Gordon St Gossip

My holidays are drawing to a close, sadly - I'm back at work tomorrow. It's been a good (and busy) couple of weeks off.. others have mentioned some of what we did - Christmas lunch at Nana's (and a bbq for dinner at Edith and Landon's), Boxing Day Brunch with EVERYONE.

Sunday after Christmas we headed to Highpoint in Melbourne to spend some Christmas money. Os bought a marble maze game and Lil some Frozen jewellery. I tried to talk her into a craft kit, but nope - she's a girly-girl and insisted on earrings and a necklace :)

Monday we saw Big Hero 6. If you haven't seen it it's pretty awesome. It kept both the kids interested the whole way through (which is an achievement) and has changed the way they fist bump forever.

We then took the kids to Melbourne Zoo Tuesday, where they laughed at the monkey butts :) Os had been wanting to go again since he went with school, so it was good to get out there.. especially during school holidays, when kids get in for free. There's a few pictures (including the monkey-butt.. okay, ape-butt)here

We also checked out the splash park, and they had a fabulous time until Lil fell over and scraped her knees pretty badly. Turns out the rough, non-slip concrete surface is also a rough, knee-destroying concrete surface. As I was carrying her to the car to put on bandaids, between the tears she said "I'm pretty lucky to go to the splash park" so I guess it wasn't too traumatic for her ;)

New Years Eve, like Carolynn mentioned, we joined them at a friend's place, although we piked early.

At that point the heat started kicking in and we gave the kids some quiet time playing with their new Christmas toys. Os painted his shield from Auntie Lisa (I helped a little) and I think he did an wonderful job.

Today we're thinking about checking out Jumpz in the morning, before the heat really kicks in again. Then back to work for me, although I've told my work that I'll take another day off at some point in January so we can go check out the Aquarium.

Very Long Time No Post

So last year was busy, with TAFE and dancing. I have re-enrolled to complete the classes I didn't pass last year to do this year and dropped my workload from 21 contact hours a week to 15 (which I think is more manageable with the homework load)

Christmas was busier than usual for me  this year with trying to fit in visiting Jarrad's family, we spent the morning with mum and the family before Jarrad played golf with his mum's partner Neil and then the normal lunch and tea at Nanna's. We had brunch at Damien and Cheryl's before tackling boxing day shopping with mum and the girls, then tea with Mum and Neil. We spent the next few days recovering before NYE.

NYE we went to Darren and Danielle's with mum and the girls, the kids had a water fight before Damien, Cheryl, Os and Lily turned up and we had tea. We walked up the street to watch the fireworks in Rosi park and came home to no power (it went off just after we left turns out), so we sat in the candlelight playing trivia until the power came on and we all went to bed (roughly around 2.30). We then spent new years day with them to help finish off the food and the kids could play some more.

Yesterday we went to the splash park with mum and the girls, this time the water was on and working properly unlike the first time I was there and it's actually pretty cool...and I didn't get burnt!! (only a little red but it went away). That's about all from me, besides Mum, Jarrad and I are going to see The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies tomorrow.

Will try to post more often this year :)

Nelson Street notions

It's been a LOOOOONG time since we posted - but as you know, there's been a few things happening.

We had a very (blissfully) quiet Christmas at home. Jules woke up and walked straight past his Santa sack, which was cute, then spent the next few hours opening presents and generally getting over excited. We were pretty restrained this year, since we got the trampoline BEFORE we realised I needed a new job (!!), but Jules still had a ton of presents under the tree -- thanks to all you nice people!

Dee did a great job of food with zero help from me -- lots of little grazing snack throughout the day, like rare beef and horseradish Yorkshire puddings, savoury pin wheels and twists, mini roast pork and even seafood cocktails for lunch (classic). I tried a few new beers, and wine (naturally), but we weren't going anywhere in Sydney's heat!

Jules eventually had a nap, too, although fought tooth and nail to avoid it. Of course, once he woke up he figured it was time to open more presents! Um...

