Weather, we gots it

Howdy peeps just quickly I thought I'd write to say that the weather be crazy in these parts today. 

Our beautiful jacaranda tree is now only a 3rd of the size it was yesterday. Luckily it didn't hit the house nor any of the fences which was so lucky. I was talking to MrPt pointing out the small branch that fell, went to have a shower and when I came back this.. (forgive the dodgy iPhone pic) 

Note that the tree covers our whole backyard! side to side & back fence to almost the patio... It was also the branch that MrPt tied the hops to, hard times people. 

Also lucky is that we rent, to be honest I was relieved to just be able to call the real estate to let them know about the tree and to organise the removal after the weather calms down. 

I hope everyone is safe and hit me up if you need any firewood! 
xxpt 

Taking Stock - April

I've been reading Pip's blog for years, she seems so lovely doesn't she? I'm pretty sure that she is that nice in the outside world too. Anyway she has this great list that is at first look pretty daunting but here we go... 

Making : knitted baby cardigans mostly the Gidday from Ravelry all in one go and its super cute too  
Cooking : Pork Roasts I'm perfecting the art of crackling 
Drinking : G & T with gin I blended myself at Archie Rose Distillery - it is such a great place too great staff, sexy room and amazingly boozy drinks a most excellent date place 
Reading: Spanking Watson by Kinky Freidman - I found it on the footpath the other week, its a good bus book I love the way he has slang names for everything 
Wanting: the easter eggs to never run out, I am dangerously close to eating the last of mine and everyone else is finished theirs already.
Looking: forward to tomorrow 
Playing: with my new laptop :D hopefully this means that I may keep doing this blog thing
Deciding: what to do on my month off Can.Not.Wait 
Wishing: that my kid no longer had blue hair cos I would like it back quite frankly
Enjoying: the new series of Game of Thrones! 
Waiting: for more episodes of Game of Thrones 
Liking: the crisper mornings and cooler nights 
Wondering: where I can get all of my candle jars refilled, that must be a thing right? It seems silly to have them as a one time only thing
Loving: That football season is back 
Pondering: how some crimes are seen as horrific and others not so much
Considering: still... I'll come back to this 
Buying: a new Macbook Air! I need to do more research on how to actually use it but it's a bit sexy. And Cardigans! 
Watching: aside from Game of Thrones MrPt and I are loving Bloodline, such great performances and beautifully shot   
Hoping: That I wake up rested, I am tired all the time 
Marvelling: at the forms & photos my cousin found of my great grandparents when they first came to Australia 
Cringing: at the remarks made about Hilary Clinton announcing her run for POTUS Needing: to learn to use this Mac thing Questioning: so many things that are written Smelling: my workmates Marc Jacobs perfume it is so pretty on her 
Wearing: Currently? Star wars pj pants and a Kylie tour singlet. Overall though cardigans and pencil skirts with brogues - completely Audrey Horne 
Following: Roxanne Gay on twitter, not sure I agree with everything she says but some of it is interesting and she's funny too
Noticing: The change in the leaves inn the park on my way to work 
Knowing: That change is a-coming 
Thinking: That I need to start working full time hours and I'm not really looking forward to it 
Admiring: My brother, facing his challenges & forging a new life, knowing that he is lonely but trying hard to build a life and becoming stronger and clearer everyday  
Sorting: out my make up drawer (perhaps that's Should be Sorting as I have not yet technically started?)  
Getting: my first ever veggie co-op box I love it and the little group for the people is really sweet, hopefully there will be recipe swaps and tips to come. 
Bookmarking: cardigan patterns to knit I really want to make a big snuggly one for myself Coveting: skin with no pimples & large freezers 
Disliking: angst at work 
Opening: emails from friends who are coming to visit 
Giggling: at Mayim Blalik on the Big Bang Theory Amy Fairer Fowler is the greatest! Feeling: twingey in my back again, I think a trip to the Chiro is on the cards 
Snacking: on left over easter eggs 
Wishing: that the 31 women killed so far this year by their partners were still here Helping: Future Pete! Stocking up on soups and stews and extras in the freezer ready for some very busy weeks ahead. 
Hearing: My daughter talk non-stop about her Demi Lovato concert on the weekend. To say that she loved it is such an understatement.


hmm that wasn't so bad after all xxpt

So I really suck at this right?

Er so I guess that I really am not a great blog person at all.... 

