Just....blah...

I'm having a pity party. Feel free to drop by.

No real reason. Does there have to be one? This is more like a convention actually. Has lasted about a week. I've had a headache for four days that makes me want to just rip my eyeball out.

I need to go hide under my bed for a while.

(Ian, sorry I didn't call. Didn't think I should call or email anyone while I was/am feeling so narky.)

Lest we forget

And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda

Now when I was a young man I carried me pack
And I lived the free life of the rover.
From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback,
Well, I waltzed my Matilda all over.
Then in 1915, my country said, "Son,
It's time you stop ramblin', there's work to be done."
So they gave me a tin hat, and they gave me a gun,
And they marched me away to the war.

And the band played "Waltzing Matilda,"
As the ship pulled away from the quay,
And amidst all the cheers, the flag waving, and tears,
We sailed off for Gallipoli.

And how well I remember that terrible day,
How our blood stained the sand and the water;
And of how in that hell that they call Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.
Johnny Turk, he was waitin', he primed himself well;
He showered us with bullets, and he rained us with shell --
And in five minutes flat, he'd blown us all to hell,
Nearly blew us right back to Australia.

But the band played "Waltzing Matilda,"
When we stopped to bury our slain,
Well, we buried ours, and the Turks buried theirs,
Then we started all over again.

And those that were left, well, we tried to survive
In that mad world of blood, death and fire.
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
Though around me the corpses piled higher.
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head,
And when I woke up in me hospital bed
And saw what it had done, well, I wished I was dead --
Never knew there was worse things than dying.

For I'll go no more "Waltzing Matilda,"
All around the green bush far and free --
To hump tents and pegs, a man needs both legs,
No more "Waltzing Matilda" for me.

So they gathered the crippled, the wounded, the maimed,
And they shipped us back home to Australia.
The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane,
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla.
And as our ship sailed into Circular Quay,
I looked at the place where me legs used to be,
And thanked Christ there was nobody waiting for me,
To grieve, to mourn and to pity.

But the band played "Waltzing Matilda,"
As they carried us down the gangway,
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared,
Then they turned all their faces away.

And so now every April, I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me.
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march,
Reviving old dreams of past glory,
And the old men march slowly, all bones stiff and sore,
They're tired old heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask "What are they marching for?"
And I ask meself the same question.

But the band plays "Waltzing Matilda,"
And the old men still answer the call,
But as year follows year, more old men disappear
Someday, no one will march there at all.

Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda.
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
And their ghosts may be heard as they march by the billabong,
Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me?

ANZAC Day

I'll be away all weekend, so I thought I'd post this now.

ANZAC Day is 25 April

The ANZAC tradition - the ideals of courage, endurance and mateship that are still relevant today was established on 25 April 1915 when the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

It was the start of a campaign that lasted eight months and resulted in some 25,000 Australian casualties, including 8,700 who were killed or died of wounds or disease.

The men who served on the Gallipoli Peninsula created a legend, adding the word ‘Anzac’ to the Australian and New Zealand vocabularies and creating the notion of the Anzac spirit.

In 1916, the first anniversary of the landing was observed in Australia, New Zealand and England and by troops in Egypt. That year, 25 April was officially named ‘Anzac Day’ by the Acting Prime Minister, George Pearce.

I'll be going to the Dawn Service at the Shrine of Remembrance. (Ian, if you want to come with me and you're prepared to be picked up at 5am on Monday morning, text me.)

See ya Tuesday.

Never assume

Assuming doesn't always make an 'ass out of u and me'. Sometimes it just makes me think you are an arsehole! Stupid, freaking, pig-headed, arsehole pricks who assume without evidence, just piss me off.

C's character was questioned at his work yesterday and I am so stinkin' mad I felt like going in there and slapping someone. I hate people who pull that shit....and then don't apologise when they're proven to be incorrect in their assumptions.

@#$^*&%~!

All about Ian

The boy and I met Ian from The Hard Word, and Tara from Movin'on, on Tuesday night. It was fun. Ian's just like I (we all, here in blogland) imagined him to be - beanie-clad and funny. C thought I just wanted to go because I'm a Hard Word groupie and wanted an autograph (D'oh...had the pen, the coaster, and forgot!).

