Welcome Back to Zombieland March 1, 2012
Posted by graciek in Evie, Sol, WTF?.add a comment
Urggh. Sol’s sleeping patterns are totally non-existent. Before we holidayed in England over Christmas my lovely little baby boy was sleeping through the night (7.30pm-5am) and it was bliss!! Since we came back he’s been all over the place with night feeds and it’s frankly getting exhausting. Each day I feel like a total zombie and some days I feel I can barely function (other than ensuring neither kid is killing themself I can’t seem to get anything done). Last night was particularly bad, it went something like this…
23:00 Go to sleep
23:45 Hungry Hippo wakes up for feed
01:00 Little Miss Wriggly, Boney Elbows appears in my bed
01:30 Hungry Hippo wakes for more food
02:00 Evie starts snoring and is cue for me to return her to her own bed
02:30 Just about starting to drift off into deep sleep when the damn water hammer starts making a racket… why on earth is the autowatering system turning on in the garden. Fumble about in the dark, in the driving rain, in my PJs trying to flick spigot to the off position
03:00 Finally back to sleep
05:00 Hungry Hippo AGAIN!!
06:30 Evie awake – GAME OVER FOR SLEEP
Looking at all that it makes me wonder when’s it actually MY turn to sleep 
boo hoo
Grr Arggh Rant aka Where’s My Sodding Calendar???? February 7, 2012
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Well, last month I ordered a calendar through snapfish. Actually it was a rather good deal at the time as it was 40% off. As ever, looking to save money I opted to have my order delivered to my local Kmart ($2.95 rather than $8ish for home delivery). The estimated delivery date was 23/01, which was a week or so but I figured hey, that’s ok. Come 23/01 I go into the store and they say it hasn’t arrived yet. In the last 2 weeks I have been into the store 6 times enquiring about my calendar, and each time they say they are still waiting for it from snapfish! Finally on Saturday I suspected something to be amiss and contacted snapfish who advise that my calendar was successfully delivered on 18/01!!! Grr rant grr arrrgh GRRRRR. So I ring up Kmart (I’m not wasting time going in if I’m not already in passing) and they say as usual that snapfish is the problem, then I said oh it was signed for by Mr X,Y,Z and they say sheepishly, “well we have had a pallet go missing somewhere in store”. They said they would go look for my calendar AGAIN. 20 mins later they phoned to say it must be on that missing pallet. I said, so how will I get MY CALENDAR??? They said I can wait till it turns up. What?? I have already waited, the lost pallet has been missing 3 weeks already and my calendar has 6 wasted weeks on it. I said that’s not good enough, I paid for a calendar so I want a calendar (well, it wasn’t phrased quite as politely as that… but you can guess). A bit of “can-whoop-a**ing” later and I can come in and print out a new calendar on free credit in store with 1hr print. So thankfully this afternoon I finally have my lovely calendar in pride of place on my wall, already scrawled with ink with all the events coming up (I’ve felt really lost without one this year).
Evie Dreaming June 1, 2011
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So bizarre! Evie went to bed 2 hrs ago but suddenly she woke up screaming. It took us about 5 mins to calm her down enough to work out what was wrong. Apparently she wanted to find her “squeaky mouse” – que? She doesn’t have a squeaky mouse. When we ask her where she last saw it she said that Daddy put it away somewhere safe. She is adamant it is brown and is REAL!!! When told she doesn’t have a mouse she then bawls for another 5 mins before declaring that it’s a plastic mouse and it was on TV but the shops are shut now so she can’t buy it. Then she promptly falls back to sleep! I wonder if she was even awake at all.
Weird Dreams in Pregnancy April 2, 2011
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When I was pregnant with Evie I had these bizarre dreams (1,2,3)… looks like this time I’m starting to have these peculiar dreams again. I had a particularly odd, and very detailed dream again last night.
For some reason I was looking for a house to buy. Went to see this house that was really decrepit. It was a think rendered white (but was all grey and mossy) and it had these fabulous gothic arch windows that were for some reason turquoise. The estate agent was Sue Sylvester (from Glee). Inside there was obvious evidence of a squatter living there. After going up the stairs there was a small table covered in syringes and a lady (who I guess was also looking round the house with me) was putting all the caps back on the needles and mentioning how they were all unused? Then I found a deflated red balloon covered in needleholes. Going up the next flight of stairs with the agent behind us we saw the squatter who was smiling. For some reason we all decided to distract the estate agent so the squatter could hide. Went to look out of the bay window at the front and there was a trapeze artist outside swinging on a streetlight. They kept swinging up to the window holding a big placard with my name and some numbers/code. The estate agent then told me someone had a crush on me and I had to decipher the code to find out where to meet them. The rest of the dream is a bit of a blur, but I remember the end I was in a park and walking towards someone on a picnic rug.
I think my mind is mixing up a whole pile of different things.
Househunting: Not sure why I’m househunting for such a spooky old house.
