Where Kylie is Completely Mad

What's so unusual about that, you say? I know, I frequently demonstrate my moments of utter madness, usually quite spectacularly, and today was again one of them.

It all started a few weeks back, when I received an email from one of the ladies at school asking if anyone wanted to be involved in the Bridge to Brisbane. Not knowing what it was, I totally said yes. I mean, it sounded like fun, and plus, its such a rarity to be asked to do anything, so I need to take every opportunity I get. Anyway, turns out the Bridge to Brisbane is a 10km 'fun run' (who actually thinks the words 'fun' and 'run' go together?) to raise money for the Heart foundation. Ok... now I'm starting to get a little worried... but hey, 10km is only about 6 miles - that's not so bad... its Winter too, so that would help... it'll be alright...

Until you realise that the first km is a relatively steep uphill climb over the Gateway Bridge, and the so-called Winter we're having is non-existent (today was a scorching 30 degrees again) - and I haven't done any serious walking for quite a while (about 12 months) - so its starting to look a bit more challenging than first thought...

But I was still game, so I signed up and paid my entrance fee - and that's when they told me the start time... 6.25am on a Sunday morning! Get out of here, does 6.25 actually exist on a Sunday morning?!

It gets worse. That's the race start time, but the race starts at the Gateway Bridge, Murrarie, and how does one get there at that time of morning on a Sunday? The only option for me was to park the car at Bowen Hills and get the 5.15am train (specially put on for the purpose) to Murrarie, and then walk 1km to the race start point.

Which is what I did. Imagine though, my astonishment as this sight greeted me at Bowen Hills at 4.45am this morning!

The queue for tickets!

The crowded platform!

Anyway, I managed to be on the first train (and with a seat, too - no mean feat!) and we arrived at Murrarie at about 5.50 and tried to walk to the meeting points. With so many people getting off the train though, and trying to go through a tiny turnstile, it took some time to actually get off the platform. Anyway, once I was in the clear, I hotfooted it up the hill towards the meeting point and caught up with the other ladies from school - Anne, Michelle and Jenny. And then we waited. And waited. And waited.

Because although we had seen on the paraphenalia that the start was to be staggered for the different categories, we didn't actually realise that that would mean an almost 2 hour wait for us! If I'd've known that, I wouldn't have been on that 5.15 train!

Finally though, we were off - and heading straight up the motorway to the summit of the bridge. By this point it was already starting to heat up - so I don't know how these guys, dressed as storm troopers, coped!

Me and a Clone Trooper

Just after the start - the climb up the bridge

On the bridge

The view from the top

We paused a little at the top to enjoy the view - as you can never do that when driving because this motorway has a speed limit of 100km and you can't stop on it - so photos like the one above you just can't ever get. On the way up, Anne saw an elderly gentleman who appeared to be struggling. She went over to him, and it turns out it was her 80 year old uncle who was attempting the 10 km on his own! So we walked with him for a while to help out. Unfortunately though, I don't think that he made the full walk - because later on in the journey, around the 4 km mark, we lost sight of them, so we decided to wait for them. They were quite a way behind, and he was managing just to shuffle along, poor thing. We stayed and helped for a bit, but this then meant that the rest of the pack passed us, even the shuttle bus for the stragglers - so we were the very last! Anne and her uncle insisted we just go on, and I think they probably hopped out at the 5 km mark, which was the start point for those wanting to just do the half course. We managed to catch up to the bus and so on, but it put us as being very very near to the back.

By about the 5km mark it was really starting to heat up, and we had a new worry - if we didn't make it to the 5km mark before the 2nd race started at 9.15, we would be in trouble, because we would have a large crowd of runners baring down on us. They delayed that start a little, probably because there were still a fair few walkers from the 10km start - we had overtaken a few, including the stormtroopers, who were really in a bad way by around 6-7kms. Luckily for us they did delay it, because it meant that we beat the 5kms runners in by about 30 seconds! I really didn't want to get overtaken by the 5km people!

The finish line

We went for a nice brunch afterwards in the Valley (another 1 km walk away) and then I walked back to my car - another 2 kms - so all up I reckon I did pretty close to 15 kms! It was all worth it too - although my legs and back don't agree... oh to be able to walk pain-free again... what madness!

Some Recent Updates

Well as we all know, there has recently been quite a lengthy period where moi was internet-less at home. This has obviously resulted in a bit of a dry spell on the blog front - but mostly only due to connectivity, not just to a lack of bloggable items. Actually, I had taken some pics and so on with the intention of updating, but of course, never actually got around to it. So, here they are - with an albeit brief explanation...

