All that Glitters.....

It didn't rain! It didn't rain! For the first time in a looooooooong time it didn't rain on my weekend off! Yesterday (Saturday) was sunny and hot and nice and wonderful. It was so nice that it wasn't smashing rain. I took the train into the city in the afternoon to do some sight seeing and then see the Mardi Gras (Gay Pride) parade. It was a good day.

I took the train to the city and walked to Darling Harbour. Darling Harbour is a very touristy area and is usually a hub of activity both during the day and in the night. I went to the visitor centre because I wanted to get a few maps. Turns out I need a damn map to find the stupid visitor centre. It was so hard to find! Once I found it it proved to be pretty useless anyway. I had high hopes because the one in Melbourne was so awesome and I got a lot of good information from it. I didn't find much at this one. But I did get a small map of around the harbour area, which was good enough for the day. I actually lucked in because they were having the Chinese New Year dragon boat races in the harbour. So I was able to sit and watch some of those for a while. Then I decided to take a trip on the monorail. Every time I think of the monorail I think of the Simpsons, hehe. So I walked up to the Harbourside monorail station and bought myself a daypass for $9.50. With the day pass you can get on and off the monorail as many times as you want for the whole day, so I figured it would be worth the money. I took the monorail from Harbourside to Paddy's Market. Paddy's Market is a really big indoor market not unlike the Parklea Market that I go to beside the house. I walked around a bit, but not a whole lot. I bought a bag and a cheap pair of sunglasses, and then headed back to the monorail. I was going to take it to Chinatown. So I flashed my pass and sat down on the bench to wait for the train, which runs every 3-5 mins. I sat and I waited.......and I waited......and then I looked at my watch, then I wondered where the hell the train was. Then the ticket guy made an announcement that the train was shut down for now and to proceed to the ticket counter for refunds. I was dissapointed but when to get my money back. Then the fellow behind the counter told me that they weren't refunding day passes. To which I replied "The hell you aren't!" You see I had only had my day pass for one hour and had used it once, so I feel that I was indeed entitled to my money back. After a breif argument the ticket agent told me that he couldn't give me back all of the money because I already used it. So he gave me back $8.75! I guess that is the cost of a power trip these days 75 cents, lol. I figured if it made him feel better to keep my 75 cents then he could go ahead and sleep that night, lol.

After that I headed over to Chinatown on foot. Lucky for me they were having a market there too! I am a sucker for a good market and cheap shit :). So I strolled through the people having a look at all the interesting things. I saw one guy making noodles, and that was pretty cool, and I just looked around the area. I walked around Chinatown a bit, but didn't go too far, then I headed towards the Chinese Gardens. I walked through Tumbalong Park and took a few pictures, and looked at the Ibis' in the park. Then I went to the gate of the gardens. That is as far as I got was the gate for you see, it costs $10 to enter the Chinese Gardens. So I was unwilling to pay this price to look at a garden that should be free so I snapped a few pics of the koi in the pond and a couple of pagodas and carried on. I walked around a bit more, stopped and had a beer and then headed toward the parade route.

Well Sir! They had said on the radio to get there early because of all the people. So since I am fron the land of hardly any people I figured if I got there around sixish that I would be good. The parade didn't start until 7:45pm. I figured it would be along wait on the side of the road, but worth it to have a front row seat for the parade. Boy oh boy how wrong was I! I waited for Chris and Anna (A German nanny and her boyfriend) so we didn't end up on the parade route until 6:20ish. There were so many people that I couldn't even see the road. There were at least 4 or more rows of people infront of us on each side of the road. The estimated about 100,000 people to show for the event, but it was wayyyyy more then that I think. So I ended up paying $10 for a stool to stand on to see the parade. It was good because we found a spot that we could see very well on the stools, although by the end my legs and feet killed from standing up on that thing. It was still over and hour befor the parade even started so we sat down and chatted while we waited. The Dykes on Bikes kicked off the parade with a wonderful ride through on their motorcycles. The crowd really erupted for them and they really kicked up the energy level that is for sure. The energy at the parade was awesome! Everyone was there to have a good time. Once the parade started it was a cornucopia of lights, glitter, sequence, dance music and screaming. It was great! I love love loved that floats and all the costumes. They really put a lot of hard work into it, that is for sure. We watched the different displays go by and enjoyed all the hype. There was even a Canadian Mountie carrying a Canadian flag! We left before the parade had ended in order to beat the thousands of people to the train. Plus I was glad we left when we did because things were starting to turn. I saw glass being thrown, tons of drunk people, the riot squad going somewhere in a hurry and a bus with a slashed tire. I think it was best we got the hell outta dodge before things got ugly. So I took the train home and climbed into bed.

