Early last week, one of our fish tanks (unfortunately the largest one) fractured down the side and ended up causing a minor flood in that area of our house. Fortunately for the fish, my other half was home at the time and rescued all the fish, promptly finding them a new home in a plastic tub we usually use for recycling. So off we trudged to the aquarium shop, picked out a new tank only to find that they didn’t have the furniture for it in stock. We decided to get it anyway and we currently have the tank and all its accessories in a spare room until such time as the furniture finally arrives. Initially it was to be a week but now it looks to be more like two. Just as well our fish are happy in their temporary home I think!

After that little fiasco and the subsequent DIY attempt gone wrong, we were waiting for the third minor catastrophe to strike. Queue the other fish tank to have problems – not so much the tank itself, but moreso the filter. Despite weekly water changes, the filter just isn’t filtering much anymore. My other half was so impressed with the external filter supplied with the new tank that he decided to get the same one to replace the outgoing filter. And what a difference it makes!

I’m sure that people will probably think that it is a lot of expense to go to considering that tank has just one resident fish. But he is our largest and longest surviving goldfish and we are very much attached to him. I’ve put in a before and after photo of Whitey in all his glory – it’s great to see the water so clean!

September 7th, 2008 | Category: Home and Lifestyle, Photography |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

Way back in May, I was doing my best to not look like a tourist on the boardwalk of Sydney Harbour. While I was sauntering along enjoying the dismal overcast weather (note subtle undertone of sarcasm here) that Sunday morning, I stopped to take a snap of the French Connection UK store front.

I’m not a huge fan of their clothes, in fact I have never once been inside the store. But the immature little kid in me had a snicker at the sign and so thinking I would have a future use for it, that image made its way onto my memory card. And today is that day.

My other half has a dubious record when it comes to DIY projects around the home. He has these great ideas and while they do add value to our house or make our lives easier, I sometimes wonder why he tortures himself by coming up with them in the first place. Generally, the premise is this:

“I was just thinking, it would be great not to have the speaker wires running across the loungeroom floor. So I could just drill a couple of holes, mount the speakers on the wall and feed the speaker wire across the roof….it’ll be easy enough to do.”

We troop off down to Bunnings, get all the gear we need and then set about the process of doing it. Usually at some point there is an issue – like studs not being where we want them, or being in the wrong place or drill bits breaking or the battery on cordless tools running out. Or having to climb up in the roof among the spiders and fibreglass insulation to feed the wire down the sides of the walls. That’s just this afternoon’s DIY project but it really doesn’t make much of a difference which one it is. He hates DIY jobs and it always culminates in a torrent of language that would make Gordon Ramsay proud.

I’m no stranger to the F word and certainly I’ve been known to use it often enough  myself when I get really frustrated or just plain angry. So I sit and smile through the whole process, knowing that when it’s all over and done with, he’ll be back to his mild-mannered self. I guess you can see why I’ve put in the photo of that sign now….and if you can’t, I’m hardly going to spell it out properly for you.

August 31st, 2008 | Category: Ramblings |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (2)

It really hasn’t been a good week for me. It kicked off with a romping headache that hung around for the best part of 24hrs….which I only got relief from when I was able to lie down and have a nap. As soon as I stood up, the world would start spinning and I’d feel like my head was going to explode. My solution to this, after pain killers failed woefully, was to simply continue to sleep the day away. I must have needed it because the following day, the headache was gone and all was well in my little corner of the world.

I blame Channel Ten. For the first half of the year, we’re tormented with Big Brother. Then because it is an Olympic year, we get crappy repeats because they feel they can’t compete with the Olympic coverage by Channel Seven. Then to kick us while we’re down, they bring back Australian Idol to see if they can make our ears bleed for seven nights a week. And if you think you can just change the channel and not watch TV, think again. Chances are your neighbours are Idol addicts and will happily compensate for the lack of noise from your house by turning up their own set.

But I digress. Tonight I faced facts and acknowledged that I really did have to go to the supermarket after putting it off for at least three weeks. I was cranky when I got there because the radio station I was listening to in the car was playing some kind of “so you didn’t make the Idol cut” show and was playing all sorts of woeful singing of people who thought they were really good. Because apparently when you are completely tone deaf, you aren’t capable of realising just how abominable you truly sound. Starting out a huge grocery shop cranky sets the tone for the entire experience really….because it just got worse from there.

The first four shopping trolleys I pulled out had missing wheels (yes, completely missing instead of merely dodgy like the rest of them).

I must have had bad hair or something because all these people kept looking at my head, then ducking their eyes if I made eye contact. I was beginning to think I had a bug in my hair, or maybe a massive streak of lip gloss across my cheek. Of course, that might purely be my own paranoia too.

I seemed to constantly be trying to out trolley a little old lady who was walking slower than 2cm a minute. I would whiz around her in one aisle, only to be mysteriously behind her again in the next aisle.

Someone’s toddler decided that I needed all sorts of weird Asian groceries and other random items from the shelf and I didn’t realise until the end of the aisle.

They didn’t have my favourite brand of hot chocolate….so I had to end up trying another. Being a bit of a creature of habit, I’m a bit dubious about this but hey, I did get a free Napoleon lip gloss.

