Monthly Archive

I’ll be back soon. I’m just exhausted and need to think about nothing for a while. Peter will be home in less than 48 hours and we are going away for a weekend to recover. I don’t remember anyone telling me that being a grown-up was soooo tiring.

I’ve been MIA for a while, I know. We have been planning on opening the business on 1 October (two days after Peter gets home!) so I’ve been wrangling sub-contractors at the office. Oh. My. Goodness. They are a scary bunch. As two-faced as the 14 yr old Queen Bitch at any girls’ school.

First Contact -
Me: I need you to come on ___day and do ____. Can you do it and how much will it cost?
Large Intimidating Criminal-Looking Smelly Subbie: Yeah, of course, Love. No worries! I can pull some guys off the Other Job down the road and be here and gone in one day. It’ll cost $732580235.00 on completion, “through the books”. (NB: this is an ACTUAL quote - “through the books”. Am I supposed to be impressed by his honesty???)
Me (hyperventilating over price but desperate enough to crush own feelings of Being RIPPED Off): Great. I need a firm commitment from you on this because I have other guys to organise too.
LICLSS: She’s right, Love. We’ll be here. In fact, you tell us the day - we can do it any day you want this week.

Third/Fourth/Fifth/Sixth/Seventh (you get the picture) contact -
Me (firmly but calmly): You said, “blah blah blah but now you are telling me blech blech blech”.
LICLSS (leaning over me in ever-so-slightly threatening manner): Now just a minute, Love. I made it very clear that jwegrt9p814615t9[#@G(*^_&T$. I said we’ll be here June 2008 and we will be. By the way, Where’s the 98% deposit we asked for?

I can now see that employing these guys is like having a pet lion. They may act like big kittens when you first meet, but turn your back and they’ll tear you apart. Then claim that it’s what you asked for in the first place.

Thanks everyone for the wonderful, enthusiastic messages of support and encouragement! And, thanks too, for the great discussion on my last post. I love you all, too

Krista left a comment recently that included this:
usually i get the most hits when i’m sharing my DIRT. isn’t that sad? i’m boring unless i’m in crisis. lol.

It got me thinking, because I can say pretty much the same thing. And then, yesterday, a blogger who I am starting to know a little more about, wrote a pained and honest post about some problems he is having. He didn’t ramble on and on and it wasn’t a pity-fest - just stated what was happening and how he felt about it. I related to some of what he wrote and left him a message of support and a “Me, too, mate”.

Today I went back to his post and…

…he’s edited it and removed all of the parts that showed him to be a vulnerable, exposed human being. I felt so sad. As far as I could see no one had said anything mean to him. I’m assuming that he just felt too unsafe baring his soul that way.

Blogging forms connections between people that can be unexpected. There is often debate about the validity of ‘virtual’ relationships and we all see stories on TV about people who fall in love and then meet and realise they don’t even like each other. I don’t particularly care one way or the other whether I would be friends in Real Life with my internet mates, the point is that we connect with and support each other. We genuinely care about each others’ wellbeing. These relationships may be brief - maybe only one comment left on one poignant post - or they can be ongoing over a long period of time.

What’s the difference really between this and spilling your guts to a stranger on a train? Or smiling at a mother whose toddler is throwing a wobbly in the supermarket?

Isn’t ALL emotional connection between people valuable?

So I know you are tired of hearing about the searches that find me
but how could I NOT share this????

should my son where an athletic cup at 1

What a surreal few days it’s been!

Thursday:
8:00 a.m.dropped Ali at school
ran a few errands in town
9:00 a.m. drove out to Hughenden (400-odd km) to collect Peter - his last day there! woo hoo!
2:00 - 5:00 p.m. packed remaining possessions from house there into back of car (almost - had to leave some with a friend!)
5:00 7:30 p.m. Peter coached his last group of Hughenden kids’ tennis
10:00 p.m.drove back to Townsville, arriving 2:00 a.m. Friday (Ali stayed with a friend)

Friday:
tried to sleep in
failed
Peter madly working on computer trying to organise a TENDER - yes, you read it right
NZ partners to rescue - they will complete tender (wonderful, thoughtful friends)
Peter and I lay down for nap
I fluffed my pillow and rearranged covers
He got up - claimed he had rested enough (in three minutes??)
more errands around town - buying chairs for office, clothes and shoes for P and paying bills
at shopping centre, P has notion to check whether his mobile IS set up for international roaming as requested TWO MONTHS ago
surprise surprise surprise - IT ISN’T
$300, half an hour of clenched teeth and barely civil phone call later, it IS
dinner out at local restaurant, nearly asleep in mushroom sauce
packing suitcase, photocopying passport, discussing clothing options at length
bed by 10:30, alarm on mobile phone set for 4:00 a.m.
awake at 11:25 - memo on phone has woken us up to tell us that Peter is flying to LA in the morning (so we’d better get a good night’s sleep. Oh the irony)

