General Chat

Hello to all, especially anyone who is still there.

Allan, I love your chair comment.

Berona, I took my daughter and me to a nail place for a deluxe pedicure for her birthday then to lunch. It was just a wonderful treat. There was this spa that you put your feet in and they massaged our feet and legs and the chair also had a massager in the back that ran up and down the spine. We loved it and have promised each other that it's something we will do every time I come to Sydney.

They do have those salons here in Cairns but it was so much more fun to do it with my daughter.

Sue, sorry I missed you. It's wonderful work that you are doing and I have a full appreciation for the volunteers that you talk about.

Pam.

Hey you lot.
Hi from WA.

Cheers
Richard

Hello Richard, you are I think our fourth sandgroper, led by the illustrious Allan who lives near Bunbury. I am in Sydney, our fearless leader SueMaid lives near Wollongong in the Illawarra.
It is varying between raining lightly and raining heavily at the moment, and the street outside my workplace has flooded. Must be a blocked drain somewhere.
The RTA office (translation- motor licence office) has an absolute water frontage. The water is up over the kerb and footpath.
:->

Hello all you Aussies - go Sam Stosur:-))

Welcome Richard - please join us again.

Pam - thank you for your kind words. I'm very proud of my volunteers. Every one of our 250 members does something to make life easier for cancer patients. By the way - my daughter is a beautician so how lucky am I. I get paid for babysitting in face, hand and feet treatments. Woohoo!!

Hi Joan:-))

Colin - good to see you. It has been miserable here all day. Rain - a little watery sun - and rain again. I'm getting a little sick of it. The grass is green though.

Sue xx

Go Sam Stosur indeed. Did you notice how gracious Serena Williams was after she lost to Samantha? And people wonder why I have no admiration for either of the Williams sisters, their father or their mother for that matter.

I post irregularly because I can get on at odd times, even from work when it is quiet. I had a busy morning with a 6.45 start on site in the city, but it got quiet after lunch. Not long after I posted my last message I got some equipment ready for a night job next Monday and came home. No particular problems due to a careful [lucky] choice of a route home.

Waves to those in the top side of the world who will be busy facing the day. Enjoy the rest of the evenings Aussies and Kiwi.
Colin

Berona, wouldn't it be nice if instead of counting off the weeks you have had the burning itch you could say only x weeks to go. It does sound as if you are getting better though.
I also suspect that you have had little of our rain. It is supposed to be quite coastal. Even home has not had as much and we are only about 20 km from the coast. I think
The weather news yesterday and tonight has been the tornado and water spout, the footage I saw had both in the one shot. Lennox heads is up near the Queensland border but parts of it are a shambles.
Here, a waterspout hit Maroubra (only a few km from my work place) and lifted a few roof tiles. I would hate for it to be me, but it was nothing like what the people up near Lennox heads experienced

Colin - I knew nothing about shingles until I got them and have heard and read so many conflicting explanations, that I can only wait and see what happens. It must be improving, but I have never known any progress to be so slow!

We seem to be having the same weather (that's a change). Last night and to-day's rain has been in heavy showers, with enough rest in between for people to be able to get from A to B without getting wet.

I have friends in Lennox Head and they said that they watched from their home, which is OK but the devastation is only 800metres from them.

Good morning/evening all

Welcome Richard, whereabouts in WA? As Colin has said, I am in Australind.

I can't stay long as we are going to Perth today to see the rellies. Leaving at 08.30 and back by 5.00pm. I went to put petrol in the car yesterday. That was a mistake: I should have put it in the petrol tank :0))

Seriously, though I had forgotten that it is a long weekend in WA this weekend (Foundation Day). This is one of those things that WA is out of kilter with in Oz as the rest of the States have the long weekend next weekend (Queen's Birthday).

It must cost business millions! Why can't we all have the same weekend!

Allan

Hello all,

Allan: I agree. We have Qld Day at a different time of the year as well. But aren't these 'days' unrelated to Queens Birthday? Don't you have Queens' Birthday as well as your Foundation Day.?

Richard: Welcome to the crowd. We do enjoy ourselves in here and hope you will join in the fun. I'm near Cairns in FNQ and it's really funny. When I first moved up here 10 years ago people were saying to me "Why are you going up there? All those cyclones, snakes, spiders etc." Well they've been having worse weather down there (south) thank we've had up here barring Cyclone Larry. But we only got the edge of that one.

Allan: Hope you have had a enjoyable trip. Do they 'up' your petrol prices for you when it's a long weekend? Ours stays at a constant 128.9 except on the odd occasion when it might go to 132.9 but all the stations put it up at the same time to the same price mostly.

Looks like it's going to be another brilliant weekend. Sunshine, blue skies and at the moment the temp outside in the shade is around 19c/62f and indoors it's 22c/66f. Not bad for winter weather eh? That's why I live up here.