Sue Sylvester: Obviously am a fan of Glee so somehow envisaged Sue Sylvester as the estate agent, though she wasn’t quite as mean in my dream.
Needles: The needles must have been from when I had my antenatal screening done (9 vials ouch).
Red Balloon: I definitely know that is from a couple of days ago I found a freebie red balloon in my bag and blew it up for Evie only for her to burst it yesterday.
The Harmless Squatter: Not sure what that’s about, other than “Joey” is being a squatter in my tummy.
The Trapeze Artist: No bloody idea where my mind conjured that up from.
The Message on the Placard: I think probably stemmed from watching The Da Vinci Code on telly a few nights ago before bed.
The Crush: Ooh someone has a crush on me…. hmm now I have no idea as I don’t think anyone apart from hubby has that 
Maybe I’m feeling a bit self conscious about being fat and pregnant.
The Park Ending: Again, don’t know. It’s not somewhere I remember being or seeing in anything.
Where’s My Blue Biscuit? February 2, 2011
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The Evielet started screaming in the middle of the night last night. I went into her room to see and she was sitting up in bed crying. I said “what’s wrong?” and she kept asking “where’s my blue biscuit? my blue biscuit?”. Her eyes were wide open – scarily so and she looked like a bushbaby/rabbit caught in headlights. Then she was so animated pulling back her bed sheets and searching under her pillow. She then told me that “Daddy took my blue biscuit” then lots of wailing into the pillow. 2 mins later and she was snoring. Bizzarre. I have no idea what a blue biscuit is and neither does hubby. She’s not allowed to eat in her bedroom so don’t know why she was looking in the bed. I actually don’t think she was awake even though her eyes were really wide. I really hope she doesn’t become a sleep walker!
POLi – Piece of Laziness, more like POXi January 31, 2011
Posted by graciek in Computing, Life in General, WTF?.add a comment
Great- I’m all riled up and can’t get to sleep with stress. Tonight I decided to go ahead and book some flights with jetstar.com for our friend Miyuki’s wedding in June. There’s a bit of sale on so thought I’d get in well in advance so I don’t have to worry about stuff later on. Ok, picked flights and navigated my way through all the tick boxes trying to peddle me more extras. Got to payment… hmm it’s gonna cost $50 to pay by credit card, stuff that, I’ll try out the POLi system. It basically links to your online banking (sounds v dodgy) and then prepopulates the transfer details into the boxes. Then come the BIG problems….
1. POLi (or I’d like to call it POXi) doesn’t work with anything but Windows crap. So I have to reboot my laptop into the alternative “must-be-desperate” OS called Vista and wait 15 mins for that to warm itself up such that I can get onto the internet again
2. POXi needs to be installed. Another 10 mins waiting for the box to appear that asks me to “run” the application
3. POXi finally installed (in the meantime I have been to the toilet twice… yes I have filled and emptied my bladder 2x faster than POLi takes to install
4. Select your bank… another 5 mins of waiting… well actually it was 2 mins until my bank login screen appeared and another 3 mins waiting for POXi to let me actually type in it
5. Go thru the usual rigmaroles of a bank transfer except each page takes 2 mins before POXi lets me type into any boxes/press any buttons
6. Finally get to the payment confirmation stage… thank goodness almost done. But wait I need to wait for an SMS from my bank now
7. OK it’s done. The payment sent page has appeared. OK now to print it out. Suddenly POXi has sprung to life and it’s only let me look at the payment sent page for 10 seconds before it all closes up
8. Crap crap crap crap. I have definitely sent payment. But now where is that confirmation POXi promised me. Instead it tells me I have an error where POXi has timed out (cos it takes so frigging long to do stuff) and my payment cannot proceed. SHUT UP… cannot proceed, then where has my money gone???
9. Now I have to ring jetstar on the one and only phone number (there is no email or any other form of contact). 50 mins on hold and someone finally picks up. Yes they have a record of our reservation number and the flights. Tell her we have paid but POLi is playing up. She says she has to check with her manager and before we can say “NOOOOO” she’s put us on hold. 5 mins later she hangs up on us. So infuriating. I know jetstar is budget flights but surely if you pay for something you actually expect to get it??
So now I’m all worried about X,Y,Z. Thank goodness there are another 4-5 months to sort this out. So I hope tomorrow I will finally be able to get it sorted out.
Home Windows PC Maintenance Cold Caller December 3, 2010
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OK so it’s 9pm on a Friday evening and I’m enjoying watching Airplane! (bizarrely called Flying High! in Oz) which has just started on telly (RIP Leslie Nielsen) and the phone rings. Gosh it must be hubby telling me he’s on his way back from the school Prize Giving ceremony. I really really hate cold callers. I don’t care if it’s X, Y, Z charity/tragedy – I won’t donate over the phone (even if you do call me 3x over one week – air ambulance people). All the charities are all terribly “worthy” but it’s my own business who I choose to donate to and pestering me has the opposite effect. Anyway… here’s the rather dodgy conversation….
