sugar doll bloggers

Thank you to the beautiful Darnonymous of Three Little Birds who has passed on this award to me.  This was a great surprise and I didn’t really know what to write in response until I caught some brain space tonight.

To accept the award you must write ten things about yourself that nobody in blogland knows about yet.  So here goes, lets try to think of a few new things.

In my imagination I am a fantastic athlete who could have made it to a national team and won a gold medal.  In particular, in my imagination I could have been a Hockeyroo winning gold at Olympic Games. (in this, I am delusional).  In reality I partied too hard in my youth to be a regular in the first team.

I have very large hands.  The sort of hands that only a milk maid could appreciate.

I couldn’t be bothered finishing my Masters Degree  because I got bored and since I am self-employed I wasn’t going to get a pay-rise   I only had two subjects to go.

I grew up in a small country community called Yarrowitch.  No town, just a school, a hall, a small church in the middle of nowhere.

Its my ambition to own absolutely every Pandora Bead there is to own.  I wouldn’t care if my collection would be too heavy to wear.

I ask my son to buy me 1kg of cherries for Christmas each year.  Cherries remind me of summer school holidays when we would climb the trees in our orchard or were invited to our neighbors orchard.

We had livestock as pets when my sister and I were young.  These animal nearly always ended up on the table.  We were taught that life on the farm can be uncompromising.

I don’t eat fish.  Simply don’t like it.

The first concert that I ever went to was to see Sherbert and Ted Mulray Gang at Tamworth City Hall in 1975 or 1976.  Dad complained that the tickets cost $5.00 each !!!!!  I had a terrible crush on Darryl Braithwaite

I love it when it rains.  The farm-girl inside thinks that all is well with the world when its raining.

So there you go … ten random, previously unknown things about me.  Now the next hard thing is to pass this onto some others who can take on the challenge and create their own list.  Lets try …

Kirby of Confessions of a Middle-Aged Coffee Addict

Vicki, my sister at Ignore Reality

Cate of I’ll Think of a Title Later

E who is Whining at the world

and Tanya at Meaningless Meanderings of a Mad Mother

have fun everyone.

no lucky red ones?

Less than a week to go before we set out on our road trip south to Mum’s for Christmas.  Less than a week to get our crap sorted out, packed and on the road.

Its always nice to start a holiday with a few new things isn’t it?  Some new holiday clothes, new shoes (yes please) and some new undies.  This is how the lovely Robert was thinking when he had to do his Christmas shopping re-run yesterday and he dropped by the menswear department to pick up a weeks-worth of new jocks.

When I surveyed the purchases I noticed that they were all the same colour and brand.  All identical and blue.  Hmmmm.  Has the accountant in me starting to rub off on him?  Are his Virgo tendencies for things to be “just so” taking on a new level?  What’s going on here?

“You haven’t bought any lucky red jocks” I remark with a little disappointment.

“No, it’s all part of my new plan”

“Oh whats that?” still disappointed because lucky means lucky for TWO.

“If I have all the same jocks you won’t know if I have changed them or not.  I am saving you the worry about me wearing fresh undies and it’s a great idea for camping.”

Lucky, lucky me.

circle of friends

I have been awarded by Marty who is freezing his bits off in Iowa at the moment while I wander around in my swimming shorts complaining of the humidity and heat (actually I am not complaining as the air-con is cranking today, sorry environment but if you send the monsoonal rains I will turn the air off).

The rules of this award is that you are to tell of five things you like to do.  Well my “about jacinta” page gives a short list of things that I like to do but perhaps I can add a few more.

1. I love road trips!  In a week we will be on our trip south to Mum’s place.  Normally its a two and a half day drive but this year we have a small side trip planned so we will take four days.  Now that we don’t have kids to worry about and can set our own pace road trips have become fun.
2. I buy fridge magnets from places I have been.
3. I like to cook but I don’t do the day-to-day cooking in our home.
4. I love to buy shoes – you can’t have too many shoes.
5. I like to buy fancy stationery.  I have alluded to this in previous posts.

Thanks Marty, I am happy to pass this award onto any readers who might like to share.

shopping time

Of course we have left it to the last weekend we have available to go on a shopping jaunt to purchase those perfect Christmas gifts for the family.   Of course it would have made far more sense to plan this weeks and weeks ago …but of course!

The lovely Robert and I made an assault on the shops this morning.  We determined that it would be wise to set off early and get the ordeal over and done with and to minimise the risk of having an argument.  Seemed like a good idea last night and still seemed like a good idea when I woke this morning at 4:30am with a shopping list rolling through my subconsciousness.  Still seemed like a good idea when we finally hit the shops at 8:30am.

