Country Girl For A Day - Part Two

At around 6:30am on Sunday we managed to get out of bed. Usually when we go to visit The Boy's parents we are around 1-2 hours late, due to me and the fact that it takes me so long to get ready, but I knew that The Boy wanted to leave early so I decided to just get on with it and had a quick shower, put on a little make up and packed my bags. I even skipped breakfast just to ensure we could leave on time. He wanted to leave at 7:30 and at 7:45 we were pulling out of the garage. I was very pleased with myself on that achievement.

So the journey began up the freeway, it was a beautiful morning, and The Boy and I just chatted about life. We stopped for coffee and my breakfast and then we were off again. Towards the end of the freeway we spotted a cop in the medium strip with a radar. It wasn't an issue as The Boy wasn't speeding, however, 500 metres from the end of the freeway the cop was behind us and waving up to pull over. He got out and decided to breath test The Boy. No alcohol was present, which we knew. He asked to see his license, The Boy handed it over and the cop looked at it and pointed it out to us both that his license expired only THREE days ago! He said he would "run some checks" and went back to his car. Five minutes later he returned with a ticket of $400!!!! No demerit points, just $400!! No warning, nothing. It was only three days and the RTA wasn't open on Saturday as it was ANZAC day so when was The Boy meant to renew? I could understand if it was a month or something, but three days? What check was he running? To see if he had reached his monthly quota was my guess. Of course that now meant The Boy couldn't drive. The cop looked at me and said I would have to drive.

"She can't drive manual" said The Boy. The cop asked for my license, I gave it to him.
"Doesn't say here that you can't drive manual" he said returning it to me.
"Why can't you drive a manual?" He asked.
I opened my mouth to tell the cop "None of your business, you're not allowed to ask those questions" but The Boy jumped in and said "She lives in Sydney"
The cop nodded.
What just happened?? City people only drive auto's and country folk drive manual? I was about to speak up again but the cop said "Well you better get someone to pick you up."
I looked at him and said "Well I guess I better learn to drive manual pretty quickly then".
He gave me a dirty look and said to The Boy, "You have 21 days to pay that notice" and he left. It was time for me to learn to drive a manual.

The Boy put a call into his parents at 9:15 am for them to come and help, however while we were waiting I demanded to be shown what to do. The Boy looked at me, and looked around at his car that he bought brand new just over a year ago and reluctantly gave me instructions on what to do. There was a side street right where we pulled over and I went up and down that to get the hang of it and then it was onto the freeway for a few hundred metres and then over to Thornton. I pulled over to the side of the road a few times and several times stalled the car and started to panic as there were people behind me, but I managed to travel a few km's towards his parents house before they met us and rescued us both.

After a coffee stop we went back to their place and they had out for me old videos of The Boy. I loved it!! He was such a nerd back then, but so was I and we are both still nerds at heart so it works well. I saw him in a school play and playing in the family band (they are huge muso's his brother and mum both have albums out). I don't think he was thrilled about the trip down memory lane but I was loving it.

Afterwards we went into Morpeth. We took The Bus. The Bus is an old school bus (that only seated about 12 people) that they have turned into a little camping van. It sleeps 4 and has a fridge and freezer and is used primarily for travelling to and from shows. I had never seen it before but I loved it. We were told we could take it whenever we wanted to for travelling. Definitely going to take them up on that offer as it will save a lot in accommodation costs. We went to Morpeth, had pizza, looked around and finally headed home. Some family friends were waiting back there and before we could do anything The Boy's mum insisted that The Boy sing for us. It took a lot of persuading but he agreed and serenaded us all with Can't Help Falling In Love. It melted my heart and I was grateful I filmed it. Afterwards we all swooned over The Boy's car and a few of us had a very short ride in it before we ALL had to head back home to Sydney. His mum took her car with her friend and the other family friend took The Boy's car and we drove back home, arriving at around 10pm. A very very long day but it was a lot of fun.

Finally, I haven't worked out what it was or why, but during the day not once did I think about the future. That day was completely lived in the moment and it was so relaxing to do just that. The day also brought The Boy and I closer. I think with all the moving we have had recently and just life in general we had let the romance slip a little, but after being serenaded and cuddled and kissed on the cheek all day long with no thinking or planning or worrying, we are now in another place, a deeper place, and I am very very happy right now.

