Foggy Winter Morning

How interesting to wake up this morning to find thick fog blanketing our town!

Shags leaving the river mouth in the fog.

At 7.15am, Adoring Husband and I grabbed our cameras and headed down to the river.  We rushed around taking as many photos as possible, fully expecting that the fog would lift before 8am.  How wrong we were!

A beautiful cobweb above the rocks on the bank of the river.

It was almost 10am before it finally lifted, so we had lots of opportunities right along the bank and then out to the beach to get some interesting photos.

The first time the fog attempted to lift, it provided this beautiful white arch touching the water.

The fog tried to lift two or three times during those three hours, but just as we caught a glimpse of the blue sky, the fog closed in again!

 After the fog closed in for the second time.

There were a good number of people out and about with their cameras, so sometimes it was difficult to take a clear shot without other photographers in view.

A mother kangaroo and the joey in her pouch.  Always an exciting find! 

I think our favourite moment of the morning, was finding this kangaroo with a joey in her pouch.  Unfortunately, the grass was so long that in most shots, it obscured our view of the joey, but I was lucky enough to get a couple of clear-ish photos.

So that was a lovely start to our day.  We finished the day by having a few drinks with friends around a bonfire on an empty block two houses away from us.

It's a very cool night and the fire was great (who doesn't enjoy sitting outside around a fire on a clear, starry night?) but even I began to feel chilled after a couple of hours, so I snuck home and found my warm slippers to thaw out my icy toes!

Now it's time to curl up in bed for some more sleep and I hope that tomorrow brings some more interesting photographic opportunities.

I could possibly spend some quality time snapping away at my Chicklet, instead of relying on Vegan Chickie to take all the great baby shots!

I might just stay snuggled up in bed if it's another foggy Winter morning!

  

Gilligan's Island Theme Song

Day 8 - A song I know all the words to. (Gilligan's Island theme song)

Briefly ... before I turn into a pumpkin.

It's late.  I'm tired.

I've had things to do, people to see, places to go, photos to take, modules to study, baby sign language to learn, sick Adoring Husbands to tend to, programs to install and granddaughters to cuddle!

It was a nice evening with friends at the Bowls Club tonight.  I won $160 on Keno.  We had our own personal taxi service in the Bare-chested Chef, who made himself available to take us there and then unexpectedly have to pick us up.  He's a good man.

I'm looking forward to placing my head on the pillow tonight and drifting off to attend to some sweet dreams.

I apologise for this token effort and I hope to make up for it tomorrow, but it's after midnight and I feel myself turning into a pumpkin!

Good night to all and to all a good night :o)

Mac Davis -- It's Hard To Be Humble

Day 7 - A song that reminds me of a certain event. Mac Davis - It's hard to be humble (Dad's favourite song played at his funeral)

The Age of 'Planking'!

The first time that I heard the term 'planking' was on facebook a few weeks ago, when somebody complained about a young man being arrested for 'planking' on a police car.  I had to Google it!

I found this description.

The lying down game (also known as planking, or face downs) is an activity, popular in Asia, consisting of lying face down in an unusual or incongruous location. The hands must touch the sides of the body, and having a photograph of the participant taken and posted on the internet is an integral part of the game. Players compete to find the most unusual and original location in which to play. The location should also be as public as possible, and as many people as possible should be involved.

Personally, I can't see the attraction, but in my youth, I probably would have joined in.  I don't think there is any harm in it as long as they aren't putting themselves or others in danger.

Planking on balcony rails, train tracks or light poles is probably, in my opinion, not such a good idea.

Last weekend my 77 yr old male friend, whom I shall call Tweedle Dum (for the obvious reasons), went on a day train trip with a bunch of other locals.  The tour included morning tea and lunch and it was a good, fun group that went along.

Somehow, a conversation sprung up about 'planking'.  During the course of that conversation, one of the ladies dared Tweedle Dum to 'plank' NAKED, on the 'seat of knowledge' at the boat ramp.

Knowing the lady who made the dare, I can just imagine how this conversation transpired.  She is loud and colourful and funny and full of laughter.

