ABC for Wednesday - G

The native grass here is called Spinifex. It looks like a soft grass but make the mistake of touching it and you get pricked.

Cheers

T

ABC for Wednesday - F

Fires and Flames

Here is another photo of the bush fire that came close to our home.
Cheers
T

ABC for Wednesday - E

Easter time with easter eggs

Here is another. E for Easter eggs. These went down a treat earlier this year.
Cheers
T

ABC for Wednesday - D

Been real slack for not posting these on Wednesdays. Catching up on these now.....
This is our front door.
Cheers
T

First Sunday in October - Competitions

Sure has been hot these last couple of weeks. I think I have finally got the pool maintenance thing under control now. Things have been a bit stressful at work but that is not my main worry. Have been depressed lately. Need to go in the sun more - vitamin D defficiency!

Been entering in a variety of competitions. Sometimes I win something other times I don't but hey if you don't enter them you never win anything! I have entered into a photographic competition, am making jewellery to enter into a jewellery competition, and also entered into a magazine competition to win a holiday on a houseboat cruising along the Murray River. Probably won't win anything but they are all worth a shot.

I don't remember when I first started entering into competitions but I know I started my kids entering into competitions as young as 6 months (my son won cutest smile category - even though he was asleep when they announced it!) He has since gone on to win on his own in story writing, maths and chess competitions. My daughter has been entering in colour-in competitions and has even entered some artwork in local art exhibitions for junior artists.

My husband complains that everytime I enter into competitions (or even buying raffle tickets) then telemarketers start ringing us. He does have a point so now I either leave my phone number blank or I put in my mobile number. This seems to have detered some of them.

This coming weekend is our local Art and Craft Fair. I will be helping at a stall - selling my jewellery along with two others. It should be very interesting. This week I need to be like a production line and make a whole heap to be able to sell over the two days. I will endeavour to remember to take the camera so I can take photos of my jewellery.

Cheers for now.
T

ABC for Wednesday - C

A chook near childrens' books - Goosebumps. Maybe that should be Chookbumps!!!!

Cheers

T

ABC for Wednesday - B

Better later than never...
Basketball - something my daughter is into.
Cheers
T

Purple Weed

Last photo of flowers. This one was on the side of the road. Love the colours. The spikes on the stems are very prickly.
Cheers
T

Chestnut Beauty

This chestnut beauty was actually standing on the fence on the side of the road with a black beauty. This one wanted all my attention and the camera to be focused on him and NOT the black beauty. Every time I tried taking a photo of the black beauty this one would not only push the other one out of the way but try biting him as well. As I result I only managed to get this one. All the black beauty ones are of him backing off and moving so came up blurred.

Enjoy - he would love you too!!!!!
Cheers
T

ABC for Wednesday - A

Arid Landscape - my first "A" for Mrs Nesbitt's Wednesdays.
Cheers
T

A hat trick for the Red Beauties

Not sure what this is called but it has been planted everywhere in my garden beds as well as everywhere in town. There seems to be a dwarfed variety as well as a larger variety. I have also seen the same flower as yellow in town. Some people use them as hedges. If the city council is using them they must be fairly drought and heat tolerant. But still... it looks pretty but there is that much of it around that it loses its appeal.
I will have to find some other plants that will stand out to make this garden more appealing. I saw some interesting plants on TV the other night - will see if the garden nursersies here have any or if they can order some in for me. They are tropical looking but very hardy and also come in 4 colours - red, orange, white and yellow. They are called Canna Lillies.

I need more splashes of colour in my garden. Am planning on planting Agapanthus, Canna Lillies, soft ferns and winter bulbs so there is some colour in winter too. I have found what used to be a water feature now totally overgrown with mother-in-law tongues. There is so much to do in the house and in the garden. Both have been neglected for many years. I haven't started because I keep changing my mind as to what and how it should be changed.
Where the garden is concerned, I will start at the beginning. There is a reticulation system which needs to be looked and fixed. Once the water is sorted then I will need to weed, fertilise and mulch.

That is enough of me talking, need to go out there and start attacking it!!!!!
Have a good weekend.
Cheers
T

Another Red Beauty

I like geraniums. They are so easy to grow and their colours are so bright. When they start to look stragely and old, you just prune them back hard and brand new growth emerges, rejuvenating them so you can once again enjoy their lushess bright green leaves with their bright flowers.

