Crazy Cow Rulz!!!!.

I am not being abusive nor am I suggesting Mad Cow by any other name, lol. I have in fact bought a pair of pyjamas that are purple with friesian cows leaping all about with the word crazy interspersed. (for those without a farming background, they are friesian cows because they are black and white in random patterning, heh, heh). Under the 'nearly too much information' heading, I am not usually a pyjama wearing type person, however, am girding myself for cooler temps in NZ and think they may be a tad more visitor friendly than my usual diaphanous winciette nighty's - am slightly moving up in the 'wincy' fashion stakes, lol. I had been describing them to the workmate as my 'silly moo' pj's till I saw the word crazy on them again, and am thinking I like the 'silly moo' title better. (As I was tidying my wardrobe the other day, I did find a pair I had forgotten I bought last year for camping. They are red and white vertical stripes, so picture if you will, a XXL candy cane - not a good look, so they may remain in the wardrobe as they were an impulse buy).

The Bishop was here for Mass on Friday night attending the staff/student dinner beforehand. It is still very much - 'it's Friday, so must be fish' - out here, though I understand that rule has been relaxed in the Catholic church for some time. (There was one slight faux pas when it was noticed that there was bacon bits in the Caesar salad, lol.). There was cheesecake, fruit salad, and two flavours of ice cream for desert so the students were well pleased. (Lent, what Lent, lol). It was nice during the service in the 'prayers of the faithful' that prayers were said for those sick in the community and they included Clive back in NZ!!!!! Like I said to Mum, it never hurts having a bob each way, lol.

News re Clive, is that the second op went well, and he has been returned from Middlemore back to Manukau Super Clinic and though tired, with a few memory lapses due to the anesthetic, he is doing OK.

Have been 'autumn cleaning' sorting through my cupboards and boxes pulling out things to take back to NZ. I am back to work this evening until Wednesday morning, then the Geraldton run and then I am done till next term. Have been up to school this morning as we had reports to do before tomorrow morning - the whole 7 of them! - and this is an interim tick the box type report so even easier again. Came home and watered my garden and am now wondering why I started with the planting when there will be nearly three weeks without me here to water them. Not brilliant thinking there! Maybe able to transfer the containers to one of the staff who will be staying around while I am away.

It was the end of daylight saving this morning. After my spit/snarl last year because nobody told me, the workmate had it written in the diary, written it on the calendar and reminded me again on Fri so I was all good to go this year. My computer also managed to change it's time automatically which it did not do last year. I do have trouble reprogramming watches - the digital ones have buttons that seem to do everything but change the time and when by trial and error, I finally get the sequence right, the date is out of wack, and I have set the alarm for some ungodly hour in the night/morning. When I bought this watch I got the staff at the shop to set it right - at least it is now off the 24 hour clock that I somehow found the other week by mistake when trying to get the light to come on it during the night!!!!! To save more stress when I do my cross country/international travels, I have a second watch that tells NZ time which I keep to wear when home. I find having a couple of $2 shop watches works wonders and if they stop, I just bin them. (Although not pretty, the digital numbers are usually big enough to guess, when I can actually activate the light component, in the dark, without my glasses on, lol.

Have just read my nieces food blog - (on my list of blogs that I follow and well worth a read as is her mother's/sisters blog on Argentina) which reminded me of my latest find last week .... Jelly Beans from the chemist that you can buy in a KILO bag!!!!! OMG, they are very yummy. My particular new favourite is the chartreusey green, apple tasting ones. How long does it take to eat a kilo of JB's - well, replacing several meals during the course of ingesting said bag, it took four days (hey I was doing a lot of book reading in that time and the two seemed to go together). During this episode, I realise I have this particular way of eating JB's by their colour starting with least favourite to favourite colour. So, for those playing at home and for this particular brand of JB's, it goes: orange, yellow, pink, red, blue, purple, green, white and finally black. I found at the same chemist, they have bags of black only JB's, though probably only 100gm size (forgot to check but had them like an order on the side when I felt in a particularly black JB mood, lol.) How much did this epicurian delight cost - from memory it was $12 (cheaper than a cup of coffee per day, heh, heh). I forgot to say they are a decent sized JB and not the hard, smallish ones of some cheaper varieties. I will leave you pondering upon your own personal attack on JB's, lol.