Time to blossom - its almost summer
Strange isn't it - that here in sunny OZ, flowers are blossoming, bees are a buzzin, things are happening in the garden, while on the other side of the world friends in UK and USA report that fall is almost upon them. Strange or wonderful? Believe it or not? Make up your own mind on this one.
With the first signs of summer and better weather, taking an evening walk and you may be nasally assulted by the 'smells' of summer - aka the barbeque out in full force. I love the smell of a bbq-ing food, as it wafts in the breeze, conjuring up happy meals - no, not the Mc'donalds variety, but of families bbq-ing together or having a party. Its nice.



We had our first summer bbq friday just gone. 5 chefs hats to the cook, alias - DH. In Oz, its almost the mandatory role of the male - to do the cooking on the BBQ for his family. Dh did us proud - with flaming sausages, crispy golden burgers, makes your mouth water just reading this. We had three different types of salad combo's, but as usual we over catered, and now we have been eating it 3 days in a row - guess who gets out of cooking for while -so I ain't complaing!

97 days till Christmas
Now Playing: Its starting to look a lot like Christmas
With teeth chattering from excitment - I have to ask - will YOU be ready in time??

Quiz Nite
Last night DD junior and I went to a quiz night. It was a church youth thing, organised as a bit of fund raiser,and it turned out to be a fun raiser too. If you 've never been to a quiz nite - then this is how it goes. You organise yourself to sit a table with people who are Mensa life members, mini Einsteins all with an IQ of several hundred points or more. At least then you stand a fair chance of winning a quiz and walking away with a table prize. All this aside, it was good fun, especially for everyone who was there. It was great to see young people having a larf, quaffing nothing stronger than tea/cofee, eating ridiculously huge portions of cheesecake, and using their brains - all at the same time!


I helped on the buffet table, putting food out, collecting plates as they were emptied and helping with the washing up later. It was good gossiping with the other mums stuck on washing up round the back, although we did find some time to consume and 'sample' some of the cakes too! I also 'helped' my dd's table to score some points, as their group was the youngest there, so they needed some serious assistance with a few of the questions. I thought some of the questions were ridiculously difficult or is my IQ slipping? OK, here's one - at what temp does water boil? Well thats easy - when it starts bubbling!
Another one - ok try this - What country starts with an A but doesn't end with an A? I got that one! ( not telling - post your answer in the comments box if you dare!) Oh, here's a tricky one - which singer had a hit in 1968 and he was the oldest singer in the UK charts? I'm not sure I knew what the name of my school was back then let alone the name of pop singers, so this was another point in the quiz that we missed out on.


DD's table still came last in spite of all the 'help' they got from me - but judging from the smiles on their faces - they didn't care as they'd had a good evening aswell. And so to bed.

International Talk Like A Pirate Day
Now Playing: What shall we do with the drunken sailor

Today is - International talk like a pirate day. So in the spirit of the ocassion, time to have a bit of blogging fun, me hearties, Cap'tn Krissie here...oy me hearties, now I'm feeling like captain Birdseye or something! LOL!! OK - if its talk about pirates then lets talk about pirates paradise which was in a small Cornish fishing village of Polperro in Cornwall UK - pirates used to sail along the coast there and hide their 'booty' of whisky and stolen goodies in the caves. I visited this town on holidya a few years ago,and 'walked'into one of those caves at low tide. They are 'cavernous' to say the least - lots of room to hide treasure chests and the like - Perilous places - safe-ish at low tide, deceptive and dangerous as the tide roars quite unexpectedly and quickly that could put anyone at risk. Still it was good to get a 'window' into the life of a pirate. Arrrr, so thats your lotfor today - so hoist the jolly roger and lets hit the tide. If yers dont leave a comment for me today - then you'll be walking the plank you land lubbers!!



P.S If all pirates looked like Johnny Depp, then even li'l ol' me could be persuaded to shin up to the birds nest in a storm! Ahoy!

To those who I know, and to those who are only passing through

Maybe some people just aren't meant to be in our lives forever, maybe some people are just passing through. It's like some people just come through our lives to bring us something; a lesson we need to learn, and that's why they are there ~ Unknown

Full speed ahead

I've noticed groundhog day creeping into my life ever so slightly over the winter months. My daily routine has been the same. The car drives in the same direction. We have the same repetative rota of winter meals, on and on it goes in ever decreasing circles. On Sunday we had one of the first warm sunny days in months and I felt the cobwebs mercifully melting away

Over here in Australia, between now and Christmas, we have an empty calendar celebration wise - sadly, we do not celebrate Halloween, (individuals do but its not a national thing)

We do not pause for Thanksgiving. From now on ? its a downhill run, and from here I can already see the tops of the Christmas trees. Oh, and is that a sleigh bell I hear in the distance?

