Random pic from our city travels

^ taken yesterday whilst walking around in the city. I thought it was a random shop window display.

Spelling!

^ Spot the spelling mistake. I laughed.

he's for sale!

^You can buy him for $6! I saw this whilst shopping with M. I had to laugh!

M and Portia

^ Portia and M. Our chooks are quite tame. M has trained Portia to sit on his arm. She sits quietly on his arm and doesn't try to get off. Portia is the tamest of all the chooks.
This particular time she was eager to keep eating. Usually she is quite happy to sit on his arm for a few minutes.

Unique find

^ I found this unique serviette holder at one one of the local op-shops yesterday. What a find! Cost 40 cents! I love the box it came in, vintage and cute.

Creative writing course week 2

This lesson we learned about some different poetry forms.

The forms that we learned were limerick, villanelle and haiku.
I knew how to do limerick and haiku, but had never heard of villanelle before.

Limerick and haiku are fairly easy, but villanelle is a bit more challenging.

An example of a limerick:

Once, while under the trees (A)
a dear lady sat drinking her teas (A)
out came the host (B)
they had a good toast (B)
but before they had a good squeeze (A)

Written by me.

It has a certain rhythm and rhyme to it.
There are two sets of rhyming couplets as shown and then the last line rhymes with the first two lines. There is also a songlike quality to the way it's read.

Haiku poems are very simple and short.
It is 3 lines long
The first line must use a nature or season word
There has to be one cutting or terminating word at the end of one of the lines
no rhyme or metaphor
The Japanese way of writing Haiku is the 5 - 7 - 5 syllable rule. However it is not necessary to stick to this rule in English Haiku.

Rain uncovers new dirt
heavy black clouds
thirsty plants refreshed

Written by me.

A Villanelle is six stanzas long, each stanza has 3 lines of poetry except for the last stanza. It is based around a rhyming couplet which is worked into the poem in a A B pattern. The last stanza consists of 4 lines with the last two lines being the base rhyming couplet.
There are five tercets (3 lines) and one concluding quatrain (4 lines).

It uses this form:

Refrain 1 (A¹)

Line 2 (b)

Refrain 2 (A²)

Line 4 (a)

Line 5 (b)

Refrain 1 (A¹)

Line 7 (a)

Line 8 (b)

Refrain 2 (A²)

Line 10 (a)

Line 11 (b)

Refrain 1 (A¹)

Line 13 (a)

Line 14 (b)

Refrain 2 (A²)

Line 16 (a)

Line 17 (b)

Refrain 1 (A¹)

Refrain 2 (A²)

An example.

• Edwin Arlington Robinson's villanelle The House on the Hill was first published in The Globe in September 1894.

They are all gone away, (A¹)

The House is shut and still, (b)

There is nothing more to say. (A²)

Through broken walls and gray (a)

The winds blow bleak and shrill. (b)

They are all gone away. (A²)

Nor is there one to-day (a)

To speak them good or ill: (b)

There is nothing more to say. (A²)

Why is it then we stray (a)

Around the sunken sill? (b)

They are all gone away, (A²)

And our poor fancy-play (a)

For them is wasted skill: (b)

There is nothing more to say. (A²)

There is ruin and decay (a)

In the House on the Hill: (b)

They are all gone away, (A¹)

There is nothing more to say. (A²)

Source: wikipedia

I must confess I struggled with this form of poetry as I am not used to structured poetry and rhyming poetry. I write free verse poetry mostly.
However I am finding it to be an interesting style, one I think I will get better at as I learn more.

I have ordered a rhyming dictionary and a phrase thesaurus so that will definitely help me.

Creative writing course

I had my first lesson for the creative writing course. It was really good. I really enjoyed myself. The teacher/presenter did a good job too.
There were about 11 or 12 people in the group. There was only one male. Most were older - 40-60s age group. There was one girl that was around my age - we sort connected because of that and also because we didn't know anyone else. The others all seemed to know each other. Not that it mattered everyone was treated the same.

There were five writing exercises that we did.

The first one was we had to write whatever came to mind for five minutes. We had to use the sentence 'bring me the sunset in a cup' somewhere in the writing though.
This was alot of fun and I came up with all sorts of random things. After the 5 minutes was up we were given the choice to share our writings. Everyone did except for one person. As each person read their piece of writing; the group would respond positively. The group had a positive and relaxing atmosphere about it. Even though I didn't know anyone, I felt accept and not judged. It was quite unusual, but nice for a change.

The second one we were given a scenario and we had to write using that scenario. The scenario was; leaning against a tree listening to a storyteller tell a story. We had to write what the story was. We had 15 minutes to write whatever story we came up with. After the 15 minutes those that wanted shared their stories. Once again everyone was very accepting and enthusiastic about each persons story.

The third writing exercise was writing a poem - my forte! However we were given a list of words to incorporate into the poem. We had to use 5 out of the 7 words.
The words are:
black
emerald
wild
blue
moonrain
angels
sulky

We all shared our poems - each person had such different ideas and poems. I think mine was the darkest. I couldn't get past the word black - it kept bringing the rest of the words down.
here is my poem:

Wild black thoughts

On an emerald day

My sulky mood

Waits for nothing

I sit

think

thoughts

Many thoughts

tumble over

red, purple and pink

there are too many

overwhelmed

my sulky mood

on an emerald day

Wild black thoughts

return

dominate

control

must break free

The fourth writing exercise we were given a scenario where we were invisible and we had to write what we would do, say and listen to. It was quite a fun writing exercise. There were some funny stories that came out of it.

