Our air conditioner melt down...

It was 44.8 degrees Celsius (112Fahrenheit) at 1:53pm here. Yesterday the power went out for an hour during the heat of the day. When it was restored, the new LG split we had connected last week, only a week ago, had busted. We have called the power company.We believe it is due to a power surge that the split system does not cool. The electrician will be coming around to assess it. Then the power company will send us some papers to fill out and send back. I hope the process does not take too long. The next week is set to be over 30degrees Celsius (95F)...which means the kid will be so hot...I don't care for me, I do care for the kids.
Other half began back at work yesterday after some vacation days. What a day to go back.it was so hot and windy and yuck and everyone is just so over it already. I think there is more to come.
Still, at least we have power. The kids have been hopping in and out of the bath all day (not changing the water, they are not dirty it is more to cool down) and I have soaked some face cloths in water and frozen them in the freezer for around our necks. Bondi is very quiet too, so I have been dousing him with cool water too.
I feel for our emergency services today, it is so hot and so dry and so windy...the thought of fires scares me.

Scorcher..

Today is set to be 41 degrees celsius. A sharp rise to 41 is expected between 9am and 11am. For you guys who know temp in fahrenheit, it will be 105.8F. Tomorrow is set to be 43degrees celsius, or 109.4F.
So long as the power system does not go into melt down mode we will be ok, thank God we got the air conditioner connected last week.
Tomorrow morning I take the kids to pick up their books from school, we will be doing it early in the morning that is for sure! I am not sure of the cut of temperature for staying home from school, I will ask at the office tomorrow. I won't be sending them to school if above 40 that is for sure, there is no air con in their rooms and I don't like the idea of fans just pushing around hot air.
Take care all my fellow Victorians...and drink lots of tapalade (that is water in Cazzie speak).

Australia Day..

Tonight I got in at 10pm after taking the kids to see the fire works at the Altona Beach Pier. Families gathered and children played as we waited in anticipation of the show to begin. It was wonderful and we had such fun "ooing"and "aahhhing" at the display.

It was a wonderful Australia Day...peace :)

Another baby..

My cousin had her first baby on my other half's birthday, 21/1/09. It's a boy! He is named Riley. He is not a little baby by any means, he weighed in at 9lb 5oz. Riley decided he was so snug and comfy inside his mummy that he had to be brought on...24 hours later he was birthed via emergency cesarean. He was 8 days over due date. Mum and bub are doing just fine right now.
We have bought Riley a swim suit. I have also bought my lovely cousin some hand cream...something to pamper herself with. She deserves it!
When I am able to get an image of Riley I shall post it here. I do not plan on rushing to see them when what they need is rest and time to bond. But, I am ever so excited to take the trip up to Dayelsford to see them when the time is right :)

My words go un heard...

Only days ago I rambled about THIS...and now THIS happens. How stupid can this woman be? The most precious gift on Earth and she leaves her in the car, with the keys and the ignition on. I do not care if she did leave the air conditioner on..what if the car stalled? For God sake! I hope she gets charged!

On a much lighter note, we had a wonderful time with friends down the coast at Barwon Heads/ Ocean Grove yesterday. It was hubbie's 39th birthday. We had a BBQ, spent loads of time swimming in the warm waters and digging in the sand..finding lots of tiny crabs and shells.
The kids played with my friend's children, and other children that were there too. Everyone was so relaxed. There have been reports of a dolphin swimming around the very area we were at. We did not sight it :(
Today everyone is relaxed and tired from a day spent in clean air and at such a peaceful location :)

Careless people...

On the way to work today it was hot and windy and dusty and yuk! During my tea break at work I watched the NEWS. I got to see footage of a fire that the fire brigade had under control in Carrum Downs. I believe the NEWS reported that a house had been burned? You could see people trying to protect their houses with water hoses. They also showed the water bomb helicopter doing its job. It was 40 degrees celcius at 2pm they said.
Then, as I waited at a set of traffic lights in by car on the way home I witnessed something unbelievable. A guy in a convertible car was smoking and he threw the cigarette into the grassy medium strip, I could see the red point on the stub still alight. he took off at seed in the opposite direction to me. I could not report him for the offence, but I sure would have. What if he does it somewhere else? What if it causes a fire that causes a family to loose their house? Or worse..their life?
You just cannot help DUMB!

