2 Year Olds, Comdians, and Wine on a School Night...

Hi!

Well. Am late. Like way late. I have a few good, little reasons, but I'll get to those in a sec. Also, the last few Sunday evenings have been stinkin' hot. And I really don't want a repeat of when my computer overheated and died and I had to buy a whole new hard drive because I'd lost most of my stuff. Yes, good thing for back-up hard-drives, but it just seems easier not to write when A) There's not much to shout about and B) It's too hot, don't want the wee computer to die. Or don't want you to die of boredom..........! But we're here now, it's actually a rather damp and cool afternoon thanks to the monsoons that blew through earlier today..... No strange show tunes radio show because I can't take it anymore and the groovy jazz tunes aren't on yet. There are a few twittering birds out there, mainly blabbing crows, but it's nothing compared with the last few summers and the screeching lorikeets....... But boy they're all sure chatty in the mornings before my alarm! But I do still have the cool, stand-by glass of white wine - life is good!

So work. Yep. It's pretty good. Busy, which is even better. Everyone has ADD because it's getting close to Xmas and people are getting ready to take a bit of time off. Me, am only taking the 3 days that we have no choice but to take off. Otherwise am saving my vacation time for a better (and cheaper) time of year. And I still don't mind work so it doesn't really bother me. Am just looking forward to the nearly week & 1/2 of [paid] freedom so I can get stuff done! Hooray! And am still really pretty happy in my adoptive department and they seem happy to have me still. We're currently going through our Annual Performance Reviews.... yawn. All I know is I want a raise because I haven't had one yet and it's been over a year now. The Boss and I are due to have our "chat" on Tuesday. Wish me luck! But really, honestly, they could keep paying me whatever and I'd just be happy to have the work. Well, within reason. We'll see what happens! Fingers crossed! Otherwise, work is good.

And then there were a few weekends in there......... And from memory they were, for the most part, pretty boring. Saturdays have been chill-out days where not much aside from laundry got done. Naps were had. Sunday some of the chores got done, but even then it wasn't every Sunday..... Oh, I know, it's all coming back to me now......... last Sunday I went out and met my friend Dom who I haven't seen in months and months. We ended up staying out a bit late and having too many wines for a school night...... yeah, thaaaaat's right...... That's why I didn't check in last weekend. And the weekend before I was out all afternoon trying to get Xmas presents sorted and in the mail...... And I can only handle so many hours in shops before my brain (and temper) short-circuits. So by the time I got home I certainly wasn't fit to write about it. I hate shopping at the best of times, which is why I thought getting in early would save some of my sanity as opposed to waiting until crunch time. I think it kind of worked. Oh - and the Sunday before the last few I went to go see one of my all-time favorite comedic heroes Eddie Izzard with some friends. What an awesome show that was! I wish I had a better memory or a better wizz-bang phone/camera thingy. Either way, it was a fantastic show and if you like his sort of brand of humor, I highly recommend going to see him. So yeah, thaaaaat's what I did with the last few weekends. That explains why I haven't been able to check in on a Sunday evening. Turns out they were all pretty good reasons after all! Oh, and this weekend was also pretty good - yesterday I managed to bust out all the chores and get all the laundry dry before the storms blew in. And today I headed over to Jason and Clare's (our pizza and games night hosts) for their son Rhys's second birthday. He's a cute kid. Very smiley, quiet, easy-going. There were hot dogs and cake and all kinds of other junk food, including wine. It was a fantastic afternoon. Then a storm blew through cooling the afternoon off (didn't matter to the kids on the slip n' slide tho!) and signaled our time to go. That and one of the little ones was parked on the couch with a bucket as he'd had way too much junk food and running around for his delicate tummy. Poor little guy. So other than a man down with a junk food hangover, the afternoon was pretty good! Which brings us to now.......!