We three, and Tara and her beau played a round of Trash Trivia. We didn't win, but I don't really think that's an indictment on any of us. Seriously, some of those questions were about things I really don't need to know. I mean, who cares what Reese Witherspoon's pointy-chinned kids are called, or what 50 cent's real name is? I thought it might be Non Cents (get it? ha!), but I was wrong.

The fact that both Ian and I knew Wilson Philip's 'Hold On' after only a few beats...well that might qualify us for some serious pity. That we both have that cd is probably worse! (Haha, sorry Ian, but if I'm going to 'out' myself, someone's gonna come with me!)

No doubt we'll be catching up again and karaoke is next on the agenda.

*warming up the vocal cords*

I gots ta get me a job!

Soooo....I was feeling icky last night, so I was in bed by 6pm. I had some work to do though, so I just sat under the covers with the laptop. The boy comes home with a dvd and some groceries, says stay there, and he'll make dinner. I'm typing away and he comes to tell me dinner's ready and we eat. He cleans up and I go back to bed.

Next he comes in and says, I'm running a bath, so come in when you finish what you're doing. Sigh...baileys on ice, candles, bubbles etc. LOL he thinks of things that would never occur to me. Seriously, I'm gonna clone him and sell him on e-bay!

He says happy anniversary (but I didn't tell him he was a day early LOL) and goes on to say we need to start looking at our finances (coz we want to buy a new car, wanna do Europe, and landscape the garden), so we talk about that for a while. (haha, yeah, the bath scene might look romantic, but our conversations generally aren't!)

Again, he started with the whole "when we're married" thing, when it came to combining finances for certain things. Said it twice, and went to say it a third time and I interrupted and went "yeah, I know what you mean" before he could spell it out again. LOL So I said, "we'll you better hurry up in marry me soon if that's gonna make (finances) less complicated". Ha!

Anyway, then we started talking about my job and he mentioned (words to the effect of) that we can't really plan ahead too far till I work out what I'm going to do, and/or get a job much closer to home. So I suppose ultimately, it all comes down to me finding a job close to home in a hurry. LOL Aaargh, like I wasn't already frustrated and under pressure! :-p

I might have to look seriously at becoming a Tupperware woman and working from home. hehehe

Can ya imagine that?

Seeds of doubt

No, no, not with me and the boy, but I know you were thinking it!

We live in a new estate and there's construction going on all around us - new roads/new houses being built. Most of the roads and roundabouts have big trees planted on them. Our street is tiny and the lots are on the small side - three houses on our side (plus two corner houses being built now), none on the other side. So far, we have no trees in our street. I assume it's because the council is waiting for the other houses to be built. There are two empty lots across the road from us, but it doesn't look like those houses are going to be built any time soon.

Anyway, the estate developer is always sending us paraphernalia about what's going on, new land releases etc. There are even ads on tv now that say, "Save your marriage. Move to (our suburb)", which we find rather amusing.

On Monday, we received a fold out brochure in the mail box about a new land release. In it was a little packet of seeds. We thought this was good, because we've been wondering when they were going to do something like that (Council is supposed to give you a free native tree when you move in). Then we read the small print...

Enclosed seeds are real River Red Gum seeds.
Care should be taken when planting these seeds.
Seeds should not be planted under power lines or near your house, as the root system of River Red Gum trees is extensive.
Seed advice from your local nursery when planting.
(Developer) take no responsibility for seeds planted.
Seeds should not be consumed.

Here’s a picture, to give you an idea of the size of this tree.

We wondered why in the world they'd send us seeds for trees that we can't plant near our house, or on the street (where are we supposed to plant them?) and that could damage the house if we do plant them.

Wouldn't the smarter thing have been to actually send us something smaller and more practical that we could plant in or around our house?

What's that old adage?....Seemed like a good idea at the time...

Lightbulb moment

I can't believe it's taken me six months to figure out, but I realised that C and I get on so well together because we truly think of ourselves as a team. Neither one of us is in control or dictates to the other one about anything.

Six months tomorrow and I'm stupidly happy and excited. Sigh....who'da thunk it!

Seriously

I need to find a happier photo of me than the one on my blog. I look far too serious...and I'm not sure I really even look like that anymore.

Demons

It's amazing how your brain can make you think crazy shit, even when you're at your most rational.

