While taking the kids to school one morning we walked past what seemed to be the perfect lawn.  While all the other houses had high grass due to the recent rain this lawn was well trimmed with not a single weed in sight. Out of curiosity Luke bent down to touch it and then exclaimed “It’s AstroTurf!”  Upon closer inspection we could see that not only had the owners of the house AstroTurfed the council strip, they had also AstroTurfed their balcony and the front yard was nothing but pavers.  Now that’s what I call a low maintenance yard.

Have you ever been in a situation where you find yourself in the company of someone who could be pregnant or just fat?  A little while ago I did and I wasn’t sure what to do, do I ignore it? do I ask? I looked for a wedding ring but didn’t notice one, then again these days a lot of people are having children without being married so it really wasn’t going to be much help. I have heard horror stories of people assuming a pregnancy only to find out in a most embarrassing way that the woman was simply fat.  In the end I simply ignored the swollen  belly and got out of there as fast as I could… before one of the kids said anything!

We took the kids to a park the other day but there was no seating for us as a large group of people were already there. So we sat on the grass and happily read while the children played.  My ears pricked up when I heard quite a bit of bad language coming from the large group people.  It continued on as if “fuck” was a necessary part of every sentence these people spoke. I said to Luke, “hear the way they are talking in front of their kids?” to which he said “They are talking TO their kids”. I was horrified!  Then I noticed some of their older kids using a cricket bat to bash the play equipment with and the parents did nothing.   Now I’m not racist but would it surprise you if I said they were all aboriginals?  It doesn’t, does it?

Watching our guinea pigs the other day I had to laugh as they both picked up the same piece of food from different ends.  They both chewed down to the center and for a split moment I thought of that beautiful scene from “Lady and The Tramp”.   The pulling and tugging  that followed blew that image from my mind as I stood watching my piggies try to pull the food out of each others mouth…  while grunting and groaning to intimidate and strike fear into each other.  When it comes to food, my guinea pigs don’t share!

Well today is moving day and we have loads of stuff to do so I’ll keep it brief.  We have opted to drive the truck ourselves in the hope of saving money. Last time we did that we ended up with a $1300 repair bill because Luke hit an overhanging power pole… lets hope nothing like that happens this time.  FINGERS CROSSED!

While watching TV yesterday an ad came up for Susan Boyle’s new album and Luke went on a micro rant! I guess he doesn’t like the way she followed her dreams and succeeded (tall poppy syndrome maybe).  To a certain degree I agree with him, most people never reach their dreams and ambitions in life even if they are immensely talented. It takes more than just talent to break the big time and so many people fail… but we don’t talk about that,  do we?  Back to Susan Boyle though,  I think it’s great what happened to her… it’s like a fairy tale and I love to see the underdog succeed.  Her music is not my style but I wish her all the best.  Luke on the other hand, well lets just say the Susan Boyle story stirred him… it stirred him to write this ‘country and western’ song in two minutes of frustration:

Verse 1

You can have a dream and plan to go far,

Wish for the best, name your own star

But there’s something they didn’t mention

you will wind up dead or on the pension

before you ever make it!

Chorus

You are…

destined to fail!

So put away your hopes right now

Destined to fail

Don’t bother trying, just keep on dying

If you quit now you still have time to get a job!

Destined to fail

Verse 2

We are told that if we dream hard, we can have a hit

Sorry to tell you this, but it’s a load of shit

Don’t worry, it’s not about you

It’s life, and the dole queue

and the fact that your dreams don’t mean JACK

Chorus

Final Verse

So go ahead, see it happen in your mind

That’s the only place it will, you will find

Soon you will be going to the nameless mass

who fell flat on their dreaming ass

only to find the FAIL BUS run them over!

Lately Luke and I have really been into audio books, they are fantastic to listen to while driving, cleaning, ironing, doing the dishes etc.  Since we both love reading but are pressed for time (Luke more so than me) this is the perfect solution and the price is right… FREE!  We just download them and pop them onto our mp3 players and away we go… happy happy joy joy! Here’s the website we use if you are interested in downloading them for free… however this can be slow as time restrictions apply to free downloads.(One file per 30 min, even though the download itself may only take a few minutes.)  Time restrictions don’t bother me though, I just get one file at a time whenever we start up the computer and before you know it… presto… a new book to listen to! However if you want unlimited downloads with no restrictions you can pay $9 a month and get as many books you want as fast as your Internet connection will allow you.

Yesterday’s dust storm sure did do funny things to the sky, at one point I thought I’d stepped into an episode of Doctor Who and I was wondering if the dark shadow on the horizon was in fact a Dalek invasion.  The sun was so blue through the haze that it was not at all difficult to look at so the girls and I lay down on the trampoline and did a bit of sun gazing… something I have never been able to do before. The sky was such a beautiful colour, it was like having a glorious sunset in the middle of the day. As long as fire and brimstone doesn’t pelt down from the sky I’d love to have few more days like that.

I am so excited about this new TV series I just had to share it with you.  It’s good to see Lucy Lawless back on TV and with all those half naked men battling I just know I’m going to be glued to the screen.  I can’t wait ’til 2010 for it to air, however being in Australia I may have to wait a bit… but I won’t wait too long… my downloading finger may get itchy!

I have often wondered if any of my mail goes to my past addresses.  Of course I pay for mail redirection each time we move but it’s easy to forget to contact one or two companies to change address on their files… Boystown for instance or the Endeavour Foundation.  How many letters are sent each year that never reach the designated target? I know I return heaps to the mail box with “not at this address” and “RETURN” on it and most of those are past tenants. A few months later I seem to get the same letter from the same company for the same person and it frustrates me, don’t they get the returned letter?  Don’t they see the permanent marker stating “not at this address”?  I have taken to writing in BIG capital letters in the hope that it will be noticed but somehow I doubt it will.  Just today I wrote “DEAD: no longer at this address” but I doubt that will make a difference either!