So yes, all is well. Summer is being strange in that it was stinkin' hot and humid a couple of weeks ago and now we're having the storms. Usually it's the other way around........ Huh. Not complaining tho because the storms cool everything down. But, no matter what, am stocked up on candles as every season the power goes out at least 5 or 6 or more times. Sensitive power grids they have down here......... And here's hoping we don't have the disastrous flooding that we had last year........!?

So there you are. Not too exciting. December and January are my big bill months - car payment and registration, rent and contents insurance all come out within a couple weeks of each other and that adds up to nearly two grand........ So yes, a couple of quiet months until the Adventures get going again. Will keep you posted! So far there's nothing on the Adventure Calendar for next year, will have to get planning. No matter what, there will be an Adventure for mah birthday, tho not sure where to go this year......... Maybe, vacation time willing, will head to Uluru like I've been meaning to since before I got here...... Hmmmm..... Will get planning! Otherwise, I hope you're all well up there! When I say drop a line and let me know how things are going up there I bloody well mean it! I wonder how everyone is and hope everyone's happy and well and planning their next vacation to come down thisaway! Ok, so not now during summer, but March is a good time to start the Adventures.......... Am just sayin'!

BYE!
J!

Ironing Out the Zombies.....

Hi!

Well. Sunday, late afternoon. Little early, but might as well, have finished most of the chores.......... The birds are out there with a few chittering away, but I think most of them are hiding in the cool shade of... whatever they can find. Most of them are probably too busy panting. They're pretty chatty in the mornings but I guess by evening they're too tired from trying to get used to summer arriving so early. One thing I can hear is a group of kids playing in what must be a pool (so jealous. I totally wish I was a kid playing in a pool right now), and I assume it's a pool because when did you ever play "Marco Polo" on land??? But, have the cool glass of stand-by white wine, am just in time for the strange show tunes radio show (aside from Judy Garland and Danny Elfman, good god they're playing songs from "Annie"), there's a cool-ish breeze to push the hot air around - life is good!

So work. Yep, is pretty good. Have been bloody busy the last couple of weeks, which is just awesome considering I had 8+ months to prepare. I like being busy, makes the day/week go by. One thing I did manage to squeeze into my busy days was move all my stuff from my desk in my "old" department to my "new" department. It was a nice feeling. With full blessing from my bosses of course. Nice to know I've made a nice, clean space at my old desk for whatever new person my boss might hire to help the folks up there (not doing my job, helping the other gals do communications stuff). Cool. I quite like my adoptive home and team. Glad they let me live with them and keep me busy. Another reason why it's so nice to be busy as not only does it speed up the days and weeks, it scoots us closer to Xmas and a week & 1/2 break - waaaahhoooooo! I had planned to go out of town (options included coming up to the US) but decided to save mah pennies (and vacation time) for another time of year when tickets are $millions$ cheaper and crowds less. So all in all, work is good! Hooray!

And then there was a brief bright spark in the week - Thursday evening I headed over to Kangaroo Point Cliffs for my first "social climb" with my rock climbing shop. Didn't know a soul but everyone was friendly enough (except for 2 chicks who've been noted for not being so friendly. No Xmas card for them), but everyone else was pleasant enough. It's tough rocking up to things like that not knowing anyone. I tried to introduce myself to as many people as I could without being too wierd. Thankfully, a gal I did my course with showed up, so that took a bit of the gangly new kid at school feeling away. Bummer was, there were about 15 of us wanting to climb 4 climbs. So I really only got in a climb & 1/2 (that last climb about kicked my butt - it was kinda hard and being off these last few weeks, am not in as strong as I was!). So most of the time was spent waiting to get on a climb. Hmmm. Will give the group a few more tries before I decide what to do......... The gal on my course and I decided to give the indoor climbing gym a try (again) hopefully tomorrow evening, if not sometime very soon. I didn't mind that indoor gym - good for working on technique. It's fun when you can get climbing! But hey, at least I'm trying!!!!!

