one adventure after another ???

This is a questionable "adventure" - last week I had my first appointment at a Breast clinic - you know one must be on top of these things - since there is a strong history of breast cancer in my family. So off I toddled to the Wesley Breast Clinic. I am sure that most of you have never been there - it is a weird experience. You have to go into a room and take your clothes off and put on a hospital gown ( pictured - with my cute red short hanging behind me) - then you go and sit in the waiting room with all of the other naked hospital gowned women for....3 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!! My appointment was at 10...I sat for an hour and a half before they even called me in for the mammogram....then another hour while I waited for them to be 'read' and had my appointment with the nurse...seriously the website says expect an hour ish..not 3. Anyway thankfully I will not have to be making that visit too often - and I have a strategy for next time - ask for the first appointment of the day!

choc heaven

continuing adventures with Shirl - we went to Robina - which is a fab shopping centre - and will be even more fab when myer opens next year. They also have a Max Brenner chocolate shop there which obviously serves chocolate - nothing else. Shirl and I started the day with a Babka with chocolate dipping sauce ( we shared) and also a Mexican Spicy Chocolate drink which they serve in 'hug mugs'. It was all delicious. WE did however go back in the afternoon for some afternoon tea and did ourselves in with an Italian Hot Chocolate -which was very thick and well it did us in - neither of us could finish it. It is all YUM - and if you are ever in the area you should go - we have been to the one in NYC - we had to wait 40 minutes one night at about 10.30 - seriously - luckily there was a shoe shop just next door that we could fill the time in with...

the other cool thing about Robina is the parking...

there is a light above the park that is green if it is empty and then changes to red when you are in the park...isn't that a great idea? I know I have been caught a thousand times - you think there is a car park ...you get there and then...grrrr motor bike...or pocket sized car. With the lights there is no need to - they also have a sign at the end of each lane saying how many parks are available in that lane. How very new millennium.

Pottering around

I have also been doing some household 'chores' whilst on holidays.  One of them was this - organising the book case.  We  have a new piece of furntiure - another bookcase and so that it doesn't sit empty some rearranging was needed.  I have also sorted out the books I really don't need to keep.  I am planning on having a huge sale one day - just haven't worked out if it should be a garage sale or if I should go to the local Sunday markets.  This was a big job, and I am happy to say that it is finished - kind of.  Let me just say that you can now get through the hallway without the fear of stubbing your toe.

Yum!

More holiday adventures - we ventured to Paddington on Monday. I love just strolling around looking in shops (what a surprise!) WE had lunch at SOl breads...which is always YUM! I love sourdough bread - the only thing that would have made my lunch better would have been the addition of meat. Ham, cheese and tomato is my favourite sandwich filling - SOL is vego, so no ham in sight. I did have a truly delicious chai latte smoothie. If you are ever in the area I can highly recommend it. I was also experimenting with the functions on my camera. I really have to get a bit quicker at it before I go away.

Finally...

some real info.  I have been on holidays this week, and have been jaunting around with my Aunty Shirl.  Our adventures started on Sunday.  DO you have any idea where I might be?

testing

this process is very very testing...

it is taking forever. I really must go to bed...still needs some tweaking obviously. It's hard to do too...grrrrrrrrr...and I have lost my other one completley - so I guess I could go in and reinstall it...

i'm playing around

with a new design...bare with me :)

That 70's show

continues. I really don't know how all of these photos got scanned into a folder on the computer. I don't think I was meant to find them but oh well - I did. This I am pretty sure is at my sister's christening - which must be 1977. The 'adults' in the photo are my nanna and grandad - My dad's dad who was known as 'Matty' - and his 'new' wife - who is the only nanna I have known. I think once again Margie did a fully rockin job with the dress - can anyone say cute green maxi dress? I think I may also see a hint of red shoes - can you? Is it possible grandad's pants were too short when we was standing up? (He was quiet a tall man) and if I said 'cankles' what would you say back to me?

action shot

When our nanna gave us this photo a few years ago , it absolutely caused hysterics. I mean it seems like a normal enough childhood photo however it really is not. You see this photo was taken at my nanna and grandad's house. Again normal enough - except for the fact that it would appear that I am jumping on the lounge, have my feet up on it etc. We used to go to nanna and grandad's every week for dinner - well at least that is my memory - maybe they came to our house not quite sure on those details. Basically we did see them a lot though. Whenever we went to nanna and grandad's though there were a heap of rules -like
* Don't jump on the lounge
* Don't ask nanna for ANYTHING
* Don't touch the TV ( My sister did once and grandad caught her and I'm pretty sure she got the fright of her life)
* Use your manners etc etc
* Be seen and not heard - and all that jazz

Now my grandparents were not mean, by an stretch of the imagination - the rules were more mum and dad's thing. Nanna has said in recent years that they always enjoyed our visits because we were so delightful and well behaved ( unlike some of the other grandkids I think) . So the fact that this photo demonstrates some of the rules being broken is hilarious. To me anyway.

saturdeeee night

the big fancy staff dinner was on Saturday night - you know that I had problem after problem with the dress. AS a result I simply HAD to buy a new dress - which in itself was fraught with difficulty. SO many thanks must go out to Jojo - who came dress shopping with me twice, Dad who endured Thursday night, and Aunty Shirl who ventured out on Saturday morning in to the big smoke with me. The dinner was nice and it was great to catch up with some people who I hadn't seen for ages. Always good I say. I didn't drink anywhere near as much as I wanted to - which I guess in hindsight is a good thing.