The fifth writing exercise was similar to the first. We had to write whatever came to mind. However there was no sentence we had to include.

We were also given homework - either keep working on one of the exercises/stories I have started or invent a character and write three journal entries that tell a story.

It was a very fun learning experience. I am so glad I signed up for it. I believe it will be one of the best things I have done.

Book quotes

A few quotes from one of my favourite books. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli.

"She laughed when there was no joke. She danced when there was no music. She had no friends, yet she was the friendliest person.."

"She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl. We did not know what to make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to a corkboard like a butterfly, but the pin merely went through and away she flew."

New adventures

I'm going to be going to the art group on Fridays from now on. I'm really looking forward to it.
I have also signed up to go to a creative writing course that runs for 2 months or so. It is run by a poet, and children's writer. I am really looking forward to that too. Exciting times ahead.

Creativity

Art: I'm possibly going to be able to go to an art group thing from 11 - 4 on Fridays. I'm very excited! I find out tomorrow.
It will be good to have space, time and support regarding my creative journey.

Realisation

A day of blah...well that's how I feel. Today is a day of realisation.

Image courtesy of stock.xchng.com

Aging....not really.

Trying to see if I've aged (ie look older) hmm...was looking at photos from when I first got married to now. I don't feel older, prob look it. Although I have been told that I look as young as 18-20 - nice compliment really seeing that I'm going to be 26 next year. I'd rather look younger than older. I hope it stays that way as I get older.

It was like that even when I was a teenager. People who met my sister and I used to think my sister was older than I. It annoyed me somewhat at the time, but now I'm glad. I remember when I was 17 being told I looked 13. That was an insult then, not so much now.
Having said that, my sister wore makeup alot whereas I never wore it. That could be one reason why. I still don't wear make up (hardly ever anyway). It doesn't appeal to me to put on a mask to improve how I look. I'd rather be myself.

Amused

These two 'how to' links amused me.

Create your own language

Create your own style

Random.

Squashed seedlings

Tiger was sleeping on my seedlings today. He was curled up in the box I have them in, sleeping right on top of them and squashing them! *screams in frustration*
Cats!

Anaglyph

I created this anaglyph effect in Photoshop. It's actually for an assignment I am doing at the moment, believe it or not. I have to write a unit of work for students that involve technology - any technology - computers, printers, cameras, scanners, various programs. I came up with this idea, I got the tutorial from worth1000.com and thought why not. Then I had the fun task of making it an actual assignment and to make it more involved rather than just a simple task as making this effect in Photoshop.
So I'm going to get students to collect 8-10 items that reflect who they are and photograph them and making it a anaglyph - put simply. I have to make examples of what the work looks like as part of my assignment so there's my anaglyph with my reflectional items about me.

Now I just need some 3D glasses.

Our chooks

^ photos of our chooks. They are funny to watch and quite tame.

Past thoughts

I found a piece of prose I'd written ages ago. Probably close to 8 years ago. It was an odd experience I had when I was relaxing on my bed. I think I was listening to Linkin Park, but I can't really remember.

The sound of the ocean sounded so surreal all around me.
The distant waves crashed onto the towering cliff, the sound was so real.
I looked at the calm waves beside me, gently nudging the shore.
The sky was hard, cold and wintery looking,
and yet it looked fresh as though it were new.
The spray from the distant waves splattered the cliff,
like the many more waves to come.
Then all of a sudden I heard a loud noise beside me
of a breaking wave,
I felt the wave pull me toward the sea bed,
I floated along with it
and it felt like I was nothing, totally weightless
as I floated and moved with the motion of the ocean.
Then suddenly I shook myself
and I was back on my bed,
half expecting to be surrounded by water.

Image courtesy of: http://www.sxc.hu/home

Amusing quote

I just found a quote of Andy Warhol's that I had written down when I was younger. I just had to share it. I must have liked it then and still do. It's amusing.

"My favourite thing to buy is underwear. I think buying underwear is the most personal thing you can do, and if you could watch a person buying underwear you would really get to know them. I mean, I would rather watch somebody buying their underwear than read a book they wrote. I think the strangest people are the ones who send somebody else to buy their underwear for them. I also wonder about people who don't buy underwear. I can understand not wearing it, but not buying it?" Andy Warhol.

Image courtesy of: http://www.sxc.hu/home

It's been way too long!!!

Gosh I haven't blogged for ages. I've not had the inspiration or desire to.
I've been so busy with lots of things, working mainly until last week - it was random casual work that my husband's work gave me. The work itself was rather boring - entering numbers, checking things off and helping with bank recos. I've also been busy getting our garden and yard organised and sowing seeds. You see, we are getting chooks soon. We have the chook house and yard made up. M and I worked on it together. We got the chook house off ebay - a flat pack kit house that seems pretty sturdy. It also seems fox and snake proof which is good. We are getting the chooks tonight - we're both excited. it's going to be a new experience and fun as well. Tiger will be rather intrigued by the newcomers. I'm not sure what he will do. I'm sure it will be amusing to watch though.

I have also been making ginger beer. The first batch is nearly ready. I can't wait to drink some. I'm sure it will be great!

