Still Cruising After All Of These Years

Well, it had to happen. We've hit that 5 year mark that's the upper limit on Steve's boredom threshold. Naturally this means it's time to change cars. Again.  I was blissfully unaware that this also meant I had to change MY car as well.

The clear coat was starting to go on the paintwork on the Cruiser, and there were a few other minor niggles that were starting to get on Steve's nerves (one being that I hated driving it), and the paintwork is shot on my Mazda and it had a few overheating issues, so he decided it was time to sell the Cruiser AND my Mazda.  The plan was to replace them with a 2nd generation Prado (which would be predominantly my daily driver) and a dual cab 4WD ute that could be loaded up with the trail bikes or taken to the boat ramp.

Not one to let the grass grow under his feet, Steve started looking in mid-January, and had found a 2005 Ford Courier in no time at all.  As we hadn't even advertised the Cruiser, we had no intentions of actually buying a replacement just then, but it turned out to be too good of a bargain (they were asking $4500 but we got it for $3500) to pass up.

 Bargain ute

Having 3 cars was not exactly part of the plan, so we had to get a move on selling the Cruiser and Mazda. I didn't want to sell my car until I had a replacement to drive, so the Cruiser had to be first to go.  It took just over a month, but we sold it for $19000, which was only just under what we were hoping for. 

 Bye-bye 100 Series

Steve already had a firm idea of what model Prado he was after, so we knew we'd have to extend our home loan a little to get the extra money we'd need.  We test drove several, both manual and automatic, before finding the right one.  It's a 2003 model, manual, 3 litre inter-cooled turbo diesel with 107000 on the clock.  It's a little older than the 05-06 models we'd been looking at, but those low kms and the immaculate condition really sold us on it, and Steve got the car yard down to the price of $24000, drive away.

Our new Landcruiser Prado

It is an absolute dream to drive AND I get to park in the garage, lol.  What could be better than that?  Well, selling my Mazda would help.  We just have to get a road worthy and give it a good wash and polish - not that doing that will help all that much, lol.  Let's face it. Anyone buying it will not be buying it for looks.  The clear coat is so stuffed that it's gone white and flaky (OMG my car has dandruff!), it's covered in hail dents and scratches from supermarket trolley run-ins, but it IS reliable and economical. It would make a great second car for someone who just uses it for daily running to and from the train station or the local shops.  I will NOT be telling potential buyers that it is an imaginary car, though. After all, nobody warned me!

Edit 10 April:
Sold my Mazda!  Our mobile mechanic has bought it as he has a friend who wants it but doesn't have the money right now.  After subtracting the cost of the things that needed to be addressed to pass the roadworthy from the potential sale price of $1000, we have come out of it with $750, which has been spent on having a flash new Alpine stereo (or Mobile Media Station, as it says on the box) installed in the Prado.  All touch screen controls and capable of playing movies, and we've also had a reversing camera hooked up to the screen.  Not sure that all that swanky tech is completely necessary, but somebody had his heart set on it.

Musically Inclined

At the end of last year, the Grade 4 students were invited to apply for this year's Instrumental Music Program.  They each nominated their top 3 choices of instrument (from those available at the school), then were tested for physical suitability and potential ability.  Cheyenne was apparently better suited to flute than to clarinet. Luckily, flute had been her first choice all along.

There were a few pitfalls of course.  There are not enough school flutes to go around, so we had to decide whether to hire or purchase our own.  After adding up costs associated with hiring, and reviewing prices for brand new flutes (yikes!), we decided to buy a secondhand flute from a local music store, for a reasonable price.

Last week, Cheyenne and four other flute students from her school attended a full day Kickstart Music Workshop at another local school, along with students from several other surrounding schools.  Here they learned the basics from flute assembly and cleaning, correct hand positions for playing, and correct posture, through to learning their first few notes (B, A and G) and playing some simple tunes.

Cheyenne was very excited to be able to come home and play Hot Cross Buns.

