a life long love June 18, 2007

when I heard that our house could get flooded the first things I put up as high as I could were the photo albums. Besides that I only put three things on top of the wardrobe. This may be partly due to me being an optimist and not really thinking the water would come and partly due to me being stupid. But the three things I put out of dangers way were – Pink Teddy, Lulu and my book Teddy Edward at the seaside. Pink Teddy was given to me when I was born and I was  very attached to him and could spend hours lying in my cot twisting his blue ribbon around my toe until he flew out. Then I would scream until someone gave him back. Lulu came a few years later and I don’t remember being a real doll person but I thought she was about the coolest thing around. The teddy edward book is still worth a read. Teddy had an adventure at the beach with his little girl and they author took photos of teddy out on the rocks and in lobster pots and in a boat with his friends. It still gives me a laugh. So they are my life long loves which is the elsie challenge for this week.

doodles from ida at catscrap.com (as usual)

off to never never land June 15, 2007

I often wake up through the night not knowing where I am. My heart will be pumping, I’ll be sitting up and I won’t have a clue where I am. And I have to think really hard about it, to get it together. But a few nights ago I had a different experience. I woke up – same sort of thing, heart beating, sitting up, but I knew where I was – but I didn’t know who my mother was. I didn’t know where she lived, even if she was still alive. I didn’t know her name or what she looked like. What I was most worried about was – if she was meant to be living with me, had I lost her. I really had to think hard for a minute to remember who/where she was. Was a bit freaky.

you know how people analyse dreams June 14, 2007

and they talk about different things meaning such and such. Like say if you dream about wild pigs it means you have a fear of ice cream or if you dream that a crazy pygmy is chasing you it means you hate your mother. Stuff like that. Well I wonder what they could make of my dream. I was working at Big W and I was cleaning the make up shelves and I had long long fingernails. And that was it. There was no before or after. Just a glimpse of me – obviously a beauty school dropout. I don’t have long nails. But they’re not chewed either.

Now on a completely different track. Music track that is.  Running song of the week. (I can do 30 minutes at 8.5km per hour now). And believe me thats good – because I was really pathetic a few weeks ago and would give up at the first sign of puffing or tired legs. Now I power on. I always think of Kristie from last years biggest loser, running along saying  – it’s only pain, it’s only pain. So one of my faves at the moment. Should have known better by unwritten law. How do you come up with this line

Then we made love like a couple drunk buffalo                                                 

was that rough enough.

You really have to listen to it though for it to sound right.  Lovin it.

make it sparkle June 12, 2007

Oh dear. This photo brings back memories. It was the easter hat parade and Daz, Lizzie and I were there to watch Lloyd and Kimba strut their stuff. Kimba is wearing a most stylin outfit as you can see and their class had made the coolest paper mache easter hats I’ve ever seen. As you can see Lizzie is wearing her own style of easter hat, on a hat. It had easter eggs glued to it but they fell off and a friend of ours then accidentally kicked them across the playground while hurrying past. Daz is looking, ummm interesting, if not a little menacing in all black. And the mullet was in full force. It wasn’t at it’s peak mulletness – that was about two years previous. Which makes me think he had it way too long. Anyway that photo of the two of them always gives me a laugh and I stuck kimba in from another pic but didn’t take one of Lloyd. I remember he had a yellow crown type hat though. Oh yeah – this was elsie challenge 35 – Make it Sparkle baby.

doodles from catscrap and sparkle word and overlay from michelle coleman

hang on – I found Lloyd (he always thinks I take no photos of him) – I’ll wack him in above somewhere before I print it.

a black dog June 11, 2007

came knocking at the door this morning. I heard a knock at 7am but ignored it as it was 7am and it was a public holiday and it was warm in bed. Then there was another knock half an hour later. So I opened the door and there was a black dog trotting up the road with one of lloyd’s shoes in it’s mouth. (He leaves them on the front verandah as they’re usually wet and/or dirty). So I went and yelled at daz to get up as a dog was running down the street with one of our shoes and he’s asleep and all, what, where, what. But off he went and retrieved the shoe. He said the dog lives down the road and he had a little pile of shoes on the footpath he’d been collecting. Funny little characters aren’t they.

