Catching up

I am back to more or less fully functioning normality after a week of beach camping with the tribe of three at Fingal Head, which I can honestly say was absolutely brilliant, dust storms and 35 knot winds aside. My idea of the perfect holiday is a large bed in a 5 star resort, accompanied by a pile of books and room service, but as this is never going to be the choice of the caveman crew, Fingal Head is probably the next best thing, as far as peace and quiet goes. The beach is beyond beautiful, which totally works for the Mad Camerawoman part of my personality, and comes complete with enough surf to satisfy the macho factor of the tribe of three.
The whole camping issue is up for debate....I spent a week frantically sweeping sand out of the tent, only to have it tracked back in by the tribe at every opportunity.
I did manage to talk finer 50% into purchasing a double camp bed, as I have never been a big fan of sleeping on the floor. We decided to dispense with the blow up mattress part, and used a double foam mattress on the bed frame, which worked OK until anyone tried to sleep on it, as the mattress tended to sink between the supports, making for a kidney puncturing nights rest and earning it the nickname "festerbed" after Uncle Fester's bed of nails.


We also had the preliminary trials of the Australian Teenage Snoring Olympics, featuring #1 son and best mate Matt, who managed to exhale Sebi out of the sleeping hutch in the middle of the night, making for three's a crowd in the Festerbed. On the upside, there was plenty of time to sit on the beach and read numerous books while the tribe performed bizarre rituals with dead fish in the pursuit of worms. Don't ask, I didn't get it then and I still don't get it now. The most bizzarre aspect of the whole week was the gathering of the clans in the laundry. At any given time, you were guaranteed to encounter half a dozen large teenage specimens lurking amongst the cold power and clothes pegs. I was convinced that they were all involved in manufacturing illegal substances from fabric softener until FF pointed out that they were all camping in unpowered sites and had to spend large amounts of time communing with the clothes drier in order to access power points to recharge their mobile phones. The fact that they spent most of their battery power texting each other from across the room never seemed to occur to them. Sad, really.
Holidays aside, things at Planet Hartwell are pretty much under control....Kit has managed to snag himself a job trial at the Sunday Markets next week, helping Phil who runs the popcorn stand. I say trial, because it involves starting at 7am, which will be a trial in itself as far as Lazarus the Teenage Walking Dead is concerned. However, we shall wait and see. I also managed to finish Sebi's quilt, which was a minor miracle, as I was ready to take a chainsaw to the Janome by the end of it. I have recovered enough to run up a pillow case to match, before girding my loins and starting a quilt for Kit.



I have also discovered the ultimate in TV viewing coutesy of the Lifestyle Channel....The Supersizers.
The series involves Giles Coran (food critic) and Sue Perkins (broadcaster) living a week in various time periods. They dress the part, learn the culture and most importantly, they eat the diet of the day. As far as cooking programs go, it makes for brilliant comedy and is high on my list of DVD series I hope to own before I die.





Bon Appetit!!

Happy Snap....

This photo pretty much sums up my holiday....



....all play and no work.
The pic was taken from the lighthouse at Fingal Head...there were two pods of dolphins playing offshore. Beautiful.

Return from Beyond....

Did you miss me?? We have returned to the land of cable internet from the wilds of N.S.W and it was some wild I can tell you....instead of the rain that usually follows me over the border, this time we got a real treat....the worst dust storm in 70 years made Fingal beach look like this at 2pm.....


As opposed to the way it usually looks.....


At its worst visibility got down to about 5 feet....it was the most bizarre deal....
the sun was totally visible to the naked eye, it just needed howling dogs and neighing horses to complete the whole "armageddon" feel.


All in all, pretty standard stuff when you holiday with the Voodoo Karma Queen.

Hartwells-by-the-sea

This time tomorrow we will be over the border in the wilds of NSW. If you don't believe me, you can perform the folllowing simple test....
If you currently reside in Queensland, face south.
If you currently reside outside of Queensland, look up and when you've found the most ominous looking black clouds in the sky, you've found Fingal.
Mother Hartwell's Voodoo Karma Strikes Again.
Man the lifeboats, peeps, and we'll see you in a week.

Money Tree

I don't really consider myself a very mercenary individual, but lately my wish list has grown to really unmanageable size, so I've decided to prioritize my wishes according to
A) Likelihood of it ever happening
B) Likelihood of my husband agreeing to ever let it happen
C) Likelihood of yours truly having to kill someone in order for it to happen.

So, here we go....

Canon 5D DSLR Camera (C)
Lions head charm for my bracelet (A)
Weekend in Canberra with Tanya (C)
Dual Screens for my computer for photo editing (B)
More powerful computer so I can actually use my editing software without dimming the lights (B)
Bill Compton showing up on my doorstep with a big-ass diamond and plane tickets to Vermont. (sorry, having a TrueBlood moment)
Vampire Academy Series. (A)
Bruce taking Sebi to tennis at 7am tomorrow morning so I don't have to. (C) (Although, technically I would have to be the dead person in order for that to happen.)
One of the tribe agreeing to see the New Moon movie with me (A)
Possibility of them getting through it without any sarky comments about sparkling/lack of blood/chick flicks (C)

I think I need to work on this.....

Fangin' Out.....