Country Girl For A Day - Part One

Yesterday The Boy and I went up the freeway to visit his parents. It was an amazing day and we both had a lot of fun. I took a few pics to show you just a glimpse of it all, and I will do another post about it later. Enjoy

A trip to Maccas on the way, we left at 7:45am on a Sunday so by half way up the freeway we both needed a coffee and I needed to eat breakfast which was an English muffin with jam. It is surprisingly easy spreading jam on a muffin doing 110 km/h.

I just love driving early in the morning, the feeling of anticipation about what the day may bring, but also a little bit of impatience as you want to ask, "Are we there yet?"

This is The Boy's brother's dog, Brandy, who greeted us at the door. After his brother left, The Boy 'inherited' Brandy, and once The Boy left she was left with his parents. She is a very loyal and playful dog, and approves of me as being the main woman in The Boy's life (something no one else has achieved....)

This is the view from his parent's back yard. They have all these wonderful gum trees at the back, while being surrounded by farms and several km's away there is national park. It is the perfect place for a picnic.

This is to the right of their house, more grazing land. Not many neighbours at all and plenty of fresh country air which my lungs were very grateful for.

We decided to go to Morpeth for lunch, I love Morpeth and the Hunter River provides a stunning backdrop.

As you can see it was a very very windy day, my hair was going everywhere, I was convinced I looked awful and I was very thankful for the warm clothes I put on.

This is Morpeth Bridge. To be honest I don't really get the whole fascination with Old World engineering, but I can appreciate the beauty in this bridge and driving over it definitely takes you back in time.

This is The Boy's car. The car that he bought (before he met me) and restored and did what boys do to cars. He is going to sell it (totally his decision, I had nothing to do with it, I am actually starting to grow fond of this car even though driving in it scares me and has me screaming to get out) and I have assured him, that once we have made some significant progress in our mortgage then he can buy another one.

A view I could get used to, you certainly do not see sunsets like this in Sydney.

Elissa Is Becoming Domesticated

Recently I have been having moments where I just pause and think "Who am I?". Usually when I have these thoughts I am cooking food (as opposed to just heating up something in a container) or cleaning, or ironing or washing, or when I am getting excited about seeing a great shag pile rug. I just stand back for a moment in disbelief as I realise that I am becoming domesticated, and even worse I am loving it!!

Before I moved in with The Boy, I was a total Princess. I had a very structured beauty routine, that always took up every Saturday morning. I had gel nails, that were maintained every 3 weeks, my hair, which was 'lightened' every 6 weeks along with a cut, I had a facial with microdermabrasion every 6 weeks, and every fortnight, I had a 45 minute massage. The only cleaning I ever did was my bedroom, and the only cooking I did was boiling water to throw in some pasta. I didn't care about furniture, the only thing I did care about was the latest lip gloss from Lancôme and which celebrity was currently in rehab.

I was living with mum of course, who spoilt me way to much with cooking my meals and doing the washing and keeping the other rooms in the house clean. I love my mum and understand her way of showing love is by doing these things, but I have told her numerous times that if she doesn't stop soon my brother will still be there when he turns 30, and probably even 40. I have lived out of home several times before. The first and second time mum insisted that I bring home all my dirty clothes to her, which I of course accepted and she would wash and iron them for me. The third and fourth time, I had to do my own clothes washing, but in return my meals were cooked for me, and (I hate to admit this) at all times I did very little cleaning, as usually the other person(s) involved reached their dirty threshold before I did and would do it.

Of course, when I met The Boy all that changed. I was now in love with the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with and as we moved in together it was time for me to ditch the Princess act and stop living in fantasy land and grow up and live in reality as a fully fledged adult. No more help from mum and no more pampering. I' will admit now that in the first month of this I was having constant panic attacks, and when it was time for me to see my shrink she gave me no sympathy and told me this anxiety was my own doing and I had to "take of the tiara and focus on being a domestic goddess" her words, not mine.

It was a very rude shock, but now almost 7 months on, I have settled into this new life very well. I no longer care about the celebrities and I have stopped the massages and even grown natural nails (but still maintaining the hair and facials - a girl has gotta have something) but instead care about having a nice and comfortable home. I have started to see the cooking and cleaning and washing and ironing and all those things as activities that make our little "Penthouse" into our little private haven. When I do these things I feel very adult and as I look around the room I think that maybe a nice green shag pile rug would really complement our retro chairs. Then I realise that this is who I am. I have finally emerged into the grown up woman I always dreamt of when I was a little girl. And even though it is a stark contrast to my former life, it just feels right, it feels natural, it feels like I am home and I am exactly who I am meant to be.

