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Today is Tuesday.

We had a big lunch at work today to celebrate 1000 working days without a lost time injury. Not many stores reach 1000, some stores have trouble getting to 50 days. Not one to miss a free lunch and my boss not one either we re-arranged my shift for today so that it would mean that I would get the lunch 🙂 They put on a nice spread for us with a mini BBQ grill in the tearoom which made the storeroom smell like a BBQ mmm. It made it mighty hard to work though, I was writing up milk credits and this smell was wafting through and making my stomach grumble.

More importantly though today is Tuesday and in two sleeps I will be heading off into the big Blue yonder which is the East Coast Blues and Roots Festival which is held in Byron Bay over the Easter long weekend. I have wanted to go to the Blues Fest year for years now and I am finally making the trip. I am making the trip alone though. I am heading 2.5hrs south of Brisbane to a town which I barely know, to a festival where I know no one for the lesser part of six days.

There is one thing I know I am looking forward to and that is Byron Bay Organic Doughnuts. Sigh those were so good at Woodford. I am also looking forward to spending some time at the beach. I haven’t gone to the beach in so long.

Matthew doesn’t see why I am slightly daunted over the whole shebang. That was till Mum pointed out the fact that Matthew could find and make friends with a broomstick (ok so she didn’t use those words, but Matthew is way more extroverted than I am). We can be walking through the shopping centre or in the city and people will randomly come up and say “Hey Palsson” and start chatting to him.

I may be slightly daunted about the trip but I am also extremely excited. I can’t wait to discover new bands and see old faves for the first time live or for the x time. I mean seeing Bo Diddley will be so cool. We have a compilation CD called Rock Around the Clock that Pabbi picked up for $9.95 at Brashs back in the day (early 90’s) that has Hey Bo Diddley on it. Such a rockin’ song. Closer to home, I am really extremely looking forward to finally finally seeing The Waifs and Paul Kelly and the list goes on and on.

Tomorrow is Wednesday and Andrea turns 21.99726 on Wednesday so we are celebrating. She is taking the off work and we will have fun, till I have to go work in the arvo. Andrea turns 22 on Thursday but I won’t be there, hence the celebration of her turning 21.99726.

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Ordinary day, just like any

Mum is up at IBISCA this weekend having fun looking after a group of high school kids who were awarded bursaries to attend for the weekend. The house as a result has been quiet. Yesterday I worked all day and then went out to a local pub with a bunch of people at work to celebrate two of the girls turning 40. That was the first time I had gone out with people from work since most of the “old school” night fill people had left, it was a very different scene mainly in the reversing of the gender ratios, going from two or three girls and a heap of guys to a heap of girls and two or three guys.

Went out for a long bike ride this morning which was really good, it has been a while since I have gone on a long ride. I went out a bit later than I had planned to. I had planned on getting up at 6am and heading out but I didn’t get out of bed till 7ish and got out the (garage) door close to 8. I was dead tired from having a late night last night but it was a case of well if I don’t go I will never go and then I would be a slacker. Which is not something I want to be.

I made biscuits this arvo between watching a tape of Rockwiz from last night (I like Spicks and Specks for the comedy but as a music quiz show Rockwiz is way cooler). Deni Hines was a crack up! Before tea, I made a batch of mixed berry muffins which will be frozen and taken out one at time when in need of something for morning tea at work or a snack on the run.

It is stock take this week at work which means instead of only getting up one morning at 4:18 to start at 5am, I will be doing it twice maybe three times since I can’t remember my roster. I have nothing against starting work at 5am, the store is quiet with everyone hard at work and customer free till we open at 8am. The issue I have a problem with is the sun and when it decides to get out of bed. There are 52 weeks in the year and only 9 or so of those weeks does the sun decide to rise above the horizon before or as I start pedalling my bike to work. Riding to work in the dark whilst that does not worry me, it can be rather depressing when you are cycling to work and not even the birds have started their morning singing.

I picked up the recent Po’Girl CD yesterday on my lunch break. Po’Girl were one of those cool bands that I discovered at Woodford. I am really impressed with the CD, I have listened to it through a couple of times and I’m happy. Hearing those clarinet strains and those harmonies takes me right back to Woodford. sigh, Those were the days my friends lol.

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WhiteWater World

Mum and I spent the day at the new water park that has opened up down the coast. It is called WhiteWater World and is operated by and located beside Dreamworld.

Mum was going along for a Maths teacher briefing about the activities they run for senior Maths B students which use the rides as models for all sorts of maths stuff. As part of the briefing Mum got in for nicks and I got in at the child’s price :).

We had a blast of a day going on all the rides that we could fit on (eg those kiddie slides just aren’t designed for people with hips) and going on quite a few rides multiple times.