The main reason I wanted to blog is because I wanted to share that I have finally made a book of all my poems using lulu.com It's great because I can get my book printed but I don't have to sell it. I designed it in Indesign and found great free stock photos on stock xchng.com
Alot of work went into and I've been working on it for a year. I am so glad it's finally done!
Most of the poems that are in the book are poems I wrote during my teenage years, there are some from my childhood too. I used to be able to compose poems in my head and write them out. Or they would just come to me in a flash of inspiration. Unfortunately I have lost that somewhat - probably because I haven't used it enough. I have been too busy and weighed down with life. I want to get back into poetry writing though. I really really enjoy it. It's really fun and inspiring once I get into it. The book looks really good. Of course M helped me design it because he is a graphic designer. He knows so much about Indesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. I was trying to design my book and having a few troubles. I ask M for help and he spends a few minutes working on it and it looks amazing!! I am so blessed to have a graphic designer husband - it comes in handy :)
There is a poem writing contest that's on at the moment. I really want to enter. I haven't written anything yet, but I'm planning on it. Just need to set aside some time for it.

That's just a taste of what I've been doing - there's lots more.
Right now though I am beginning my studies - it is rather late to start I know. There was alot of organising for the Uni to do before I could start. I'm doing these two subjects as a one off distance thing because my cross institutional didn't work out. I'm eternally grateful though that I am able to finally complete my teaching. It's been a long time coming, I can tell you that. So I really have to get my butt into action and get my study done on time.

We also recently celebrated our 2nd anniversary of marriage. Which gave us time to reflect on the past 2 years. We are happier than ever and taking steps to become even closer and building a better marriage. It's great.

I also bought a few books - that I want to eventually read. One of them is about the inner child. it's called Homecoming by John Bradshaw. I'm really enjoying reading it. It explains so much about all the crap that people pick up from their childhoods and how it gets passed on from parent to child in a crazy vicious cycle that won't stop unless someone makes a decision to break the cycle. Which I have decided to do. I don't want to pass on all the crap that my parents gave me onto our future children. No offense to my parents of course - they couldn't help it. No one can. They've done an amazing job and did the best they could with what they had at the time.

The rest of the books are about materialism, the effects of advertising (how it manipulates people into buying more stuff), more family stuff (it's called "They F*** you up") and the history of perfume. I love reading stuff about the world and what makes it tick. I also love reading biographies, particularly about people that have survived abuse.

Overheard conversation

I don't normally listen to other peoples' conversations. I tend to listen to my ipod and zone out while traveling on public transport.
Today however, I heard this: (between two upper primary students)

boy: "Why would she wear a bikini when she doesn't have a pubic chest?"

*silence* for a few moments

(meanwhile I'm laughing to myself)

girl: "Why don't you just say boobs?"

boy: "Because I'm not that sort of guy"

girl: "oh yeah...whatever."

I was amused for quite awhile after that

The rest of their conversation was quite amusing too, but this stuck out.

Limes, lemons & lemonades...

I have been quite busy. Recently I was given lots of limes and lemonades from a friend. I also got some free lemons from somewhere else. All up I'm guessing I had around 4 kg of limes, 4 kg of lemonades and 10 kg of lemons. That's alot of citrus! There is a purpose to the mad bulkness. I juiced the majority of the lemons and limes and froze the juice in small plastic bag ice cubes (Glad of course). So I will not run out of lime or lemon juice for a long time. I also grated the rind of 60 lemons and froze it, so I won't be running out of rind anytime soon either.

With the majority of the lemonades and some limes I made lemonade syrup concentrate. I now have lots of lemonade syrup. It's very delicious, very easy to make and very cheap too. Recipe here. I added lemon rind to it also as other recipes I found for lemonade syrup said to add that too.

With some of the lemons I made lemon butter for the first time and it didn't quite turn out as well as I'd hoped. I tried to preserve them, but I will have to redo two of the jars as they didn't pop in.

I will be attempting to make meringues today as lemon butter requires only egg yolks, so I have lots of egg white that needs using.

The house smells of lemons.

our outback trip

I've been rather busy since I returned from my trip to visit M's family. It was a lovely trip. M's grandfather didn't know we were there until we surprised him. He was speechless when he first saw us, but was very happy. I am glad we could make him so happy for his 90th birthday.

Overall we had a great time, it was very relaxing and much needed for M and I. The drive wasn't as long as I thought it would be, and I enjoyed the actual travelling. There were lots of cute little country towns along the way. We'd like to go back to one or two of them someday.
It was good to see M's family again, we hadn't really seen them since we moved Feb last year, particularly his grandparents.

M got a hair cut, it went from just above his shoulders to really short. His mum demanded he have a haircut and said "M, your hair is disgusting!" Thus he got a haircut.

The two days of driving there and back that we did, we left really early before sunrise so we were able to get get beautiful photos of the sunrise. The morning we took these it was a frost, freezing cold and there was ice all over the car.

The dog photo is M's pop's (not his grandfather) dog. He is a very well trained dog. If M's Pop wants his slippers, he just has to ask the dog and he will get them for him. He also collects the mail, brings the clappers to Pop and one other thing...can't remember what. He loves playing ball though, so we were throwing the ball for him to catch and he caught it and I took the photo.

The old car and building are where we went when we first started going out over 4 years ago. We haven't been back since, so we decided to have a look and get some photos while we were there. It is a beautiful place to photograph and have photoshoots. I need models to come out there...such a long way though—sigh.

We also went to our favourite milk bar, it is set up like the 1950s and has amazing flavours for milkshakes and spiders. Everytime we go to visit (which has only been once so far) we go there. But when we lived there, we would go there quite a bit.
It was a wonderful but way too short trip. Of course I had to look in op-shops in pretty much every place we stopped at, just can't get enough of it.

