Typing this post has become one of those tasks that you end up dreading. I mean, things have been reasonably busy these past few weeks, and as such, I haven't really had time to scratch myself, much less type on this blog. But the longer it is left, the more things that happen, and then the bigger the job becomes and then you don't want to do it. It becauses a vicious cycle. Arghhhhhhh.
So I am MAKING myself sit down and do this now. Mark is away, the kids are in bed, I have caught up on bookwork....time to catch up here.
Ok. Where to start?
The heat that Victoria experienced in early February just about killed us. At one point, it reach 47 degrees in the milk shed. The cows really suffered and so did we. We had 3 days of over 45 degrees. In anyone's book and by any scale, that is just bloody hot. It was so hot that the cabbage moths were literally falling out of the sky and dying on the track. The flies couldn't even fly. They hung around in thick swarms on the floor of the dairy and on the cup remover cords. Inside the house, the air con struggled to keep up and the only room where there was any respite was the living room. The bedrooms were over 38 degrees, which made for some uncomfortable nights.
The wash up of the fires that raged around Victoria was 200+ people were killed, thousands of homes destroyed, tens of thousands of stock lost and hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland burnt. Gone. Decimated. Something out of a war movie. The really bad ones, not the John Wayne ones.
We were almost not so lucky ourselves. On Feb 9th (now known as Black Saturday), we had a fire start about 20 kms from our place. The wind was howling right towards us and for the first time ever (that I have been here), we enacted our own fire plan. I had precious mementos packaged up, orders for mum to take the kids, the dog and the back up drive from the computer plus the box of stuff I packed and get ready to go. I would stay and deal with the cows or go and fight the fire if paged. Fortunately, it didn't come to that and the wind changed direction and took the fire direction away from us. But I was nervous.
Mark left twice to fight the fires; once in Drouin and then up at Alexandra.
So from that to New Zealand. Late last year, Mark and I were contacted by our local milk supply officer with a offer of an all expenses paid trip to New Zealand for a week. Despite the fact that this sounded very good (and did I metion free?), I had reservations about going. And as a result, Mark said that if I didn't go, he wouldn't go either (probably because I had given him a bit of curry about taking off without me and the kids for baseball and various committee jaunts throughout the year, he was not going to subject himself to another tirade!)
Of course, my biggest concern was the kids. No, I should rephrase that. My biggest concern was for whomever had to look after the kids! It is one thing to come and visit them for a day or 2, but to look after them 24 hours a day for 7 days.....might be asking a bit much of someone. Mark's biggest concern was whether we would get any more dreadful hot weather while we were away and the possible implication of that. But as it worked out, mum came and stayed at our place with the kids and between her, Judy and Libby, they all managed to retain their sanity. In fact, the reports were that the kids were fantastic. Makes me think that we should go away on extended leave more often!
Tour group at Fonterra (NZ)
Mark with his "RD1" jacket (he was desperate to buy one of these after he saw some of the kiwis wearing them).
After the tour, Mark and I spent an extra day in Queenstown seeing the sights and having a generally relaxing day together. The weather was truelly magnificent and the views....unreal. I can totally understand why Lord Of The Rings was filmed around there. We flew home the following day, which happened to be my birthday (39.....) and spent about 10 hours of my birthday travelling.
Us on the Luge at Queenstown
Sam at the waterfront in Queenstown - magnificent weather (the next day you could barely see a thing because of the mist and cloud cover! We picked the day!!!!)
As we got home at bedtime for the kids, we decided to celebrate my birthday the following day. And a huge surprise was that Bridie decided to take couple of steps for the first time on my birthday!!!!! She must have been waiting for us to get home. My heart burst with pride just a little.
The folowing week was spent catching up with stuff - washing, bookwork, farmwork etc - and then the day after Mark's birthday (9th March), we took the kids down to Rye for a week for a bit of a family holiday.This was the best week I have spent for ages. Just Mark, me and the kids. Not rushing around. Not having to do anything in particular. Just enjoying each others company. And Tom was really good on the whole. Hardly played up at all. But then, he really is becoming a little boy. He is in that period between toddlerdom and boyhood. Young enough to still need things done for him, but old enough not to be babied. I guess we will go through a few stages of this - with both the kids.
The highlights of the week away would be:
1. The ferry trip from Queenscliffe to Sorrento to kick off our trip was talked about for days before we actually even saw the boat. And then when Tom spotted it, he didn't want to get on! But once he was on, he spent the whole trip out on the front deck with Mark. And they managed to spot a dolphin as we were coming into Sorrento.
Making sure we were heading in the right direction!
2. The beach visit, where Bridie hit the sand crawling and did not stop, even when she hit the water. She is going to be the one we have to watch. she has no fear and I think she will be a child that will overestimate her abilities when it comes to physical activities. She will be the one in A&E getting bones plastered and cuts stiched. Tom is much more reserved than she is.
Bridie....doing what she does best. Going for it!
4. The hot-tub at the house we rented was extremely well ustilised by Mark and the kids. So much so, that it was sometimes a drama getting them out!
Prunes!
Mark & Bridie at the "Nemo" display
After the Rye trip, we have all managed to succumb to some lurgy. I hesitate to say that it was gastro, but gastro has definately been doing the rounds of Colac, so we may have gotten some weak version. Both Tom and I had the upchucks, Mark felt nauseous and last night - after the rest of us have gotten over it and are basically well - Bridie puked all over her cot and then has progressed to explode out of her bottom for most of today. Yuk. The washing machine has not stopped today.
Oh, the other thing that has happened is that I signed up to be a Stampin' Up! consultant. I am going to be running parties, workshops, classes etc, with the view to selling stamps, ink, cardstock etc. I am going to develop a blog/website dedicated to that, but every now and then, I'll refer to it in here. I have my first party in mid April and by mid May, I will have run 5 of them. So bookings have been good so far. I hoping to get a few regular customers under my belt and offer some ongoing classes, so that should set me up for a while. Consumer Affairs have rejected 2 of my proposed business names (although I am under SU! I am also independant, so can call my business whatever I like). The 3rd option is still being considered.....wish they'd hurry up. I'd like to start advertising locally.
Here are a couple of my first samples...that I subsequently gave away as birthday cards!
Stampin' Up! products used: Fishy Friends stamp set and wheel, very vanilla, not quite navy and more mustard cardstock, not quite navy ink. Other products: Kaiser rhinestones, general ribbon, derwent watercolour pencils, scrap pattern paper.