Today is Sunday and very shortly I am heading back into the city to check into my hostel for the night. I had to find accomodation for the night because tomorrow is by big naked photo sesh. The only thing is I have to be there at 4am! I am sooooo not looking forward to that part, but I think it will all be an experience. I will let you all know how it goes.

Peace!

Beaches and Wildlife, Port MacQuarie Continued.

After Saturday night's fish and chips, we went for a stroll through a hot-rod show and then for a walk along the boardwalk by the water. The hot-rods were nice, and there were a lot of nice trucks and cars there that people had put a lot of time and money into. Gramp really liked looking at the old restored cars. Maybe it brought him back to the old days when he drank and ate meat and had a whoopin good time. We checked out the cars and then walked along the boardwalk, which turned out to be a good little trek, to the end by town beach. All along the walkway there are big boulders, as you would see in a lot of beaches. Except the city has allowed people to paint on these rocks. It is really cool to see all the art work along the way. There is art work from all around the world, in dozens of different languages, and for many different things. Some were done by couples celebrating their new love, some were done by families representing their togetherness, there were many memorial ones, and lots of inspirational quotes and sayings. I thought this was a great idea and many of these messages will be there for a long time to come. We headed back as it started to get dark.

The next day was Sunday aka camel riding day! We had breakfast, which was lovely! All the fresh fruit they had made for a wonderful breakfast. After a little while we all headed out to Lighthouse beach. I am unsure why they call it lighthouse beach because I didn't see not even one lighthouse. It was a really nice beach, and much like the other beaches I have seen here, it had white sand and blue blue water. A picture of paradise really. I wish we had lots of beaches like this around home. It really lifts your spirits when you go to a place like this. The waves were crashing the sun was shining and there was a cool breeze coming off the water. Although the cool breeze wasn't so pleasant smelling. Gramp told me why. They had a storm not that long ago which would have pulled out lots of seaweed and things from where it was growing. Now it was sitting out there on the surface of the water rotting in the sunlight. That was the smell. Rotting seaweed. It really did smell bad, but it was tolerable for the camel experience. We had to wait for the camels to get back to the beach so that we could have our ride. It wasn't long, but long enough for me to go off on my own for a few minutes and look at some rocks and things. I found some neat shells with great colours. Then I saw the camels heading up the beach so I hustled back for my turn. As it turned out there was no one else for that ride so Peter and Charli got to come with me for free. Then a teenage couple showed up last minute so they went to. It was great! The camels came and lied down and I had to use a step to get up on the saddle. Once I was on the camel just stood up like he was ready to go. It is a hell of an angle that they toss you around at when they get up. I don't know quite how to explain it, but the guide told me to lean all the way back and hold on with stiff arms. There were only 4 camels in the train, but it went along really great. I would say that riding a camel is less bumpy then riding a horse. It is a pretty slow back and forth rocking motion which is easy to get the hang of. We strolled along the beach and the guide was telling us about camels and making chit chat with us. When we got to the end he turned the camels around and took some pictures with my camera for me. The shots he took were great. He took some time to tell us about camels in Australia and camels in general. Did you know that Australia has about 1.7 million wild camels? That is a lot of camels! After a breif camel lesson we headed back to the start to meet up with Gran and Gramp again, who were looking after the boys.

