Christmas is a destination, not an event!

So where was your Christmas this year? Growing up, it always seemed to us that the question was "Where is Christmas this year?" - never "Which relative is hosting the festivities?"

I never cease to be amazed at the amount of traffic on the roads on Christmas Day. It seems that everyone is doing the "travel between both families" thing (or several sets if you have step-families). Christmas is clearly a destination.

Thank goodness it's all over for another year! Hopefully everyone else managed to survive the festivities (as we did) and escape without too much family drama.

After 5 years, Cheyenne has finally started to enjoy unwrapping presents herself. We kept her presents simple - Tinkerbell movie on DVD, clothes for her Barbie dolls, and a Tinkerbell toiletry bag with her name on it (gotta love Identity Direct !). She also received a shower gel pack and miniature pony playset from our friends, the Sheather family.

Christmas Day itself was fairly quiet for us. Spent the morning opening our presents, then went to my Mum and brother's for a light lunch of cold meats and salads, then on to Steve's parents' place for a BBQ dinner with Steve's brothers and their families.






Isn't this photo priceless? His expression just says it all. I simply had to buy this shirt for my brother for Christmas because it pretty much sums up his whole attitude. It could have been designed especially for him.

Cheyenne and some of her cousins enjoyed dressing up as Santa and his helpers, to help hand out the presents. Callum (Santa) is obsessed with all things Christmas, especially Santa, and has been Santa for the past two years running now.

As usual, Cheyenne came home with far too many presents that we really don't have room for. Amongst other things, she received a t-shirt and patchwork bag in the shape of a cicada (from Grandma), a Polly Pocket Pool Party playset, a tennis racquet and several other things (from Nanny and Poppy), $10 from Great Nanny, and a stationery set, some puzzles, Bratz folding chair, dolls and some other stuff from her Aunts, Uncles and Cousins.

I got Steve a new electric razor (his old one doesn't hold charge in the battery anymore) and he got a foam rocket launcher from Cheyenne - which they are both getting a kick out of, so clearly I should have bought two! He also got a car wash extension brush from his parents.

I got an electric toothbrush, weather shields for my car, some more beads for my Amorica bead charm bracelet (one from Cheyenne and Steve and two from Steve's parents) and a box of chocolates.

We also got some shared presents - a cheese platter with knife and a nice bowl full of chocolates from the Sheather family, and some bamboo placemats and a tin of shortbread from my mum and brother.

All in all, it was a good day...if not as jam packed with rellies, as in days of old. Thankfully the idiots at BoM got it wrong (again) and the day was not horribly hot and muggy, and the evening storm did not arrive as predicted.

Roll on New Years Eve!

Changing of the Guard Continues - Part 2. End of an Era

We sold our Cruiser yesterday. Just in time for Christmas. In fact, just in time to ruin our Christmas holiday, more than likely.

It's Murphy's Law isn't it? We advertised it in the Trading Post online several weeks ago, with the hope that it would be bought by people wanting to go offroad for their Christmas holidays. Plenty of time for it to sell and for us to find and buy a dual cab 4WD ute as our replacement vehicle, so that we could still go away at Christmas. After all, my Mazda 323, great little car that it is, has no towbar and not a whole lot of room for camping gear, either! It certainly isn't going to handle driving on the beach. We'll have to come up with some alternate plans. (Normally we don't go away over the Christmas/New Year period, but Steve actually has holidays from Christmas Eve until the 5th of January.)

Naturally, for the first few weeks the online ad attracted no calls at all from potential buyers. The only guy to phone us up was actually trying to phone about the one listed above it in the online Trading Post, and phoned our number by mistake. Steve left it parked down on the main road with a sign in the windscreen and had a couple of queries, but nothing concrete.

So, just when we figured we'd remove the ad and wait until after Christmas (and until there weren't quite as many other Cruisers being advertised - ours was one of about 25 of the same model and year!), thereby still retaining a vehicle to use for the Christmas break, Steve got a call from a couple who were after a Cruiser.

They came to look at it yesterday morning, took it for a test drive and were very happy with it. So happy in fact, that they came back yesterday afternoon with the bank cheque! They are from the Northern Territory and are headed back up there at the end of the week. They apparently only came to Brisbane to visit family and buy another Cruiser!

Now we have just under a week until Christmas. Maybe if the cheque clears quickly, we might even manage to find a new car by then... as if we didn't already have enough to do!

On a side note, my brother says (tongue-in-cheek) that no longer owning a Cruiser means I will need to relinquish my "Cruisergirl" avatars and email address, but I disagree. The way I figure it, having owned five in a row must surely entitle me to "life membership" of that nickname, as it were...