And then there was the weekend. I must say, by the end of the week I was really beat. So I spent yesterday doing laundry and watching movies. I can't recommend "Resident Evil" unless you like that sort of thing (it started life as a really cool video game). I didn't mind the idea or the story (am still in a Zombie movie phase), but the film itself, while Mila Jovovich is a cutie and did the best with what she had to work with, the film was a stinker, in my opinion. But then I quite liked "Zombieland" so there you go. Later that evening "Back to the Future" was on TV, again, so I had to watch that. One day I'll own them all, along with "Raiders of the Lost Ark", on blu-ray....... Oh, and I gave myself a manicure. And that was Saturday. Thrilling.

And today was much the same. Got the ironing done. I figured it was already hot, I wasn't gonna do it at night, might as well get all the hot done at once. Meant to vacuum and clean too but it was too hot for that kinda stuff. So I sat here and restocked on toiletries from Walgreens. And Bisquick from Amazon. Again, another quiet yet constructive day! All I can say is HopShopGo is either the best or worst web-service I've ever come across. Good for staving off homesickness, baaaad for bank account.

And that, sadly, is that. Summer is here, so weekends not filled with Adventure will be much the same as above. Apologies now because it's gonna last until March at least. Hopefully I'll be able to check in with details of some good storms, or so the weather bureau is predicting for this season.......... Otherwise, I hope you're all well up there! If you're planning a visit, feel free to come any time after March - there, that gives you 4+ months to plan and save (oh, did I mention that last week? Huh.....)!!!! So c'mon down - later!

BYE!
J!

Napping Jacarandas

Hi!

Well. Sunday evening. Missed last week, but then I kinda knew I was going to. But never mind, here we are now, got the interesting show tunes radio show that precedes the way cool and groovy jazz tunes radio show; got a very, very nice, cool breeze. Nice because it's already started being stinkin' hot and humid, tho thankfully the humidity dropped earlier this afternoon so it's now bearable, considering the temperature gauge in the kitchen still reads nearly 90 degrees..... Sigh. Summer. Knew it was coming, bummer it's here. Tho no chattering birds of any kind this early evening, which is kind of weird. Too bamboozled by the arrival of the heat and humidity I suppose. But, still, got the cool glass of standby white wine (Rosemount Estate Semillon Sav Blanc) got a lovely, cool breeze, jazz tunes are soon to arrive - life is good!

So work. Yep. Is pretty good. Busybusybusy, which is really good. Still waiting for paperwork from HR about my Permanent Residency application..... especially the whole contract business, whether or not they're going to give me a permanent contract or a 3 year contract............ almost sort of nail-biting in a way, either way it'll be the longest contract I've had yet here! Wouldn't know what to do with mahself with a permanent job...... It seems so permanent. Haven't had a gig contract here yet that went for longer than 6 months. Fingers crossed! Otherwise all's well. Still with my adoptive department and it looks like I'm not going anywhere any time soon - hooray! So yes, all's well, and always happy to have a decent job! Will keep you posted how the HR/PR stuff goes.......Fingers crossed!

And then there were the weekends. Did I happen to mention last last week, last Tuesday I believe it was, I had my last rock climbing course? Yep, all done! That was heaps of fun! Now the onus is on us, now that we're members of their social club, to go along to the regular weekly climbs. I meant to go this last Thursday (the night they climb at Kangaroo Point Cliffs) but I was way too tired. These last few weeks, or month-plus, have been busier than I normally am, which is really good but am not used to being busy with places to go and things to do! So hopefully this coming week I'll get mah butt in gear and go down there. It's so much fun and the people are so nice.

