Weekend Rewind

Alison over at Life in a Pink Fibro hosts the Weekend Rewind meme - normally comes up on a Friday night so I am a little late joining up this time. Given the Royal Wedding this week's theme is weddings, or love or something similar.

Here is my post from September 2010 - about This Man, I am well and truly blessed.

The Wedding Dress - New Yet Old

So like over 2 billion people across the globe I tuned in to see the Dress - I was hoping for something really radical - but was happy if it was anything but the powder puff dress Diana wore - was I the only person who hated that dress?

I saw Pippa's gorgeous dress and my hopes were raised - I mean that dress was amazing.

Then I saw a peep as Kate got into the car and I was all - oh no boring. But I was wrong, when I saw the dress in full, it was beautiful, elegant and classic - taking us back to the beautiful times of the 50s. Why the 50s, well my Mum's wedding dress that she wore in 1953 could have been the inspiration for this dress - how about that Mum?

My paternal grandmother (she's the tiny one on the left of the photo of my Mum and her mother and mother in law), made my mother's dress, she was a dressmaker who earned her living that way after my paternal grandfather died when my father was still in primary school. She was an amazing seamstress and my Mother's dress what just beautiful. Hers was a lace jacket over the top of a strapless dress, but you wouldn't know that in the first photo of her below.

She may not have married a prince, in fact my father was anything but a prince in the end, but I think my Mother looked just like a princess in her hand made gown, sewn with love.

I Nearly Had An iPhone but Telstra Got In The Way

So, I decided to upgrade my phone to one with bluetooth so that I can answer calls while driving. Now I don't really want a fancy phone, just one to make calls and text and I would like a flip phone rather than a touch screen. Should be easy you would think.

I go to Telstra - our current provider and should I say the only provider I have used for my mobile service - EVER!! That should count for something, shouldn't it?

I dutifully line up, I wait my turn but with only 1 person serving and 3 of them having some sort of a conflab in the corner, the line is getting pretty long. Finally a couple of more staff appear from the back and the line moves slowly forward. By now it has been at least 10 minutes and my back is seizing up and my pain levels are increasing. I fear if I leave the line that I will lose my place, so I move around a little, lean against the counter and just keep hoping they will not take too much longer - right!!

Eventually I get to the counter and ask for some assistance in choosing a phone. Not obviously the strong point of the person helping me, seems there is only 1 flip phone in stock - a Telstra brand - that does bluetooth but a customer told her it doesn't work all that well. Right - that is a big selling point when the main reason I want a phone is for bluetooth! So I ask her, well if it doesn't work I can bring it back and get a refund - um NO. So I'm like, what?

She says you have to take it to the manufacturer. I look at her with bewilderment - it is a TELSTRA phone I say, are you not the manufacturer? Oh, right, well we would have to send it away for testing and will MAYBE replace it, if it is faulty, but no money back. So let me understand this, Telstra will sell me a phone with bluetooth capability - their selling point, but if the bluetooth doesn't work and the phone is not faulty, just that the bluetooth is flaky, they won't refund my money? So we move on to look at other phones, as this one does not fill me with confidence.

There are some slide phones with tiny weeny qwerty keypads which a fairy would have trouble typing with - I mean have you seen how small those keys are? I have arthritic fingers and a shortening of patience (but that is a whole other post) - so no, they are no good.

So we are left with touch screen phones. Now I should say I love my iPad's touch screen, but my daughter had a touch screen phone that occasionally would ring me all by itself when floating around in her handbag - not a big selling point for me. But anyway, at this point I am in pain and just want a bloody phone. So I go, well what about an iPhone? Sure she says, it has a little button at the top to lock the screen and you press that then swipe the screen to start it up. Sounds good to me. We have a sale - finally.

So we make our way to the counter and by now I am in so much pain I am literally shaking. She asks my phone number which I provide and then she says something along the line of I will get all the paperwork together it might take a minute or two. Okay, I need to sit, so I explain about my back and say I am popping over to the stool over there to wait. No problems she says I will bring it all over there for you. So I wait.

Then she comes over with no paperwork and tells me sorry I can not sell you the phone as the account is in your husband's name. Um, hello, what??? She goes on to explain that while I own the phone number and this current phone, I don't have authority on the account to buy and upgrade to a new plan without my husband's approval and not just his approval but he has to be there with me to do it?

