Poor, poor Mel. Sleep it off my friend and feel better soon. I thought you may be unwell because you hadn't posted. Then I wondered about whether you were just saving yourself from the 'problems' on the journals.
We seem to be a very small group right now. Everyone is busy with Summer things to do I suppose.
Yesterday, I went off down to the gym and did a run. 50 minutes on the treadmill - 20 of them warm up and down as I find that the long warm ups do help with knees and things later in the run. Sometimes Jason is not so much the torturer as my well of good advice!!!! Having a day off the gym today and will be back there tomorrow for more weights and rowing. Weight seems to have stalled again. It really is a pain, but at least it is not going up anymore and seems to be very stable at the moment. Or maybe the scale needs new batteries???
Bathroom wise I am ready for the vanity to go in. Yesterday I picked up the mirrored door cabinet for the wall. Last things will be shelving and towel rails. But there is much to do (mainly details) before the room can be declaring finished and open for inspection. Today, I am off to DS's place to see what is left to do there and get on with it. And I will get back to the bathroom later in the day.
DS1 arrives later this week. So I will enjoy having him here for a couple a days prior to him going on down to Adelaide. I haven't heard from him since he announced he was coming, I guess the information on days and flights will come from osmosis and thought transference :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: With my brain in its state of comatose at the moment, I will probably forget I have another son.
Teel, how did the family visit go??? Time you came back and told us all about it.
Linus - where is Linus - time to stop partying and come back and tell us all about it.

Okay, I'm out of words of wisdom or otherwise and I'm hungry :hun: :hun: so it's breakfast time here downunder. Today will be banana, yoghurt, nuts and sultanas and maybe a couple of bits of toast afterwards. :coffee:

See ya

honey,im home ! did you miss me????
 

good evening ladies my god what a lot of reading ive had to do and since i finally cleaned my monitor{nicotine} its really bright in here i go away for five days and they change everything !!! :dizzy: where to start well ive been ill with the bloody back so cleo and i have spent the last four days in bed and as shes bleeding and so am i not a pretty pictuture and poor dh has been doing a lot of washing :lol3: :rofl: :rofl: my comp also decieded to play silly buggers but as dh has pointed oput i did get his old parts so it probably really needs renovating {no probably about it}so he stripped and cleaned it and hopefully that will last until august when i will have to get a new case and hard drive and cd rom i did get some new speakers but as we have found a new computer wholesalers they only cost £2.47 inc vat so that didnt dent anything :blah: MEL your going to **** in a hand basket lady you need a fortnight in a spa somewhere to recoup your self and dont feel picked on the nasty men from the government over here pick on the honest ones aswell as teel will no doubt testify to they think were easier targets because were honest and truthfully in need i have been told that if i was seperating from dh or my kids where under care orders or i had a drug or alcohol problem that i would have been rehoused by now sods law innit and yes there are some really ungrateful people out there and as for 2004 being a shi**y year bite your toungue thats when you met me !!!!! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: SHAD the decorating sounds like its going so well bet your sons real proud of you and all your help and after july my savings will have gone back to zero aswell but what the hay well manage and so will you your only days away from being swept up by some very well heeled company and being paid very handsomely {i hope} dont let the knee get too bad clicking is not a good thing maybe you should come and visit me and well get you a tune up and then you can go home all better you can visit our new parliament building the one that was supposed to only cost 6 million to build they have very slightly overran the budget by about one or two {5} billion and now to add insult to injury they are going to charge us £3.25 to tour the bloody thing if my council tax goes up any more im going to want to move in there never mind visit the eyesore ill get a hold of a picture for you its a modern monstrosity :mad: NAE glad your visit your meeting with the old lady sounded so lovely i used to work with the elderly in nursing homes and the ones who still had there faculties were so lovely to listen to all the things you had learned about they had lived and the wisdom that comes with great age is breathtaking HAPPY how goes the tree?? some stupid person decieded that twelve of the trees from the front and back of our buildings needed to be knocked down including a 125 foot high oak i nearly cried it looks so forlorn silly how you get attached to trees very majestic looking especially the very old ones that poor oak had been here for about 80 years before the houses where and now because oit grew so well its gone all because it was filtering the light into two houses hows that for stupid the botanical gardens sounded so nice i could almost have been there with you if you do post pics let me know TEEL sorry about the illness but glad you had a lovely holiday and are now reunited with the dog when we went to tunisia three years ago we didnt have cleo but i used to phone the mother in laws to speak to benjy and yes i did make her stand there with the phone at the dogs ear i would have known if she hadnt cause benjys the world champion at heavy breathing i call him my wee pervert well ladies im only allowed to sit for 10 minutes at a time and ive already been here half an hour so unless i want to end up back in bed i better go
speak later
kirsty

