Evil Oddie

On Saturday, we went shopping for new desks for our home office.  We wanted 5 desks that matched.  Glen, Pete and I all have differring tastes, so I knew it was going to be difficult.

Pete chose the colours for the newly renovated office, which is Green Aspen for the feature wall and a lighter green for the rest.  So we needed to get something that would match the new office.  After going through all the desks, we finally all came to an agreement.  We wrote down the details and went to the warehouse bit where you pick them up.

When we got to the area the desktops should be, there was only one left.  So we went to find out if they had more or when the next shipment is coming in.  Bad news.  The line is being discontinued and they only had one left.  So our entire Saturday afternoon searching for new desks was only the beginning of a long drawn out episode.  We are still looking for a desk we all agree on again… GRRRRRR!

I love Christmas so much, normally I have our personal Christmas Cards completed before December 1.  This year however, I haven’t even started yet.  I’m thinking about only sending cards to the people that send a card to us.  Sad I know, but that’s where I am at the moment.  I think the reason behind this is doing all the cards for Ingenuity.

I ordered the cards through Guide Dogs Queensland.  They are absolutely beautiful cards.  However, before I ordered them, I asked if they could print our greeting in the card.  I was told they could.  So when I ordered them at the beginning of October (yes I’m very organised), I was surprised when I was told that I couldn’t get them printed with our greeting.  So when we got our order of Christmas Cards - a lot dammit - I had to print our greeting onto it.

Our laser printer has a habit of grabbing 5 cards at once, so I had to stand at the printer and feed each card & envelope in.  Then stuffing them into their appropriate envelope, putting on the stamp and then the card only sticker (the Aussie Post guy told me that I had to put on the card only sticker or we will get charged extra).  After a full week of doing the Christmas Cards, I’m well and truly over it.

Glen has been complaining about our old TV. It’s not big enough. It’s old (6-7 years). It’s not HD. He’s been researching to find what the best TV for us would be. He ended up with wanting a Panasonic 50 inch Plasma.

I haven’t been so keen on purchasing a new TV. The old one works fine & I don’t have a full time job. I am working for Ingenuity, but it isn’t the long term solution.

An ex-colleague’s brother works at JB Hifi, so Glen went to see him about getting a price on the TV.  I think Glen would’ve bought one while he was there, but they didn’t have any in stock.

When Glen got home from work, he asked if we could go to the Good Guys to see what they could do.  After my hyperventilating about the price and I walked away, Glen bought it.  Oh my aching wallet…

The TV got delivered on Friday.  So we’ve watched a lot of movies over the weekend.  It is quite a good TV.

Glen’s Aunty Joy & Uncle Len went back to NZ this morning after a 3 week holiday.  Last weekend, I had to go back to the DFO at the airport to take back some shoes that I got for Glen, but he didn’t like them.  I invited Aunty Joy to come and she accepted.

Aunty Joy was after a special outfit for her 80th birthday next year.  We went into so many stores; I found out that Aunty Joy is very selective on the clothes that she wears.  I thought she looked great in a couple of things, but she wasn’t happy.  We both loved Table Eight but we found an outfit at Jacqui E.  It’s a long black skirt with silver flowers and wispy bits at the bottom and a lace top with a  cami underneath.

It is nothing like what Aunty Joy normally wears, but I think she loved it.

I had to go to Melbourne for work.  It was only a day trip, but I enjoyed it.  It was my first trip to Melbourne.

I was supposed to catch the 5am flight down but unfortunately, QANTAS decided that they would cancel it.  Gee ta…  So I needn’t have got out of bed at 2am to catch this freaking flight.  So I made some new friends while waiting.  There was an old couple whose flight to Sydney also got delayed.  They were flying to the US and were supposed to meet the connecting flight there.  Luckily the follow on flight was leaving 5 hours after the original flight landed.  We got talking and the lady said to me, “Gosh you look shocking”.  Thanks love, I’ve only got to go do some work stuff when I get to Melbourne.  So glad I’m not in the running to get a man.  Love you Glen…

I have to say, when I got my breakfast on the plane, I was extremely happy.  It was the best breakfast I have had in quite some time.  I had an Egg on an English Muffin (I pulled the bacon off - I don’t really eat meat), I had yogurt with berries and toasted muesli, orange juice, water, cuppa tea and I saved my muesli bar for later. It was the best thing about my flight.

When I finally got to Melbourne (at 10am), I had to rush to do my work thing before noon.  I waited and waited in the taxi line.  Then the taxi driver I got couldnt speaka da english so well - so I kinda hoped he knew where I needed to go.  It turned out well thank god.

Once I had got the work thing done, I grabbed a random and asked for directions to St Kilda.  I had done some research about Melbourne Op Shops and I heard that Sacred Mission on Grey St was good.

The directions I got, go over to the tram station (the stations are not like the ones in Brissie), get one going this way (see the lady waving her arm in one direction), get them to open the door and ask if they stop at Grey St.  Ok sounds easy enough.

I walk to the station (its a set of lights dammit), a tram stops, the driver opens the door.  I ask him, “Does this stop at Grey Street, St Kilda?” Next thing I know, this bugger has closed the door on my head.  I said “Guess that’s a no.” My opinion of Melbourne people was not very high at this point.  I said to myself, if the next tram driver does this, I’ll get a cab.

The next tram stops, I ask the driver the same q as above.  His answer “Sure does love.  Hop on and I’ll let you know when we are there.”  My faith was restored.

When I got to Grey St, I walked the wrong way. Doh.  I called Glen. He told me that yes I was in fact going the wrong way  and he even told me what stop I had got off on the tram.

I got to the Op shop. OH MY GOD!! I was there for 2 hours and didn’t get to look at everything.  I got lots of brand name stuff and I only spent $26. WOO HOO!!