So I say something along the lines of - you are telling me in the year 2011 I need my husband's approval? Well it is not like that, it is just he has the authority and I don't. Well I explain I never agreed to that and neither did my husband. Well apparently when we bundled our phones to save money on our accounts I gave away all rights. Now I don't think anyone ever explained that to me, in fact Telstra has sold at least 2 phones to me over the phone, I have dealt with them about our account numerous times, but I can not buy my own phone. So I politely tell her that is a load of BS. She says, well sorry but that's the policy. I ask to speak to her manager. He is busy she says and will come and talk to me when he is free. And so I wait for another 10-15 maybe 20 minutes and he comes over and we go through the whole routine again. Still with the same answer - no madam you can not buy this phone.

When I ask why I have been able to purchase and upgrade plans over the phone, apparently that is voice recognition and it is okay but to personally buy a phone I need my husband and his driver's licence - what in case I am a terrorist?? Voice recognition - load of crap I could be anyone answering my phone when they sell me another phone - PLEASE!!

I politely explain that I am the only one in the household that has never left Telstra - my hubby has tramped his account all over the place, even moving our household phone for one brief time to someone else, but me NEVER. In fact I was the one who convinced him to move back to Telstra and to keep our home phone with them. And it was I who spoke to the people at Telstra and did the bundling to save money and NO ONE AT ANY TIME told me I was giving up my rights to my phone and making my husband the owner of our account. Our home phone is in joint names, his mobile was in his name and mine was in mine, so when did it become policy to remove me from being able to do what I wanted, when I wanted with my phone? And is it just because he has a penis that he now outranks me (I didn't actually say the penis thing, just thought it), or it is because his initial is a B and mine is a K - bugger it Mum you should have named me something that started with A!!!

He had no answer for that one except to say I was nominated for this phone number but my husband has the ownership of the account.

So I say, okay set me up a new account just in my name for my phone. Sure he says, but then I can not have my current number - what??? By now my frustration was to the point of me being on the edge of tears - see, when I get really angry I cry, which is a pain in the arse, but that's were I was. So he says well maybe I can ring your husband and he can give me authority over the phone, but he will have to check out if that is okay. Still seething that I need to have anyone's authority apart from my own, I agree.

After a few minutes he comes back and asks if my husband is at home. Of course he is not, he is at work - oh well that won't work because he has to ring the home phone. At this point I am thinking of ringing some random neighbour, telling them to break into my house and answer the phone and say he is my husband!!

So I ask, can I set everything up, leave the phone with them and send my hubby in on Saturday morning to do the final bit as he hates lining up even more than me and there is no way I can do another 20 minute line up with my back. But no, even that is not possible. So I ask him for a number to phone Telstra and complain. I am not complaining about the service of either of the staff, but I am mightily pissed off with Telstra in general.

My middle daughter tells me she ordered her phone over the net with Telstra, so we can do it that way, but she is not married and so everything is in her name so I would only be able to do that through my husband's name it seems.

It's time this company moved into the 21st Century, and the thing that really pisses me off, is that moving to someone else is not an option. I have friends who have deals with iinet and the like and if there is a problem and the exchange is a Telstra exchange - and lets face it most are and our local certainly is - they go to the bottom of the queue to have their phones fixed.

So I nearly had an iPhone but thanks Telstra - you got in the way.

Blog Post 401

Who would have thought that when I started this blog in November 2008 that I would still be blogging now, I certainly didn't have any expectations of where this would go and how long for. My Anzac Day post was post 400 - sort of fitting as the day has special meaning for me.

So this is post 401, will I get to 500 or even 600 - maybe all the way to 800 doubling where I am now. Seem strange to celebrate 401 instead of 500? Well I suppose that is just me being me - a little odd that way.

There have been more than 401 posts written, but only 401 that I have hit the publish button on. There are some still sitting in my drafts and I have not included these in the total and they may or may not get published, only time will tell.

There are some that after writing them were deleted, for the act of writing them was what I needed, not sending them out to cyberspace, but just the act of writing - letting me let go of some negative stuff I have dealt with.

There are some still in my head which might eventually see the light of day - or maybe not.