I'm officially in mourning after watching the last ep of Season 2 of True Blood.
My world is bereft of fang, and I'm seriously wondering what I'm gonna do till June next year. SIGH.


Gotta love that man....

WOOHOO.....#1 son managed a B in his science exam and a C grade overall.....a massive improvement. I'm sure he'd like to brag personally but he's just had restrictions lifted and is up to his armpits in DSi. I accept this grade on his behalf and wish to thank myself for not killing him during revision week.
Thank you, one and all.

Goodies....

Watching the new "New Moon" trailer.

Finishing my last "House of Night" book.

Making serious progress on Sebi's quilt.

Baby time with Sarah's Jed on the weekend.

Counting down to the holidays.

Mango ice cream.

Sun on the driveway.

Zen and the art of the Big Chill

This week I have devoted some serious time to downloading and destressing. After a pretty rancid few weeks I'm finally starting to pull things back together.
I've given up my DT work to concentrate on me and mine for a while, as well as pulling to the front a few things that have been on the backburner for far too long.
I don't intend to shuffle off the mortal coil without giving the things on my
"one day" list the best shot I can. But on the other side of that is balance....
I want time to chill....time to do the fun stuff...to read good books, to work on my quilts, to sit in the sun. To hang with my kids while they're still kids.
To breathe deep and relax. To live.

Treating myself

to a little self indulgent reading....Jules has been raving about this series so I took the plunge after this morning's trip to the doctor and treated myself to the first 5 books.....I'm halfway through book one and I'm really enjoying it so far. Nothing livens up a crappy week like a little escapism....

Study Habits of the American Idiot

Today marks a new level in utterly ridiculous here at Casa Hartwell. After two mind numbing weeks of revision, the exams are in full swing and #1 son has developed some innovative if unusual study methods which will undoubtedly get him committed for an extended period if he tries them in the classroom. The one that's really driving me mental is Singing Revision. This involves belting out whatever you're trying to remember to the tune of whatever it is you're currently listening to, which makes for some seriously bizarre combinations. So far we've had Naming the Digestive System to the tune of American Idiot, Plant Cells vs Animal Cells a-la California Dreaming and Linkin Park performing the unforgettable "Causes of the Black Death in Medieval Europe". My head hurts.

To my blog, lol....I have officially been ranting for 2 years. And yet, I still have stuff to say....just not right now 'cos I gotta cook dinner.

Fathers Day

Scary, aren't they?? FF and his minions at Colmslie Beach yesterday, doing the Fathers Day thing. FF recieved a nail gun (which is what he wanted, so don't go there) plus breakfast in bed and assorted other stuff. I got to clean up afterwards. Excellent.

Mortality and other stuff

This morning I had a doctors appointment that I really was not looking forward to. It was one of those deals where it was either good news or bad, and the bad was gonna be real bad. Due to unforseen bad timing I found myself with the better part of a fortnight to consider good verses bad news whilst waiting for this appointment. And some of the stuff I thought about really surprised me. I'm a wife to a man I adore and a mother of sons who are my world, but my first thought on getting the good vs bad scenario was "damn, now I'm not gonna get to see the new Twilight movie". Sad, no?? I also had a completely unprovoked dummy spit at a perfectly nice salesgirl at Angus & Robertson because Phillipa Gregory's newest book was $38 in hardback and wouldn't be available in paperback for 6 months. At that particular moment I was seriously wondering whether I was gonna be available in 6 months, but she didn't know that. I spent days obsessing over the most self absorbed trivial shit you could possibly imagine....everything from books I wouldn't get to read to the fact that I was never going to finish collecting charms for my bracelet. Stupid huh?? But I just couldn't think about the bigger stuff....like the man I adored and the sons who weren't even close to being self sufficient. The closest I got was making a contingency list which I have put away until the next time I'm ready to kill one or all of them and then I'll get it out and remember how it felt when I thought I wasn't going to be here to get mad at them any more. Thankfullness and gratitude have short half lives....until you try and fit a lifetimes worth of everything onto an A4 page.

Cosmic Karma/ Teenage Mutant Techno Migraine

I apologise in advance for any typos as I am touch typing with my eyes closed as I recover from yesterdays world beating headache, a gift from the Teenage Mutant. TM is the latest resident at Casa Hartwell, he has replaced my oldest child who has possibly been sucked into another dimension. Temporarily, I hope. Teenage Mutant is not my favourite person. He's surly and secretive, gives monosyllabic answers (or grunts), specialises in food consumption, production of dirty laundry and door slamming. He excells in eye rolling, shrugging and one word put-downs.
He is not pleasant company.
He is, in fact, migraine-inducing, due to the fact that he can argue both sides of nothing for hours rather than do anything productive such as homework or chores. After a marathon go-round yesterday, I ended up with a nurofen-proof headache and a strong desire to call child protective services.
"Hello, could you please send out someone to protect me from my child...I've taken two nurofen and plugged my ears and I can still hear him whining about how unfair everything is..."
Apart from a medically induced hangover, I have also been left with a strong desire to kiss my mothers feet and beg forgiveness for at least three years of my teenage existance.
Let's face it... I was not pleasant company either.
Methinks I feel the sting of Cosmic Karma biting my ass. Nurofen, anyone??