I have never really liked prawns, but these I did like very much. We had a great night, lots of laughs, Geoff, Carmel, May, Deanne, Nathan, Matt, Kate, Gerard and I had a great evening. I have found someone who is worse than me with chocolate and that is Nathan, boy did I think I was bad!!!! He is sooo bad!!!!! We got back to Machele's about 11.30 pm and I went to bed about 1am yet again another late night and tonight is going to be later seeing it is 1am now!
We got up reasonably early this morning and left Moorabbin about 10.30a.m. We stopped in Packenham I think for an ice cream and then again at Trafalgar for some lunch and then at Traralgon for an icecream and a loo stop. We then decided to take an alternative route to avoid Sale completely and it was quicker and no traffic at all. We then ended up on the other back road to get to Paynesville with out having to travel along the Princes Highway through to Bairnsdale. On the way we decided to have a few stops on the way and check out some side roads.
First one was Marley Point!!! Sounds wonderful. What a cold and windy place.. Heaps of rabbits and lots of water in the lake and that was it as dead as. Then we stopped at another Point and it was just as deserted, except for the rabbits. We saw a few hawks, rabbits, an echidna on the side road and by the time we went back it had decided to hide from us and started digging into the soil, every now and then it's long nose would come up to see if we were still there. Its spines look very sharp, took some pics of it, will have to post them here. Also we passed a """tortoise""" crossing the road!!!, Gerard managed not to hit it but it was on the middle of the road so we turned around and went back to see if it was o.k. It was still frightened as it had not come out of it's shell. As we were walking towards it a car came along and ran over it. Sooo sad!!!! They murdered the poor little thing. We checked if it was still alive, but I think it died as soon as the car hit it, the poor little thing was a mess. I picked up the poor baby and put it on the side of the road. It was only a small one. If only we were 30 seconds quicker we could have saved it for a little while at least. We also got a treat while driving along these country roads to be lucky enough to watch some aeroplanes probably from the RAAF base going through their aeronautical paces. Doing somersaults, flying in formation, climbing up in the sky, turning over and upside down and diving. It was amazing how close they flew together, very entrancing. Our trip home took a long time. Walked in the door here around 5pm I think. But we had a good and sad day. Only to get home to a heavy downpour. Among the mail was a note from some strangers saying they were back!!!!
OMG it is Annette, Paul and Hervey, they have come back to Paynesville at long last!! But only for a couple of days and then they are leaving again and finding somewhere to live in Queensland!! How could they leave this wonderful place, their new house and of course such wonderful people like us????? easy by the looks of things.!!! Even though they have been travelling around for a few months now and I have got used to them not being around I now have to start getting used to it again. It was so great to quickly see them tonight and will be catching up with them tomorrow and then they are off again! Sooo sad!!!! O.K. we took the big plunge and left Melbourne, but these guys took a bigger plunge and left England and their families back there and are following their dream of finding the ideal paradise place to live in. I thought Paynesville was the place, but they are looking further north, won't say where, but it must be extra good. Could even be around Byron Bay way I reckon seeing David and Sarah have settled up there also, will have to wait and see. Good on them.
Pat the painter was here today, I don't know what he did as he is starting to paint the outside of the house, oh boy it has probably all washed off the house by now, it was too wet to go outside to see what he had done when we got home!!! If it is still raining I suppose he will want the stuff moved on the verandah and work in the covered area first. NO!!! I am not ready to run around and clean up all the dog hair etc, need a couple of days to settle the back down before I start on that again, dust and all!!!
Put on the Christmas tree tonight, it is gorgeous. We bought one of the fibre optic ones as I am sick of the christmas lights not working each year and the tree was starting to fall apart and it is all in storage at the moment anyway. So I spent about $20.00 on some "purple" ornaments and $50 on the tree and it looks great. Have also bought some blue lights to put up along the verandah, but don't think there will be enough of them will have to put them up tomorrow and see how far they go. Have decided to get back into the Christmas spirit again and make the most of it and put the past behind me.... And start a new future for Christmas...
Still got to finish my newsletter for the Christmas card post, speaking of which I have to get to and make the christmas cards pretty soon. There are still so many people I have not notified I have moved and it is nearly 12 months, where has the time gone??? Will shock everyone if they get cards before Christmas this year.
Anyway I suppose I had better try and get sleepy and go to bed. So goodnight for now and will speak again soon.
luv Jill xxx
Oh what a beautiful morning!!!!!
