Fish

No, this is not a post about all the fish I've enjoyed eating over the years, although I do like a good barra, snapper, coral trout, salmon....you get the drift (haha, God I amuse myself sometimes).
No, this is about fish being friends, not food (damn you Finding Nemo). They came in almost by proxy. First off a tank came via Ms 24s boyfriend. The fish (2 of em) were his ex girlfriend's and he didn't want the reminder anymore. He asked Miss 11 if she wanted them, which of course she did (der). So there it went. The fish died, were buried not flushed, got replaced and so on and so on. I resisted Miss 8 getting any for ages, because I knew who'd end up looking after them. Yessss.
I've refused many suggested pets over the years from horses to snakes/lizards or chooks, to dogs or cats, but foolishly let Miss 8 get a fish. Well now, we have 2 siamese fighting fish tanks (empty), one standard tank (empty), another standard tank (inexplicably still with water in it, but vacant as the occupant is now also buried in our veritable pet cemetary) and Hexy the tank. I still call it by its brand name, cos it's cool. Hexy is 80 litres capacity, has a cupboard a big arse light, cool filter and oddly enough is hexagonal in shape. Go figure! It is also occupied by a large goldfish called Mitchell. Yep, Mitchell. Now I don't even know if Mitchell is a boy or girl, but there you have it. Mitchell is also a greedy pig of a fish, who likes frozen (but thawed out peas).
Anyhoo, I know far more about fish and tank maintenance than I'd like to. Firstly, we have gravel, fake plants, real aquatic plants (that Mitchell loves to chew on and pull out of their pots) and a hidey hole.
We also have fish food, filter products including fluffy stuff, charcoal and solid honeycomb shaped "things" (technical terms I know), oh and water conditioner. We have a fish net, Ph kits, a magnetic glass cleaner and a gravel cleaner/pump. Yay. I came home from work at about 5 yesterday and along with my husband G spent until 6.30 cleaning bloody Hexy. Hexy now looks lovely and Mitchell seems happy, if hungry, but God it takes up time.
At least we had pizza at the end of it.

Christmas is a comin....

Well, folks, we're on the downhill slide to Christmas. I know, I know, it's only November, but there it is looming.
For me, there's always a mild sense of panic at about this time of year. From August on I have to "celebebrate" (read buy pressies for) 4 children (2 of them grown, now Ms 24 and Mr/master 21). I have finally finished the birthday presents and have even purchased my own birthday present from my husband (thank you birdsnest). I'm wondering if he'll wrap the birdsnest bag or just hand it to me....Oh, that's right, he's generously "agreed" to give it to me 2 days early so that I can wear it to his work Christmas party. Isn't that nice of him??? Where was I? Oh yes, Christmas presents.
Well this year, there is the added pressure of us not being home for the first part of December, because we will be travelling down to Sydney to me to have my head examined (literally) by Dr Teo and have my tumour removed. Yay (ish). So, I'm anticipating that I will not be up to my usual frantic shenanigans this Christmas. So, now I have started up with the lists again. Yep, atm there is the present list, then there is the packing list. Then I have to wrap said presents, send cards early, get tree up and pack bags for the trip. We're also going to see the Harry Potter exhibit pre op and I will be meeting a friend and her kids while down there.
I'm also seeing my GP pre trip to discuss said trip and beg for nightly sedatives so that I can sleep once I start shitting myself in earnest.
We should, all being ok, be back just before Christmas though.
PS, other things to organise, garden right down end of yard (turn from jungle like area to garden beds with selected plants), photos to come and above ground pool (2nd hand, hubby to finish, started already), you know, nothing major.