I wonder how many strangers were on the same carriage and had to listen to the raucous laughter from the group!

Anyway, Tweedle Dum wholeheartedly accepted the dare, and it was agreed that he would 'plank' NAKED on the following Tuesday morning.

(I agree!  Naked planking does NOT conjure a pretty picture!)

He made the announcement to all and sundry on Monday morning and I suggested that I cancel my water aerobics so that I could attend the 'planking' with my camera to take the photo, which I would then post onto facebook!

He agreed.  I warned that if I cancelled my aerobics and he chickened out, that I would be very upset and he would be in big trouble!

He promised that he would complete the dare!

I didn't believe him.

I went to aerobics.

He DIDN'T complete the dare AND he blamed ME because I wasn't there!

I wasn't even part of the original deal!!

So now he refuses to reschedule the 'planking', saying that we had our chance and we blew it!  The other ladies are desperately trying to change his mind.

Perhaps I can convince him that he will create a new record by being the oldest 'planker' in the history of 'planking'?

If you have any ideas, please let me know.  If we can convince him to finally complete the dare, I will provide tasteful photos to prove that he completed it.

It is the age of 'planking' and we are working on 'planking' for the aged.      

Hush - Glad All Over

Day 6 - A song that reminds me of somewhere (Cross country event at high school 1975 and our group of friends all singing this together)

I Can See!!

Picked up my new glasses today!  Now I can see the 'hot' builders working across the road AND I can read the 'blah blah blah' study pages AND I can look at the river without squinting in the bright sunshine!

I now must purchase a new handbag, (oh what a shame) because I have to carry three glasses cases everywhere with me, along with all the usual paraphernalia!

One for the reading glasses, one for the distance glasses and one for the sunglasses. Oh the joys of being a woman getting older.

I also got the upgraded version of Photoshop.  Not a big fan of Photoshop, but it's required in my studies, so I don't have a big choice in the matter.  

It's also been suggested that I acquire some 'noise cancelling' headphones!  That would be for study purposes only of course ... unless Adoring Husband gets that verbal diarrhoea thing happening and they might come in handy for that too!  hehehe

Gotta share my new favourite photo of Chicklet with you today.  The photo was taken by Vegan Chickie while sharing some play time in the hammock one morning recently.

Little Chicklet is growing up so fast!  She's so happy and so cute!  This photo makes me smile every time I look at it :o) 

Well, I have a home made vegetarian pizza with my name on it, calling me to the dinner table right now ... made by the best pizza maker in my life ... the Bare-chested Chef!

Now I can even see what I'm eating!!

Muppet Movie - The Rainbow Connection

Day 5 - A song that reminds me of someone (My Mum and Vegan Chickie)

All I can read is blah blah blah!

Ok, so I downloaded the first module in my course and began to read ... but all I could see was 'blah blah blah'.

It's all about the technicalities of cameras.  Lens sizes.  Mega pixels.  Format sizes.  Focal length.  Eighty eight pages of 'blah blah blah'.

I hope it's like golf when you play the first hole and you play like crap.  It's a good thing to get the crap out of the way straight up, then you go on to the good stuff!

Tomorrow, I pick up my new reading glasses, so perhaps the 'blah blah blah' will make better sense when I can see it more clearly through a new lens!

One thing is certain.  I must find myself a quiet little hideaway to study.  A place where Adoring Husband knows is off limits to all things except my creativity!

There is a time to listen to incessant chatter and there is a time to study ... and never the two shall meet!

We made our way to the river this afternoon so that we could be ready for the sunset if it happened.  It certainly wasn't as fiery as last night, but it was still very pretty.

Tomorrow is looking to being a big day starting with the collection of the new glasses, grocery chopping, replacing some shelving in the new oven, visiting a friend in the afternoon and possibly playing tennis with a new group of ladies, if I can squeeze it in.

I should now get some sleep so that I will be re-generated enough to fit everything comfortably into my day.

All I ask is that when I close my eyes to meet the sandman, I don't see or hear the dreaded 'blah blah blah'!

