grumpygirl

Outside Readings

 

a few weeks ago.

Above the parapet, just

Hi everyone! Just sticking my head up above the parapets for a sec for a quick update.

So it's Saturday and I've been here in the study since 8:50am. I have two laptops, class notes and reading material strewn al over the desk. Revision notes are taking a lot longer than I had hoped, but once done, I'll be able to cut and paste from it for a 40% 2000 word assignment due Friday. The exam, also worth 40% is not until the first Friday of school 3 Fridays away, but must finish revising by end of next week at the latest, as I'm sure they will be enogh homework in Week 1.

Plus some of next week will be spent on some group assignment for our financial accounting subject. Due before our first class. No, that was not a typo.

So I survived 5 full days of classes in a row. The kids were asleep by the time I got home so I got up early to spend some time with them in the mornings and then rushed to class to get a seat with a desk. Insane.

Too much to say about the subject other than it was a brilliant introduction to what we'll be studying for the next few years and has totally reaffirmed by decision to do a general management degree.

It does freak me out that there are two Drs and a few other PhDs, but I'm sure they'll have their troubles too, eventually!

ok, best get back to work, I have an accounting prep class tomorrow!

 

For 'free'

Third post for the day. To end on a good note, the insurance assessor came around to assess the hail/leaking damage and although they were careful not to say much, he did comment that we would get much value on our $500 excess. So fingers crossed there will be a permanent solution to the leaks! And a newly painted bedroom too!

Smart casual

The dress code for orientation (on Saturday!) is smart casual?

What exactly is that? I was thinking, not jeans. But wiki had so much more to say about it:

For women, it consists of slacks or a skirt (long or short), a blouse or turtleneck, a fashionable belt, a jacket, a vest, or a sweater coordinated to the outfit, hosiery or socks with boots, flats (leather, suede, or fabric) or mid-heel shoes. Women may also wear jewelry, such as earrings, that complement their overall outfit.

Gee, that sounds like bit of work! I have to have a fashionable belt? And co-ordinate a sweater? And I have to have a concept of an overall outfit? With complementing jewellery?

And I'm to leave the house and get there by 845am??

Gems

WB: Daddy, why did are you putting blueberries in my ice-cream?
BD: To make it more special.
WB: Why don't you put more ice-cream in to make it even more special?

WB: Mummy I'm finished!
Me: Ok, I"m coming.
WB: No, I want Daddy to wipe my bum.
Me: That's going to be a bit hard, seeing as Daddy's at work.
WB: Yes he can, he's got very long arms!

WB, Mummy, when I was little, were you little too?
Me: No, I was little a very long time ago.
WB: With the dinosaurs?

 

Back to normal tomorrow

Well, sort of. Back to a new normal. Make that the start of a new normal.

The last of our guests left tonight, so it's my last night of sloth before I hit the books tomorrow, I promise. Although probably not so much books as my new Dell Vostro 3350 laptop. I'll have to get used to navigating around with it, it's so different to my beautiful Macbook. Speaking of which have you seen the new 11" Air? Wantses!

Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, Not only will I have to get used to going back to school, but it'll probably be far more computer-oriented than waaay back in my day. Do people even handwrite notes onto paper notebooks?? Should I even be considering buying new fancy-pants girly pens to write with? And the matching fancy-pants pencil case??

So tomorrow, it'll be just me and the kids (BD's first day back at work was today). For two whole weeks before WB starts back at childcare. And then I start school (a week's intensive, a two-week 'break' then evening classes from there. Eeek! WB's swimming, soccer and mini maestros only run during term, so we won't even have that to keep us entertained. BD hasn't been letting WB have a daytime nap so that he falls alseep at 7ish rather than 9 or 10ish, but I'm not sure I have the stamina to look after both of them on my own. She insists on my holding her up to bounce all day and he won't stop running. Aside from occasionally stopping to wipe his sweaty head on me, that is.

At least the searing temperatures won't be returning for at least the next week. If not for the newly-installed aircon in our bedroom, I think I would have died. Literally. Laid down and die. In an unpleasantly melty way. Just like the wicked witch of the west. But much much more slowly.

Oh, and I return to add, I just learnt that my 80 year-old grandmother has made off with my new black cowl that I just finished knitting during the heatwave. Without telling me. How cheeky is that?! It was so hot off the needles I didn't even have time to blog about it or even take a picture. Royal Alpaca by Blue Sky Alpacas. Retails for ~$55. 100g. 263m. 250 stiches per round. On 3.5mm needles. In garter stitch. For over 15cms! 