So as you know, Dad has been helping me out most weekends with trips to IKEA, trips to fix things on my house and so on - but all this takes time away from his preparations to get his boat ready for their trip up north. So a few weeks back, it was payback time... I had to do some sanding, some varnishing, some screwing in of wooden panels on the roof of the boat... it was quite intense actually...

Funnily enough, that afternoon, after working on Dad's boat, I headed into the city to go see a movie with a friend from school. We saw Beautiful Kate (a totally bizarre film, give it the miss, seriously) at the Regent. The Regent is one of the oldest cinemas in Brisbane - and one of the most beautiful - as you can hopefully see from some of my photos below...

In the fashion of Ken, who used to fix my car in England quite regularly (let's be honest, it broke down a lot) - or prepare it for the dreaded MOT - here is Dad fixing the lock on my driver's side door. I went through a period where the only way I could get in and out of the car was through the passenger side door - not very dignified, I assure you! And you get lots of interesting looks from people at the supermarket, or kids at school, when you enter and exit a car that way! Lucky Dad was able to fix it - he even had to fashion a part out of a piece of metal!

Bookclub: I was invited to come along to bookclub with the ladies at church. It was actually a really lovely evening, and no one seemed to care that I actually hadn't read any books so I wasn't really able to contribute very intelligently to the discussion! There was a theme for the evening, which was Sci-Fi - and that meant you could come dressed up as something sci-fi (but I didn't), bring some sci-fi food (I brought some thin chocolate sticks which I renamed "Lightsabers"), and play the sci-fi quiz (which was in two levels, beginners or Louise - and we won the beginners, whilst Louise, of course, won the Louise level). Hehehe...

Here's Louise and a friend dressed as hobbits:

Karen and Karen as Star Wars characters Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker (Stormtrooper disguise)

And Louise wins the "Louise" level of the quiz!

Phew! So that's all for now folks!

Marcella's First Trip to the Movies

I'm sure that Beck will do a full on blog about this, but anyway, here's my contribution. Yesterday I had the pleasure of going with Mum, Beck and Marcella to the movies for her first ever experience of the 'movie experience'.

I captured some of it on tape, too. (well, HD - I've moved up in the world - borrowed the school's camcorder...) I had to be a bit Mission Impossible about it, because otherwise they might've thought I was videoing the show to do a bootleg copy - not that I would need to, there's enough out there already, because it is actually already out on DVD - yes, people, we went to see the enthralling "Dora the Explorer Saves the Snow Princess"!!! I know, you are all soooo envious...

Anyway, what was lovely was just seeing Miss M's reaction. She had no idea what to expect, and when we got in there, and there was this HUGE Dora on the screen - she just sat agog, eyes glued to the screen, and hand doing the reflex action - popcorn, mouth, popcorn, mouth - the whole time! Afterwards I tried to ask her what she thought of it, but she didn't say much - I was recording her at the time and she was more interested in what I was doing than in what I was saying...

Anyway, it was just a gorgeous moment, nice to be a part of a 'first' for one of the neices and nephews...

Mum, Marcella and I at the candy bar

Cella is engrossed in the movie

Beck and Cella after the film

Where Kylie is a Dufus

I'll be the first to admit, this is quite a regular occurrence, me being a dufus. But I need to vent a little today.

You see, a few weeks back I went to my friend's church, and at the service, ran into some people that I haven't seen in years, and who most definitely wouldn't normally go to that church. We did the usual swopping of the phone numbers and so on, and I didn't think anything more of it - it was just pleasantries, right?

Anyway, last week they phoned me to see if I wanted to come to their church, and also to stay for lunch at their place. Well, I'll admit, I was a bit apprehensive about it, but I accepted, because I kind of figured, if I didn't, then they'd keep asking til I did. The only problem is that their church is about 60km away from me - so 120km round trip.

So I went, and I'll admit, I had a good time. I saw some people I haven't seen in ages, and I enjoyed playing in the band and so on. It was kind of a bit strange to see traditional Salvation Army in action again, but it was nice, and I did genuinely have fun. The only downer is that I think they were kind of hoping I would say I would move there permanently - but I'm not doing 120 km twice a week (Sundays + rehearsals) - so that's not gonna happen.

Anyway, that's not the dufus bit - although part of it is, I guess, as who turns up to a traditional Salvation Army corps (where you know they're all wearing uniform) in black pants and a bright red blouse? Hmmm. Dufus moment part one...