My Aunt's Place..

Hmmm, I am not sure what blogger is doing, I tried to centre the image but it wouldn't.... I tried to correct it....I couldn't... oh well, lest it sound like a post which has text copied from one of my favourite books that I read to the kids, "The Digging-est Dog", the image of my Aunt's place will stay to the left.

So, my Uncle is really smart and creative and he built the place out of materials from their own land. Of course, concrete trucks came in for each slab. The front part was built first..with the mezzanine and balcony atop. As the family grew so did the house. They have six children. The lounge room is bigger than half my house! I love it there. It is cool at night in Summer, and reasonably cool during a hot Summer's Day.

No two windows or doors are the same. Remnants and antiques a prize for the arduous searching that my Aunt and Uncle did over the years. There is no such thing as trash..everything is treasure!

My Uncle's art work adorns some of the walls in the house. My Aunt's craft work adorns others. Of course, family pictures take up some of the many walls too.

My favourite part of going to my Aunt's is the smell. The Eucalyptus fills your senses when it has rained softly after a warm day. It wafts through the place and makes you feel relaxed. Lovely.

Push Bike Riding...

My girls and I have been riding our bikes each day. Mia came with Sarah and I yesterday for the first time on two wheels. Imagine my surprise when I look back at Mia after I had dismounted from my bike at the park to see her coming full pelt down a grassy hill! She is a stunt woman, haha. Of course I had to film it on my phone, so she entertained me again with her grassy hill descent... brilliant.
Today on our ride we got to see alot irds(not like in the Paul Hogan Sketch above!). Magpies, galas and those blastered plubbers They left us three chicks alone. We had a great time!

Regards the sketch above, this was from the Paul Hogan show from the 1970's and early 1980's. We had so many funny shows from when I grew up, I wonder whatever happened to having gun shows instead of the serious ones we have now. Reality TV is not funny, not to me anyhow. Above Paul Hogan demonstrates the dangers of cycling in this parody of The Mixtures "Pushbike Song", too funny, I keep on laughing :)

Wonderful Movie..

I took 3 of the rug rats to see a flick today at our local cinemas. HOTEL FOR DOGS is awesome to see if you want a real laugh. If you are a pooch lover, better still. Lisa Kudrow was her typical funny self, and a pleasant surprise to see her in this film as I had not looked up main characters prior to going.

I just love the old hotel used in this film. The decor is what I would dream of having in a house of opulence :) Check out the trailer if you have a couple of minutes.

I was thinking what a difficult job it had to have been for the trainers of the dogs in the movie, there were so many dogs, so many breeds, and they were all gorgeous :)

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Soaring temperatures.

Our Summer weather has come late. It is no less ferocious though. People from Swan Hill in our state's north will have their highest temperature yet for this season when the temperature gets to 45 degrees celsius. I feel for them. I also feel for the firemen and women who are on stand by.
Over in South Australia, a beautiful area that we travelled last Easter time has been set ablaze. The cause of the fire unknown at this stage. 6 people were treated at the local hospital for minor injuries. Let's hope it just stays at that.
A notice to parents out there, of human children and pet dog children.... do not leave your children or pets in the car on hot days..it can and has killed them!

What the street woke up to today..

This is my station wagon. The one we have spent alot of time and money on this past year. Tinted windows for comfort when we go for our driving vacations with the children. A v8 engine so we can pull along our caravan with ease.

What we did not count on, living in a nice area with nice neighbours was graffiti. In street talk, the scribble says STRT OHBAYZ...well, if these idiots could spell right it ought to say STREETS OBEY!

Most of the neighbours' garage roller doors were also sprayed upon in this scribble like manner. People called the police. My husband and neighbours converged and spoke to the police. The message was clear...you better find these kids before we do.. no need to finish that sentence off.

