Christmas, e-readers and allergies..

Christmas for the Sprite family this year will be celebrated at our place. At the beach.  We have decided that we are sick of being the ones to have to travel around the country side to visit people (and to be honest we simply can’t afford it). We have decided to be selfish this year. And why shouldn’t we!? We have a beach, a pool and a lot to be thankful for. The main one being we have made it to another Christmas with Hubby still in it.

Living with a terminal illness that could take you at any moment, kind of makes those special occasions even more precious.

Anyway. Hubby loves to cook. To entertain. But his selfish sister refuses to celebrate Christmas at our place so Hubby can indulge in his passion. Not even once. *sigh* I am actually so glad Hubby is putting his foot down this year and has decided that enough is enough. If they want to see us, they can come here.

So now we are planning Christmas Day being just us. And maybe my parents and Hubby’s Dad plus one. Which will be nice. Hubby will do the main meal and I have all sorts of sweet yummies planned for desert. One being “White Chocolate and cherry macaroons”. Maybe a big strawberry Pavlova as well. After the great strawberry Pavlova wars last year I am NOT going to back down on that one...(for those of you who don’t remember... I was going to make the Pavlova to take to sister-in-laws place. We agreed on it, it was all discussed...then SHE makes one herself! Totally snubbing me, grrr...)

So this year it will be a relaxing, come if you want, kind of day. Which is just the way it should be.

In other news.. My beloved Sony e-reader died. I had to actually continue reading Inheritance with the “real” book..  Anyway, they didn’t fix my e-reader but replaced it with the newest model.. WOOT! It has all these new features, AND.. WIFI! WOOT WOOT!! Hubby is sooo jealous.. Heh. Two things I don’t like about this new one is that it’s stylus is not attached to it (on the old one the stylus slid into a hole on the side) and that its black cover is not dull but shiny. I don’t like shiny. I must clean shiny things, and it annoys me when I get fingerprints on it. I liked the dull, matt finish on the old one. But that’s about it. It does have some cool new features, like the WIFI, and it has a touch zoom feature (like an iPod) and more font sizes, which is good for me with my bung left eye.

My son has his school breakup this year. They have asked us to bring a share plate for morning tea. Now one thing about homeschooled kids is that a lot of them are home schooled because they have severe allergies. So anything we make HAS to be egg and nut free. Alright for Hubby, he is making sushi. But I LOVE to make cupcakes. SO I have had to search the internet for egg free cupcake recipes. Which is not so hard, but I have yet to try a recipe that tastes nice, and won’t kill any children. I am thinking of chocolate cupcakes, with a nice chocolate-butter icing. We shall see.

Stupidity.

So we have a new car..by new I mean a second hand car gifted to us by our brother-in-law. (it’s really nice) As it happens, Hubby’s Dad’s car died and so we are loaning our little Nissan to him until he gets himself a new car. So yesterday we had to drive it to the place where he would be picking it up. Hubby was in the Nissan, and I was travelling behind in our new Ford. Along the highway Hubby got behind me so I was checking in my rear view mirror to see if he was catching up..anyway I notice him going into the passing lane and this green car dangerously swerving behind him. I slow down slightly so hubby can pass me, and this maniac in the green car is so dangerously close to Hubby’s back bumper..(Hubby later tells me he was so close the car was shaking and he had to break)...

He then passes me and comes over into my lane...the maniac then travels beside Hubby, swerving over, making gestures, trying to get Hubby to pull over.. Like on the side of the highway!! WTH?? Meanwhile I am watching all this, freaking out, heart pounding... Hubby is ignoring this fool and so he pulls in behind Hubby again and tailgates him for ages.... I am so mad and ready to ram this guy. Meanwhile some dude in a blue minivan pulls in between hubby and the green maniac. Green maniac eventually gets pissed off and pulls out and passes everyone, almost hitting a speed limit sign on his way past, being all stupid and hoony.

This was all because he didn’t want to do the correct speed limit. He put a whole lot of people in danger because of his stupidity. I was half expecting to see a big accident further up the highway with him in the starring role, but thankfully the rest of the trip was non-eventful. Dumbass...

Boganism. What's with that?

The bogan neighbours next door annoy me.

