Here is my newest painting

How do you like it?
I invite your comments.....

Very Excited!

I have finished my latest art work today.
I only drew it up in class last Tuesday - so it has been a whirlwind process.
This is the first one that I have painted using my own images and the first one that I have done without any input from my teacher.I did it all at home.
Indeed, I am very excited.
I just hope that he finds it acceptable and does not pick up on any tragic errors that I have done.
Anyway,
I can only get better.
I am very pleased with my progress - I have been going to classes for about six months and this is my seventh painting.
I will put up a picure of it tomorrow when the man returns from Sydney with out digital camera.
Hope you like it too...

The man goes to Sydney.......ON HIS OWN!!

How dare he!!!
On his own...going away...without me...
He is attending a course organised by the Cancer Council for volunteers who would like to become telephone consellors/advisors for people with prostate cancer.
He is leaving this afternoon and will spend two days attending a seminar ( he hates the thought of role play )- his accomodation is being paid for and I think most of his expenses as well.
I thought of maybe going with him - but its all too complicated with baby girk needing to still go to school and new puppy needing someone at home to look after him.Plus it gives him some time out from the mad Daniel women.
A change is as good as a holiday - don't they say?

Cold and miserable in Redfern!

Spent the day with baby girk at another Anime Convention in Sydney.
It was another massive journey for me - as I am so challanged by anything remotely "new" or different and this trip would mean that I would have to catch another train and be in an area of Sydney unfamiliar to me... ( yes I know, I am a sad, sad case )
We travelled down by train and then connected with anothr one to Redfern Station ( which was so dead easy I am embarrased to say that this made me anxious ) and then we walked to the Australian Technology Park which is right behind the station.
You should have seen the crowds....my goodness.
I am always blown away by the number of people that come to these conventions. It is seriously big stuff. And the costumes!!!!Most people get dressed up as their favourite characters from the books and stories.
It is a sight to behold....as they all get off buses and trains dressed as warriors,japanese cartoon characters, swordsmen, and such..
I let the girk go and meet her friends and I wandered around Redfern in the cold, wet and freezing wind.This entertained me for about 10 minutes, then I just froze and was miserable.
There were no neat shops to go and visit, no book stores, no interesting coffee shops that would beat the taste of hubby's coffee and only a few dodgy pubs that I crawled into to beat the cold at certain points.
But the baby had a great day and that was the most important thing.
I did go to bed at 9pm from sheer exhaustion!
She has now made plans to go the next Anime Convention with some friends that she has in Melbourne next month - we just happen to be there at the same time that the Convention hits town....can you imagine her excitement?????
AN Anime Convention in Melbourne and being able to stay with friends at the same time....sheer heaven for her..
and for us that means two days in Melbourne without baby in tow!!
The man is going to a barista course in the City and I will head straight to "Spellworks" and maybe get a reading done.Oh, yes....I will also be having copious amounts of coffee...
BLISS!!!!!!
No news from Wombat.....

It's been three years...

It's been three years since dad died...20th August 2005.
Since then, so many things have happenend in my life that it seems as though dad has been gone for much, much longer.
I know so little about him that I often wonder how similar I may be to him or how different?
He was a man who shared little and certainly was not around much when I was little - he worked afternoon shift. I knew him as an angry, solitary man who ruled with an iron fist.
All I have now is some memories, and a box of documents that tell me something about his life.
When I see my mother, she does not mention him.
It's all about her.
And I guess that's where she's at - it needs to be all about her, that is her survival tactic.
And it has worked for her.
I have had a massive headache for days now and I woke with it still firmly lodged in my head this morning.
I am hoping it goes away soon.

What are you really doing with your life???

I watched a program on t.v. last night on Compass ( ABC )about a 75 year old Aussie man who goes around Bali and does free cataract surgeries in remote villages for those suffering blindness.
It told about his efforts to overcome the fears of the people and their superstitions about their Gods and that they are suffering because of karma from another life.
There was a story of a family of two sisters who had 22 children between them, all who developed cataracts and were blind.This Aussie man tried for years to get the father to allow the kids to have an operation, and finally, two were allowed to go. Ofcourse, it was successful which then made the other 20 children want one!
Also, there was another story of a two year old, blinded by cataracts, and her first moments of seeing her mother's face for the first time after the operation ( which lasts only 12 minutes ).