I'm glad, not only that she chose to learn an instrument, but that she has the opportunity to do so - something I unfortunately missed out on in primary school, as my school was too small to have a music teacher.

Today she has her first flute lesson with the school Instrumental Music teacher, Mr James, so I'm sure she will come home with new things to practice.  I hope she retains her love of music, even in the face of seemingly endless practice.

Remembering Birthdays

1989

Today would have been my Dad's 90th birthday, had cancer not taken him from us nearly twenty years ago.

It's not hard to imagine what he'd have been like at 90.  Probably not so much different from how he was at 70.  Just older.  He would have been proud to see me happily married and he would have loved having a granddaughter, I'm sure.  He would have been secretly pleased that like me, she also shares his love of camping, and of cats.

I will always miss him, but often it's the smallest things that bring that home to me...  Like stargazing with Cheyenne and remembering how my Dad would set up his telescope and point out constellations for my brother and I (most of which I have forgotten and need to look up).  Or counting how many seconds between the flash of lightning and the rumble of thunder to see how far off a storm is.  Do you think I can remember the formula for that?  My Dad knew.  If only I could still ask him.  Yes, I'm sure the answer is out there for me to Google, but it's just not the same.

Happy Birthday Dad.  I love you ♥

July 1976

Life begins...?

Apparently, if you believe what the popular adage says, "Life begins at 40."  Wait, what?  What exactly have the last 39 years been?  Not life?  Perhaps a mere existence then.

Well, three and a bit months in and I'm still waiting for this "new beginning".  Come at me Life. I'm ready.

...No ?

Thought as much.

Nothing has changed.  Inside, I don't feel any older (or wiser, lol).  I'm still married to a wonderful (if sometimes exasperating) man, still have a daughter with attitude, still have a mortgage, still looking for work, still enjoying the company of my friends...

So, I'm fairly sure this "life begins" business is just BS to bolster the spirits of those who are depressed because turning 40 apparently means they are now OLD.  But you know what?  I'm ok with it being BS because I'm ok with being 40.  Age is not a number, it's a state of mind.

Being 40 does not make me feel old.  The fact that Cheyenne is now 10 and started Grade 5 this year?  That makes me feel old.

Photoboard of my first 40 years.

Happy "Back To School" To You All

Well, despite the Big Wild Wet of the long weekend, and predictions of showers for the remainder of the week, the first day back at school dawned bright and sunny, with barely a cloud in the sky.

No power outages or flood damage in our neck of the woods, so Cheyenne's school was open for business.

Figured we'd make a good impression for the first day, so she wore one of the new style polos. The uniform is in transition, meaning for the next year, the students can wear either the new or the old uniform. As I'd only just bought her two brand new polos (old uniform style) at the beginning of last year, I only bought two of the new style shirts this year.  As you can probably tell, I did not buy a new hat.  I can't see the point in spending money on a nice, crisp-brimmed beauty, when it is only going to be jammed into the school bag during class. Within a week it would look like her current one (although, perhaps less faded, lol).

We had to get a new school bag this year, too.  Her old one only just made it to the end of its second year of use.  Can I just put it out there that I'm unimpressed with the available selection of backpacks at Big W, Kmart, Target, etc.  They are all either too small to put folders in, too humungous for a kid to carry or come in a bundle pack (because EVERYONE needs a new pencil case, ruler, lunchbox, utility case etc that they will probably never use).  Most of the selections this year also seem to come equipped with a laptop compartment and a "wet section".  I'm guessing this is for stashing your togs and towel after swimming lessons... or maybe it's for leaky drink bottles?  Does anyone still sell normal backpacks?

Anyway, Cheyenne likes her teachers - she's in the two teacher (job share) class - and is, for the most part, happy with the kids who are in her class.  She's excited to be learning Japanese for the first time, looking forward to her first school camp later in the year, and, so far, happy to be back at school.  Hopefully she retains this positive outlook.

After 3 days of rain, we actually needed sunnies!

