Late last night I walked in to the kitchen and brushed up against the oven door…. hhhhmmmm…. it was warm.  I bent down and to my horror the oven was on. It had been on for the last four and a half hours at 230 degrees! I couldn’t believe it, from now on I have to remember to ask myself …  “Is the oven off?”

My six year old has quite an odd obsession, it’s ATM receipts. If we pass an ATM she just has to pick up any receipts lying around and then get me to read how much the balance is and how much was withdrawn etc.  I have grown to like this habit of hers and it’s interesting to see how healthy or unhealthy other peoples bank balances are.  If there’s only a few dollars in the account I think “poor bastards, I remember those days” and if there’s a few thousand in there I think “lucky bastards.”  The other day however I read a receipt for Natalie and said “five hundred and two…no… five thousand and twenty eight…no… fifty thousand… NO.. five hundred and two thousand eight hundred and eighty eight dollars and eighteen cents!”  That’s the healthiest bank balance we have come across yet, and to that I say “rich bastards!”

Luke and I were driving down quite a busy road the other day and as we came round a bend there in front of us was an old man in a mobility scooter… in the middle of the road! Then his blinker briefly flashed as he made a turn right in front of an oncoming bus! I couldn’t believe my eyes, this guy either had a deathwish or he was a hoon from way back and no intention of slowing down.

I got a phone call yesterday from the school letting me know that there has been a confirmed case of swine flu.  Schools are no longer being closed down but students with health issues are advised to seek the advice of their G.P. as to whether or not they need to be kept home. Because of Claire’s viral asthma our G.P has advised that both Claire and Natalie have a week off school. So now after just a week back at school after the holidays they are now on a swine flu holiday… without the sickness!

I was playing a Disney cassette the other day… I know I’m an adult but it was “Sebastian’s Party Gras!” and I just love that little crab.  Anyway once side one had finished I turned the tape over and that’s when my eight year old daughter said “What, you have to turn it?”  She then came over for a closer look and was horrified to see that the tape player didn’t display what song we were up to and she couldn’t simply hit a ’skip’ button to jump to the next song. She is so used to CD’s and things with USB plugs that the humble cassette tape almost blew her mind. I had better not show her the records of my mothers era… she’d probably faint!

While walking to Coles the other day I noticed the little Baptist church had it’s op shop open with a sign reading “All clothing & shoes 50 cents”… I couldn’t resist! I ended up walking out of there with a real gem, a pair of Sass & Bide jeans in such good condition I doubt they have been worn many times at all… yes for only 50 cents!  I didn’t really know how much they were worth so I e-mailed my sister to see if she had heard of them and her response was “yep… designer crap really”.  Well with a response like that I had to google the brand and oh my god they are expensive jeans!  Then I found a heap of celebrities being photographed wearing “Sass & Bide” … a bit more posh than the Target jeans I am used to.  I also picked up a pair of Levi 501’s for 50 cents as well, you got to love a bargain!

I really don’t enjoy cold weather so the Winter time is not a good time for me.  The only benefit I see is the fact that I don’t need to shave my legs as often because they are always covered up.  Weeks have gone by before I have felt the need to get my Emjoy out and tear those hairs out by the roots. However this Winter I have been a little negligent in this area because last night I noticed my leg hairs were quite long so I measured one… 21mm! No joke, it was gross… It’s official… I have gone feral for the Winter!

For a few years now I have been using Vetstop to buy all my worming tablets, flea spot on products etc.  I have compared prices with the other on-line pet product stores as well as the discount pet stores and pharmacies (who sell pet products) and this place is consistently cheaper than the rest… even when you factor in the postage costs.  So if you want to save money on your pet supplies look no further than Vetstop.

Claire came home the other day almost scared to death because of the ‘ghost in the girls toilet’ story that was going around at school.   The story goes that there is a ghost who lives in the junior girls toilet block and she has the power to melt cement  to communicate with the students.  The latest message is “my aunty nearly died on a yacht” and now all the kids are too scared to go to the toilet. After asking Claire a few questions I was able to impart some “mum knowledge” to her and set her mind at ease.  I explained that the older kids were just trying to scare the younger ones and that the message from the ghost was nothing more than a naughty girl who wrote her name in wet cements years earlier.  The message “MANDY” was in fact a girls name, often short for Amanda and nothing more… no ghosts!

When Luke told me one of his colleagues had written a science fiction book I actually listened to him, rather than throwing in a “oh” or “really” every now and then as my contribution to the conversation. That’s because science fiction is something I am interested in and I was keen to read the book.  Although I have to admit I was a little turned off by the fact that the book was self-published because the last two self-published books I have read were so riddled with mistakes and inconsistencies it was embarrassing.  Thank God it wasn’t the case with this book, sure there were typographical errors and a missed word here and there but overall it was easy to read and quite interesting.  The book follows a multicultural crew as they explore a newly discovered planet… behind the sun.  In the hope of  a possible recolonisation the crew conduct tests and record data but things take a right turn when first contact is made with what appear to be the natives.  Not all is what it seems when mythology and religion collide and the origin of humanity is thrown into question. History, beliefs and reality itself is shattered in this gripping novel where death and deception abound. If this sounds like a story you’d like to read you can buy it HERE on Amazon… happy reading! Oh and Luke told me to keep an eye out for any of his traits in the characters but unfortunately I didn’t spot any pink gloved dish bitches in the story.