Anyways, weekends! Last weekend was the Adventure to Grafton with Kim for their Jacaranda Festival! Hooray! Roooooad triiiiiip! Took about 4 hours to get down there, which I thought was wasn't bad, tho coming from California where the roads are straight and the speed limits are fairly high, if they had straight roads and speedy speed limits, I bet we coulda done it in like 2 hours. Eh, that's ok tho, the roads here are a thousand times better and safer than they are in NZ, so I didn't mind the extra time. Plus, it was just really nice to take the "new" car out for it's first long spin in a while, and it was fantastic. Super easy and comfortable to drive (I look forward to the next road trip!). Once down there, we dumped our bags at the hotel and went for a very short walk towards the "town square" (for lack of a more modern word, seeing as the town is split by the Clarence River into a sort of suburban side and a business side) where we were just in time to catch the Scottish pipers, apparently they were being judged for their performance. It was actually kind of nice in a Disney movie kind of way - town square, happy locals gathered in the little bleachers, sunshine, Jacaranda tress in full bloom, kids with ice creams, it was nice, and sort of relaxing in a small town kinda way. But after the third piper band our attention waned and we went wandering, looking around, taking pictures. Didn't take us long to work out the layout of town and how interesting yet nice it is that a lot of stuff is closed on the weekends........ Or maybe things were closed because most of the businesses were getting ready for the big parade to celebrate the closing of the Jacaranda Festival. So off we went in search of a pub with a view and cool wine to sit and watch the parade from. Happily settled into the Valley Harvest Restaurant with some nibbles and a bottle of white wine, we watched as just about every business and elementary school and stuff in between (like the local roller derby team) had a float in a parade that went non-stop for an hour! It was nice and kind of neat, and boy you could tell most of the town was involved.

Then, after the last piper band had whined into the distance, we headed off back to our hotel to change to go to dinner at a nice little restaurant we accidentally stumbled across in our wanderings along the river earlier in the day called No. 1 Duke Street. Turns out it's a brand-new restaurant only open, I think, 2 weeks. Right on the river with our table outside on the patio under the sky. It was niiiiice. The weather was perfect and no mosquitoes! The restaurant, being new, wasn't crowded, the diners and staff relaxed, friendly and polite. And the food was amazing. Sooooo good. Really good. It was such a good, accidental find. If it wasn't 4 hours away I'd go all the time! Always happy to support little local businesses!

Then the next day we drove around and scoped out all the places we didn't have time (or energy, seeing as it was hotter down there than it was here lately) to check out the day before. Took lots of pictures and decided to hopefully come down next year, tho maybe a week or so earlier to really catch the trees in super full bloom. And then we headed off to start home, taking a small detour to the even littler town called Yamba, which was right on the sea. It was so nice. We had a decent look around as we drove in, stopping at the top of a hill overlooking the sea to check out their lighthouse and take photos. After probably way too many photos of sea, waves and rocks, we stopped into the Pacific Hotel (at my Manager's suggestion) for a quick drink. Well that quick drink turned into a two hour stop with beers, vodka and sodas (I was a good girl, being the driver, and only kept to the two beers) and a big bowl of "chips" (fries). We were so mesmerized by the views that we ended up staying a fair bit longer than a quick coke a couple of pictures. I vowed to come back for at least a week sometime not during peak tourist season. Then we regretfully continued on our way back to Brisbane. Three uneventful hours later saw us back in Brisbane tired yet happy. It was a fine weekend, tho if I was going to do it again, I'd stay for longer. That's a fair trek to do in 2 days.

Then there was the uneventful but busy working week. And then there was this weekend. Well. After the last month or more of busybusybusy weekends of either selling, buying or building stuff, or going places, I planned to do nothing more than the chores and nap. Both of which I succeeded spectacularly in doing; I even got in a few DVDs. Of course I spent some of the time plotting my next room makeover/purchase/build, tho nothing to happen probably until after Xmas. I (and mah bank account) need a break! But the place is starting to look a bit better, am not as embarrassed to have people come around, tho the only thing to really improve the place is to move..........

And there you have it! One nice, busy weekend after another (and another) topped off by a very boring yet restful weekend. Nice. So I hope you're all well up there. Drop a line and tell me your news! I'd say to come on down for a visit, but summer is upon us and it's not going anywhere until March at the latest. So unless you like Florida-in-the-summer hot, don't c'mon down until April! So there - you have 4+ months to plan - so get planning!

