[flaggies]

G'day everyone,

I have finally gotten rid of all the dust that clung to everything whilst camping in the outback.
The trip was quite eventful and one that I am in no hurry to do again.
On the second day (whilst I was driving) we hit an almighty pothole and we snapped the connection to the water tank in our trailer. All our water was lost other than about 20 litres we had in the car.
We arrived at Innamincka where we met up with a work colleague of dh from Sydney. Technology is just fantastic, we got him on our 2 way radio and he gave us the co-ordinates of his position and with the help of our GPS (global positioning system) that is hooked to our laptop with the maps of the area we were in, we drove right up to his campsite. He had a magnificent spot on the edge of a waterhole. We sat up camp and dh and his work colleague worked on getting the water tank fixed. With quite a bit of ingenuity, after some 3 hours, the 'bush mechanics' had fixed out water tank, now all we had to do is fill it again. There was nowhere to fill it, we could buy water at $1 per litre We filled the tank with water from the waterhole which was only ok for washing dishes etc. At last all was well other than it became very cold at night but.....I had a hot water bottle with me and slept reasonably comfortable.
We stayed here 2 nights and then set off to Birdsville where the horse race was. The road was horrendous, lots of water on the tracks making it almost impassable at times.
We finally got to Birdsville and set up camp along the edge of an almost dried out river. It got even colder here at night and the first night it was 32 degrees in the day and 3 degrees overnight!!! Unbelievable the drop in temperature. Still had my hot water bag so I was fine.
The second night we went to bed and I had great difficulty getting to sleep, next thing I felt a wet patch. Checked if the stopper was on the hotwater bag properly and thought I must have inadvertantly left it slightly loose for it to leak. Put a towel over the wet patch and tried to move away as much as I could. A little while later as I felt I was just dozing off to sleep, I felt my top and the tracksuit pants I had on were quite wet. I then realised that the waterbag must have perished. To cut a very long story short, I ended up with about 30 minutes sleep that night. What an absolute nightmare.
The next day a radio reporter was doing some interviews and asked me how the trip etc. had been. I told her that the only bright note was that I would NEVER have to do this again.
The above was only one of the incidents that happened. DH thoroughly enjoyed it but for me I would have been much happier if I had stayed at home.
We have taken over 300 photos and I have attached one of a magnificent sunset over the waterhole where we camped a few nights.

I was very sorry to learn that Trudy's mum passed away. You are certainly in my thoughts at this difficult time.

Marnie what is up with you??? I don't think any of our lives are boring and it is the everyday things that we 'report' on that makes me realise how alike we all are regardless of where in the world we are. So keep posting!

Slavika hope your cold is getting better. We are experiencing the first days of spring and the weather was superb today.

Lily You were absolutely right about the 'index html'. I have fixed it now and my website is up and running.
Would love to hear any feedback that any of you may have.
The address is www.mesdesigns.com.au.

Ann hope you are having a great time in Georgia, it would HAVE to be an improvement on my trip!

Peggy sounds like you have just about finished cleaning up your dh's aunts house. What a job.

Karen I had a real good look at Mars, in the outback the skies are so clear that it was easy to spot it. Your uncles sound rather interesting.
How was your son's new house? A new house shower sounds like a pretty good thing to do, you could start a trend!

This has been a very long post, hope none of you have fallen asleep while reading it!

Don't forget to check out my website :

www.mesdesigns.com.au

Cheers
Maria

[marnie3]

DRAT!

Had a letter already to send and then I got a message saying "Page has Expired!"

Just wanted to say hi!

Welcome back Maria. I've marked your webpage - nice going!

Went to WW yesterday and was down 2.8.

Went to the dermatologist and found out I have shingles. Don't get them - they hurt like the dickens. I haven't been able to sleep since Friday.

Hope all are well.

Marnie

[slavika]

Hi Everybody I went to Trudy's Mom's funeral yesterday. It was a sad time for her saying her last good-bye to her sweet Mom, but I saw her today at WW and then we had tea together and she is doing ok. I'll let her share her thoughts with you gals.