Hi all,
Well it is now five in the morning, I fell asleep in my chair and woke up about 2am, played a couple of games and then decided I had better go to bed at 4am, well I layed there for almost an hour and could not get to sleep, while lying there I thought of all the things I could be doing, for example the lounge room floor is covered with papers as I was looking for my washing machine receipt that we bought before we moved!!! Found it!!!! in a box of stuff that was from the writing desk in Rowville. Had to go through the whole box though and of course it was at the bottom of the box, threw out heaps of old receipts, the new me, not keeping any papers over twelve months old now, can collect so much stuff, it is ridiculous. What else did I think of?? Well there is still the kitchen, I have not put away the shopping from two days ago as I want to fix up the pantry and sort out where stuff is to go as I am still getting used to the new kitchen and where I should have things. Yep and then there is some ironing I need to do!!!! OMG you say, Jill is getting all domestic!!!!!! unheard of I know, but I am able to make time for these type of things these days!!! Well sometimes. Oh yes the cats area needs vacuuming yet again, I don't know I go away for a few days and when I come back I notice all this stuff needs doing yet again. It never ends. Gerard does not seem to notice stuff like dog and cat hair, all he notices is the untidiness!!!!!! My new words to him are that it is o.k. to be tidy but you have to clean up also!!! Not getting through, so if I want to keep the place clean I have to do it all by the looks of things, he seems to be not doing as much around the house as he used to in Rowville which is good and bad.
Anyway!!!! While I am sitting here in the loungeroom in the dark, well it was dark and have the glow of the lap top at 5.15a.m. Yhe half moon is fading giving way to a gorgeous sun rise, before that I could see the moons reflection shimmering on the water, just amazing. It is not really cold in here as I am sitting here in trakky dacks, bare feet, and a thin short sleeved cotton top, and of course to be completely comfy!!! of course no bra!!!
O.K. what cn I see from here?????
The tops of the trees, even though we checked the height of the verandah so that we could still see the water from where I am sitting, we did not make allowances for the frames and the windows so I have to stretch my neck a little to see the movement of the water which seems to be rippling quite quickly, there is a slight breeze out there as the trees are waving to me!! I can hear a starling I think it is singing in the distance. Looking to the left of me, the colour of the sky is just so .............. silvery grey with darker soft fluffy clouds in patches, almost a grey to very pale mauve, as I look slowly to the right of me, the sky is starting to become a soft apricot colour and further around there are streaks of orange inbetween the soft now very pale blue sky, it is just divine, wish you could see it with me. I think I will have to go out onto the verandah and take up residence on my swing so I can see more of it, before I do that I will get my camera and see if I can capture this glorious scene, hang on will be back in a sec!!!!
UM NO!!! I won't be ging out on the verandah at the moment!! I just opened the outer door to take a couple of photos and try putting a bit of a video on here too and that slight breeze I mentioned is very cool, I am shivering at it is rather icy, but worth taking some pics of I hope. Hey there goes a couple of Pelicans gliding past, earlier I heard the resident Plovers carrying on but it was dark at that time so could not see what was harrassing them. My two cats Rusty and Ashley are playing hide and seek at the moment and have just scattered papers further over the loungeroom floor!!! Rusty especially loves our new floor as she can run and slide along, seems to be her favourite past time apart from chasing all the shadows created from the down lights.
Well the inside of the house is completely painted!!!!! Yay!! Pat he painter will be starting on the outside in about a week, so the outside will be painted by Christmas.. What a transformation the house has undergone.
OH YES!!!! I forgot to mention some great news!!!! I have located all of my photos which is such a relief!!!! They decided to jump over to another programme... Just like that, of course I had nothing to do with it did I????? I don't know how it happened, but one night I was pottering on the computer as one does and came across some pics that I have not seen for a while and wondered how hey suddenly appeared and lo and behold there they all were. They were buried away in one of those long dark tunnels that these computers seem to have, you know what I mean??? You start off here at home and end up travelling half way around the world before you realise you have forgotten what you were looking for and have been sidetracked and are miles away from where you started??? I hope I am not the only one who gets like this, even this morning before I got into my blog, the opening page had some news headlines and one of them was about Paris Hilton and her new pet!!!! So I read it curious to know what type of pet she has that she is not supposed to have and don't know what it is as I had never heard of it before, cannot think of the name now and ended up doing a search for it on Google and before I knew it I was in another world looking at these most adorable animals with a strange name commonly known as "honey bears" and half an hour had gone by!!!
OOPS, I now have spots in my eyes as I have just looked outside again and a bit to the right and got a full shot of the sun coming up!! It is amazing how far the sun has moved around the back of the house now that Summer is here!!!
Anyway where was I?? Oh yes the house!! What is left to do????? Well we still need to get a roll a door for the garage. that is left up to Gerard, goodness knows when he will get around to doing that!! He hates spending money!! Cause the balance has depleted rapidly!! Some type of shelter above the laundry door as the rain hits the door and comes inside, probably like a carport type of thing a flat Colorbond roof and a couple of posts coming out or maybe even a pitched type of roof, who knows!!!!! dream on Jill.......... (David where are you.....) think out loud and it is done...... what a shame he is not here!!!!
Hey the swallows are awake, there are heaps of them flittering around. sorry sidetracked again!
Where was I? oops the clock is chiming 6am.. here come the parakeets or lorikeets whatever those gorgeous green, yellow, orange and red birds are, they make a lot of noise when there is a group of them.. So at the front door we are having a covering there too, hopefully with a gabled roof, hey nothing too flash, something simple? yes?? Gosh wish I had my life over, I would have learnt how to do all of this stuff myself, well I would need a better body though with non of this arthritis b...s...!!!!! there goes an early walker.... Would still like a bit of a carport attached to my Palace so then would not be walking out onto a wet area in winter and also a bit of protection for my car seeing Harry Holden is getting the garage when there is room for him to get in there, need to get out some more boxes to sort through. Ugh! and to think there is all the stuff still stored in Catherine's garage. I am getting so used to not having so much stuff in the house, I like the "bare" look. Gerard reckons it looks like a hospital!!!!! The inside has changed so much with getting rid of all that horrid Mission Brown colour.