Deck The Halls...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... well, with less than two weeks to go, it's kind of hard to avoid all things Christmas-y. Shopping is a nightmare. Christmas lights are on up and down the street. The usual round of Christmas parties has begun.

First we had the break up party at Playgroup. Found an easy recipe for Christmas tree biscuits. Luckily, I had a tree shaped cutter stashed away in the back of the cupboard. Cheyenne helped to decorate them with mini M & Ms. I thought they looked very cute - bright and festive - and all the kids loved them.

We'd had our Christmas lights on the front of the house fairly early, but been a bit slack putting up our tree. I must confess that two rope light shapes (which hang in the front windows of my craft room) are there permanently, all year round... out of necessity because they are in an awkward spot, not because I'm too lazy to take them down, honest! I'd had to buy a new set of icicle lights for the front verandah because the set from two years ago only just limped through last year's display. When I hauled the tree and decorations out from the storage area under the stairs, I discovered a brand new 8 function rope light, still in the shrink wrap! I'd post a photo of our lights, but can't find my itty bitty tripod and anyway, our current compact digital (a Pentax) takes the most appalling night shots - even whilst in night mode! I would have thought that a Pentax would be better quality, but I guess, at $185, you get what you pay for!

Cheyenne was keen to get the tree up, so we had a bit of "family time" decorating it. There are still a lot of decorations that didn't make it onto the tree this year, but really, you can go a bit overboard if you aren't careful, and the tree will do, as it is, without the extras.

Steve's boss decided to go barefoot bowling for their Christmas party. I don't mind lawn bowls really, and barefoot bowls seems to be becoming quite popular these days. All but Steve and one other bloke live on the south side, so it was held at Carina Bowls Club. The food was a bit average. The boss's wife was livid about ordering enough nibbly food to feed 20 people, paying $300 for it and only getting three lousy trays - one of cold meats/antipasto/crackers and dip, and two of various hot savouries of the mini spring roll, curry puff, spicy meatball, unidentifiable mini quiche variety. She ended up ordering 6 large pizzas from Pizza Hut because everyone was still hungry. Nevertheless, the bowling itself was ok, despite the fact that a storm hit and we ended up playing in the rain. At least it cooled us all down.

Cheyenne's kindy is finished for the year and they held the Christmas party for the children and their families on Thursday night. It was a bring-a-plate affair and the children sang songs and had a visit from Santa. Cheyenne STILL has a problem with Santa's beard, so I got this photo under protest, with Cheyenne clinging to Steve the whole time. It is the first real Santa photo I've managed to get of her in five years, so I'm happy with it.

So with less than two weeks to go I still have so much to do... finish making my Christmas cards, and finish my Christmas shopping (still heaps more to go) not to mention wrap everything and get it under the tree in time, attend a bbq and a Christmas drinks evening and anything else last minute that I'm bound to have forgotten to do. Hopefully I get it all done and can kick back and relax.

New Uniform

I couldn't resist posting these because they are just so cute. As mentioned in my previous post, I decided to go with the shorts (although I may still buy one pair of culottes just so she can be "girly" occasionally). I had to buy size 6 shorts so that you can actually tell that she is wearing them under that long shirt! I may have to hem it up a bit...

Cheyenne has had her Orientation Morning up at Prep, where she got to meet her new teacher, and her kindy has had a couple of "uniform show and tell" days so they can get used to wearing their new uniforms.

They grow up so fast...

...It's the ultimate parent cliche, I know, but it's just so true!

It seems like yesterday that we brought Cheyenne home from hospital as a tiny baby, and today I bought her first school uniform shirts.

My baby is starting Prep next year and she's very excited to be a big schoolgirl. I'm excited too...I've been looking forward to it for the last five years! I'm definitely NOT going to be one of the "blubbering-mess" mums, teary eyed about sending their babies off to school alone. I'll be the one doing the "happy dance"...you can count on it!

The Prep kids wear the same uniform as the rest of the school - thank goodness, since it'll probably take her until Grade 1 to grow into her polo shirts!! The smallest size they sell (size 4) is so long that the hem hangs down past her bum, about halfway to her knees! I've only purchased the shirts so far, as I'm still debating the merits of shorts versus culottes. The culottes are definitely more "girly" but due to the material and number of pleats, I can see a whole lot of frustrating ironing in my future if I get them. The unisex shorts are microfibre - wash, shake, hang, sorted! - and also have a drawstring waist as well as the elastic, which is a bonus when your child is a little skinny-minnie with no bum to hold her pants up. Both the culottes and the shorts are school emblem-free, so maybe a trip to Lowes or Big W could be in order. I'm sure they must be cheaper there.