In terms of favourite rides, The Green Room as much as it freaked me out was probably the best ride there, as long as you managed to find two other riders to take you as close as possible to the 300kg ride limit, because the heavier your tube was the higher you went up the sides of the funnel. After that the Broken Headz run in the Temple of Huey. Which the photo below shows Mum and I coming out of.

white water world

It was a blast of a day and whilst there were times when I wished it was a hot sunny day, it was very enjoyable when it was slightly overcast as it meant that the concrete wasn’t hot 🙂

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Do you know the way to Brisbane?

Or more importantly I sure as jaggery hope that Mr Bacharach does because I have a ticket to seem him when he comes to the Convention Centre on July 6 (the day before Karl turns 28!) and I will not be a happy chappy if he gets lost. Perhaps I should send him a map?

When I saw the advert that he was going to be playing in Sydney in Feb, I was ready to walk out the door and start walking to Sydney. It was going to cost me an arm, a leg, an eye and possibly even my soul but this is BURT BACHARACH we are talking about. However I decided that I really did want to keep my soul and two eyes are just so much better than one so I resented myself to not going to see Mr B this time round. Then Mr B had an accident and his daughter died which meant that the Sydney and Adelaide shows were canceled. Then there was a note saying he would be coming back in July and adding some more cities to the show. Yeah for Brisbane. Yeah for Helen having a ticket to see Mr B and The Queensland Orchestra. July 6 will be a total treat 🙂

Or do you know your way round Africa?
The other night Karl sent me this link – 53 African States. It has fast making the rounds of my family and friends either on the web site or on a piece of paper. When I did it this arvo I had 2 states that I couldn’t get 🙁 compared to the 13 so so I couldn’t get the first time I did it. The challenge now is to be able to place them all in the right place on the map. That will be a challenge. How many countries in Africa can you get?

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Flashed

I bought a flash for my camera the other week and it arrived on Thursday. I didn’t dare leave the house till the UPS man had came and finally at 12:06pm, he pulled up to our house with a parcel from BH Photo and there inside was a Canon 580ex Flash and an off-camera flash cord.

Since then, actually since the batteries were charged a couple of hours later, I have been having a ball playing and learning with my flash.
I don’t think I have any “real” photos to show for it other than a whole stack of my handbag sitting on my bed as I played with angles and strength.

My younger brother and my younger “brother” both see my camera as a tool of the devil so the arrival of a flash is just another excuse for my younger brother to yell and scream at me as he tries to defend himself from the devil. My younger “brother” of course follows the lead of his “brother” and after enduring the flash for 2 shots raises his arms to cover his face. Such is my life.

I just had a look through my photos again and I found this one of my duchess, when I was playing with my flash on the off camera cord with a bounce card. This photo shows two of the bangles that I picked up at Woodford. The top beaded one is a nice sparkley one that is nice for wearing out. The bottom one however is my very favourite. I think it is some sort of silver alloy but who knows for sure, just I don’t know where it was made, other than an educated guess of one of the many Muslim countries stretching from Morocco to the ‘stans in Central Asia. Isn’t it pretty though?

My duchess - 20070302

I am off to Natural Arch at Springbook in the morning with some local photographers for a fun filled day of camera fun.

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In my garden

One day I’m going to make me a big big star. Well I already am but only a few people realise that at the moment.

A large handful of years ago (2001) I used to have a little veggie patch. It wasn’t a big producer but I still enjoyed my little patch of soil except the snails and other bugs probably liked it more than I did. They saw it as very much their own little salad bar. At around this time I was listening to The Lion Sleeps Tonight a lot. For some reason or the other I decided to change the lyrics round a bit to suit the snails who saw my garden as a salad bar.

A-wimoweh etc

In my garden
My growing garden
The snails eat my peas
In my garden
The quiet garden
The snails eat my peas

A-wimoweh etc

Near the peas
The dying peas
The snails make their way
Near the peas
The dying peas
The snails eat their feast

A-wimoweh etc

Hush my garden
Don’t fear my garden
The snails will sleep tonight
Hush my garden
Don’t die my darlings
The snails will be gone

A-wimoweh etc

I remember rushing out to Mum as I decided on better words to suit rhythmic patterns and singing to her the most recent version of “In my garden”. I was changing a few things round on my desk the other day and found the piece of paper that it was printed on and thought why not post it 🙂 Though it also means that I think that a large number of my recent posts have been musically based.

Today is Pancake Tuesday(Shrove Tuesday). Matthew and I had pancakes for lunch. mmm yummy. Sunday night I roasted a duck for tea, though this duck must’ve been a duck on a severe diet as it was pretty meatless. Luckily I made heaps of roast veggies to go with it, which were perfectly roasted in duck fat and tasted like heaven. For dessert we had a Blueberry Sourcream cake that I made from a recipe which was in a BBC Good Food magazine a couple of years ago. The cake didn’t just taste like heaven, it was heaven. I should take a photo of a slice before it is all eaten (there is only two slices left).

I am going to get my hair cut this arvo before work 🙂