Also I promise to stop boring you with collages - but it is so much fun. You might also notice that I still have the wish necklace on. It went with the dress - thankfully...

red

I have mentioned before that I love red. When I was mucking around on picassa last night I came across these photos and thought they would perhaps give an insight into my love of all things red. Let me walk down memory lane:

• the red trike - with of course my mum and dad. I am figuring this must have been around 77 / 78?? That trike provided hours of entertainment for years and years and years. Literally I am pretty sure that we were still using it well into primary school - late primary school. You could double people on the back - standing up so it was way cool. Our neighbours also had a marvelously flat driveway that had a turning circle. I love that mum has me in a cute red stripe t.
• The red trench and beret. I was on my way to Townsville- this was my 'travelling outfit'. That tree grew into a huge mango tree in our backyard.
• The Asian influence. These are some of my 'portrait' photos. I still think I fully rocked that mandarin collar. And mum also fully rocked the large round
• The harem suit - Mum also liked to dress my sister and I in themed outfits. Each season we would have a 'good outfit' - and there was always a theme. They may not have been identical but they always coordinated. I remember for this outfit I had to wear a fruit brooch - which I did not think was rockin!
• The red bikini - what can I say - this was a crocheted bikini - from when they were first popular I would imagine. That very well may have been the last time I wore a bikini. Mum loved this bikini - she still talked about in 'modern times'. It was expensive but oh how she loved it.

so now you can see - why I love red so much.

raging bull...

So every single day this week something by the end of the day has made me furious. I have taken this as a sign that I really need a holiday...like really truly. For the most part my anger has been generated towards things that are really pointless and that I have no control over - well OK maybe they haven't all been pointless things- but maybe a few weeks ago they wouldn't have gotten on my nerves so much. So I decided on the way home from work that I was going to take a myriad of photos with my new camera - and voila I did. I changed exposure, lighting, vivid-ness etc. I am not sure why my lips are showing up as green but hey. I also decided that I would include every photo that I took -(normally I would have edited nearly all of these out). SO there you go. Lets hope that tomorrow nothing makes the fury rise...I know it is not good for me.

PS Thanks to D for showing my picassa - i love the collage feature.

PPS Can I just say that I have been made furious by this program because I have stuffed around for the last 10 minutes trying to upload. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I am publishing this without a picture to see if I can load the picture separately

a dilemma

So you may remember me mentioning a few times - my wish necklace ( pictured above) I made a wish and put this on the 8th of March. I have NOT taken it off - for anything...and I mean anything. Anything you could possibly think of doing, if i have done it - I've had the necklace on. My dilemma is thus - I am going to a 'fancy' dinner on Saturday night and well this necklace does not go with my outfit in any - way, shape or form. At all. Should I take the necklace off dear reader? Should I?

Not a fan

of what I call the Seinfeld look. I don't like jeans and 'joggers' however in this shot I was off for a walk with my "Wednesday Walking Group". We head off straight after work on ...a....wednesday!!! Although work keeps interfering at the moment so we may just have to change that. I think it is a great idea generally speaking because you sort of unwind from the day, talk 'shop' etc, and exercise at the same time. What more could a girl ask for?

PS Well I'm sure this girl could ask for a lot more - and quite often does. LOL

TGIF Friday

For some reason this is exactly how I feel this week. I feel tired and lazy and just wanna lay down. Gidgee has favourite spots around the house - this is near the computer and is a sunny spot in the mornings.

My New Favourite Person

is the shoe repair man. I literally took this basket of shoes to him this afternoon - 5 pairs in total. They all need to be resoled. He was so nice and kind and even gave me 11 dollars off because there were so many pairs. He is just a little local business ( not one of those shopping centre people) and well it is only costing me 100 dollar to get 5 pairs of shoes fixed. One pair was disgustingly in need of a polish and I said 'sorry about that" and he said "don't be, polishing is included!" I love him and everything he stands for.

This afternoon was all about jobs because then I headed over to the dry cleaner - I have a dress that I bought ages ago for a really good price ( do you see a theme? it is a different dress to this one) Anyway when I bought it it had a stain on it - again probably not a good idea - but it was 200 and I got it for 25 - so I figured at the time that I would be able to get the stain out. The dry cleaner is not holding high hopes, but oh well. What can you do?

I then went and picked up our tickets for the big holiday - woo hoo.

seriously my time is like...

totally disappearing. Don't know where the time is going in the afternoons, lucky I took some excess photos last week.

so still continuing in the theme of stuff around the house. I like putting little collections of things together. So this is my vase collection.

In other news I had to pick up my passport today - yes they processed that horrible photo. Damn them! I was kind of hoping it would be rejected and then I could try again. Apparently the passport office is happy for me to have that photo for the next ten years! Let me just say they are 'sliding off'.