No, the real dufus moment happened on the way home. You see, I got about 15 minutes into my hour long journey, and I got that real urgent call of nature, so I stopped off at shopping centre I happened to be passing at the time. After answering the call, I had a quick look at my surroundings, and discovered a Coles and a Woolies there. I thought to myself that perhaps I should do my grocery shopping now for the week. Immediately that thought entered my head, and the other half of my brain said "You kidding? Its 30 degrees outside and you have no chiller bag and another 45 minutes or so to go!" Plus, I thought to myself, at this time of day they wouldn't yet have reduced the cooked chooks.

"Why is that so important?" you may well ask. The answer is quite simple. You see, my 'investment' property has been vacant for sometime, with no income coming in, and I've been having to pay the full mortgage myself - on top of paying my own rent and bills. In addition to that, my other 'investment' property became vacant last week - and won't be occupied til the end of next week - so I'll have to carry that one too. This means that for the last few weeks, I have been living on a piece of bread and a prayer. Literally.

And that's when I discovered that if you go to Coles, or Woolies, about 30 minutes before closing time, they do the lovely markdown thing. They halve the price of their cooked chooks and their bakery items, and if you time it just right, you can get some good deals. The cooked chook is especially a good deal, as the price for a regular sized one goes down to $4 - I can't buy a chook and cook it for that - and that size chook will feed me at least 4 meals, so this is a real bargain. But of course, if I do my grocery shopping now, before 'markdown madness', I'll pay double for a chook that's been sitting there the best part of the afternoon. Wisely, I decided to wait til I got home before going shopping.

So I got home at about 4.30, and with the shops shutting at 6, I pottered about a bit, killing time before heading off for my reduced chook. I got to the shops about 5.15 and gathered up the other bits and pieces I wanted, and then waited at the chook section. No reductions yet - but alarmingly, not many chooks were actually there. Probably about 10 or so.

Just then, the bakery markdown announcement came over the PA, so I went to check out doughnuts which I knew I shouldn't buy for 50c (and actually I was very good, I left them there). I then went back to the chooks - still no reductions, and still about 7-8 chooks left.

Not wanting to hang out like some sort of chook markdown Nazi, I wandered up another couple of aisles to kill a few minutes, and then decided to head back to the chooks, telling myself that if they weren't marked down this time, I'd just pick one up anyway - 4 meals for $8 is still not so bad.

Only when I got there, some man picked up the last one, and it wasn't even reduced! And he took it over to the deli counter and asked them to reduce it, and THEY DID!!!!

What a dufus - I could've done that earlier, and I would've had a chook - now I have no chook, and I have to spend more money on those meals than intended!!!! Aaaaagggghhhhh!!!

Thanks a lot, Coles Nundah - what a waste of time!

QCMF

There's a music festival held annually in Brisbane for all Catholic schools - the Queensland Catholic Schools and Colleges Music Festival.

Personally, I had never heard of the thing - but until this year I had never worked in a Catholic school in Brisbane, so I guess I wouldn't have heard of it. Apparently its been going for some time. Anyway, my current school, being Catholic, always goes in the competition - and always does well. In fact, the choir (my group) always score gold, as does the other choral groups in the school. You see, at this competition, there are no first, second and third places - its just gold, silver and bronze - and you could have several of them in the one category. In fact, everyone who goes in it gets bronze just for showing up.

Well yesterday was the festival, and my choir was in it. I was very worried, as I haven't been in the competition before, and I didn't think they'd do well enough, but luckily I was wrong. They did very well, scoring one of two golds given out for our section.

Not bad, eh?

On Being A Virgin

Yes, that's right. I'm a virgin... virgin wireless broadband, of course.

I'm not too sure what I think of them just yet, and probably for good reason. You see, I finally decided to invest in a mobile broadband pre-paid plan, rather than have the hassle of signing up for a lengthy (and expensive) contract with a broadband provider, buying a modem, paying all the necessary set up charges and the like. So I did some research (no easy task, there's not really a good comparison website for these sorts of things in Australia), and decided that buying a wireless modem (why oh why did I ever leave mine in the UK?) for $129 and then buying 'top up' vouchers as required, was the way to go. The cheapest deal for this (other than Telstra, who seriously suck) was Virgin. So I ordered their modem online and a few days later it arrived in the mail. Sweet.

Except that when I went to set it up, it didn't work. At all. So I tried it on a PC. Works fine. Plugged it back into my mac. Nope, no luck. Phoned up the blighters, followed all their silly instructions. Still no luck. This is most definitely not good now, as they have a "no refund" policy. Crap.

So I resorted to searching copious online forums in the hope that someone had the solution - and lucky for me, they did. It took a bit of searching, bit of research, and a bit of faffing around - but finally I'm connected!

'Bout bleepin' time, too!