Morning Believe it or Not
 

Hello to all! So nice to hear from Linus, Teel & Happy........... Mel, you are in need of a spa retreat and some fussing over and TLC. I pray your eyes are improving daily. I say enough..... Shad, you are so industrious your house is going to be so pretty and complete you won't want to go to work any where.
My weekend was fun and eventful and relaxing all in the same weekend. Upon returning to work I am faced with lots of extra projects so have just been coming home and collapsing. It has been hot here but some fierce thunderstorms at night. On Monday night lightening struck somewhere by the house but I couldn't find where it was...that was heart pounding.
OK for my two incidents of I can't believe it. A couple of weeks ago I was given a pedometer from my boss which I use to wear one alot til it didn't function any more...so great I had a brand new one to monitor my steps a day. So the second day I wore it I was outside working on this wilderness patch I own and lost it whacking weeds before my trip...... Last night I was out trying to get my 4lb Yorkie from getting attacked by the dogs that come up to run the loop in front of my house. The owner of the two dogs was kind enough to get his dogs back in his truck before they could do serious damage to this little irritating barking creature. Upon walking back up the hill and across the area where I had taken down the weeds I found my tiny little pedometer and it still worked!!!!!YEAH
Then at about 12:30am from a very sound sleep Teeka is barking and growling from atop the bed and I hear very loud odd noises coming from the dining room kitchen area of the house..... oh sh** I thought that must be a **** of a mouse out there......So I got out of bed and turned on lights as I proceed into the area. I went to the sliding door that faces the deck that is about 25 feet in the air supported by large lumbar poles. The light scared the racoon that had managed to climb up those turned logs and had torn the bottom of my screen door slider and reached in and was pulling the rug out onto the deck....... it is so hot at night I leave the screen pulled so air can flow at night....I was just shocked that the little creature was probably trying to get to Teeka;s food dish that is just inside that screen door. Freaky! The bottom of the screen is completely torn away and the rug was totally out of the house.
It is so fun to sit and type now early in the morning the hummingbirds are so busy right outside my window fighting over owership of the feeder. They are a bossy little bird....I have two feeders so they zoom from one side of the house to the other constantly.
Hope everyone is doing better today and the aches and pains are abated soon and simple joys bring great pleasure. If it is at all possible find a bit of humor in the day or at least at the expense of other people!!!!!! :lol:
Love ya all and love reading about each of your lives that continue to touch mine!
Peace,
Nae
Another :coffee: awaits