Melbourne to Qld

This is in response, largely, to Bern Morley's blog of a few days ago. She's done the opposite to me. She's moved to Melbourne from the Gold Coast. In the mid 90s I moved from Melbourne to Ipswich. The move was the desperate measure of a recent graduate. Nursing jobs were a bit thin on the ground then, what with Kennett and his severe cost cutting measures. I'd started applying all over the joint. I even fired off an application to Kalgoorlie. In the end, Ipswich hospital got there first. The month after that was filled with a lot of lists, as well as packing. My hubbie (then boyfriend) was to come up later. Things were a bit rocky, so I was a bit doubtful, but he did.
I noticed the change in weather in NSW as we approached the border. A highlight of the trip up was when my son held a toy microphone plus stand out the car window and lost the stand. As my daughter looked at me (it was hers), I said, "I'm not going back". It was early September. Melbourne was still cold, with a cold, changeable wind, still kinda winter weather, occasionally warmer. This wasn't. The wind wasn't even cold, for crying out loud.
We moved into one of those "charming" high set houses that were built a lot in the 70s and 80s. It had no insulation, crappy carpet, no real curtains and the "laundry" (and I use the term loosely) was downstairs. Oddly enough, the bathroom was huge. Go figure. To go with the no insulation, Ipswich has a slightly different climate to Brisbane, hotter in summer, colder in winter. Best of both worlds so to speak, so that house was real comfortable at times. We did shift into an outer suburb of Brisbane after a few years. The humidity still sucks sometimes. Thanks to airconditioning. The evaporative cooling system is pointless up here, unless you like the climate of say Darwin or Cairns.
I found that a lot more people up here went to church than they did in Melbourne. Maybe all my acquaintances were a bunch of Godless wretches, but I don't think so.
Shops didn't open on Sundays at all and only until 12 on Saturdays. You could've fired a cannon down the main drag in Ipswich Saturday 2pm.
I got handed a white dress (several actually) when I picked up my uniforms at the hospital and got told to  buy brown shoes and my own red cape. WTF??? I'm not the flying nun here. I was used to the white shirt with navy pants/skirt, which now we actually have.
I did get truly sick of being called a Mexican, with varying degrees of contempt. Usually the most contemptuous were by men that I'd turned down. Interesting that. I really don't recall Qlders have the piss taken out of them like that.
Driving......people up here couldn't use roundabouts, merge and disliked being overtaken. The worst offenders for this would sit in the right lane, next to a car in the left lane with long lines of cars behind both cars. Again, WTF??? If I catch my hubby doing that, I tell him that he's driving like a Qlder, that gets a bit of movement.
I think, eventually we might move back to Melbourne, or at least the Mornington Peninsula. Of course our 2 oldest have grown up here and will, no doubt, make their lives here and our younger 2 were born here, but we're keeping an open mind.
Do I like Qld? Of course, but I do understand those that yearn just a bit for home.

Hoarding

I've been watching hoarders on pay tv lately. Car crash tv at its best. To start with it's either on the crime channel (crime against self/family) or bio (the sad story of someone's life). Watching an episode of hoarders makes me feel like cleaning and throwing out stuff, much in the same way that my ex morbidly obese neighbour used to inspire me to continue going to gym.
I've been going through my own and family member's papers/toys/stuff lately. It's depressing that there's still more, even when you're done!!! I went through the filing cabinet a while ago (both mine and hubby's drawers). He had septic tank maintenance bills from back in '98, as well as old concert tickets and a few handwritten referees from the 80s, saying what a hard worker and all round lovely guy he was when he worked in a supermarket as a kid. Mmm hmm. Generously I let him keep them. I had group certificates from the early 90s. Yep.
Mr 21 just has a load of shitty tshirts. I don't even touch them really. He also has a lot of CDs and DVDs. I do hope 2 of my DVDs eventually turn up in his room.
Miss 24 is hoarding quite differently than the usual. She is collecting stuff to put in her house when she eventually moves out for good (oh blessed day). Her boyfriend just shakes his head. I usually laugh.
Miss 10 used to be a shocker, but after a number of silent wars (you know the type, one throws something out, the other gets it back, nothing is said, at all) she is getting better. I'm still not really game to go in the bed box at the end of her bed.
Miss 7 is interesting..... I went through her room today and some of the shit I saw blew my mind. Particularly when I went behind her chest of drawers and saw empty packet upon packet of biscuits etc. Needless to say I filled a bag with "stuff" and she will probably hate me when she gets home from school. Now, to get to the old cards I've kept.....