BYE!
J!

Zombies, Rocks, Ikea - All Conspired to Make Me Late.......

Hi!

Well. Here we are, only way late. Am very sorry, turns out the weekends have been shortened without my consultation or approval and just aren't long enough to fit everything in, and that doesn't include sleeping-in and making a nice big breakfast. I honestly don't know where the time has gone, but it's gone. Apologies for the lateness. But here we are - Sunday at last, the lorikeets have sure been busy in the mornings but not so much in the evenings. Maybe they're too pooped from all that jabbering in the a.m. The days are getting longer, which is nice, although it means the mornings start earlier. Shame they don't do daylight savings here, though they've been talking about doing it for yeeears, no decision has been made yet. The rest of the country does it except for Queensland. The farmers are dead against it, something about the cows waking up too early and going to bed too late. So we can't have daylight savings because of some cows' bedtime? Hmmmm. I know they're thinking of just having this bottom corner of southeast Queensland do it so we can keep up with the rest of the country in commerce, but when they'll figure it out is anyone's guess. Hmmm. But I digress! We're here with the groovy jazz tunes, got the cool glass of standby white wine, a few chattering lorikeets - life is good!

So work. Yep, is really good. Still helping out my adoptive team, busy being helpful, which is just cool. I think I mentioned it before that I think this is basically an on-going thing, well, until next year sometime. They're not going to hire a replacement for the guy that left and a gal on our team has just announced she's pregnant, so there's more help they'll be needing....... So I don't think I'm going anywhere anytime soon - hopefully! As for my other team, well the bid guys are threatening to throw me a ton of work between now and Xmas. Eh, while I sort of believe them this time, they've said it before and nothing scary has ever happened. We'll see! Otherwise work is good. I get to work with nice people and I actually have work to do. Awesome.

And then there were the vanishing weekends. Let's see, casting the memory back.... Am still going with my rock climbing course and two Friday evenings ago we had an indoor session at the local rock climbing gym, Urban Climb, which was nice because it's close to my house. And Kangaroo Point, where we've done all our outdoor stuff, is like 15 minutes from mah house - sweet! So yes, that was lots of fun, tho not as much fun as outdoors with real rocks I must say. Still, good for the practice and fitness!

And then there was the briefly appearing Saturdays and Sundays. Saturday I managed to get some laundry done before heading out to meet Linus and Julian (they of the Australia Day BBQs every year) at the German Club to catch up over a few (too many) German beers. While we were there a very moody storm blew quickly through. It was neat. I love the storms that blow through though they're too quick. And the day was warm and muggy but after the storm it sure got dark and cooled off. Just to let us know summer is nearly here. It was a fantastic afternoon and so good to catch up with them, having last seen them in January!

Sunday the better part of the day was spent doing chores and waiting for people to come around and pick up and pay for the stuff of mine they bought off eBay (love this eBay thing - totally beats a garage sale). Then spent the other half of the day putting together mah new desk! Of which I have yet to clock up any time as it took that long to build (hence the non-appearance here that evening) that by the time I was finished I was cranky and ready for bed. Now, I'm getting pretty good at putting this Ikea stuff together, but the time you think it will take differs wildly from the actual time it takes, which is double, if not triple, the assembly time. Like, I looked at the 2 boxes holding the desk, laid everything out, looked at the clock, which was around 2pm, and figured I'd be done in time to start the little blog, around 5pm. Yeah. No. 7pm and a dead cordless drill battery later....... I guess maybe because people must have friends and helpers get some of the stuff ready because I don't, it's just me with all the lifting, pushing, shoving, drilling, hammering, etc.... And unfortunately I'm one of those who reads every single instruction and follows it to the letter (even tho they're pictures, no letters). I guess that chews time as well - studying. Anyways, it took a lot longer than I thought and by the time I finished it was too late for checking in. Hmmm.

