Hump Day Happiness

Not sure if Naomi over at Under the Yardarm is doing this this week but a few things have made me smile this week so I have decided to post mine here.

My 30 Day Yoga course something I have begun for the month of June (I’m doing the one for busy people, here if you are interested). It is only 10 mins a day but in this second week of the course I have found myself stretching it out for at least 20 mins each session, remembering poses from the classes I took for years and just stretching, I’ve noticed that my body does not want to leave the mat once I am on there, its often just the getting there that is the hard part. The course is delivered online so I can do it when and where I please, on the weekdays this has meant that I am doing it in the afternoon when I get home from work.

The benefits of this is I get a clear distinction between work time and home time and I have no excuses at that time of the day, there is nothing that needs doing, not dinner or dishes. I’ve finished bolting here and there for the day. I get home have a tea and chat with TC then ask her to have the 10-20 mins alone and she goes into her room to do her homework and I have been getting on the mat. There is no noise from tvs or radios or the bloody Beibs, even Yellow seems to know that he should leave me be, perhaps he’s not as stupid as I thought after all!

The rains and long weekends have made me happy too, warm doonas and tea in bed, a footy win followed by roudy Turkish restaurants for a birthday, the perfect wine and wonderful friends who drive us home, big bowls of pea & ham soup, hot pumpkin bread with lashings of butter, my rainbow crocheted rug and new Ugg boots for me and tc. Plus the heater, the cat and planning a weekend away with my man really soon.

Anything make you happy this week?

xxpt

KYLIE DAY!!!

Tonight we head to the Sydney Entertainment Centre to see Miss Kylie Ann Minogue! I cannot tell you how goddamn freaking excited I am to see this show. This will be the third tour of hers that I have been to and the second I have taken TC to. We have picked out our outfits and have plans for the Worlds Greatest Dumplings before the show... We go with my oldest friend, she cries every time. (and I hope she doesn't mind me telling you that) When we took TC last time to the X tour she grabbed my friend's hand looked her in the eye and said "I get it, I get why you cry." hehe so bloody cute my kid is.

so here I am, at work trying to get everything done in record time and I am on here instead writing about how damn exciting it is and my brain contains nothing but pop songs and disco lighting...

Will report back after the show, no doubt with dodgy iphone pics from the nose bleed section!

xxpt

* I cannot find the source for the photo I have used, I know that this is REALLY bad blogger etiquette but I've had it on my desk top for so long I think it came from the SMH site? If anyone knows please put it in the comments and I will amend. thanks xx

The Yellow Cat

My cat’s name is Yellow*, he is black and he’s a bit special. He’s the first cat I’ve ever had, you see when I was growing up my mum always told me I was ALLERGIC to animals. Horrible yes? YES!

He is also known by the below;
Mister
Dickhead
Senor Ding-Dong
Mr Me-ow-gy
Chariman Me-ow
Stinky Boy

He is definitely a boy cat with questionable hygiene, he was born of a very young alley cat called Trixie. MrPt brought him home cradled in his hoodie for me a couple of days before my birthday, he was tiny and lovely and so very pretty. Which kinda explains how he got his name.
The mate we got him from put a string around the boy cats and MrPt was given instructions to pick a boy, a black one if there was one. So he brought home the black boy kitten who was so pretty we thought our mate had pulled a shifty on us, after cuddles and a few beers to celebrate MrPt and I were trying to think of a name (Ninja er no MrPt) and seriously discussing how we thought he was a girl, I took off the string off and we exchanged the following;
l
Me - “he doesn’t look so girly without the yellow around his neck”
MrPt - “You want to call him Yellow?”
Me - “um um not what I said but yeah, yeah I do”

So that is how Mister got his name, not because he has yellow eyes, nor because when he meow’s it sounds a bit like he’s saying “yell-ow” nor because we are fans of Coldplay (dear god no). Its because of a piece of string.

He’s now nearly 7, fat often surly has gone from a freebie alley kitteh, to a $1125 cheque eating cat who then cost us this much again in vet fees when he had the mysterious vomiting ‘thing’ the vet could not determine the cause of, he hogs the heater and leaves fur on my clothes, he bites and scratches MrPt a lot but not tc or I, nor the furniture.

