Monday again? Whats the story with that?

I honestly do not know where this weekend went. Having said that it was nice & relaxing. Went to see' in Bruges on Friday, its actually was quite good, some bits were hilarious but not sure if that's just Irish humour, bit gross at the end (think tarantino) but I enjoyed it. S got free tickets at work so all good.
S had to take a bit of a short notice trip to Florida so he left Sat morning. Miss him loads, this will be the longest we've been apart since we met. Mad. But it was nice to have the place to myself for the weekend, I cleaned & tidied, & did all the recycling, so the place it nice & homely at the moment.

After the week I'd had I really took it easy on Sat, read my book which I always find is a good way for my mind to dis-engage for a bit, & there was loads of good films on TV so stayed up watching them. Sunday was the cleaning & tidying day then went to the library for a bit, did my shopping, it was so nice out, spring is really starting to show & its the first official day of spring today yipee. Ooh yeah I also started my swap project finally, but I've about half done just waiting on the glue to dry(its says leave 24hours, don't ask) & I'll finish it tonight, I'm doing the pin cushion & needlebook one. My swap partner is in the states.

I have a mixed feeling about the swaps, a sort of love/hate thing going on. I amuse myself sometimes. I get very enthusiastic & join & think it'll be great. then the thought of doing it seems like such a chore & a burden(yes i know how sad, oh how the mind works) & then i get started & i really enjoy it, & even when I'm thinking of it as a pain in the ass I know I'm going to enjoy doing it when i get started. Can someone please explain to me the logic there cos it has me at a loss & its something I'd really like to overcome? It was the same with the last swap I did too. So anyhoooo going to finish tonight hopefully & post it away tomorrow. The deadline date is the 6th so I'm doing ok for now normally I'm a late minute kind of gal but I'm trying to work on that too. I'll put a picture up when I know she has received it. Its all in the doing I suppose I'm trying to learn new skills, my Mum died when I was 8 & I'm sure she would have taught me all these things as she was a kind of old school country girl, my stepmother, lets just say, wasn't very into that.

I missed doing the sowing course at the end of July as I had a few unexpected doctors bills so I'm going to keep an eye out for the next one that's starting.

Well think that's all for now, feeling a bit better so think last weeks blues have finally passed on, well til the next time as only in this life is there ups & downs. But all good & I'm back smiling :o)

Hope you all are well & have a great week.

Yipee its the weekend.

Its a very sad day when I have to sit & think about what my login & password are for my blog. Huuummmmm me thinks there are changes to be made. The whole point of setting it up really was to express/vent/record my feelings etc. So if they're not coming out here, they must be being bottled up, well I suppose that would explain a few things.
I just noticed that its been 3 weeks since my last post & we're back from holidays a month. I mean..hello....where did that time go. Sometimes I feel like I'm on a merry go round & only every so often get off & notice my life. Not really the way I want to be. Its seems as I get older the faster the time goes. Does anyone else feel like that or is it just me sliding very slowly in senility??

Anyway to quote a very old record at this stage I've been mental busy in work. The group accountant in our company left & I've sort of unofficially been promoted to her position. Well basically I've been dumped with doing her job. But I found out this week that I am going to get a pay rise to reflect the increase of work load. & boy is it an increase. There was basically NO handover from her position. She handed in her notice while I was away & was supposed to have 2 weeks to handover to me. Guess what she called in sick for those 2 weeks & came in her last day so I got all of a two hour handover. That was such a sucky thing to do & I was kindda hurt too cos we were friends or so I thought. She had a bit of beef with the CEO so didn't really care but she knew I would be the one that would be in a hole but sure what can you do. Yes I'm feeling cranky have you guessed? ha ha
Ah no I'm not so bad now but the last two weeks have been pretty much hell. I'm not out of the works yet but at least I got all the board reports done so I'm back to doing my own job again. So busy but no stress of worrying about making mistakes. The position is a lit more responsibility. I'll see how I go over next few weeks & if its still mental I might start looking for another job.

So anyway forgetting my login has sort of brought home to me that I don't have a proper work/life balance. Work has taken over a bit so I need to pull that back. I've booked to see a personal trainer next week...dear Lord am I mad?? So hes going to do up a programme & stuff for me to follow at the gym I joined at the beginning of June to which I have been to ....huuuuummmmm how many times???????? None!. But its all about keeping trying. So going to go see him & hopefully be more motivated. Also my sister has been getting into knitting & stuff the last few months she made me a hat. Its was so cool so thought I might give it a go. Its something I haven't done since school so I bought a couple of balls of wool & I'm going to knit a scarf since its winter here at the moment. Hopefully I'll have it finished while its still winter, ha ha ha.
What else?? oh yeah I mentioned before how I'd like to start sewing well I was looking up some classes & theres one starting at the end of July in the community college not too far away from me. Its not too expensive either which is a bit plus. So think I'm going to enrol in that.

