Tweeting about…

Supposedly my major topics of tweeting over the past month.

Baby [huh?]

getting .. love… night….  [I wish.]

If it was over just the past week it would include DIZZY. Which I still am. Though weirdly, not so bad at night. Go figure.

I have a few blog posts in my head, but no motivation to get them out of my head and onto the screen. It’s easier to sit and watch the TV, because at least then my head is relatively still.

There was movement at the station…

Well, I’ve managed a new photo up top there. That’s something, isn’t it?

Slothing kids on summer school holidays, and Australian Open tennis on one’s still-a-novelty widescreen telly aren’t conducive to much in the way of writing action.

The good news is that school holidays are over! They’re back at school (two yesterday, one today). Which means that pretty soon I’ll regain my headspace! Mind you after a 5km walk this morning, there wasn’t much action of any sort around here. Except that I got my bike out and rode 5km (to pick up the car I’d dropped off earlier at the mechanic’s).. and that I started back at my Friday night swim squad.

Otherwise- I’m such a procrastinator!

Weekend tomorrow, then business as usual from Monday. Which may or may not result in more frequent blogging!

Good luck with that one.

In the supermarket this afternoon Ms 16 conned me into buying two blocks of chocolate because they were on a ‘2 for’ special. (She owes me $3 for the block she’s taking to school to share her DEAR (rollcall) class friends.)  I kinda tried to resist. “You’re just trying to make me fat!” I said. So this was her solution – for all of us.

Funny how late tonight there was already a row gone.. and then.. somehow… another row kinda disappeared.

Those were the days, my friend

We’re going back to the future. Sort of. (I’ve never actually understood that expression anyway!) Or maybe for a trip in the Tardis. Not far, not long – we’re only talking days and weeks. Just enough to mess with your heads. And for me to have to keep schtumm for a bit.

I went to my 30 year reunion last weekend, but for the purposes of getting a set of articles published online at PRG you’ll have to pretend it’s just about to happen. Yeah, it feels a bit weird not to be blogging it, but, hey.  When you’re a wannabe freelance writer, you take your paid publishing work seriously. (Am I sounding more professional than I actually am?!)

I’ve drafted the next instalment, but you’ll have to wait a couple of weeks to find out how it really went!

Have had better.

I think once the well-meaning (yet very much appreciated) greetings peter out, I’ll get over my grump.  (As long as the Grump is not tied up in a peri-menopausally-hormonal thing as I suspect it might be..  but I digress…)

Thing is, the honest response to “Hope you had a brilliant birthday” is

‘Err, well, not really.”

No, Himself and the girls did not spoil me. Actually, it was only when they belatedly tried to do something that it all went pear-shaped. Really, one of the only redeeming features of the day was that a lot of lovely people sent wishes across the internet and made me feel a little bit speshul. And that at the end of a long night, Ms 14 actually washed up the stuff that didn’t fit into the dishwasher – without being asked. Pretty much a first on both counts, so it probably qualifies as a birthday present.

But, yes.. a bit … disappointed?  Meh, I bring it on myself. We aren’t a yee-ha celebratory family. M and I feel that we spend enough on each other the rest of the year (just recently we’d bought a heap of new bike gear, and took ourselves away on our tandem tour holiday), so we weren’t going to waste money on buying each other presents just “because”

And with his  birthday being just last Friday, and a birthday lunch out that we decided would do for both of us, we didn’t plan to spend any more money on eating out.  (And actually, we have more cycling related bits ordered from the UK that should arrive today – “happy birthday to us”.)

We also try not to be too materialistic, so have never really pushed the kids into buying presents for us. I figure it will come when it comes off their own bat – so I reap what I sow (or don’t as the case may be – despite dropping some hints about a book I wouldn’t mind) and this year just wasn’t the year. Too many other things on their plate, and it’s not easy getting into the shops without me.

Two out of three kids remembered to wish me happy birthday in the morning. (The same two that only remembered their Dad’s birthday last Friday because I was whistling ‘Happy Birthday’ as a ginormous HINT.)

Make that ‘out of  four’. Himself had been away for two nights at a conference and wasn’t getting home till nearly 9.00 at night.   He finally bothered to send me a text just after 4.30 in the afternoon. (Very busy that conference.)  Colour me  feeling just a bit unimportant.

Chauffered kids to and from sport in the afternoon, and psyched up to cook dinner while they basically slacked around. The one who’d forgotten to wish me happy birthday till I picked her up at netball obviously felt a bit guilty because she cleaned up the kids’ computer desk.  The others slacked around watching TV, ignoring my directions to go and have a shower (Ms 10) and  to clean up their pigsty of a room (Ms 16.)