My favourite Coldplay songs

Animals: B-Sides (Disc 2)
No More Keeping My Feet Off The Ground: B-Sides (Disc 1)
A Message: X & Y
Til Kingdom Come (Bonus Track): X & Y
Everything's Not Lost: Parachutes
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face: A Rush Of Blood To The Head
The Scientist: A Rush Of Blood To The Head
White Shadows: X & Y
Fix You: X & Y
Speed Of Sound: X & Y
Such A Rush: B-Sides (Disc 1)
Bigger Stronger: B-Sides (Disc 1)
For You: B-Sides (Disc 1)
Lost!: Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
Viva La Vida: Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
Violet Hill: Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
42: Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
One I love: Castles
Brothers & Sisters: B sides (Disc 1)
Where is my boy: B sides (disc 2)
Moses: Castles

I like all their music, but these ones really are fantastic in my opinion.

I can remember the exact moment when I became a fan of Coldplay. I was 16 and studying for my year 11 exams (in NZ so prob year 10 in Oz). I had the radio on, I heard this amazing song, I could not believe my ears and the vocals were so unusual sounding. I wanted to hear more and find out who they were. The song was Yellow—I fell in love with Coldplay at that moment of first hearing them and have been a fan ever since. I remember most people I met not really liking Coldplay, but I remained a faithful fan! It's coming up to 10 years of being a fan—wow! That's gone fast. Their sound has changed somewhat, but they are still good as always.

I have all their music, albums, B sides–everything! (That I know about).

I'm liking their new album Viva La Vida or Death and all his friends–its a different sound to their older music, but I think its an improvement, change is good anyway.

Holiday

I'm going on a short holiday. It is M's grandfather's 90th birthday, so we are driving 12 hours to see M's family for the weekend. It will be a welcome break—chance to see family and to photograph different places. Where M's family live is outback Australia, in the desert, with lots of red dirt, sun and no mountains; it is very flat. The colours are very different to where we live, will be a welcome change. I am also looking forward to the trip out there—photographing different places we pass through.

A think

It's a crazy world when there are people saying there is no God, people saying there is a God and people saying they are god.

It's all about choice.

A thought.

holidays!

Gosh it's been awhile!
I have been busy studying for my exam, but all that's over now, so gratefully glad! It's time to go crazy! Flying on the crazyness of my mind, being free all the time!!!

I've been listening to Linnkin Park and gosh...I'm loving it! I haven't listened to them for ages.

I just don't know what to do with myself—there's so many options, so many possibilities!

Time to fly!

4 year anniversary

4 years ago today my dear sweet (now) husband asked me out to be his girlfriend. I can remember every detail. I remember where we were standing, in which town and what he said. It was a wonderful moment, I will treasure it always in my heart. It was funny actually because he kissed me (just a light kiss on the lips) before he even asked me out. We were talking about the fact that it had been 4 years since we started dating. I asked him if he remembered our first kiss, he didn't. So I told him the story of our first kiss, he didn't believe that it was before he asked me out.

I really can't believe it has been 4 years, its gone so fast. So much as changed too. I am glad we are together and stronger than ever.

Ah, but now you want to know the story of how it all came to be...
Perhaps in another post, another time.

Poem

What intrigues you, dear cat,
as you sit upon your rock,
inspecting
What do you long to capture
will you jump, or
will you sit?
You sniff the air so fresh,
contemplating your next move.
You sit upon your rock
so proud, so bold,
yet you do not move.
What has captured your attention?
For I cannot see your intrigument.

I composed this poem after a short refreshing walk in the cool air with the lovely warm winter sun on my face. I happened upon Tiger perched upon a rock and was inspired. I broke out into poem right there and then as he sat upon his rock ignoring me as I spoke my poem to him.

Fresh water

We fill up our water from this natural spring in the mountains, its fresh and lovely tasting. Every time we drive up there to fill up there is almost always at least 4-5 cars waiting to fill up. It is rather popular. Some people have a trailer load of empty bottles to fill up. It's kinda frustrating for us if we are in line behind them as we only have 6 bottles to fill.
We have been drinking this water for over a year and had no problems. Its lovely water to drink. At least it doesn't have all those nasty added chemicals - chlorine, fluoride and whatever else is added to water these days. I cannot stand the taste of tap water - it tastes salty and chlorinated to me - not fresh at all. If we ever move, we are so getting a water filter.

A new pet!

We now are the proud owners of a lovely goldfish. We got him from M's workmate who is sadly moving to another city due to various issues. The poor thing hadn't had a clean tank in awhile so we gave it a clean for him. Not that reflects his previous owner - she looked after him fine.
She called him Kingkong, so I guess we will continue to call him that.

Tiger has been rather intrigued by Kingkong, he tries to get as close to the glass as he can to see if he can catch him. I'll be watching Tiger though and making sure he doesn't eat Kingkong.

Strange Ivy

We just had someone come to our door asking if they could cut some of our Ive off our fence. We were rather confused. It is a weed - people want to get rid of it! We want to get rid of it! People amaze me with their randomness - I am glad though. It makes me laugh.

SNOW!!

