Good news...

I got a tap on the shoulder today to act in the Hub Team Leader role at my library today. I am very excited and challenged at the thought of it.

It's a big step up and I know I can do it, I am lucky to have the support of my team at the library and staff at headquarters, help is only a phone call away should i get stuck.

I have many things to learn and skills and techniques to develop over this time and will milk it for all the experience i can during the time.

Yay for me

I won an award ...how exciting

Sleepy Dumpling awarded me the HONEST SCRAP award - *blush* thank you




So here’s the deal.

1) Present this award to 7 others whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged you.

2) Tell those 7 people they’ve been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving the award.

3) Share “10 Honest Things” about yourself.

So the 7 other blogs I am sharing this award with are:

http://fatheffalump.wordpress.com/


http://whenjoelmetkate.com


http://nonplusnonsense.blogspot.com/

and a few more when I find them perhaps I will award them but these three particular blogs are must reads for me and often give me much food for thought.

1. Grasshoppers/Locusts scare me silly, want to terrify me, just wave one of those suckers at me and watch me bolt.

2. Clowns unnerve me deeply. I am uncomfortable looking at clowns, seeing them dressed up in circuses and don't get me started on those hideous clown masks and blowing up balloons causes my heart to pound quite violently due to one bursting in my face as a child

3. I can't be around people constantly I need a lot of down time by myself. I find family gatherings unnerving and can always be found in a quiet corner somewhere after a few hours

4. I love board games and want to set up a board gamers group that meets regularly

5. I failed my driver's licence test twice before I realised that my eyesight had deteriorated markedly.

6. I solemnly and truly believe that I will be alone for most of my life with perhaps periodic relationships but am utterly OK with it although many many other people are not

7. I place a lot of value on my word and do my utmost to keep it and the few times I couldn't has caused a great deal of angst

8. I love being a public servant, I might whinge and moan but I like helping people and being able to assist them wherever i can.

9. I prefer being with my animals that with a majority of people

10. I love Facebook for the simple fact I can stay in touch with people but on my terms


There are my 10 honest things about me that you may have or may have not known about me

It's beginning to look a lot like.....

Baking - yep you read it right, I have a sudden and compelling urge to bake cakes, biscuits, muffins and all manner of baked goods. This urge hit me fair and square on a quiet friday afternoon, i must bake that night. So I polled my trusty colleagues as to what is necessary to have a standard fare for baking needs,and off I went, after work to buy said ingredients, some $96 later, I have enough stores for all manner of baked goods but not quite yet the skills to use them all. I have a groovy little bakery recipe book that was written and published by the Sandgate Historical Society and it filled with simple but very tasty recipes for a cock eyed beginner such as myself. So I have started with a simple chocolate cake that went down a treat with work mates today, judging by the fulsome praise I received from them all, and a lovely cinnamon teacake that my flatmate and I enjoyed over a cuppa tonight. I have never enjoyed cooking for myself and rarely like eating what I cook, those of whom I have cooked for before have always enjoyed it, but I think its the process of cooking by the time I have it cooked it, I am more or less over it and have lost my appetite. Yes I have cooked and then eaten the next day but still always the leftovers are more than one person can eat.

So I think my workmates are going to be benefiting most of all from this current craze of mine as I practice and develop my skills in baking. It certainly is cheaper than spending a fortune on cakes and cheesecakes from Michel's Patisserie and Cheesecake Shops whose premises I have patronised so fervently over these few years. I am lightyears away from the standards they have but perhaps one day.

Then of course I had to buy more baking tins, different sizes and shapes you see and some more measuring gear, I think that is as much fun as baking. I love wandering through kitchen ware shops and linen shops.

Oh well, am off to bake some more.....

I leave you with the following thought -

When I walk into my kitchen today, I am not alone. Whether we know it or not, none of us is. We bring fathers and mothers and kitchen tables, and every meal we have ever eaten. Food is never just food. It's also a way of getting at something else: who we are, who we have been, and who we want to be.
Molly Wizenberg, A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, 2009

Needs must.....

Well I am back from the coast after doing the not so fun job of packing up mum's things, my sister and I approached from a perspective that it has to be done and done quickly and painlessly as possible. So we sorted through things and decided the keepers, the chuckers, the donations and went from there. It is now very much my sister's abode which is fitting as she is paying the rent and it is her house.

We cleared out the old mismatched cutlery and crockery - kept a few sentimental pieces and descended upon my favourite shopping haunt, the trusty Big W. I told my sister to pick a dinner set she liked and doubled it and cutlery set she liked and other bits and pieces needed as she is shaping up to be rather a canny cook and shouted her the lot as my contribution to this new phase of her life. I love buying my nearest and dearest what they want and need rather than wandering around aimlessly trying to guess.

As a result of this cleaning I have a bootful of mum's clothes deemed suitable for donating, I have my eyes peeled for the donation bins that used to reside at every servo you drove past but, as usual, the minority who misused and wrecked the bins have now forced charities to be extremely discerning where they place their bins, which in turn, makes it difficult for myself and others to unload charitable donations.

I have dropped off some of the various memorabilia that would be of interest to various parties and have yet more to post to other parties, that would be meaningful for them to have rather than myself or my siblings.

I now have bits and pieces of paperwork to finalise and organise, things to post, presents to wrap, mementoes to keep safe until I can get them to the respective people.

I wonder if it's a niche market that could be utilized but I guess it is such a personal thing to pack up a deceased estate that unless you are wealthy or utterly alone, there is always someone to do it on your behalf.

This experience has certainly made me determined to keep the clutter under strict control and keep a rein on paper and other piles of crap that accumulate quicker than baby rabbits!

I feel better now that job is out of the way and less reminders are about to poke you in the eye all the time!


Au revoir..............

Tick, now what's next..........

I have had a lazy weekend, as I decided to treat myself to one as I wasn't well earlier in the week and thought it wise to just rest and take it easy to ensure that I am back to my normal chirpy self. However today being monday, I had a small list of things to do and have now done them all, it is funny, these items don't take long to sort out but you put them off and put them off and suddenly a month or more has passed since the task first needed seeing to.

1. Organised a copy of the receipt for my hearing aids so I can claim the lousy $600 back from my health insurance for my $5000 hearing aids.
2. Emailed my request to resume my studies for Semester 1 2010, so fingers crossed they decide to have me back as a struggling student.
3. Phoned and found out what is required to close down accounts in mum's name, not a particularly pleasant job but needs must.
4. Paid the ever present bills that always make themselves known to you!
5. Eyebrows shaped, tinted and tidied -always feel untidy if my brows are untidy.

This weekend coming up will be a tough one as I am heading up to my sisters place to clear out Mum's things and make the bedrooms vacant and non personal. So it will be a bit of teary time I suspect but hopefully not too much of a blubber fest.