Monthly Archive

There are some unusual names in my family. Nothing weird, just distinctive. When No 2 son was born, weighing 5.02 kg, the paediatrician suggested we name him Brutus. We resisted, although some people think it may have been better than what we did choose! We tend to avoid the boring and mundane. But not as much as the folks at Baby’s Named a Bad, Bad Thing. This is one of my favourite websites. Many is the hour I’ve chortled away at the names bestowed upon some Little Unfortunate whose parents thought … well, who knows what they thought.
Why would you call your daughter Nancy Ann when your surname is Cianci? And can you imagine introducing yourself when your name is Chanteclaire? You would spend your whole life being crowed at.
What the hell were Kapsidee Faith’s parents inhaling? And why did Karryllinne Sweet’s folks think this was an improvement on Caroline?
Impala Sedan, Captain Bonar, Sloe Harlotte, Tequila AnJanette, Fancy, Meander, Catatonia Calliope. Somehow you just know that none of these kids are ever going to be surgeons. I just hope they learn to spell their own names before they have to sign for a Drivers Licence.

This is SO embarrassing, for not only do I loathe mispronunciation, but I also get a bee in my bonnet about poor spelling…and I misspelled PRONUNCIATION!!!! I’ve corrected it now, but it just goes to show that there are dire risks involved when exposing one’s prejudices! In future, I’ll just skulk quietly in the background muttering to myself.
On a more joyous note, I took photos as I cooked dinner tonight. I don’t usually photograph dinner but look at these colours! It always bemuses me when people say to me that they don’t like “unnatural” colours like lime green. I see lime green everywhere! And here it is in my Scanpan.
And check out this tomato. How can anything be so , so perfect?

Nobody likes to think that they are a snob, but I think I’ve reached a point in my Maturing as an Adult where I can admit some of my nastier traits publicly (I kid myself that it’s cleansing, but I suspect it’s just self-indulgent and quite probably mean). Here goes…
…I am a major pronunciation snob. When I read this post at visual chronicles, my heart skipped a beat. I’m not alone, there are others! There are others who cringe and twist their hands when someone says pacifically for specifically (or, as Sharon asked on “Kath and Kim“, “And pacifically where in the Specific is your cruise going, Mrs D.?”). It would appear that the further North one ventures in Australia, the richer the pickings. In Sydney, you can watch a film, but if you are a North Queenslander, you watch fillims. Sorry, that should be youse watch fillims. Or you just watch the footy instead. Especially if Norse are playing Souse.
Sadly I have passed the same affliction on to my offspring, who run the risk of becoming sarcastic, derisive teenagers. Whoops! Tautology - sorry!
On a friendlier, happy, happy, joy, joy note, I made a cool shirt yesterday (yes, when I should have been quilting, blah, blah, blah). Oxford collar, French cuffs, freezer paper stencil (again!).

And here’s the Boy, starting his 17th birthday by reading a Playstation Mag before school. Happy Birthday, gorgeous. xxx

Oh I do love a successful day! One hour on the treadmill (yes, sixty minutes! well, sixty two actually but who’s counting?), a couple of hours writing (Super Secret Project only discussed under The Cone of Silence) and WHACKO DIDDLY-OH stencilling on the fossil quilt that worked! I have procrastinated badly on this one. So much so that I’m now three, whoops, FOUR weeks behind schedule. Originally I planned to applique the fossil patterns on to this quilt, but then I saw a great technique for stencilling at angry chicken
But I’ve been too scared to do it! You know what a mess can be made with colour leaking under the edge of stencils, and I managed to convince myself that this would happen and paralysed myself with fear. I don’t know if it was the excercise high from the treadmill (while watching Dr Phil - got to have something to distract me from the s l o w l y ticking over stats) or just the bravado induced by self-righteousness (did I mention the sixty minute Workout?) but today was the day that I gave it a go. What a FABULOUS method! It’s so easy and works so very well. Here are some of the results…
Tomorrow is quilting day, so I hope to have it finished by the weekend!

This is my gorgeous, clever sister! (basks in reflected glory. bask. bask.) You’re invited - go check out her amazing paintings. Tell her that I invited you.