The trampoline was disappointing -- we opened the boxes on Christmas eve and discovered we had been given the wrong parts. After A LOT of running around with Vuly support, it now seems like we MIGHT get the parts delivered from Brisbane on Monday. No confidence in that at all by now and we're writing a stern letter...

New year's eve was similarly low key, and similarly humid. Both Jules and Dee had sensible afternoon naps (I didn't, and thus didn't see midnight). We sat inside under the AC and watched the 9pm fireworks on the ABC -- synchronous with the sound we could hear outside. I think it was good for our boy to be in the comfort and safety of his home while seeing the fireworks, as he tends to be a little intimidated by crowds and loud noises both.

Looking forward to a new job that doesn't involve travel, and a prosperous 2015.

From the Madhouse

I can't believe it was October last time I did this, time has flown. My contract with St Luke's as a HIPPY Parent Tutor finished with our Age 5 Graduation in November. Since then I've got another casual position, this time with Goodstart Early Learning, there are 5 centres in Bendigo and I've said I'm happy to work at any of them, though the Strath one is pretty far out from here. I've taken in my paperwork now waiting for the rest of the process to be finished. They don't expect me to work through the holidays as they know I'm a single mum, but all being good the option could be there in future. After talking to the acting centre director I also decided to apply to do Diploma in Early Childhood Education and Care at Tafe. I got my acceptance letter and enrol in January - Woot! Between those 2 things I hope Centrelink will be happy and leave me alone for 18 months, when Daria turns 8 I go from Parenting Payment Single to Newstart Allowance and there's a bit of a difference in the payment. I think the difference is/was around $120 a fortnight, which is ridiculous, but hopefully I'm able to be working more and it won't affect me too badly.

In other news, the girls both did really well at school, they are both excellent readers which is no surprise. Daria also did really well in LOTE, she's good at sports (PMP) too. Next year Trinity has her prep teacher, who was also Daria and Oscar's teacher this year - Mrs Manley. She's in a grade 3/4 class. Daria goes into a 1/2 I think, with Mrs Pally, and Oscar is in the same class too.

It's New Year's Eve and the girls are looking forward to going over to Adam and Connor's (Danielle and Darren's) where we're having pizza for tea and playing board games. If the kids stay up we can walk up the hill to watch the fireworks in Rosi Park. Last year they were up until 3am, so we'll see how they go this year. I hope everyone has a great night and we'll chat to you all in 2015.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FAMILY!!!

Back on the Bandwagon

We spent yesterday in Blackpool - a tacky seaside town in North West England. Back in the 60s & 70s it was the place to go on your holidays..  Now it's the place to go for your bucks or hen party.. Not that we saw any of that kind of group (not surprising on a Sunday).

We arrived just in time for the Santa bike ride along the sea front - the road was closed to cars so that hundreds of people could take part safely. There were baby Santas and child Santas, male Santas and female Santas, Santas of all shapes and sizes - all dressed in red suits and riding bicycles. What a sight!

Other than the beach front and a couple of piers, the town is full of souvenir shops (rock anyone?) and amusement arcades.  The arcades are fun - there are a whole bunch of grabber machines ("the claw") and 2p slot machines (drop in a coin, it rolls to the back and, if you're lucky, causes a chain reaction that knocks coins, and prizes, off the pile at the front of the machine).  Our £1 on the slots lasted ages, and we even won a little, plastic, yellow bunny-thing! We didn't win anything on the grabber machines and neither did Gwen or John.

After a cafe lunch, we checked out a few of the post-Xmas sales... Bruce and Gwen both found new shoes. By the time we finished in the shops, the street lights were on (it's dark by 4pm!) so we wandered along the esplanade and took some photos. Without the sun, the temperature plummeted, so it wasn't long before we were back in the car and on the way back to the hotel in Wigan.

We've got three nights away with B's folks (part of their Xmas present from us), the hotel is kinda dodgy but it's somewhere different and we're able to do day trips.

