Sunday, May 31, 2009

Painting

I mentioned previously we husband (mainly) did some painting this weekend.

The plasterers came in on Monday and finished their magic. Husband was away all week, so nothing happened. We planned to get one coat of paint on the walls Friday night, one Saturday, and one Sunday. We both have the most of the week off this week (I am only at working Monday and Tuesday), so we figured we could get the cupboards installed Thursday, and have the carpet in on Friday. But like all good plans, it failed. The carpet we chose is on back order, so I checked out our second choice carpet again. The colour was a bit too dark. The next lighter colour was on backorder as well (apparently choc brown carpet is popular) so back to the first choice. The wait is two to three weeks. Oh well. 

Friday night we got to preparing the room, and putting in the skirting boards. We had argued over whether to install them before or after paint, and in the end i lost, and they were installed before paint. Saturday we continued with this. Due to our house being really old, and us leaving most of the old timber in the wall, we had our work cut out for us. See, today's timber is a nice square 90mm. add in two bits of 10mm plaster, and you have your 110mm door frame. Unfortuantly hardwood timber has no set size. Which meant our plaster stuck out from our door frames. Meaning we had to plane all the arcitrave until it sat flush. 

Lets just say our wheelbarrow is now full of sawdust :S But the husband has worked his magic and made it work reasonably well. Which meant it was onto painting.

Lets just say neither of us love painting. I personally hate it with a passion. I am ok with the skirting boards and the like, but I hate getting up the ladder, and having to strain my back looking at the ceiling. The joys of having a tall husband, I make him do it :D

So whilst I was at P!nk, he was preparing the walls, doing the cutting in and the like. By the time I returned mid afternoon on Sunday he had done all the cutting in, and painted the ceiling in the bedroom, and one wall. On go my painting clothes, and we get to it.

After 5 hours of painting we managed to get all the undercoat on, and the first coat of paint in the bedroom. It looks a little something like this ('scuze the junk, it lives there for now)...




We're getting there now...yay! Pin It

P!nk

Howdy bloggers.

This weekend had been booked in for ages. Months ago I scored tickets to P!nk's first Melbourne show. Thank you Optus for your pre-sale.

So I booked myself a hotel, and decided I would go for a bit of 'me' weekend. Origionally husband was meant to be coming, but he was being a sooky-lala about his mouth ulcer, and stayed home. Suits me, you can continue with painting our bedroom (more on that later).

So I got to Rod Laver, after taking the longest route from my hotel to the stadium. No idea how I managed it, but i was buggered from the walk by the time I got there. Thank god I had a seat and not GA.

Now, during the week I had debated about taking a camera, and which camera (dSLR or compact). In the end I chose to risk it, and took both (the compact nicely stashed in a hidden part of my bag). Just as well I say, as all they cared about was bottles at the security check! Fantastic!!! I now have 250mm of zoom to use. (at one point a guard did ask if my camera had more than 200mm zoom, to which i sweetly answered "Of course not, it max's at 200". Sucker!)

Which was made even better by the fact that Optus had supplied me with fantastic seats. I was side on, not far back from the end of the run way. Woot!!! I may just take back the cursing I had done towards Optus when their 3G caused my iPhone to come dangerously close to ending up in the middle of the Western Freeway at high speeds.

So, anyway, i digress. Turned out the support band was Faker. To which I had no clue who they were. Might have something to do with me reading their band name as "Fucker" for the first half hour. But when they came out and sang, I worked it out.

Now, the lead singer of Faker reminded me of a headless chook. He moved all over the place. Jumping, running, sommersaulting. He did it all. He earned the body to wear the skin tight pants that he wore (insert mental images of a dancing penis, as thats all I could picture). They werent too bad, most of their songs sounded the same, but was still good to see.



Eventually the dancing penis tired, and they left the stage, to which a lot of activity happened behind the curtain. Eventually the lights dimmed, we see a movie montage, and we saw this

The 'Carney' folk

Oh, oh oh



She greets Melbourne

She did a few covers along the way, including 'I Touch Myself' by The Divynals. As the name suggests, it was a bit pornesque, but she has the body for it ;)

Just so you can see the pants she was wearing (she had a matching bra too)

Live acoustics


Now it is at this point my dSLR battery dies, and i am forced to swap to my compact camera with a lot less zoom power. Dammit! Despite the lessing power, I managed to get some decent shots

The amazing acrobatics. This woman has balls!!!




I am glad I went, I had the best time, and look forward to going to her next concert. She is one performer who never fails to amaze me, she has so much energy, and every concert is different. I wish I was going again (as does my Mum, as she wants to go now, LOL)

Oh, and I wish I could stand in those shoes she wears, little own dance! Check them out

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Thursday, May 28, 2009

What the fluff is that???

Just a quick post, as I am at work.

This morning I got back on track, and had museli for breakfast. Well actually I am still eatting it. I was running late this morning and had 10 minutes to get out of bed and into the car. So my desk at work is the place I chose to eat my museli. Not that it looks anything like this one from Bills. Mine is in a red plastic soup mug...classy!