The boy was away for a week and gave me a more than daily step-by-step account of what he was doing and where he was. He and I have the best relationship and yet I still create freakin crap in my head.

No, I'm fine now. I was never not fine. But those 'what ifs' get into your head and if you don't stomp on them before they start to breed, you can end up with a whole colony of irrationality to really mess with you. Like a virus.

I didn't tell him my brain went a bit nuts while he was away. To be honest, I really only got annoyed with myself on one day. It was the Wednesday, I think. He stayed in his hotel room, ate dinner there, watched tv, and went to sleep. My dumb-arse brain tried to tell me that's coz he was entertaining someone. WTF? How screwed in the head is that? Reality is, he stayed in and talked to his kid for the kiddo's birthday.

Truthfully, I don't tell him this stuff, because I know I'm the one who has to snap outta this way of thinking. It's not his problem.

I don't even know why it came into my head. Hmmm...I've read too many horror stories on internet message boards. I need to stop doing that.

My guy absolutely rocks. I'm so lucky and so thankful. Just wish those thoughts would stay the hell outta my head.

Man it's hard to recondition your thinking sometimes, even when you know the truth, you can still tell yourself lies. I wonder if that ever completely stops.

Happy dancing

Jason's home from the sandbox, happy, safe and well.....

....and he's gonna be here in three weeks!!

I already told C. It's a weekend when we've got A, but C told me I should stay home and catch up with him, instead of going away. My head is spinning, so I'll write more about it when I've thought about it more.

Aaaaaarrrgggh!

Flexing my consumer muscles

I posted on Tuesday about how Subway had stuffed up my lunch and failed miserably in the customer service department.

The same afternoon, I sent an email to the ACCC (Australian Consumer and Competition Commision), asking for information on a certain clause in the Trade Practices Act, because of advertising by Target in a catalogue, of bed linen they didn't have in stock.

Here's part of what I said:

Over Easter, the Target catalogue had a front page advert for bed linen at 50% off. On the morning of the first advertised day, we visited one store and were told that all stock had already been sold and that no more was being brought in. To his credit, the assistant store manager told us we could have any other bedding at the same discounted price (50% off), but we didn't want anything else. Two days later, we visited another Target store and they too had already run out of the advertised stock. In addition, they had advertised $10 bras in the same catalogue. Again, there were none of these left, despite the catalogue only having just come out. At that same store, I purchased a CD that scanned above the ticketed price, so all around, we were/are fairly unimpressed.

And I went on to ask for details of the clause I wanted referenced, so I could contact Target with my complaint. Sure, we won't die because we didn't get the bed linen we wanted, but it's the principle of the whole thing.

I didn't expect the response I got from the ACCC. Here's part of it...

...The main purpose of the TPA (Trade Practices Act) is to promote competition and efficiency in markets within Australia, and to protect consumers and businesses from unlawful anti-competitive and unfair market practices. The ACCC's role includes fostering fair and informed markets by seeking compliance with the TPA....

...Bait advertising occurs when goods or services are advertised at an attractive price, but when the consumer goes to buy the goods or services they are not available and the advertiser seeks to switch the consumer to a higher priced product or service....

...Whether Target is in breach of the bait advertising provision of the TPA is ultimately up to a court to decide. While the conduct about which you complain may raise concerns under the above provision of the TPA, Target may chose to rely on the defence as outlined. However, as there are possible concerns with the conduct described in your email, I have entered the details of your complaint into the ACCC's s national complaints database....

...At this stage the ACCC is not in a position to confirm what, if any, action may be taken on this matter. However, in the meantime this information will be used in the context of our ongoing monitoring.....

So, you Target bosses out there, be on your best behaviour, coz Big Brother is watching.

...Subway have yet to respond.

ZZzzzzzzzz....

If today could manage to go any slower, it'd be going backwards. I don't quite know why I'm here at work, apart from the fact that I have nothing to do at home either, so I may as well come in and be paid to do squat. I wonder though, why anyone thinks it's necessary for me to come to work every day during school holidays when it's the staff who I support and when there are no staff here, there's nobody for me to support.

Typing this is serving the sole purpose of keeping my eyes open.

I went and had some blood tests done around lunch time, just for something to do. No, I don't normally do that for fun, but it needed doing and I wasn't doing anything else, so...