The wedding on Saturday was just wonderful. My nephew is very outgoing and likes nice things and so does the gal he married. They did a great job in organizing the wedding.
They had a big fountain in the reception area with champagne in it and you just wandered over and put your glass under one of the spouts. I might have wandered over a couple of times. That sure was nice champagne, although my nephew told me later it was not very expensive. It was on the sweeter side and I liked that. The meal was several courses long. We started with Capricco Italiano, which was cold meats thinly sliced, cheese, olives, and artichoke hearts. Next they served us a pasta dish with tomato sauce and huge baskets of different buns. Then the main course was served and it was Veal cutlets, with mushoom sauce, glazed carrots, green beans and duchesse potatoes. My nephew being Ukrainian, insisted we have perogies and cabbage rolls.....so LOL we had that too. Lastly, we were served a salad. A short while later they brought out Lemon Gelati for dessert. I tell you ALL this so that you will be duly impressed when I tell you I lost .6# at WW today, which under normal circumstances doesn't seem to be very much, but I sure was HAPPY with that.
Maria I sure enjoyed reading about your camping trip. I guess you will not be doing that again for awhile. I had a look at your website and I was VERY impressed. I think you did a wonderful job. I would have absolutely no idea how to even get started in designing something like that. Well done Maria!
Marnie sorry to hear you have shingles. I understand that can be very painful. How long will it take to clear up?
I'll talk to you all later, my grandchildren just arrived.

[Trudy]

Due to circumstances we had to wait until Sept 8 to bury Mom. I think that it was good for me to have that time. The more I went through her things I realized how tired she must have become. It was terribly hard to lose her, but I am confident she is in a much better place, peaceful and without any pain. It was a beautiful day. The service was simple and the way she would have liked it to be. Most of her siblings came, everyone is so scattered around it was hard to have the whole family here. It was really nice of my friends to attend, that would have made her smile. My brother and I are slowly removing her things from the apartment. We have until the end of the month.
Maria I checked out your web site and it is really teriffic. I know absolutely nothing compared to you and Lily. Half the time I don't even know what you are talking about, especially 'index html.'.. have no idea what that is. I made a collage for Mom, one with pictures that went back to 1920 and the other more current. I displayed them at the funeral. I am sure you could have given me pointers on it. I just put 8x10's in the middle of the board and worked around it. Can you really restore old pictures? I have several relatives who want copies of the old pictures, but I don't want them out of my sight.
Marnie Anyone I know who had Singles, suffered. I feel bad for you. Is it true that if you get to see the doctor soon enough he can give you medicine to lessen the severity?
Slavika and I went to WW today and started on the Flex program. I am not too happy with the QuikTrak System. I liked the old way of journaling better, but of course this is just the first day. I find there isn't much room to write, but I will give it a chance. I only have 22 Target Points to work with, so I had to use 3 FlexPoints today. The meeting was good and we enjoyed our two-some Tea Time. Her new appliances are fantastic, I thought the white color made her kitchen look so big and bright.

It has been a long day for me so I am off to dreamland.. , 'nite all..

[flaggies]

G'day all,

Trudy good to see you and to hear that all went well at the funeral of your Mum's. I find it very difficult to attend funerals but I also know how much it means to people when their friends are there to share the day with them.
Yes I can restore photographs as you may have seen on the 'restoration' page. There is one of my mother when she was young which was quite faded and torn. I also restored a photo of my mother's family (not on my website) when my mother was about 6. My family in Holland loved it and they all got a copy.
If you are serious for me to restore some photos for you please email me and I am sure we can arrange it somehow without you loosing you precious photos out of your sight.
Funny you should say that about doing a collage for the funeral, a friend's mother died just before I decided to start doing this and he did the very same thing as you, made a collage. He said if he had know he would have called on me to do it.

Slavika well done with the weight loss after attending such a lavish wedding, it sounds like you had a lot of fun.

Marnie i hope the shingles are getting better. My m-i-l, for some reason, got them quite regularly. It is supposed to be a strain of chicken pox, have you been in contact with anyone with chicken pox??
Fantastic loss, you gotta be happy with that!

See ya all tomorrow,
Cheers
Maria

Here is a bush barometer that might put a smile on your face!

[slavika]

Hi Everybody

Good morning. The counter men arrived here about 8:30 this morning. Last night I had to take ALL the stuff out of my bottom cupboards. When I look around my kitchen it's amazing to me that ALL that stuff actually fit into those cupboards.
The ceramic backsplash man was going to come tomorrow but now it looks like he might come this afternoon which would be just great to get all the mess over and done with today.

Marnie on your great weight loss. Good for you!

The friend I usually see on Wednesday's is going to drop down and visit with me for awhile since I'm house bound for the day.