But as I was eatting it, I realised I had brought the wrong one at Woolies the other week. This one had little yellow bombs of crap in it. And they weren't chewie like the little orange bombs in my normal museli, these ones exploded in your mouth and made you feel like you just ate an entire bottle of baby powder. Ick.

But it got me wondering, no matter what museli i buy, i always find something I dont like in it. Something that makes me go "Urgh, why put that in there. that is just wrong". Which is quite strange, as generally I will eat anything.

What things do you not like to eat? Pin It

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Crappy Presents

All this talk of training my husband got me thinking about how many crappy gifts I have received over the years (note: I can train him to buy expensive gifts, but I can't make him understand how the washing basket works)

The top 3 crappy gifts

Number 3: the gold necklace. It was a nice enough necklace. Pity I am a strictly white gold/silver person. Lucky for Brian, it was given by my ex, and not him. There is a reason he is my ex though, and this is just the tip of the iceburg

Number 2: The handbag that I refer to as the Felix bag, due to it looking like Felix the Cat's Magic Bag. If it were any other colour than grey, and was more in the shape of a Kitchen Aide Mixer, I would have been perfectly happy. But it wasnt.

Number 1: a brown sheep. A real brown sheep. One that eats grass. Now I like sheep, especially brown ones, but I sure as hell don't want one as a present. Luckily I boycotted this one. But it still wins the award for crappy gift.

What crappy gifts have you received?
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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Husband Training School

I work in an open plan office, where I am younger than everyone by 20-40 years. I get along with the people I work with, but I am definitely younger than them, and it shows some days.

Now, when I started this job, I had been home from my honeymoon for 36 hours (and I was paying for it). So my work mates have seen my marriage blossom into what it is today. And quite often I tell them stories of the 'trying times' of marriage.

No, I am not talking about the arguments we have. But the times where the husbandito makes me go "what the...?".

Like the time where he asked if I would be willing to allow him to go away hunting over my birthday. (Answer: 'yes, yes you may, providing you are willing to part with your testicles'). Or the time where we argued over the choice of vehicle for my car (he won, and pays for it daily).

But there are also times where a male colleague goes "What the f**k is he thinking". Like when discussing Christmas shopping, and I mentioned how I had chosen my own christmas present. My colleague was shocked at this, as he thought i was being picky (I am). A female colleague thought I was smart.

But todays gem came when discussing flowers. My work had held a function the previous night, and for a donation to the Cancer Council, you could take home the floral arrangements. I mentioned to another male colleague he should take them home for his wife. He promptly told me to "not be stupid, that would make her think he was guilty of something". I ever so quickly replied "he needs to attend April's School of Husband Training".

And it got me thinking, I have trained husbandito quite well for 15 months of marriage. He is currently working in Melbourne this week, and mentioned he was going shopping. I cringed, thinking that he was going to the motorbike shop (an instant way to drain our bank account). I voiced this opinion, to which he replied "no, I am going shopping at Burberry for a pink check scarf".

I love my husband, he is so well trained.
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Sunday, May 24, 2009

A day in the life of...me!

I love my camera, but unfortunately i dont get out enough to take decent photos. Generally I only photograph our reno's (had you noticed) or our animals. So when I heard about Tracey's photography challenge, I jumped at the chance. So, Sunday was the one day in May that I was doing something other than feeling sick.

And this is my day.

8am - Masterchef eggs on toast with tomato for breakfast
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9am - dressed ready to go out for the day
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10am - in the car, driving down the highway
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11am - trip to the florist to get some flowers for home. Aren't they pretty?
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12 noon - a naughty trip to the French bakery for profitta roles. Will they all make it home? (answer = no)
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1pm - I went to see Seb Big Band with a friend, as her husband was the man with a wand conductor for the day. I had the best time, despite knowing nothing about music
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2pm - Still at Seb Big Band listening to their excellent tenor (no idea if thats what he is, but i heard it today and it sounded smart :D )
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3pm - one of my husbands friends actually plays in Seb Big Band and it was good to see him play...especially considering I had no idea he played until 9am this morning (despite 5 years of knowing him)

4pm - Had to stop off at my at my other home, Bunnings. With the plasterers due to finish soon, I needed undercoat for the weekends painting. Bunnings is a lot cheaper than our local Mitre10, so in I went. For the first time ever, I only brought the one item that I actually walked in there needing.
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5pm - I detoured on the way home to check out the new Wind Turbines. I have an interest in these turbines, as they are in the shire which I work for, and we have a few friends who work there. I quite like them, and think they are pretty. Beats looking at drought ridden paddocks if you ask me.
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6pm - Home again, cleaning time. Not sure why i bothered, as the plasterers will only create more dust, but least it looks pretty for now.
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7pm - The husband is at work tonight, so I was able to sit back and do nothing tonight. So I sat back on the couch and read my book for a bit. I am reading "Still Alice", which is on my list of books to read. I am enjoying it so far.
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And that was the most interesting part of my day. I won't bore you with the shots from after 7pm (mainly cos there isnt any), as all I did was read and chat to a friend on the internet.
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Maldives (in a round about way)


Photo from Flickr

I may have mentioned that I need to lose some weight. Somewhere around 50kg to be precise.

