Evil Oddie

The last couple of days have been an absolute shocker for me.  Honestly, people have been giving me a wide berth just due to the look on my face.  To get to the point, everyone and I mean EVERYONE is trying to get all their little odd jobs at work done before Christmas.  So most people’s odd jobs somehow include something to do with me.  So  I am constantly busy, not to mention everything that I need to do before I go on leave… **Sigh**

I have a friend at work, yes yes I hear you say, I have lots of friends at work.  Well that’s awesome for you.  Once you become a manager, you get a target painted on your back and if you trust someone with your personal goings on, sooner or later, they’ll hang you out to dry just to climb the corporate ladder.  Bah humbug I hear you say.  I’ve seen it happen - in my current workplace…   So I have one friend at work, who I actually am willing if not even look forward to seeing outside of the workplace.

This friend of mine is maybe the polar opposite to Evil Oddie.  She’s more like Miss Proper and Politically Correct.  Opposites attract and all that :)  So getting on with the real story.  My Proper Only Work Friend (POWF) did a Celebrancy course some while ago, but she had to do some other follow ups in order to get the final nod.  Once I got engaged, I was on the push to get POWF to get legal so she can be my celebrant.

After months of waiting, POWF finally got word that she is now a legal celebrant and can marry us… WOOT!!!

Ok… so…  from the beginning…

Let’s start off from getting you into my head space.  Glen proposed when we were up at the Cape.  So, I was literally forced not to do or organise anything for 3 weeks.  For my type of personality this was torture.  Glen had me agree to a budget of $10 000 before I had done any investigation at all.  So when I actually started to do some research… I started to have heart palpitations… Seriously.

After reading many a forum, the advice that I deemed highly important was…  Pick the top three things that you won’t COMPROMISE on. Good starting point I reckon.

My three items are: Photography, Jewellery & everyone there.

My reason for Photography being: you will always have the photos.  In 20 years from now when I’m showing my kids when their Mum and Dad tied the knot, I don’t want to say, gee all these photos are crap.  Believe me, we have been to many weddings and the photos are just horrible.  Either the photographer didn’t have the experience, or they didn’t know how to set the photo up or the bride and groom were too cheap and you get what you pay for.   So, if you’re not sitting down now, please do.  My first quote for photography $3400.  Right, that’s 34% of my entire budget… Don’t think I can do that.  Heart palpitations!!

My reason for Jewellery: you wear it 24/7.  It’s worth the investment!  I’m a bit of a jewellery nut (to put it nicely - read anal retentive).  I can look at a piece of jewellery and pretty write it off or not.  My friend at work got engaged the day that Michael Jackson passed away.  She called me and as soon as I saw it, I knew her fiance had spent a fair whack of money.  The best bit - I even told her what the valuation should be… and I was right on the money… oopsy - blowing my own horn there.  Seeing I’m this ‘nut’ about jewellery, I refuse to wear a cast made ring.  So I went and got a quote for a handmade ring from a manufacturing jeweller… $2300… Ok… So… with the photographer and the ring… 57% of my budget gone.

Everyone there… Glen’s one of 6 siblings and I’m one of 4.  We’re both the youngest (by quite a bit), so they’ve all got kids and some of the kids have got kids… Yes I know… Big family.  Glen and I have been together over 10 years now - so we have quite the big friend base and they’re all different kinds of people.  Which should be fun on the day.  Meh - they’ll have to sort themselves out.  So far the invite list is 140.  We’ve decided not to invite anyone from work unless we see them out of work… ie - more friends than just work buddies.  I put in calls to heaps of places as I was chasing accommodation as well as the wedding, and most places couldn’t fit us all or they were majorly expensive.  One quote was $3300 for the use of a hall!!  That was just for 5pm to 11pm, not including food, decorations or anything!  I almost fell out of my chair.

We’ve ended up booking a Homestead that has enough accommodation for 140 people and we get the place from 1pm on Friday to 1pm on Sunday.  So we can go absolutely nuts!  Woot - and it’s fairly cheap because we booked the entire place out and we’re asking for the guests to pay part of their accommodation.  Hopefully it will all work out!

Well der!

This is the part where I really get on the soap box.  Unfortunately, I am one of those ladies that think that if I decide to breed (or have an oopsy), then guess what, it was your choice was to have a child.  I do not believe that you should have a baby and then because you absolutely love your Jimmy Choos you’re going to put that baby into Child Care, so that you can still have your vice.  Don’t get me wrong, I think that all children should be socialised with other children, but whose morals are being instilled in these children as they are growing up?

Seeing that I currently reside in the main city of Queensland, I’ve given some thought as to what kind of day my child would have at 6 weeks of age (that’s the youngest that you can put a child into care).   There’s no way that a Child Care Worker can give the same amount of attention a Mum or Dad can provide.  Also, there’s still the issue if the child is sick Mum / Dad or another family member has to look after the baby.   So you possibly can’t take a sick day off for yourself in case your child gets sick.

