It's all over, red rover

#6 Daily photo Sunday 14 July

Well, it's now the sunset on my long service leave (plus an ace sunset from the supermarket carpark on Sunday night) and I have to say goodbye to my leave.

But it's not goodbye to this blog.. Due to public demand, I shall keep the contents going, but am likely to move them into my main blog (not sure yet.. need to think about it.. feel free to post your comments on if I should keep this one separate).

In any case, I haven't finished all my challenges yet, oops, so will definitely finish them all too.

On Sunday, Charlotte and I went to see a show at the Melbourne Art Centre that was a collaboration between an orchestra, a choir and visuals from an illustrated book. It was called the Red Tree. After we walked out, this was my 9 word review.....

"Sounds like a mental breakdown, with lots of stabbing"

I cannot even describe it apart from lost of noise, with sharp and glaring notes.. We both really didn't think much of it at all (sorry Arts Centre, but that's our honest opinion).

Last week of Long Service Leave (part 2)

#6 Daily photo Saturday 12 July
Here's Moni, happy to be out and about going for a walk.
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#6 Daily photo Friday 11 July

Something you never expect to see on a weekday.. BLUE STEEL.

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#6 Daily photo Thursday 10 July

My nan (whom we all call Nanny-Noo) and I met up at Chaddy this week and we ended up going to a dumpling place for lunch. I've converted nan with the wonders of a good Curry Laksa. She loved it. Go Nanny Noo !!

Last week of Long Service Leave (part 1)

#6 Daily photo Wednesday 9 July

Here's Issy posing naturally (NOT) for the camera.

#6 Daily photo Tuesday 8 July

Another one of my favourite Ugly Melbourne buildings.. This one is a hotel (believe it or not) and is shaped like a hexagon. It would be such a good building if only they gave it a bit of a facelift. I reckon it looks exactly like it did when it was built (and I'm taking a stab in the dark, that it was the 70s)
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#6 Daily photo Monday 7 July

Is it just me, or whenever you see some sky-writing you have to stand for ages, craning your head into the sky to read the message before it blows away? Anyway, this one eventually said to Ban Jumps, which I presume is a reference to Horses doing Jump Racing in Melbourne.
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#6 Daily photo Sunday 6 July

Wow... winter is here..... You might recall an earlier post when Charlotte and I went to the Flower & Garden Show. Whilst there, I bought a bag of about 20 bulbs of Erli-cheer Daffodils (for about $5, what a bargain!). So I planted them in a pot, placed them in one of the rare sunny areas in my garden and look... They're a gorgeous cream colour..

This week

#6 Daily photo Saturday 5 July

My primulas are starting to get their second tiers... They're one of my favourite annuals....
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#6 Daily photo Friday 4 July
I caught up with my work friends for drinks on Friday night. Here's James, about to down his beer so he can run off and get his country train.

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#6 Daily photo Thursday 3 July,

#11 Buildings over 100 years old (oops, can't remember the name of this church)

But I do know that it was built in 1838. It's the church I always walk past when I walk to Borders.
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#6 Daily photo Wednesday 2 July

I didn't take this photo. Mr Robert did, but it's ace so I had to include it in my blog. It was a gorgeous sunset from his office. The blue colours are amazing.
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#6 Daily photo Tuesday 1 July

There is someone who is putting up a series of photos near pedestrian traffic lights. They make me laugh (thanks to Robert for the photo)

Council workers not paying much attention

#6 Daily photo Monday 30 June

Around the corner from my house is a park.

It's quite small as you can see, and is practically filled with the kiddes play equipment. As per usual in the lovely suburb where I live, the park is appropriately signed.

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Let's take a closer look at that sign. Hmm, I can hear the thoughts of Council Worker #1 as he/she worked on putting these signs up:

"Yes, the most important thing is to keep your dogs on a leash. Yep, that makes sense, don't want to scare the kiddies whilst they're on the swings. Secondly, if they poo, you know what to do. BUT, having thought about it, no, I don't want any dogs in here, might scare the kiddies"

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Council Worker #2; "Hey, what about the first two signs, aren't you going to take them down?!"

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Council Worker #1; "Nuh"
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Hilarious !!.. Good on you Stonnington Council

Break the rules

#6 Daily photo Sunday 29 June

I hope you can all read the sign. It says not to park motorcyles here.... This person was obviously a bit blind...

Visiting friends on Saturday

#6 Daily photo 28 June

Visited my friends the Ward-Wardles on Saturday, here's a pic from when we went for a walk.

Ticking some items off the list

#8 Do Something for the letter R = Rock climbing (6 letters to go)
Did some rock climbing at the park (yep, it was on kiddies equipment). Connor helped me.