And then last week was good but busy. I can't remember why I couldn't check in on Monday.... Oh yeah, normally at work, when I had nothing but time, I'd write the little blog during the day and get home and load up the photos, so it's pretty quick. But being in a department with actual work, I have no time to get a head start! And by the time I get home, feed Kona, feed me, shower, it's way too late. Hmmm. Anyways, had another rock climbing session on last Tuesday evening (forgot mah camera but the view was pretty much the same - amazingly pretty). This time we learned abseiling - where you go off the cliff backwards - eeeeek from the top. It was fuuuuuuun though repetitive. Apparently people love to just do abseiling. Yawn. Me, I'd rather climb, much more fun and useful. Although minutes before I arrived there were allllllll these cop cars. Found my little climbing group only to be told that a few feet from where we were to do our thing a guy had thrown himself from the top of the cliffs (last I heard he lived to regret it). Now, the thing about Kangaroo Point Cliffs is that they may have the word "cliff" in the title and the photos make them out to be pretty treacherous (and they do indeed look pretty scary from the bottom and really high up from the top), and no doubt they can be quite treacherous if you're not paying attention, but it's common knowledge that even if you throw yourself from the very top with high hopes it'll be a one-way trip, something like 90% of hopefuls actually live to regret it. Lesson here - pick a much higher spot/building or a different method because they just ain't tall enough to do the trick. Same goes for the Story Bridge - more people live to regret that trip than not; They simply end up going for a swim with broken arms and legs. Am just sayin'.*

And then there was this past weekend. Now that I've finally sold all the stuff from the living room that I wanted to sell, it was time to get the new stuff! Hooray! So was up first thing Saturday morning to get to Ikea to meet my co-worker Emma, who lives like down the road from Ikea (for me that would be like a crack addict living across the street from the dealer) as she had to get a shower curtain and I a whole entertainment center. Well that didn't take too long but in the end I had to get most of it delivered. There was no way on earth I could carry those boxes up my stairs on my own (and I didn't want to bug one of my neighbors to help). Thankfully it all arrived before that very same day was done and I could get building (knowing how build time is double/triple what you estimate)! I managed to get one bookshelf built, but boy they're finnigly things with all their moldings and bits. Niiiice, but finnigly. And that was all I could manage Saturday.

Then Sunday was up early-ish to get some laundry done before heading out to meet Jason and Hasse (they of the way fun Pizza & Games on the odd Friday evenings) in town for Brisbane's annual Zombie Walk. We all have fanceee cameras (tho Jason's is by far the fanceeeest) so we wanted to go out and take neat pictures and figured zombies would be perfect! And they were!
It was such a fun day that I'm totally going to come back next year and dress up zombie style - makeup, scary scars and all. Plus, any money they raise (by donation only) goes to the Brain Foundation. I'm all for helping a worthy cause and what a better way to help the Brain Foundation than as a zombie! Apparently Brisbane has the biggest zombie walk in the world. But as Jason so cynically pointed out - "that's just what they say on their website." Hmmm. Either way there were thousands of folks there - about 50/50 - zombies vs. people like us there to just watch and take pictures. It was way fun. Highly recommend it next time they invade your town! Oh, and just so you don't think this is some sort of "fad", even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a plan on how to deal with a zombie invasion - Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse!

So by the time I got home from that, it was nearly 6pm and I was too pooped and it was getting too late to check in. Again. The thing about wanting to check in by say 5pm is that it takes me a good 3 or so hours to write the little blog, pick and upload the photos, hyperlink everything, make dinner, have a shower, that by the time I get to bed it's nearly 11pm - too late for a Sunday! But I must say I love my Sunday ritual and I miss it and feel bad when I can't check in on time. So I do try - honest! (Even tho only a whopping 3 people might read this.........).