Michael Jackson - BEN

Day 4 - A song that makes me sad.

I'm Committed!

Well!  I've done it!

This afternoon I enrolled in a Diploma in Photography course!

Adoring Husband and I discussed it a while ago.  He did some research.  I did some investigation into the Professional Photographers who are involved in the course and one of them impressed me so much that I made the decision based on the fact that he is a Guest Tutor with the Institute and runs International Travel Photography Tours.

His name is Chris Mclennan and his photography is amazing and spectacular!  I can only dream about taking photos at his level, but that is my goal!

I actually have two goals.

The other one is to be able to have an intelligent conversation with other photographers using language and jargon that only true photographers can understand!

So I've made the commitment and now I must focus on completing twelve modules and twelve interactive assignments over the coming months.

Speaking of photography... this was the sky about twenty minutes after I signed up for the course.

Such a fiery sky 

If you didn't know any better, you would swear it was a bushfire behind the line of trees.

The crows were cawing to each other 

In actual fact it was a sunset combined with a late afternoon storm.  Quite spectacular!

So now I am committed and hopefully it will only be to study in this course and not into some funny farm sometime down the track!

Wish me luck!

MARVIN GAYE & TAMMI TERRELL "Ain't no Mountain High Enough"

Day 3 - A song that makes me happy!

Some Simple Joys

One of the greatest simple joys in life is sliding between crisp clean sheets when you go to bed at night :o)

I got to experience that joy last night.

For three days, Adoring Husband was confined to bed with a mild flu.  I wanted him to keep his germs away from the rest of the family and he needed to get well quickly so that he could attend a photography workshop in Maleny this weekend.

After he left yesterday morning, I stripped the bed of his germy bedding and replaced it with fresh, crisp, clean bedding.

I had a whole, huge, king-sized bed with clean bedding all to myself last night.  The cold night breeze floating through the windows while I was snuggled up with the doona pulled up to my chin, surrounded by nine pillows and cushions and the serenity of a snore-free environment.

Pure bliss :o)

I should clarify that Adoring Husband's very loud snoring DOESN'T keep me awake at night.  It kind of lulls me to sleep with it's rhythmic vibrations!

Adoring Husband might even comment about some snoring coming out of somebody else's nose and mouth in the bedroom!

As we speak, Adoring Husband is on the road and returning home from his successful workshop weekend and the Bare-chested Chef is preparing to cook dinner tonight ... another of life's simple pleasures ... for me anyway.

One more simple joy experienced today was watching Chicklet laughing and talking with her Mum and Dad.

She is such a happy little girl and the love just bubbles up in everyone when she smiles and talks and does her cute baby stuff.  So cute and pink and chubby!

So, tonight, my sheets will no longer be crisp and fresh and the environment will no longer be snore-free but I hope to have Adoring Husband home safe and sound and I still have the simple joy of Chicklet's happy, sparkling smile :o)  

tammy wynette stand by your man

Day 2 - My least favourite song.

Old vs New

A year ago, and through a good friend,  I met an elderly couple, Toots and Dochs.  Toots is about to turn 80 and Dochs is a couple of years younger.  They are a wonderful couple who I really like a lot.

Their friends and family convinced them to buy a computer and learn about the internet, emailing and Skype.

So they bought themselves a Dell computer and decided to use a pre-paid wireless USB for their internet connection.

They bought all of this in October last year.  Three months later I saw them at our Bowls Club and they asked me if I could visit them and teach them how to send emails and set up Skype for them.

I agreed to this, thinking that it would take me about an hour to show them the basics.

When I arrived at 3pm on a Friday afternoon in January, I discovered that nobody had yet set up an email account for them, nor had their internet connection device been installed.

In the three months since they had purchased everything, they had misplaced some of the information required to set it all up,  so it took some time just to gather that information.

They had prior plans for 4.30 pm that same day, so I arranged to return the following day to finish the job.

I dragged Adoring Husband along the following day, because he is much faster at setting these things up than I.