Now I’ve become obsessed with taking vintage women and tattooing them. Not actual bodies – just pictures. I reckon they’re pretty hot.

still standing June 10, 2007

Telling your daughter that a flood may be coming seems to be the best way to get her to clean her room. Lizzie spent the afternoon packing a bag of important things to take with her if we were evacuated – that included her camera, ipod, phone. Then she put all her favourite things above waist level. Then, just in case we had to go to an evacuation centre she put on a decent t shirt, did her hair and put on makeup.  I was 99% sure the levy would hold as it is 15 metres high and the river was only due to peak at 14.3 metres (as long as we didn’t get any sudden rain). So I listened to the SES report at 11pm then went to bed. (I did leave my bra on, just in case I had to make a sudden dash). So I’m in bed with the light off and Kimba storms in and says – you can’t just go to bed like normal. And I said – what do you want me to do. And she said – I don’t know, sit up on the lounge all night. Bugger that – not like I can stop the water coming. I did wake up a couple of times through the night and tap my toe on the floor just to see if there was water there. One lady rang up the radio this morning and said they still had 6 feet of water in their house. Some people spent the night sleeping in their roof space. Today the place is mad – helicopters around and people everywhere having a sticky beak. There are actually traffice jams due to all the cars driving around looking. There is not a loaf of bread around. We got the last 6 bread rolls from the bakery. It has been an amazing few days. Stories of people surviving being washed away in creeks, stormwater drains and cars are being heard a lot. It’s a wonder more people weren’t killed.

These are the lonely netball courts.

If you haven’t seen the pasher bulker on newcastle beach – it’s worth a look. Amazing

http://www.flickr.com/photos/814carthage/535799852/

well, I really don’t want to get flooded out June 9, 2007

but the river is rising very fast. And it’s not expected to peak until midnight. Which gives me visions of stepping out of bed in the middle of the night to go to the toilet and being up to my knees in water. You wouldn’t believe that so much rain could fall so hard for so long.  People have been washed away, animals lost, boats washed onto the beach, cars abandoned, schools closed. And by boats I mean huge coal ships.  I sent daz to the school at lunchtime to get lizzie yesterday as it would have been too miserable to be there and he said it was like there’d been a bomb blast. People running around, knee high water, girls crying. More storms are about to come. Maybe I should start putting things up on the cupboards. This house has already been flooded once. It only came half way up the walls but I absolutely refuse to get on the roof at midnight. And I’d also like to say that being in a cyclone must be one of the most terrifying things you could experience. Last night here was so windy and it was a bit scary – can’t imagine what a cyclone would feel like. Apparently we have 12 hours more storm weather about to hit. Oh well, I’ve wanted new carpet for a while now.

two disappointing experiences today June 8, 2007

First one was when I went to put jam on my toast and found it to be full of dirty butter bits that people have wiped off in there. I don’t eat jam much but I wanted to try a bit of that new crumpet toast. Well, I just got the knive and stirred it violently until the butter blended through. Second was when I went to the toilet and the person before me left the toilet paper roll empty. Don’t worry – not totally empty. There was still that little bit thats glued to the roll there. There is good news today though – I’ve had a brain wave regarding my nude vintage ladies so I’m off to mess around with them. Now these guys aren’t wearing their self supporting pants. But they do have their levi flares. And they have skivvies. Nice placement of the chick as well.

I’m counting calories again……. June 5, 2007

Because I need to do that every now and then just to remind myself how much a PORTION really is.  And a portion is REALLY small. So I have this programme on the computer and you put in every thing you eat throughout the day and it adds it all up for you. Calories, fat, protein, carbs etc. So I find the best thing to do, is as soon as you wake up, tally in any wine and cake you want to eat that day, then squeeze in any extras, like lunch and dinner. Oh I’m  just joking, I don’t eat cake. But it is a real eye opener to see how much fat and calories are in various things. So when you feel your pants getting a bit tight – count your calories. Of course if you have a pair of self supporting pants you may not need to. I wonder what that actually means. I have a vision of them just standing in the corner after you take them off. He certainly looks very confident in them though.

elsie goes grunge June 4, 2007

Where do all the unspoken words go? Well I was wondering this (because I saw the nescafe ad and all the words are floating down drains etc etc) and I thought, I could combine that with the next elsie challenge, which was to use someone elses handwriting. And because I follow the rules in a very very abstract way I’m using mia’s scribblings. I don’t actually know mia. I got them from dafont. I love dafont.com – you could stay lost in there for months and happily fill your computer with thousands of fonts. So here you go – Use Someone Elses Handwriting. Thanks Mia.