Saturday:
4:00 a.m. eyes are open
5:00 a.m. wake up in cafe at airport with a mouthful of coffee
5:30 a.m. Peter leaves. Trying hard not to cry.
home and back to bed
7:30 a.m. P calls from Brisbane
1:00 p.m. P calls from Sydney
Spend day sorting through his clothes and tidying wardrobe
nap in afternoon
starting to feel human again
more tidying, shopping with Ali
early night
wake up all through night waiting for the phone to ring. It doesn’t.
8:00 a.m. email from Peter - safe in L.A. , phone not working (Well, of course not. Why the hell should it?? We asked nicely, paid the $$ but forgot to sacrifice our youngest child and smear her blood all over the Telstra Shop) BUT he has seen Chronicler and is very happily visiting with an old friend. By now, I suspect, he is comatose on her sofa!
8:01 a.m. email from Chronicler (now this is amazing!). She has driven HOURS to meet with Peter for TWO minutes and give him a gift for me!!
12:00 p.m. look at this!! How weird it feels to see my husband on an American blog!! Wish I could see the present he is holding just a l i t t l e better - I have to wait two more weeks to see it.

How incredible are bloggers? The generosity of absolute strangers is a delightful reminder of how cool human beings can actually be. People who think that the computer age has damaged the way in which humans communicate with and relate to each other should spend a day or two blogging. And Chronicler’s blogs are a good place to start. She also has some awesome stuff for sale!

After a couple of days in LA and then a few in Boston, P will be on his way to Germany to visit his brother and sister-in-law. I am so excited for him. This will be the very first time he has ever visited his brother in his brother’s own home!
Next time, we’re hoping to both go

You have heard me extolling my husband Peter’s virtues many times. I don’t want to bore you (or, heaven forbid, drive you away!) but this post is about Peter and What He is Up To.

This man is a Good Man. He is the son of a Good Man (and a Good Woman) and the father of a Good Man in Training.
We are blessed in my family, we have many Good Men - fathers, brothers, husbands. We do not take them for granted. We love them and we tell them so. We are proud of them and we tell them so. I suspect that there are far more Good Men in the world than the bad ones who get all the press, but that is no excuse to undervalue the ones in Our Lives.

Peter decided when he was twelve that he wanted to be a Civil Engineer. This amazes me. How many kids that age even know what an engineer does? Anyway, he did and he liked it and wanted to do it. He will tell you that he is Averagely Smart. I take serious issue with this. He is far from average. He is VERY smart, he is principled, he loves, he takes responsibility, he inspires other people, he nurtures, he expresses his ideas and opinions and he puts his heart and soul into everything he does. Look up “Commitment Phobic” in the dictionary - see there, under “antonym”? It says Peter.

If you ask my mother, who is one of Peter’s Greatest Fans (he has many, but she is probably Vice President of the Club, under me as Pres.), she will tell you that Peter’s parents were not only fabulous parents but they were very wise when they named him, because he really is a Rock. He is calm, strong, reliable, solid and a trustworthy anchorpoint.

Now the reason for telling you all this is to prove my next point. Peter is about to get his Just Deserts. After many years of working hard for other people, he is opening his own Engineering Consultancy. We have gone into partnership with a New Zealand business and will be the Australian arm. I am so proud of Peter and so happy for him. This is exciting stuff!
Here are Ali and Peter at the company launch which we held in Cairns while we were there for the conference last week.

We had a wonderful night! Yummy food, gorgeous venue and good company.

This whole process is very busy-making! And we have (cleverly, I think) combined setting up and opening the office with
(a) moving the rest of the family and belongings to Townsville
(b) Peter’s two week trip to Europe and the USA (he will leave next week and gets back a few days before we open).
SO, the garage to our tiny two bedroom townhouse looks like this…

…and we have more stuff in storage…
…the office is currently an empty concrete construction zone…

…and we open the doors 1 October!

So there’s some explanation for my distraction in the last few weeks. I’ve been doing all sorts of new things and the next few weeks won’t be any slower.