After a lovely morning of camel treking we headed to another white sand beach to have a picnic lunch. Boy, if nothing else I sure did eat good this weekend. Gran is like so many Nannas around the world that love to feed you. I sure didn't mind! So we had a big spread of bread, rolls, crackers, fruit, chips, juice, veggies and much more. It was wonderful. I was slightly creeped out by the giant lizards walking around tho. I looked around at some of the people and they just acted like it was normal. Psst! There is a 5 foot lizard on the tree behind your head, ya whacko! The lizards were Goannas. They are big lizards that are common in Australia. They were all over the place! There were big ones, skinny ones, little ones, fat ones they were everywhere you looked and crawling out of the bushes. Gramp said that he has seen them over 7 feet long.....eeep! They are not aggressive lizards and won't attack you unless you provoke it. If you corner it or something then it will attack, as will any wild animal. Gramp says that when they attack they can do some serious damage with not only their claws but their mouth as well. I was sure to stay clear of them all. Although one came really close to us, I stayed very still ;). I didn't want Canadian to be on the menu for the day. Also while we were picnicing the funniest thing happened. There were two men barbequing sausages on one of the public barbeques. They seemed as tho they were not the sharpest fellas around. One guy walked away for a minute to put something in the trash and called to the other one from the trash can. The other man, who was tending the BBQ turned and answered the othere man. A kookaburra sitting in the tree dived down and snatched one of their sausages and flew off with it. The man at the trash can hollered out and alerted the other guy about the meat snatching bird. The man looked at the BBQ and saw, that indeed, a kookaburra had taken one of their lunches. Then the kookaburra came back around and sat in a tree behind the man with his new prize in his mouth. One man said to the other "Look there is that damn bird." Both men turned to look at the kookaburra sittig and taunting them with their lunch in it's beak, when a second kookaburra came from the original tree, swooped down and snatched another sausage! They men were pissed! Boy you sure could hear those kookaburras laughing at the gulable men with no lunch! Haha it was like a scene from a disney movie or something, lol. After lunch I explored the beach a bit and took a few pictures before we headed back to the house for the evening.

Sunday evening I went for a walk to see if I could see a Koala. They have wild Koalas in the bush around the area where Gran and Gramps house is, and Gramp told me about how you can often see them in the trees. I walked all around with my nose in the air checking every fork of every tree that I cam across, but alas no Koalas were sighted. I will see a koala before I leave Australia, but it would have been nice to see a wild one. I did however get to see a wonderful sunset. On top of a hill I could see over all the houses and trees and watched the sun set over the mountains. It was a great way to end the weekend.

On Monday we packed up and headed out early afternoon. The drive wasn't so bad seeing as Liam slept for 3 hours of it. I was glad to have this bed again, I surely did miss my comfy queen sized bed. So this week it is back to the grind stone for me. It shouldn't be so bad, I have plans for all this week in the mornings for the boys, and it is a short week anyways. I hope you all enjoyed reading about my camel ride as much as I enjoyed doing it. I have a feeling that this weekend will be filled with adventure of some sort so I will keep you posted. You can check out my facebook for all the pictures from this weekend.