My hairdresser called. His assistant booked me in with him for later on tonight, but he's already got two appointments on at that time. I told him I could go earlier (it's not like this place is gonna come to a grinding halt if I leave early), so I'm outta here at 3.3o. One more hour to go.

I might go sleep in the sick bay for a while.

One more Kilkenny for the road

The boy's away for the week. I'm having mixed feelings about it. It'll be the longest we've been apart in six months. In a way, it's a good thing, because this last couple of weeks, I've felt unreasonably irritated with things (maybe because I'm irritated with me?), so it's good that he's away and I can get back on track and not take stuff out on him.

It's also good, because I can relax and be a bum and not have to worry about cooking, or anything else that I feel generally less than keen to do.

It's bad, because we've discovered (duh, like we had to think about it), that we really don't do well when we're apart. We're sad really. And we've already decided we're going to try not to go this long apart again....and it's only been two days. Like I said, we're sad. I can see you nodding your heads.

The boy's away on training, so he has to think all day. So what'd he do last night? His first night. He went out to a pub and had one too many Kilkennys....Irish beer, for the uninitiated. He says he was fine this morning, but he certainly had a hangover breakfast (eggs, bacon, mushrooms etc). By lunch he wasn't feeling well at all. At 6pm when I called him, he sounded flat and ill.

My boy peaked on day one! He's got a long week ahead of him....and reckons it's gonna be a quiet one from here on, despite it being 'networking night' tomorrow night, with free drinks.

Yeah, right!

Don't mess with my lunch, dude!

Following an unpleasant visit to a Subway store today, I did one of the things I do best...sent a pissed off letter. Ok, so sending pissed off letters isn't something I do all the time, but since I'm better at letters than phone calls, they're my favoured form of communication when it comes to dealing with stupidity in the retail sector.

Hi, I have a big complaint about the service at the Hawthorn store in Victoria, Australia. I've gone there often, and they've always skimped on salads and given the most minimal of everything possible, but today took the cake.

I asked for a 12" Italian sub and was given one with herbs on (which I only noticed when I got back to work) - not the one I asked for.

I asked for swiss cheese. This appeared to be all stuck together and the girl was having trouble getting the pieces apart - so much so that they started breaking and another girl took over by grabbing the cheese from her and trying to pull it apart herself. Finally, she managed to slap a few broken pieces on the bread.

I asked for meatballs and was given barely enough to cover the bread. When I asked for some more, the girl asked one of the guys there to pass some sauce. I said I didn't want sauce, but I wanted more meatballs. She proceeded to pour so much sauce on the bread, I thought I'd need a straw. I asked again for more meatballs.

She told me she'd give me one more, which she did and said that she'd given me the number of meatballs they were required to put on the bread. Then she told me that I would normally be charged for this, to which I replied I'd never been charged for that request in any other Subway store I'd been to (and I frequently visit 3 other Subways in my area, which, incidentally, have always put a decent amount of salad
and meatballs each time I've been).

If she had asked me if I minded to pay extra for more, and how much would I like, I would have willingly paid for the extra. Instead, she took on a bitchy attitude and offered me one more meatball with an attitude that I should have been thankful for that.

She passed the sub onto a guy to do the salads and I requested lettuce, tomato and cucumber. The cucumber is cut so thin that you can see through it and it literally disintegrates when you pick it up. I was given half a dozen pieces like that....barely enough to make one normal slice of cucumber at any other Subway store I've been to.

I'm disgusted by the petty attitudes, penny pinching policy for putting the bare minimum on the sub, and overall lack of pleasant customer service. Subway advertisements spout that you can create your own sub....but when you ask for what you want, you're met with a CAN'T do attitude.

A number of my coworkers and I (used to) regularly go to Subway in Hawthorn, but I doubt we'll be purchasing from them again. It's a good thing McDonalds is a few doors down and they now have healthy salads. We'll be going there in future.

And I was being nice.

Health update

Hmmm...where do I start?

