Introducing.....

Daisy the Second. She is very sweet but still not used to us. Did I say "us"? I meant me. The kids have taken her for a walk round the yard, well..more of a bounce really but they aren't that confident in bunny handling yet. The rabbits are also a bit bewildered by the great outdoors but I have a cunning plan. Bribery and corruption.
This is Gretel. She is the smaller of the two and very cheeky, she will be the first to the wire when I go out there and talk to them. She lets Daisy push her out of the way for treats. Will work on her assertiveness!

It is still a bit of amission having these as pets. The hutch wil also need an extension, with it being ok but not ideal for two wascally wabbits.

Gorgeous.

What on EARTH could I add?




Pick me. I know I'm past 40 but site...I know what goes where....

27 September 2008

Here I am aged 9. My dad took this photo. My Dad died tonight.

13 years ago tonight at 10.40pm my best friend, my mentor, my everything died.

Cancer - you arse. I hate you. Even more because you have given me strength. I will use it against you. Be warned.

However. I have so much to thank Dad for. He was very gregarious. Heck, he was so wonderful that my Mumn has since remarried - to one of his mates, she loved being married soooo much that she was not hesitant to do it again. And I bless them both for that...that is fine. I think they have prolonged the lifespan of both of them. Many children then have more time with their families, even tho' you may think that as "grown ups" we don't need it.

I love and miss my Dad more than words can say.

Picture this....

You're lying in a lovely deep hot bath. You can hear the birds chirping and the soft "wap, wap" of the occasional tennis ball from the park next door. You are super relaxed.

Then you hear a sound not unlike an air-raid siren. And you just know. You know that the 11 year old has inadvertently let the bunny escape. Bugger.

You leap out of the bath (well, living on a busy road with a park nearby if that bunny gets to the gate it's gone!)...and still dripping you run downstairs, into the yard and yes. there is the Sciowly Teen trying to tackle aforementioned bunny, who deftly twists away towards the pool. Nooooo!!

You make a grab for the speedy fluffy butt, succeeding only just. With the squirmy creature pressed to your still damp torso you pop the wee f**** back into the hutch.

And the kids, rather than saying "thank you" loftily advise that next time you help maybe you could put clothes on first.

Oh, and we don't have one bunny. We have two. Daisy and Gretel.

New Pets

Since Daisy left, the 11 year old has really been sad. She decided however to get anew pet this week. She wants a rabbit. The rabbit (A Ducth Satin cross) will also be called Daisy apparently. Daisy II. Maybe we shouldn't let them watch the Simpsons? Anyway, today she and The Stud set to and made a hutch. Here she is wielding a hammer. She also was thrilled to be allowed to use the jig-saw and the automatic screw driver. I always thought she looked so cute in pink!
The finished hutch. Complete with straw. We get the bunny on Thursday. Yippee. I should say that again with enthusiasm but I have this feeling that it will be the 11 yr old's rabbit for about 3 weeks and then it will become mine. Anyone got any recipes??

Look, we have daffodils. Lots of them. I'm reading again. Got a book about Che Gueuvera written by his father, it is really interesting. I have read several books about this man. So far, it appears to me to be a complete SHAME the way he was killed.

Gawd, our election day has been announced. 8 November. Watch this space.

The crazy times of a working mother

I did finally get to Auckalnd. I started my day getting downstairs and being greeted by the Scowly Teen lying on the floor, howling in pain and clutching her head. Hm. Earache can be a right bitch! So, then set about getting the 11 yr old ready for school, popped them both in the car (ST still in PJ's) as well as leaving MANY frantic phone calls to The Stud (he starts work at 7.30am and was long gone!!).....Then I dropped off the wee one at her school, took the still bawling teen to work, wrapped her in ablanket on the office floor and rang the Doctor. They agreed they could see her at 9.30am...the exact time I was meant to be at the airport by. The Stud arrived at my office at 9.10am and promptly took over childcare, I scampered half heartedly to the airport. Is it just me, but is there a part of every working mother which believes NO-One can look after their sick "baby" as well as they can? Talk about guilt, I should have been Catholic. Anyhoo, once at the airport the queues were almost out the door. Why? FOG. Jeez, once a year there is chaos at Chch airport due to fog and it had to be that day. Several hours and a cancelled flight, recscheduled flight later...the 10.30am flight to Auckland left Chch at 1.40pm...arriving 3pm, too late for my 12.30 meeting. However, managed to re-schedule that one (thanks heaps to the CTU Advocacy service guys for being so accommodating)....then as it is getting lighter in the evenings here now, was able to get down to the pre-dinner cocktails in good time. Had a few nice glasses of bubbles and back to the Hotel.