I think that perhaps I'm not really even a writer as such. Many things have happened since I was writing 2 years ago.. 

My kid is now 16!! 
We moved house again
There were illnesses and a death in our family
My cat died 
We opened a new business born of passion
We got a new cat 
We went overseas for the first time is ages and fell in love with Asia 
Our new cat escaped and was hit by a car 
Within a week there was a new kitten and INDOOR kitten 
Work ramped up for both MrPt and I 
Kid had a super rough year and changed all of her peer group a couple of times 
Many babies were made and borned to people other than myself (WIN) 
Kid turned 15 got a nose ring
My brother got clean for the first time since he was 11
As a result I now have a relationship with him for the first time in many years
Kid got hot pink then orange hair 
People other than MrPt and I got engaged/married/divorced  
Kid got blue then aqua hair 
My kid is now 16!! 
Kid now has purple/aqua hair 
Current cat is still living 
Business is thriving both at the proper job and the passion project

There were also many dinners with friends a couple of weekends away, family Christmases that were at least tolerable. Kitchen and balcony dance parties new cocktails made and drunk, food and bars and gigs aplenty and I cannot wait for more of it. 

xxpt  

International Women’s Day and the Lady Fave

I have a friend, let’s call her Isabel (cos that’s her name), or you can call her Bez (cos that is what I call her) once you make friends with her too, and you will want to, she is very ace here’s why.  

Early last year we were having breakfast in Bez’s favourite café in her hood when her friend Katherine came and joined our table for a little bit. When she left I asked Bez who was still fairly new to Sydney how she met such an awesome woman, Bez said two words – Lady Fave. And I have been hooked ever since. 

To explain this is what she posted the other week on her faceberk page: 

“Ladies, if you ever think something nice about someone you really should voice it to that person. Even if it is a complete stranger, just do it. You may feel a little embarrassed at first and your kind comments may not always be appreciated but it doesn't matter. That one nice thought that you have about someone could make their whole week. It's called a Lady Fave and us ladies need to get amongst it and share the lady love. I frequently give Lady Faves, even if I am in the middle of a run and dripping in sweat, I will stop and tell someone I see if I think they look amazing or that their dress is real pretty. I have had a super crapola day today and I just had a colleague, that I don't even know, tell me that I looked amazing and it really made me feel better and put a smile on my face for the first time today.”

What followed underneath that status were 35 comments from other women offering Lady Faves to each other and to Bez, and then promising to share the Lady Faves.  It made my day to read and to share that one little status. 

We are so very quick to cut other women down, we critique their hair, weight, fashion, food, parenting and hell even their coffee choices! How often do you stop a stranger in the street to tell them their dress is gorgeous or the colour they’re wearing makes their eyes stand out or their hair look shinier, or that they’re shoes are just amazing? I’m guessing that it happens rarely, whether we’re too scared to talk to strangers or too busy to stop for a second or perhaps some days we’re so weighed down by the fact that no one says anything nice to us we forget that it can feel just as good to make another smile.

Like attracts like guys, so how about you go offer a Lady Fave to a random person? Heck, it doesn’t even HAVE to be a lady you offer it too, dudes like this stuff too! You may pick up! You make make a friend! Or you may just be the one good thing in that other person’s whole day, and who knows what sort of change that could make to someone! 

And then give one to Bez too cos she's amazing.   

Who knows maybe this will become a "thing"

xxpt

Old? Well yes I think I probably am…

What exactly is the definition of OLD though? I’ve been known to carry my own tea bags since the age of 19, although it has recently become quite the thing I have crocheted and knitted for a very long time, I’m in a relationship that has just passed the 10 year mark. Whilst I’m attending the weddings of some friends and others are having their first babies we are parenting a teenager in high school. I very often fall asleep before 10pm on the lounge trying to stay up so that I can retain my cool Gen X cred (and failing obvs), pottering around my house drinking pots of tea, having early dinners and long baths is a nice weekend for me. My bag generally contains a cardigan and two handkerchiefs, one for me and one to offer if needed.

So I guess in some ways yes I am old. Old as the hills dang-nabbit!

