Say Wha??

A bit of fun ... have a super weekend you all!!

Whooopsie!

A little bit of this and a little bit of that.

The "this" part first .... been on a 15km bike ride with hubby and little man on Saturday (exercise for the day ticked off).

Although we only live 12km from the city centre we also live very close to the edge of the Swan valley here in Perth. The luxury of that is that we can easily jump on our bikes and feel as if we're in the ouback, we saw cows, bulls, a creek, vineyards and the smell in the air is just awesome. For me, you can take the girl out of the country (been 10 years now) but you can never take the country out of the girl.

Hokey pokey?

I'm sure from the right angle this will make a beautiful photo.

The "that" part. We went to a 4 year old birthday party on Sunday, child care friends of little man's who actually lives in the Swan valley. We drooled as we drove passed property after property. How we would love to live on one of those.

It was a great afternoon and the little boys were looked upon with pride from their parents, how two little boys can be such good friends so early in their lives are amazing. Birthday boy's mum said to me as far as b'd boy was concerned only lour ittle man was coming to his party and no other child, and I had to admit the same, our little man was also talking non stop about it. When it was time to leave he threw the saddest, biggest and most embarrasing tantrum about not wanting to go home. We had to carry him out kicking and screaming.

We decided to grab a short cut on a dirt road, we have a 4X4 right, we can do this on a farm road and as we turn the curve in the road it got thicker and thicker and shabang, stuck!!

Whoopsie!!

We were from the start in 4x4 gear but did not expect the sand to be this loose. After some more deflation of tyres, (handy little gadget we got), a bit of digging, a bit of debris put behind the wheels, the ute just dug itself deeper. We called the farm house on mobile phone but no answer, then hubby decided well he'll just have to walk back there and get another vehicle to pull us out while me and little man waited.

Our rescuers deflating their tyres, even they said they could feel the hungry earth grabbing at their tyres. Luckily we are kitted out and had a proper towing rope too.

As you can see, we were down to the chassis deep in the sand, here being pulled out in reverse mode.

The enemy of the day!

The misleading beginning of the path.

The End!
Let's go the long way round as we came.

It was very funny and exciting although hubby thought I was crazy to think so and I kept on taking pictures while he sweated away.

Afterwards he got in and said to me "You do know this cost me 50 masculinity points dont' you?"

I could only smile!

Been busy?

Yes sireee!

Been doing relief teaching again this week for the Department of Education, it's called VAC swim classes, which are swimming lessons running during VACation. I was surprised to find out that this year they are celebrating 90 years of VAC swim, now wich country can join us in celebrating this!!

I think it's awesome that the Australian government makes swimming lessons part of the ciricullum and even available over holidays.

Saddest thing is that it's in an area which I know, I use to life there and many of the kids and parents I saw are known to me from my children's primary school. So what's sad about it?
They are there every day for long hours, those kids are so tanned by now it's actually a shame. I was wondering how can this parents think they'll just come and hang out at the complex every day and let their kids get so burned, not to think of how dried out there skins and hair will be by now from all the exposure to sun, chlorine and wind?
Vac swim sessions runs over two weeks per session and I was there with the previous session and saw this one family there, quite well off people, got 6 kids. Then I was a week off and back to finish a second session off for a teacher that fell ill, and yes I was very surprised to see the family there again.

Seems that no matter how hard the Government tries to tell people of the dangers of the sun we need to re-educate the parent rather, skin damage can and will happen when you get burned as a young child.

But any how, don't have to much to tell apart from making my point re sun dangers.

Interesting thing while on the topic, we have a lovely friend from Ghana, a black man and the other day he asked me if I get sunburnt. I said, no actually it seems, because I grew up under the harsh African sun too, that my skin will just change colour instead of burning and asked him what about him. And he said no, he can stay in the sun as long as he wants and not get burnt.
I was quite intrugued, I asked "no soreness nothing?" and he said "Nope nothing"

Well if you have brown or black skin I can only say Lucky You!! But again our friend is quite smart and said that that doesn't mean he is not carefull either, he will still wear a shirt and hat if going to do gardening or so, he's not gonna play Russian roulette with the sun either.

Meant to say I do love the sun and heat and also don't mind a bit of a tan, but again atleast try and keep it to minimum exposure.

Slip, Slop, Slap and Slide every one!!!

