Rambling ...

I can't believe it is Monday evening already. I suspect that is something I have said way too many times already this year. Time just keeps flying.

Mike made my day today. It was lovely to come home from work and have an award from him. Thanks Mike - it was such a lovely surprise. Mike is a blogger I really enjoy reading so the award means a lot.

I'm so relieved that our PM has finally called the Federal Election. For those of you not in Australia, every three years or so we have to elect all of our lower house, and half of our upper house. We don't have fixed terms for politicians, so for the last three months there has been a swirl of rumour, breathless analysis of every movement in the current ruling party and relentless advertising telling us how good the government has been for us. All that is over, and now we have nauseating numbers of ads telling us how good one party is, and how bad the other party is. Next ad, it is reversed. I don't think I help myself though - being a media junkie means that I visit at least 10 news sites each day, I listen to the local public radio at home and when I'm driving, and if there is an ad I notice it. Roll on November 25th.

I had some lovely mail this week. My brother and his very lovely, still very new wife sent me a beautiful thank you card. The effort that they both went to to ensure that it was a personal message was just lovely. (Eeek, too many lovely's, but I hate the word nice) I'm so happy that they appreciated things I did for them, even though I wasn't looking for anything. The same day, we got an invitation to my step brothers wedding. I don't think he has had much say in it - the invitation and the envelope were hot pink! From what he says, he will just show up and do as he is told. I suppose it is a handy survival skill. I don't think I've been to a formal wedding on a week night before, so that will be a new experience. I'm glad I've managed to take the next day off work though. I've even convinced the boy to have a 3 day weekend. I'm really looking forward to it.

The boy and I are planning our next holiday already. We started within a week of coming back from the last one. Neither of us has ever been to Europe, so we are looking at spending a month there next September/October. He is very keen to spend at least half of it doing tours so we don't miss things we want to see. My sister and sister in law are horrified by the idea, but I'm happy to look at different options. Suggestions are always welcome.

My backspace key is having conniptions. It has decided that it wants to sit on a slope and nothing I have managed to do will fix it. Does anyone know how to resettle it? It is a great way to ensure accuracy though.

Why do so many people find my blog by googling "random questions" Why do people google that phrase? If you are one of them, please tell me - I'm bewildered.

My boy is gorgeous. I just wanted to say that :)

On the first day of winter

I woke up and sprang (sprung?) out of bed before the alarm went off at 6.15 this morning. Much to the disgust of the cat who had just hopped onto the bed and hoped for a cuddle and me to stay in bed and keep him warm while he slept. Foiled again.

Played nicely and let my brother have first shower and pottered around - read some blogs, had a giggle at the person who found my blog by searching Google for "bottling stringbeans", filled the kettle to make coffee, fed the cat. Discovered why the cat was so uninterested in his breakfast. Nothing like a partially decapitated possum under the dining table to start the day right. I'm stunned he managed to do it in the half hour between being let out and me getting up though. Little bugger. More bells for him. 6 this time I think. I've just worked out who the possum reminded me of, Nearly Headless Nick from the Harry Potter books. Yep, I'm rereading again.

Managed to shower and head off to work. Mmmmm, foggy. A very crisp morning though, which turned into a really lovely day. Of course, now that the weekend is here, we've got a forecast for much needed rain. I look at my Google homepage, and see on my weather radar that the rain is on it's way now. Woohoo!!

Pick up my two pieces of Vegemite toast and coffee to start the morning right at work. Mmmmm.....coffee. Time for the morning desk calendar duel with my lovely colleague. Today "The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain" Thank you Ms Parton, so very true. I really love our quote duels, and miss them when they don't happen though. While I had those few days off earlier this week with my germ infestation, she was sending me gorgeous emails like "

We are all stars and we all deserve to twinkle – MARILYN MONROE
Hope you are feeling better – get lots of rest and keep warm.
Can’t wait to see you when you have got your twinkle back!

That is one of the reasons I love my job and the people I work with.

Another crazy frantic day at work - nothing like a Friday to start the month with. Total lunacy. I stayed back a bit to clean up my desk and make sure I had everything packed up ready for my trip to Sydney next week. I might live dangerously and do the equivalent of cutting off my arm and leaving my laptop at home. Last time it was the beginning of this. I don't ever want to go back to that happy place.

Had the drive home from hell - what normally takes half an hour in peak hour tonight took 1 hour and 40 minutes off peak. Damn you Collingwood for playing at the MCG on a Friday night. I hope you lose. I hope that anyway, but today I really mean it with a vengeance.

Got home and burst into tears at my brother when he wanted to rearrange the furniture to turn on the heater and dry his clothes. All I wanted to do was crash on the couch and watch trashy television for 10 minutes. I know my brain is having moments again now though - I've just reread this paragraph and discovered that I wrote weekend instead of heater. Excellent, brain, connect the right bits please.

What does the weekend hold? A bit of running around, picking up a doctors certificate and getting my car's wiper reservoirs checked. Laundry. Packing and a flight to Sydney. Quite possibly some quality time at the stupidmarket picking up basics for next week. Dinner and quality play time with the boy.

Right now, it is nearly bedtime. It is 9 degrees here, or 48 if you talk Fahrenheit. Bit chilly. Bring on the hot water bottle and the cat I think.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!