But then in other ways, I feel incredibly young, foolish and inexperienced. I have not travelled, nor have I been to Uni or undertook any tertiary studies at all (a year-long Cert 3 in Fashion Design doesn’t count does it?). I still colour my own hair with fairly hit and miss results (back to pink most recently) I wear bright playful colours rather than more appropriate work attire… I still have never had a proper Credit Card or a personal loan, and I happily remain a renter of houses rather than a home owner. But I guess the most telling thing to me that I am still young is I don’t know what I want to do when I grow up… I don’t feel like I’ve got a proper job, certainly not a career or a vocation, perhaps though this is something of a Gen Xer thing, a little like the character in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar who (from memory) pictures herself in a tree laden with fruit, so much fruit that she is unable to choose so sits there watching it all rot, choosing nothing instead.*

I always thought growing up that 27 was the special grown up age. And a lot of great things happened to me that year I met MrPt, TC and I moved to Sydney away from my home town for the 1st time** however I am now 37 (in a row?!***) and for a while this became my new proper grown up age… but it’s not really is it? I mean if I’m still having all this uncertainty going on I can’t be!

Perhaps it’s 47? I’ll let you know



xxpt

*I don’t know if I remembered that correctly but I can’t be arsed finding out, it is what I remember from the book.

** . I did actually move to Sydney once before but that all ended rather poorly so I do not count it.

*** I cannot help that I am a Kevin Smith tragic the line pops into my head every damn time

Jess over at Essentially Jess is a very entertaining and funny woman on Twitter; I was surprised this morning to find she was such a prolific blogger, I was not however surprised that her self-deprecating humour shone through and that she has a heap of fans and commenters. IBOT seems to be a pretty neat idea nad who knows I might be abel to stick to this once a week caper!


This is the first time I’m linking with Jess for IBOT, due to the VERY sporadic nature of my actually writing on this blog it may be the only time too!

The Happy Having a Baby Shoes

Back at the end of last millennium I was 24, I was newly and happily single and in April I had a baby. It honestly seems like it was the dark ages sometimes, I ate anything I wanted I had a couple glasses of wine and on occasion I may have even smoked a little. See what I mean? Dark Ages! *

This was the days before the baby bonus, before paid parental leave was even a pipe dream! I'm not sure if there were push presents as such and there was no one to buy me one anyway, so I bought my own and here they are....


These were my 3rd pair of docs, I'd never seen silver ones but I had previously painted shoes with silver nail polish so I knew they were for me. I called them my
"Happy Having a Baby" shoes and I wore them everywhere, and even though i loved them at first they, just like mothering were stiff and awkward and took awhile to feel right. I wore them to ring in the new year and on walks around a rather seedy neighbourhood on nights my baby couldn't sleep, to work, to the park, everywhere.

Now I wear them on occasion only, a couple of times this week due the Sydney weather being less than stellar, they do get worn a fair bit though by that baby I had bought them in celebration of. In a way I always thought they'd be hers I guess, she walked every mile in those shoes with me, and I love that these boots, these magic silver boots are a part of our shared family history.

They may not be fancy jewels or a handmade quilt but they are very much us.

xxpt


*I'm not an idiot I know these things especially the smoking were bad for both of us but I was young and invincible and a bit of an idiot.

Sometimes toilets confuse me

I hope that with the title of this post I did not lead you to believe that I am unable to work out the general use of toilets. I am happy to report that I have been toilet trained for approximately 34ish years (I say ish as I thought an early morning call to my mum asking when I stopped wearing nappies was not the greatest way for either of us to start the day)

I write this post in the hope that someone will help me figure out the dual flush on my toilet at home because after almost two years of living here I still cannot for the love of Ford Pills work out which is the half and which is the full flush button. They seem to both flush the same amount of water and run for a similar time to fill the cistern back up. This could however just be due to the landlord-DIY-ness of our rental house... but then again I find toilets out in the world also to be quite confusing... Stay with me.

Here is a rendering of our cistern.. (check out my mad Paint skillz!)



Now at first glance obviously the small button is the half flush because it is smaller and the large is the full because it is larger right? OR the small button is the full because it is a whole circle type of shape & the larger button is the half as it has a bit missing off the end and therefore not ‘whole’... Please note that earlier I stated there is no real discernible difference in the amount of water released by either button.

To further my confusion there are buttons like the following (again with the Paint, at least this time they were circles and easier to 'draw')



Now I have used commodes with both of these buttons at various locales, and through my er ‘research’ I have concluded that the larger button is in fact the smaller flush... I think...

God I really just don’t know, why can’t we just push the button halfway down instead?

Sometimes its the big issues with me and then other times... there is toilet cistern confusion..

Am I the only one that becomes confused about this stuff?