The one thing I have always believed is that this blog is for me, not to please anyone else, but I am still tempered by what I feel I can disclose - which is a shame, but my aim is not to really cause any controversy, not to deliberately hurt anyone's feelings - even if mine have been hurt. But to portray a little bit of me, some of my memories for my family and sometimes to vent in a forum that for the most part is supportive.

Thanks to my very first followers and all that have followed since then, thanks for hanging in there even when I have my quiet time, for supporting me with your great comments and for allowing me to share a little bit of your lives too.

Lest We Forget 2011

They shall not grow old, as we who are left grow old.

Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

we will remember them

Lest We Forget

This year Anzac Day has got swallowed up in Easter, which seems a shame. It is a day that has always been important to me, more so as I have aged and the full extent of the sacrifices that previous generations made to ensure our county, and indeed others, are with hope, a safe place to live.

My previous Anzac Day posts have been very personal, looking at how Anzac Day affects me and then looking at lives lost within my extended family 2009 and 2009, 2010 and 2010 (yes 2 per year).

This year my heart turns to those soldiers still fighting the war in Afghanistan, and to the families of the diggers who have lost their lives in this war. A lot of people wonder just what the hell we are doing over there. But we are Australian and isn't that our creed - to help others?

I love being Australian, knowing that I come from a land that has traditionally reached out to others to help in their struggles.

We not only help others within our own country - look at the response to the recent disasters here in 2011, but we also reach out to other countries in time of need.

We are often first responders to our neighbouring countries when things like mine disasters and earthquakes happen.

So this Anzac Day as I think of the thousands upon thousands of men and women who sacrificed their lives, so that I could have freedom - I remember the brave men and women, so far from home who are showing the true Aussie spirit, fighting for the rights of others so far from the families and country that they love.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all the lovely bloggers out there

May your Easter Sunday be filled with joy

A Typical Blogging Day

Here I sit at my desk, trying to type while Max tries to:

lie on the keyboard

puts his tail over the keyboard

climb up the front of me to cuddle on my shoulder or sit on my boobs

taps at my fingers as they type

walks on the keyboard

tries to steal the pens off my desk

walks over and rubs his wet nose all over my screen

taps at the screen with his paw as he tries to catch the letters as they appear

walks behind my iMac and up onto the windowsill and tries to climb on top of my iMac

sits behind my iMac and pops his head around playing peek a boo

This is all after I have already put him on the floor at least 5 times before even attempting to blog.

What interruptions happen to you when you try to blog?

And here he sits looking all innocent with the 'who me' face

Autumn

Autumn here in Perth is my favourite time of year, gentle breezes, cool sometime sunny days, wispy clouds scuttling across the bluest of blue skies. Autumn is the time I want to get outside and sit and read a book, or share a cuppa with friends and family. To choose which plants to plant, like pansies and violas and sweet peas - sadly because of my arthritis (and my aversion to dirt under my nails) my hubby is lovely and does the planting for me - God I love that man.

Just once in my life I would love to spend an Autumn where the trees turn red, orange and brown and slowly lose their leaves ... hopefully that wish will come true before I leave this mortal coil. Here in Aus our native trees are not deciduous and stay green all year long. As we have planted native to save water that it all I see - and I love them to and all the birds that come and enjoy them as well.

We have had a long drawn out summer this year and half way through Autumn we are only just beginning to have what I call our Autumn days. So today I thought I would change me blog design for a while and lust for those beautiful changing trees I hope to see and to honour the season I love most.

What season do you love best?

Weekend Rewind - Easter Edition

The lovely Alison over at Life in a Pink Fibro hosts the weekend rewind meme. Why don't you pop over and join in.

This week's theme is New - New Life, New House, New Car, New Beginnings - you get the idea, and the meme is open right up to Monday night.

So in that theme here is my new kitchen and my new car (which is also about my littlest munchkin (hence the title of Change Management).

And how about these for something extra - after all it is a long weekend and you might need a little light reading - lol.

My first love

My first grandchild

Planner Or Not??

Are you a planner? One of those people with 5 year plans, who look to the future and know what they want to be doing and where they want to be going? And if so, how do you feel if you don't achieve those goals? Or do you always get there?

Me, I am a fly by the seat of my pants girl, maybe because I became a Mum at 17 and realised very early that planning with a bub - well most of the time it is more heartache and it is much easier to just go with the flow.