My message to these indecent and disrespectful creatures...you better watch out, you are on notice!

Funny thing is, just before I left work last night I was speaking to the two nurses I worked along side. We were discussing some of the young commuters of today. One nurse catches the tram home, one catches the train, and well, I drive because I am far distant to place of work than they are, but, hubby does work in the transport industry. They both told me of the blatant openness and disrespect youngsters have when talking on their mobile phone and when playing tunes from their phones out loud. We concurred it is almost as if they are daring people to "Say something, come on, we want to fight". It is scary, it is reality. The female nurse, she even got stalked on a tram the other night. There was no security there. She called her friend who met her at the stop...lucky the friend being there.

Anyway, I am bitter about my street being invaded so... it is almost comparable to the feeling I had when Tomas' bicycle got stolen from school. We work hard for what we have, and to have it vandalised is just disgusting.

Old times..

Last night we went out for a family dinner. We also had Tomas' best mate and my friend ,who is like a mum to me, with us. I booked the table a day earlier for a 6pm sitting. Then, yesterday afternoon, I changed the booking to 6:30pm and added an extra seat. "No problems", the girl said, "Do you still want to be near the children's play area? We do also have a clown that comes at 7pm to entertain the kids". "Yes please and thankyou", I say.

We walked to the club as it is close to our house and we arrived at 6:30pm. The girl who was to escort us to our seats says, "Oh, your booking was for 6pm". "No, I called and spoke to a girl by the name of Sally and asked for a later booking and she said no problems and that we would be in the same area". They then escorted us to our table...miles away from where it was initially arranged. I was annoyed at this. The reason was simple... I cannot stand lack of communication, and the fact that we do not go out to dinner as a family often and we were looking forward to going out. I also like to make sure the kids are safe and in the right area, aka, not going off to try play the poker machines! So, from the back of the sitting area I could not keep tabs on the kids... unlike other parents who let their children run absolutely wild!

I ordered a prawn linguine and it was lovely. The waitress was also very efficient and she was very nice! The clown came through and rounded up the children, actually, he was a wizard not a clown last night. He performed magic tricks, made his rabbit appear from a hat and doves appear from under a table or somewhere. He is a brave wizard to let all those children handle his animals! He also painted the children's faces and they all loved it. The older children played games in the games room.

After dinner we moved to where I could monitor the children. A duet, I suspect were mother and son of Islander appearance, were singing in the lounge area. A keyboard and two microphones, they sang/mimed some Elvis songs, some rock n roll and some Neil Diamond and Tom Jones. It was good, and people got up to dance. It was, for me, reminiscent of the old days when I was a kid. We used to go to the Commercial Hotel on a Saturday night and enjoy dinner, then dance to a band. They'd let mum and dad stay there with us four kids. On condition that if we were good and if danced..... So we did. Mum would always get the band to play Sweet Caroline for yours truly... I could have just became invisible right then and there!

So, last night we stayed until the wizard packed up his paints and his menagerie. It was a good night in the end. I spoke to the manager who served me the drinks I ordered and said what a good evening it had turned out to be. He commented that my children were well behaved, then he served them some free lemonade. Admittedly, he was right, there were some children there who were not being supervised and getting up to no good. I know it would be annoying to other patrons. We left after the lemonade was consumed, we arrived home, happy, at 9:30pm.

Added note, 11:30am and Mia's first tooth has fallen out. Actually, she was brushing her teeth and it came out...yayyy :)

Electrical Thingies..

Right, I am a bit sick of electrical goods that die on you. I am so glad we did receive a few toasters, a few electric jugs and well...those lasagna dishes...look, I know they aren't electrical but , what the hell...we got them for our wedding 13 yrs ago!

The thing is, nothing lasts more than 12 months.

Today when husband switched on the Xbox 360 it died! It was only bought 12 months ago for the family as a whole to use. The expiry for the warranty runs out January 20th!! OMG!!