Christmas day already feels like a long time ago! It was fairly relaxed - we didn't do anything much; ate, gave presents, opened presents, and watched tv. I feel really spoilt by my gifts - I got jewellery, toiletries, jumpers, books and a Tetris lamp. A big thank you for our presents (mum and Nana, I'll collect my merino jumper from the shops next week). :-)

Today we've explored Skipton Castle - well worth a look if you're nearby.

Tomorrow B & I head to Scotland - we've got a few days visiting Vicki & Steven in Oban. Got to make the most of these holidays!

Your turn.
*hugz*

Gordon St Gossip

Update from us - we've had a bit of a busy weekend.

So speedy!

Saturday I taught Iaido from 9:30 - 11. The kids are doing well - Trin especially seems to be picking it up really well. She brought her friend Talia along, and while I was expecting some nuttiness from her she actually also did fantastically. Right now I'm thinking of doing set terms (eg. sign up and pay for the whole term at the start) for 7 - 12 year olds, with a mini-grading and certificate at the end, but I'll have to check all that by Shihan and see what he thinks, since it's different to how the senior classes are run.

Lily picked the design

Then it was off to a joint birthday party for the kids' friends Archer (5) and Alexis (1). It was superhero themed - Os dressed as Batman, and Lily, not one to be constrained by societal expectations, dressed as a Ballerina. Possibly a Super Princess Ballerina :) She also had her face painted for the first time ever.

Friendsgiving

They had an awesome time, especially in the balloon-filled trampoline which you can see in the background of that pic of Ossie. Cheryl has put some photos up on Facebook if you want to see more.

Pumpkin pies! Okay tarts maybe

We got home around 3, and then cooked up some pumpkin and sweet potato as our contribution to the inaugural annual event "Friendsgiving" :) A bunch of us got together to eat turkey, potatoes and the like, and it was great. Everyone brought a dish, there were mini pumpkin pies, the kids ran around madly (hopefully running off that birthday sugar).

After a Saturday like that we took Sunday very easy, although we finally managed to get out and catch up with Mum.

So that's us :)

Time flies!

I've missed many weeks again - oops! And lately we haven't really been up to much.. I've scheduled in some office days and days in lieu to try to get work back under control, but I'm away now until Monday week!

The last two days I've been at a schools event at the Wales GB Rally. Fortunately, B and the Materials Live team were at the same event so we stayed in the same hotel and had meals together.

This weekend we're at John & Gwen's (currently heading to Bridgnorth to the markets) and then I'm in North Wales for all of next week and B will be heading back home on the train on Sunday.

Really cold weather here lately. I'm in two coats today!

I know I need to write an update about our short break, but right now there are markets to explore!

*hugz* to all,
-d&b-

Christmas is coming

OK family,
Time for some planning.

I've checked out the season tickets at the outdoor pools here.Would Damien, Cheryl and family like that (or the cost of that) as their Christmas present from me? I know all of the children have too many toys but no doubt still have toys they's like to get for Christmas. If not the swimming tickets, suggestions please.Would swimming lessons for Oscar work?

Lisa the same idea for you, You can get the tickets $40 cheaper than D&C but I'd need to find something for Carolynn separate to the rest of you Would you like that or would Jared like a ticket for himself. When is he likely to move to Swan Hill? Maybe money is what he needs the most. I wondered about swimming lessons (Vic Swim ) for the girls. Let me know what you think as you'd have to get them to the lessons.

Glenn and Dee, Glad to hear Jules is doing swimming lessons. Also looking for ideas for all of you.
Dee, Mum and I will put money in the bank account for your birthday.
Well done on tackling a fun??run(I don't think a run could ever be fun) I'll check out donating to that for your efforts.
Happy to put money in your account for Christmas and you choose your gifts, since I understand Trish is coming to spend Christmas with you.

Dayna and Bruce,
Money in the Australian account for you two so you can choose your gifts when you come and visit, I still haven't booked to come to you in 2015 but that's the plan if it works for you. Probably July/August so I'm there for the birthday unless you have plans of not being in the country round then. Should be home again this Sunday so hope to catch up on a hangout.