Maybe I am intrinsically lazy and just can't be bothered with even thinking about planning that far ahead. Look at my retirement, I am 56 this year and have thrown around the idea of retiring, but haven't really done any planning towards that goal.

Maybe I am too busy to be planning how to make thing easier, somehow I managed to bring up 4 children while working full time for quite a deal of their lives, did I plan how to do that? Nup.

Come to think of it I didn't even plan one of my pregnancies, they all sort of sneaked up on me, real surprise every single time the doctor said, 'hey good news, your are pregnant' and me with a really???

I am sort of like that with my job as well, not good and planning, have a very messy desk (but know were everything is nonetheless), I have so much to do, but so many unexpectedly crisis I deal with that I think I would stress way more if I had planned and then not achieved within my work day.

So, I am really interested, are you a planner - do you make it work and how. Or are you like me, happy to deal with what arises when it arises and muddle through the rest of the time?

Sunday Selections

Kim @ Frog Ponds Rock hosts the Sunday Selections meme. A chance to take out and share some of the many photos you have stored on your computer and never get around to publishing.

Behind these photos is a story, as there is with most photos I suppose. It goes something like this. Once we had a tree, a very, very tall tree - a Eucalyptus nicholli, it was very straight and had a huge trunk. Underneath this tree we had planted ferns and azaleas - all which flourished in it's shade. It was a very, very big tree, planted in our garden just as a small seedling which, like Jack's bean stalk, grew and grew and grew.

It had been in our garden for around 11-12 years when in early August 2001 a freak storm blew through our suburb, randomly demolishing trees and taking roofs of houses. Our rather large tree was uprooted. Thats right, it didn't snap it, it uprooted it. It fell backwards through our back fence and into our neighbour's yard narrowly missing their pool and their house.

It was a portent of what was to come in the month to follow ... my father in law's unexpected death, my grand-daughter's life changing car accident, and all the changes that follow on from such life changing events.

Apologies for the photos - they were taken with a very old pre-digital camera.

The stump being craned over the top of the house as it was too large to chop up.

Melancholy

It seems I am suffering from some sort of melancholy, and I have been in a funk all day.

Many of the blog posts I have read over the last few days talk about loss, missing someone, broken relationships and siblings.

As written before, my brother chose to leave our family nearly 10 years ago. He and I were not particularly close, and I have dealt with the decision he made, but for some reason, tonight, I miss him.

I hope he is doing well, I just wish he would pick up the phone and call, I would welcome him back in a heartbeat.

I miss you Steve.

Weekend Rewind - Waiting

I went over the Alison @ Life In A Pink Fibro to hook up with Weekend Rewind, to find the subject was waiting. So I went to check old posts and none really fit the theme. But it sort of triggered a new post - so I hope that is okay.

Waiting

I seem to be constantly waiting ...

Waiting for courage

Waiting for strength

Waiting to retire/resign

I seem to be constantly waiting ...

Waiting for something better

Waiting for the world to change

Waiting for more

I seem to be constantly waiting ...

Waiting for less pain

Waiting for more sleep

Waiting for motivation

I seem to be constantly waiting ...

Waiting to win lotto

Waiting for better things

Waiting for inspiration

I seem to be constantly waiting ...

Maybe it's time for some action

Maybe it's time to get into the game

Maybe it's time to stop waiting

But no, it seems waiting is my game - sigh

And The Answer Is

White, beautiful white bell like flowers. They are actually more lovely in real life the photos do not do them justice.

White or Green?

I year or so ago I bought a spiky succulent for one of the pots on our patio. Recently it has produced this flower spike. So what colour flowers do you think they will be, white or green? Or maybe something totally different, any ideas?

Restlessness

The feeling of restlessness is invading my soul

The wanting for something I can not pinpoint

The feeling of need for more than just this

The yearning to move on, to go somewhere else

My body racked with the flight or fight

Like something is lurking just beyond my vision

I'm putting it down to the wind ...

Rustling through the trees, tossing the climbing rose around

Making the cats skittish and now me

Restlessness on an Autumn Sunday morning

Let it just be the wind and not a portent of something to come

Weekend Rewind

Linking up again to Life in a Pink Fibro's Weekend Rewind hosted by the lovely Alison, this weekend's rewind is December 2010 or any December before that.