How joyous it was!!!

This particular fellow had been through a near death experience ( I guess Lisa would definately call him a walk in ) and after this man left hospital he moved to Bali to recover and now he is giving back to the country that gave such a new perspective on life.

It was also a story about the spiritual centre of the Balinese, how their whole world revolves around the graciousness of the Gods and what they give and what they take away.
They celebrate life and, equally, celebrate death.
We have a lot to learn from these gorgeous people and my heart longs to go back there.
It did make me think about what I am trying to achieve through my life -
that I have a real need to be a spiritual person - it makes me feel that I have a soul.That I would like to feel that I do something that makes a difference.
And that is not at Calendar Club, nor is it Wombat or Rockmans.

In Bali, the village medicine man or Baliyan is the most important person in the village. They go to him, or her, for all their problems, for healings and for advice as well as to reconnect to those who have passed on.
You can see the Baliyan become 'taken over' with the presence of the departed soul and you can see the people become possessed with spirits who are passing through and connect with them to cause havoc and illness. I really want to learn and know more. It is fascinating stuff.

The Volvo goes bye bye!!!

Well, another headache gone - we sold the Volvo this weekend.
Not for as much as we wanted, but with the way the market is now a days, we must feel very blessed at selling it at all and considering it was our first ad in the Herald. We had only advertised in the local trading post before that.
So "Precious" now belongs to a young Kashmiri family - dad works at the University as a researcher and mum is expecting her first baby ( and is terrified of dogs, as we found out when Maximus went to say hello ).
Good luck to them - I know "Precious" will be good to them.
I was a bit sorry to see the car go - I am sure that if I did not have to count the pennies I would still be very happy to continue driving it as long as I could.

Work? I'm over it!!!

Whose idea was this work thing anyway???
It's all a bit ho - hum and I cannot imagine standing in a ladies clothes shop serving all day long, every day, all day - I now admire all shop girls for their stamina and resiliance!!!
I did a shift out at Rockman's Wallsend yesterday cause they had just fired a lady in there and had no one to do the shift.
Tell you what - I sold more stuff there in the first 15 minutes than I have in the four shifts I have done at Wombat Greenhills.
They certainly want their pound of flesh....no standing around...no, no, no....tidy racks, vacumn floors, wipe benches, hang dresses....
I was exhausted..not good form for an old lady like me.
I go back for three hours today to Greenhills and then the rest of the weekend is MINE!!!
Father in laws birthday party today.
Small do at his place and hopefully I will be doing very little tomorrow.
Have a good weekend everyone - full moon will do crazy things to some people so be on your guard....the patients have escaped from the asylum and are among us!!!!!!!

I won a Ipod shuffle today!

Above are my two most recent works.
One is sort of out back themed with really rich colours that I have not attempted before and I am still working on it and the other is a pic of Newcastle Baths which is now completed.
I have been going mad entering lots of competitions lately and today I got an Ipod Shuffle in the mail.Apperently you can put msic on it and listen through headphones???
Yippee!!!!!!
I have also won a dvd called "The Tudors". I think it's a bit of a yawn....but it's a prize and I need to be grateful...
Maximus is lying on my lap while I type away and Sandy, my friend, called him a "time waster" today - indeed she is totally right.
He is a complete time waster..
I will blog my new art works later when the man gets home and can do it for me..
Things are fast paced at the moment with the contract for Calendar Club arriving in the mail for me to sign off on - that means commiting to another season...ooohhhhh
I have a headache already.
And by the way, I start on October 13th, one day after my birthday, which means that I have to set up the kiosk ON MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! and it will interfere terribly with our Scone Monestry thingy.....I may only be able to be there on Friday and some of Saturday...see already it is shitting me off and there are still two months before I start..

Maximus - the eating and pooing machine!

Boy can that little boy eat!
Maximus has a hankering for piklets, potato bake and the froth off my cappucinno - he only gets a little bit.....don't yell at me!!!
But I am sure that he has grown heaps in this last week.
He is far more confident and loves to have a wander in the back yard on his own exploring in the jungle where the grass is taller than he is.

Life goes on and I am getting to go to art class today - I missed out last week due to going "Wombating".
I had to step up and do some heavy painting over the past few days to look as though I have done something.
I am hoping to finish my latest creation today and will post it later.