The Christmas Grand Plan site informed me that there are ONLY 102 days till Christmas, With that in mind, and the adrenaline rush that followed, I set off to a new shopping 'maul' to look at new stuff with Christmas gift possiblities in mind.

Since we simplified (click on link here) our lives, gifts have been kept to a bare minimum. The DD's mostly get a ca$$h boost to their coffers, as buying gifts for them has become almost impossible. Much easier to part with some ca$h rather than buy gifts they won't like or need.

Dh usually gets a small gift, friends receive smallish gifts too.

We used to give the kids stocking fillers, which they enjoyed when young, once they became teenagers though, they emphatically told me to stop with this tradition!

Christmas ends costing us a ridiculously small amount in $$ terms, but that does not include food shopping. We do spend a bit more than we usually do on food/nibbles/gourmet treats over the festive season, but we also have summer here so it becomes a Christmas/ summer food combo. I will write about our Christmas trads closer to date.

Since I love to be so organised, all that is left to do is to wait for the gift wrap to arrive in the shops and then I plan to beat all the crowds and post cards, packages nice and early!

Just watch me ! Planning to be first in that Post office queue this year!

Still on the To Do list:

sort and wrap overseas gifts

post early to beat the rush

xmas cards are addressed and ready to go

Find/buy those last minute gifts before they are snatched up in shops

finish my annual online newsletter for family and close friends

buy summer wardrobe for DD junior

Look for suitable prom dresses for DD junior while they are available in shops over the summer season! ( more on THIS topic grrrr! another time)

Exit one whirling dervish holiday planner!

Birthday boy!
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: Happy birthday to you.....

Here is the birthday boy himself - all 51 years of him! Happy birthday to you!
He's in the radio station studio 'mixing' for his programme in this photo.
We had a very quiet day of celebrations - meaning we did nothing much all day. After working 12 hours stints recently, he did say he felt too tired to enjoy going out today, so instead we decided to have dinner at home. We went shopping, and for the first time ever, I spotted bags of new potatoes. So they were gently boiled and served with butter and dill garnish - yummy! Along with the roast chicken, sweet potatoes and green veg medley! Don't say I don't spoil that man!!
I hope the bloggers group have a lovely time on their monthly meeting at Miss Mauds tonite! (LURVE Ms. Mauds food too!!) Sorry we couldn't make it this time - perhaps another time? It may be fun to meet fellow city dwellers and bloggers non?

You Just know - trust me!
Mood:  hug me


You Know You're From Australia When...

Your next door neighbours can be from Tunisia, Israel, Indonesia, Japan, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Brazil, Spain, Malaysia...

The community is so concerned over the fact that muslim women can't use public swimming pools because there are men present that they have female-only periods.

The Greeks and Mexicans next door ask you over to have a barbeque.

You don't actually use the words 'sheila' or 'shrimp'.

You sleep with Aeroguard on.

You're wearing a cap emblazoned with 'Get A Dog Up Ya.'

You feel obliged to spread salty black stuff that looks like congealed motor oil on bread and actually grow to like it.

You think Tall Poppy Syndrome is a national condition.

Democracy means the freedom to draw caricatures of John Howard.

Your idea of a lethal weapon is a slug gun.

The closest you ever got to going overseas was your packet of 5 Days In Rio undies.

A posh meal = an all-you-can-eat buffet.

The term "musical instrument" also extends to wobbly bits of ply-wood, hand saws, gum leafs and combs.

Your most offensive curse also doubles as an exclamation of awe or amazement, like, "fark orf!"

All of your internationally famous people don't live here.

You think footballers dressing up in drag on TV is funny (but your son being gay isn't).

You relish test cricket - the longest, slowest game in sport (and that's not even counting the replays). After all, what else gives you an excuse to sit on your arse for five days, watch TV and sink piss with your mates?

You don't drink Fosters, but you let the world think you do.

The only thing better than beating the Pohms at ANY sport is giving them shit for it.

You love, adore and admire a particular team/sportstar/actor on a winning streak - until they lose. Then they're just crap and 'past it.'

You can compress several words into one - ie 'g'day', 'd'reckn?' This allows for more space for profanities.

You favour either Holden or Ford - or a souped-up WRX with new kit and a bootful of subwoofer.