I have chosen this post from 2008 - Sisters, the one's the universe provides. I truly hope you have these sorts of sisters in your lives, my would be so poorer for never having met them.

Those Menopausal Nights

Over here in Perth we have had a very long, warm/hot summer. Endless nights of temperatures in the 20Cs and so for months the most I have had on my bed was a sheet, and most nights even the sheet was thrown off. I have so looked forward to putting a blanket back on the bed and snuggling, longingly thinking of cool crisp night time air wafting over my bed. Last night, my soft cuddly blue blanket was lovingly put on my bed. Autumn has finally come to Perth, loving it as it is my favourite season.

Last night my night went something like this, snuggle under blanket right up to my chin, move blanked down so shoulder exposed, drop off to sleep. Wake up, throw blanket off, just leave sheet on, go back to sleep. Wake up, pull blanket back up, go back to sleep. Wake up throw blanket and sheet off, go back to sleep. Wake up, pull sheet back up, go back to sleep. Wake up, pull blanket up too, go back to sleep. Wake up, move so feet and lower legs out in the open, arms exposed, go back to sleep. Wake up, throw it all off again. Repeat cycles over and over again until finally at about 3.30am fall asleep with sheet and blanket on and not surface until 6.30am when I got up.

Menopause - gotta love it, and I don't have the hot flushes very badly at all compared to other friends I know. Something to look forward to all my young lovelies

What's Hot and Loving In My House

Now if you were expecting me to say my hubby - well that's a given. But this hot and loving thing is my kitten, the one I introduced you to here.

Everyone time I sit at my computer to blog or do whatever I need to do, he is here, either on my desk trying to help me type, or taking pens off my desk or trying to make me stop typing so he can have a cuddle. After about the 20th time of me picking him up and putting in on the floor and him jumping back up, he finally gets the message and cuddles up at my feet, leaning against my foot and making it way hotter than the other one. He has such a hot little body which I am sure during winter I will love, just like a hot water bottle ... during this long hot summer, not so much - lol.

I bought him a lovely, soft cat bed to sit in my study, but no, it is my foot he needs to lean on, just like he is right now ... this time it only took 10 times for him to know I meant business.

He loves cuddles that much, if I leave the toilet door open - when there is no one else at home - he comes in and tries to jump in my lap, no matter how many times I say no, the next time - he still tries.

His favourite place is on my chest if I am sitting in my chair in the lounge, which not only makes me very hot in summer, but is not great if I am trying to read.

He still demands to be stroked and if it does not go on for minutes, then he nuzzles your hand with his wet nose or meows at you with a little squeaky sound.

I can never imagine my house without a cat, they say dogs give you unconditional love, well in my house both our cats do that too. It is just a little hotter than this menopausal body can cope with when it is a hot night and Max is sharing my bed and laying hard against me near my face. I wouldn't trade him for the world, even when he is still manic and running up the walls trying to knock my painting off the wall.

Weekend Rewind

Weekend Rewind is hosted by Alison at Life in a Pink Fibro, a chance to share an older post for some new love. This week's theme is November 2010 or an older November.

What a great chance to share my first post ever, from November 2008, titled - Life, The Universe and a Little About Me.

Who would have thought that two and a half years later I would still be blogging - certainly not me. Or that I would have had a chance to meet some of my blogger friends IRL at the ABC 2011.

So pop on over, if you have not already been there, and share some of your weekend rewind.

Kindred Spirits

One of the most amazing things I have found about blogging is the fact that somehow, in some strange way, kindred spirits are drawn together.

It is not to say that you connect with everyone you meet on this journey, some you meet and stay following for a short while before they either stop blogging, go private, or you move on and visit them less often.

But some people seem to reflect you, not necessarily exactly the same experiences, or even the same life path, but there is a connection in either the way you look at the world, or the way you strive to live your live, I am sure you have all found them at one time or another.

Can you remember how you met these friends, how you stumbled across their blogs, what made you connect?

Do you regularly check out other bloggers blogrolls?

Today I would like to share one of those Kindred Spirits with you, just in case you have not yet met her.

Most recently there is a blogger whose non de plume is mybabyjohn, she lives in Canada - a country I long to visit. She maybe a little older than me, maybe around my age - I just know she is retired now. Her blog My Feathered Nest I discovered after she commented on and started following my blog. I do believe I may even have been her first follower - or at least in the first few who had the honour of following her blog.