It's snowing on the Mt of (....) in (....) he he. It's lovely, lots of amazing soft, fresh fallen snow.
Della, myself and M (husby) went to see the snow yesterday. It was wonderful and very cold. There was a huge amount of snow, the road to the top of the mountain was closed. It started snowing when we arrived which made for a lovely blanket of fresh fallen snow.
I took my cloak up, Della and M were taking photos of me wearing it. It was fun! I haven't had much chance to wear my cloak yet, its not the sort of outfit one wears just anywhere (unless I want to scare people). There are more photos here.
We are going up again tomorrow to spend more time at the snow and take more photos.

What happens when no one is looking

Over the weekend (as posted previously) we had Harry aka the orange kitty visit us. Tiger does not like Harry at all. Whenever Harry is around, Tioger looks agitated and annoyed. He hisses and growls at him on occasion too. Harry is of course totally oblivious to Tiger's dislike of him and chases Tiger around. Tiger does not like this at all and has batted at Harry with his paws, to warn him away.
On Monday (it was a long weekend so M was home) we were both at our computers doing stuff. I went to the kitchen to get a drink of water. I peeked out the window, there was Tiger and Harry lying in the exact same position next to each other, one on each chair. I raced to tell M. M laughed so hard when he saw them. M said, "quick get a photo. Where's your camera?" "It's right here," I replied, pointing at my camera. M grabbed my camera and took photos - all the while taking care not to disturb Harry and Tiger. When M had finished I got a few photos too. Throughout this time Harry and Tiger did not notice us taking photos. I'm sure if they did, Tiger would have started hissing and growling.
Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of Harry and Tiger lying in the exact same position. It's still hilarious though, Tiger had been so adamant that he disliked Harry...

Bulkness - cat food and other bargains

I am somewhat of a bulk Queen. I love buying in bulk - I simply cannot help myself. I have been known to buy 9 kgs of washing powder in the past. I walk past something really cheap in the supermarket (that we need) and I cannot resist grabbing multiples. I dislike buying small packets of things when I can buy big - uber Big! It works out alot cheaper in the end anyway. Which brings me to explaining the photo.

This past weekend my husband and I were driving to closest biggest shopping mall (around 40 min away) and we stopped to fill up petrol as the car was almost empty. Right next door to the petrol station is a bulk pet/stock food & supplies store. I said to my husband "I will go and check it out while you fill up." He nodded, knowing we needed cat food. I wandered into the shop, it was cold. It was one of those open, cement floor places with no heating. I wandered around trying to find the cat food section. Eventually I found it, the section didn't have alot of range. There was mainly cat biscuits, not tins. This was fine though as we needed biscuits. I looked at the range of cat biscuits and the prices. By this time M had finished filling up and was looking at the cat biscuits too. We worked out the price per kilo for each of the different brands. We worked out the cheapest one which is the one pictured above. It was $26.90 (AUD) for 8kg, which works out to be $3.40 per kg.That is quite cheap. We decided we would check out the price per kg in the supermarket of the same brand before buying it. We had to buy other items anyway.
We left the shop, continued driving, arrived at our destination and did the rest of the shopping. We looked at the prices of the same brand in the supermarket, it was around $7.50 per kg - what a difference. We finished the shopping, drove back and bought the huge bag of cat biscuits. We were a bit worried that Tiger wouldn't like them - as he is super fussy, but he loves them. I think 8kg works out to be around 4 months supply of cat biscuits too.

Other items I have in bulk (or have bought)
Wheat 20 kg (we have stone mill grinder - so can grind our own wholemeal flour)
Rice (Basmati) 10 kg
Lentils 3 kg
Brown Rice 5 kg
Chickpeas 4 kg
Red Kidney beans 3 kg
Honey 3 kg
Black beans 3kg
Toilet paper 8 double length rolls
Olive oil 4 litres
Sesame seeds 3 kg
Linseed 3 kg
Cashews 2 kg
Pumpkin seeds 2 kg
Sunflower seeds 2 kg
Shampoo & Conditioner 6 lots of 300ml bottles (they were $2.95 each on special)
Fruit Juice 2x 3 litres

As you can see I like to stock up. I dislike having to run to the shop all the time and buy pathetic small overpriced packets of the above items. When I can buy them in bulk for much cheaper and it lasts for ages.
I have even considered buying 12 bottles of tomato sauce because it is $1 cheaper per bottle than buying it in less than 12. This is not just any tomato sauce, it is homemade style sauce from a lady who sells them in markets. It is the best tomato sauce I have ever tasted, better than the disgusting artificial crap in supermarkets (which doesn't even taste like tomatoes). This actually tastes like tomatoes and has a small amount of spice to it. Its fantastic. The company is called Hells Breath, she also makes chill sauces.

I have inherited this buying in bulk and finding bargains trait of my Dad. If there is something cheaper out there, my Dad will find it. He buys lots of stuff in bulk. He has even bought chilli sauce in bulk. I remember having a 4 litre bottle of chilli sauce and a 5 litre bottle of tomato sauce often in stock when I was a child. He also would buy a whole box of bananas (the huge boxes that bananas are shipped in) and freeze most of them. He did the same with tomatoes, peaches, pears, apples - whatever he could find that was cheap and able to be bought in bulk.
He also bought all the beans, rice and wheat in bulk. We always had huge buckets full of wheat, beans, rice when I was child. Pretty much anything that could be bought in bulk, we had in bulk.
My Dad also has a knack for finding bargains, as I do too. However he can take it to extreme and spend hours comparing and looking for something cheaper. I however do not so much. I do like to compare prices and shop around, but not spend hours doing so.
My parents also used to bottle all the perishables they bought in bulk. So as a child, I had unlimited access to bottled peaches, tomatoes, apple sauce, feijoas, apricots, and ...can't remember what else.
I can remember having weetbix and apple sauce for breakfast - I loved apple sauce.
Oh yeah...I remember one other thing my Dad bought in bulk, probably the best ever actually.
He bought Swiss chocolate (cooking) in bulk. Dark, and milk chocolate in 2 kg blocks, absolute heaven. My sister, brother and I used to sneak into my parents walk in wardrobe and steal the chocolate, oh so naughty but oh so yummy! It was more my Sister and I actually. My Dad used to hide the chocolate from us, but we would always find it. After we took it, he would usually find out and then make us pay for a new block. It was worth it though as we had more chocolate, he he (so naughty!). I think we had to pay $20 NZD per 2 kg block. I don't know if I ever paid it all back to him either. I think he forgot about it after I left home.
So there you have it, the history of the bulk Queen.