Cheers
T

Wild Things.... in a Zoo

Here are some pictures taken when we went to the zoo in Perth, WA a couple of years ago now. The orangatan knew I was taking his photo and did everything he could to avoid getting his face taken. He held a bucket over his head, he held some cardboard in front of his face but I was persistent so he begrugdingly gave in. I love zoos because I get to see animals I normally wouldn't be able to without flying to another country etc. Animals are so cool. It is amazing to see that they have their own individual characters just like we do.

Cheers
T

Red Beauty

And here is another... Spring is definitely finally here!!!!

Cheers

T

Blue Beauty

Here is another. No fragrance unfortunately, but the colour is extremely breathtaking.

Could you please take a second and respond to my quiz at the top of the page? Thanks.

Cheers

T

Purple Beauty

Spring is in the air. Over the next few days I will be showing off my flowering beauties. Enjoy!

Cheers
T

Unknown plant???

Does anyone know the name of this plant?

Cheers
T

Mining ....then and now......

In the good ol' days living in a mining town you were bound to see many horses and carts going past your door. But these days, living in a mining town, you are bound to see a truck or two!

Cheers
T

Missing the Sea...

Having grown up by the sea - just a 5 minute walk to the shore. Then after meeting my husband my life has taken me further and further inland everytime we moved over the last 17 years. Sure makes you miss the sea...

This picture was taken in Cairns last October. It was too short a visit.

Cheers
T

Inland Versus Seaside

Thank you Photowannabe.

Cheers

T

Hello World - so what have I missed out on?????

I have not had much luck lately downloading any of my pictures. Does anyone know what is going on?

I am finally over this cold/flu took about 2 1/2 weeks in total. I think I got at least one secondary infection if not two!!!!

Half the boxes have been unpacked. Too many things still to do so I have spent most of today writing lists - things to do, people still to contact, future projects for our new house and of course rewriting my budget. I haven't got my printer connected yet so can't print anything out yet.

My room is currently filled with boxes up to the ceiling except for this table with my computer on it. Can't get to the cupboard or drawers. Still looking for the table screws.

My desk is starting to pile up with paperwork because I can't access the filing cabinet which is in the corner of the room.

Have sorted out the linen now and 3/4 of the laundry stuff. I am supposed to have a daily ritual of cleaning the swimming pool of leaves but haven't got into a routine yet so it is hard to remember. There are two tall trees that are loosing their leaves so they will have to go eventually but I will still buy a pool cover in the meantime.

Feels like I am missing out on things because I don't seem to have as much free time as I used to. I suppose that once I have sorted out the house then I might be able to have some free time again. The weekends just go by so quickly.

This coming Saturday - my long awaited appointment with the hairdressers. My long hair will be cut to shoulder-length, coloured and highlighted - 3 hours in total. I made the booking 1 1/2 months ago. The countdown is on.

I will try on another day to download a photo and see what happens.

Cheers for now
T.

Back on Track - settling in - sort of anyway!

Have now gotten over the worst of my bronchitis - still have coughing fits now and then. Have started attackimg some boxes - putting books back on shelves.

Set up one fishtank but still have another one - couldn't find the filter wool! Had to wait until I could get to the pet shop to buy some more even though I know I have some - somewhere!!!!

Still can't put together our dining table - can't find the screws! Can't find our toolbox either for that matter! Went and bought another one (with tools included).

Rodeo week here this week - the streets will be full of tourists and cowboys and wannabe cowboys. There will be a street parade this Friday but the photos won't work out as it will be held in the evening!! I might take the kids to the sideshow this year maybe - will see.

It still doesn't feel like my home - it still feels like a house. I am getting used to the house's little quirks and funny noises. I met the neighbours briefly. Still getting used to the new rubbish collection times.

Paid a guy to come out and show us how to properly look after our pool. Trees are losing their leaves and ending up in the pool - so we will have a buy a blanket or cover for it.

Got some interesting flowers appearing on some plants in the garden. Wouldn't have the foggiest what the plants are called. Does anyone know its name?

Cheers
T

Cough, Cough, Splutter, Splutter

Ended up being sick for 4 days but sort of getting better. Just got back from doctors. Not getting better, now have been diagnosed with Bronchitis!!! Off sick for another couple of days.

We discovered we already had our first house guest after my husband flushed the toilet for the first time!!! Yes it is a green tree frog!!! Apparently if I make him an outside pond and move him there he shouldn't need to come back inside the house. That will be a while so in the meantime he is getting the royal flush treatment (HAHA!)