He puts up with a lot of teasing & being carted around, he wears scarves I make him & as you can see in the pic a Cat in the Hat bow-tie even if he does look mega unimpressed about it, I think this means that he loves us as much as we love him

… or perhaps he’s just sticking around for the free food and lodging.

xxpt

*yep, this is a story just like when people tell you the story behind their tattoos, sorry.

Dear Mr White Falcon Station Wagon

Hey how you doing? After our little run in yesterday, I thought I’d just drop you a line, I’m pt but you may remember me as the rather panicked looking pink haired woman in the other white station wagon on the roundabout yesterday? The one with P plates on? The one that SPUN AROUND NEARLY 180 DEGREES WHEN YOU CUT IN FRONT OF HER IN THE RAIN!?!?!

But maybe no because after seeing that I was already entering the roundabout you accelerated and then you did hold up your hand to the side of your face in effect putting blinkers on thus rendering me invisible! Now I will admit you discovered one of my Super Hero secret power desires, I would be a bit of a dud Super Hero if I tried to be invisible in a massive white commodore station wagon with my head lights on wouldn’t I?

Was it that you did not see that I had my P plates on? The red ones, you may not have seen then from behind your improvised hand blinker but they were there, do you know WHY they are there? It’s to let everyone on the road, not just the coppers know that I am an inexperienced driver! I went to the trouble to display them but it’s a two way street mate you need to take notice and perhaps give a little bit of extra love to the P platers out on the road.

Why I hear you ask? Because we aren’t all young hoons with a death wish playing bad R&B* at deafening levels some of us are 35 year olds who have overcome a fear of driving & has been on the road for less than 12 months. We can drive enough to pass a test administered by one of the trolls from the RTA but we’re new at this stuff...

So even though where you had to go was so very very important I hope that next time we meet you will obey the road rules and maybe even be a bit more aware of the not so experienced drivers out there on the roads too.

I’m so glad we had this little exchange,

Happy Motoring xxpt


*In my opinion all R&B after Marvin Gaye died is bad YES ALL!!

Disco Fever T-Shirt Circa 1982

I’ve decided to start with the ‘oldest’ item in my closet. This shirt came to me via my brother and to him via our closest family friends growing up. B was the owner of this t shirt I remember him having a black one as well, I don’t know how or why a 5 year old in the back hills of the Nth Coast of NSW got two fabulous glittery Disco Fever t-shirts but he did and for some unknown reason he gave one of them to my brother. I doubt B still has the black one it’s a shame because he grew up to be one of those gorgeous gay men with a far too beautiful bachelor pad in Potts Point and had it still fit him (which of course it would not as he is now 6ft 5 and buff) he would have worn the shit out of it.

I was amazed that my heavy metal loving brother kept this shirt so long, worn by his large teddy bear for nearly 20 years before I finally got my mitts on it. Actually I do know why he kept it that long, as horrid as it sounds he kept it because I wanted it. Siblings eh, what ya gonna do? I have his ex wife to thank she knew I wanted it and finally convinced him to pass it on to me about ten years ago.

It now sits in my drawer no longer worn but certainly not unloved. It is a reminder of the summers we played at B & his sister N’s house, riding polystyrene surf boards down the creek, making honeycomb completely unsupervised on Sunday mornings after a sleep over, the time N rescued me from drowning by pulling me out of danger by my hair! The roasts they would have every Sunday lunch time. Watching Molly die on A Country Practice and N recording it on her cassette player and saying “This is the part when Molly’s going to die” hearing the music go wonky and then Brendan screaming out Molly! They lived out of town and I remember B aged 7ish getting flown out by helicopter during one flood because he had an allergic reaction to a wasp sting, another when Dad went a got them in his truck as the water was too high for theirs to get out, we had a week long slumber party at our house that time. It was N that told me about Santa, this only a year after us all sitting on my bed convinced we could hear bells on Christmas Eve before we went to midnight mass.

Plus they just don’t make stuff like this anymore! I have to keep it!