By then I decided that I wasn’t even going to debate whether I should have a glass of wine or not. And because it was My Birthday, I wasn’t going to rush getting the dinner ready either.  So it was getting a bit late by the time I had the stir fry ready.  About that time – something approaching 8pm –  Ms 14 (the one with the bad memory but a conscience) decides perhaps she should make me a cake.  “Don’t you think it’s a bit late? I asked, but she went ahead anyway.

Himself arrives home nigh on 9pm, and proceeds to berate Ms 14 as she pulls the cake out of the oven and says “Oh dear, I forgot to spray the tin.”  The inevitable result is one broken up banana caramel cake. And tears from the child who was already upset enough with herself without lectures from Dad.

Great birthday ambience there. NOT.  He calls  The Artistic but Lazy One (who never makes cakes because she hates breaking eggs)  down from upstairs to help with Operation Cake Rescue,  but she never arrives, and disappears for some time up in the shower – which ends up in a ding-dong barney about her not coming when she’s called, her insisting that she had stood  half naked at the top of the stairs but gave up when she didn’t hear what he wanted her for, and it progressing to a tirade about her spending too long in the shower all the time. So then she stands there like a thundercloud as this broken up cake is plonked on a plate – with no embellishments other than the candles.   When I mirror the look on her face (forgetting that she has no sense of humour when she’s in a Mood)  she then stomps upstairs in high dudgeon, and we don’t see her again the rest of the night.

Needless to say by then, nearly 10pm – way past Ms 10’s bedtime –  I wasn’t in the mood for birthday cake photos, songs, or anything. I blew out the bloody candles, and couldn’t even bring myself to eat the dry cake.

“I suppose you’re going to blog this.” said poor Ms 14.  Well, maybe. But I didn’t have the heart to take a photo of the “cake”.

Best option , I thought, would have been to take a raincheck on the whole proceedings before trying to do candles.

Later he says “Sorry, I suppose I made things worse.”

“Yep”

We watched a show on telly, and managed to get to bed by midnight, though why I was prolonging the day by then, I’m not really sure.

Luckily the middle of the day had some redeeming features. I took myself off for a walk on the headland. Didn’t spot any whales (as I hoped I might –  despite it being prime whale watching time it was a bit windy), but it was a balmy temperature for a winter’s day, and I lay on the grass up there, listening to the waves pounding and surging on the rocks below – and tried my hand at some photography to capture the beauty of where I’m fortunate enough to live.

In my mind’s eye I see many perfect pictures, but I don’t quite have the photographic skill (or zoom on my camera) to capture them.  But I try.

The end of the headland gets me a bit closer to this island than from the beach. Then with my feeble 3x zoom and a bit of cropping, I don’t mind the end result.
I love the way the white of the waves accentuates the island. Kind of like
white eyeliner – “isle-liner”?

No idea if it’s a native or a weed, but it was there, all alone…fending for itself up there.
But what a view she has!

Looking back towards our little ‘village’. I can see the roof of our house from here!
I love living here.

Back down on the beach – I had no idea what these birds are, and I don’t see them
on our beach much, which is why I had to get a snap.
[Ed:But I finally found what they were! – Sooty Oystercatchers.]

And you know, reviewing that part of my day makes me feel a lot better about turning another year older.  Maybe I was spoilt on my birthday after all.  And I am very definitely spoilt throughout the year, so it all evens out in the wash.

When am I?

It hit 24 degrees today. (That’s 75 degrees in the old money, btw.)

So?

It’s meant to be winter, that’s all. Elsewhere in the world they’re all but calling it a heatwave when it’s not much more than that temperature. [OK, I jest. A bit. It’s all about what you’re used to – I do know that!]

We  have a really mild climate here, on the mid-north coast of NSW.  We’re about half way between Sydney and Brisbane.  It never gets too scorchingly hot in summer, and, as you can see by today’s temperature, the winters are pretty mild.  It doesn’t stop people going silly with their wood fires, or getting rugged up (like I saw one woman this afternoon) – heaven knows what they do when they go somewhere that’s actually cold!

You can’t get too rugged up in winter here. It might start out chilly (lowest overnight temp this winter so far was 3 degrees.)  But you just never know. The next thing you could be stripping off the layers,  and wishing you’d had a spare pair of  shorts and a sleeveless top in the back of the car.

I just looked up some more stats, and the highest recorded July maximum for this area was 30 degrees in 1958!  (Lowest maximum was 12.)