Orange kitty - hooded and dangerous

We had the privilege of having the lovely orange kitten visiting us again this weekend. He was here for the whole weekend. On Friday night we had a Della around for tea. Whilst my husband was preparing tea - I did help, (which was fantastic and scrumptious mini pizzas) we (Della and I) had the wonderful idea of putting the orange kitty into M's hood. We put him in and he stayed there for ages. Long enough for us to get a photo of him sitting there in wonder and confusion.
After about 2-3 minutes orange kitty decided he had had enough and proceeded to reach his sharp claws up onto M's shoulder's. M let out a screech of pain while we rescued him and took the orange kitty out of M's hood.

We found out that the orange kitty has a name. His name is Harry - after Prince Harry.

Kuini - funny story from my childhood

A little background first (for the photo)
For most of my childhood/teenage years grew up in NZ, living on the North Island. When we (my family) lived in Kerikeri we had 12 acres of land with a lovely big house. We had room for lots of pets, cows, chooks and a horse. It was a wonderful time during my teenage years.

I had a dog called Kuini (pronounced Queenie - its Maori), we got her from a Maori family and they had already named her. Another name for her was Hamu (which meant greedy). She was a lovely dog. We also had two cats, one of which had kittens about 2-3 times during the time we had her. This particular time she had 3 kittens, I think 2 died and 1 lived. The one that lived was spoilt by her, she kept feeding it till it was about 3 months. Then she got pregnant again and kicked the kitten/cat out. The kitten feeling sorry for itself, looked for the next available mother, Kuini. Kuini set about motherhing the kitten, loving it and then producing milk for it.

Yes! Producing milk. This dog had never ever had puppies before and she produced milk for a half grown kitten. I couldn't resist photographing this incident - which are the above photos. This happened about 7-9 years ago. It is an amazing story. Not only can cats and dogs get along they can also 'mother' each other. Amazing!

Another story involving Kuini:

We often bought alot of calves and raised them. This involved feeding them milk and caring for them. My Dad bought about 22 or calves and a 15 or so calf feeder. A calf feeder is a container that one puts the milk in and there are teats for the calves to drink from.
The calves had to be fed 2 times a day at first and then once and then were weaned.
After the calves were fed, they would want to suck your fingers. My dad and brother would often let the calves suck their fingers. I wasn't so keen on it. On particular day, my dad called us all out to the top paddock (it wasn't that far from our house) to have a look at Kuini. There's Kuini, standing there, a calf either side of her and sucking her ears (she had quite long ears for a little dog). She's just standing there enjoying it. It was hilarious and so cute.

Animals always have a way of making me laugh and showing me the odd things in life. I enjoy that.

Take two!

Just after I posted my brain holiday post. I had a look at it in my blog setting just to see how it looked. You all do this, come on. Just to see what your blog looks like.
Anyway...I clicked on the picture and then tried to close it by going to the red dot on the left corner of the picture - duh!! Try it. Click on the picture in my previous post, look at the red dot on the left corner - if you use a Mac, it will be confusing.
I have to laugh at myself, what a character I am.

Brain holiday

Yesterday I was trying to reformat an external hard drive from MAC format to FAT 32 or MS-Dos format. I wanted to get some stuff of my husband's computer (his is a PC), it was too big for a USB and his DVD burner is broken. I had recently formatted the external hard drive to MAC format. I hadn't written anything to the hard drive yet. Anyway, back to the story. I went to Disk Utility on my computer and tried to find where I could change the format. I had changed the format on other hard drives and USBs before, so I knew what I was doing. This particular time I couldn't see MS-Dos. I talked to my husband on Gmail chat to get some help. He was at work. We chatted for quite awhile as to what it could be. Then I decided to send him a screenshot of the list of format options, he found the problem straight away. I was so oblivious to the MS-Dos thing, I didn't even see it. It was there all along. My brain decided to go on holiday for a bit I guess. *Giggles*

Later that evening...
I am getting my computer ready to move downstairs, which is where my husband and I spend our evenings now as it is alot warmer and easier to heat. We were going to watch Star trek (M's fave - I'm kind like yeah whatever, plus we need to watch it and send back to QuickFlix). However, bit off track there. I eject my external hard drive and proceed to unplug everything including my mouse and key board. At this point my husband walks in and says "Aren't you going to turn your computer off first?" I reply; "Oh? Yeah, that's right." You see I have to lean behind my computer screen and unplug everything. By the time I got behind there I had completely forgotten that I hadn't turned my computer off. So I go back to the front of my computer and see that it is still on. After he says this I try to move my mouse, it doesn't move. He says to me "You unplugged your mouse." I reply, "Oh yeah, thats right." *blushes and giggles* I crack myself up sometimes.