The Mag’s were the closest thing we had to family when I was growing up. We were both from the same small Victorian town and had moved up the coast, the kids were all the same ages S and my mum got along really well sharing sewing and gardening interests as did my dad & L, both Italian descent men married to very non Italian non catholic women, both in the building trade and both with a love of red wine and Mario Lanza. We have seen each other through divorces and marriages, births and deaths, sickness of each other our kids and our parents through B coming out and my brother struggling with alcohol drugs and the custody battle involving his kids.

We all lead very different lives now my Dad lives somewhere in Nth QLD, Mum and Sdad are parenting tween kids again, S & L are now fully retired potter around their property and sell plants at markets. Us four kids have now taken very different paths too B & I are in Sydney and N & my brother are still in our home town albeit it with very very different lives. And while we don’t often speak I know that if any of them needed me I would stand by their side holding hands for strength in a heartbeat really are like family.

xxpt

Comforting the Sick (and Whiny)

I am poorly with a flu :(

So today because I am a nice coworker (unlike the one who infected me) I am at home on the lounge, I watched daytime tv and on Ellen I watched Stevie Nicks perform her 61 year old arse off only to finish and disclose she had PNEUMONIA!!

I am, unlike Ms Nicks, woeful when I am sick it’s ugly I’M UGLY. I whine and I mope around the house, I drink endless pots of peppermint & chamomile tea to try to keep myself warm. I get at least a couple of big hurty pimples which I then pick because I don’t already look bad enough (the current count is four) and my hair decides its a great time to up the oil production ten fold. I sniffle and breathe through my mouth, I stay too long in the shower and snap at my family. Funtimes I can assure you.

I have a uniform when I am sick too it serves both as a warning to my family that I am ill and should then be given a wide berth a cocoon to me.

- a beanie I bought when I was 18 from the Bellingen Markets, the lady I bought it from grew the sheep, spun the wool then knitted the beanie herself it is natural shades of brown she dyed herself and has covered not only my head but doubled as a hand warmer, pot holder, improvised bag and a shrug for a once tiny TC.
- a mans knitted cardigan pilfered from an old flatmate, she later regretted it & even went to the trouble of bribing me with a replacement Mrs Brady style cardigan, she did not succeed. Sorry Spunner I love you but its mine now I hope you understand.
- at least 2 handkerchiefs one to smother in essential oil and the other to blow, hankys are so much nicer that tissues I think, softer on my nose and they remind me of my nan and my Sdad. I am heartened by seeing a young person pull out a hanky to clean their glasses or dab at their nose. Part of it is a dislike of creating waste the other part is finding tissues in the wash and on the coffee table and kitchen bench and the computer desk, you get the idea.. the final part though is that they remind me of these loved ones, in fact when my nana died a lace edged hanky was one of the few things of hers I wanted.
-Vicks on my feet and big thick socks, I don’t know why it works it just bloody does
- a big cup of tea to refill over and over (this one was my mothers day present this year it the exact cup I pointed out to TC in the shop!)
- a mashed potato vegemite and cheese breville, I wish that i still had the breville machine from when I was growing up it wasn’t the triangle one it was rectangles and it made a grub shape on each side alas it died many years ago.

So today I have indulged in many of the above things in an effort to both wallow and feel better. Is there anything that you do to comfort yourself when you are ill?

stay well dudes xxpt

the Real World....

Well I think I'm out and I think I love it time will tell...

Last week I went to KSack's book launch and came to face to face with many of the people I talk to on twitter I met other people too but the ones that made the biggest impressions were those I have spoken with for the past 18 months. It was wonderful and exciting and daunting and overwhelming all in a schooner glass.. One I liked so much I kept drinking until I saw a cab and thought to myself "Self, you've had enough of this blast in a glass it's time to go home"

I outted myself to the gorgeous Chantelle at FatMumSlim as once I asked Sass to make the blog pretty I went to her blog for rules and suggestions on how to fill the pages. I read her how to make a great About Me page and her pictures are so lovely. You suckers will only get pics from my iphone as that is all I ever have with me I'm sure you'll deal with it guys.

And tonight on twitter I told Twitchy, I sucked it up and sent her the link (hey girl! shhhh ok?) my reply to her post about her big gay mate from high school and her note back saying it was as honest as any blog post helped push me out there too.

Every little bit helps right? I'll get there xxpt