Bloggers Blerck

I just haven't had the spirit to write anything lately. While we have been busy making plans for our trip to Melbourne, we have had to put off something else we had decided to do, until the new year. Also we are having a dilemma as to what we are going to do at the end of the year when the landlord puts this house on the market. That is IF he is still doing it. He is not one for much communication, so we have no idea what he is doing. He said we can stay as long as we want, but if he sells the place, we have to move. And that's our problem. We are still planning on going on our Trip around Australia, and so we are thinking that taking on a new lease is not the way to go. But what to do? Buy the motor home or caravan and live in a park for a while? thing is, we have only our one small car with no towbar. So we would need to buy another car, preferably a 4x4 that has the guts to tow a decent sized van. Hubby is not quite sold on a van. He still wants to buy a motor home. (I think he is a little sad, this morning Betty got towed away for scrap). We had come to the agreement that Betty was too far gone for us to fix. Bye Bye Betty... We do have money put away, but it would take all our savings to buy said motor homes, or vans, and cars or whatever. 
So we find ourselves in an uncertain place, and I absolutely hate it. No idea what's going to happen. I hate being in this situation. I don't blame Hubby for it, but when I was a single Mum, I had a home, a secure job, family and friends around me. I knew what was happening and where I would be the next day, and the day after that, and so on. 
Ever since we moved to this town everything has gone to S**T.
:(

Melbourne and Harry Potter.

So I received a letter from the eye hospital in Melbourne and my appointments are in a month! But, not to panic because, Hubby and I are so organised we already have our accommodation booked. As it's a 20 hour drive we are breaking it up into half and are staying at Dubbo. The half way point. The reason we chose Dubbo is because the Taronga Western plains Zoo is located there and I really want to go, (LEMURS people!) and the tickets are for two days. So we have booked a site for three nights.
We have booked a nice two bedroom cabin about 35 minutes drive from the Hospital. Well, actually we won't be driving into the city because apparently parking in Melb's is pretty pricey. But the public transport is supposed to be good, so public transport it is. Besides, we get to go on a tram. Never been on a tram before, and, when in Melbourne, you go on a tram. LOL! Oh, if any of you have been to Melbourne, can you recommend some places for good shopping, eating etc...? I am going to get my Google on, but there is nothing like local intell ;)

Why the Harry Potter movies are perfect. Just the way they are:

I have recently seen the last instalment of the Harry Potter movies. I absolutely loved it. It’s been a long journey, full of laughs, sadness, and wonderment. I’m sad that it’s over. But it couldn’t have ended more perfectly, and I wouldn’t even want to see any more Harry Potter movies being made. My reasons?

These movies that they churn out, rehashing the same old story lines, are just plain old boring.

Bad guy threatens mans existence, Hero defeats Bad guy. Hero saves the world. But then they do it all over again... NEW bad guy makes a tonne of unfun, same old hero defeats new bad guy. Hero saves the world... Again.

Boring.

Harry Potter?

One Bad guy.

One hero.

End of story.

Bought a GPS. Voice is named Karen. Karen was my Hubby's ex. I do not like GPS Karen. GPS Karen wanted to send us off the highway on some route other than the way I wanted to go. Told Hubby it was either GPS Karen or WIFE.

 Hubby wisely chose wife :)

Finally got a picture of the Male wren. It's not fabulous, and the female is showing off her butt, but he finally sat still long enough for me to capture him.

I got another pic of them actually sitting side by side but the female was doing this weird feather plucky thing down her front, so, not a good shot. Anyway. This is the leader of the harem :)

Convertible bag - Project. (and other stuff)

HI! Well my Mothers ancient sewing machine that I have been baby sitting, finally gave up the other day. I have been wanting a new one for a while, and, having a bit of spare cash, Hubby said "right, lets go get you a new one". YEE!!

OUT WITH THE OLD.....

....AND IN WITH THE NEW!

 And so I threw my new little Singer Buddy in at the deep end and started my convertible bag project. It was a difficult pattern, but it's now finished and the end result is quite appealing. 

Front, with snap enclosure

Back, with zipper pocket

Inside with one zipper pocket and two open pockets. Fully linned. 

And now for the convertible part....

Pull out the straps on both sides and......

TA DA! It's now a backpack!