A few phone calls and a few hours later, we had set up their email accounts and their internet access and downloaded Skype for them.  They invited us to stay for dinner as a 'thank you' and we had a lovely evening getting to know each other.

We gave them a very basic lesson on creating and sending an email and departed, giving them our phone number and telling them to contact us to set up another day for us to visit and give some more lessons on emails and Skyping.

FOUR MONTHS LATER I ran into them again and they told me that they were having trouble sending an email and that it kept giving them an error message.

They had lost our phone number.  So I promised to visit them the following morning (this morning) and check it out for them.

They had attempted to send this email two months ago!

It took ninety minutes over the phone, for the internet service provider to discover that the USB stick provided for the internet connection was faulty!  Luckily, it's still under warrantee and they will get a replacement.

So next week, I will be paying them ANOTHER visit to get this sorted.  ***sigh***

It's such a shame that they have encountered so many problems along the way.  We tell them how simple it all is and how happy they will be to have easy access to their friends and family through emails and Skype ... but then it takes months of obstacles along the way.

I can understand why the older generation are afraid of this technology.

Toots found great pleasure in the fact that the new connection is being sent via snail mail ... "because it's a good old fashioned service that doesn't let you down!"

If it was painful for you to read this post ... imagine how painful this task has been for me!!  Just wanted to share the load and I'd really appreciate some positive energy to be sent in my direction so that next week, it will all be finished without any more challenges to overcome!

Thank you for your time :o)

Queen - 'Bohemian Rhapsody'

Day 1  -  My Favourite Song

More Difficult Than You'd Imagine

Because I have spent the last few hours of my time trying to find a song for Day 15 on this list, my brain is too tired to focus on a new post, so at the suggestion of Vegan Chickie, I am sharing this challenge with you, so that you can share it with your friends and family, or just challenge yourself!

The thirty day song challenge.

Find the YouTube video as well as listing the name of the song and the name of the band.

Day 1     - Your favourite song.
Day 2     - Your least favourite song.
Day 3     - A song that makes you happy.
Day 4     - A song that makes you sad.
Day 5     - A song that reminds you of someone.
Day 6     - A song that reminds you of somewhere.
Day 7     - A song that reminds you of a certain event.
Day 8     - A song that you know all the words to.
Day 9     - A song that you can dance to.
Day 10   - A song that makes you fall asleep.
Day 11   - A song from your favourite band.
Day 12   - A song from a band that you hate.
Day 13   - A song that is a guilty pleasure.
Day 14   - A song that no-one would expect you to love.
Day 15   - A song that describes you.
Day 16   - A song that you used to love but now hate.
Day 17   - A song that you hear often on the radio.
Day 18   - A song that you wish you heard on the radio.
Day 19   - A song from your favourite album.
Day 20   - A song that you listen to when you're angry.
Day 21   - A song that you listen to when you're happy.
Day 22   - A song that you listen to when you're sad.
Day 23   - A song that you want to play at your wedding.
Day 24   - A song that you want to play at your funeral.
Day 25   - A song that makes you laugh.
Day 26   - A song that you can play on an instrument.
Day 27   - A song that you wish you could play.
Day 28   - A song that makes you feel guilty.
Day 29   - A song from your childhood.
Day 30   - Your favourite song at this time last year.

At first glance, this challenge looks fun and interesting, but on closer inspection and under pressure, some of these songs are really quite difficult to think of!

So, I challenge you ... it's more difficult than you'd imagine!

QUEENSLANDER!!!

Wahoo!!  My team won State of Origin last night!!  CHAMPIONS!  One game down, two to go!

Adoring Husband had spent the day in bed with flu and just to make it worse, he barracks for the opposition!

I fed him up on home-made chicken soup, hot honey and lemon, freshly squeezed orange juice, olive leaf extract and Vitamin C tablets.  He is improving quickly :o)

I would like to take this opportunity to offer my commiserations **snigger snigger** and I wish you the best of luck in the next game.