Let’s face it, I remember if I didn’t want to go to school, it was always, Mum I don’t feel so well.  I can honestly say that when I was 7 years old, I never thought, gee Mum only gets a couple of Sick Days Entitlement a year paid… So if she doesn’t go to work, I don’t get to have my piano lessons.  However, if I had a choice of having my Mum at home while I was at home, or I got piano lessons, I would’ve gone with having my Mum.

Yes, my Mum stayed at home with me until I went to Pre-School.  After that, Mum had a Full time job (8:30am - 5:30pm Monday to Friday) and Dad was a shift worker.  I can honestly tell you that Before & After School care sucked.  Albeit 20 years ago, and I guess things have changed.

All I can say is that I will be an at home Mum if / when I decide to have children.

See the full story here.

Most people are aware that I am an “organiser”.  So could it really surprise people of how much I have already organised?  Apparently yes.  I have been engaged for just over 2 months and it’s just under a year away til the big day.

I have to say that not all the wedding preparation has been a wonderful experience.  Glen had got me to agree to a budget of $10 000 before he’d even proposed.  How stupid was I???

When it finally came to start getting quotes etc, my first quote  for photography was $3400.  It felt like a punch to the gut.  I started freaking out that I wouldn’t be able to stick to the budget.  Now, I’m really trying to stick to the budget.  Glen is working for himself, so is only taking a wage when he can, so it’s my wage that we’re relying on.  So I do not want to go over the budget.

So I have been going hard core with research and trying to get people to go contra with us if they need a website or SEO work.   Not so many takers, but meh, you gotta try right?

The forum that I’m checking pretty much everyday is here.  It’s helped me with locations, photography, inspirations etc.

I’ll tell you what’s been booked on the next post.  I’m mega excited!!

Gawd dang it.  I got the flu and I’m finally starting to feel better.  Glen got it first and his developed in to Bronchitis and he’s on antibiotics.  He’s started to feel better today too.

I’ve got to say that I’m finding it extremely difficult being back at home after the Cape Trip.  I just don’t want to be here and have to go to work.  I’m struggling to see the point of going to work and coming home when there is so much out there to see and do and experience.  I think I’d rather be on the road getting odd jobs and paying my way around Australia.   We could rent out our house and that could pay the mortgage or we could sell our house and get another that we wouldn’t have a mortgage on…  See all these ideas and Glen’s not so keen.

Yay! After almost 10 years together, Glen and I are engaged.

To be honest, since I was a little girl, I’ve dreamed of getting married.  Yet, my experience so far has not been dream worthy.

I think that my thoughts on the entire matter are different to what they were even 5 years ago.  I’m not interested in spending mega money on  stuff that guests or the people that matter (Glen and I) don’t even notice.

Glen has set a mega hardcore budget of $10 000.  I’m definately going to try to not spend any excess money, but I’m not sure on how I’m going to keep it under the $10k after getting my first couple of quotes from vendors.

Because of the mega budget, I made a list of what is most important to me.  My list is: Jewellery (the engagement ring & wedding rings); Photography and; having everyone there.  I am more interested to have everyone there and they eat BBQ or Fish & Chips than having a few people and serving them lobster.

So my first quote was from a photographer (my first ever quote).  For their most “basic package” it was going to cost $3400.  I started freaking out at that point!  If someone for 5 hours and an album is going to cost that, how much is the rest  of this day going to cost???

And so begins the wonderful  wedding day planning.  I think it’s better to help a friend with her day than to plan your own!

I slept pretty well apart from the guy across the way snoring and the locals that live across the street from the Caravan Park playing ACDC at 1am in the morning - BLARING!!

We got up early-ish as we had to get to Undara before 10:30 for our tour.  Innot Hot Springs is approx one and a quarter hours drive (without a car towing a trailer / caravan).  There was quite a heavy dew the night before and it was overcast, so we had to pack up a wetish camp.

In the car park at Undara, we set up the awning to dry out.  Glen chamiosed the tent a couple of times before it got packed away and it was mostly dry.

I raced in to get a cuppa.  I didn’t have time to have a cuppa at Innot.

I thought that it would be a long 2 hour tour at Undara, but it went really quickly.  One thing we both got over really quickly was a couple of kids.  I think they were a bit too young - maybe 2 or 3 (they still had dummies).  Every time our guide was saying something interesting, these kids just chucked tanties.  I think that they were twins.  I said to Glen that if we do any trips with kids, that we will wait until they are a little bit older so they understand that they need to be quiet and respect other people.  These twins were just little brats and if they were my kids, they would’ve copped a smacking!!!

Undara

Damien was our guide and he was awesome.  He talked in basic english so we could understand and he didn’t get bogged down with crap that we didn’t really need to know.

Undara Lava Tubes

I’ll be honest and say that I wasn’t very keen on going to Undara.  Mostly because it just looks like a cave and I’ve seen caves before.  I enjoyed the story of Undara, but it wasn’t anything new.   Not $45 worth in my opinion.   Well we’ve done it now so it’s another thing off the list.

After the tour, we decided to hot foot it to Townsville.   Glen was really tired, so I drove.  The back way to Townsville has only got maybe one lane of bitumen and the road trains do not budge off the bitumen.  It’s scary!  You’ve pretty much got to pull off the road and stop so they can pass.