I would love to take credit for the spaghetti bolognese that was last night dinner in the picture above, but I can't. The Boy made it. Until I get around to posting a pic of myself up I will tell you that I have blonde hair. Yesterday morning as I was looking for the bread in the freezer I picked up 1/2 kg of mince and put it on top of the fridge. In the afternoon The Boy told me that we were having mince for dinner. I asked why and he told me because I left it out on top of the fridge to defrost. Blondie here forgot to put it back. He was going to put it onto the bbq and make hamburger patties, but I told him to add some tomato pasta sauce and spaghetti pasta and we'll have spaghetti bolognese. Only a domesticated woman could make spaghetti bolognese from thawed out mince that was left on top of the fridge.

Living In The Moment

How do you do that?

I saw my shrink on the weekend (still only once a month which is great and anxiety is virtually non existent) and she told me that I am still living in the future. I do that a lot, I am always thinking about the future and making plans for it, but I think that sometimes I forget to live in the here and now. Today I had the opportunity to get back into my manuscript, and I did that well and that brought me back into the past as if I was living it now. I could see the faces right in front of me, I could taste and smell and hear and touch all that was around me back then at that very moment. But what about now, what about the present? I need to start living, today, this very moment, otherwise I will reach the end of my life, look back and realise I never lived it. I only lived it in my head with my hopes and dreams and plans and goals and lots of lists....

I need to find balance. I need to still plan for the future and look forward to it, but enjoy each day as it is. It is great that I want to achieve my dreams but I need to stop looking at the end result so much and look at the journey. I need to take time each day to enjoy the moment and appreciate the daily step I have made that will take me to those dreams. I really do need to just stop and smell the roses. No more pressure, just life as it is, it isn't a race, I can stay on track, but just take my sweet time walking it instead of running.

It is time to get back into my gratitude book. My shrink told me about two years ago to get a little notebook and every night write 5 things that I was grateful for that day. It is time to get that going again, and to cement this thought here are my 5 things for today;

1 - That I have spent time on my manuscript today.
2 - That I had time to unpack the dishwasher this morning.
3 - That I get on so well with the other girls in the office
4 - That I had a half hour sleep in this morning (that didn't make me late)
5 - All the blogs that I follow, they all bring positivity and joy into the blog world and make me smile

Image: Flickr

Happy Birthday To The Boy

It was The Boy's Birthday a few days ago. He has reached the ripe old age of 27 and for 20 days I get to brag about my "sugar daddy" until my birthday inevitably happens and I turn 27. We decided to have a small gathering on Sunday and have a BBQ. The weather decided it would be cold, windy and raining.

With the arrival of my Future Mother-in-Law I wanted to impress. I wanted to show her that I was more than capable of caring for her son and showing her just how much I love him. So it was going to be a meal where everything was made from scratch (except for the sausages). I relinquished my Sunday morning sleep in and was in the kitchen at 8am to bake a cake. After flipping through Mum's AWW cookbooks (circa 1980's) I settled on the Chocolate Fluffy Cake. Making the cake was a lot easier than I thought, and while it was cooking The Boy and I completed the final clean of the house (he did the bulk of it on Saturday while I was getting my hair done - did I mention how great he is?). Afterwards I put the cake onto the wire rack to cool and it was now time to get into the shower and make myself presentable.

As I began running my GHD through my hair The Boy received a phone call from his mum. They were here, he headed downstairs to get into the car with them as they had to pick up the meat from the butcher and get some gas for the bbq, so I was left to ice the cake. I wanted to have icing on the side of the cake, so I thought I would just double the ingredients. Which I did. However it didn't turn into icing, it looked more like a brownie mixture, I stirred it over the stove as directed and added dribbles of cream into it until it turned into a dark, rich smooth icing that had my mouth watering. As I began to pour the mixture onto the cake, it ran out to the edge and as more mixture was poured spilled over the side, achieving the result I wanted, however it didn't stop and continued to move down and out. It turns out that doubling the ingredients gave me far too much icing and I had icing everywhere, on the floor, on the bench and to my horror on my jeans!! The icing was beginning to cool and I had limited time to decorate the cake, so in my first ever attempt to decorate a cake in my life, I think I did well, as you can see above the "27" is a little wonky, but I am pleased with the attempt, given I was time pressured and had successfully turned the kitchen into another mess to be cleaned.