DIY Hair Colour

Why is that DIY hair colouring is never easy? I mean, it should be - its a simple case of mixing a bit of solution together, tipping that on your hair and waiting 25 minutes or so before washing it off. Shouldn't be a problem at all...

Except that it is! First of all, mixing that silly solution whilst wearing those slippery plastic gloves (which are way too big for your hand) is near on impossible. How many times did I drop that stupid bottle! Solution all over floor, and me frantically trying to wipe it up - succeeding only in practically gassing myself to death on the fumes whilst creating lovely brown streaks all over the floor! And then, when I finally managed to pick the bottle up, I put it on the melamine counter - and you guessed it, it left a gorgeous brown rim! Which of course, I can't remove...!

So I eventually get some of the stuff in my hair, piling it on top of my head akin to the beehive hair style out of Hairspray or something, only to have it come tumbling back down all over my face, dying it a gorgeous streaky pooh brown colour! But by now I've removed the gorgeous plastic gloves, which I've chucked in the bin, and have to use my bare hands to sort this mess out. This unfortunately leaves them a gorgeous pooh brown colour!

And then when I eventually sit out the 25 minutes and so on, and go to wash it all off, I discover many more spots and streaks of brown all over the counter - permanently stained of course (unfortunate for a rental property) - as well as the fact that my ears are now dyed brown also!

Why oh why is this so difficult? And the reason for this endeavour? Today at school I discovered in the bathroom mirror my roots showing... vanity is a curse...!

So as payment, tomorrow I'll be going to school looking like a panda...

Two Movies in Two Days

This weekend has been a busy one for me. Not only have I had the stress of picking up a new fridge, but I've also been out to IKEA to collect my new mattress, spent a couple of hours sandpapering and varnishing wood for my father, bur I've also got that stupid Catholic Colleges competition for school tomorrow. With all that on my plate, it's quote astonishing that I've also managed to squeeze two movies in.

The first was yesterday with the women from church. We went to see the very very sad "My sisters keeper". It was a lovely movie, one which would've brought me to tears but for the rest of the women who were bawling their eyes out already. I thought it was really well done, though.

Then tonight I met a friend in town and went to the Regent (a bit of a Brisbane institution) to see "Beautiful Kate". Although a somewhat sordid topic, it was well acted and well directed and well worth a look.

So now, on the train home, all that is left is for me to worry about this silly Catholic thing tomorrow...

Staff on Retreat

One of the strange things about working in a Catholic school is their strange sense of "spirituality" and religion. I have managed in the most part to deal with it, having learned fairly quickly the correct way to cross myself, and stopping myself from cringing each time, in the interests of political correctness, and in an endeavour to show support to more feminist sort of issues, they say "In the name of the Creator", instead of "In the name of the Father". I can sort of adapt to all these strange things, even the fact that as the teacher I have to greet every class with "Good morning ____ (e.g. Yr 8) and may God bless you". But I simply can not grasp the concept of the 'retreat'.

My idea of a 'retreat' would be to go on some sort of Bible camp or something, you know, a weekend away where you spend time praying, singing worship songs, reading the Bible, and talking deeply and meaningfully about your faith with others who are like-minded. And I enjoyed quite a lot of that sort of experience when growing up. But that is not what a Catholic retreat is. No sir-ee.

Instead, you go off for a day of whishy-washy faffiness. Where you skirt about the true issues of what it means to be a Christian, and just look at what it means to be vaguely 'spiritual' instead. Its a pile of bollocks, I can assure you.

So today, imagine my great joy and delight (sarcasm dripping there, can't you hear it) at the concept of spending a full day on "Staff Retreat". Poking my eyes out with a knitting needle would be much more enjoyable.

Or so I thought. Fortunately today we got to choose which workshops we endured, and luckily, I got my choices in quickly, which meant that I actually got those choices. So, for my first workshop, I went on a tour of the Mercy Heritage Centre, which is a Catholic Museum attached to the school, and for the second workshop, I was on "Finding God in the Cinema" which was about finding 'spiritual' moments in movies. This basically meant that we got to watch a load of movie clips and then 'discuss' them. Not a bad one, actually.

So on the whole, although I still feel like poking my eyes out at the thought of "Staff Retreat", it wasn't so bad today... but slightly surreal...

Brisbane Roar? Or Is That Whimper? Whimp, even?

On Saturday, before the big IKEA debacle, Beck phoned me up to see if I wanted to go see the soccer that night. Now I've actually never been to a live soccer game before, so I thought it could be kind of interesting, especially as it was on at Suncorp stadium, where they play all the big rugby league, and also because Beck had a special deal on the tickets - two for the price of one - so they would work out at about $16 each. Sure, why not, I thought?