I got my new Flexpoint literature from WW yesterday, and I think it is a wonderful program. I think the design of the new journals is GREAT but they are really much too SMALL to do much writting in. I'm sure that WW could have come up with a larger journal then that. I bet a lot of gals are going to comment on the lack of "space" in these new journals and then they'll have to come out with a better version. Karen and Lily what do you gals think about the journals??
Hope all of you have a nice day.

[marnie3]

Hi All! Thanks for asking: Some of the pain from the shingles is being alleviated; the determatologist gave me two prescriptions. I'll be glad when they're all gone.

Trudy, so sorry about your mom. Lots of hugs and prayers.


We're still hoping for rain; we're really in a drought.


See ya later: Marnie

[flaggies]

G'day all,

An overcast morning here but not really cold.

I came across this poem and thought I would share it with you all, I rather liked it and I hope you do as well.

The clock of life is wound but once
And no man has the power,
To tell just when the hands will stop,
At late or early hour.

Now is the only time you own,
Live, love, toil with a will.
Place no faith in tomorrow
For the clock may then be still.

On that profound note I will wish you all a great day.

Cheers
Maria

PS I would acknowledge the author but the poem was signed 'anonymous'.

[Trudy]

Maria that poem is so true. Did you read the message from Suzanne? It said "a note about linking to our images." I read it but don't know what it means. Is she talking about avatars like my ice cream cone?
I don't have a scanner, and I think that I would need one to send photos... right?
Marnie did your doctor give you any idea how long the Shingles would last? Seems to me that I read that Shingles are from the Zoster Virus. Anyone who gets them had Chicken Pox when they were young. Now I am not positive about this and would welcome a correction if I am wrong.
Slavika I am sure your kitchen looks just great. I can't wait to see it.... you lucky girl . How many Flex Points did you use yesterday and today? I used 3 Tue and 3 again on Wed. I think that the weekends will be when I use the most.

It is out today. We haven't had much rain this summer, but already I wish it would stop.

Bye for now..

[flaggies]

Hi Trudy,

Thanks for making me aware of the message from Suzanne.
We are doing everything right. I know what she means but I am not quite sure how to explain it.
No you do not have to have a scanner to post images, all my images come from my digital camera that I then reduce and optimise (meaning making the quality a lot less for printing but ok for the web) in Photoshop.
So any image that you may have, you could email to me and I can reduce and optimise it for you to post here.

I hope that makes a little sense, perhaps Lily can explain it better. Which makes me wonder 'where is Lily'???? I haven't seen her for a few days.

Cheers
Maria

[slavika]

Maria

Hi there. Just stopped by to read before going to bed and thought I would let you know that Lily is on a two week holiday.
Night.

[marnie3]

Trudy, that's exactly right: Zoster Virus It's suppose to last up to 3 weeks

I've been sitting on the backporch all morning quilting. I keep seeing clouds that I think will turn to rain; none so far.

Maria, thanks for sharing the poem. And for those of us in the US, September 11th is a time to remember it!

Has anyone tried the "Caulifower" potato salad yet?

Have a great rest of the day!

Marnie

[flaggies]

G'day all,

I have been watching some of the tributes in memory of those killed 2 years ago in New York.
In some ways it seems already a long time ago and in other ways it was only yesterday when we watched in horror as to what happened on September 11, 2001.
I thought the tributes by the many children was very moving.
I did not have September 11 in mind when I posted the poem just recently but it certainly was very appropiate.

My sister (the grumpy one) is returning from overseas today and my other sister is picking her up from the airport and then they will come here for lunch.
My cousins in Holland all agree how difficult she is but they knew it was only for a few weeks and she would be returning to Australia again. We all agree that it is rather sad for a woman of 60 to still not know what she wants out of life.
I will try to be very patient today!!!

Thanks for leting me know about Lily Slavika. I remember her talking of a camping holiday but didn't know when that would happen. I hope she has a better camping trip than me

Marnie sounds a lovely way to recover from your shingles sitting on your backporch quilting. I find all embroidery, cross stitch etc. very relaxing and enjoyable.
I know what you mean about droughts, just about every capital city in Australia now has water restrictions in force, no hosing of paths, no hosing of cars, no automatic sprinkler systems allowed to be used etc. etc. The ironic thing is as I am writing this post it is raining!!!!!

Have a great weekend all, probably will call in some time over the weekend.

Cheers
Maria

[LilyG]

Hi all! Just here for the day and then we take off again. Camping is not fun It wasnt bad, we had nice sites but I just dont like it. The first camp site we stayed at there were 200 teenage boys and girls with a church group. No silence at all. Screaming at 6:00 AM etc. Try to go to the bathroom and 15 girls are hundled around the mirrors. Cant even get in to go wee wee.
But being away from camp was fun! Saw lots of wonderful sites and we did alot of hiking. So all in all it was worth it.