Magazine review

I am not a big magazine buyer, but I do enjoy the occasional Women's Weekly and if the cover looks interesting enough I do buy it.

When it comes to trashy gossip magazines, I will read them in the Doctor's surgery while waiting but not waste my money on it since it's my opinion most of the gossip regarding celebrities are made up or hear say and a run away story with out the full truth.

A week or so ago my son spend some time in a Newsagency and while waiting for him I browsed around as well, found a popular womens' health magazine and decided to buy it, cost $AU6.95.

Well firstly I will not mention the name of the magazine since I am aware that in this day and age people and/or companies are almost waiting for opportunities to sue others just for the sake of a quick buck, and I will also say that what I have to say about this magazine's January 2009 is my very own personal opinion. I just feel I have to get this off my chest.

Also, I presume this magazine is for ALL ages, not a teenager or young adult magazine because it's been around for years, the only obvious thing that stands out, I think, is that the publishing team must be obviously from a younger newer generation.

These are my issues:


1. A small article about women and weigth starts like this:

"Western women diet (and fail) about as often as newreader Sandra Sully stuffs up a sentence."
My opinion: Sandra Sully is a well known respected news reader, if this article writer has an issue with a (maybe) "stuff up" then let it be her own personal issue, why be so rude as to use some ones name in your article about weight. I found it highly offensive for Sandra's part.

2. An article about sun protection:

The heading of the article is: "Sun of a bitch" and one of the sub headings are "SPF ...WTF?"
My opinion: Why swear and be rude? As if we don't know what the abbreviation stands for, I mean if it is your personal diary, blog or what ever do what you want, but people actually buys this magazine and let it lie around at home on a coffee table or so, what if my little child is for example in a Year 1 or Year 2 level and learning how to read and starts spelling all this out? I found this highly rude from the article writer to not be considerate.

3. An article about exercises and what to do has a subtitle like this:

"Everyone (even your posh sister-in-law) has an inner athlete."
My opinion: If I was to try and judge/guess what's hidden in this sentence I would think things like, jealousy about a posh S.I.L? They don't get along and this article writer might be trying to get a stab in? Why write this bit of info in a so called professional article, my opinion is stop trying to be funny, it doesn't work or find a better line.

4. An article about relation ships and sharing income has a subtitle like this:

"It can't buy love ... but it can sure as hell make it tricky"
My opinion: Again using strong language in a magazine that any young child can pick up and read. I remember using magazines for my older two when they were younger to find pictures for school or art, practising reading etc. This sentence goes against any moral and valuable upbringing of a child, we don't use words like that in every day language, especially not if you want your article to carry some weight.

Now there were actually two more articles that had words in like "chug" instead of "drink", "yuck" instead of "I don't like" or "I dissaprove".

Personally I won't buy this magazine any longer, it reaked with unprofessionalism and language choice. I'm sure I can spend $6.95 on a more professional magazine that I'll also happily will let lie around in my house. For now, this one will go to the bottom of my bin.

And you're welcome to tell me I'm old fashioned, it will still be ok with me because it's still my values and I'll stick to them.

Injury update

Thank you all for the recovery wishes, I really appreciate and want them :-)

My neck is not to sore or stiff but I did get headaches during the day, it comes and goes and a normal painkiller does help. It varies from mild to quite sore but I have all my normal range of motion so that should be good, sleeping is un-effected; more yays.

My arms and shoulders are quite sore today, the front of my shoulders (where the chest muscles attach to the shoulders), bit of my biceps, my triceps and "below" my shoulder blades (latts) are quite tender. I think the sudden impact when I fell and tried to stop myself bruised some of the tendons (tendons attach bones to muscles so I don't think it's too much just muscle or any ligaments). I can feel them all when I get dressed, think pulling a shirt off over your head or drying yourself. Mmmm, you got the idea.

So now it's just recovery progress time. I have posted a new pic of the bruise on yesterday's post, quite interesting how it has changed. Go check it out! X

Starting the new year with a .... crash!

Hey so how has 2009 treated you so far? Any long lists of resolutions?

I started 'o9 on a battered and bruised note, crashed my bike today, ouchy! I haven't had a fall in a long long time and today I sort of just did not look where I was going and hit a curb. I sort of saw the crash coming, pulled the brakes hard and went .... over the handlebars on to the side of the path, crash! My hands were the first to hit the ground, then my head.