#4 Visit the letter D = Darebin Station (9 letters to go)

Fun with the boys

#6 Daily photo Friday 27 June

Caught up with the boys and Tiff for drinks and dinner on Friday night... We ended up doing fashion catalogue poses again

Robert's face in this one is hilarious. Plus check out the lady who was sitting at the tram stop laughing at our shenanigans

Getting some culture

#6 Daily photo Thursday 26 June
#4 Visit the letter I = Immigration Museum (10 letters to go),
#8 Do Something for the letter K = Kimono Exhibition (7 letters to go)

I've never been to the Immigration Museum before, so wandered down there to see the Kimono exhibition. Whilst it was very good, it was quite small, so that was a bit sad. Sorry, couldn't take any photos in there, but here's the official link.
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Hmm, I'm now getting down to the dregs of the letters.... so expect some weird and wacky remaining posts (as I've only got 2 weeks left now).... Here's the letters I have yet to do.
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THINGS TO DO: n, o, r, u, x, y, z
VISIT: d, e, n, o, q, t, u, x, y, z
(If anyone has any suggestions for me, please let me know)

Playing on the wild side

#6 Daily photo Wednesday 25 June
I visited Godfrey & Juddie for lunch today.. and Juddie and I took their dog Gus to the park with a tennis ball, and a tennis ball thrower thing... Ooh, we were living on the wild side....

Shortest time of the year, and some other stuff

#6 Daily photo Tuesday 24 June

I went for a walk to Officeworks today to buy some notebooks for an upcoming craft day, and took this photo as I walked home.. This time of year is so ace.. some days are sunny and bright, others are fully overcast. I love winter in Melbourne.
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#6 Daily photo Monday 23 June

After my aborted attempt last week, finally gave blood today..

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#6 Daily photo Sunday 22 June

Hooray, my primulas in the front garden are flowering. Some of my favourite plants flower when it gets cold... zygo cactus, primulas.. the tree out the back of my house (once that's in full flower, expect some photos on here)
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#6 Daily photo Saturday 21 June (oops not sure what happened with my previous dates.. but this day was definitely the 21st)

Saturday night was the shortest day of the year. The boys and Tiff came over for a dinner party at my house. So the theme of the night was black, in honour of it being the shortest day. Everyone had to (and did) wear all black (note, this was not hard at all, as we're all Melbournians). The table was set in black too as you can see. This is my place card, my nickname that the guys call me.

Circus Oz are ace.. go and see them !!

My sister's best friend Margaret is the loveliest lady in the world. She's the production manager for Circus Oz and is so sweet and kind that she sends me an invitation each year to the opening night of Circuz Oz in Melbourne. This year it's their 30th Birthday, and the show was just as amazing as ever. You can't take photos during the show as it's not safe for the performers. So here's some other pics from the evening.Ooh, special invitation just for me.. Thanks Margaret !!I took my lovely friend Charlotte along as she loves the circus also and usually comes to the circus with me. Her hubby was catching up with mates.

There's a really colourful ferris wheel in Birrarung Marr that I love... So I got quite a few photos, much to Ainslie's disgust as I was looking too much like a tourist taking millions of photos.

Yay.. circus tent.

Lunch

#6 Daily photo Friday 19 June, and
#8 Do Something for the letter L = Lunch at Kate's house (8 letters to go)
On Friday, I went to Vicki's house, where I gave her some very belated pressies for Josh's birth and a pressie for Sara; a little quilt and a toy dinosaur.
Then we jumped into the car and drove out to Kate's place in Coldstream for lunch. Sara was excited because we were going to see the horses.

Here is Kate with her two horses, Clancy and BJ. Kate made us a lovely lunch and then we visited the horses.
Sara was a little apprehensive of the horses (fair enough, they are very big), but she was very excited and was handing me carrots to feed to the horses. And check out the pom poms on the kiddies hats.Here's Clancy, trying to see if I had any more carrots to give him.
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#6 Daily photo Thursday 18 June

I was going through some old paperwork and found a tattslotto ticket from 1999. So I called up, got the old numbers for that draw and checked them, hoping that I'd won millions of dollars. But, I didn't. As you can see, I barely got any numbers.... bummer.

Driving around Melbourne's north

I did some driving around the northern suburbs of Melbourne today.. went to visit a shoe shop that was having a sale (bought two pairs of work strappy sandals) so thought I'd do a bit of a run around of street names whilst there.
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I had to fill my car with petrol. It cost me $60. EEEK. I have *NEVER* paid sixty dollars for a tank of petrol in my life.... It's scary.
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#2 Street sign for Melissa
I pulled up on the side of the road (it was in a residential area) and jumped out of my car to get this photo. Next minute there's a bus stuck behind my car, and probably an annoyed bus driver waiting for the loony with the camera to move out of the way.
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#2 Street sign for my mum
I was quite happy because Lorraine St and Gavin St's were next to each other...
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#2 Street sign for Gav
I tell you, it's quite easy to get lost when you're driving around Broadmeadows.
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#2 Street sign for my sister, also known as Ains, Ains-Pains, or The Painsel

This one was in the middle of industrial land, right near the Ford Factory, ie halfway between Melbourne and Sydney (joke). As I jumped out of my car for this one, which was right near a firewood place, the resident guard dog decided he didn't like me. And barked. And barked. And followed me along the fence line, barking and trying to kill me. That was a bit scary.

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#2 Street sign for Soiret This one was a little closer to home in Collingwood...

. Hey, can anyone tell me why Blogger decides arbitrarily to move from single spacing to double spacing half way though a post.. It give me the 'poos'. And I don't know HTML so have no clue why this happens and how to fix it.. Any comments here would be very much appreciated.