I posted a while ago that I was starting to have some health concerns again. I still don't know what is/was wrong with me. I've seen two GPs, a health nurse, and had internal and external ultrasounds so far. I'm also booked in for blood tests, an echo cardiograph (not a regular ECG), a second pap smear (even though the first one was normal), and a trip back to my specialist to put me back on the drugs I went off when I was applying to get into the Army. After all that, I have to go back to GP #2 (who is female and by far the most helpful doc I've had in a long time, despite my initial reservations about her), to find out the results of everything.

So far, all my tests have come back normal, but clearly something is going on, or I wouldn't be having all the symptoms I'm having lately - including very increased frequency of the chest pains that I get.

GP #2 did freak me out a bit, but in the end, I'm glad. She knew a lot more about my MVP (see my article on subter.com for details on that) than anyone else I've spoken to, including my specialists. She even brought to my attention the correlation between things that happened to me when I was in high school that I'd never associated with my medical problems before....and in doing so, went way up in my esteem.

She put my mind slightly at ease in relation to the problems I'm having with my girl stuff. She mentioned surgery in relation to the heart stuff. Yeah, heart surgery...and strokes. Did I mention surgery? The thought of heart surgery, despite the advances in medicine and surgical techniques makes me nervous to say the least, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

C has been an absolute legend when it's come to being there for me and supporting me, even taking time off work to drive me to appointments, when I could easily go myself.

I feel a lot better than I have been, although I've strayed slightly from Dr Fun-Killer's diet, solely because my body's been so screwed up lately that it's been necessary for me to just eat what I feel like eating, when I need to. And that's meant bread and sweets. Now though, I'm trying really hard to get back on track. It's been a setback and I've stagnated with the weight for the last 6 weeks or so (which I expected), but at least I'm getting to the bottom of why now, and that's the main thing.

Hopefully by the end of next week, I'll have a better understanding of what's going on.

Right now, I have to convince myself to throw away the rest of the birthday cake I made for A's 7th birthday, instead of binging on it while C is away interstate this week.

Mousecapades - part 2 (The Finale)

Howdy folks! Sorry to have alarmed some of you with my absence (has it been that long??), but here I am! Thanks for the emails too. I do appreciate them. :-)

I'll update more later, but for now, I'll just relay the outcome of my mousecapades story.

As I left it, the mouse had disappeared and all was quiet once more. The next morning, I got out of bed, stumbled through the house in the dark, and went to open the sliding doors to the back patio, to let the cats outside. As I did so, Commando Mouse (who had camouflaged himself to appear like the top of the blinds), leapt at me, out of the darkness. I let out another scream and the cats chased it behind the fridge. Good, I thought, he's pinned in their and one of my fearless felines will get him in good time.

Back in the bedroom, C asked me what the squeal was about. I told him the mouse tried to attack me again, but it was cornered behind the fridge. "Never fear", he says, from the comfort of the bed, "I'll get it when I get up".

Of course, Commando Mouse, being fully trained in house infiltration, had disappeared again by the time the boy got out of bed. And I thought that was the end of it...

A few days later, I noticed a funny smell in the laundry, where I keep the cats' food and litter. Mousey evidence! So I moved a few things, but couldn't find the evil critter. The next day, I got up early and went into the laundry to feed the cats. I picked up their box of food and poured some into their bowls.

The box felt funny. How my brain went off on the next train of thought, I have no idea. The box was about empty, so it was light, but as I tipped it, something slid from one side to the other. "Oh", I thought, "they must be having a competition and there's something in the bottom of the box!" It didn't occur to me that I hadn't noticed it before.

I lifted the box closer to my face to see if I could see inside, but there was no prize. There was only Commando Mouse, who, again, leapt out at me and ran under the cats' water bowl. In the time it took me to compose myself and check under the bowl, he'd vanished again. C thinks he was just doing a Mission Impossible move, and he was really holding himself flat under the bowl when I picked it up, so I wouldn't see him.

I cannot believe I have two cats in the house and for at least a week, they let a mouse backstroke around in their food box, like he was staying at the Ritz!

I got my revenge though. C bought two mouse traps. We put one near the fridge and one near the cat food - the last two places he was seen. Some time, in the middle of the night, I heard the snap. "Could it really be?", I thought to myself. Sure enough, there he was, my evil foe and nemesis for the past couple of weeks, gone to the big commando mouse training camp in the sky.

C never actually saw the mouse and doesn't believe it ever existed, but it did.

It was a tough battle, but I finally won!