Gran and Gramp's Place

I am back from my weekend with the family at Port MacQuarie. It was good, and Gran and Gramp are always super nice. The drive up wasn't too bad. I wasn't feeling the greatest so I was feeling a bit more irritable then usual. This is not a good thing when you know you are going to be trapped in the back seat of an SUV with a 3 year old and an 19month old, so I made good use of my MP3 player. We stopped in a dinky little town for lunch, but it was still a very long drive. I was very glad to arrive at Gran and Gramps despite the house smelling of old people and being surrounded by knick knacks and Jesus plaques. I was taken to my room for the weekend, which is a little room off their sun room. It was nice to have a fair sized room away from the entire rest of the house. Some may have read into that, but I looked at it as a great thing. Then I looked at my bed. I was quite sure that this was the smallest bed known to mankind. I think they might have bigger beds in prison. I took a picture, but it really does not do it justice. This bed was only about an inch wider then the width of my body on each side. Now I know I am not a skinny minny, but I ain't no heffer either. I am not even going to go into the fact that it was much too short as well. I sat down on this mini bed for a moment, and as you would expect if your name rhymes with Blessica Goreeeny, the thing was rock friggin hard. Oh well I thought, at least you have a bed in a room by yourself on the other end of the house. I wasn't so sure what the sleeping accomodations would be like because I had never been to Gran and Gramp's house before. That night I slept on the tiny bed, and I rolled over and almost fell off. I slept like crap and was up super ass early. Surprisingly for a coupld of oldies Gran and Gramp are not up at the crack of dawn like most others I have known. Then at breakfast Sylvia was making chit chat (as she loves to do about anything, anyone, anytime) and she was telling me about how she had the kids beds set up in the sitting room. She told me that the pads they were sleeping on were the back to my bed and when it is set up it is like a couch, blah blah blah. Then she casually said "That bed you are sleeping on comes apart into a double bed." I beg your pardon Gran! What the hell did you just say!?! If it comes apart into a double bed why they hell was I perched up ontop of peak of the worlds tinest bed!?! After breakfast I went back to my room and lifted the sheets. Sure enough this thing did come apart into seperate mats to put on the floor the size of a double bed. I wasn't long taking that thing apart!

Gran and Gramp have a really nice backyard and Russell spends a lot of time in his garden (mainly to stay away from Sylvia's constant flow of words coming out of her mouth I think). It was nice to see all his hard work, and they have lots of fresh fruit to show for it. We had fresh mangos from the tree for breakfast, and this morning I had two passionfruit from the vine on the fence for breakfast. One of the perks to living here is that you can grow things like that all year round. He was putting in beans and things while we were there, and was going to put in some more potatoes. He had many beautiful flowered trees, and it really is a nice place to go and sit. I spent some time out there this weekend sitting under the trees watching the exotic birds and reading. That is one thing that they have a lot of here in Oz, is birds. Lots of different coloured and exotic birds. Gramp loves the different birds, as most old folks do, he has bird feeders and likes to watch them come and go. He told be about the king parrots that come to eat, but I wasn't able to catch any pictures of him this weekend. I did get a picture of two small beautifully coloured parrots at one feeder. Gramp also told me of a Kookaburra that came to eat on the front steps. He told me about how it is a wild bird, but for some reason has taken a shine to him. He goes out in the afternoon and feeds it hamburger (Russell, like me, is a carnatarian. Meaning he doesn't eat meat while he is around the peeps including Sylvia, but does eat meat). On Saturday afternoon I was able to see this, and get some photos. It was really cool how tame this thing was and how close even I got to it to take pictures. Russell just fed it little bits of hamburger, and three more gathered on the ground, but only this one came up on the railing. It was very cool to see a native bird so up close. I don't think I would have see it any better if I went to an aviary.

Saturday was pretty relaxing, and we didn't do much. I went into town in the morning with just Peter and Charli. We walked around a bit and got some milkshakes. It was nice having adult company sans kiddies. Then we went to a church luncheon. Yup you read it correctly. I went to church, but let it be noted that I more or less had no choice, and we got free food, lol. It was much more painless then I thought it would be and that Peter and Charli had the same idea as me get in, eat food, get out. Then we bummed around the house, and I chit chatted with Gramp. He is a great old guy, and I really do like talkin to him. Saturday night we went out for fish and chips. I was pleasantly surprised that Charli suggested this. I didn't know that these people ate fish. Well they all do except Peter, news to me. So we all went out to a fish and chips shop down by the water. I looked at the special board and noticed a special on "2 pieces of fish and chips $14.00" Since everything here is stupidly expensive I figured hey, special it is then, thinking of our two pieces of fish meals at home. Well sir, they called my number and I went to retrieve my meal. To my surprise what they meant to say was "a whole fish, and a shitload of fries $14.00" I was shocked at the amount of food was waiting for me at the counter! This is the best deal I think I have come across, food wise, since I have been here. Although if I knew how much the portion was I wouldn't have ordered it because I couldn't eat all of it. I ate what I could and binned the rest. Then hit the hay early as I knew a camel ride awaited me the next day.