And its good evening from me!! Shad sorry to hear about your tooth...sounds a cheerfull sort of chap, your dentist! How is the knee feeling now? More llike it belongs to the rest of your leg?? Mel I hope you too are feeling more like your normal self and your headache has disappeared off into the backround. Anyone else in the sick & injured queue? Just keep those bugs to yourselves, I don't really want to share just at the moment, thanks very much!! :lol:
So to a few more ramblings from Salzburg. It seemed every where we went we saw some famous landmark used in the film The Sound Of Music. One tour company even does an official tour of all the sights.... :^: The Mirabell Gardens and palace looked very beautiful with loads and loads of flowers planted in pretty patterns and a fountain at the entrance to the palace. We didn't actually go in the palace but pictures of it show great marble floored halls highly polished just ripe for everyone to slip over on! :rolleyes: The river was just at the end of a street a few minutes walk from the hotel and we had pre-booked a river trip but unfortunately the day we went it was grey and rainy. Not the best viewing weather.The old town was great. We went in the Cathedral (reportedly when Mozart was baptised it was the middle of winter and they had to break the ice in the font before they threw it all over baby Mozart! :bb: :fr: ) The house he was born in, on the third floor, by the way, was within a stones throw of the cathedral. Nowadays it is a museum with some of his original instruments carefully preserved, like his clavicord..looks funny today as in those days the keys were the opposite colours to what they are today. The white notes were black and the black notes, white. Don't know why...does anyone here know?? :?: There were also some of his original scores and letters written to his father when he was travelling to, I think, Venice.No wonder he died aged 35years, three flights of steps to go up and down every time he wanted to leave or get back into his house... :stress:
We were lucky to be in town on market day. SO many people all crowded into this market square. Lots of fruit and veg and meat and dried flower decorations that the Austrains use so beautifully to adorne their houses and front doorways.Cheeses and cold pressed meats and Lace and cute nic-nacs useful as pressies. It all looked very clean and fresh and was nicely presented and obviously well favoured with the locals. :coffee:
It is good to have Holly home!!! She hasn't forgotten any of her habits...as soon as the parents left yesterday I decided it was time for a sleep so I said "sleepy-time" and Holly fair sprinted in to the bedroom and leapt on the bed...such a cutie!!!
Night night for now.

:rofl: Shad you had me laughing with the dentist and the Ds and mindreading. I will giggle about this all night! :rofl: My mind boggles at how much work you do between the 2 houses and then the exercising bits too!!! :yikes: How goes the tooth situation. You are probably typing while I am! :lol:

Nae~ So glad the racoon did not get inside!! He might have had a 4lb dinner!!!! :yikes: :faint: Poor wee dog. Better get her some barbells so she can defend the house from all these intruders!! :lol: Glad the weekend went well and you have lots of work to keep you busy!!! :D

Teel~ I really liket the Vacation Tale!! Thanks. Love to hear them as you know!!! It all sounds so nice. Glad you had such a great time. Hope the chest feels better. I promise not to try and share any bad things!!!! :rofl: Only the good stuff!!! :lol:

Linus~ I am very sorry to herar about the back and was wondering the whole time you were so active just how long that back of yours would hold out!!! :lol: I usually go and go and go till some pain somewhere stops me too!! Poor DH and the "bloody" wash and I do mean that literally! :rofl: I will be laughing about this too all night!!

My head is very much improved. I did 2 loads of wash and am all caught up. Only a 1/2 load remains!:D I turned down donuts bought today and soda too!!! YAY me!! I have been reading Dr. Phil with a friend form another site. There are a few things in there that I need to straighten out for myself and I think this time I might just be ready to "let go" of the past. My cravings seem to be less this week. Not sure if it's the book or the headache!!! :rofl: I have been doubling up on the sinus meds and the head/ears are getting themselves back to normal. Between food, water and exercise....I wish I could get 3 out of 3 every day!!! Maybe when I get control of the "carb-junkie" in me I will! :rofl: They have pills for everything else......why not for sugar addicts?!?! Well I must go and check the journals and write one for myself!! LOL Hope you all have a great night and good morning Missy Shad!! :flow2:

Changed my mind. Gonna give the journals a miss. I'll shower and eat instead. I did enough for 1 day and food shop is tomorrow! Adios!

mel they do they are called saccerine and so glad you can giggle at my washing woes everyday for the last two weeks weve had four loads and sometimes five to do each day thank god i love her to bits but even though we had planned to have her bred as we have homes for 7 pups and a stud lined up but her moods have been so bad that i was ready to get a vet to come and tranquilise her last week as she is so jumpy and she stood under my comp desk and shook for three hours because the stair door was banging and the gardeners where outside and she just freaked so we are going to get her dressed as i cant put her through this again as normally shes such a cocky little bugger and so arrogant so to see her stand and quake for three hours i just cant do it to her again anyway me and cleo are going to watch top gun
speak later
kirsty