Not complaining though. AT ALL! I went for a walk on the beach this afternoon, in shorts and short sleeved top, and I just drank in the clear blue skies, which are a godsend after all the rain we’ve had. (1.6 m so far this year.)

Just kind of wondering if I’ve accidentally time travelled to Spring or Summer.

Tell me, it is July 1, isn’t it?

Still. 24 degrees. Sunny. Warm. Winter.

I can cope with that!

It’s all in my head.

You’ve no idea how many times I’ve sat here staring at this New Post screen. I type a paragraph or two, then hit backspace. Or delete. Multiple times. I wander off and read other blogs. I twitter (only need to come up with 140 characters there.)  I keep up a meaningless patter on facebook.  And that’s about all I’m good for at the moment, in terms of writing anyway.

So what? Of course it doesn’t matter in the scheme of things. Except that I started a new blog, new look and all, with the anticipation of a potential new audience once this new website launches (soon, I’m told!) and the handful of articles I’ve written so far might even get read, and the odd person might just click through to see who the hell I am.

Ho hum, they’ll think.  Not much to see here.

It leaves me with the dilemma of linking through to my old blog (to prove that I’ve been a bit more prolific with my writing) but that all but defeats the purpose of a new one (except for layout, presentation, and the fact that I was never really happy with the old moniker. ) I was mainly starting afresh for the sake of a bit more anonymity for my family, and I don’t want to renege on that.  [Otherwise I’ll have my very savvy teenage daughters calling me for hypocrisy, and they’d have a very valid point.]

My only solution, I feel, is to copy over favourite posts from the past, to build up a background picture of who I am and what I like to write about. One problem with that brilliant idea was that I then sat here for hours one day, reading through three years worth of blog posts! (Well, at least I find them interesting to read back on, but “Hello! Time management issues!” ) And then, what to choose?! Arrrgh, the pressure, the pressure!

It will happen. Probably once I drop the anxiety, adopt a ‘Whatever’ approach, and go with the flow.

Meanwhile, to set the scene further,  there are a few other things going on up there in my head. It’s a bit crowded up there, actually, and my brain feels like it is not firing on all cylinders.  I’m serious! It quite honestly feels like the cogs are turning more slowly than they used to. I can’t remember stuff from day to day, I’m slower to grasp concepts than I used to pride myself on, and it’s all, frankly, a bit of a worry.

I took on this web design course, you see. While I didn’t think it would be a walk in the park, I was looking forward to the challenge of learning more about web design.

Eeep! Let’s just say, the course is more appropriate for young things with no other commitments in their lives (like cooking, shopping, and running three kids around every afternoon and most weekends)  and all the time in the world to come home and play around and experiment with what they’ve been taught. (And probably their brains are functioning better too.)

I’ve already dropped half the subjects – deciding it was still worth the money to focus on the ‘hands on’ units – and STILL I don’t have the headspace or the free time to do it justice.   As I approach the end of the semester, it’ll be a toss up as to whether I manage to even finish the assignments required to pass the units.  Or do I just write it off as a ‘kickstart’  to learning a bit more about web design/development, and then fiff and faff around with it all at my leisure the rest of the year?

And then I can switch my attention back to writing, which was my other “career path”.. interest.

I’m not making any decisions this week. Bad, bad time of the month to do so, plus we are heading away over the long weekend to watch eldest daughter play in a three-day state netball competition. Lots of thinking time in the car, at any rate.

One thing I do know – there will be more posts to come. More frequently.

Sounds like a plan.

We’ve had a bit of ‘weather’ round here.

So, yes, we’ve had a bit of rain. Don’t I wish I could ship it up to places where they need it. Like around BushBabe’s place.

This is what the backyard looked like this afternoon. Reckon I’ll be wearing my gumboots to the clothesline for a while, once the sun is out again. And once they are dry, because some silly person left them outside and they filled up with water the day the rain started. Ahem.

And the wind last night decided to help us along with the renovation project. When we moved in 11 years ago we said ‘That verandah needs to be knocked down and rebuilt.’

I guess some people just take a while to get round to doing things.

Ever since we’ve barely used it, and more recently pretty much banned the kids from going out there. “Too dangerous” we said.

And you can see why. Heard a thud last night as it was blowing a gale.

“What the heck?!”

“Oh. The verandah railing. Guess that was bound to happen sooner or later.”

And then a bit later, the second one came down.

Guess it’s lucky we have that appointment with the building designer. One less thing for us to have to demolish.