This is all I am going to write for today. I know you all want to hear about the camel ride, but it is getting late, and I am going to bed. I will write about the rest of my weekend and post all the pictures on facebook tomorrow. Thanks for following along. Nighty night!

Hello Again.....

Yes I know, I know I have not posted in over a week. My regular followers have been making me aware of this fact, but really there has been nothing exciting going on around here. I haven't felt like writing anything, so I didn't. Yea I am doing this for you guys to follow along with my adventures, but if the day comes where I don't want to write anymore, or have to force myself then that is the day I end the blog. You see this is as much of a release for me as it is an interesting bit of your week.

So I didn't post at all last weekend because I was so depressed. Last week was so hot, and sunny and I had semi hope for the weekend. The past couple weekends have been horrible horrible rain that has prevented me from doing many things. Actually I thought about it and since I arrived (almost 3 months ago) I have had one sunny weekend to myself. There has been sun through the week, but only one sunny weekend that it did not rain in the 3 months that I have been here. Anyways this past weekend was such a piss off. Come 6 o'clock on Friday evening the clouds rolled in and the rain started pouring. It was if mother nature said, "Oh shit look at the time, it is the start of Jessica's weekend. Let er rip boys, open the flood gates!" Fuckin bitch, who likes that bi-polar hag anyways? So Friday night it poured and poured and poured. I am not talking like rain we get in Canada I am talking rain like you have never seen before. Like flash flooding, bullshit, bounces off the pavement type rain.

On Saturday the kiddos had a birthday party to go to. I was told I was invited as well, to which I replied, "Are you effing kidding! I left my job in daycare to avoid large groups of children. I am not going to voluntarily put myself in among a gaggle of sugar tweaking 4 year olds." Earlier in the week tho, I used my creative skills to whip up a little treat for the boys to impress the birthday girl with. Ya know give them a little edge on the competition. I added the picture of the candy sushi we made for the birthday. They turned out pretty cute. Anyways, so Saturday I was feeling a bit shitty and down because it again was raining. It wasn't beat you silly rain, but raining pretty steady. So what else do you do when you are feeling down? Go get drunk, that's what! Saturday evening I set off for the bottle shop (liquor store) to get some pre bar bevvies, with my umbrella in tow. I said "No, fuck you mother nature you wretched bitch, I will not let your mild rain get me down! No I won't!" To which mother nature replied, " Ya wanna bet!" I made it to the liquor store, which side note I would like to add that the guy that works there Friday and Saturday nights would know me by name already if I bothered to tell him, lol. Anyhow I left the liquor store and started to walk home. Well sir did the rain ever come down! It was raining so hard that the rain drops were actually coming through my umbrella. There were no spaces between rain drops, it was just heavy streams of water coming from the sky. I had to take my shoes off because my feet kept slipping in my flip flops and I would have fell. A few times I stood under a tree with my umbrella up just to get a break for half a second. As I was walking down the side walk, barefoot, looking like a drown rat a young man was pulling out of his driveway. He paused for a second seeing me caught in this awful flash of rain, and looked at me as if to say, "Oh that's a sin, I should give that poor girl a drive." I looked at him as if to say, "Yea ya should!" But alas he continued to pull out and drive away. I trudged on, walking through water rushing down the sidewalk that was over my ankles. Then I saw that same young man double back and stop his car a little ways away from me on the other side of the road. I thought, oh geeze he is going to offer me a ride. You could see the guilt on his face, he felt bad for me as he watched me walk by his warm dry car, but soon after I passed that warm dry car he put her in drive and kept on going. I walked a bit more, then I saw through the wall of water, that same car and man coming towards me, this time on my side of the road. But alas he only stared at me as he drove by, and never did offer me that drive. So I arrived home soaked to my skivies, and peeled off my clothes at the front door (it was a good thing no one was home ;)). Then Saturday night I went to the local club and drank wayyyy too much. I made it home without spending my cab money, and I am pretty sure I didn't walk. None the less I spent Sunday sleeping the day away because I stumbled in the door at about 5:30am.