But the final straw came when I hit the baking aisle and a pack of White Wings Double Choc Babycakes caught my eye. And while I’m not quite as obsessed with cupcakes as Leigh, but I really did have to have them. They do look pretty tempting….especially when you’re a packet cook like I am. There was only one box left and so I grabbed it off the shelf, a few milliseconds before someone else also reached in for the same box. I had it in my hot little hands and went to put it in my trolley but then the other person grabbed hold and wouldn’t let go.

I couldn’t believe I was squabbling with another lady (who looked to be twice my age) over a packet mix of cupcakes. For crying out loud, I can’t cook that well and I need all the help I can get when it comes to making cute little cupcakes. Any other day, I would probably have let it go and then just continued to stalk the offender making comments about how jolly obnoxious certain people are, before getting over it by scoring some other find in the next aisle.

But today, I was not going to relent. I kept a firm grip of that packet like it was a gold brick and wouldn’t let go. I couldn’t care less how much the other person wanted them because I knew that I was holding the trump card. After she had said how much she really needed them, I said a few magic words…..

“I have really bad PMT right now.” She let go pretty much instantly – SCORE!

August 28th, 2008 | Category: Ramblings |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (4)

Living with two cats who show such distinctive personalities, you quickly establish a hierarchy. I have no delusions whatsoever in where I fit in to that mix – pretty much right down the bottom. The cats rule the roost here….but that’s ok. At least we know our place and don’t waste our time trying to change the natural order of things.

That’s my other half with Rosie there…..you’ll see he knows his place well. Yup, she gets the beanbag, he gets the floor.

August 24th, 2008 | Category: Cats |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

Ever since I saw Missy Higgins in concert, I’ve been almost obsessed with her hair. I really want my hair to look that effortlessly casual. I thought I had it almost looking right until I was shown a recent photo of Billy Ray Cyrus and found my hair style looked more like his than it did hers. Now some will argue that it’s his fault for having such a girly hair do (sorry Billy but you need a new hair stylist), but I really could not cope with the idea that I could photoshop my face into his hair or vice versa and we would look the same. I suppose it could have been worse….I could have had the same style cut as he did in his “Achy Breaky Heart” days but still, it is bad enough!

So a couple of visits to the hairdresser later, I’ve finally shed the Billy Ray look. Unfortunately, I don’t have the Missy Higgins look happening either. Once I’d explained to my hairdresser exactly what I was after and showed her a few photos, it turns out my hair isn’t the kind that will support a Missy type style. I have plenty of hair but it is too fine and whispy to accommodate those kind of finger waves….at least if I want to avoid looking like the “stuck my finger in a powerpoint” look of Albert Einstein.

I’m not a big fan of photos of me on here so this is a close you will get of a shot of my new do. What a Meez of your own?? Then go grab one!

Photo of Missy Higgins courtesy of Sydney Entertainment Centre

August 23rd, 2008 | Category: Ramblings |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

Some cats are just like children. They don’t have an off button, they insist on talking at the top of their lungs ALL the time and want to play whenever you just want to sleep. Mojo is definitely one of those cats and after spending just about all of my days off being a right proper nutter, he’s finally decided that a sleep is in order. The birds are rather thankful too….because now they can be heard without competing with his yawling.

August 17th, 2008 | Category: Cats |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

It’s coming up to the second week of August and all I’ve been hearing for the last few weeks is “OMG it is so cold today, I’m so freezing!” More often than not, it’s coming from Queenslanders as well. I genuinely feel for the folks south of the border because with day time highs of a balmy 8 deg C, that is pretty cold. But I find it very hard to be sympathetic towards my fellow south-east Queenslanders gadding about in shorts and t-shirts, griping about the cold. Granted, it is a bit cold for August in Brisbane but in the end, our day time temps are still above 10 deg C for the most part.

Now this photo is of a cold place. I took it in Te Anau in 2004 in mid-August. It snowed down to sea level on the South Island of New Zealand, coinciding with our departure from Dunedin to Te Anau. Having never seen or felt snow before, I thought it was pretty awesome! And to be honest, I still do because it is a novelty for me. But the next morning when we were due to go to Milford Sound and the road was completely blocked due to an avalanche, I started to feel just a little bit over it. We waited the day out and hoped to go the next day but no such luck. It wasn’t until we were almost about to leave Queenstown (3 days later) that the road was finally clear. By that time of course, our time in New Zealand was drawing to a close.

I love the snow but I’m very thankful that I don’t have to live or plan my life around it. I’m very grateful to live in Queensland where the winters are very mild and we can generally conduct business as usual. So to my fellow Queenslanders moaning about the cold – go put something warmer on and consider yourself lucky that you can still get out your door in the morning and not have to shovel a foot of snow out of the way to do so.

August 10th, 2008 | Category: Travel |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

I have decided to make it my mission to eradicate my household entirely of plastic bags. I wish I could say that I have completely altruistic reasons for doing so but the truth is that I am really starting to hate them for only one reason.

A certain moggie who revels in chewing and ripping apart plastic bags all in an effort to wake me up and do her bidding!

ARGH! I don’t know what it is about that crinkly sound the plastic makes when she’s ripping it apart but it drives me spare. And I think she knows it all too well because as soon as I stop what I’m doing, all of a sudden it’s like “oh cool, you can give me food now, you’re up anyway”. She does the same to cardboard and paper too but for some reason I can happily ignore that because it’s probably just a bill and honestly, who gives a rats about those.

August 8th, 2008 | Category: Cats |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

August 6th, 2008 | Category: Cats, Photography, Wordless Wednesday |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (2)