When I realised the time, I had to quick foot it to the airport.   I ran (well walked quickly) to the main street and hailed a taxi.  He told me that I had heaps of time before my flight… He said he would go the “quick scenic route”.  It was great, he was pretty much giving me a tour.

The flight home was really turbulent.  We went through lots of thunder storms.  The chic next to me was not doing so well.  I asked her if she was ok and if she wanted to hold my hand… Well, her nails were digging into me… But she felt better…

Glen’s Aunt & Uncle were flying in from NZ at 630pm so I hung around to pick them up.  During the wait, I went to the DFO and finished off my Christmas shopping.

Glen and I went up to Bundaberg on Friday for the weekend (an extended weekend actually). We left home about 5:30am on Friday to beat peak hour. We thought we were having a great run up until we hit roadworks at Gympie. We must’ve waited at least 15 minutes til we could drive through. This was only the first of many stages of roadworks on the way up.

We stopped at Mammino’s at Childers for an ice-cream. They are fantastic! So creamy! I think they are better known for the ice-cream than the macadamias which is what put them on the map originally.

We got to Bundy about 1030 ish. We stopped off to get keys from Mick and then Glen dropped me off at my eldest sister’s. That was the last I saw of Glen til this morning.

I hardly ever go shopping, but when I’m with Sally, I go nuts. On Friday, we went to Chemist Warehouse, Essential Man, Vinnies on George St (I love going Op Shopping) & Jake’s Candy. That was all before picking up her kids from school…. Yikes…

On Saturday, Mum drove down to spend the day with the Family. We went shopping… We went to Lushus Cakes, Rivers Outlet, King Kong, Sheridan Outlet, Wallace Bishop, Strandbags, Kleins & got something to eat while we were at Sugarland. Please note that I am only listing places that we made purchases from… We were so exhausted we got chinese for dinner from Rich Aromas - it was fantastic!

On Sunday, Sally & I had to go to Bunnings. Sally had her shower as soon as she got up. Her daughter jumped in the shower just before me. She was in the bathroom for an hour and fifteen minutes - her shower went for 45 minutes. I would hate to think what their water bill would be if they lived in Brissie. I have no idea why she took that long. She hadn’t washed her hair or shaved her legs or anything. Everyone kept giving her the hurry up though… Next time I’ll just turn off the hot water system - that’ll get her out!

When I finally had the chance to have a shower and get ready, we went shopping… We went to Bundy Brewery to get a carton of Bundaberg Ginger Beer, Priceline, Newsagent, Dimmies, Bunnings and got some battered chips from Busy Bee on the way home. We forgot to get some groceries, so we went out again… lol…

I love going home to Bundy, it has a slower pace and it just feels like home.

On Saturday, I went to an Intimo Party at friend’s place. The Intimo Consultant was the lady who was the consultant for my party that I held maybe six years ago.  Deb is really great and she has the best personality.  The hostess of the party, Liza, and I were talking about how we first got into getting the Intimo range of bras & lingerie.  We figured out that Liza came to my first party and Liza’s had regular parties ever since.

I haven’t had an Intimo Party in a while.  So I’ve booked a party for 16th September.  It’s great because they have lots of beautiful bras that fit me. YAY!

I went into the city to go to the markets with Jan, Geoff, Lou & Tahlia when they were over from NZ.  It was the first time that I had been to the Eagle Street Pier Markets.  I did quite enjoy my first experience.  It was also my first time on a ferry on the Brisbane River - YAY!  Apparently going on a River Cat is even better.  I’ll put that on the list to do.

There was an old fella who needed a swift kick in the head.  It was a natural moisturiser and other natural products stall.  As I didnt need a moisturiser at the time, I asked if he had a website or any information that I could take.  His response was “You get the information brochure when you purchase something and if we had a website, we wouldn’t be at here at the markets.” To which I said, “No worries, I don’t need anything right now.  But seeing you don’t have a website, you won’t give me any brochures & I don’t live around here {not true - but I was making a point dammit}, you won’t be getting any of my business in the future.”  The lady next to me laughed and we both walked away.

If I was running my business from a market, I would definately turn on the charm to get a sale.  Why are people like this doing retail? Wouldn’t you position your business as a wholesaler if you don’t like dealing with the public?

On Saturday, Louise (Glen’s niece who is actually older than Glen) and I went shopping at Orion Shopping Centre. Lou came over and lived with us for a while a couple of years ago. We used to go shopping all the time back then. Seeing Lou is now a Mum (her bubba girl is the cutest) she didn’t want to go too far from home just in case we had to rush home. I was keen to go to Stones Corner or even Harbour Town. Not that much of a fan of DFO, but there’s a new one getting built at Jindalee, so I will probably frequent DFO more often.

I was thinking that we wouldn’t be gone that long seeing Orion isn’t that big of a player yet in the shopping stakes. Normally I go there for Lenard’s and Big W. However, six and a half hours later we were heading home. We got some absolute bargains. I got: a booby top from Valleygirl ($14.95); several knit tops that would go with suits or casually with jeans ($15 ea) and a lovely blue satin type dress ($15 - I got it with the thought of wearing it to a wedding) from a little boutique type shop; some funky clothes ($37) from Tree of Life and; cargo pants ($10), Rio singlets ($2 ea), two long sleeve knit tops ($5 ea - one I am wearing currently) and some socks ($5) from Big W. Bargain shopping.

Lou got heaps as well. She got a pressie for her hubby and lots of clothes for her daughter too.

I’m not a great fan of shopping normally, but I really loved going shopping with Lou. We both kinda know what suits each other and the kind of clothes we look for. Lou and I are both Virgos and currently we have been wearing the same colours and types of clothes. Today is purple.

I’m really going to miss Lou when the family go back to NZ tomorrow. :o(