Better be some response to this post.Love, Mum

Buick again

How come it's November already. Where are all the posts?
Len rang to say that the man who wanted to buy the Buick is ill with pneumonia and his family don't want him worrying about getting it so it's back on the market. I haven't rung Geoff who was interested but wouldn't  make an offer. Len has volunteered to advertise it in his name and vet all potential purchasers. He has also said he'll come and help me see if we can find any of the bits that aren't attached.
He's coming on Monday for a chat. His trip to the base camp on Everest was also challenging. He had very bad altitude sickness and then diarrhoe,  so has lost 8 kilos in a couple of weeks.An experience but not necessarily a pleasant one.He had two weeks off work to recover from his holiday.
Sorry to have missed the Skype chats. I think I'll be home this Sunday.I'll try to check on line. I had Nana here for tea last Sunday with Clive, Carolynn and Jarrod.
Last night after the dance (only 9.30) Clive and I joined some other couples for a senior's coffee at Maccas. Good fun.and close to where the other two ladies live as well as close to Clive's.
My printer suddenly wouldn't work but fingers crossed it seems to be OK now if a bit slow. Seemed like something to do with the WIFI.
Off to Yarrawonga on a bus trip next week(Tuesday to Thursday ) so hope to catch up with Val and Peter.
Love from Mum

Church St Cruising

Sunday already and we've been back almost a week. I did get some photos up on FB of the cruise.
We had a great time. No problem getting down by train and then to the port (thanks to Clive knowing where to find the 109 tram. )Next time I'll borrow Denise's case again. The one I had was just a bit too big.
Loved being waited on at meal times. We did use the stairs but also indulged in the many yummy temptations so have three or four kilos each to lose. I swam in both pools on the ship as well as in the ocean at five of our stops. Loved Mystery Island and Ile de Pins. Found a top as a souvenir at Lifou that I wore several times and had many compliments on. I plan to make a photo book or a calendar with more photos.

On Mystery Island in my useful top.

In the Atrium at the centre of the ship on our last day.

The Ultimate deck party

Testing the pool. I enjoyed the water..

This week since returning I've watered. The weather here is even warmer than it was on the cruise.Thanks to Lisa and Carolynn watering so my tomatoes plants are looking healthy, I have some lettuce coming up and some pumpkins have appeared with the tomatoes (but not where I planted them.)Today we went to Melbourne to celebrate Arnold's 80th and Allen's 50th. The families have grown up so much since I saw them last.We had a lovely afternoon.

Snorkelling at Vila from the glass bottomed boat.

 

 Saturday I went to Denise's for lunch and to meet Ryan. He is a beautiful baby and very placid.Just eleven weeks old now.

Bye bye Lemony, hello new car!

We bought a new car today.  It's a 2010 Toyota Camry Altise. The asking price was $18k but we traded in our old 97 Corolla ("Lemony") and talked them down to $17k plus a service and, as Rach insisted, "a full tank of gas".

It's ex-fleet, with low kms (45,000) and has been really well maintained. We got a UV coating on the windows too. I'll be honest - coming from a 97 car (and the Laser before that) I'm just impressed by central locking and a cd player ;)

I reckon we first started thinking about buying a new car not long after Lil was born (possibly just before actually) so it's taken well over 3 years of saving to get there. Of course a move interstate in the middle of that didn't help.

Here's hoping this new one makes it 30 years or so like Lemony has done :)

From the Madhouse

School and work went back on October 6th... My first week was about contacting families to welcome them back, Age 4 group on the 7th so the Age 5 tutors look after the children while their parents do their thing. Training for our last book on Wednesday. Age 5s do 15 books in total, one a fortnight during school terms. I still shop with Tania on Thursdays and have Fridays to myself, usually to attempt housework. That first weekend was a bit of a killer - Iaido at 9.30am, then I took the girls to the Marketplace and bought Daria a skeleton costume from Big W. I actually needed milk so was going to Safeway too, but ended up with 2 bags of groceries as well - that always happens. Around 11.30am I walked to the community centre to meet a friend and help her with her daughter's party. She doesn't have family support so a couple of us stepped in. I was there until 3.30pm, we left the venue tidy :)