Once upon a time I used to be 60kg. On my 5'6" body, that was skinny, bordering on too skinny (I have a stocky frame). I was so skinny that my poor dad had sought advice from an eating disorder clinic. Really it was just that I was burning the candle at both ends. I was studying Year 12, working 30 hours a week, partying, and being a typical 18 year old, and just didnt have time to eat.

A year later I was diagnosed with Endo, and I took it hard. Over the next 6 years the weight piled on. Til I got to where I am now. I have tried every diet under the sun, and have had no luck. It has got to the stage where it has affected my fertility, which to me isnt fair on my husband. I should point out that I eat reasonably healthy, i love veggies, i exercise a bit, and try will all of my might to avoid sugar (some days I fail at this), but nothing seems to budge the weight. Which is incredibly disheartening. So I went to my doctor to see about some options.

Eventually, after a lot of consideration, I decided on Lapbanding. I don't expect it to be easy, and don't see it as an easy way out. I know people who have had it done, and it most definatly isnt easy. If you think it is, I say 'walk a mile'. I disgress though

But, in order to stay focused on the big picture, I need a goal. So i suggested to husband that when i am skinny enough to be comfortable in a bikini, that we go to the Maldives. He agreed (I then fell over in shock). In his words "if i get to see you happy, on a beach, in a bikini, drinking cocktails, then its worth it". He even still agreed when i pointed out it wouldnt be cheap.

So that is my focus point (you know, besides being healthy, possibly riding myself of fertility problems, and living longer). Off to research an island which i have no idea where it is. But have any of my readers been there? Or know anything about it. Pin It

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Bathrooms cont.

So I mentioned we have some issues with our current bathroom, which we are thinking of re-renovating to fix.

To remind you, this is what our bathroom currently looks like



When my stepdad tiled our shower, he dropped a tile in the bath. we thought it was ok, but turns out it is slowly leaking. Brian is worried about the timber underneath, and probably rightly so. Our bath has never really fit that well, i fell in love with how deep and long it is. It is a dream to lay in. Unfortunately, it isnt the most practical thing. The tiles never really sat properly with it, requiring a lot of No-More-Gaps. And the water pools at the end, requiring an extra drain to be installed.

And as I mentioned, our bath is set quite high. It requires a high degree of acrobaics to get in and out of the bath, much to my husbands amusement!

And finally, as our shower is over our bath, we have the glass screen. The only problem is that the water shoots straight past the screen and onto the floor of our bathroom. which is great for the mould growing under our lino (gross I know. Thank god the lino is temporary!)

so we have thought of several options.

The first option is to replace the bath with a square one, and buy a bigger shower screen (more than likely having to be custom made).

The second option looks like this:


As you can see, we would put a bath where the fishtank and vanity sit, a shower beside that, and the vanity between the show and the loo. It is my prefered option, but would require a lot of more work and moolah. But i think it would work the best. If we were to go this way, I would change several things.
*I would use different tiles, probably a 30x60 tile, with a stone feature running vertically through the shower and the bath.
*the bath would be a square one. not as lovely as my current bath, but a hell of a lot more functional
*the shower would be separate to the bath, and hopefully 900x1200, but i could settle for 900x900..

What do you think? Option A or Option B? Pin It

Bathrooms

Last night I finally got around to backing up my computer. which meant I had to actually step foot into our office and plug into the external hard-drive.

Having nothing better to do, i searched for photos on it, and found our bathroom photos from almost 3 years ago. And I thought it would be a good time to blog about it, seeing as though we are considering re-renovating our bathroom soon to fix some problems

So we started with this gross, mould infested hell hole


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Height was always an issue, as I would only just fit under the shower head, and I am only 5'6". Imagine the trouble my 6'4" husband went through each day. So we put a new roof on the back part of the house
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And started demolition
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Now, you might ask how one pulls a room out of their house rather quickly. This is how:
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You attach a winch and chain to your house, select 4wd, and pull it out. Easy as pie

And then you burn the bathroom down - this only works in the middle of winter. The CFA aren't such a fan of you creating massive fires during summer
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We laid our concrete slab on one of the coldest days. It was a maximum temperature of 5 degrees that day!
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Eventually it set, and we started framing (another cold day...now this is why we dont renovate in the middle of winter)Photobucket

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We framed up the bath - i was away on placement and husband rang to ask how heigh i wanted the bath. i said 3 tiles, not knowing how big 3 tiles was. so he made it that high, which is a slight issue these days, as its quite a way off the ground.
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After 9 weeks without a bathroom (we used to shower at the Fire Station where we volunteered every night), we finished
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Now I need to get over to the hardware store, but I shall return with the issues of the bathroom and the plans to fix it later tonight Pin It