Need to go and lie down now.
Cheers
T

The Unveiling..... OUR OWN NEW HOME!!!

Here are the long awaited photos.....

Click on photo to see the photos enlarged.

Cheers
T

Quick Update

I have the photos but my computer is not set up yet unfortunately. So you will have to wait with abaited breath for the unveiling..... Go for a dip in our pool while you are waiting!!!

Cheers
T

FINALLY!! All is well with the world

I can't believe a week has gone by already!
Well let's see where to start???

Settlement was supposed to have taken place on Tuesday but ended up being postponed by the sellers until Friday 6 July. After all we went through trying to get everything done and keep to the settlement deadline it ended up being the other side that extended it. By the time we got the final phone call saying - "Congratulations you are now the proud owners of your new home" - all we could muster was a smile to one another - we were too exhausted to do anything else.

We packed and packed and packed until we could pack no more!
We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned until we could clean no more!
We unloaded and unloaded and unloaded until we could unload no more!

Amazingly we are finally into our new OWN house and are totally surrounded with many piles of boxes! (Technically, the house was built in 1965 so the house itself is not new!)

Tomorrow we go back to work after having had a week off. Today will need to find and organise the kitchen and bathroom things. My husband tried getting the kitchen in some sort of order yesterday by putting my spice rack up on the wall - don't get me wrong I think that was really sweet but he used an already existing hook but it is up that high that I can only reach the lowest spice jars! My son suggested that I use my BBQ tongs to grab them - yeah right!

Anyway besides being totally exhausted, the kids are having fun exploring the new house. They are having running races up and down the stairs with our dog. I pity the dog.

I have taken 4 rolls of film of our house so when I get them back from being developed will upload them so all can see.

That is it for now. Need to find some food - I remember putting it somewhere in the house!!!!

Cheers
T

They're on the home stretch now and ....

Who is in first and What is currently coming second, but will Who be able to maintain its lead?

Stay tuned...

On next bat time....

On next bat channel....

KAPOW!

BANG!

CRASH!

Well that is not the noise of packing but it comes close. We have hired a shipping container and bought ourselves a moving trolley. We have grabbed as many boxes as possible from a variety of sources. So far we have got enough. Worst scenairo is we run out of boxes - that will just mean that we will need to make many car trips. Where we will be moving to is only 10 minutes away to a house twice the size of our current one and with a pool.

We have a final pre settlement inspection on Tuesday morning so will take the camera with me this time and take some shots.

Cheers

T

During the Interlude

"Your life matters. You are not here by accident. You are on the right planet. You are not here for the kids, the career, the mortgage. You are here to make the journey of your life, via the kids, the career, the mortgage. The journey matters more than the destination."

"We do not receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can make for us, which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world."

A couple of nice daily thoughts coming your way during the interlude awaiting the final day of settlement next week.

Cheers

T

Testing Picasa

This is a quick test to see if using Picasa can increase the size of my photos. T

IT WORKS!!! (Click on picture to enlarge)

Who's on first...

I remembered this extremely funny skit performed by Abbott and Costello after something happened at a local supermarket. The supervisor was asking a checkout chick who was on second ... I just blurted out "No, who's on first" She looked at me and smiled. The rest of the day was spent trying to remember the names on the other bases. It ended up with me being that obsessed that I googled it. I not only found the exact words but one of their actual skits on You Tube.

the skit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEaKjRyPjVY

the exact words:

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/humor4.shtml

Enjoy!
T

Finance Finally Approved!

Good news!! Yippee!!!!

Finance has been approved. Now the next obstacles are the inspections reports. They will need to be finalised by this coming Tuesday. After that it will just be signing a whole of heap of papers and handing over monies - I think. Now I feel I can proceed with packing. The kids are now on two weeks school holidays so they can help pack during the day.

Cheers

T

Hopefully Today????

Still waiting on finance approval! Any hour now it should be finalised is what we keep being told. We asked our solicitors to ask/notify the sellers that we would need an extension, which apparently needs only a verbal approval, until NEXT Monday but we still haven't heard back from them. Apparently their solicitors can't get hold of them. Anyway it is raining dismally which is exactly how we feel. There is a public holiday here tomorrow so nothing will be able to be done until next Monday if things don't get sorted out today. It has been raining since Sunday so any boxes I was thinking of grabbing are totally drenched. Maybe I am meant to wait until next week as this rain looks like it will be here for a while. Starting to get paperwork to sign from our solicitors now. To sign or not to sign now is the question!

