Evil Oddie

Ok - it’s been a while since I’ve done a post…

What’s happened in the past month or so…

My Birthday - I got a Wii Fit… I’m porking it on though as my gym membership ran out and I’m procrastinating.  I miss playing indoor soccer with the guys from my old work **cry**…

Rental House -  The tenants absolutely trashed the house.  I’m talking there was probably one wall that didn’t have a hole or needed replastering.  We’ve had to put in a new kitchen, bathroom, wardrobe doors, new internal doors had to be installed because they were broken or ‘missing’.

Sick - I am currently working from home as I have a chest infection and both ears have infections… Triple whammy!! I hate being sick and can’t stand doing nothing. Hence why I’ve got my work lappy at home and am processing accounts payable… How sad…

Melbourne Trip -  Last weekend, I went to Melbourne for a bit of a girls weekend.  Went with Seraya.  Top chic really.  She had to work Thursday & Friday, so I went shopping.  I started to feel ill on Friday (see above - yes I’ve been sick for a week now - Grrrrr) so we didn’t really do much on Saturday / Sunday because I couldn’t find the energy to do anything.

Visitors -  Glen’s sister’s came over from NZ in the first week of October.  We just hung out at our place and ate heaps of food (see item one re: porking it on!)

There’s probably heaps else that’s happened (work wise) but I’m not going to rave on about it here.  Talk soon, I’ve got heaps still happening…

The new owner picked up my old Nissan Pulsar GTiR the night before last. It was both a sad and happy moment.

I don’t think I will ever buy another grey import. It took us a month to get the road worthy. I should highlight that there wasn’t anything drastically wrong with the car; it was about sourcing parts. It needed a new shockie. We had to wait a week and a half just for it to get here. Then it went missing while being freighted up. So we had to order another set. I personally don’t think they went “missing”. I think that someone went ‘Holy crap! These are good shockies, they’ll go great in my car or I could get a fair bit of money for them on Ebay.’ The guy who fitted the shockies showed me his invoice. The wholesale price for these were like $600.

The other thing that needed to get fixed was an oil leak. It was just a seal. It had to get ordered from Melbourne. It is less than a $20 part. It took a week to get here and to get the seal on, they had to drop the gearbox. I am really happy that the car is fixed and the new owner is happy. Poor guy, he had to wait a month for a car that he was really excited about.

The next car that we need to sell is the Nissan 300ZX.

On the weekend, Glen was supposed to be going up to Landcruiser Mountain Park, so I had organised to go take some photos. I had a plan for Saturday - go to the Ipswich Information Centre (I wanted details on old queenslander houses in the area), walk around a couple of parks to get photos of unsuspecting people, get some photos of St Mary’s Church and get some groceries on the way home.

Mother Nature must hate me. I went to 3 different places and got attacked by Magpies. Let’s just say it is not fun getting attacked and its even harder to take photos during the episode. After the 3rd attack, I threw a bit of a tanty and decided to go home.

Last weekend, the Patrol club had its yearly get together at Landcruiser Mountain Park.  Glen had been looking forward to it for quite some time.  Glen has been looking for more people that are on his level (my words, not his) in regards to wanting to go out and driver skill.  I don’t really think that Glen has much to do with the guys from this club other than doing posts on their forum.

Anyway, Jason (otherwise known as “Jim” or “Crazy Jim”) was the only other person from the usual group to go with us.  Jim was planning to stay for the weekend, but his wife got sick so he could only go for the day.  So we went up convoy and when we got there, we just drove up to guys that had Patrol’s in the camping area and Jim started talking to some of them.  These guys really didn’t have a clue.  They didn’t know what (UHF) channel the rest of the club were on or where the other guys headed.  It was like getting blood out of a stone.

 So Glen & I set up our tent and Jim helped unpack the Ute.  I have to say that seeing us set up our tent is quite funny.   Seeing we only do it probably 3 or 4 times a year, we seem to forget how to do it.  Although Jim has watched us do it before.  I think he laughs at us every time.

Once the tent was up and we got all the excess crap out of the Ute, we were off around the park.  They had closed off a lot of the tracks for regeneration (it had been raining quite heavily, so I think they didn’t want 4wd nuts chewing up the tracks).   We found a group of Patrol people and they were too busy talking crap and drinking (alcohol - so much for QLD road rules applying in the park).  One of the guys (and his mate) that was in this group was keen for some driving so he tagged along with us.

 Jim, Glen & the other guy (I can’t remember names - oopsy) headed for the extreme tracks.  Jim and Glen got up one of the extreme tracks and then the other guy had a go.  He ripped the tyre of the rim - which was pretty cool - and the guys got it back on.  The funny bit was he got about another 10 meters or so and then staked the tyre.  Glen towed him up the rest of the way. 