I am sad that we have lost one of a YAAD girls she is on my mind and I hope that she stays safe and finds what she needs for herself at this point in time.Good luck Maggie ......stay in touch!

By the way,
The man's latest test results for Prostate Cancer came back as under .01%!!!!!!!!!
Which means he is in the clear and all is super wonderfulious!!!!!
I always sweat when he goes in for a blood test.....as you do...it is such a releif to get the results back.

We have had a great weekend with our newest member of the Daniel family.
We showed him off to several family members who had not seen him yet.
He, of course, won many hearts and is a real cutie!!He loves crawling up and sitting on our necks, snuggling in under our hair.

I have two sifts at "Wombat" this week.
Not much is it?
But I was listening to my cousin's boyfriend who told us that he is working in the kitchen of a local restaurant where they are paying him $13 an hour as a kitchen hand.
He has also been called in to do a one hour shift! That's rediculous!
That's working in todays environment thanks to work place aggreements and every one needing to take anything and everything that is available no matter what the conditions!

8.08.08

Today is the day the Chinese have been waiting for...the start of the Olympics!
I hope it works out well for them as they are putting many people, services and businesses on the line for this event.
I wonder how we would react in Australia if the government told us that we could only drive our cars on certain days if we have even numbered number plates?
Or that we have to shut down our factory, as it is making too much pollution, until the Olympics are over?
But, today is a very lucky day and there are a bzillion Chinese getting married today as they believe that it wil bring them prosperity for the rest of their lives.
They even arrange to have their wedding photos taken a week before the actual wedding day so that they are perfect.
Mmmmmm...blows the idea of you future husband not seeing you in you wedding dress before you walk down the isle doesn't it!

Fortuna is going crazy!

Heaven's, slow down world I want to get off!
I have a job....oh my God!
It's only casual at the moment and I have no idea how many hours I will be getting...
so I am taking it a day at a time.
It's a "Wombat" at GreenHills which is part of the Rockman's group of women's fashion stores.
My boss is James Packer!
He pays shit money...the retail award is shit and work place aggreements make it shittier.
but....at the moment it's a bit of money coming in.
And I am grateful...how it progresses I guess we will see.
There are other things in the pipeworks.
thank you Fortuna..
shit, you rock!!!

Maximus
is SO CUTE.

Life with Maximus!

How such a little bundle of fur and snoffles can bring so much joy into a household!
Maximus is being a darling as is just so adorable.
I took him into the Cottage twice for an introduction yesterday, so if you missed it, I am sorry. There will be plenty of more times ahead as he will become Cottage dog number two behind the mighty Trevor.
He is very very good at night wihout a peep coming from his box till morning - I remember our last pup howled for days til he settled, so I am very lucky indeed.

Other than that, many change have occurred, but things need to settle down a bit before I can say that any of it has been accepted.
I really have come to understand that I do not "do" change well at all and most new things in life are very threatening to me.
You would think I would have thought that shit out by now?
So I need to slide inot things slowly and then I can adjust.
YAAD two starts tonight - so another adjustment needs to be made to the weekly itinerary. It has been so many weeks - I will be happy to see my girls again.

What a weekend!!!

It's been a very full weekend.
All has gone very well.
Baby girk LOVED her Anime Convention at the UNSW.
She took a friend with her and met a few there and they had a ball - I actually did not get lost and navigated the maze that is Sydney very well.
I was exhausted though.
Today we spent the whole day at a Prostate Cancer Seminar at the Town Hall.
There were some amazing people there with one very important gentleman named Dr Walsh from America, a leader in his field.This was his only speaking appearance in the whole of Australia for this year so we were greatly honoured.
Allan Pease was also there - the man who wrote so many books on body language.He did a small talk on his experiences with prostate cancer.
We learnt many new things today and the only unfortunate thing to happen was that a woman sitting next to me had a "turn" and an ambulance had to be called to take her to hospital.
There were 300 people there today and this woman happened to be sitting next to me - the man reckons I must have done something to her....

and


the biggest thing of all
is that we got a new member of the family today.
Yes...
we got our pug today.
it was a spur of the moment thing
it just happened.
we called up yesterday and this puppy was the only one of two left out of the litter.
So went round to the breeder after the seminar,
took one look.....
and were sold.
We are calling him "Maximus" - cause he's not...
he is tiny..
actually teeny weeny
and is currently in a big box in the lounge room.
What have we done????