Then there was this past Monday. I called in sick to work. But magically by noon or so I felt fine enough to get to building the rest of my bookshelf and bridging shelf! Took most of the day and into the evening (moving all the books and stuff back in) that again, it was waaaay too late to check in. But now it's allllllll done! And big! I love it. I now have furniture that matches and that I like! Just like real people! HOORAY! So that's the living room's mini-makeover..... on to the bedroom!?

And that brings us to this weekend. Friday was quiet, which was nice. No stuff to sell, no people to come around and pick stuff up, no rocks to climb, no place to go except the couch, it was niiiiice. But yesterday, Saturday, I was up way early, even before all the birds, to go on a Mini-Adventure to the Glasshouse Mountains for my rock climbing course's "final exam"! I've always wanted to climb or at least go for a good walk around the Glasshouse Mountains, always thought it looked so neat. And it was really fun! Weeeeeeeeeeeee! Got to drive mah cool new car too! Tho I decided to follow my instructor up there (he had to meet another gal at the shop anyway, which is just down the road from my house). Glad I followed them. It's pretty straightforward once you make the trip, but never having driven myself, I was sure to get lost, even tho it's only about an hour north east of town.... Anyways, we finally all made it up there and proceeded to go on quite a good hike to get to our climbing site. A hike that none of us, bar the instructor, was expecting! Woooooooo! That was the most exercise I'd gotten for years! So we finally made it to the top where we caught our breath and got set up to abseil down the cliff we'd just hiked up. Once down, we climbed it a few times (tons of fun tho I only got 2 climbs in) we collected our things and hiked not far to the next spot where we abseiled down even further to get closer to the base of the cliff that we'd just hiked up. From there we hiked back to our cars and were done! WHEW! Big day, much fun! Much exercise too, my legs are still feeling it.......! So that was our big class day out, we have one more class this coming Tuesday back at Kangaroo Point and then we're finished. Just as I got in the routine of going rock climbing and learning on Tuesday evenings! So will definitely have to go along on as many "social climbs" as I can. It's heaps of fun, the people are so nice and it's good for you! HOORAY! Plus, when they have social climbs out of town, I can drive along, and if we have to camp, I've got my own studio apartment! Yay!

And then today. Well, I must say after the last few weekends and yesterday, I was in real need of a nice quiet day to do nothing (except for the laundry of course). So yes, didn't do much. Started to watch "Cowboys and Aliens" but got distracted. And then it was time to check in here....... Ahhhhhhhhh, lazy Sunday. Life was good today.

And, finally, that brings us up to now! Sorry again for the lengthy delay, I should be on time from now on barring any unapproved weekend shortening......... Oh, wait, on second thought, while I think of it, next weekend Kim and I are off to Grafton (about 4&1/2 hours drive south, in New South Wales) to go their annual Jacaranda Festival. It looks pretty neat in a flowering-Jacaranda-trees-everywhere kinda way. Good for photos and a really good run for the car. My friend Jan had taken her Mom there last year and said they really enjoyed it, so I thought 'why not?!' So we're planning to leave Saturday morning and return Sunday afternoon. Will hopefully have the energy to check in that evening but something tells me probably not. Depends on how late we get back and how pooped I am...... Hmmm. But, anyways, there you have it! Hope you're all well up there. Drop a line so I know there's more than just the odd cricket hopping around here. Speaking of crickets, I have to highly recommend a cuuuuuuuuute little computer-animated series called "Minuscule". Each "episode" is only roughly 4&1/2 minutes long and features different computer-animated bugs doing stuff in real landscapes. It's hard to explain, so just go find an episode, like this one - "The Fight for the Lollipop". They're most excellent and hilarious. No dialogue, just sound-effects. They're priceless. So good in fact that I went out and bought the whole series!

So yes, there you have it, drop a line, come on down, and hope you're all well!

BYE!
J!
*P.S. Not that suicide is a matter to be taken lightly (I know from experience). If someone's having problems, there's help, trust me.

http://suicidehotlines.com/national.html

http://www.lifeline.org.au/Find-Help/Find-Help/default.aspx