I manage to change just in time for our guests to arrive, and as they sat and ate cheese and biscuits I was in the kitchen preparing the Caesar salad and bruschetta. Aside from icing the cake, everything went smoothly. I can see now why buying packet mix for making a cake is so popular, because that cake made me wash up 3 times!! My mum pointed out to me that I can buy chocolate cake for $6 from Coles. I told her I wanted to make mine with a little bit of love. The Boy pointed out that the blue M&M's were not all facing down. I smiled and told him to try making a cake, and the FMIL advised me in the future that all I need is a knife in hot water which will allow me to decorate, I eagerly took the advice and made a mental note of it.

The BBQ was a huge success with lots of eating, conversing and even a little bit of singing. I had the opportunity to spend some time with The Boy's mum which I appreciated as she lives almost 2 hours away. The Boy said it was his best birthday yet and loved all the presents I spoiled him with (including a pair of Simpsons PJ's which he won't allow me to put the pic up of him in them). I discovered that I really do love preparing good food for others and that my cooking skills are coming along nicely. As for the cake, it was a huge success, it was rich and very very bad for your health, but everyone there wanted a piece, FMIL told me it was better than store bought and The Boy kissed me on the cheek and told me to make it again, as it was the best cake he has ever. Now that is what happens when you make a cake with a little bit of love.

Thanks Kev!!

I know I have been a very slack blogger for the last couple of weeks. But my reason is justified. My companion of almost 3 years died just over two weeks ago. It was my HP laptop that I took with me everywhere. I'll admit we did have a good run, we produced a lot of work, however I was not quite ready to replace her as the average laptop starts at around $1,000. However, our timelines were different and she gave up and I was left with nothing. I have managed to get online a little at work, which has been helpful, however I am dreading finally getting onto my email account. I can log into blogger at work, but not email - go figure.

Anyway, yesterday (well, Saturday if my boss finds this post) I discovered a little gift from the PM in my account, my $900 stimulus money!!!! Time to go shopping!! Originally I was going to put this money away into my savings account. However due to the untimely death of my laptop I was forced to follow the orders of spending that money. The Boy and I went to a "supa centre" yesterday and after going into a multitude of shops I managed to knock a few hundred dollars off a lovely new laptop and only had to pay $29.00 of my own money.

Welcome to my new baby. Still trying to work out all the new features etc, but I am just happy that I can now surf the web and write whenever I want. This is the one that is going to see me through from draft to publication (and I will always think fondly of my dear HP which saw me from dream to reality to a completed manuscript). It also means I can now catch up on everyone's blogs and to become a more regular poster again.

Finally I just want to say Thanks Kev, I didn't vote for you, but I really appreciate that you bought me a brand new laptop shortly after my other one died. I also want to stress that I did my duty and put that money back into the economy and in the most Australian way, "chucked a sickie" at work to make my purchase. Thanks Kev!

I Have The Most Wonderful Man In My Life

Last night after a busy day at work I came home, opened the door and this sign above greeted me. Next to the sign was The Boy with a very big smile on his face. I ran up to him and gave him a nice big hug. This was exactly what I needed. I looked at the schedule and smiled. The Boy had everything covered, even fitting in time for me to watch the only show I do watch on tv (and yes we are aware of the typo, apparently I came home too quickly and he was rushing).

So last night I had the most relaxing night I have ever had. I think the massage went for almost an hour, and it was so nice, we just talked about everything while love songs played in the background. For a while now it seems that whenever we spend time together we are always pushed for time, but last night time didn't exist. We just relaxed and really enjoyed ourselves.

Afterwards we went to bed and I had the most amazing nights sleep. I woke up this morning feeling very rested and very relaxed and my body felt good too. He really got into my back and made it feel so much better, he is always thinking of me and I love that.