I am very lucky that I did not injure my writst or broke any, I had cycling gloves on so that helped a lot with the impact and I was again lucky that it happened right at a spot where there were dry grass on the side of the cycle path between me and the road. Funny that as I crashed my head on the ground I thought "oh so that's how it feels when a cycle helmet protects your head" it certainly did but as I landed I could feel my neck taking the impact pretty hard.

At the moment I sit with a stiff sore neck already, only 5 hours after the crash, palms feel a bit tender but not bruised at all but my leg copped the most as I went down and I have a nice long bruise along the inside of my leg. Luckily it did not broke through the skin so there was no blood either. Yes I am counting my stars because the last thing I want is to not be able to ride any more for a while. Years ago I crashed my bike as well and had a deep cut on the outside of my leg due to a screw that held my water rack and had to get 12 stithes so I'm very thankful for bruises only.

Will now have to see how my neck goes, I will probably be able to tell tomorrow, it might stiff up a bit more. At least the ride was good and it happened 2km's before the finish. My leg is stiff where it's bruised but ok, I'm actually quite proud of my "war scar", it's getting bluer by the hour, the pic was taken shortly after we got home and now it's a bit more visible.

Lesson for the new year: Look where you are going while on a bike and keep wearing your helmets, they do work!

Fresh after the crash.

About 5 hours later.

The next day .... pretty tender, actually lots!

Western Australia Outback

Some of hubby's photography while he was away.

Our house, in the middle of the street, Our house!

Ok, I meant to show my sister how cheaply you can get away with things for a toddlers room.

She recently found out she is pregnant, my baby sis is going to be a mummy, and she said she is not going to go full out to make a baby room.

I mentioned I didn't either for my kids, I had a few cute things but did not the whole room, paint the walls etc etc thing. When little man came along the study housed his cot for a few months until we decided the study will move to the dinning room and he can have his own. I did not buy any furniture but used an extra vegetable rack for his nappies and clothes and the change table had compartments where any other baby stuff went into, you'll see the pics later, and up to now I still use it. For a little boy he don't need much, T-shirts, shorts, few warm tops now in summer incase it gets cold, undies, socks and shoes. His few neat shirts hangs in older teens closet to stay neat and clean and I find the rack I uses also gives him easy quick access to his clothes. He can easily go and change out of his PJ's first thing in the morning or after his bath, it's all just there for him, no climbing into cuboards to reach high racks or pulling open heavy drawers.

So while I was snapping away I remember Lee showed his study off the other day and I got this brain wave to introduce a typical Aussie home to all my bloggy friends who might be wondering how we life here in Aussieland.




Teen boy, always the artist and neat one.

Teen daughter, pretty in pink.
(I love how her room is slash young girl/slash typical teenager and the lipsticks and nail polish starts becomming part of her belongings.)

Parent domian.

The laundry.
(I use those veggie racks every where, here they do as garden-shoes rack)

Kitchen.
(Very 70's)

Dinning room /Study at the moment.
(That's the kitchen's bench in the front of the pic, it's all one big area - I don't particularly like it much but it's great to social in).

Lounge
(Little man watching a DVD)

Our garden looks very good at the moment too so I did a few out doors pics too.

Street view from front yard.

Our house's front
(Brown stains on walls are from bore water coming from sprinkles)

Sorry, a bit out of focus

New Petunia seedlings I've planted for Summer.

Australia lost a Champion

I heard the news today on radio and after I wrote my last post I sat on the Net and decided to go and read about it. Our great Marathon champion Kerryn McCann lost her battle to cancer today, this slide show made me cry my eyes out, it's so sad her kids are so young 10, 4 and 1.

Our thoughts are with her wonderful family.

Kerryn's slide show (click link).

For those Aussie whom forgot, you'll remember her from the milk add!

It's Show Time!

Annual Agriculture Royal Show in Perth, WA.

Rodney, where were you, we just could not find the Cat Pavilion?


My daughter's ultimate "Have to live here" land ... Chocolate!

Future soldier ... I couldn't drag him away!

How's that for recruiting!

Took 1 showbag home for little T ... he was wrapped.
The best part was he said "Aaahh for me?" I almost cried, sook.

Mmmm ... which one, which one.

That's my girl!

The lonely yellow can is her effort, brother on the left of hers. The both shot all off by the end.
Not sure if I'm proud or worried. LOL