The back road to Townsville

The photo above is where we stopped for lunch.  We were maybe on the side of the road for about 30 minutes and only one car passed us.  It was like the road went on forever.

Coming into Townsville

We booked  a room on Wotif as soon as we were coming into Townsville.  We’re at Hotel M on Palmer Street.  It’s awesome.  It’s fairly new  accommodation and we got upgraded and we’re on Level 9.  There’s kitchen facilities and the king size bed is really comfortable.  I slept like a log.

There’s a washing machine and dryer in our room too!  I had bags and bags of dirty clothes, so I’ve done a couple of loads while we’ve been here.  The view is fantastic and we had Benny’s Hotwok for dinner last night.   I had the Yellow Curry and it was great.  Glen even enjoyed his too!

Glen and I really like Townsville.   The  two times we’ve been now, we’ve both said to each other how much we like Townsville.  I can’t imagine how hot it it here in Summer though!

Glen spoke to his parents last night and they asked if we’d been to Atherton.  Erm, no we hadn’t.  Glen got a bee in his bonnet and wanted to go back north to do the Atherton tablelands.  So here we are back up north.

We left early-ish from Port Hinchinbrook and we made our way up through Millaa Millaa and Malanda.  It is a really beautiful landscape and it’s pretty dang cold!  We stopped at Nerada Tea and had Devonshire Tea.  We actually had jumpers on!!

Dog having Devonshire Tea

We were off again to check out the Cathedral Fig.

Dog at the Cathedral Fig

And then the Curtain Fig.

Dog at the Curtain Fig

We stopped in Atherton and got some info on where to stay and any other touristy stuff.  I wanted to go to the Cheese and Chocolate Factory but the info guy said that it takes a while to get to where we were planning on staying.  We took the highest road in QLD to Ravenshoe.  We stopped in Ravenshoe to get some fruit (yay - haven’t had any in a while).

Not too long after, we pulled up at Innot Hot Springs.  We set up camp and them we booked our tour for tomorrow.

A quick change into our togs, and we were off to the  pools to soak in the Mineral Water.  I lasted the longest in the hottest pool.  Then you’d swing over the pool separation into the cold pool.  The inbetween pool was the best.  I could’ve stayed in there for hours.  I think we were in the pools for over an hour.  Glen piked out first.

Dog enjoying the steam at Innot Hot Springs

A cook up dinner - bacon, eggs, sausages, left over chips, baked beans and tomatoes.

Didn’t sleep very well.  Our cabin backed onto the highway. Lesson learnt: do not stay near a main road!  We had cereal for breakfast and Glen said that the GU was lacking in power so he changed the fuel filter and air filter again.

We went into Cairns to get another Air Filter and some diesel additive just in case there was algae in any of the diesel we got on the trip.

Heading south, we saw a sign for Boulders and we decided to go have a look.  It was beautiful and it started to rain on us during the walk.

Dog at Boulders

Dog munching on some fungus

Lunch stop was at Babinda Bakery.  Everything we got was yummy.

On our trip up, Glen saw the signs for Paronella Park and remembered going there when he was young.  He said he really liked it when he was young, so we went.  I have to say that it is definately worth the detour off the highway to check it out.  Jos’e Paronella had a dream of a castle and he decided to build it.  He borrowed some stuff that he probably shouldn’t have along the way, but it really is quite an experience.  If you want to stay there (caravan, camping only) book in.  We thought that we could stay there, but there wasn’t room for us.  We would’ve loved to do the after dark tour if we had’ve camped there.

Dog at Paronella Park

Dog on the Stairs

Glen was getting pretty tired, so we started to look for somewhere to stop.  It looked like rain so we decided not to camp.  We stayed at Port Hinchinbrook.  The cabin was awesome.  We got the Lake Cabin (more like drain cabin) because it had kitchen facilities.  There were two Queen size beds, so Glen and I took a bed each.  I slept really well even though we were right next to the highway (again - I can’t win!).

We got Fish and Chips (and salad for me) for dinner from Cardwell.  When trying to find somewhere to get F&C, we detoured and found the  Cardwell lookout.  It doesn’t look like many people come up to experience the view, but it’s really nice and it’s not that far from the highway.

Dog at the Cardwell Lookout

Glen asked me today if I had blogged about the Bush Turkeys at Punsand Bay.  I can’t remember if I did, but here’s the story anyway.

When we went over to TI and Horn Island, we left out our kitchen camping stuff and chairs but locked up other stuff incase it went wandering - eg. our notebook.

One thing that didn’t packed away well enough was the Plain Flour.   I think it was just put into a plastic bag and put on the bench.

When we got back from the day trip, there was Plain Flour everywhere.   The Bush Turkeys had eaten all of the 2kgs of Plain Flour other than the white powder that had been spread all over our campsite.  Glen and I were one of the last travellers off the ferry, so the other guys had cleaned up most of the mess.  It was still pretty funny walking in to white powder everywhere!!

Here are a couple of dog photos.

Dog with the No Dogs Allowed sign

Dog with the mega stinger sign & vinegar

Are we twins??