Her orientation day is next week. They only spend an hour and 15 minutes there, but that is probably enough to learn the important stuff - what the teacher looks like, where the toilets are, the general routine, etc. While they are having orientation, there is a coffee morning for other Prep mums to get to know each other. [Note to self: Must make an effort to remember names...]

We've ordered the items on her booklist, so soon I'll be covering and labelling books, like mums all over the country.

When I get around to figuring out the bottom half of her uniform, I promise to post a picture of her in it...just because she looks so tiny and cute and all grown up.

Changing of the guard

Those of you who know Steve will have noticed that he changes vehicles on a semi-regular basis - this includes his boats as well as his cars. In the 11 or so years since we met, he has owned a succession of Toyota Landcruisers - 5 in total... count them - a 75 series ute, a Troopy (for all of about 6 mths !), a mid-wheelbase FRP (fibreglass top), a 60 series wagon and an 80 series wagon (our current Cruiser). He also recently sold his Toyota Hilux, which he'd owned for about a year.

Don't even get me started on the boats - I've lost track how many there have been, including the "absolute bargain, too good to be passed up" that we drove all the way to Bundy and beyond for, which he sold several months later because he didn't really want a tinnie with forward controls, since he preferred a tiller steer !

The way I look at it is that he gets bored easily, but he will never admit to that. He explains it as changing to a more suitable vehicle...but then why didn't he get the more suitable vehicle in the first place? This is not to say that we've ever lost money on any of our vehicles (with the exception of the mid-wheelbase Cruiser, which was stolen from our driveway). On the contrary, we have always paid cash and owned them outright. They have had money spent on improvements and accessories, and have been well looked after. We have always gotten our money back on them when we've sold them, since Cruisers seem to hold their value well.

Anyway, with the world financial crisis looming large, exorbitant fuel prices and inflation increasing other running costs, Steve made the recent decision to downsize our fuel-hungry 6 cylinder vehicles. Our "beach and boat car" (if you left it overnight at the boat-ramp you'd be guaranteed to find it there when you returned since it wasn't worth stealing), the Hilux would be first to go. With some of the money from its sale, we'd get a cheap run-around car for me, so that I'd have some transport when we sold the 80 Series. With the remainder of the money, together with what we get for the Cruiser, the plan is to get a dual-cab 4WD ute with a 3 litre Turbo Diesel 4-cylinder engine.

I'm happy to say that stage one is FINALLY complete. The Hilux sold in 2 days, to the first people to look at it. Steve set a limit of $2500 for our run-around vehicle, so the search began to find something half decent. It was not an easy search. Let me just say that there is a lot of crap out there in that price range. A whole lot of crap. I took my life into my own hands and test drove a couple of dodgy ones, we trawled around several motor wholesalers' yards, we made dozens of phone calls, we went to the auctions and even to the wreckers to check parts availability for the $750 Hyundai Lantra on the side of the road near our place.

We discovered our new car by sheer luck. It was not the car we were stopping to look at. We were just in the right place at the right time. The dealer had only just got it in, it hadn't been detailed and he hadn't really worked out a price yet. A bit of haggling and a "mates rates" deal later (Steve went to school with the mechanic that does their road worthies, so we worked out a deal to pay for our own RWC in order to get a better deal and keep the rego that was still on it) and we bought ourselves a tidy little 1995 Mazda 323 with power steering and aircon, a Pioneer mp3 CD player, and only 114000 kms on the motor. The aircon is out of gas, but that's a minor and relatively inexpensive detail.

Sure, there's the odd dent in the bonnet (someone sat on it by the looks) and minor stone chips in the paintwork, but it drives like a dream, and is now registered in my name, so it's mine all mine! Bit of tint, some alloy mags and new aircon gas and she'll be the perfect little car.

Might take a while to get used to driving a "low to the ground" car again after five years of driving Cruisers, though... I'll keep you posted!

If only I had a Pool Boy...

If Desperate Housewives, 90210, CSI Miami (that one I actually DO watch), etc., etc. are to be believed, clearly nobody in the good ole US of A looks after their own pool, so why should I have to? Where is my pool boy?

Seriously though, it's not all that hard to maintain a pool... The truth is that we don't actually use our pool much - we'd be lucky to swim in it 2 or 3 times a year - so it does seem like all we do is clean and maintain and spend money on the upkeep, without getting any of the benefits. I know this will change when Cheyenne learns to swim. At present, she will not put her face in the water at home (completely opposite to how she is at swimming lessons, where she spends most of her time under water) because she does not like the colour, shape or depth of our pool. It's not the same as the one at swimming lessons, you see.
Newsflash: Cheyenne, we are NOT selling our house just to buy another one that has a shallower, rectangular pool, painted white. Get used to it!
In fact, Steve is continually saying that our "next house will not have a pool!" Sorry? I wasn't aware we were thinking of selling up...