Driving down the main street/beach road playing bad techno is your idea of a perfect Saturday night / Sunday arvo.

You make kooky films, sometimes about wayward road trips (across the outback preferably). Quite a few are crap.

You know all the words to Khe Sahn but not the national anthem.

Your nickname ends in 'a' or 'o'.

You have a customised stubby holder.

Your soap stars become pop singers and move to the UK.

You've ever used the words - grouse, tops, ripper, choice, sick, rad, exo, ace, wicked, ballistic - to mean good. And then you place 'bloody' in front of it when you really mean it.

Your cooking apron has plastic breasts on it. ( oh so sad - but true!!!!!)

The "Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi oi oi!" chant has been a religious experience in the past.

The blokes at the local gym think your weight training is an opportunity to ask you out on a date.

The big national sporting events are men-only.

Your politicians believe than sticking the prefix 'un' in front of your nationality is an effective way of making you sit down and shut up.

Our mantras are 'fair go for all', 'mateship' and 'little Aussie battler' - but we still publicly condemn those with different viewpoints to us.

The barbeque is a male-dominated arena. And the women do the salads.

'Fair go for all' excludes indigenous people.


An eight-hour trip to go camping for the weekend isn't out of the question or excessive.

You take pride in living in a tolerant multicultural society but firmly believe that all Poms and Kiwis are fair game.

You insist on asking every celebrity who steps of an aircraft what they think of Australia. If the response is not overwhelmingly positive, they should be subjected to immediate public ridicule.

The private lives of footy and cricket players become more important than local and national news stories.

Slick pick-up lines like 'Wanna shag?' and 'Carn, show us yer tits' can constitute male-to-female conversation.

You say 'no worries' quite often, whether you realise it or not.

You realise you have no Bill of Rights.

The first thing guaranteed to get eaten at parties is fairy bread.

So that's the special ingredients that make up an Aussie - whatever your taste.

You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Austrailia.


I hate to admit it - but most of these are embarrasingly true!! So, whatd'ya reckon?

claim to fame and UFO's

Claim to Fame

In an effort to simplify the mounting paperwork especially in the project area, one of my recent tasks has been to try to complete old journals, diaries, scrapbooks, baby diaries, and recently the newly added family history book. I call these my UFO's - Un-Finished Objects

My life is strewn with good intentions, ie; translates to having projects finished within my life time, and somehow never quite getting around to putting the finishing touches to the last page of each one. I was starting to feel quite guilty - especially about the baby books. One friend has hers catalogued, in alphabetical order, faithfully dating each milestone baby has achieved, and is more than happy to brag with her impressive collection of data.

My first DD's book is almost complete. In a fit of maternal joy I managed to complete it in under the duress of another pregnancy, not wanting time and hormones to dull the memories of every baby step she took. Subsequent siblings were not so lucky. Dulled by sleepless nights and harrassing toddlers I quickly gave up the ghost of recording every precious memory. So much so, that baby 3 has only her name written on the first page to mark that the book is hers and after that there are no more journal entries.

Maternal guilt is now prodding me to find all those tatty bit of paper, old notebooks I wrote in hastily back then and retrace the steps of their babyhood - Properly!
All this memory hunting resulted in a mad search through old suitcases, and boxes.

I ended up finding my old autograph book, as you do, (which I wasn't even looking for) - also found some old journals and theatre programmes from my student days in London which brought back some very happy memories.

In one of the journals I found a sort of claim to fame roll call - I thought I'd share it with you:

1. Shared a glass of wine and a larf with Jeremy Irons - after he appeared in the stage show Godspell - he played the part of Judas.
2. Met - David Essex (Jesus)and the other 'luvvies' after same production
3. Saw Jesus Christ Superstar show (London production) 28 times - Ok - I WAS dating one of the lighting crew at the time. (lol)
4. this led me to meet and greatly admire and share a few glasses of good cheer with Paul Barber - he played Caiphas the high priest in the show. He was recently in the movie - The Full Monty.
5. Met Leo Sayer - in Toolley street on a photo shoot. ( his, not mine)
6. Sat next to Rula Lenska in church - she was in rock follies - years ago! Married once to Dennis Waterman actor UK.

Well that's MY 15 minutes over!

It made my day
There are some fairly rowdy older boy students at the school where I teach.



One of the girls at the school came up to me at recess and quite serioulsy said - 'Mrs K., you're my favourite teacher, because you control all the noisy boys'. (meaning I don't let them get away with rowdy or bad behaviour).

Um...Don't let my Dh hear you say that!! lol!