It was a very involved and tedious pattern, but I really like it. You can't see in the photos, but I did a pretty decorative stitch over all the top stitching as well. I may even make some more. (saw some super cute owl fabric I want)


Also, I have been waiting for a parcel to arrive with my Polaroid Pogo Printer and finally it did the other day. If you've never heard of one, basically it is a little printer (about the size of a Nintendo DS) that you can either hook up to your camera, or Bluetooth with your mobile phone, and it prints pictures for you instantly. (well in about 15 seconds..) the photos are small, 2" x 3", but are sticker backed. The printer itself uses no ink. The photo paper contains all of the colour in it and is set by heat. which means that the photos come out touch dry and are safe to handle, and Polaroid even claim can even get a little wet with no damage to the photo surface. 
The actual colour quality is good. Not absolutely brilliant, but it's good enough for me. A cool little gadget. I am going to find it awesome to use in my art journal. 
I had to buy it from America because I couldn't find it anywhere here, and it was WAY cheaper buying it from Amazon. I used a company called iShopUSA to purchase and deliver it for me. Because stupid Amazon didn't want to deliver it to Australia. But I wasn't going to take no for an answer! Delivery was pricey, but I got the printer PLUS 100 photo sheets for less than what I would have paid for the printer itself in Australia. I got emails from iShop every step of the way, and then an email and tracking number from the delivery company.  I was quite impressed with their professionalism. It was delivered to me express as well. Overall, it was pretty speedy and efficient. 
 This is the first photo I printed with it..

I swear those zhu zhu's aren't mine......


honest.....

Cattle farms and eyes

So I had a nice chat to the folks last night. Apparently where they had the accident, was on some rich guys VAST cattle property. He came upon the wrecked trailer, and did some fancy towing (remember it was minus wheels) back to his place. He informed the police, and when my parents rang them, they gave them his number. So he is going to send down the rego and number plates to them. What a nice guy.
They are staying at the teachers house now, while they are overseas, and the bus driver has loaned them the use of a trailer.
Also the cattle ranch guy has asked them if they would like to house sit at one of his other cattle ranches while the managers are away on their holidays. Pretty cool hey?


I had a phone call from the eye specialist in Melbourne today. They have received all the info from my eye clinic already and have passed it on to the Doctors for review. Hopefully I will be hearing from them soon and we will be making a trip to Melbourne :) Exciting and a little scary thinking about the tests they will be performing on me. I did not like the electrodes on my eyeballs at all... lol.


I have finally got started on my sons SPACE painting I promised him. The canvas is no longer just a black expanse...lol

Phone call from my parents:

“First of all, we want to say we are OK”

....”um, ok” heart drops into stomach...

“But we’ve had an accident....”

“WHAT?!!”

Yes. A few nights ago my parents rang to tell me they had a car accident. You all know that they are travelling around Australia? They have their car and everything else packed into a trailer they had specially made. Anyway, they were cruising along at considerable speed on a semi-remote highway when one of the trailer’s tyres blew. Absolute chaos. The trailer started violently rocking back and forth, spun the car around, then luckily, it tore it’s A frame in half and broke loose from the car and tumbled and turned along the road, throwing all of its contents everywhere. The tyre that blew, broke off and hit the back of the car. Finally everything came to a stop. The car had rolled back onto the A frame of the trailer, tearing a hole in the bottom of the boot. Needless to say my parents were pretty shook up. And that my Dad’s skilful driving and the fact the trailer broke loose saved their lives.

So they got out of the car and started salvaging everything that survived the crash. Dad lost some tools, Mum lost some sentimental things she had collected along their trip. Their expensive little fridge/freezer was trashed, and the trailer was smashed beyond repair. The other tyre was no-where to be found. Weirdly, Mum found her fluffy pink dressing gown under the car.

A school bus came along and the driver and teacher jumped out to help. They put all of my parent’s things down the centre isle of the bus, and the teacher drove the car, and they took them back into town. The bus driver then took my parents out to dinner and shouted them a nice big steak. He also offered them the use of a little cabin at his bus depot. Also, the teacher has offered them his house for two weeks while he and his wife are on holiday overseas. The local garage fixed one of the car’s tyres for free. How nice are people? You get that in a country town in Australia.

The next day my parents drove back to the crash site to get the rego sticker and numberplates off the trailer and it was GONE! Either it was stolen or the council/police came and picked it up. At least it was insured.

So my parents have a couple of weeks to recover from the shock and decide what they are going to do. Hubby and I have offered our home as a base for them to restart, and any other help we can give them.  I shudder to think what could have happened... I’m just glad they are OK.