That’s when things got a bit tricky….

We walk into the shopping centre and the conversation goes a bit like this ….

R:  “Should we have a cappuccino?”
J:  “No, aren’t we here to buy Christmas presents?”
R:  “I never get to have a cappuccino.”
J:  “I’ve been awake since 4:30, I have had three coffees already waiting for you to wake up.”
R: “…just saying that a cappuccino would be nice …..”

I need to share with you all that I shop with purpose and with purpose comes focus.  I will not be distracted by my (lovely) cappuccino-starved partner, spotty faced retail assistants who want to help or the overly perky sales-boy who has crazy things in store.  I know what types of gifts I need to buy for my difficult family and I will not be hindered in the search.

However I am starting to think that boxes of matches and toothpicks would make excellent gifts.

We have moderate success (no arguments) and after one lap of the shopping centre (that’s not really all that big, we are in a regional town remember) I give in and agree to stop for a cappuccino.  The lovely Robert settles in for a little love session with his cappuccino and an eclaire when his phone goes off.   Yeh, yeh, yeh, mate wants to come by and pick something up …. I’ll be there in a minute” … and in short order off he goes.

OK this is my opportunity to get things moving a bit faster and in the time that it takes Robert to run his errand and return I have managed to finish all my shopping including a gift for Robert.

R:  “Oh, look you have done lots.”
J:  “Yep, I think I have it all done now.”
R:  “You have lots of parcels, I don’t have any ….”
J:  “Its all good.  I think we have finished, we can go now..”
R:  “I haven’t done any shopping …..”
J:  “Its OK, I got gifts for everyone.”
R:  “I haven’t bought you anything.”

Looks like he is going to have to do it all again during the week now!

signature redesign

Do you remember when you were younger and you were trying to develop a cool looking signature?  I know that I spent hours perfecting mine in English classes at high school as I  adopted old-fashioned curves and loops like my grandmother uses.  I had countless pages in my exercise books devoted to getting the curve and flow just right!

I then went through a phase where I had to redesign my signature because the man I married got his knickers in a knot because I continued to use my “real” name.  My “married signature” was never as cool or as pleasing as my real signature.  It was developed in a rush and perhaps I should have taken that as a sign

I persisted with my “married signature” for a year or two after our marriage ended but one day I got it in my head to return to my roots (as such) and start using my real signature.  It felt like returning to an old friend that was just right and this signature and I have been in daily contact for the past fifteen years or so.

I now sign stuff for a living.  Ok, yes its a bit more complicated than that but leaving aside the small detail of years and years of university and professional study and my ongoing requirement to continually update my knowledge and insurance coverage, it all boils down to appending my signature to a document.   My signature is in daily use and we get along very nicely … until now …

I have fallen in love with a fountain pen.  It’s pink and pictured in the top photo above.  Since buying the pen I have managed to smudge ink over everything – fingers, desktop, uniform shirts, Christmas cards – you name it and its got a lovely blue smear as a new decoration. However I love the feel of the pen in my hand and its a joy to write with.

Alas, my signature that has been with me for so many years is not particularly fountain pen friendly.  I don’t seem to be able to pull off the elegant flourish that a fountain pen demands.   I cannot forsake the fountain pen now that I have fallen in love with it (its sooo pink and lovely) but my signature that has been such a friend for so may years is suffering.  I fear that I will need to devote a great deal of time in signature renovation.

My mind is transported back 10 20 25 30 years to when I was in school again and perhaps I can channel the spirit of Mr Lake my English teacher who totally destroyed any love of Shakespeare I may have previously harboured….sigh.

No wonder I can’t get anything finished at work !!

PS:  the pen comes from here – I buy a lot of lovely stationery from these people, I am not affiliated with them in any way, I am just a “stationery junkie”

an epic picnic

I have been totally exhausted at work today – absolutely shagged by our weekend exploits!  In a fit of enthusiasm we decided to go on a picnic… to see a waterfall … not very close to home.  We were up at 5:45am (yes on a Sunday and yes I know that its wrong!) and we drove… and drove …and drove south and then west of Cairns.   As you can see we obeyed all the rules of the road.

(ok a little cheating here – a local told us the road was “officially” closed but passable.  It has been closed since Cyclone Larry smashed the rainforest to bits in 2006 and the council has not had the money to do all of the repairs)

Once we left the highway that hugs the coast we climbed up and over a small mountain range.  The drive was fascinating as we passed though four different vegetation ecosystems.  At the start we drove through traditional rainforest which can be seen in the background of the photo above.  As we headed west we passed into areas of less rainfall – the types of trees and understory plants changed as we traveled westwards into the dry country.

