Just like a woman.

My girl – my biggest girl, that is -  is becoming a woman.

Well, der. But, it’s certain milestones, beyond the obvious, that mark one’s journey to womanhood.

Certain milestones that mean I am going to have to learn when to share MY chocolate.

The other day, after the chocolate block she took control of disappeared just when I needed some chocolate, I decided to take control. I bought a block of caramello chocolate, broke up all the bits, and put them in a zip lock bag in the freezer.  I was going to ration them out for myself. Only one per day (to counteract my usual tendency to gorge on one or two rows at a time.)  I would have Total Control, and it wouldn’t be gone when I REALLY needed a piece.

Unfortunately Herself had spotted the block in the shopping.  I told her it was MY stash, to ‘buy her own’, but later she found it in the freezer door. I moved it further into the freezer and hid it under some frozen peas.

On Friday afternoon, I’ve headed off to my swimming class, but I’m not quite there when my phone rings.  It’s a missed call from Ms 16. Fearing that something has happened at home – after all, she and Ms 14 were arguing over usage of the laptop computer when I left – I ring back. [There was, it has to be said, an obvious correlation with Ms 16's prevailing mood (which can only be described as snarky) and the time of the month, so I wasn't sure if WW3 might have broken out.]

Message bank.   Grrrr.

Then she rings again.

“What’s the matter?!!!”

“Where’s the chocolate?”

“You rang me for that? Are you kidding me?!”…. I hang up.

Then I get this text:

Im frigging trying to counteract frigging girl crankiness and theres chocolate in the house but im not allowed to have any??!  I’m trying to control the attitude!!

Well, what can another woman say to that? Or a mother who has just given permission for her to go to an all-day music festival, and do other things involving ‘responsibility’ on the condition that she controls her attitude?

Slideshow mania

Sometimes I just don’t know when to stop. Besides which, it’s raining AGAIN, and so my only real alternative for entertainment today is vacuuming.

Well, what would you do? Upload photos and play around with presentation options? Or make a noise?

With the publication of my article (and with no adventures in the pipeline) I decided to reminisce about our July tandem tour again, and muck around with presentation. ie. showing the photos in a better way than linking them to a facebook album, (as I did when we got back and I first blogged about it.)

I even went so far as adding music to this one just to see what it was like. (There wasn’t a lot of choice there, ok.. but one of them actually kinda fits the bill – I can’t seem to control the order in which they play!!).  I’m definitely not a fan of automatic music on webpages, so this is definitely a ‘proceed at your own peril’ warning if you’re reading this on the home page of the blog.

[Ed: I don't know how to solve BB's 'hotlink' problem, but to minimise crash potential, I've gone to the previous posts with slideshows, and either split it off from the home page post (with a 'read more' option) or removed it.   Can't have them crashing my home page when people come to my blog! This weekend happened to coincide with the start of an increased broadband speed for us (1500/256) so maybe it is just too much for slower connections.  Looks like it's all very purty and that, but of limited use if it's going to be such a pain. Oh well. I've had fun I guess. Better look for a different option next time. ]

In print

Well, I’m not sure if I’m allowed to do this but what the heck. Just, if you’re an Australian cyclist, and don’t already get Australian Cyclist mag as part of your membership with one of the state cycling associations, do me a favour and run out to your local newsagents, and buy the November/December 2009 issue.

Quite ironic that in the week that my first magazine article is published, the main thing I learn in the online feature writing course that I’m doing  is: just because it’s published doesn’t mean it’s good. (I believe this too, because of an actual sample we worked through in the class.)

So I’m not really game to read through this again with my newly critical eye. Nonetheless, it’s a start! And I’m getting paid for it! Yee ha.

Thanks for giving me a break, Australian Cyclist!

Now all I need to do is plan our next adventure to give me something to write about.   Sadly there’s nothing on the radar. Must do something about that.

Comin’ for a walk?

I’ve checked the time.  Well, it’s around 3.00, but, more importantly, it’s  low tide o’clock.

Perfect time for walking on the beach.
(No I don’t know what we did before the internet. I mean, there are tide charts you can buy in the newsagents, but seriously.. when you can get this online, for the current tide situation for your local beach, why would you?!)

Yeah, it’s cloudy, but I don’t think it’ll rain on us  yet.

Hello island. You’re looking a bit sombre today.

Heading north again… should go south every now and then, but I seem to swing automatically north all the time. Easy walking I suppose…..

Sunrise.

I couldn’t help experimenting. For a while I’ve been wanting to show off these amazing photos taken by Ms 16 for a school art project. These are the raw, unedited photos. (One day she might actually show me her finished project!). I know for her project she did some cropping, and a bit of other photoshop magic, but hey… I love them the way they are.

As well as being proud of her ability to take them on a mere 3x optical zoom point and shoot camera, it is a reminder to me that my two girls can work together. That Ms 14 got up early to go up on the headland, just to help her sister, means more than I have the ability to soppily express. (And imagine the rolled eyes if I did…)

++ I’m a bit worried about these slideshows overloading browsers on slower connections, so I’ve put in a  ‘read more’ link – if you’re reading this on a home page – so multiple slideshows running at once won’t cause crashes. ++