Jealousy is unbecoming. I know that. But (and you know what Dr Phil says about But) don’t you think that there are occasions where it’s understandable, if not justified? Alicia has PEONIES growing in her garden. Peonies don’t grow in peoples gardens, peonies are made in heaven and fall from the clouds into the salons of rich people whose homes are being photographed for Architectural Digest.
This is my garden -

And this is after two serious dumps of rain. Usually it isn’t green. Usually it’s brown, sandy dirt with a few prickle patches (right where I stand to hang out the washing). Over the back fence, as you can see, is vacant land and railway lines. The garden shed is on a permanent lean, although the exact angle varies depending on the moisture content of the ground. Being married to a civil engineer, I can tell you that our dirt is an Expansive Clay (not e x p e n s i v e, e x p a n s i v e ) and it does weird things when wet. It either turns to soup in which a sedan can disappear to roof level , slippery slime which can have you driving on your roof in a nano-second or sticky, sticky muck that can clog the wheel hubs to the point where the wheels won’t turn. And that’s why everyone out here drives a 4WD. Big ones. With High Wheel Bases.
It also does nasty things to buildings. One Sunday night we came home from a weekend away and our front door was open. No burglars, just the house moving on the foundations so much that the door could no longer close. One of the real benefits of living in a community such as this, is that we weren’t at risk of robbery - just the house filling up with bugs. Check this baby out -
This thing is FOUR INCHES long. And that’s not even a big one. What’s really scary is that this is just the Scout - there Will Be More. Every year there is a plague of the suckers. I don’t go outside for two weeks (don’t think that I’m joking, people). I HATE THOSE THINGS. They bite and they fly and jump and make nasty clicking noises. I watched Saw and Saw 2 back to back and even that wasn’t scarier than these things. I would rather be tied to a chair and forced to watch the whole Hannibal Lecter series, in the dark and by myself than have these things around.
Well, maybe not in the dark.
And I don’t like being tied up.
Can I watch “Sean of the Dead” instead?

Living in the Tropics is very interesting, what with all the snakes and stuff. We have had rain, at last. It takes a lot of waiting, but when it finally gets here, MAMA MIA! We have mud the consistency of potters clay, roads that become impassable even by 4WD and many deliriously happy locals. The creekbeds even have water in them. Crazy as that sounds, 98% of Queenslands creeks are called Sandy Creek, and I’m sure that’s because all they have in them is sand!! (Mum, if you tried to backstroke your way across Mundic Creek now, you’d drown) Last night the kids and I drove back from our Easter break in Townsville ( very refreshing, thank you). The whole world seems transformed. I took this photo of grass. Ordinarily that would seem a really dumb thing to do, but this grass is two metres high. Two metres! And it wasn’t there a week ago. Just in case you get the wrong impression, this is growing within 100 km of Townsville. Out here it’s green, but in a “everything’s got a layer of something on it” kind of way.
Everything in the house has a layer of dust, so bye bye…

Yay! Holiday time! We’re off to Townsville for ten days. Movies, swimming, the beach, finishing quilts, shopping…
Sadly, no blogging - no internet access - but I’ll be back! xxx

Scrubbing filthy, dirty house today. Ajax. Paper cuts. Need I say more? ow

The King of Higher Learning has done it again! Congratulations to clever Peter who is now a Level Two Accredited Tennis Coach! That means he can now coach coaches on how to coach. The only thing after that is Level Three for coaches who coach professional players, but they are a bit thin on the ground out here in Western Qld so he’ll just stick with Level Two! And now that that qualification is out of the way (by two days), he is busy at work on the next one…
And, in a similiar vein, I have suffered a sporting injury. Last night I dropped a photo album, juggled the catch and SIMULTANEOUSLY got SEVEN (count them, seven) (you heard right, SEVEN) paper cuts across my knuckles (could there be a more painful place?? I don’t think so) . I had to be blood-binned and today four of them are infected. I doubt that there was ever anyone who has suffered so for their art. I bet that even Leonardo never topped three at a time.