All in all, its just another Brick in the wall ....... 225 more sleeps :)

Ok, so never say never!  I swore after seeing Bob Dylan at Vectra Stadium in Auckland that I would never go there to see another show, ever.  I thought it a loathsome venue and bemoaned the greenies or whoever else had worked to ban concerts from the outdoors Western Springs Stadium which in my opinion,  is the icon venue for a serious rock concert in Auckland.  There is something not right about being seated when you need to rock the night away, lol.  The issue with the Bob Dylan concert was that although he remained brilliant, when you are seated the next city away up in the gods, it was a) difficult to pick him out on stage, and b) I go back to being seated - ick.  Since that concert, other family members have seen Steely Dan, (great comments about that concert and I believe a return match for their next tour) and the Wiggles (yup, we start em young in our family, lol) - again with good comments.  So, it is with trepidation that I am bypassing, Perth and Sydney,  to go home in Jan/Feb to see Roger Waters doing "The Wall" Live.  The reason I changed my mind about the venue is because I will not be going on my own (with a cast of thousands, lol) but will be going with No 1 and 2 sons,  No 2 daughter in law, brother, brother in law and nephew,  which will be a total buzz.  My boys and I saw David Gilmore (Pink Floyd, for those playing at home) in the "Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour",   at Western Springs in 1988 and Roger Waters (also from Pink Floyd) on his "Shine on You Crazy Diamond Tour",  with various family members at a stadium on the North Shore in Januaray 07, so this will be the hat trick.  Nothing like a Pink Floyd moment to galvanise the family into action which started with a phone call from No 2 daughter in law last Thursday and after four hours on phones, skype and email, tickets were booked, woohoo.

The bonus from all this is that I will be in NZ for my birthday, No 2 son's birthday, and No 2 grandson's 3rd birthday which will be the first one I will have been able to attend of his.  During the phone around the other day, I spoke to said grandson who can say, hello Nana, Australia, lol and then there was something about a tray as he went to the kitchen.   Oh, that I have lived long enough for No 2 son to have a son, (I think I have mentioned this before).  Apparently in  time out moments when sent to his room, No 2 grandson has pulled over a set of drawers onto himself,  removed a lightbulb from his lamp and put his finger in the socket getting a shock, and got stuck under his bed instead of being in it asleep like his mother thought he was!   I recall a particular episode with No 2 son in bed with a soldering iron fixing a turntable (as you do).  I was in the next room making my bed when there was a bang and a blue flash of light as he touched the wrong thing with the soldering iron and blew fuses - mine included, lol.  Words were said, say no more.  I also spoke to No 1 son and grandson.  No1 grandson was taking photos with the digital camera I gave him, of his teddy and other toys as he was wanting to draw a cartoon of some super hero, and I think he was using the photos for inspiration.  We had a great catch up.  He is in the choir at school so we were both singing over the phone one of the songs he is doing, then a song from his Kapa Haka group.  He tells me he is in a talent quest at school with some of his mates also.  He is still swimming, (Karori has a warm swimming pool in the complex there) and doing well in that so all is good in his world. 

It is truely winter.  We are down to temperatures of single digits.  I wore 5 layers to work the other morning and am sitting here at the moment with 4 layers, ug boots on plus the heater going at warp speed.  I had a ring from friend Donna this morning who reminded me I was on afternoon shift today.  Bugger, somewhere from yesterday to this morning it was firmly fixed in my mind I was doing night shift.  I was midst playing bejewelled or some other such game on the laptop and instead of hours lying out before me, I had just 1 1/2 hrs to go to work.  Was just about to leap into shower when got multi texts from the Gerard to see if I could go round to theirs and get some paper work for a colleague to pick up.  No worries.  A lightening shower and 3 layers later (the sun was out and it was almost warm) I shot round to theirs (the family is in Perth for the weekend) and tried to find the paperwork.  It was not on the kitchen bench so ph calls ensued.  After detailing every piece of paperwork on bench, on table, it was finally decided it might be on bedroom table and bingo.  Leaving paperwork in power box (it was with a great deal of nervousness I did that in case somehow it caught fire) I shot back home again only to get in the door prior to heading off to work,  when the phone rang to ask if I would mind changing to night shift as someone else was sick.  Go, the universe!!!  how good was that, lol. 

As it was beautifully warm outside (by now), I decided to give the gardens a water.  The plants transferred two weekends ago are starting to thrive  so am spending some time in nurturing them.  Have put extra mulch type materials around them as the dirt here is mostly sand if that makes sense.  Even though we had enough rain to launch the ark last week, the ground is already dry again.  I have more stuff to plant and hopefully will get it done this weekend if it stays warm and fine.