***I’ve been having some Issues for a month or so now with comments. Not all of them are coming through to my email, so if you haven’t received a reply from me, my apologies! I’ve tried to get back to everyone but I’m sure I have missed some. It was especially nice to hear that everyone else is just as fragile as me over stats and thanks so much for the congratulations for Ali on her maths success!

Also, to those of you that are camping by your letterboxes waiting for presents from me - I hope you’re comfy and well-stocked with marshmallows The wait should nearly be over!

Tell me, just how pathetic is it to feel a stab in the heart when someone unsubscribes from your blog?

I want to shout COME BACK!! I CAN CHANGE!!!

I am a Busy Blogger right now. Remember I said we were starting a business? The Bisyness has begun. In a day or two I will have a moment to explain further. In the meantime…

…the Lie.

The Lie was that There WERE Lies.
In actual fact there were none. All of that was true!! Even the Priest.
Although (you deserve an explanation for that one!) he was not Really Truly a Priest, but an actor playing a Priest in “Constance Drinkwater and the Final Days of Somerset”.

It was so nice to go to see a play (and an unexpected treat - we didn’t plan for it but the theatre was right next door to our hotel). We haven’t done it for AGES and it was an interesting one!!
Must dash…

We are home. I wish I could say I am pleased, but this was one of those holidays that you don’t want to end. Yes, it was THAT good!
I have been greatly enjoying the wonderful lies that so many of you have been telling, inspired by Tracey who, I must say, is the most unlikely of liars! Instead of doing her meme, I am going to tell you about my week - you can decide which points are real and which I’m lying about…

1. We stayed at this place. It was beautiful, had spectacular views over the sea and delicious soap and shampoo (lemongrass and eucalyptus).

2. Ali and I spent a morning standing three metres from lions and a tiger as they tore into huge chunks of raw meat and crunched through three inch thick bones. Did you know that when the lionesses are in heat they bonk up to ninety times a day for three days straight??

3. We ate crocodile at a teppanyaki bar.

4. Peter was in need of new clothes and we found a wonderful menswear store where we bought him a beautiful suit, pants, jacket, belt and shoes. The suit cost more than my wedding dress (Hell, the jacket and the SHOES each cost more than my wedding dress!!) and he hyperventilated when it was time to pay but he looks thoroughly gorgeous and lustworthy.

5. We were in Cairns primarily for Peter to attend a conference and the Gala Dinner was a wonderful surprise for me - the entertainment included legendary Australian band, The Black Sorrows. They were superb. Consummate musicians. If you haven’t seen Joe Camilleri perform live, you should. I think I will marry him next. Who can resist a man in a linen suit? Certainly not me.

6. On Thursday night a priest was talking to us and when he turned around his cassock was completely open down the back and he mooned us with one of the prettier boy-butts I’ve seen.

7. We snorkeled at Green Island and I swam amongst a school of coral trout that were each about 40 cm long (16″).

8. Ali and I saw a green turtle.

9. I saw a whale.

10. I got seasick on the way to Green Island and the only thing that stopped me chucking my breakfast in front of a hundred strangers was pride.

11. I ate cherry flavoured gelato for the first time in my life.

12. Peter can use an espresso machine and froth milk and I never knew it.

13. We watched Blazing Saddles on TV two days before we gave it to Peter on dvd for Fathers’ Day.

14. Sept 1 was the 26th anniversary of Peter proposing to me. Legend has it (i.e. Peter’s version of events) that we were in a terrible restaurant and he offered to “take you away from all this”. Next thing he remembers is walking down the aisle…
Of course, that IS a lie - a colossal lie - we were in a fabulous restaurant and He Proposed Properly. I know because I was there.

15. Cairns is full of tourists. FULL of tourists. I walked along the Esplanade and was the only person speaking English. It was lovely hearing so many different languages.

16. And FUNNY to see all the English tourists sunbathing in Winter!!

17. Yesterday was Peter’s brother’s birthday. Happy Birthday and kisses from Queensland!!
Peter’s brother designs Porsches.

18. A Japanese man glanced up at Peter as we walked past him on the beach and exclaimed “OH! Very strong!!”

19. Ali and I shopped until our feet ached. We had to stop and go back to the hotel because we couldn’t take another step.

20. I sat next to a man at the Gala Dinner who was Sir Les Patterson in a slightly cleaner suit. He gleefully informed me that key note speaker who addressed Life/Work Balance had said that “we should have intercourse three times a week”. The room started swaying at that point and my seasickness returned.

So, where are the lies??