One thing I have got used to and really appreciated it was taking down all of the curtains for the painting inside. It was odd at first feeling exposed to the world with no curtains in the lounge or kitchen, but as time has gone by and we now have some slimline venetians in the kitchen and the bedrooms and a drape at the verandah door, that have not been shut yet and the loungeroom drapes have not been re hung, the other night the most amazing sight was the moon changing to a full moon and the light shining inside and the most stunning exhibition of it reflecting onto the water. Even went out for some moonlight walks to take in the whole thing. Now if the curtains were drawn I would not have noticed it!!! the sun is moving, it is in front of me now, but some clouds have moved in front of it, looking a bit dark to the right of me!! Maybe not such nice day coming up, hey it is early yet!! A Pelican has just flown over.
Get something happening in the garden department!!!!! another frustration... Gerard has decided to keep Harry Holden and get some work done on him!!!!! Reckons it will be cheaper than getting a better car!!! or should I say newer younger car..... Hey there is nothing wrong with Harry!!! Everyone knows Gerard with his car!! Probably the only one here in Paynesville!! Speaking of Gerard, he is getting well known here in this country town. He is still working at the local petrol station and not so stressed before he starts work. Christmas Day will be the big test!!!!! He at least comes home now happy that he balances the till!! Not rung up 500 Freddos again or sold any more empty gas cylinders to anyone!!! He is getting to know who is who in the town!! Hear any gossip etc as it is rife here.. Be the first to know of any new developments etc.
Hey more good news, I have found myself a MAN!!!!!!!!!! at long last, he does not mind doing all the shitty little jobs that I want done as I cannot even grip the screwdriver and put up a curtain track without suffering pain for a couple of days after, it is so frustrating, so he has done some bits and hopefully will be back soon to do some more odd jobs. Also talking to him about a veggie garden!! Whoo hoo at long last!!!! He is also going to do the laundry door shelter and the shelter at the front door!!
OH NO!!! go away for a cew days, come home and go out onto the verandah and lo and behold my eyes go to the timber above the door and there is a huntsman!!!! NOOOOOO!!!! I don't want them in here!!!!!!! So out comes the spray again. Looks like I will have to do the whole area as there are a lot of places they can get in. The cats have already had one in their area as I found some legs and a pair of eyes on the floor!!!!! My fear is the Purple Palace!!!!! being invaded....
Gerard has just surfaced it is 6.30 now, taken Sassy out to the grassy area to go to the loo and looks like he has gone back to bed!!! oh well his loss of a lovely morning...
So since my birthday, I survived the Melbourne Paperific Expo! Lesley had a stand once again, this time it was held at Melbourne Telstra Dome in one of the function rooms. Much bigger venue and ran for three days instead of two. It did seem odd as I have not done much stamping stuff since moving up here and not working for Lesley in the shop and being up with all that is happening, I felt a bit like a fish out of water. Lesley did the demonstrating this year and I stood in for her on her breaks. It did feel rather strange not being the demonstrator at the show. I have missed doing it all. It was great to see all the familiar faces of such lovely people I have met over the years. Seeing I have been involved with the Industry for so many years, I have met so many people in that time I think I have worked at the Stitches and Craft Shows at least 10 times for various people. Also about five of the Stamping Conventions, so I have met quite a lot of people in that time. Then to just stop it all and do nothing for almost 12 months is insane really, but I have been so pre-occupied with getting the house fixed up I have not missed it all.
So my plans now are to get stuck into sorting out the Purple Palace and get some crafting done, do some stuff I have always wanted to do and try out new products and techniques etc. But first I must get a Christmas newsletter and Christmas cards done and sent as I have not notified many friends of our address change and a year has nearly passed by! Talk about slack.
Kate is 19 next Sunday..... boy has that time gone by so quickly... Am going back down to Melbourne on Friday, go to Little Bits for a free class on Saturday as June won a competition and can invite nine friends to do a complimentary class, she also has won $100 of free goodies... am looking forward to catching up with the "Little Bits" team again. And then meeting Kate on Sunday for her birthday. Matt's parents, Carmel and Geoff have invited me there for tea on the Sunday to celebrate Kate's birthday which is so nice. Kate assures me she is very happy living there. They seem to enjoy having her there too!
POOP!!!!!!!!
I have just spent the last hour or so writing to you and i HAVE LOST THE LOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the exassperation one experiences with this machine is unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!
I have lost the whatever it is to start all over again. sorry will come back another time as I have to do some work around here...... OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH
what an absolute waste of time. No not really when I think about it as I have enjoyed lying on the swing looking out at the glorious shimmering water and listening to the birds singing. Probably a good thing I lost it all as I really did have a whinge.... Better you not know about it...
bye for now
till next time
luv Jill