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#6 Daily photo for Wednesday 18 June I had an appointment with the Blood Bank this morning at 8am (and didn't that kill me getting up, ready and out of the house before 8... going back to work is not going to be fun).

Anyway, they rejected me because I've just got off anti-biotics. But my iron levels were good, so that's always nice. Then went back to my normal doctor who said my lungs are a lot better now, and gave me a flu-jab (photo coming tomorrow)

Fancy pants dog coat on its way....

#6 Daily photo Tuesday 17 June

I was over at my sisters house today, so she could reapply my blue hair stripes (for the last time, sniff sniff, soon back to corporate appropriate hair colour).

And whilst there, I decided to mock up the dog coat I'm making (as a bit of a joke) for her very large dog Tonka. So I tacked some fabric together to see if it was the right size. I put it on him to test the fit, then he decided he liked it so much that he ran around their backyard for ages. He wouldn't come when we called, as he thought it was all such a fun game. Eventually, Ains got some dog crunchies out and he came to eat them, so I could recover my prototype.
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So apologies for the blurry photo.. He was running around in a rocket-dog manner and I couldn't get a clean shot.
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PS. he's a belgium shepherd... and the biggest sook of a dog.
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#6 Daily photo Monday 16 June

For some reason, I love taking photos of traffic without using a flash, so you get these ace wonky light effects. I have so many photos like this.. but this is one from our drive back from the Dandenongs.

PS> I now am just over 3/4 though my Long Service Leave. BOO !! In under a month, I'll be back in the rat race at work.... I have really enjoyed my leave and will be absolutely gutted when its over.

Day trip to the Dandenongs

#4 Visit the letter W = William Ricketts Sanctuary (11 letters to go)

Whilst in the Dandenongs we visited William Ricketts Sanctuary. I always thought these statues were carvings in wood. But they're not, they're actually clay, fired and then mounted onto old tree trunks etc. I would have had more photos, but it was quite dark in there, and if you used a flash, the sculptures looked awful. But if you didn't the photos were blurry. But here's one that's OK.

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#6 Daily photo Sunday 15 June

Today the boys and I took a day trip to the Dandenongs. We went to the lookout at the top of Mount Dandenong and decided to take some silly photos on the Giant Chair. Afterwards we had Devonshire Tea (with scones that were HUMUNGOUS)

I love this photo...

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#6 Daily photo Saturday 14 June

Mum gave me a tonne of rosemary from her garden to bring back to Melbourne, so to ensure it keeps nicely, I've turned it into an flower arrangement.

I know that you have all desperately wanted to know where the centre of Victoria is.....

#6 Daily photo Thursday 12 June
They don't call the Bendigo area Central Victoria for nothing. Some boffins have got their calculators out and punched in some numbers and worked out where the Geographic Centre of Victoria is. And it's just down the road from my parents house.

Fancy pants plaque.

And, of course they have an X-marks-the-spot. So I made mum pull over the car (we were on our way back from buying some new kitchen lights for their house) and I became a tourist in my own home town.

Horses and trees

#6 Daily photo Wednesday 11 June
These photos were taken on the day when I scratched my leg (see below post). These gorgeous clydesdale horses live around the corner from my parents. The little horse kept nipping the larger ones and jumping into the air.All the horses in the paddock came over to check out the dog.
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#6 Daily photo Tuesday 10 June

I visited my parents for most of this week, and here's a shot from the drive to Bendigo. Mum and Dad were happy I was there, because everytime I go home, it rains. And it did. And as Bendigo is in a drought, they need the rain. Check out those clouds.
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#6 Daily photo Monday 9 June (Queens Birthday)

Happy Birthday Lizzy, even though it's not your actual birthday, we love having a public holiday for you.

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We're now in winter, so all the trees are bare. This is one of the ornamental pear trees at the front of my house. It looks so beautiful.

How NOT to climb through a barbed wire fence

#8 Do Something for the letter I = Injure myself (9 letters to go)
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My friends know I'm a bit of a klutz by how frequently I trip over/fall over (why else would I receive a christmas present of a Little Miss Whoops book).
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Anyway, I was visiting my parents and Mum and I took their dog for a walk. Mum said we had to walk along this new walking path near their house. Which we did. But the path isn't quite finished, so we walked to the end of the ashphalted bit. Then we walked on the dirt part. And then the path ended in some bushland. But we knew it was right near the back of Mum and Dad's house. So Mum and I decided to do a bit of bush-bashing to see if we could do a short cut home.
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We climbed through a barbed wire fence and then after wandering around a bit, realised we couldn't cross the creek so had to backtrack back to the path. We hit the barbed wire fence again. We pulled bits of wire over itself so that is was easier to climb though. Mum climbed through and the dog ran under it. As I was halfway though, the wire decided it wanted to go back to it's original position but my leg was still there. Then mum and I got the giggles and I bled all the way home.


PS: we'd popped into the supermarket during the walk where we got ourselves a nice red. So I must have looked a treat; staggering out of the bush, with blood running down my leg, carrying a bottle of wine....