Obviously, Steve has a bit of a negative attitude towards the pool. Not sure why exactly. Maybe it's because of it being a slight drain on the finances, maybe he just has to have something to complain about... In the eight years we've been here, we've had to replace the pump and we have also upgraded our old dual cartridge filter to a nice new (lower maintenance) sand filter. Then there's the Barracuda. You may remember the dorky slogan - "Barracuda. It's a pool cleaner, not a fish." Yes, there have been numerous replaced sections of Barracuda hose (at $15 a length), at least 3 Barracuda diaphragms (around $30 each), a new weighted collar, and a new skirt (the rubbery bit on the bottom that sort of sucks in the debris and holds the Barracuda on the bottom of the pool - that was about $80 I think), but you have to keep in mind that's over eight years, so not really overly expensive!
Generally his conversations about the pool go something like this, "Stupid bloody pool, the Barracuda's not working again, there's always something wrong with it, more money to be spent, and we never use it, blah blah blah... gonna buy some dirt and fill it in!"
So you'd think, the way he carries on, that he's the one doing all the work, right? Wrong!

Since he's the one with the full-time job, naturally the job of maintaining the pool falls to the person with all the time in the world to do it in - me. Not to say he doesn't do some of it on weekends, but more often than not I'm the one taking the water sample to the pool shop to be tested, I'm the one adding the pool acid, stabiliser or salt (or all three, depending on the water test results), I'm the one raking leaves out and removing palm fronds, and removing seed pods from the neighbour's tree (grrr....don't get me started on that) which are clogging up our skimmer basket. I must admit, it's not my favourite pastime during Winter, when the water is freezing, but any other time, it's no biggie. Someone has to do it, or it'd end up going green.

So this is where the latest saga begins... Tuesday morning, before leaving for work, he notices that the Barracuda isn't working (again) and asks me to have a look at it. No worries, it's nothing major, just a palm frond from our Golden Cane has gotten stuck in it. So I pull that out, empty the skimmer basket and turn the pump and filter on to make sure the Barracuda is functioning ok again. That's when I notice water leaking from the top of the filter. Lovely! Since the filter is on a timer and we don't check it daily unless the Barracuda stops working, who knows how long it has been leaking for! This was one of those "mates rates" situations, whereby Steve used to play footy with a guy who now does pool installations and he got us the new filter setup at cost, and installed it for nothing... so we have no paperwork for a warranty ! It seems that it could just be a faulty O-ring, or maybe a crack in the filter itself or in the top piece. The jury is still out on that one, but since the leak has since slowed to a trickle, it will probably remain unsolved for a while until other major household bills are paid and we have some spare cash again.

As if the pool dramas weren't enough, I then discovered something completely festy. Another reason I need a pool boy... If you watch CSI Miami, you'd know that if there's a death near a pool, pool boys tend to be the ones to discover the bodies. (Then they end up being the main suspects, but I guess you have to blame someone...)
To set the scene - I have a half wine barrel, which will eventually be the new home of a nice red Hibiscus plant (when I figure out which one I want to buy), to replace one which used to grow around the pool, until it died a few years back. Since I haven't purchased the Hibiscus yet, I haven't filled the barrel with soil, so it tends to fill up with rain water, which takes a while to evaporate.

Imagine my horror, when I followed my nose (yep, can't mistake the smell of decomp. To quote Alex, the ME from CSI Miami "I work in a morgue. When I say something smells...it smells!") and discovered not one, but two, dead Noisy Miner birds, floating in the now manky water. Water, which had previously only contained a few mozzie wrigglers, now had partially decomposed birds and other wiggling things (maggots? bird lice larvae? other parasites?) which I was NOT going to get close enough to identify.
Now girls, this is why we tend to keep a man about the house. Even die-hard feminists would agree that men can be extremely useful in the removal of decomposing wildlife!
Steve reluctantly fished them out last night (bin night) with a rake and quadruple bagged them. Only problem is that it's midday, it's a hot, sunny day, and the bin truck hasn't been up our street yet !

OMG, I sincerely hope they don't miss our street (it has happened before) or I may have to phone the council and request a whole new wheelie bin!

I still have to figure out how to dispose of the manky, wiggly "death-water". Preferably away from the house or anywhere Cheyenne might be playing... "Darling? I have another job for you"

If only I was Dr Brennan from Bones... That way I could have it all poured into some sort of canister by some lackey, and have it shipped to the Jeffersonian.

Reality sucks!