Saturday night was a 40th for another friend, Jared babysat for me and Carolynn babysat for the friend I helped earlier. We went to the New China restaurant, it was a great night, even if I had to leave early-ish because we had an early start Sunday morning. Trinity's cali team competed in Melbourne. The comp started at 9.30am but we had to be there 45 minutes earlier. We managed to leave home at 6.15am, Jared drove most of the way but Carolynn took over once we got to Melbourne. The girls performed really well, between our 2 teams of Sub-Juniors they won aggregate with 2 firsts, 1 second and 2 thirds. The competition finished and we headed to Highpoint shopping centre. Damien and Cheryl were there and we met up twice. Once at Toyworld and again in the food court. We left around 4.30pm, everyone was exhausted, Carolynn drove home. Needless to say it was Maccas for tea when we got home after 6pm.

I got to work Monday feeling a bit brain-dead, but only had one home visit anyway. We decided to have one last group meeting before our Age 5s graduate. Tuesday and Wednesday were home visit days for me, leaving me with 2 families to catch up with before we finish. Thursday, shopping, I found a pair of pinstripe pants on the 20c rack at the op shop that I hope to use for Trinity's Jack Skellington costume. Wish me luck! Friday was my job network appointment and I got some info about incentives for employers to put me on for 15 hours a week. I'm working on updating my CV - I might need luck for that as well.

Saturday just gone was another comp, this time in Shepparton. The girls performed well but were up against strong competition and came third over-all. Jared didn't come with us this time, though we didn't need to leave until around 9.30am to get there by 11.45am, it started at 12.30pm. A much better time for making a day trip! We got home around 5.30pm and went to Maccas - a bit of a tradition for calisthenics competitions for us. I took Jared to Jake's Sunday morning and he spent the day with them at Kangaroo Lake speed-boating, until the steering in the boat broke and they headed home. The girls and I went shopping and had chips and gravy - such an unhealthy weekend.

Monday and Tuesday we've been back to school and work. Tomorrow is Multi-cultural day at Speci Hill. Thursday Trinity is going on a "remembering Bendigo" excursion - they're going to White Hills cemetary, the Joss House, the Chinese Museum and the Gold Mine. Friday Daria and Oscar go to Melbourne Zoo with their class. Busy, busy, busy :)

Gordon St Gossip

Hey guys, I thought I'd ask each person to explain what they've done in the last couple of weeks, and transcribe their responses.

Oscar
I've been to school and went to a birthday party today. I tried to build Lord Business. I like building new things. School is good and bad. Playing with my friends is good, but it's too long which is bad. I like playing with Daria, Zara, Talia, Paw, Zoe and Adam.

Lily
I got a lot of new clothes from my friend Sophie. I like the dresses best. I go to the library and sing songs and dance. It's so fun! I planted seeds yesterday. I dug holes and put the seeds in. They will grow into flowers.

Damien
I started another Iaido class on Saturdays - a 30 minute test kids class with Daria, Trin and two of their friends (Os didn't want to do it) followed by a 1 hour class for students who can't make the Tuesdays. I'll trial it until the end of the year and decide whether to keep it going next year.
Apart from that I've been working and riding.

Chez
I took Os and Lil to a Children's Week Family Day in the mall yesterday. The kids had a great time - Lil hugged someone dressed as a dog :) Lil wanted to get her face painted but we didn't have time.
I'm still doing Pilates every Friday - we recently changed my program. My legs are sore!
I'll be getting my hair cut soon, and donating it to "Beautiful Lengths" through Pantene - they make free wigs for cancer patients.

Max
Meow. Meow meow meow. Mew.

Hop Across the Pond - Toronto

We really should finish talking about our last holiday before we go on our next one..  So I'm writing the final instalment as Bruce drives us to Gatwick airport.