We wait, we wait, we wait.....

Cheers

T

To Pack or Not to Pack?

That is the question foremost on my mind at the moment.

The valuation is finally to take place sometime on Monday but apparently they need 24 hours so we might have to extend the date of finance approval (which is meant to be Tuesday). Unknown factor is by how much and does that mean that we have to extend the end date also!?!

Anyway still holding our breaths - might end up being a world record!

So to pack or not to pack?
I have some boxes but nowhere near enough. Will need to collect boxes from shopping centre. At $8 for a standard packing box, I will have to find alternative boxes. The dreaded "What If?" rears its ugly head. Logic dictates that I should wait until finance has become unconditional but it also dictates that this is the weekend and I should begin now. Colder weather has finally set in so that isn't helping either! One child has a cold, the other is at a friend's house, hubby is asleep on the couch that leaves only me to pack! You may ask why not just use the removalists to do the packing - two reasons: 1. don't trust them after the first and last time - no way am I doing that again, and 2. need to save as much money as possible.

The good news is that it has been confirmed that the buyers of this house are buying it as an investment so we have time up our sleeves from that perspective.

The photo depicts how I feel. The sun is setting, seems so slowly, but night will surely come and be here soon so hopefully, will our house.

Cheers
T

Friends, Romans, Countrymen.....

lend me your ears...

The contract details and signing have been the least of my worries over this last week. It was actually painless in the end. The things to follow were not so. The preapproval that we had ended up being worthless because the mortgage loan insurers only lent 10% deposit loans for this town. So we had to start searching AGAIN for another one - in a hurry this time. Luckily my husband had been trying to get a second preapproval (the solicitor had said that was a good idea - how right he was!!!) so at least contacts had been made. We filled in a whole heap of paperwork yet again and then had to wait until yesterday afternoon.
Yesterday afternoon came and we received an email basically saying that we were approved a conditional loan - that means we are now at the same point as we were a week ago - at the preapproval stage. We still need to fill in MORE paperwork and await the valuer's inspection. My husband is handling it all. I really couldn't do all this at this point in time what with my new job - so much to straighten out to get the whole system working at an efficient functional level. It is doable but it will take time. In the meantime I have to put up with the maze. By the time I am finished it will be a 4 lane highway straight from A to B.

One further note...
There has been a death in the family in this last week too. My husband's grandfather passed away. I am now on the verge - if anything else happens I will lose the plot. It takes all my might not to cry at work. My husband was very close to his grandfather so our emotions are all over the place at the moment.
We should be happy that we are finally buying our own home but I am still extremely cautious and am not allowing myself to be happy yet. I am not naive anymore. A step at a time. So far so good. Until I get the house keys in my hand I don't trust anyone telling me that all will be okay.

We have one more week to get all the finance in order. Apparently we can ask for an extension if we need it. Here's hoping we don't. Someone has put in an offer for the house we are in as their finance valuation was done yesterday. I don't want to think about what will happen if they settle before we do. Maybe we could pay them rent for a couple of weeks until we move out. I need to speak to our rental property manager to find out exactly what is going on with this house.

Anway that is it for now. Will keep in touch.

Cheers,
T

HOLDING OUR BREATH

Over the weekend we found a house we wanted to put in an offer for. After some negotiations both parties agreed on a price. Now we wait with abaited breath for the contract to be written up today, the solicitor to check it over before we sign hopefully by this evening.
I am panicking and excited at the same time. I know I have to wait until finance has been approved and all the inspections have been carried out but all going well we should be the proud owners of our own house on 3 or 4 July 2007.

More info later...

Cheers

T

Another week has gone by...

Another day another dollar...

Work still stressful. Financial Institutions are being fussy at the moment. We still have not been able to come up with an amount that we can borrow that we are happy with. So we still haven't put in any offers yet. I am trying really hard to be patient but it is extremely hard.

Finally got some photos developed however the camera didn't capture half of them as the battery was low - that was a waste. Here are some photos that did work out though.

Footprints left behind from the fire fighters the night before. The only evidence that someone was there to protect us from the fire.

Bushfire near our house.

The hillside after the fire went through it.

Rainbow after rains in the distance.

Sunset.

If you check out my stumble upon (top RHS of blog webpage) and click on my "Pages I like" you can check out other people's websites and their photos. They are really cool - well at least I think so anyway! If you know of any good websites or blogs let me know and and I can add them as links on my blog or in stumble upon.

Have a nice Sunday!

T