Well, first of all, a good reason why not would be that Brisbane Roar should really be called Brisbane Whimps. They absolutely sucked! Which wasn't helped by the fact that the ref clearly forgot his little white cane - he was as blind as a bat!

But despite all that, and despite the Whimps losing, Beck and I had a good time...

Shopping at Ikea is So Easy...?

As many of you know, outside of the Apple Store on Regent Street, IKEA would have to be my most favourite store on the planet. Oh the joy, the sheer exhilarance of wandering around the gorgeous displays, dreaming about the endless possibilities - how you, too, could have an IKEA dream home for a reasonable price - the only limit (other than your pocket) is your imagination. It makes me literally dizzy with excitement. And to top it all off, you can have a (relatively cheap) yummy lunch of meatballs with lingonberry sauce - oh it takes me back to Sweden and the Icehotel...fabulous...

So of course, every available chance I get, off I choof to IKEA. Well, its not like I have a real lot else to do! The fact that the nearest store to me is no longer 3 miles away is irrelevant - no, that just adds to the adventure. Its at least an hour long journey now to my nearest store, the only one in Queensland (although apparently that's set to change with one being proposed at North Lakes) - and I relish every minute of the trip, psyching myself up for the buzz of wandering those hallowed showrooms, soaking up that IKEA millieu...

Alas, my last few journeys have unfortunately not been "all that". First of all, I've had literally no money with which to shop - so I've had to gaze longingly at the lovely items, pick them up if possible, play with them, sniff them, drool over them - and return them to the shelf. Except for my most expensive IKEA purchase to date - my bed. I was so pleased with that purchase, a piece of 'proper' IKEA, not the sort of quasi IKEA stuff I'd been buying (you know, small storage boxes, a dish scrubber and the like - the small stuff). A real proper thing - fantastic.

Except for the mattress. To be honest, I really have a lot of problems with mattresses lately. I guess its just because I'm getting older, but it seems to me that particularly in the last few years, I've had a lot of back problems if I sleep on a mattress which is too soft. Mattresses are a really difficult thing to get right. Luckily though, IKEA have the 'love it and exchange it' policy - which means that you can try the mattress at home, and if its not suitable, bring it back and exchange for another within that specific brand. There are a few other terms and conditions, but that's essentially it.

Well anyway, this mattress has been giving me a bit of gip, so finally I decided to take it back and exchange for a firmer one. Out we trot to IKEA - Dad needing to come too as I don't have a bullbar on my car so I can't tow a trailer - and I return the mattress. We then have a quick spot of lunch and head off to the showroom to try out the others.

Eventually I selected one that I liked - some $400 dearer mind you, but nonetheless, I thought it would be ok. So I tell the salesperson which one I've selected and then she does a check on the stock levels. Alas, they're out of stock. Hmm. What to do now - my original mattress has already been taken away...

I went back down to the exchange counter and explained the dilemma. She, too, had a look and discovered the stocks were out, so we set about setting up a 'case file' so that the new one could be ordered. She told me the difference in price - and it was $50 more than I thought it would be. Why? Well it turns out that the salesperson had given me the code for the Queen size - but I wanted a Double. Quickly the lady checked - and it seemed that they did actually have a Double in stock. Great, I'll take it. So she cancelled the previous paperwork and set about arranging for the correct mattress. Meanwhile, she was now technically working overtime, as she should've finished at 4, so when the paperwork was in order, she told me all I had to do was wait til my number was called, and it would be ok. 4.30 came and went. 4.45 passed. 5.00 too. Then at 5.15, (15 minutes after the store had closed), I was informed that there were no Doubles in stock! Problem!

'Cos now of course my other mattress has well and truly gone - and its getting late - and I don't have a bed to sleep in!

So the long and short of it is, I've got to sleep on my dodgy pull out sofa bed for a week until a new mattress comes in!

Kind of makes you re-think this photo then, eh?

A Month of Birthdays...

July has been one very difficult month for me, in terms of my diet. This is because this is the month of many birthdays in our family - 4th - Mel, 14th - Dad, 27th - Beck... so its pretty huge.

We chose to celebrate them this time with family dinners at Mum and Dad's. This has actually been quite good, although I have been very surprised at just how loud it is - when you have 7 adults and 5 kids all crowded around one small table, it is very, very NOISY! (in a nice enough way, I suppose).

It has been lovely to be able to spend these times with the family (although very hard-hitting on the old pocket, I assure you - and the hips) - and we've got round 4 tonight with Mum and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary... oy ve!

Anyway, here are some pics... alas I don't seem to have any of Mel's sorry, but if I get some I'll put them up here...

Dad's Birthday

Beck's Birthday