We're heading away for the weekend. Just decided this week & booked last night. All very last minute. But I needed a break. I worked last sat & sun so that would make today my 11th day working. Ok it wasn't like 18 hour days or anything but still you need at least one day off. S is going skydiving on sat so I had said I'd go do a jump too as I haven't jumped since March. Then we said we'd stay up there sat night & go do something on the Sunday. And from that we just decided to head up tonight instead, go jumping tomorrow & then head back to hotel & do the tourist thing on Sunday. Its about 3-4 hours north of Sydney, where we're going is called Port Stephens. So I'm so looking forward to that. I've taken Monday off work too so it'll be nice to just chill out at home on Monday. S couldn't get the time off work so we'll be back Sunday

I'm so glad I got those board reports done this week they were really weighing me down. I'm not good when I get stressed. It tends to get me down & sap all my energy so it was like a huge weight was lifted when I'd finished. I know I'm still going to be busy but I feel so much more positive now. I just thought as I'm writing I haven't put the photos up of our holiday yet, I must do that too. I'll probably have more from this weekend too so that's on my mental to do list too.

I saw this & thought it was quite apt for my life over the last few weeks.

'The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings' - Okakura Kakuzo

I'm hoping you all have a really great weekend. Keep smiling, it really does make people wonder. :o)

Catch up

I didn't get a chance to catch up on my weekend so will do that now.

Ok Sat - so we went to the Taronga Zoo, we caught the ferry over - I mean how cool is that to catch the ferry over Sydney harbour to the zoo? It was perfect day to be out & about. It took us bit longer than planed to get packed up & out so we didn't have as much time in the zoo as we'd have liked but it was still a great day.

What stole the show for me was the chimps, they were hilarious. They had two young chimps & honestly they were exactly like children, playing & messing about. Then you'd have an adult get up & give them a swipe to stop. Then one would start showing off by doing rolls for the crowd. It was so funny. I took some pics - promise promise promise will have them up this week.

I have to say I got totally freaked by the amount of spiders in the trees, they were huge. But I have to assume not poisonous since they were everywhere. They had these huge webs built up in the trees over where the paths were so you had to walk under them & I was convinced it was going to drop on me. Sad but true what can I say I' don't like spiders. Having said that I did take few pics of them too.

We had out picnic on a little stretch of beach beside the zoo, it was lovely especially cos we were starving by that time. Really nice relaxing day.

Sunday - got up early (whats that about on a Sunday?? ha ha) to go to the photography class in Centennial park. It went really well. I had been a bit frustrated with it cos I wasn't getting the whole exposure/aperture/shutter speed thing to do what I wanted. I would see something & want to get it captured the way I was seeing it but it wasn't working so I was getting bit frustrated with the whole thing. I was beginning to think I'd never get the hang of it. I had tried it out loads at the zoo too but wasn't exactly the picture I wanted so I was really glad we had the class today so i could ask the questions while they were still fresh in my head.

So he explained some stuff to me so think its finally sinking in. He brought his three dogs with him as models. We were practising movement shots & that. He'd set up situation with the dogs & tell us what we should be looking for etc & then go around & see how we got on & explain why some worked & the problems with others & more importantly (for me anyway) how to correct them.

So my faith in myself is restored & I'll keep trying to get it right. I'm not a good learner, I'm very impatient with myself i want to know how to do it 'now'.

So after that we headed down to Picton to met up friends up from Melbourne. It was great seeing them again. The competitions actually didn't start til Monday they were all just training but that was still good to watch. So I registered, got my rig all checked out & got my drop zone brief & I was all set. Shane (my husband) had jumped there before so he'd gotten that done already. We chatted for a bit with our mates & caught up with all the news.

After a bit Shane says 'so come on we'll go jump'. So sucked it up & said Ok. Kate said she'd jump with us, we would do a three-way. Like I said I haven't jumped since Oct so was bit nervous. I knew I'd be fine once the door opened & you're out its all good its the initial nerves get you when you're not current (ie haven't jumped in awhile). After all you are jumping out of a plane. :o)

But it went brilliant it was such a beautiful day & it was so warm up there & you could see the coastline. We jumped at 13,000 feet we managed one point before breakaway. Sweet opening & no problems so headed back to DZ. There is nothing like being under canopy 1000feet in the air, it is THE most peaceful feeling in the world. Awwhh sigh! It was great the views up there were AMAZING. I really would recommend it to everyone, it should be something everyone does once in their life. And I even stood up my landing! yeah me!. I have a perchance on landing on my ass as I'm still learning but all good, I was proud of me.

So after that headed out for food with John & Kate(our friends) & about 10 other skydivers. Went to a really nice little restaurant near the train station in Picton & had fab dinner, good laugh too. We headed home after that. It wasn't too late when we got home about 11.15pm but it had been a long day. So we literally unpacked the car, dumped the stuff & fell into bed.

I have to say its been the best weekend I've had in awhile. A good for the soul kind of weekend.