Although he should be familiar with that losing feeling ... after all, we have won five years in a row now **cheesy grin**

My morning at the 'Seat of Knowledge' was quite glorious.  I thought the weather was beautiful, but the locals were all wearing gloves, jackets, scarves and beanies.  I was wearing a sleeveless top and three-quarter length shorts.  I am often questioned about my unusual body temperature.

The tide going out created a beautiful sand tree on the shore.

In the early morning light, some fishermen preparing to go out for a day of fishing.

The old 'Moon River' boat, usually moored up river, but out for the day for the first time in three years.  Looking in need of some TLC!

But more importantly .. QUEENSLAND WON STATE OF ORIGIN LAST NIGHT!!  CHAMPIONS!!

QUEENSLANDER!!!!

(Sorry Darling.  I hope your health is back to normal soon.)

That Time Again

Today does not just mark the first State of Origin football game.  It also marks the sixth anniversary of my Mum's passing.  She would have been 71 yrs old this year.

She was a HUGE football fan and followed her beloved Brisbane Broncos team with a lot of passion.  She was an even bigger fan of State of Origin football and was a 'true blue' Queenslander.

We all lived hundreds of kilometres apart, so if we weren't at the stadium watching the game live, Mum, Squirt (my little sister) and I were in our respective living rooms watching it live on telly and texting vigorously every time our team scored or whenever we were annoyed at the referee decisions.

At the end of the games, we would phone each other and squeal and cheer loudly if we'd won or we'd moan and groan with disgust if we'd lost.

It was at the very end of the first State of Origin game in 2005 that my mother died suddenly of a heart attack in her lounge chair.  There was no phone call that night and no response to my last text message.

Our favourite photo of Mum when she was about 16 yrs old.

So, as much as we love State of Origin time, the first game every year is tinged with sadness as we remember our lovely Mum.

This year, for me, is even sadder and I've struggled with my emotions today.

I miss her more than ever because we have little Chicklet.  Mum would have loved being a Great Grandmother and would be spoiling Chicklet rotten by now.

I imagine that she would have been here in my living room this year for the first State of Origin game, because Vegan Chickie, the Bare-chested Chef and Chicklet have just moved back to Australia and she would have been here quick smart to cuddle our new baby.

So, since it's that time again, I'll be wearing my State of Origin gear tonight and, as usual, waving the flag for Queensland, but wishing we were all together as a big happy family sharing the love for the game and for each other.

Me, flying the flag 

A Plethora of Parties

I had a movie day with the ladies today.  Four of us (Beauty, Mrs V,  Lady Lynne and I) went to aqua aerobics and then met Kaz afterwards for morning tea, before making our way to the cinema.

(left to right) Lady Lynne, Age, Aussie H, Kaz and Beauty (No Mrs V in this one)

We watched 'Water For Elephants', which stars one of my favourite actors, Rob Pattinson, and we really enjoyed it, although we were all very disturbed by the animal cruelty and the evil main character.

There seems to be a run of good movies coming to the cinema, so I might be spending a bit of time there in the next few weeks.

We're looking forward to a couple of parties coming up in our near future.

I thought I would post some photos of parties that we've held or attended over the last two years.  The first party that Adoring Husband and I hosted was a 'P' party, four months after we moved here.

We had a pirate, pyjama girl, pregnant school girl, priest, painter, proctologist, pensioner, punk and a princess among others.

We've had dinner parties, a karaoke party, New Years Eve parties etc etc etc.

Aussie H and I at Karaoke

A sixties/seventies party.

A bit of effort for 60s/70s (that's me with the margarita!)

A sports party.

Woman of Many Talents and I pretending to be at the race track and bowling.

Christmas party

Kaz and her Mum having fun with Santa (who looks suspiciously like Adoring Husband)

A dinner party.

A dinner party that turned musical as the alcohol flowed.

A sixtieth birthday party.

The one with the tiara turned 60.

That's just a few of our parties.  Generally speaking, a good time was had by all.  We drank, we ate, we danced, we laughed, we sang and we got to know each other.

After such a plethora of parties, I'm starting to believe that less is more, because I just don't have the energy to keep up with the weekly parties anymore.