This week has been average, nothing special to talk about really. Found out from a 3 year old that God wears a wetsuit and has club hands. He also told me that Jesus wasn't very smart for not wearing a life jacket on the boat. To which I replied that it was okay because Jesus can walk on water! lol Other then that it as been pretty average I guess.

Now for my WTF Mate segment of this blog. Today I bring you pre-made pancakes in a bag. Yup that is what I said. You can find these gems in the bread section of your local supermarket, they come six in a bag. Don't be mistaken, these are not like frozen eggos. These are pancakes that someone has made, then put into a plastic bag and now they are sitting on my supermarket shelf. To you Aussies I ask, WTF mate!?! This is one of the grossest things I have ever seen. Who in the world would ever ever buy that shit! I have thought about staking out the grocery store just to catch someone in the act of purchasing this trash. I would ask them what in the world was wrong with their brain, and are they mentally challenged. Pancakes are not hard to make. Flour, eggs, baking powder and milk is just about it. Even if you didn't want to go to the 'trouble' of making them from scratch, they sell mixes for that shit man! Just add water. At least then they are warm and fresh. I know that there are some things that really do taste better the next day, such as Pizza, but Pancakes! Really? I think it is sick, and I have no effing clue why someone would buy these. I guess they figure that since they don't have decent syrup around here why make the effort for the pancakes. I would just go without myself.

Well there you have it, the blog for today. Tomorrow I am off to Port McQuarie with the fam. I wouldn't normally go, but I get a camel ride and soak in the hot tub in exchange, so I will make the trade I guess. I dunno if I will have much internet time while we are there, but I will update you on Monday night when I get home.

A little of this, a little of that

Today was a pretty breezy day I must say. First I went to the mall, then the movies, chatted on facebook and read a few books before supper. Theses are the perks of being an au pair! I took the kiddos shopping for a present for a little girls birthday party on Saturday, then I took them to the Wiggles movie and came home. They napped a while I didn't have much else to do, so I went on the net for a while, and when they got up we chilled read some books and had supper. These are the days that I prefer this to daycare any day.

Yes what you all read on facebook is true. I will be stark naked in front of the Opera House on March 1st, and yep there will be a man with a camera. And no Mom, I am not doing porn! Haha I have signed up to be a part of an artistic photo shoot by an artist named Spencer Tunick. He does photos with hundred of neked people standing around in famous places. I had heard about this taking place in front of the Opera House, and then someone sent me the link for it. So I decided, what the hey! I am here for once in a life time experiences, and I think this qualifies. In return I get a print of the photo I will appear in. You can check out more of Spencer Tunick's work at --> http://www.spencertunick.com

Lastly I decided to share a few things that I see around that are just a bit different then home. First are the birds. I have spoke before about the birds around here but it is still something that I can't get used to. It is really neat to see them flying around and eating in the park. So I took a picture of a few parrots in the grass.

This little turtle was making his way along a T-way (bus only road). He was staying close to the curb and when he saw me coming he ducked his head inside his shell. Since I am the postcard of humanity ;) I thought I should move this little guy so he didn't get smoked by a bus. I was on my way up to Subway for a little din din and found this guy about 150 meters from Subway. I got my sub and walked home. On my way home I couldn't see him anywhere. Who ever said that turtles are slow?

I also wanted to start my new addition to my blog. This new segment is entitled: WTF Mate?? This section will be dedicated to all the things that I look at around here and say "Really? WTF?" So today I give you refuge islands. These things are around all over the place. What they are are a little piece of cement with a space in the middle. What they are used for is crossing the road. Yes that is correct crossing the road! The drivers are so crazy and non-pedestrian friendly that they require these refuge islands for you to cross without being killed. Since they know that the likelyhood of both sides of the road being clear for you to cross or anyone stopping to allow you to cross safely they build these things. You wait for one side to be clear then you run to the middle of the refuge island. You wait here until the other side is clear. The cement prevents the cars from running you down. Thank god for that! So I say WTF mate?? Why is it that you need cement baracades to protect people that choose to walk? Can't you just stop and let them cross? This will never be kosher with me, while I am here. It irks me everytime I have to pray for my life everytime I cross the road.