Below are two pics just to show you the effort that he went to. I'm still learning how to take great photos, and was just playing around with the different settings on the camera but you get the idea. And yes it is a hot pink sofa. I bought it a few years ago, it was comfortable and pink, my brother even spent a night on it and told me that it was more comfortable than his bed. In the foreground are two velvet green chairs, they were my grandparents and I love them, they are big and very retro. The coffee table and the entertainment unit are both made by The Boy (he is so talented). Above the entertainment unit is The Boy's Samurai Sword collection (I think it must be a guy thing) and below is his guitar. Sometimes he picks it up and serenades me. I really do have the most wonderful man.

Thank you my "Jono" I love you.

Aren't I Too Young To Be Getting Old?

I have been suffering from back pain for a while now. However in the last 6 months it has become worse. I personally thought it was because I was no longer getting my massages. Before The Boy my Saturday mornings were spent getting pampered. Every second Saturday was a 45 minute remedial massage, and the Saturdays in between that were hair and facials and nails.... The Boy came along and I wanted to spend my Saturdays with him, then when I wanted some "me time" back, I realised that I would have to set up my own beauty salon in our bathroom if we are to buy a house next year. Naturally I made the assumption that The Boy = no massages = sore back. I decided it was the only conclusion there was.

That was until I went and saw the Dr last week who informed me of a new equation: The Boy = 10kg more weight = sore back. I have my bloods taken every 6 months due to the meds I am on, and they have shown that I have inflammation in my blood and it is getting higher. She assured me it wasn't cancer as she tested for cancer proteins (which I was totally unaware of) and from everything I had told her and other tests etc that I most likely have some form of arthritis in my back and I need to go see a rheumatoid specialist.

Arthritis? That is what my grandparents have! Even my parents don't have that yet! I am 26! Yes I am 27 in less than 4 weeks but I am under 50!! What is going on???? What's next? I need glasses for failing vision? Hormones for early menopause? Having my roots lighter than my blonde hair?? I am not even ready to get pregnant for a couple of years and already I have arthritis, well allegedly.

The Dr then told me that if I lost some weight it would probably all just go away. The fact that I am an apple shape and all my weight gain has been on my belly, is not doing me any favours. Here I was ready to embrace my shape and get on with life and the one person I listen to when it comes to my health tells me to loose weight, in the nicest possible way of course. What choice do I have? I want a healthy body.

She has recommended Lite n Easy as it is the only program she has seen her patients have real success on. It is the only program that has worked for me as I did it once for 12 weeks and lost 8kg. So I am going back on it this week and will give it a 12 week period and review it from there. I go back to the Dr in a month, and she says she only wants me to loose 1kg a month. That I can do with my eyes shut. It also takes all the pressure of fast weight loss off me, that pressure just makes me eat. If I loose 10kg by the end of the year, I will be very happy, and a lot more healthy as well.

There is one thing my Dr said that has stuck with me. She told me that I have done much harder things. She said that with the two things I have battled through, both times I made a decision, and once I made that decision that was it. There was no going back, no excuses, nothing except success. If I could make the decision to just loose the weight, become more healthy and decide to only treat my body with nourishing food that I could achieve a healthy body with the same drive and determination that I have within me. Today I made that decision and although there may be times when that decision becoming a little shaky, I know this time, that those shaky periods will only be brief fleeting moments in time, and they will no longer turn into the start of a snowballing effect of unhelpfulnes that pushes me back down to the bottom. The decision has been made, and all I can see now is victory, that is the only option I have, and I choose to take it.

Image: Flickr

Ding Ding Ding Ding

JACKPOT! We passed and our bond is being refunded in full. To be honest I was a little disappointed. The Boy, his mother and I put in several hours of work on the weekend. We cleaned everything inside and outside, we pulled out every single weed in the front and back garden and managed to have the property looking better than it did when we moved in.

Today was the final inspection. The agent didn't show and I had to call to remind her about this, it was a mis-communication, but she was going to leave the office and meet me. I was already wasting 3.5 hours of annual leave on this and all I wanted was to have my $1,520.00 back in full. She turned up and walked in the door and spent about 3 minutes in the house and said she would "release the bond". What?? All she did was walk around the house looking up and down and opened the oven and that was it. Didn't even look at the back yard and all the hard work we put into it there. So I felt a little jibbed about this. If I had know how easy the final inspection was going to be I would have saved myself a lot of time.