An email was sent and apparently we will receive a box to sent it away and will loose the Xbox for a month.

Of course we can live without it..my neighbours may just have had their prayers answered..what with my singing on LIPS programme.

I digress, we have not been indoors much these holidays and the Xbox has not been used non-stop like in some households. It is also never left on if not in use. I make sure of that.

So, what electrical appliance have you bought in the last 12 months? Did it die before warranty or just after warranty ran out? And..who still uses their grandmas old toaster..one of those ones with the flip down sides... my grandma's probably still works!!

Some pictures of me...

This is me aged about 3 years old I believe. I am in a go-cart my dad made, I used to love playing in that thing for hours!

Leaving my Nan and Pop's place in Footscray with my Uncle in tow. I loved that dress and those shoes. My Nanna knitted the jumper.

Here I am in the centre. Don't you just love the socks I am wearing? Very fashionable they were. My brothers used to wear a safari suit and those kind of long-ish socks with them as well. My Pa even wore the same safari suit as the boys...I wish I had a pic of that!

There I am to the very right of picture with all my friends from Air Cadets. I am about 15 years old there. The camp was on the RAAF Base at East Sale.

I was 16 years old here, almost 17. Yesterday my neighbour saw this image and remarked, "Now THAT is such a Farrah Fawcett HAIR-DO!" LOL
Here I am, I graduated nursing , a Degree in Health Sciences Nursing...and I was so very proud as was my then fiance.

Missy Higgins.

I have written about this wonderful performer twice before and now I must mention her again. Missy Higgins is young and fresh and vibrant and yet her music capabilities almost make her appear as though she has come back to have a second life, from a previous life where her instruments were an extension of her body.....gah...you know, I am just sayin' she's fantabulous ok!!

If you have an hour or so, sit back and relax and watch her play live at The Basement (you have to scroll down a little and click the WATCH NOW orange colour tab) in Sydney... it truly is a wonderful show. It looks like Missy is going to tour some of the USA again this year, look out for her in your home town my friends from abroad!

After having sung quite a bit myself lately...shhhh, don't tell me I didn't...I did...on my Xbox 360 LIPS Karaoke programme, lol.... I can safely say that I may never be able to sing like Missy...even though her song "Scar" is one of my favourite songs to sing on the programme. After 4 songs I loose my voice...looks like I need to warm up my vocal chords a bit more wouldn't you say? Haha!

The Long Room

Last night I met with some fellow work mates for a night of laughter and dancing. We were a the Paris end of Collins Street Melbourne. At THE LONG ROOM there is no dance floor. Yet some great music was played. SO we danced where we were standing. Which was at a tall table with some tall bar stools...right next to some open flames and the head of someone's hunting prize with BIG antlers!!

It is guaranteed that everyone touched said head of a hunter's prize to see if it was real..even the local constabulary who came in force to check out the place and make sure people were behaving themselves. Everyone was dressed so very nicely, both ladies and gents. Some of the patronage crossed the road after having seen the musical WICKED. At first I thought the ladies coming down the stairway entrance were a bit too late for the Kylie Minogue Concert that was done last year...only a few weeks back really. As they were adorned with feathers and boas and sequins. One guy who was with us, a smashing looking 40ish year old Greek guy remarked, "Well, I have searched for an Adam's apple, alas, there is none to be seen. Those are definitely women." To which I whispered, "What were you hoping to see?" His blush answered my question.

A doctor friend of mine drank her much deserved share of passion fruit delight..which is a cocktail that smelled very sweet, almost like when you walk into The Body Shop close to the body butter creams, yumm! She had worked every day for five weeks straight, so now you know why she deserved a night out. Her and my friend from Laos and I danced most of the time.

Sushi is served to one side of the place and tapas served the other. I suspect that business people would custom the place after work towards the end of a working week... lots of suits!

The Long Room was given the thumbs up by everyone. It is warm and cosy. The service was wonderful, the people who work there actually look like they enjoy their work and the manager mingled with patrons which shows dedication and passion. Yes, an air of sophistication warmed the place I felt.