Glad to hear everyone is on the mend again. Hope the devil doesn't strike again for a while.
Tooth is okay. There is no pain despite 'she rot and bruk'. It is however turning a funny colour so there is no doubt it will go eventually, meantime I will keep off the chocolate. Funny that I can eat apples, sausages, meat etc and nothing breaks but touch chocolate and bye bye tooth.
It's just gone 9 in the morning and I have been to the gym and done a weights session. Don't worry about moving men. These muscles will move anything on their own. So if you are thinking of shifting house...... just let me know. Now I am hungry so a cooked hot breakfast is in order. Jason tells me to eat more. :kickcan:
My friend Chris of the travelling fame leaves Japan today for her France and Germany tour. I wish I was going, ach pooh I really wish I was on that plane. We spoke yesterday and consoled each other with thoughts of next year, next year.
Good to hear from everyone. I'm just going to wolf down this breakfast and go to DS house for a couple of hours. Then it's back here for clean up time, lunch, some laundry and a book in the sun for an hour or so with coffee. Following that, I have some pipe to fix for the vanity and that will be my day. I'll be back then to catch up on life in cyberspace. Have a good one.

shad my freind take it easy and if not join the miss universe contest i think its in america next year it was in south africa either way you get to travel and take more glorious photos sons paint scheme sounds interesting while i stayed with parents i wanted everything black and blood red the first co;our i painted my first house was beige go figure have a good one everybody im off to bed with thoughts of a young tom cruise in my head watch out hubby
kirsty

High on a hill was a lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Loud was the voice of the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo


Sing along now all... Teel, your trip to Austria sounds like it was oh so much fun and great sights to see. You painted a lovely picture for us.

Shad, I was rolling on the floor with your absolutely perfect imitation of your dentist. And to boot that he filled the wrong tooth - well guess it wasn't wrong as it was probably in need of repair anyway. I too have broken teeth on pizza, toast and soft stuff - I guess when they want to break off, they do. I completely understand your dilema about replacing that missing tooth also. I hear they have teeth they "screw" in but they probably cost as much as the back half of your car. Good luck to you. I am in awe of all your energy for the gym and fixing up the homes - could it be that old adage of getting exercise gives you lots of energy???? I can imagine how melancholy it must feel for your travelling pal to be off and her trusty partner in adventure not with her :( I do hope you can make it next year.

Mel, thank you so much for your very touching note. Thanks for the encouragement - it's good to know that this happens to other people too. I am trying hard to be a human being and not have an attitude but sometimes when you look at people all around you, it's hard to figure out why things go the way that they do. Ok, I'll not even go there as I will get on a tangent again... Good for you for turning down the sugar - I'm a sugar addict too. Which Dr. Phil book are you reading? Glad to hear you are feeling a bit better.

Nae, that was some story about the racoon. Good thing it didn't get into the house. I have heard they are quite the destructive little critters and determined that nothing NOTHING will stand between them and food. My sister had a pesky one climbing the roof of her house trying to get in. They set a trap on the roof and the only thing they caught was the only squirrel in a 20 mile radius of their home. They have lots of trees but for some reason, no squirrels to be seen and so the only one in the town gets caught in my sister's trap and is trying to commit suicide banging itself against the cage to try and get out. :lol: I guess you will now have to be on the lookout for Mr. Racoon again for a while, won't you?

Linus, I would like to see you enter the Miss Universe contest. I want to see you stand up and answer the questions in front of the judges. I think we all need a refreshing point of view like yours :rofl: Hey, maybe we all can try. Of course that would pit me, Mel and Nae against each other for the title of Miss USA. I'll drop out as with my sore feet I can't wear high heels anymore and NO ONE is going to see me in a swimsuit in the near future. But together we would indeed have some sassy answers for the audience :lol3: :yikes: I understand what you say about feeling bad for the trees being removed around the grounds by you. As you say, they have been around for so long, minding their own business and then man comes along and cuts them down because they are in his way. I have a very very tall pine tree I grew from a tiny sapling - it's my "baby". Tonight I was in the yard and I crawled up next to the bark to admire DH's pruning of the tree - it looks much healthier with the scraggly bits cut off. I looked up and there were a number of little birds flying into the tree - was probably not the BEST idea to look UP as birds were landing but I'm not always the sharpest pencil in the box :rofl: Anyhow I was admiring the tree and the birds and how my little baby provided a home, food and a resting spot to natures creatures. And it smells lovely in the winter - just like Christmas.