She did acknowledge that the place was a dump and there was only so much she could do and stressed that she was working for the owner. I smiled at her and assured her we thought nothing bad about the real estate office, only the owner, and that I understood she was doing her job. I did work in real estate for 18 months, mainly in rentals, so I know the position she is in. She is only following orders, and if the owner wants to rent out such a dump, then she has to find tenants. She told me she always felt guilty about this place, I told her not to worry about it, it was a learning experience for us all.

To be honest I was a little sad today. I am so glad and relieved to have this whole process over with, but at the back of my mind, I will always look at The Dump a little fondly, as it was the first house The Boy and I lived in together. Now that it is all over I think I will look back with rose tinted glasses at the many firsts The Boy and I had in that house and how much that massive change in life made us so close and strong in such a short space of time.

So what are we going to do with the money? As much as I would like to save it, we need a new fridge, cutlery that won't rust within a week and a nice warm woolen blanket for those cold nights. If we are smart and bargain shop we should have some money left over for the deposit account and I might just be able to squeeze a much needed facial out of it too.

Image: Flickr

Write It Down

I have done so much writing today! I have done almost 2 hours work on my manuscript. I am now currently in the "slow and painful" part of the editing process. I will read a few sentences and write "Expand!" next to it. Then I read a few more and write it again. So I then have to go onto the soft copy and expand. I have to block out everything that is going on and focus 100% on my memory and add all those descriptions so the reader can better visualise.

It means I am not churning up the pages numbers like I have been, which I am finding a little frustrating but I have to remind myself it is all part of the process. Even though it appears I am a third of the way through, I cannot celebrate that milestone yet because there are so many more pages missing. When I get close to being halfway I can then blog about how wonderful it feels to be a third of the way through. It is times like this when I feel like it is going to take forever. Last week I felt like I could easily have this done by September, now I feel like I will be lucky to have it done by the end of next year! All I can do is keep editing a couple of pages a week and I will be fine.

Anyway, on top of this (and writing my blog) I wrote an email. I had a tiff with The Boy this morning. Of course now, in retrospect, I can see that I was totally out of line and that nothing was his fault at all and I shouldn't have taken it out on him. But this morning, the news he delivered upset me and angered me and as he was the messenger I let him have it. He hung up on me, which he NEVER does. That made me more upset. I remember reading in several different personal development books, that if you are angry and feel hurt by someone, to write it all down in a letter, but then destroy the letter. I thought that was good in theory, but had never done it. Until today of course.

The news from The Boy just seemed to be the one thing that set me off, and I was no longer just upset about this one thing, but everything else that had hurt me. I was angry and fuming and I had to do something about it. I was alone in the office and I was getting annoyed that my current emotional state was delaying me from working on my manuscript. I opened up my email account, put his name in and decided to tell him everything I was feeling.

Naturally I blamed him for everything that was out of his control. I read the letter when I finished and I felt calm. I realised that The Boy had done nothing wrong, and that my past hurts had nothing to do with him. They were all related to a common theme that is something we both need to work on. I felt satisfied and I moved it to my drafts folder to be deleted tonight. I had no intention of sending it. I just needed to get it out and I felt so much better for it. I was then able to get on with my own work and review the situation with a fresh angle.

I am definitely going to do this again in the future, with whoever my anger may be directed at. It was very helpful to me, and made me feel a lot better afterwards. Next time I am going to keep my mouth shut, create an email I will never send and then review the situation, and after that I am going to speak to the person calmly and politely and work with them to find a solution instead of trying to strengthen a fight.

Image: Flickr

Why We Will Never Rent Again

The weekend for us was spent cleaning. Cleaning the outside and inside of The Dump that we lived in for 4.5 months. The Boy's mum came down to help and I am so glad she did, because it took so much longer than we thought. I am currently in pain with a sore neck from getting rid of all the dust on the top of the window frames (never been done before) and the cobwebs, and also have a sore back from weeding the garden for two hours.

I have decided to give you a few pictures of the place so you can see just how bad it is. Please keep in mind that at the time, The Boy and I were very much blindly in love and just wanted to be together. Today we are even more in love, but with open eyes this time. Also keep in mind that we only looked at the place in ten minutes and didn't have a second inspection and it was covered in rubbish and boxes. We really didn't look at it, we only saw the possibility to be together.

Exposed electrical conductors - hmmmm isn't that dangerous?