 

2013 Already? Happy New Year!

Well, didn't 2012 flash past rather quickly!   It seems like only a month or so ago that I was writing a "Happy New Year 2012" post, but in fact it's been twelve months.

I'll admit it now - I was VERY SLACK last year, postwise.  I think I managed to post twice. Twice?  I really will try to make more of an effort this year.  Not that it's a New Years Resolution. I don't make them.  I'm not anti-resolution or anything. I just think that if you want to turn over a new leaf, you can do it whenever you want. You don't need to wait until New Year.

So...  what has happened since my last post in August?   Let's see.  Cheyenne turned 9 in September, I turned 39 and Steve turned 41 in October, and Cheyenne finished grade 3 with an encouraging (although not fabulous) report card.  We bought Cheyenne an early Christmas present of a Honda CR50 dirt bike, which she is getting more confident at riding. My boss closed her office for the whole of December, so I've had a month off work.  Nice, except that no work equals no pay for casuals. Oh well.  I finally bought myself a new Christmas tree, managed to get my Christmas cards done on time, and did a little bit of Christmas baking (including Baileys balls - YUM!).  We had a nice quiet family Christmas lunch at my mum's followed by a bbq dinner at Steve's mum and dad's. As usual, Cheyenne received far too many presents.

We've just had a relaxing week away camping with friends at Borumba Deer Park.  Although we do enjoy it there, we have vowed to try somewhere different this year.  I sense some Googling research in my future, lol.

Steve returned to work today after two weeks off, and I go back to work on Wednesday, so I guess with three weeks to go, it's time to start covering school books and getting ready for the new school year.

I wonder if 2013 will seem to fly by as quickly as 2012 did.

August Already...?

Where has this year gone?

Seriously, I had good intentions of keeping my blog up to date this year.  Clearly that hasn't happened.  I could try to tell you that life has just gotten in the way, but that would be less than true.  To be honest, I've just been very slack.  

That's not to say I didn't have anything to post about. 2012 has provided me with plenty of blog-worthy events (I even had titles for potential posts rattling around in my head).  I guess I'll just have to do a quick roundup post to bring you all up to date.

Shortly after Christmas, Steve hit triple digits on the scales and decided he needed to do something about it.  Over the last ten years we've both gradually put on the kilos, so we figured we'd do this together.  We jump started our weight loss with Optislim shakes, decreased our portion sizes, ate less pasta, cut out fast food and increased our exercise.  This effort has seen Steve lose 12 kg and I've lost 10kg.  I am finally back to my pre-baby weight.  We've been a little slack during the cooler months, but as the weather warms up we'll go on family bike rides again regularly.

I have a "real" job. (Yes, sadly there are some people who believe being a mother doesn't count... *looks pointedly at my darling husband*)  In an effort to stop Steve whining about me "not working", I started applying for casual jobs.  While Cheyenne is still in primary school, I prefer to be there for her before and after school, so that does reduce the pool of available work.  I found a night job doing retail merchandising.  The money was great, the work was good, the people were a wonderful bunch to work with, however the hours didn't really suit our family circumstances.  9pm to 5am sounds doable until you discover that the company considers the end of shift time to be merely a suggestion and that you could be working anywhere from Caloundra to the Gold Coast and out as far as Redbank.  Often the rest of our team worked until 7 or 8am and I had to keep asking to be let off "early" at 6am so that I could be home before Steve left for work.  Couple this with the fact that Steve leaves home at a different time every day depending on where and when he's due to start his first job of the day, and you can see why I was destined to give this job up after only two and a half months.

I'm now working one day a week, during school hours, doing admin work for my tax agent.  Sure, it may be only 5 and a half hours at a lower pay rate than the merchandising job, but I enjoy the work, I'm learning MYOB and some tax software, I can still do the school run, and (the best bit) I have no travel expenses since work is only 6 houses down from me.

Other things have happened this year, obviously, but those are the important things.

I promise I will try to post more regularly from now on.