Hypothetically

So.... let's play a little game of pretend. Ok?

Just say, you were married to someone who loved shoes. Like, LOVED shoes. And generally you tolerated that um... obsession because generally she, oops I mean the person you're married to, keeps the shoe-buying down to a reasonable level. But sometimes she, oops I mean the person you're married to, just can't resist the sales and buys some shoes completely forgetting that she already had one pair on order (they had to come in from another store) and then remembers and collects them as well and ends up bringing home more than one pair. Exactly (and be specific here people!) how many pairs would it take before you became a little less tolerant and little more annoyed?

Just, you know, hypothetically speaking...

29 Years Later...

Way back in the dark ages when I was in Year 8 (the first year of high school here in WA) I discovered a little thing called 'popular music'. Prior to that I was fairly much at the mercy of my parents whims and musical tastes - we can blame them for my love of Abba, my love of Elvis Presley lies firmly with my mother and my hatred of country music can be held up to my dad who inflicted our poor ears with the likes of Charley Pride. But when I started high school I discovered different radio stations, different styles of music and Countdown. Holy Moly!

And one of my true loves from... um.... 1984 was Duran Duran. To say I LOVED them would be an understatement. I lived and breathed them. Ok, there were other bands I loved too, but no-one came close to being as... well, pretty. There. You have it. I was totally superficial in my musical taste. So long as the band was pretty I was theirs for the taking. But Duran Duran posters covered my bedrooms walls (the Karate Kid was on my ceiling!), their pictures were glued to my school books and files and I wore those tiny little pin badges that were so darn popular back them.

And finally I got to see them live on Saturday night. Yep, 29 years after I fell in love with them they came to Perth and I was both old enough to go and could actually afford the tickets. I can't say that the show entirely lived up to my expectations and must totally admit that all these years later I can only remember a few of their songs but Hubby and I got a date night - we double dated with the former across the roads and had a lovely night out -  I got to live out one of my teenage dreams and, just quietly, I still think the guys are kinda hot. Here are some of the pics:

Picnic Dinner

Me and my honey

Glow stick bracelets - thoughtfully supplied by Hubby. But they didn't help us find the boys when we came back from the toilets. Seems that everyone else had the same clever idea. In the end I had to ring Hubby and then we found them 'cos they were killing themselves laughing that we couldn't find them. Mostly because they were, literally, right under our noses.

OMG! Duran Duran!!

OMG OMG!! John Taylor!!!

And Simon Le Bon! Actually, I never really fancied him but still... OMG Simon Le Bon!!

And this lady kept a great crowd of us entertained with her very enthusiastic dancing.

All. Night. Long.

Really?

This is Offpring #2's version of, "Yes, my room is clean and tidy."

And sadly, this is in fact a whole heap better than it had been. Yes. Really.

What a Palaver

I love that word. Palaver. I love it almost as much as I love Brouhaha. And Guddle. Ah, the joys of having a Scottish great-grandmother and and an Irish boss. I just chuck all those words about with wild abandon and don't really care if anyone knows what I'm on about!

But anyway, today's palaver (which basically means fuss and carry-on) came about because I needed to have some more blood tests done. They're a bit specialised so I couldn't have them at the local pathology lab all of seven minutes away from home so I dropped the kids at school and drove the 30 minutes to the lab that could do them. Then I waited 40 minutes. Then they came out and told me that, actually, two of the tests the doctor wanted done couldn't be done there. Apparently they were extra special tests and they could only be done at the lab's head office. In the city.

So then came another 30 minute drive followed by several laps of the block as I attempted to find parking. Luckily I only had to wait about 10 minutes and then the nice lab lady (she was very nice, really) took many, many vials of my blood. And then I drove another hour to get home again.

So what was supposed to be a quick run across the hill and back and should have taken just over an hour ended up being at trek round the countryside and sucked up my whole morning.

But... I didn't get lost. Not even once!

What Are You Reading?

I don't know about you, but some weeks I struggle to find anything I want to read.

This isn't one of those weeks...

I read The Hunger Games earlier in the week. It only took a few chapters to completely pull me in. Then I went back to the shop yesterday and bought the second and third books in the trilogy. And read them both. Yesterday.

And now Hubby is totally refusing to listen to my "I'm tired and my eyes hurt" whining. He says that if I got up and put my glasses on when I picked up the first book, and maybe didn't read the second book the same day, and definitely didn't stay up till after midnight so I could finish it then perhaps my eyes wouldn't hurt and I wouldn't be so tired. And while I can see that he might, just maybe, have a point I can't let him know that!

