Evil Oddie

Last Tuesday (the Tuesday after the Easter 4wd Comp), Glen came home from work with six red roses for me.  The card read something to the effect of “I couldn’t have done the weekend without you.”  I loved my roses, but initially I thought that I was about to have a bad experience.

When Glen and I were first together (a long long time ago),  I came home from work and Glen gave me a lovely bunch of flowers.  He said that he got them just because… Then about 15 minutes later, he says “I’m going away and I don’t want you to come.” 

I have only received flowers a couple of times and this is the first time that it was for a positive experience.  Plus this is the first lot of roses!!! Yay!!!

Over the weekend, Glen was the navi for Mick for the first time.  It was the first competition for the SSS Winch Challenge at Landcruiser Park- more info here. I think that they will put the results up shortly.

Anyway, on with the weekend. Glen was majorly excited. We got up early on Friday morning and we got to the camping ground at about 9:30am. We set up camp (took us only 30 mins – yay for our instant tent and gazebo). Then we got to watch everyone else set up camp. There was one couple that took over an hour and a half to put up their tarp just to put their kitchen under!!!

I think Mick got to the camping ground at about 11:30am and we helped him set up his tarp and swag. Once that was done, the boys set about getting the last little things done on the Comp Truck. As more people arrived, we started to get some visitors to camp. Jen & Fester rocked up just before the guys had to go for Drivers Briefing at 6pm. So I went with Jen & Fester to their camp (they scored the best site – we got stuck with the plebs on a slope).

Soon enough, it was time for the comp to start. At the draw, Mick and Glen were the first to run on Stage One. Everyone hates having to go first; but for Glen it was his first Navi experience at night and he had to go first. The boys did an ok time, but picked up a couple of penalties. The first one was pretty bad – Glen had stepped over the live winch rope – 30 points and Mick broke the bunting – 10 points. After that though, they didn’t incur any further penalties.

The boys broke the driver’s side CV on Stage 3. It was majorly hard core – the hill that the Navi’s had to climb for Stage 3 & 4 was unforgiving. Glen was stuffed after Stage 3 because they didn’t have any drive, they had to winch everything. Unfortunately, they ran out of time and recorded a DNF.

All the stages were really well planned and I think that organisers did a really fantastic job. The only issues that I had as a spectator was: Parking on Saturday; No Toilets until lunch time on Saturday; Didn’t see much of the night runs and; Having to Pay Extra for the Navi’s car to get to the Comp sites (I’m cheap – so I reckon it should be included).

Other things I should mention about the weekend. I met heaps of fantastic people. Everyone is really nice and helpful. The drivers & navi’s got to know my face, so they’d stop and have a chat and talk about their run. The families of the other competitors all look out for each other too. It really is like a gigantic family that catches up at every comp.

I also got to meet the photographer who goes to most of the comps. Her name is Sam and she posts the pics here.

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 have a new job, well I have for a while actually.  I started on the 2nd of January.  It’s really close to home, they are extremely flexible and I have got a company car in my salary package – YAY!  Of course there are teething issues.  I have never used the type of Accounting Software that they use and there are no existing finance people that are there that can show me.  I’m sure once I’ve settled in, everything will be great!

Sorry for the long delay in writing another post.  We just got back from New Zealand.  It was the trip that initially motivated me to do the Photography Course.  Glen’s sister’s (Viv) wedding was really good and the photos look pretty good too (even if I do say myself).

It wasn’t so much a holiday, it was more of visiting family.  There was only one thing that really cheesed us off.  It was really hot and humid over there.  Why did this bother us so much?  Because New Zealand (we were only at Auckland and Northland) is not equipped for hot weather.  They don’t have ceiling fans, pedestal fans, air conditioners or even fly screens!  As soon as you opened a window, mozzies would eat you alive (which we experienced several times).

After all the trips that we have gone to NZ, this has been our best travelling experience.  We flew with Emirates, the food was fantastic and they actually know what service is!  I think we’ll only be flying with them in the future.  For the flight back, Glen’s olds shouted our upgrade from Economy to Business Class.  It was the best!!!

So another Christmas is done.  Glen was on call so we didn’t do very much at all.  Glen’s parents are pretty much the only family that we have in Brisbane, and they don’t really get into the Christmas spirit so it’s not like a Christmas with my family.  Glen and his parents have a couple of traditions for Christmas – fruit salad for breakfast and plum pudding for dessert.

My nephew-in-law (his name is also Glen with one ‘n’ – and technically he is my sister’s nephew) and his partner Michael, have moved to Brisbane and they don’t have any family in Brisbane either.  So I went around to their place on Christmas just for a visit.  They were great and they put on some good food and wine.  They love Christmas (like me).  We had bon bons and wore the silly paper crown hats that come in them.

After a couple of hours, I went home and we had a BBQ dinner.  The main course was garlic prawns (I had a sausage cause I can’t eat prawns / meat).

A few people that I talked to weren’t happy with the drowsy weather.  I quite enjoyed not having the sweltering heat that we have had before on Christmas.  I remember a Christmas and it got to 42 degrees!

A friend sent this to me. It is very rare for me to laugh out loud but I did when I saw this.

Employee: ‘Hello this is *****, how can I help you?’

Customer: ‘I would like to order a cake for a going-away party this week.’

Employee: ‘What do you want on the cake?’

Customer: ‘Best Wishes Suzanne’ and then underneath that, ‘We will miss you’.

Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

Glen is on call over Christmas & Boxing Day and has to go to work the days in between then and New Year’s Day. Quite a pain in the bum. Glen and I went up to Bundy on the weekend to see my family as I wouldn’t be seeing them for Christmas.

We left early on Friday morning. I woke up at 4:30am because I was extremely excited. Glen was still comatose so I drove up. On the way up, there was heaps of roadworks (GRRRRR!!) and there was one that had a sign stating to expect to be delayed for 15 minutes! We ended up getting to Bundy at about 10 ish and we were starving. It felt like lunchtime to us, but nothing was open. The only place that we could get food from was KFC. We had to wait for them to get the fryers on. Only in Bundy.

Because the people that we were going to be visiting had to work on Friday, we cruised around and had our KFC in a park and drove past our old places. We went to where Glen would be staying (Mick & Shaz’s) and set up. We ended up having a nanna nap cause we were still tired.

I went around to my sisters in the arvo for a visit but they were going out for dinner, so I went back to Mick & Shaz’s for the night. On Saturday, us girls headed out for our usual shopping trip – I bought up big again at the Op Shop – and we got Busy Bee chips for lunch… mmm yummo…

On Saturday night, it was my sister-in-law’s 40th birthday party. I got her a little crystal bowl & my sister’s family got the big matching bowl. It was really good to go. I caught up with quite a few family members from my Brother-In-Law’s family. We were going to go out after the party, but my sister’s going out outfit was still on the line, so we couldn’t go.

On Sunday, Mum came down to see Glen and I. So we had Lunner (its like Brunch only between Lunch and Dinner). I have definitely had my share of BBQ’s over the weekend. Glen and I decided that we are going to buy a house in Bundy as soon as we can.

Monday, we left early to get home. There was an accident on the Gateway and they totally closed the motorway. It took us about 7 hours to get home. It normally takes us about 4 – 4.5 hours… When we were unpacking the car, I bumped my leg on the back bumper and it really hurt. I looked down. My left side of my body looks like its from a cooked lobster!

Thank god for Aloe Vera. I have been putting it in the fridge so it’s nice and cool on my sunburn.

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.