After four hours of driving we arrived at this place – Blencoe Falls.  Its a spectacular set of waterfalls with multiple cascades over quite a large area.  Just look at the photo and realise that the whole valley has been carved out by millions of years of flood waters.  The photo beneath is the valley downstream of the falls (with the lovely Robert as photo model).

Now remember its not the wet season here yet so the amount of water passing over the falls is probably at its lowest level of any time during the year.  It would be pretty cool to come back during the wet season and take comparison photos but once the rains start this region is inaccessible – flooding and slippery roads make travel unwise.

Our picnic was a stupendous success – ya can’t go wrong with a BBQ chook and fresh bread rolls in my opinion.  The evening before I cooked a batch of Melting Moments biscuits and some of them lasted long enough for us to have them for dessert.  (Lunch dessert is the best sort of dessert).

Then we drove …. and drove … and drove all the way back to Cairns!  In all 536km covered and an eleven hour excursion (you can’t travel quickly on outback or bush roads), we saw wallabies, goannas, emus (have never seen emu’s up this far north before, perhaps they were lost), kites and eagles, herons, kangaroos and fruit bats (ik) on the drive home.

No wonder I was stuffed today.

the family argument

I am feeling rather pleased with myself at the moment because I know what this year’s Christmas family argument is going to be.  I know what the two opposing sides will be and I know who will take each position.  How do I know this … because I am going to start it!

This Christmas we will have three generations of adults gathered together.  The lovely Robert and I will have driven three days in the heat, in a black car to get there so you can be assured that I will be in the bestest-ever of moods to share the season’s festivities (bah humbug) in my old home town (double bah humbug).  My son will also be with us for Christmas – he will want to be anywhere else in the world rather than hanging around us because we will not be cool enough for him.  My Mum will have spent a lot of time and energy running around getting things organised so she will be tired so all of this underlying tension sets the scene for a good stoush don’t you think?

I remember Christmas family arguments from years gone by.  I fondly recall my mother butting heads with my grandfather on some trivial matter but because it was Christmas the issue had to be debated, arguments established and defended notwithstanding reason.  My grandfather loved a good argument.  Mum liked arguing back and so, it would appear, that it’s a family trait handed down through the generations – we like to annoy one another.

Now please don’t worry – our arguments do not become alcohol or violence fueled (or at least they haven’t yet ) and there have been no major falling out as a result of an argument (that I am aware of ).  It’s just an opportunity for members of our family to annoy one another for a short sustained period of time.   A bit of a family tradition.

can’t wait …

(ps – I am not going to share what the argument is to be about as my sister reads my blog and there is not a chance in the world I am giving her the heads up on this and that will annoy her even more )

get excited

reading materials

This week’s Blog This challenge asks bloggers to write a post about a memorable or favourite book we have read this year.   For this challenge I have referred back to my “read books” list on Goodreads.com and to be honest nothing really stood out as a noteworthy title.  Don’t get me wrong, the books I have read have been very pleasant and an enjoyable distraction but nothing about them have made me want to extoll their virtues.  So I refer back to the challenge description and the final line proves to be more helpful.  In particular,

“Or is it magazine or newspaper you’ve discovered this year?   Tell us about it!”

Well, Ok, I will ….

This year I have discovered Smithsonian Magazine which is published in the United States by the Smithsonian Institution.  The magazine has coverage of history, science, nature, the arts, travel, world culture and technology which is just fine for an information junkie/nerd like me.  The photographs in the magazine and on the associated web site (yes all mags need a web site these days) are simply fantastic.  

 The only problem is that this magazine needs to come to me from the US by surface mail and it takes ages however since the subscription price was only USD$38 for a twelve month subscription I figure I can manage the wait each month.

I am hoping that my next edition will get to me before we leave on our Christmas Road Trip so I can have something to read while on holiday because I have left it too late to order anything from Amazon

New Member Monday

It was rather surprising this morning to open my blog reader and see my own face staring back at me.  I have been featured on Blog This for New Member Monday which has been lots of fun and a new experience for me as a blogger.  Thank you for all those who have visited my little place in the blogsphere and thanks for all your encouraging comments and remarks.

 

A few posts back I mentioned that my mum had created a blog – well she has managed to post some updates on her adventure through China and Thailand and I am so excited to hear that she is bringing back a stack of handbags (can’t have enough handbags).

 

However this whole blogging thing has become a family concern now.  My sister has created a blog as an outlet for … well …. what ever goes on in her head.   Drop by, I am sure you will find it entertaining.