Maria: We didnt have any problems. Sorry to hear about all of yours. Can see why you will never go again Loved your website! You did an excellent job on it. Very well laid out and I love the design and look of it! Glad you got it up and running!

Marnie: Woo Hoo! Congrats on the loss! You are doing so good! Sorry to hear about the shingles. I have heard they are very painful. Hope you get some relif soon. Did the Dr. give you something?

Slavika: Congrats on your loss to! Thats super! The wedding sounded wonderful! They realy went all out, that meal sounded yummmmmmmm.


Trudy: The collage you made of your mom sounds wonderful. And the funeral sounds like it was a great tribute to her also. I know what you mean about not letting the pictures out of your site. When my Mom died we all wanted copies of some of the pictures. My pictures didnt need to be restored they were in very good condition. I just had copies made of them. It was well worth it. Even the stress I had while they were out of my site. I went with a guy who was recommened to me by a friend. And he did a wonderful job on them. So it is well worth it. Attached is one that I have colorized.

As for the new Journal. I myself do not like it. I use my Palm Pilot to Journal anyways. If I was to use this one I would buy the 12 week Journal as it is much bigger and has alot more room to write in. I did try to use the weekly one and found that it was 2 small for my needs

About linking to images. You do not need to worry Trudy. Your Avatar is uploaded to thier server so you are not linking to it. So not to worry about. Its really hard to explain but I will try.
Any time someones hits a web page, or downloads something from a web page it is known as Bandwidth. If I am linking to an Image on Marias page to this page it is also called bandwitdh.
In the past it wasnt a problem but now that more people use the internet it is becoming quite a problem with more people linking to other peoples pages. Also in the past there use to be alot of free web pages out there. They are few and hard to find now. ANd when you do find one they will shut your page down if it gets excessive bandwith usage. Also for people who pay for web space like 3FC, you are alotted so much bandwidth usage per month. If you go over that aloted amount you have to pay more. Most of this is caused by other people linking to images from that web space. Which isnt fair to the owner of the site. It costs the servers money when it happens and they need to recoup it back somehow so thats why there isnt that many free places anymore, and why people who do pay for space might end up paying more due to other people causing the problems.
Hope that helps some. As i said it is hard to explain.

Tomorrow we leave for Lake Tahoe and NO CAMPING!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah!
See you all next week!

[Karen L]

Wow I back in ,

Been trying to get here for a week to post but because I had to change my e-mail address I managed to lock myself out. Had to beg Suzanne to help me get back in. Was able to read but not post no matter what I tried.

I tried to e-mail slavika and Maria to let them know what had happened to me but the e-mails won't go through. I did that on Thursday and since then my server has tried to send it and now I get several times a day a message From MAILER-DAEMON warning me that the e-mail didn't go through and they will keep trying. I wonder how long they will try.

About the new trackers We were asked how we liked them and all of my staff said yuk! I use the 12 week QuikTrak diary or the new Electronic Traker. It does everything for you but eat. But I always have to buy the new WW toys. The 12 week diary is the best buy I think. I read about one gal who uses hers as a 6 week one by tearing out the begining week page of every other week because she need more room to write.

Maria sorry your trip was the pits. But at least you don't have to do it again. I'm sure the cold did not help you aching body. I did check out your web page you did a great job. Now you will be famous and I can say I knew you when...... My uncles are an intersting group of men .

Marnie sorry to hear about the shingles. How awful for you. But you did have a great weight loss How long does break out last? I never did hear, did you get rain down there we had plenty up here. Nobody was complaining though it was so dry I was afraid our state would burn down

Lily glad you are having a nice vacation. Did you just stop home to wash clothes? That picture of your mom is wonderful.

Slavika how the redecorating going are you done? Glad your weight is going down again. good job!!

Trudy I'm glad all went well for your moms funeral. How are you coming with clearing out her apt? My Mom is such a pack rat we always tease her that we are just going to burn the place down.

Well my Dad starts daily trips to Brainerd (60 miles round trip) for radiation therpy on Monday he will have to go 5 days a week for 28 -32 treatments. So We (Kids) are having dinner tomorrow night to make plans on who will be available and when just in case Dad can't drive after awhile. The doctor says he should be able to do his own driving we'll see.

Well I think thats all I needed to say
Have a great rest of the weekend

Karen