Enough ramblings for me - it's off to bed. I have another trip to the office tomorrow. It has been a rather frustrating week on the job this week. Why is it that the responsible people lose their jobs and the nut cases not only get to hang around, but they get raises and promotions too????? Guess I'll have to resolve it in my dreams. 'Night all...

Afew piccies now I have got more organised!!!

Teel~ Thanks so much for the pics. Very nice!! Looking forward to more tales of The Travel's of teel! :rofl:

Happy~ If the judges asked Linus the questions first we might as welll all go home. They'd either have dropped dead in the aisles of shock:yikes: or rolling in them from laughter!!!:rofl:
None of us would ever get a chance. That might be a good thing cause I cannnot picture this fat gut of mine in a bathing suit of ANY KIND!!! Nice to share your tree story too. Quite the way with prose!! Consider writing????
I am reading the Dr's book on the 7 Keys to weight loss. i don't have some of the food issues but I have the low self esteem from the disability. This book makes me think and somehow every now and then I get a snippet of info that can be transposed to MY problem. I already saw a difference in the way I handled myself today. Normally I would have held everyone's hands and said everything is going to be alright. Today I was silent and came up to my apt and did something for myself. Things of this nature are clicking for me this year. Maybe that's why I'm not "allowed" outside?!?!?:rofl:

Linus~Maybe we should take up a collection and start Shad in her own "do-it-yourself" TV program on rennovation!!! You could read all the dialog and she could do all the refinishing!!! :lol3:

Nae???????? Still chasing racoons???? Put down that rifle and get back on here. You cannot be Annie Oakley all day!!!!

Here comes a whine of sorts. The new bus has a broken wheelchair lift already. It wasn't right when it got here in the first place. Of course no one did anything and now it really is broken. The big bus is in the shop and it's driver is going on vacation on Saturday. Now I cannot go anywhere till he comes back after the 1st of August. You know how I must feel. Mostly ready to kill people!!! :lol: :mad: :lol: Thank God I don't have a baseball bat in my hands! :rofl:

I am at present trying to understand the reason why I am having so much trouble with things that have wheels on them this year!!! First the old bus, broken wheelchairs, new chairs and now new busses!! WTF!!! It is so humid out as in Africa Hot that I don't feel like going to the supermarket in my own buggy. some dangerous streets to cross alone too. (sigh) Guess I will have to find some other way. It's not getting food into the house.....it's just trying to get OUT OF THE HOUSE!!! Before I go insane!!! :faint: Have a great day. I am having trouble with the journals too. I can post and read and comment only on page one!!! :rofl: Does anyone know if the journal has wheels on it too?!?!?!?!?

Shad however did I just miss your post?!?!? Hope nothing else rots or bruks!!! I am afraid the devil has struck the bus this time. Better the bus than me!!! :rofl: Hope the book and coffee went well. God knows you deserved the rest. Wish you could have gone with Chris too. Next year......
When I'm ready to move into your neighborhood, I'll call you first!!! You can come and pack me up and move me out!!!
Having sweet dreams I hope!!