Bliss

I got home at 745pm from a 1-hour massage tonight to discover that BD had indeed been successful in putting both kids to sleep on his own. How good is that?

Oh and happy new year!

Now if only I didn't then have to go and edit our objection to the planning proposal next door. Have I not told you that they plan to build a two storey house behind the one story one? Must've blocked it out of my mind for some reason. It's just a whole quagmire of bureaucrazy. Only you don't know who to ask for what because you get shunted from one body to another. You'd think there would be an FAQ of ok, the neighours want to build a monstrosity, what do I do? But no.

Talk to the Dispute Settlement Cenre of Victoria about the fact that the developers plan to tear down a fence but don't intend to replace it. Talk to the EPA about the possibility that there might be times of the day/week the builders can or can't work.

Huh? I don't want to complain (yet), I just want to know what my rights are and where I stand so when I need to complain, I can do so immediately. Or better yet, get it in writing from the very beginning. Madness! What if we weren't fluent in English? We'd be (even more) screwed. Apart from the reading of 300-page plans and humoungous drawings we don't fully understand (especially the deliberate omissions), did you know that by not making an objection at the start, you are not able to be apart of ongoing discussions of the build?

ok, I need to stop talking about this or I'll need another massage...

Sitting up

Miss EM has been sitting up for a little while now, but hasn't lasted long before she topples sideways. Today, however, she's just been sitting and sitting and sitting. So we brought out some toys she was given when she was born that she's finally ready for, and lo and behold, she just wants to eat it.

She can crawl too, started doing it properly the week before Xmas. She's even growing some calluses on her feet!

Notice the logwood dress? It's a bit big, but will be a perfect top one day. One day soon at the rate she's growing. I wonder if those rolls on her legs will slim down a bit? Poor thing probably has no hope, she's inherited my legs.

Speaking of legs, we've been out discovering public transport this holidays. We can't fit all the visiting relatives in the car so we've had to resort to trains and buses. Luckily the weather has been cooperative and WB LOVES public transport.

There are two buses on opposite ends of our street which head to the local big shopping centre, one at the top of a hill and one at the bottom. Which means I can take one there and the other back! They also go past the library, two local shops and the three closest train stations.

BD is so in love with the convenience of the buses. I must say it was better than driving around for hours looking for a park at the shopping centre. He's also loving that he can REALLY tire WB out by making him walk between bus stops. He was so tired from the exercise yesterday he went to bed (and fell asleep) at 6.50 pm!

White christmas

I recently overheard WB talking on skype to a colleague in the UK about how Australians don't have white christmases, but have a weird tradition of pretending to. Well this year, we had a white chistmas, but of a different sort.

The first lot were fun, we were out there taking photos and videos and checking out the neighbourhood (WB gleefully in his gumboots and raincoat). By the end of the night, we were eating in darkness and running about with towels and buckets. The extension that the previous built has the dodgiest roof and it tends to leak at the dodgy join. Seriously, what else is a roof supposed to do other? It's not like it has that many jobs, how could they have got it so wrong? grrr. RACV are coming out and we'll see what we can claim.

Before all those shenanigans, we left my brother, grandma and cousin (the latter two are visiting for 2 weeks from Sydney) to have lunch with BD's family an hour away. They got me a book about the WWII. I don't do war books, especially not Nazi (are they trying to tell me something??) ones. I don't get why they persist in buying me books like they know me well enough to do so. BD got the Steve Jobs biography. In hardcover. It'll be the only book he'll have NOT read in ebook format since he got an iPad. SO IRONIC! His parents know he only reads ebooks now!

They also bought Miss EM a heap of clothes most of which I had to take back. And got a grobag instead. Much more sensible and erm, not ugly. The few I kept because they were inoffensive and I'll use them as pjs. And I wouldn't have got much back for them. grrr again.

On the plus side, we did get a blower (our suggestion) instead of the knife set which the other siblings got (ugly Scanpan ones which they probably paid full price for (full price!!)). And WB got a bike (again, our suggestion).

I sound so ungrateful, but it just annoys me how wasteful it all is. I hate the concept of stocking stuffers. Why?? Why not just one good present?

OK, so we got this this AND Buzz Lightyear, but they were a set.

And I don't think we got Miss EM anything because well, she gets enough normally. And how's she gonna know, anyhow?

Little River

All wrapped up. The last white row has an extra stitch per repeat but I realised too late and I just couldn't be bothered frogging. I decreased stitches in the border instead. I must be growing as a person.