Gather the animals two by two!

It has been raining non stop all friggin day long! Around 4 o'clock this morning there was another flash flood, and it has been raining steady with heavy periods all day. I guess I could be bummed that my one weekend alone has miserable weather, but I am actually enjoying the quietness, and do-nothingness that I have practiced today. I caught up with a Andrea this morning, and then headed out of a little retail therapy. I bought a present for a friend, and just milled around the shopping centre. I got to talk to my mom for a while, and bought a few things to make dinner with. I am currently sitting on the couch just lounging. I am glad I decided to stay home this weekend. It really gave me a chance to decompress and just relax. This morning I made bacon and eggs and toast for breakfast. I made the whole house smell like bacon, but it was soooo worth it :). Not to worry tho I covered up the bacon smell with seared steak smell this evening for dinner. Some may think that the vegetarians might "puke at the smell of dead animal in their house" but I think it will be fine. Although they are vegetarian they know that I eat meat and they are not preachy veggies either. Just to be sure I sprayed a bit of air freshener and kept the fans on, we will see in the morning if it still smells like dead animal. One thing that bugs me tho is the damn time difference between here and home. In the evening when I would like to chat with people, you all are sleeping, and if you are not sleeping chances are you are drunk facebooking anyway so not really the best to chat with ;) So I am spending the rest of the evening vegging in front of the projector and loving the quiet time.

I see on my desktop weather thingy that it is quite cold in Halifax right now. I am sending warm thoughts your way.

Do you hear that??......Neither do I!!

This weekend was supposed to a trip to Canberra, but I opted out. Instead I am currently sitting on the couch drinking beers, eating junk alllllllll by myself! I have the house to myself for the whole weekend. No kids yelling, no anything! It is lovely and I really think I need this right now. It will be a very nice break, and a much needed break. I will be going to Canberra in March for the hot air balloon festival anyway. I was going to plan something for this weekend, but I think I am just going to leave it as is. No special plans. I might do some retail therapy tomorrow, and I am thinking I will probably 'make party' tomorrow night. I can go out and sleep in on Sunday and not have to worry about listening to the children hoot and holler with a hang over. I know that I haven't written since we went camping, but it really has been the same old shit just a different day. I found a new favourite library. It is much better then the one we have been going to, although it is right next to the pool. I have been toiling away with the kiddies day after day and still missing home a bit.

Today was pretty interesting tho. I got a first hand look at Sydney's mother nature hard at work. They were predicting thunderstorms for this afternoon, and boy did it ever! After the kids nap I heard the thunder rumbling around a bit and never thought anything of it. Then it started to rain, then it rained harder, then it rained harder and just when you thought it couldn't rain any harder the sky opened up a little bit more. The kids and I were sitting in the window watching the rain and the poor school children walking home from school and caught in the rain. It was raining so hard that the road looked like a river and people walking down the street basically had to wade through the water. It was nutty! I don't think I have ever seen rain that hard. Then Peter looked out the window and said "Oh it made it over the fence." Not knowing what the deuce he was talking about I got up to look out the window. To my surprise the park across the road was flooded beyond belief. The park was set up as a water catchment, but holy moly that was the biggest flash flood I have ever seen! All the water was rushing over the catchment fence and into the pond. The water was moving with such force you could hear it whooshing over the fence! Then the rain stopped , the sun came out and the water level went down super quick. The first picture is what the park normally looks like and the rest are pictures of the flood. The people you see standing by the water are stupid idiots that are looking to get swept up in the flash flood. I have walked that park when it is dry and that long chanel of water would be over my waist probably closer to my shoulder.

So there ya go that was my excitement for the day. Then after supper the family took off and I biked to the Liqourland :). I am off to enjoy TV, junk food and lots of beers. I will keep you posted on my very relaxing weekend. Thanks for tuning in!