Home alone

The troops (well, husband and daughter) have gone to the beach.

Not just gone to the beach, but staying overnight, getting dressed up,eating out, and by the sounds of it having a jolly nice time. I am home alone and loving it missing them!

After coming home from work to an empty house I fancied some comfort eating tea tonight- chicken, potatoes and peas. I've made myself a dinky little pot of Earl Grey tea and I'm drinking it in a proper china cup. Talk about chilling out...

So, a quiet night in tonight, for tomorrow night there's big excitment. I'm going to see a long time favourite band. They are playing on the ipod as I type, and as I'm alone, there's no-one to hear me sing along - loudly!

"Cats and Dogs"



Modlen and Twmff

 Today is the last day of the school holidays for me (I go back to work tomorrow and hand over duties to Dad). Sibs and I decided that as it was raining we would go to the cinema, or to the movies as they say here in Australia.
We lunched at the French cafe in Paddington - very nice, and eventually decided to watch "Cats and Dogs - the revenge of Kitty Galore". Imagine our surprise when we saw that our two cats had starring roles!  What fun to shout at the screen "Go Modlen" when the grey cat flew through the air. Luckily the cinema was almost empty.
By the way, our cats have Welsh names - there's no spelling mistakes! Modlen is named after a rather old book that I remember as a child called "Modlen, y gath fach ddewr" (Modlen, the brave little cat), and Twmff is named after an animated character in a child's comic magazine called "Wcw a'i ffrindiau" (Wcw and friends). There endeth the Welsh lesson for today! x

Still waiting...

When we bought this house about three years ago we decided to make a few alterations, one being building a pool. It's been money well spent but it was never quite finished. Well, the pool itself was all done but there is one part of a wall that probably should have been knocked down - and if the truth be known we were a little scared to do it! We opened up the space in the back garden, and knocked down half the wall...



before

after, but half a wall still to go





opening up the back garden

So this morning (after 4 no shows), the fence man came to give me a quote to remove the rest of the wall and replace it with a glass fence.Queensland pool regulations are pretty strict about the safety of your pool fence. I remember when we built the pool the inspection was one of the stresses. The inspector came into the house and checked some of the windows, he even got us to cover an outside tap so that a child couldn't stand on it to get over the fence. Tragically, too many children drown each year around home pools, so it's most definitely better safe than sorry.

P.S. The green bean that I had to "respect like I respect the cats" (see previous post) is surviving....so far


Everyone and their dog...

....goes to Bunnings on a Sunday.

kids activity class at Bunnings.

 There's a d.i.y. place here that has this magic spell that it casts on people during weekends. We all wake early and think "I really need to go and get something from Bunnings today" and off we go to face the crowds.The small numerous do it yourself stores in the UK have nothing on the gigantic, enormous Bunnings warehouse. The staff are knowledgeable and usually pretty friendly and helpful, and when we arrived today it was just in time for a kids activity.
Each child was given a terracotta pot, paint and brushes, an apron (that they could keep),and were instructed to decorate their pot in their own unique style. Then they planted a herb or a vegetable. Sibs planted a dwarf french green bean. She very proudly carried the pot to the car, placed it carefully next to her....and two seconds later....soil plus bean all over the back seat! She huffed and puffed (well I huffed and puffed and she cried), but we managed to save it and the rescued pot is in the herb garden.
She has gone to a friend's place for a sleep over tonight and left with the instructions that I "must respect the bean like I respect the cats" !?! interesting.

I have a spring onion - and we've been to the ballet!

 

"Clara" and a mouse from The Nutcracker

My little girl has had the nickname Sibwns (pronounced Shib-oons) since she was born, usually shortnened to Sibs. A couple of years ago she was horrified to learn that it's Welsh for spring onion! At least it's unique here in Australia...I think there are a few other Sioneds home in Wales with the same nickname??
Anyway, Sibs and I went to see The Nutcracker this afternoon performed by Brisbane City Youth Ballet. It was magical. The standard of dancing, the costumes and set were all glorious and to top it all the young ballerinas rushed out after the show to sign programmes. We danced all the way down South Bank to Ginga Japanese for dinner and then danced all the way back along the riverside again home. Sibs was even dancing whilst she brushed her teeth. I'm suprised that she's not dancing in her sleep.

So it's now all quiet in the house and I'm catching up on bathroom designs, or to be specific - taps. Just when you think you've chosen The Tap, there's a niggle somewhere telling you to keep looking just that little bit more.

First post

Croeso/Welcome.
Here I am sitting in front of the telly on a friday evening and I get the bright idea to start my own blog. I have been reading various blogs for a while now and love the fact that I have picked up numerous hints and tips as well as sharing in the stories of everyday life. So I thought why not record some of my stories?
So we'll see how it goes...
Off now to crash course in setting up blogs and making it look pretty,
nos da/good night. x

An image from my recent trip to the 'green, green grass of home'