We went for a night run, which was my first one and that was pretty cool.  After the night run, we put the roast & veges in the camp oven and waited for it to cook.  I think it will be the last time that we do this cause it took to long.  After dinner, Jim went home.  It just isnt the same without Jim.   He’s just great company on a trip… He makes me laugh without even trying…  I understand why Glen and Jim get along so well.

We didn’t sleep much, there was a choir of snoring in the camping area.  At one point during the night, Glen and I were just lying there laughing at all the different snoring that was happening.  Of course we had a go at mimicking them.  All I got was a sore throat from trying.

On Sunday, the other guy that went driving with us went home early too.  So it was just Glen and I.  There was a WE Rock Challenge on, so we went and checked that out.  It was great to watch. Carnage everywhere.  On the track that we decided to watch, only 2 cars out of the lot made it with out rolling it or breaking.  I got heaps of photos with my newly leart skills. I’ll put some up shortly.  I really enjoyed just me and Glen sitting there watching it and talking about what was happening and making jokes.  One of the best days we’ve spent together.

All in all a good weekend when I thought it was going to be boring. 

Glen asked me where I’d like to go for dinner for my birthday (a couple of weeks ago) and I chose Woodlands of Marburg.  My parents also came down for my birthday and also Father’s Day, so they came to Woodlands also.

I called Woodlands to book in and asked if we could get there early to have a look around.  I also wanted to take some photos for my essay.

When we got there, the sun was setting and there wasn’t enough light to take good photos.  So we went for a wander around.  Allan (sp?) who is the Curator & F&B Manager came up to us and took us on a tour.   They were opening new accommodation and we went through 2 of the rooms - absolutely beautiful.  He gave us some background history of Woodlands and he then got another staff member to take us on a tour of the mansion.  What a beautiful  house and the owners have really embraced the opportunity of bringing Woodlands back to its former glory (and the financial gains too).

I was a bit scared about the 11 ghosts that still reside in the Mansion.  I especially liked the story about the maid that was pushed down the main stairs but her body had been dragged out onto the front lawn to make it look as if she jumped.  Firstly, she shouldn’t have been on the main stairs (servants have to use their own stairs). The main reason she got bumped off was SHE WAS PREGNANT TO THE MASTER.

Getting back on track now. The food at was also fantastic.  Glen had the Beef & Lobster, Mum & Dad had the Fish and I had a Vegetable Wellington.  Mum and I shared a bottle of Woodlands own sweet red (you can’t buy from the cellar door yet - bummer).

It was a fantastic night and the highlight of my birthday.  Mum and Dad were talking about going back there just for a weekend of relaxation… Have to get in quick though - I think The Great Outdoors are going there so it’s only a matter of time before it’s “the in thing”.

I realised when I went into work on Thursday last week that I am stacking on the weight. By the time that the express train gets to my station, there are hardly any seats left and the ones that are left are only ‘half’ seats. This is because massive people decide that their knees can’t handle the 40 minute train ride from Ipswich to Brisbane City. I used to be able to tuck myself in next to these heffas but alas, on Thursday, I sat on a ladies fat that was overflowing onto the spare seat.

She had a bit of a whinge about me sitting there, but sorry love, if you can’t fit onto one seat - STAND UP!! If your knees are giving out - LOSE SOME FREAKING WEIGHT!!

Which leads me to another thought - is there fatism? For example, if a massive person came in for a job interview, would you automatically judge them? I think most people would. I have to say that I have never worked with a big person, but one of my friend’s Mum was a massive lady. She had issues just getting off the couch. She never had a job and most of the household chores were done by the kids. Actually all her family were big people. I’m not in touch with her anymore, but my Mum told me that my friend’s parents have both passed and it was directly because of their weight.

I have to start losing some weight, I don’t like being 56kgs…. ewww (most of its fat though, I wouldn’t mind being 56kg of muscle)… it’s the biggest I’ve ever been.

Last night was my first class for the photography course at Champaigne Photography. There are seven people in the course with me. I had a very big wake up call last night. There is a possibility of failing the course. There is an exam and you need to do a photographic essay. Yikes!

Last night, I didn’t get much sleep. My head just kept running a mile a minute. I ended getting out of bed and watching really crappy infomercials at 1am.

I have finally decided that I am going to do my photographic essay on Character. There is a huge list of what my theme could be and I think that Character is very open to interpretation.

So I need a favour, I need people that are willing to have their photo taken and spend a couple of hours with me in the next 6 weeks. If you are interested, please a comment to this post if you are interested. Also, if you have any great ideas of photos please post a comment. I appreciate anything that you can help me with.

Thanks for popping by. I am just following the trend of writing my life on a blog.  So if you have nothing better to do than read about my kind of boring existence - stick around!