The ex workmate's family have gone to Perth to watch the Eagles (WA team) play Geelong (Victoria) who the family back.  Geelong lost their first game in six weeks last week and lost again tonight by the narrowest of margins (8 pts).  This is huge as last year the Eagles were bottom of the ladder or thereabouts, and young Hayden barely coped with his team losing last weekend.  To go all the way to Perth to watch the game to see their team defeated will be killing them.  Jude and I watched it from the warmth and comfort of our lounge and sent appropriate txts after the game.  I said ouch, and Jude being a staunch WA Eagles backer sent - go the Eagles, lol.  The game is a complete upset and will send shockwaves through the AFL world so will be interesting to read the weekend papers.

Work continues to be a rollercoaster.  We peaked with 14 kids in house during the week and have dropped by three since then.  The washing machine and dryer are going not quite 24 hours a day but not far behind as there is no one above 6 yrs at the moment and 3 babies.  I signed my full time contract on Thursday so that is a great relief.  I was in at the office and two different people told me I should go into there to work, one being the head honcho which took me by surprise.  I declined saying I was more than happy where I was and felt I could make more of a difference there than from being a social worker in town.  I am not sure that that was the response either expected.

Sunday
224 sleeps left to go :)

Was in the midst of waxing lyrical when I glanced at the time on my computer and realised I had 8 mins to get to work on time, oops and a thank goodness I could just pick up bag and run.  Left in ug boots grabbing shoes on the way out and made it four mins late thanks to travelling behind a  ute that was also speeding  in front of me, all the way to work.  As it was 23.37 when I noticed the time I did not have too much worry about being nabbed by the cops but did keep a weather eye out just in case.

Speaking of weather, have woken up at the crack of  8. 48 to drizzle after an almost magnificent day yesterday.  So much so, I forewent the heater mid-morning and went outside to hack about in the garden  again, trimming back a succulent that has triffid forebears.  I recall hacking it back three months ago and it grew back with a vengence and covers way too much of where I want to plant vegetables.  It is always with caution I garden,  just in case there may be a poisonous insect or two lurking about but so far so good.  There was one spider web without spider higher up that look fairly innocuous and I knocked it away with a stick anyway so that spider is now homeless.  Awhile ago now, in preparation for planting, I bought this instant garden coir mulch slab thingie.  It is maybe 1.5 metre in length and a foot in width (notice how I move from metric to imperial measure with ease, lol) in width, with cup sized holes placed strategically in a plastic wrap.  The idea is, that you water the coir mulch through the holes, then put your plants in the moistened mulch, water again and hey presto, instant garden that comes with its own nutrients.  I will give it a go, as it cannot be worse than trying to grow vegetables in the mainly sand soil that I have to contend with.  Am building up other gardens with blocks of similar mulch material so that the new plants I have put in have a better chance of surviving next summer. 

Forgot to mention earlier that I was watching Master Chef on tv last Thursday, and got there after the show started to see the were doing a NZ segment.  They had the NZ master chef judge over showing how to cook a venison dish, then they did a segment with two winners of a previous challenge on safari in Wellington in trying out different restaurants in Cuba Street (where niece of http://HungryandFrozen  blog fame lives ).  They went for Floraditas and then to Mothers Kitchen (have been there and had kumara chips with bluevein cheese dressing, to die for), then a stint at the Royal Yacht club from memory.  Had a little oooooooh moment when I saw it all.  Hello Wellington :).
Last night on an impulse moment I went to the movies.  Friend Donna had her new foster lad doing a sleepover at a friends so rang to see if I wanted to go grab something to eat and go see "Bridesmaids".  As my diary had a blank space, heh, heh, I said yes.  We tried a local Thai restaurant just opposite the picture theatre and chose several entrees all served at once which was quick and light.  I had seen interviews on "Ellen", "The View", "Letterman" and "Sunrise" over the past weeks with various actresses  as part of the hype around the release of the movie and I am pleased to report, the movie is everything that has been said about it and did not disappoint.  It was a laugh from start to finish and is possibly going to become the new must see in chick films, though the men (on tv) who have seen it also said they found it  very funny too.  Will not give too much away but the title says it all and it is the bridezilla of bridesmaids stories, mixed in with the lifelong friendship between bride and matron of honour.  Go see it.  Unfortunately Donna did not switch of her cell ph and not long after the movie began, just as she was going to turn it off, it rang in her hand.  Said child was not settling.  She moved out of the theatre, gave some instructions and returned but less than 20 mins later she got another call and had to go pick him up.  I was able to remain to watch the movie as after picking up the child she returned just as movie ended and dropped me off back home.  These things are sent to try us :).

Have just had a call from Jude and it is raining in Dongara as well so looks like a day of chilling back, catching up on some correspondence, maybe I will break out and do some baking, or sort some photos, or ......... too many choices, lol.  It is the final of Dancing with the Stars tonight so will be glued to the telly to watch that.  It has been an interesting season with a new judge and lots of controversial comments so anything could happen tonight.  My nose is streaming and have an irritating cough so am going to dose up on cold and flu meds to ward off the dreaded lurgy.  Lots of staff have colds at work which has not impressed me in the slightest as I will not be well pleased if I succumb from catching their bugs.  At least with the rain, the temperature has risen so may get away with 4 instead of 5 layers today :):).