No Pain, No Gain

Although I'm aiming for loss rather than gain really!

Now that I'm starting work a little later I'm managing to walk six days of the week. Yup. six! This week I added squats back into the mix.

It would be fair to say that my thighs are in a whole world of pain.

Next week I'm adding crunches and push ups. And then the world of pain is gonna be even bigger. But I'll be getting smaller. Well, that's the plan anyway.

More Monday Randomness

It struck me that my Monday posts generally end up being a string of random musings. And this week? Well it's no different...

We've just hobbled through a heatwave here in the west. Apparently you need three consecutive days over 35C for it to be considered a heatwave - despite the official temps being a few degrees cooler than what I recorded we well and truly went above and beyond the 35C. Saturday saw the temp on the back deck hit 41, Sunday only reached 39.5 and today I felt every one of the 43 degrees that were showing when I got back from down the hill a little after midday. And that, my lovelies, is HOT!!! Thank goodness it's only supposed to be 32C tomorrow, I think we'll all be pretty happy to have a cool change.

I responded to something on a forum last week and stirred up a little bit of backlash. I was planning to write a whole post about forums and the things I really dislike about them but... well, it all seemed a bit negative and whiny and now I've lost the momentum. That said, I'm sure another forum will annoy me enough again shortly to make me actually write that post.

I'm in the process of organising Hubby's 40th birthday present. It'll take something pretty darn impressive to top the party he threw for me plus the gorgeous presents plus the surprise plane ticket to Queensland. But I think I might just have come up with something that fits the bill. Oh yeah! Now I just have to get it to all come together and pull the whole thing off. And not tell him. Because I kinda suck at keeping secrets from him. So that'll be interesting LOL.

Did I tell you that my work hours have changed a bit? I get to start later, which is great because that means I get to fit in a walk each day, the mornings are less of a rush (I even get a few chores done before I leave) and I get to take the kids to school each day. But that means I finish later. In theory that should mean I get home later. And it does, but not a whole lot later. Because I leave work a bit later I miss the peak of peak hour and actually spend less time on the road. And because I get home later Hubby has taken over the cooking for our midweek dinners. Win, win, win!

So what's happening in your pocket of the world? I haven't had any comments for ages so I'd really love if someone would tell me what they've been up to lately. Yep,  I'm reduced to shameless begging. Shocking, I know.

It's Gratituesday Again

I am very grateful to have had a really positive conversation with Offspring #1's teacher today - #1 is having a few difficulties at school at the moment and it was great to get a good response, hear a plan of action and then have #1 come home happy that something is being done. I don't think it will bring about a miracle fix but it's a start.

The Long Weekend...

went too fast.

We had friends to dinner, Hubby took an overnight fishing trip, the kids and I went to the lake and we sweltered with temps in the high 30's (around 100 for you lot in the U.S.). I fitted in an afternoon nap, lost count of how many loads of washing were done, caught up on last week's episode of Revenge - man, I am loving that show - and got some more work done on a fundraising project that I'm working on for the kids' school. Right now I have this sausage hotpot in the slow cooker and I'm avoiding the overflowing ironing basket.

Here's the Pear Tartlet we had for dessert the other night. They were totally delicious and received lots of compliments. They're from Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals but mine took a bit longer because I didn't have the pre-prepared bits his recipe called for so I did the whole lot from scratch. And yes, I'll do it from scratch again.

And here are the kids at the lake. With their swimming noodles. Don't ask. Offspring #1 was still exclaiming at the chill factor of the water in this shot while Offspring #2...

... well, he's trying to make farting sounds by blowing into the hole in the middle of the noodle. It's a boy thing. 

And here's a totally random photo of the sky. Just because it was a beautiful shade of blue, with fluffy clouds and I love the gum trees around the lake.

Dining In

We've got the former across-the-roads coming to dinner tonight and, while it was a spur of the moment invitation, I've got some yummy stuff happening in the kitchen.

We'll be eating Herb and Mustard BBQ'd Chicken and some bbq patties that I picked up at the butcher yesterday. I've got a new bread recipe for Seeded Loaf that's rising on the bench and is about to go into the oven. The I'm going to throw together a salad and get some garlic roasted potatoes into the oven. And for dessert I'm trying a PeartTartlet recipe that's part-Jamie Oliver, part-Mandi's imagination. I'll be sure to take some photos.

 Well, as long as they all turn out okay that is!