The hole under the sink (because we never thought to open the cupboards at the inspection) that opened to the bare ground underneath which we later found out was the breeding ground for the cockroaches

The bottom of the drawer isn't attached....

Exposed LIVE wires that took 3 weeks to get fixed - is that legal to rent out a house in this condition?

The things we shared the house with, note also the condition of the carpet.

I'm feeling ill just looking at these pictures, as soon as we get the bond back I can assure you I will be speaking to some people.... The first week we moved in was spent cleaning this place with every spare minute we had that didn't involve work. So The Dump isn't quite as bad as these pictures are as they were taken on the first day. Still I really pity the poor sucker that is moving in next week.

Tennis Superstars

For the last 8 weeks, on a Friday night, The Boy and I have been doing group tennis lessons. I played tennis and had lessons for about ten years when I was a kid. Mum has played every Friday morning with the same group of girls for almost 30 years and, naturally, she had me starting early, with lessons when I was about 7. I loved it. However, towards the end of school it was all about the study (well it was for me anyway being a total nerd and all) and slowly everything started to drop, the tennis, the basketball, the netball...... I just never came back to it.

At the beginning of the year, I spoke with The Boy about doing something this year. No more talking about going dancing, and learning new skills, but actually doing them. I printed off the local community college course guide and at the back were tennis lessons. It got me thinking. I mentioned it to The Boy, he had never played tennis before, he told me that he had always wanted to, and tried to at school but for whatever reason it never happened. So now was our chance. I called up and the only night left was Friday. The Boy was hesitant, but I pointed out to him that both of us have agreed our partying days are over and all we do now on Friday night is rent DVD's and order pizza. This would be a much better way to spend a Friday night.

Turns out it is like riding a bike, once I got into it, I remembered everything I had been taught in the past and as a result was singled out as the best player in the group. The Boy is a natural, the coach always has positive feedback for him. I love watching him, it is very sexy seeing your man all sweaty and belting a tennis ball. However, the best thing of all is that I have re-discovered my passion for tennis, I really forgot just how much I loved it, and I am in love with it again, and even better, The Boy loves it too!

It is so wonderful to be with someone that you love more than anything else, and that together you find something you both really enjoying doing. I think that is why tennis is so much more fun now. I have someone to do it with that loves it just as much as I do, and spending the time playing tennis with The Boy has definitely made us stronger and brought us closer together. The plan now is to have private coaching once a fortnight (together) and join the social tennis group in the next few weeks where we can met other tennis lovers and new friendships can be formed. I also think it is time I began investigating other passions of mine from when I was a kid, I might just re-discover some old loves.

Image Flickr

We Finally Did It - Couch To 5K (C25K)

Cool and rainy. Perfect weather for snuggling on the couch with The Boy watching a DVD (a wedding one - I'm getting impatient and need to drop more obvious hints. I know the proposal will happen in May, he has told me that, but still, I just want to introduce him to people as my fiance) so what were we doing running at 6pm??

I have been attempting the C25K Program for years. The program involves 3 sessions a week for 9 weeks and basically it is interval training, running 60secs walking 90secs up until the end of the program when you can do 5k straight. Usually, I do the first session and then life gets in the way and I find myself repeating the first session several weeks later. I used to run, and I loved it, it was my favourite thing to do on a Saturday morning, running with my ipod and dreaming all my fabulous dreams (that I am now finally working on) and would come home blissfully happy.

Then I met The Boy and my Saturdays were spent with him, shopping, having brunch, or sleeping in (and both of us gaining 8kg....). Towards the end of last year I suggested the C25K program, we did the first session, I nearly died. I had let my fitness get that bad, I couldn't even finish the session. That scared me of a little and I didn't bother prompting The Boy to do the next session. It never got done. We repeated this in January, and then again in February, and the all of March was spent with the intention to do it, but always "we'll start it next week".

We began again on Monday, my fitness is improving so it wasn't to bad, and finally we broke the hurdle and completed the second session for the first time ever today!! It was cold, raining, and we were both tired, had bad days at work but we managed to get off the couch enough to get dressed and get out the door. The rain stopped as we left and fortunately we didn't get wet, but 5 minutes after we walked back in the door the rain started again. That made me smile.

One of my affirmations on my list is "I am a runner". Now that the commitment has been sealed and the drought broken, I AM going to be a runner in 9 weeks time, oh, and The Boy too.