This week is a little shorter than the last, but not by much because my work week started on Sunday! I ran a networking and training session in Swansea for people who want to do chemistry outreach. Stayed the night in Swansea (B joined me after his folks went home) and then headed to Aberystwyth on Monday to help train some new SIAS demonstrators. After the evening session, I drove eastwards, stayed in a random b&b (i think I was the only guest!) and found my way to Gregynog on Tuesday morning for the Mid Wales Top of the Bench chemistry competition. I arrived home just before 7pm Tuesday night and was up early to reform the hire car before my Train the Trainer course yesterday. Phew! I'm really in need of this holiday - even if it's only four days away!

But before that, the final step from our  North American trip...

Toronto

The flight from Montreal to Toronto was lovely - it was early afternoon, a small plane, friendly staff and they gave us drinks and snacks (I had vodka and chocolate, B had beer and crisps). It took us a while to figure out the transport system (their 'weekly' ticket is only valid from Monday) but eventually we found our apartment. After dinner from the burger place over the road, we popped into the Gyu bar for dessert and a cocktail. All the staff yell greetings when you arrive and farewells when you leave - Japanese-style. Was good fun.

Friday morning we headed to the Steam Whistle Brewery - they do great tours but you can't book before the day. We arrived at 10.30am and easily booked onto the first public tour and had a taste of the fare whilst waiting for it to start. The tour was great - possibly helped by the bottle of pilsner everyone got at the start. We learnt about the history of the company, saw the raw ingredients, watched the machines package everything, and I even got to blow the Steam Whistle (wooot). To top it all off, our tour came with free souvenir pint glasses - which made it back to Cardiff intact!

The rest of the day was similarly relaxing - lunch at a different Brewery (recommended by Steam Whistle staff as somewhere with good ales), wandered along the waterfront, explored the Museum of Enuit Art (once we found it.. It isn't the most obvious of museums!) and eventually we headed over to the CN Tower for dinner in the revolving restaurant.

We'd made our dinner reservations well before the holiday and i'm glad we had - our table was right beside the window and the whole evening was incredible. We ate tasty food whilst watching the sun set over Toronto. And then by the time dessert arrived, a storm had too, complete with lightning! Spectacular! We had had such a good day that we didn't mind getting home in the rain!

We spent all of Saturday at Canada's Wonderland - a Fun Park full of roller coasters, rides, sideshows and children. We had a lot of fun. I think we got on every single coaster that was running! AND we had funnel cake (like a cross between a donut and a waffle.. As big as a plate and doused in icing sugar, strawberries and ice cream!) Yum!!  B & my "first date" was to Drayton Manor and we've been to lots of the Fun Parks in Britain...  But this was the first non-British one we've been to together! :-) We might have to try the  Queensland ones sometime. ;-)

We had tickets to the new Cirque du Soleil show on Sunday afternoon, so we wandered through some of the underground city (yes, just like Montreal.. But apparently bigger and less famous...  also mostly shut on Sundays), and then headed to the Distillery District. Although once home to a huge distillery and associated warehouses, the district is now full of trendy bars, restaurants and boutique shops (I bought a beautiful pair of boots). After lunch at the Oyster Bar (but not oysters!), we walked to the Grand Chapiteau for the show.

Kurios is AMAZING! We both really enjoyed it! It's the best Cirque show we've seen so far. Definitely recommend it! Was also really cool to see Cirque in their home country! We were buzzing all the way back to the apartment.

Since we were heading home to Cardiff on Monday and had a long flight ahead of us, we took it easy - packed, left the apartment and went back to the ale Brewery to relax. We sat overlooking the lake and enjoyed a pre-flight flight (the bar offered four mini beers as a "flight".. It was little more than a pint and you got to taste four of their beers).

And so ends our North American tale.

Happy birthday Glennji

I did this on the day but didn't get around to linking it on here..  But thanks to the beauty of "schedule post", it will look like I did! (once I get to a real computer and can add the link - just spent the last half hour trying to do it on the phone.. Bah!)

Happy birthday Glenn!

Here's a survey for you (that everyone should fill in)..

Hope you had a lovely day!