 I love our apartment block. All of its residents are nice, civilised, and quiet. They respect that they have neighbours living close by.

Not so much the small apartment block next door.

 It’s full of loud mouthed, smoking, drinking bogans. They drive like maniacs with no regard for others safety, smoke with their kids in the car (illegal here), drive with toddlers in the front seat (highly illegal here), sit around till all hours of the morning, playing loud music, keeping their poor kids up (not to mention the whole neighbourhood), drinking and then having domestics..Where they seem to not be able to string a sentence together without every second word being the “F” word. The other night some guy came and had a big argument with one woman then proceeded to do a burnout down the street as he drove off. The black tyre marks are still on the road.

And now today... they swim IN OUR POOL! OUR POOL! Grrr.. not only that, the guy walks into the pool area with a beer bottle in his hand. WTH? (Hubby was straight on to the real estate about it.. hopefully they put a lock on the pool gate) Anyway, the nerve of them. And there is no excuse. We have a freaking BEACH just around the corner. You don’t use a pool that doesn’t belong to you. Ever here of public liability? I don't even want to use the pool now. Not until the chlorine has had a chance to do its thing.. what if they peed in it? ew.. Bogan pee....

I don’t judge people by where they live but seriously, no wonder folks have little respect for people like them when all they do is act like  A**holes. I know I sound harsh but I can’t tolerate inconsiderate boganism.

End of Rant.

Sharing secret moments of hilarity.

My mother and I have a very similar sense of humour, and always find ourselves sharing secret moments of hilarity. Sometimes at the most inappropriate of times.

The other day after the funeral of our friend, everyone was gathered under the nice under covered area, gathered into small groups. Some solemn, others laughing and talking. There were two tables filled with lovely plates full of treats, so given we were hungry, we sort to empty these serving trays of their burdens. I was standing in front of my Mum, both of us clutching our little empty paper plates when suddenly she dropped hers. I bent down to pick it up and the man in front of me just happened to put his foot back at the same time and stood on the plate. I was in a precarious position, bent over with my hand on the plate, and my head hovering near the man’s suit-clad buttocks. I finally managed to pry the plate out from under his foot, and, straightening up, noticed my mother in silent hysterics. So I said to her.. “I thought I was going to have to drop-kick him there for a minute”.. which put us into fits of giggles.

Another time we were at our local restaurant waiting for our meals to arrive. My parents were there, along with Hubby’s Dad and girlfriend. I don’t know how it happened but my Dad put his drink down on the table and it clipped the edge of his fork, sending it hurtling, end on end up over his head and back towards the lady seated behind us, narrowly missing skewering Dad’s eye as it sailed past. Luckily it didn’t hit the lady, who was none the wiser. As my Dad sheepishly retrieved it off the floor, my Mum and I were almost catatonic with laughter. No-one else really saw it happen.

There are times we share that the other wasn’t there to see, but laugh at all the same... like the time all the plastic bags escaped out of the boot of my car and terrorised the neighbourhood..

Or when a duck... a DUCK... SAT on my Mums shoulder. Just because.

None of this is funny to anyone else, but they are things I love to share with my Mum. Things I will always remember with a smile or a giggle.

In other news... I have had my eye appointment. The steroids don't appear to be treating this latest Uveitis, but they still want me to stay on them. I go back in a month, but in the mean time I have to have another electrode test... remember way back when I had to have those wires  ON MY EYE BALLS....? Yes, I have to do THAT again. BLECK! fun times...fun times....

Got my parcel from Amazon. .. a Q&A 5 year journal..

What you do is answer the question on the top of the page, then come back in five years and do the same. It's a really neat way to see how your life changed, if at all, over a five year period...

Anyway...the cover is made of brown paper and I think I might add my own flair to it and do some drawing on it as well.. I'll post pics when it is done.

My ocean is so blue today and it is calling to me, so see you all and have a great weekend. stay safexx

Through my eye(s)

This is a picture I took of Melbourne...

And THIS is how I see it through my left eye...

See why I am scared now? It feels like I am watching a 3D movie without the glasses, all funky and wrong. Makes me queasy as well. 
But still... last night I drew THIS...

Nice hey? it's a zentangle pattern I was trying out for the first time called Purk..lol! and yep, I FINALLY have my scanner running.