October

New month peoples, so new post. We're very busy this month. From now on in, it's a slippery slope to Christmas. Normally at this time of year I'm starting to feel some sense of panic.  It's getting close to Christmas and we have 4 birthdays between now and Christmas.
My husband has a birthday in May. Mr 20 turned into Mr 21 (man child) in August, but so far that's it.
Now we are expecting Miss 23 to turn into Miss 24 next week. Miss 7 will become Miss 8 at the end of the month. Early next month, Miss 10 will become Miss 11. I will simply not get older at all on my birthday in early December, oh and I'm not going to mention my exact age. God knows my body lets me know that anyway. I now need bifocals. Bifocals FFS! Oh and I went to primary school in the 70s and wore ghastly hairstyles and puffy, bright clothing at various stages in the 80s.
Normally I would be in a moderate state of panic about the sheer volume of presents I have to buy. Mr 21 seemed surprised that his older sister has a birthday next week. He's only known her 21 years after all. Mind you hubby still struggles to remember anyones birthday. This year, I'm in only a mild state of panic. Thanks to my wily plan of slogging my guts out in August with the Census. I have had the cash to buy most of the Christmas/birthday pressies.....and a hexagonal fishtank and this lovely iMac that I'm currently typing on. I'm fairly sick of the empty fishtank box though. Miss 7 insists on dragging it about as variously a cubby/cat box/ hidey box. One day it will just disappear.
Guess who's going to be buying their own Christmas/birthday present though, as usual. Then I will be presenting it to my hubby to wrap and maybe getting it the present in the bag it came in with a card. Hmmm.
Anywho, I'm looking at the Gillette jewellers website. I love them, they layby.

Long break

Yes folks, it's been a while (oh alright ages) since I've posted well anything on my blog. I do have good reason, however. Last month I was a Census collector. I may have mentioned earlier on (or not) that I may be having further surgery at the end of the year. This means that come Christmas time I will be cactus and not really fit for any Christmas shopping sprees. So what better way than to get myself some extra money beforehand and wa la, problem solved. So I duly applied (as did one of my kids) and got accepted (miss 23 as the reserve). We started preparation/training late July and delivery shortly thereafter. Couple of days rest and then into collection and then counting and reconciliation of the (damned) book. Couple of things I learned about Census collection.
1. There was a lot of stuff and if you lost any of it, you may have to met your local feds (gulp).
2. I am so glad I never went into accounting, I tend to make a mess of most forms, let alone a large thick book. As for reconciliation.....don't get me started.
3. I got fitter (and lost a bit of weight), all that walking.
4. I live in a nice neighbourhood. Most people were really nice (or at least civil).
5. Not everyone will be happy about doing it. In our area some refused outright, or just didn't send in their forms etc. That's their choice I guess.
6. I have real feeling for the job of posties now. Some dogs will try to attack you through the fence near the letterbox, or even try to jump the fence.
7. This job is all consuming for the short time you do it. Between my permanent job and this one, I worked out (very roughly) that I worked the equivalent of 1 &3/4 full time work. Gaaarh!

I sacrificed a volunteers position at the Brisbane Writers Festival for this, oh well, maybe next year.
As for the Christmas presents (and birthday presents), well on the way. Yay!

Eyes

Who would thought that eyes could be traumatic? There they sit, on your face, doing what they do. Letting us get around without anyone else's or thing's help. I used to read obsessively in the half dark as a kid. I always got told that I'd go blind if I kept straining them, thanks ppl. I always had great vision, regular 20/20 (actually 6/6, it's metric), until my mid 30s, when I found I had trouble looking from my book to the tv at night. I promptly went to qn optometrist and ended up with glasses, which have gotten stronger over the last few years.

As a part of my application to drive again after my surgery (yes, it's a big deal), I had to get my peripheral vision checked out. That's where you put your eye up to a machine (one qt q time) and are given q button to press every time a small dot flashes up on the screen in front of you. I'm sure I pressed way too many times, but what the he'll, I passed anyway.

The other drama was with miss 23s eyes. She was applying to go into the army at 18, when they asked her to get her eyes checked. She's worn glasses since 3 you see. She had a patch over her right eye for a couple of years. The left eye has always been bit weaker too. Well the optometrist found a detached retina. Cue the tears. Well a week later, she was getting the first of her eye operations (the other one was also detached, just not as badly). This involved day surgery, scleral buckles, heavy gas injections, lots of post op eye drops and some time off work. Thanks to the eye centre at the gold coast, her eyes have healed wonderfully anther vision is fine, although they say they will deteriorate as she gets old, but she can still see. Not sure if she fully appreciates it yet, but she will eventually.


Miss 7 has recently complained of a couple of funny things with her vision, she off we go to the optometrist again. Pray for me.....