On the way back I took some photos of the Auckland Sky Tower. The above pic shows the Tower, and the one below shows the person I caught jumping off the Tower. If you click on it, it shows it up bigger (as the actress said to the bishop)

He (or she) was attached to a special cord that they have for this sort of thing but I was quite thrilled to capture it unintentionally! Not bad for a FujiFinepix "starter" camera. I'm still quite attached to my old Pentax K1000 which is probably older than dirt but takes fantastic photos.
During the night the 28th policeman to be killed in the line of duty in this country was killed.

The next day passed in ablur of exciting Health and Safety stuff...no, I know you want me to elaborate but I'm sorry: too exciting! We started the ocnference with a great display of Mine safety rescue, complete with dry ice and spooky music! Innovative for a conference such as this, I thought! Anyway, there came a point on the second day after a too late night at the dinner where I just had to get some fresh air. Took myself off for a stroll down Queen Street and found this fella who was in slightly worse shape than I was in!
Stick to this type of bubbles in your galss, is my health advice for this week.
Incidentally, the Scowly Teen had the rest of the week off on more antibiotics and has only just started to resemble her usual self today. I think that's a good thing.

Unspectacular me!

I have been tagged by Violet Sky so buckle that seat belt, put up your tray table and pay attention!

I have to list 6 unspectacular things about me...only 6....which ones should I choose?

1. I wear a size 5 and a half shoe (Kiwi sizes, I have no idea what that means to the rest of the world but suffice to say there's no point looking for Big Foot in my shoe collection);
2. I like Spaghetti Bolognaise more than is decent for a woman of my age;
3. Red is one of my favourite colours;
4. I am a horder;
5. I enjoy creative writing but have always found this easier to do when I am meant to be doing something else; and
6. I still have all my old school reports.

There. Howzat?

Hoorah. A conference.

Be still my beating heart.

I'm going to Auckland. I'm going to Auckland.

Owing to the absence of sunshine and the predominance of rain, there is no paint to watch dry here, no socks to sort, no dental x-rays to catalogue.

So.

I'm going to a health and safety conference. In Auckland. First up there are welcome cocktails. Then a gala dinner. How will I cope? What does one wear? Sadly, Ray-baby is busy so I will be "flying solo". Such is life.

I'll be back at the weekend if you can stand the suspense!

If we weren't married, I think I would!

I sat up and watched "Compulsion" last night, having seen Ray-baby (as he likes me to call him) in Henry Viii and various other things over the years, I really liked this one too. Of course, I have no idea why I find Ray-baby so attractive! He's on the cuddly side for a start - but he was very sexy in this programme. The script was rather shallow in parts but that aside, I found myself googling him like mad this morning to get the 'right" picture (all the others he has sent me are too pornographic to publish here and are for my eyes only anyway - Ray-baby is posessive that way. He likes to call me Randy-Mandy and I let him!!)

In the real world, the Scowly Teen's ears are on the mend very slowly - or it could be that her natural "off switch" has been activated so she wouldn't hear anything anyway!

Oh, and if any of the brits reading this happen upon Ray-Baby, remind him my bath night is Wedsnesday and I'll leave the ladder out for him.

Murphy and his sodding law

If a child is going to get a chronic ear infection, they will do so in the late hours of the evening, certainly after medical centre hours and ALWAYS after a few glasses of wine have been imbibed by both parents.

There will be no panadol in the house or indeed the street!

It will be storm-like conditions thus rendering a walk to an after hours chemist impossible.

And the child will dodge bookshelves, shoes, and monsters in the wardrobe to get to MUMMY at 1am to complain that their ears are killing them.

And father will sleep through the bloody lot.