Tiger takes over my desk

Yesterday while I was trying to study, Tiger took over my desk. He lay on my keyboard, stood in front of my screen, turned the brightness of my screen down and switched between screens about 10 times. I think he also tried to look at a photography site. It was frustrating at the time, hilarious later on. Attention grabbing cat.

The craziness of cats once again

On Thursday when I was studying and the incident with Tiger happened in my previous posts. Tiger was being all happy and affectionate. While he is a cute cat and cuddly. When Tiger is purring and affectionate he has a tendency to dribble. Which is gross, but I try to ignore it. This particular afternoon Tiger was rubbing up against my cup and dribbled in it. I wrote a note to remind myself that this had happened. I knew that I would forget what had happened and use the cup again. Anyway I got absorbed in my study and got alot done. I took a break and did some housework. When I had finished, I started looking for my cup. I then remembered it was in the study. I went and got it, saw the note and laughed. I had totally forgotten the incident with Tiger and would have definitely used the cup had I not written myself a note. At the time of writing the note, I was almost laughing at myself for how ridiculous I was being by writing a note. After this had happened, I was glad that I had written a note. What a funny one I am.

Tiger and the bells

I have four of these bells on my door in the study. I am not sure why. I do like hearing them jingle whenever I open the door. M doesn't though, he finds them rather annoying.
Tiger (of course) just a moment ago was getting agitated and wanted to go out of the room. I heard a jingle at the door. I turned around and there was Tiger on his hind legs ringing the bells trying to get my attention. It was so adorable. He really wants to go outside though. I'd better let him out.

Tiger and his quirks

I know I have posted this image before, but it suits the story

Tiger my cat is a funny cat. Usually he is friendly, cuddly and happy. However, he has his moments. Today was one of those moments.
I was in the study at my computer desk editing an essay, I took a break and brought Tiger inside. He was all over me, cuddling, purring, walking all over my desk, knocking stuff over, sitting on my journal articles for research and of course standing right in front of my computer screen. There goes my essay editing. After a few minutes of doing this, Tiger decides he is bored and jumps down. I continue editing my essay and get quite engrossed in it. I am brought back to reality by a pair of claws scratching the back of my chair. I reach out my arm to stop Tiger scratching and what do you know, he bites my arm (through my clothes so it didn't hurt). I pick him up and hold him, he continues to try and bite me. I tell him, "you are a naughty boy." I put him outside my study and close the door. I push the draft stopper snake against the door to stop the draft. It makes a banging noise when I do this. I hear a loud bang on the other side of the door. Tiger is expressing his annoyance. I finish arranging the draft stopper snake and am about to sit at my desk. I hear Tiger clawing outside the door and decide to bring him in. I open the door and pick him up. He is a different cat - purring, cuddling once again. What is it with cats? The whole process nearly happened again after I brought him in the second time except he didn't try to bite me. Cats...they're crazy!

A very weird dream

Last night I had the strangest dream. Actually I think it was closer to the early morning. Anyway...

My dream:

I was in a house, it was an odd house. It felt like home to me (in my dream that is but it was not my house at all) and there were these odd hippie type people. I think a man, woman and a child. They all had blonde hair and were into the normal health stuff that hippies are usually into. The house had no power at all. Every thing was either solar powered or just old school type stuff - hole toilet, hand washing type thing. I think there was a commune of hippies living there.
At first it was just me the weird couple, but we didn't talk.
Then more and more people appeared, none of which I knew. We were talking about how good it was to have a house with no power that was free. One person started saying how were we going to survive the hot summer. Someone else suggested solar powered fans which we set about trying to make. I remember trying to put a solar panel on a weird looking fan.
The scene kinda changed and my husband was there. I think we were still at the same commune house place. My parents were also there, but not much apart of the scene, just there. My husband had to drive and get supplies somewhere. I think he was buying food. He was gone a long time. I tried to ring his mobile to see where he was. The phone did not connect, it said the phone was out of range or something. Then a strange thing happened; whilst still on the phone, the call was put through to some woman. She told me that the person who owned this phone was out of range and that their car had a broken oil tube (or something like that). So I decided that my husband was lost and I had no idea where to find him. I talked to my parents about this and we decided to travel up to QLD (where they live) and I would live there. Whilst travelling there, I decided that I had better ring my Mother in law and tell her that M was lost and we couldn't find him. I remember I had the phone number list of family & friends that is actually on my fridge in real life. I was looking at her number and trying to remember it before dialling. I got the phone and tried to dial, then I realised I had forgotten the number and was dialing some random mobile number. I tried again and again to dial and I couldn't. It took me around half an hour to dial the phone number. When I finally got through I told her what had happened, I can't remember her reaction though. I soon woke up after this - I was very freaked out. My husband walked in the door (in real life) from having a shower and I was like I'm scared, hold my hand and I told him about the dream.

Other dreams of note:

I have had a recurring dream where I am climbing on a very steep and narrow cliff near the ocean. Then I fall and I'm fallling....falling....falling and then I hit the water. When I hit the water I wake up for real and sorta hit the ground/bed like I have been falling. It is a very weird feeling. I usually have this dream whilst I am semi-awake, like within 30 min of going to bed. I haven't had it for ages, but at least five times in my life.

Dreams are odd.

Update...