She is one of the most prolific blog writers, posting every day if not more than once every day. Little snippets of her life interspersed with fun bit and bobs. Currently she is taking part in the A-Z April Challenge and I look forward to seeing what she comes up with in her quirky style.

Why don't you pop over and visit, maybe even follower her. Like all of us, she loves visitors.

She also is the most regular commenter on my posts - I believe she is a kindred spirit and I am so glad to have met her in cyberspace. You never know, one day when I finally get to Canada we may even meet in real life, wouldn't that be a hoot.

The Tall Poppy Syndrome Alive and Well in the Land of Bloggers

A group of women got together to organise a Conference. They worked hard for 8 months, using their own money as deposits to assure conference venues etc were secured. These woman put a lot of time and effort into making the conference the best it could be. It was the first so sure there may have been some teething problems, maybe even some personality problems, after all get a group of diverse people together and things have ups and downs and ebbs and flows. All this was behind the scenes for people like me. The first I knew about the Conference was when my daughter told me there was a conference happening and I said, when, how do I get a ticket and booked right there and then.

I gave little thought to who was putting it together, what the content might be and focused on the fact I know had a chance to meet other bloggers 'in real life', mainly those I followed, but I was also looking forward to the opportunity to meet more. It didn't matter to me what 'niche' these bloggers fitted into, and really should there be a thing as a niche for most bloggers? I expect those that are using their blogs to make a living like to belong to a niche as that is their community and I suppose you could say their market.

Me, I just blog and hadn't really put much thought into falling into a niche, I am after all many things in life, as we all are. But some people have specific needs for their blogs and the communities they build - support, advice, friendship, the list goes on. But did it matter to me what 'niche' these bloggers fitted into - not in the least - they are bloggers and that was all that mattered.

Well the conference was held, and about 170-180 people attended. All but a handful were women, women of all ages, all shapes and sizes, but women who seemed excited to be there. Well that is what I thought anyway.

I don't know about you, but normally I lose interest or start to day dream/get sleepy when I attend a conference, no matter how much I want to be there, it is just the way my mind works. Not once at this conference did that happen. Personally I thought the content was good without a particular bias one way or the other. Sure there were mainly women on the panels and as speakers, but there were mainly women at the conference - so that sort of made sense. Of the group of women that put in all the hard work behind the scenes - a few of them were on panels and a couple spoke - but not all of them - they didn't take the spotlight - well not in my eyes anyway.

If I had any reservations about the conference, it was that I didn't get to meet and spend time with all the people I wanted to meet. But I take some responsibility for that - I am very uncomfortable in large crowds and tend to withdraw a little, but that is my issue and no one elses.

I came away from the conference looking forward to 2012 and hoping that the conference might be over 2 days to allow more mingle time, but so looking forward to what was to come. Where the conference could head in the future.

Now I don't twitter - it really doesn't interest me, and I only have time to follow a few blogs every day, I alternate to try and get to everyone on my list. So imagine my surprise when I started to hear rumblings of discontent about the conference - people being 'cliquey' , so called 'A' listers (what???) being snobby, the content being too 'mummy' blog focused (really??) and so it goes on.

Now there are going to be 2 conference next year to try and address the situation - what?? This is Australia - a vast land with not always cheap airfares. Sure I hope to attend both, I am lucky that my kids are grown and I have become more financially secure now, so probably not a big problem to me, but will all bloggers be in the same boat?

So I have 2 issues, why are we as bloggers not standing together to rejoice in the fact we have had the first conference - rather than now tearing the one we had apart at the seams. And secondly and this is the one that really sticks in my craw - Why are we as women (don't forget most attendees were women) not supporting each other and especially the women that put all the effort in. If you want to see change for next year, then put your hand up for the committee don't tear down the people who helped make it happen.

The fact is, the conference was born from the Aussie Mummy Bloggers team, so the people on the original committee were members of that group - after all would you not as the organiser choose people you already knew? Makes sense to me.

So how about we stop making the after conference cyberspace about the negative and instead make it about the positive. Shame to see that the 'tall poppy syndrome' is so alive and well and that most of the people trying to take them down are women ... a real shame and not a good look for the blogging community at all.