I'm tired of this. I'm tired of the constant struggle to get this weight off. I'm tired of getting to a point where it looks like I am achieving something like a disappearing kilo when the next day, back it comes with a vengeance and more of its mates hop on the wagon - or in this case the body. How long will it take before I see results? Let's put it this way:
For six months I have been beavering away at gym. For my efforts I have lost 3kg (sometimes 3.5kg) and regained 2.5 as of todays scales. Sure it's nice that my clothes don't fit so well anymore, but that bl**dy scale is the most useless piece of junk I have in this house. I'm beginning to wonder the same about this body. Eat more says the trainer and promptly the body stores it amongst the already overendowed lumps of flab that I have. Thanks Jason. Drink more all the diet magazines and healthy lifestyles scream. I drink the water and it gets stored in the wrists and ankles. I'm tired of this. I have enough other things to think about - Please Sir, my brain is full, can you just take one thing away from me so I can concentrate on the rest of my life doing something else and if it can't be weight, can it be the bills???

Sorry, whinge over. I feel better now. There is a whole raft of people out there with worse troubles than mine and I should be grateful for mine being of the paltry variety. :kickcan: :kickcan: :kickcan: :kickcan: :kickcan:

Mel, I am so sorry to hear about the bus. What is it with that lot. Like does anyone care out there about the welfare of the people in your apartment block. Surely you are not the only one who needs to use this lift. Most places over here gave up on having a bus because of the cost of maintenance and permits and licences etc. Now the cab companies run an outfit called Maxi Cabs - which are like mini buses with wheelchair hoists in the rear and you call 'em up when needed. Drivers are all trained in handicap methods - such as lifting or handling the people. While the cab owner pays for the conversions of his van, the government will give grants and the people using the cabs have government funds to call on to use them. They only pay a small portion of the fare. These things started in NZ years back when we were in the cab business and both I and the ex had our qualifications for the maxis. Wish I was over there to get you out and about and checking out the neighbourhood.
Chris will be in Germany now. I think she was flying into Frankfurt and meeting up with a Japanese friend who speaks German (teaches in Germany I think). They are going on some bus tours of Germany and perhaps Poland and then she is going to France before flying out of Paris back to Tokyo. In a way I am glad not to be there. Bus tours are not my thing. I can't stop and take photos where ever I want and I can't go tootling off down some long forgotten by-road to see what is at the end of it. Bus tours are fine if they are short. Anyway, I am not there.
The weatherforecasters have been predicting rain for the last week. As I look out the window this morning, it looks like another glorious day out there. We do desperately need some rain. NZ has been copping it all over the last week with some disasterous floods and earthquakes over there.
Anyway, I had best go and get on with my day over here I guess. Running at the gym - lets hope Jason can run faster than me with the mood I am in - then to DS's place again, then back here and instead of a lunch which I don't need, I will soak up a bit more sun with my book in hand. I must get me another hammock - the last one disintergrated in the weather - and then I will be able to snooze out there as well. Then I might just go call a few of my ex training people and see if they know anyone who might need a trainer or documenter for a few days or a week. Networking may be the only way to get back into the workforce at the moment.

So be good, all of you. Sending go away Racoon thoughts for 'Nae and bye bye blood blues for Linus. It's amazing how the hormones work so strangely for dogs as well as humans. Poor little dog.

Catch you all later.

hey
 

Mel yells and I heard!!!!!!! I am having a git it done kinda day.....I am suppose to be on vacation but I have so many things nagging at my mind and things to accomplish so I set down today and started on the list....... I took afew minutes with my Teeka and I went for a swim..... don't you just love dogs that are so trusting and just want to be with you....I put her whole 4lbs onto of a good life jacket and she just is content to be with me out on that water... she is my best friend.
So now I am ready to head to town and do some office stuff and make a few errands.... Mel I am so sorry that the bus situation is having you stalled.... oh pooh.... can't something go right for just a whole week for you girl!!!!!! I hope they solve this problem sooner than expected. I just learned that one of my patients/friend is leaving the area and I am so saddened by this but glad that she is willing to take a risk and move from this area. I will miss her...I do already and she isn't even gone yet.
I have been eating so healthy today and even drinking my water.... I used my pedometer yesterday and travelled 4.7 miles alone just at work yesterday. Love to hear the travel stories and the pics you gals are doing is so great for us!
Talk to you all soon....will let you know if I take off camping by myself this weekend....
Peace,
Nae