Pam

Hello - I slept in. Very unusual for me but it was soooo warm in bed I didn't want to get up. OH brought me a cuppa in bed and I was amazed at the time. Usually I'm up by 6 so I feel half the day has gone already. Still dull and miserable outside and the house is looking like a Chinese laundry - my daughter's house is worse.

Where is Tec?

Allan I hope you have a lovely day in Perth. A children's birthday party is good fun........sometimes:-)) Of course the doting parents will ask if you enjoy the photos they send and you will say yes and get twice as many:-))

Sue xx

Hi Sue, That was nice to get a cuppa in bed. But you have been very busy lately and I'm sure needed to catch up with your sleep. We're usually up by 6 around here, too, but last night was unusual. Had a visit from a snake around 3am so that needed to be attended to. Took a little bit to get back to sleep. The adrenalin tends to flow somewhat on these occasions but usually only until we identify the snake. This time a childrens python. Not dangerous at all. Curled up in OH's hand and stayed still whilst he patted it on the head. He's amazing with snakes of all kinds. Comes from working with Ram Chandra in Bundaberg many years ago.

Pam. xx

If any Brits are still here, good evening.
To Aussies/Kiwis - good morning.

I too, slept later than usual. Outside looks like it has rained, but dry in parts where it is usually wet, so I don't know if the dampness is from yesterday, or if it rained during the night. I didn't hear anything. Right now, it is bright and sunny, and our expected top is 18c. Not bad for winter, so we can't complain.

Welcome Richard. Hope you will join us - at any time of the day or night. If no-one is here at the time, it won't be long before someone answers you.

Is Tec still awake? If so, I've been meaning to ask how the triplets are getting along?

Hey Berona, how are you feeling today?

Weather up here in Paradise is, as is to be expected, superb. Don't know what I"ll do today. Normally I'd be outside doing stuff and Lord knows there's plenty to be done, or upstairs sorting stuff out to send to the Salvos but I'm hindered by this darned shoulder. Torn tendons which the physio now tells me could take up to 2 years to repair. I don't like that diagnosis at all so I'll just have to try to prove them wrong.

Pam xx

Hi Pam.

I don't feel any improvement on yesterday - but I am able to do more than I was doing before, so I must be recovering. My patience is wearing thin!

When I was leaving my previous house, I sent a lot of furniture to that charity and they are welcome to it - but I was disappointed about one thing. I had five bedrooms, so a lot of bedroom furniture was put in the carport for the charity to collect.

Amongst the items there were four 'bed and base's' and a full suite from daughter's room containing wardrobe, dressing table,bedside table and a bed with head and foot matching the pattern in the other items.

The truck arrived to collect them and was manned by an older man and two young blokes. They refused to take the mattress from the suite because it had a small stain on it. I understood this - but when I suggested they swap the mattress with one of the others (they would be leaving me with a base and a stained mattress) they just couldn't comprehend what I meant. As much as I tried to convince them that all they had to do was take a mattress off one of the bases and leave the stained one - but they kept telling me that the stained mattress belonged to the suite, and the other mattress belonged to the matching base and couldn't see how they could break them up. They ended up taking the remainder of the suite, leaving me with the perfectly good bed, spring and stained mattress.

I have since read a book about that charity and learned that they help people coming out of (drug) rehab by giving them jobs like this. That's all very well, and it did explain the attitude of all three of them but the charity must be missing out on a lot of help by allowing people like this to make decisions and although I didn't know these people, I could see that their 'common sense' had been affected in some way.

Too true Berona.

I've known people who have left things out for a charity to collect and they've refused them because they weren't good enough. Yet there was nothing wrong with the items at all. Just not new looking and maybe just a little out of date. What is this world coming to? Gee I would have been glad of a mattress when I was 12 to 14. All I had to sleep on was an old iron army cot with the wire base and no mattress. We used to put newspapers on the wire to try to keep the cold out.

I was listening to a man on the TV the other morning and he was saying that nowadays young people think that they need to have an income of $100,000 per year just to break even. They've got to have the big house, furnished and a new car every 2 years. They want to start off where there parents have spend 30+ years of scrimping and scraping to get to

I am a war baby, born 1942, and I can remember ration books and coupons to buy everything from clothing and shoes to butter and meat. Wonder how these young people today would survive if that happened again. And it could happen. That's the scary thing.

Pam

Hello again to all.

Joan - we went up to Elizabeth when we stayed in Adelaide my OH had read about the Snow Town murders and so off we went to see where. Talk about embarassing - he stopped outside one place where it had been replaced by a new brick place and the woman came out whilst we were parked and he was reading about it.

Pamela - my OH was born in 1943 and his early childhood years were spent in Hunterville and he loved it and then they moved to a farm up north - they lived in a barn and his room was not lined and the cold used to whistle in. There place was remote and he had to travel to school on loose metal roads - his mother was the teacher and she also drove the school bus. The seats were two long benches from front to back of the bus. He had to help with lambing before school, he hated the shearing shed and to this day avoids wearing wool if at all possible.