On Friday I received my practicum folder with my marks in it. I was utterly shocked when I saw the result - 98% a HD. I still am shocked. I don't know how/why I got such a high mark. I honestly believed that I hadn't done that well with the assignments and my prac also. I struggled through my prac (due to all the evacuating we had to do - fires). I struggled through the assignments in my prac folder - I felt I didn't do enough, couldn't get the words right and was still recovering from the shock of the fires and all the evacuating. What a crazy time and an unbelievable mark!
I am glad its all over for now and that something good did come out of the fires - for me personally anyway.

Right now; its raining and I have washing on the line. It was somewhat sunny/cloudy this morning and the forecast did say late rain - its not that late! At least we have a huge indoor line that I can hang up the washing and leave for a few days till its dry.

My parents were here for just under a week. I had a fantastic time with them and I miss them so much already. The weather was absolutely perfectly well behaved while they were here and now its gone onto being its normal self. The days were not really cold at all while they were here. I was so glad. My parents had only booked carry on luggage so that meant they couldn't bring much stuff. My Mum was rather worried it would be too cold and they wouldn't have enough warm clothes, but she needn't have worried.

I did a photoshoot with my parents, mainly to practice photographing people but it was also nice to get some lovely photos of my parents. Some of the photos will be posted on my photo blog at some stage.

Op-shop update

Remember when I posted about how I totally lost contact with L, the ex op-shop manager. My parents and I were driving along the main street of town and I saw L. I'm like "oh my goodness! We must turn around and I need to say hi." We turn around and go back, park and I jump out of the car. I walk up to L and we greet and hug. She had been meaning to catch up with me and tell me what happened. It turns out she didn't just randomly resign. She was fired! Fired for standing up against something she didn't agree with that the higher up manager people were doing. I can't believe that. Anyway she is suing them for how they treated her (good on her!). She said it's not about the money, but about the principle. We chatted a bit more about other stuff, how we're going to catch up and have each other over for meals etc. We swapped numbers and are going to catch up sometimes soon. I am so grateful that I didn't lose contact with her.
It's all about timing, the journey...it worked out right.
L is one of those people I really click well with.
I was so excited when I saw her and so glad that we could catch up.

Weekend update...

The weekend was fantastic. Alot happened. It is hard to keep track of and remember, but it was all very good and fun. Friday night; DH and I went to a friend's place for tea, that was lovely. The host cooked chickpea and tomato soup, very interesting flavour, but delicious. After this DH and went to another friend's place and played board games. M (DH) is very into board games and now he has gotten me into them. There are some fantastic board games out there - non mainstream of course. I will review some that I have played, later though.
Saturday, went to church like usual and that was great. Then we had an unusual fun experience. A married couple at our church invited us to their place for a meal to celebrate their 20th Anniversary - they wanted to "Pay it forward." There were around 10 other married couples around our age there also - from church so we knew them. On the table there was a list of questions about marriage, romance etc - conversation starters. It was interesting to hear other couples stories about their relationship, romance, and ideas about marriage. After this we watched a movie called Fireproof, a Christian movie about marriage. It was a reasonably good movie for a Christian movie, but a little over dramatised and cheesy in parts. It did get the message across though. The movie had in it a book called The Love Dare, which was used to enrich and work on the marriage in the movie. After the movie finished, the married couple celebrating their 20th anniversary challenged all the married couples there to take on the Love Dare and handed out Love Dare books to all couples who wanted to take on the challenge. Of course we took on the challenge. The book is a 40 day journey that couples take & read the book and make changes to improve their marriage. We are on day 3 and enjoying it. The first day: we had to try and practice patience, particularly trying not to say anything negative to each other. The second day: keep trying not to say anything negative to each other and do something unexpectedly kind for each other. The third day: still try not to say anything negative to each other and buy something for each other (a selfless gift). I am enjoying the journey of change in our marriage.
On Sunday I did a photoshoot of some lovely locations I found. I took over 300 photographs.
The weekend was relaxing and lovely.

Daily photo post

Daily photo posts have moved to here.
This blog is more for ideas, ramblings, creative ideas and whatever my mind comes up with.

New blog

I have created a new blog for my photography business. No information on it yet, but soon. I am sooo excited! I have taken my first step and now I'm gonna fly, cause these are my wings to fly through life.

Daily photo post - better late than never

I was feeling rather dejected today due to finding out that I will not be receiving my Ruddy money because I did earn enough. I earnt under the tax free threshold of $6,000 which means I cannot receive it. Such is life - the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
But alas I still have my photography and here are my daily photographs. This time of leaves and good ol' hills hoist full of clothes.

On another note, this lack of Ruddy money has forced me to think about my life, lack of money, etc. I am starting a business, yikes! Over the next few weeks I will be organising my Photography business. For a limited time I will be offering free, yes FREE photoshoots of people - family, individual, pets, themed...whatever. More information coming. Keep your eyes out.
I am excited but oh so nervous, this is my dream, to photograph people, families, life, pets, to capture their moments in life...

Stay tuned.

Funny Tshirts

I stumbled across this site that sells funny, random Tshirts for $6 USD. There are some hilarious tshirts on there. I want to get some of them, and for that price, I am not too worried about getting a few. I don't normally like slogan shirts (most are cheesy and over rated) but these are pretty good.
I have a few favourites already, but these two would have to be the ones I like the best.

Other sites that sell offbeat, funny and wrong tshirts: Tshirt Hell, Red Bubble clothing

The $6 site also has a mystry tshirt deal, where you can buy tshirts for $2.95, but you don't know what you will get.