Bits and Pieces

I have a day off and have done the best of things on a day off, which is not a lot. Work has been absolutely hectic, a ship in town, half term for all the schools, a long weekend, need I say more. My feet are worn down to the knee caps after several shifts where there has been no pause from go to woah except for the obligatory 30 mins meal break which has meant seven/eight hours solidly on my feet, at some pace I might add - not a picture many of you would automatically think of when you think of me heh heh. I awoke this morning to feet that were tingling with a slight burning sensation still, hence my excuse for not using them much today.

Am now able to stock up the shake and ice cream machine at work without blinking an eyelid and have graduated to filling the syrup containers for the shakes which is an interesting experience in itself. The syrups are in milk can type (small)containers with lids that push in before you lift them to then clamp shut. Could not work them out at all to begin with but again, can now laugh in the face of such trickery. I can more or less get 4 icecreams in a row looking somewhat the same without too much difference in width and height (two and a half swirls no more no less, lol) - I say four because we have little cardboard holders that hold four at a time and at 50c each they are a great buy for all ages and stages.



It was the WMH's birthday earlier in the week but the day passed in a blur and no one has had pause yet to have a birthday feast to celebrate. He got to work his day job and evening job so the family gave him his gifts first thing and I (unorganised completely) gave him his around 11pm that night as we debriefed the day and watched Australia's Got Talent's last semi final. Have to say the punk rocker bagpipe player that had flames coming out of the bagpipes caught my attention for this round. Once again, I am amazed by the talent out in the masses, and think there will be several who will not win the competition but may go ahead and be wildly successful in spite of it, because of their exposure in this competition. For me, the comments from the judges is half the fun of watching too. Kyle Sandilands is a bad boy DJ and TV host who fell from grace from another channel, and is the Mr Nasty on the panel, Danni Minogue is the (very pregant female) on the bench and then there is Bryan McFadden, (I think ex Boyz Own band, and Irish to boot) who with his accent and sense of humour plays the straight guy to Kyle's Mr Nasty. Have also been looking at Britain's Got Talent, and America's Got Talent on You Tube and there are some amazing people on those shows as well and with Simon Cowell as one of the judges, you know you are going to get biting comments from him also.


Had a completely new experience last week - the boys of the house do a pamplet run twice a week to earn pocket money. I have driven the ute dropping them here and there etc twice before so have got to know their particular pamphlet drop area of town reasonably well. ( It is also the area where I found my car). I arrived home on Wednesday to find the WM and WMH still not home at 5pm, therefore no pamphlets delivered. So without further ado, we loaded up my car poste haste and off we went as it was going to rain and was getting dark as well. I dropped the boys at one point and parked my car at a cross road then went off down two roads delivering a bundle myself. Things I have noticed - footpaths do not exist in Geraldton - I was in boots and thought I would be lucky to escape without tripping or falling at some time during the exercise due to the extremely undulating ground - no nicely mowed grassy berms here and I would have to say from an ex- postie's perspective, I would not have delivered mail to half the mail boxes on this run as they are knee high to a grass hopper off the ground, made of brick mostly and with very narrow slits for mail. There were many houses with no junk mail on the letter boxes, woohoo, except that did not cut the walking down as still had to go to the ends of the road, where junk mail was accepted in each situation. I started off fully rugged up with fleecy jumper on and after first road was completed, was down to shirt and very warm and cosy in that. There were so many houses with unfinished construction going on, lumps of concrete, scrub for garden (it seemed) and a lot of just plain dirt frontages due to the nature of the climate over here. There was one or two dogs that barked as I went by and one smallish terrier that I longed to lift mid air with the toe of my boot, but other than that it was a relatively hound free area, or they were all under control, lol . At 6pm, the cavalry arrived and the last part of the job was done in a trice - I figured I walked between 1 and 2 miles so felt very virtuous and more than ready to devour the chicken wraps we had for dinner to replenish my expended energy. I was more than happy to have got there and back without a twisted or broken ankle in sight or more damage to my knees from falling over, lol.


Got back from that outing to find an email from sister Kay telling me of a an ex Waiuku bloke who had been shot dead at a party in front of his wife and daughter at his daughter's housewarming in Queensland (Australia) after an arguement with the next door neighbour according to the newspaper reports. Brent owned an antique shop in Waiuku that Kay and I used to frequent on a regular basis. He knew I collected Sylvac china and made sure to have one or two pieces always on hand it seemed to tempt money from my wallet or better still money from Kay's wallet around my birthday or Christmas times. He was a fount of knowledge on china. I started my collection of Johnson Bros Playtime china when I found a dessert plate in the midst of other china in his shop - this was the set our Grandmother had several bits of with nonsensical creatures featured on it when we were children (and yes they did have china plates in those days, lol) . I also found a small milk jug and sugar bowl with the Kentish Hotel depicted and Waiuku named on it which would have been souvineer china back in the day. As I dithered to spend more than I wanted to that day, Brent patiently waited while I wandered about the town, holding it for me, knowing before I did, that I would take it, lol. It was a loss to the town when he closed his shop and moved to Oz, and now a bigger loss to his family and friends. RIP Brent.



We have had more rain - we are now up to the 8th lot or 9th day of rain for the year and have had to resort to the dryer to dry clothes more than once - only uniform mind you as there is a quick turn around from afternoon/evening shift to morning shift which in the height of summer is no problem. I now have two woollen blankets on the bed plus a duvet which everyone here thinks is crazy but I am cosy and warm, and when it does get over warm, at least I can kick things off. Out out Mullewa, Tardun and environs, seeding for wheat is going on and there are a lot of thanks from the farming community for the rain out there.


Well, it is offical, I am now in the pool for employment with the Child Protection Department - I received an emial on Friday which will be followed up with a letter which I guess will explain exactly what that means. I think I can be called up for casual work as and when they need but watch this space and I am sure all will be revealed.



I did a lightening trip down to Dongara on Thursday to have lunch with Jude - because I could, now I have a car, woohoo. I was very pleased as the car flew down and back with the petrol guage hardly moving. Petrol is $1.34 litre or was where I stopped, I think it was a Gull petrol station and I did not get my 4c off I would have got if I had stopped at the Woolworths BP petrol back in town , which I get by using my Woolies card. I now also get flying points for Qantas on my Woolies card if I spend $30 or more so try to wait until I need a few things now to make it worth while. I received my RAC and hbf cards in the mail the other day, and think I may need a small suitcase instead of a wallet to cope with all the cards I am accumulating. I have taken all my NZ cards out so I can shut my wallet lol. How did we manage before plastic cards for everything??


It is Queen's Birthday in NZ and therefore a long weekend, - here it is Foundation Day which gives everyone the day off on Monday (except those in fast food enterprises, garages and IGA's lol). I am not working so will not get double time but am ok with that or rather my feet are very ok with that. I am not sure what tomorrow will bring, I may have run out of procrastination and excuses and get back into my assignments that have taken a bit of a back seat lately. I may have to go out and have a coffee at Geraldton's newest coffee shop as the franchaise "Dome" has opened here. There is a Dome at Perth airport, and yes, I have a coffee card from them and am now due a free coffee, woohoo. They do food as well, not budget but not bank breaking and do cafe style foods and drinks. It has been built along the waterfront which has been completely redevloped in the two and a half years I have been over here.

It is time for some shut eye - had a coffee while watching telly tonight so am wide awake on one level but the body is flagging I think. Hope the NZ readers have had a great weekend. I am noticing there are storms and flooding throughout the country and am not envious of the weather you are having :):):), but at least the shops are open 7 days a week, so life cannot be all bad, lol.