Berona - am glad to hear you are on the mend albeit slowly but as one of our commercials here for Mainland Cheese states Good things take time.

Allan - Once upon a time we had a lovely little dairy cow called Sunshine - she was my favourite she was always first in for milking and she loved a cuddle - she was our only white cow with ginger patches. Oh and I enjoyed the movie "Little Miss Sunshine" - Carole you probably would've liked that one as well.

Sue - I am still here, hope your grand daughter is feeling a lot of better. It is always a worry when littlies get a temperature.

CC - sorry undid my bootstraps yesterday but am still around in my furry boots that I recently bought. I am determined not to have cold feet this winter. And I bought my self some new gumboots (wellies) they are black and have red, blue, mauve and purple spots on them with mauve soles. I wore them out in the rain the other day and into one of our South Auckland shopping malls - now that would have never done when my mother was around.... wellies are only for outside.... but I thought I made quite a fashion statement.

~~~~~~~~~~ Diane, Pat, Janet and

Hi Tec - how are things with you and your good lady wife, and Montgomery and Bartholomew. My flying ace bear sends his regards to Marmite. I will try and pop in on one of our mornings when you are on here for the evening. I saw a computer with a dongle with a blue light the other day at one of our rental properties and immediately thought of you.
My cursor is playing up - it's now wonder they are named such - I lost it in the middle of typing and there was a lot of $#*@% going on.

Cheers to all
edit: sorry left Colin out..... you can come back in again Colin.

Persey xx

Hello Persey!! And hello to anyone else who looks in.

Where's CC?

Little grand-daughter is still not well although mum is keeping the temperature down. She's a worry in winter. Having Down's Syndrome mean all her "pipes and tubes" are shorter and narrower so when she gets a cold or respiratory infection she gets quite sick. However she does pick up quickly and the doctor says she should outgrow this problem.

Today I actually managed to get a load of washing done. The sun shone for awhile although we had some rain again in the afternoon. The boys came over while mum took our little girl to the doctor's again for a follow up and they drove me made wanting to go out and play. Everything is sodden but very green:-))

Sue xx

We should really do that with our slides - we have a large airforce trunk full of them.

I did my washing too Sue - it looked like rain the skies were grey as - but it was very windy and everything got dry and it has absolutely hosed down tonight. I have to wear my flash wellies out to the line because the grass is so high - the mower is at the mend it place on a return visit. Been without one for about four weeks now so we are now able to lie down in lush green pastures. If our lawn was any bigger I would like a John Deere ride on mower - similar to the one that that chap rode across the states.... they made a small movie about it. That way when I finished the lawn I could ride on down to the local village and get a coffee and a melting moment.
..... notice how I always get around (and round) to food.

I just want to know where you are Joan so next time I am over I know where to stop off for cottage pie.

Persey xx

Good evening/morning to all

Persey, I'll send you my flash mac to go with your flash wellies, just don't get yourself arrested :0))

Trip to Perth was tiring 4 hours total travel time for a two hour visit. Although as I have said before, applying the law of inverse time it would take 6 hours to travel from Perth to Australind.

As my OH tersely pointed out to my brother, when he deigned to speak to us, that it took us just slightly over two hours to get to Perth, and she was sure that it would only take two hours for him to reach Bunbury.

This last was said as he and his wife were to visit us in the New Year break TWO years ago and until yesterday we hadn't seen them in three years. We are getting a bit fed up of being the ones to do the travelling.

I realise that for my niece and nephews it is a hassle as they have very young children. But not for my brother and his OH.

Pam, petrol prices here are fairly static at $1.31 a litre. The price does vary from area to area with Perth having the cheapest petrol as it is closer to the refinery. There is still talk of price fixing as all petrol in WA comes from the one refinery and one or two independent garages manage to undercut the chain service stations which all charge precisely the same in each area.

Unfortunately the independent operators are very few and far between now.

Allan

Good morning/evening everyone. Hope you are all well.

The day looks like being a nice one. I've woken to blue skies so fingers crossed. I might - I said MIGHT - do some more washing.

Allan yesterday would've been tiring. We drove up to Richmond airbase quite often when our son was based there a few years ago. It was a 2 hour drive and we'd often go for the day. He would often come down here for the weekend too. My sister on the other hand has moved with her OH up the mountain and is now complaining that no-one visits her. My mum has no chance of getting there on her own. As it's just over an hour away it's a trip that needs a little planning. She works 3 days a week, comes down here for a day's babysitting and they go out over the weekend. I couldn't even visit for her birthday as they went away for a few days.

Petrol here can vary from $1.20 to $1.35 a litre depending on the time of the week.

Sue xx