Caller (in some strange accent): “Hello Mrs K*?”
Me: “Yes”
Caller: “I’m ringing from Computer Maintenance”
Me: “What? Sorry I didn’t hear you”
Caller: “I don’t understand”
Me: “What is it that you want?”
Caller: “We’ve noticed over your internet that your Windows PCs are running slowly and want to do some maintenance”
Me: (pondering on why he would be saying that when it’s totally impossible) “You what?”
Caller: “You know – your Home Windows PC needs maintenance”
Me: “I do not have any PCs and we’re all on Ubuntu”
Caller: “What’s that? I don’t understand – no it has to be your Windows PCs”
Me: (laughing) zzzziiip (hang up)
So obviously a scammer (quick browse on internet suggests they’ll try and sell me some software for virus/improving or click something to give them remote access). Why are they calling me at night at my home from “my computer maintenance department”? They do not have remote access via the internet to my network (but that IS what they want!!). Why bother getting people who can’t speak English? And why, if you’re going to pretend to be technosavvy, don’t you employ scammers who can be more convincing (pah they don’t even know what Linux is). I’m kinda disappointed that I didn’t string them along and taunt them a bit more. I wonder how they got my name and phone number.
First Swim of the Season November 14, 2010
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After a pretty miserable and wet Autumn here in Sydney these last couple of days have been really warm and balmy. Today I finally succumbed and we all had a dip in the pool. We don’t have heating in the pool but it was a rather pleasant 25C (bit chilly when you first jump in but then lovely). It was actually Evie’s idea as we came back from church she said “mummy go in pool” then “evie go in pool too, evie swim” and “evie catch daddy”. She likes to chase her daddy up and down the pool. This is her first proper dip in the pool since prob April and she’s far more confident this year. She had her new waterwings on as she’s now turned 2 and gone up a size and they seem to be perfect as they keep her suitably buoyant but still let her use her limbs.
In other news – Evie made hubby give himself a partial lobotomy this morning. He was up a ladder in the downstairs bathroom trying ot get at the fan mechanism with a power drill. “Little Miss I Need 110% of your Attention” came along attention-seeking and when she got no response she decided to push her daddy off the ladder. Little brat!!! I heard a crash and came in to find hubby sitting on the floor looking rather dazed and confused with Evie screaming and crying. Hubby had somehow managed to fall off the ladder and the power drill landed drill bit first onto his forehead before the battery pack on the base swung round and gave him a fat lip. I’ve told him sooo many times that when Evie is with him he can’t just simply get on with whatever he is doing and ignore her. It really irritates me that he is so aloof. I get really fed up when on Monday morning I find that hubby has left things lying around in her reach… kitchen knives on the counter edge, saws and other powertools left strewn around on the floor and chemical experiments left around for Evie to drink. He was so shocked this morning, hopefully he will finally learn!!
Freaky Overactive Brain Nightmares October 18, 2010
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I don’t remember having these weird dreams for a while, but last night was crazy. I must have had at least 3 nightmares in a row last night. Really vivid nightmares which I thought were real. I’ll jot them down whilst I still remember the details…
- Went to someone’s house with Mocha and let her out into their back garden. The back garden isn’t properly fenced in and as soon as she’s out someone in the garden at the back coaxes her through between some bamboo poles. Next door garden is in flames!! Me shouting “mocha, mocha” trying to stop her going. It was so scary I actually woke myself (and hubby) up shouting “Mocha”
- On holidays with hubby, Evie, my parents, my sis and BIL and my brother. For some reason I am going to catch a plane with my brother somewhere later in the afternoon. Decide to go out for lunch at this beautiful waterside restaurant but my brother decides we’ll all get there in a boat he’s hired. Lunch is taking ages and I haven’t finished packing yet so need to go home first. Still having lunch with an hour to go before having to get to the airport and getting panicky as there’s noway to get home without going on the boat and all the other relatives refusing to leave.
- Back in a car now. Continuation of previous dream and it’s too late to go home to get stuff. Find 2 suitcases in the boot of the car and I transfer some of the items I want to take into one and stuff to discard in the other. Upset because Evie is sleeping in an attic room with a staircase in the middle and she has pulled down all the ballustrading. If we can’t go home then when they put her to bed she’ll fall down the stairwell.
- Arriving at a shopping centre (again still the same dream again) taking suitcase out of boot and realising only 5 mins till plane leaves!! Have to get through shopping centre to get to airport. Get through shopping centre and have to get into lift to go up to the airport. Get into lift and all signs for airport stop and I can’t work out which floor to get to. Keep getting out at different floors. One floor is empty (totally empty unfitted warehouse), one floor is a casino, one floor is a hotel but there’s noone there). Can’t find the original floor I started on (the one where I last saw the airport signs) and end up in the basement. Have to find escalators and steps to get back into the shopping centre whilst manouevring my suitcase. Now 5 mins past the time the plane left. Somehow am in the airport and getting to the boarding gate. Realise I’ve taken the blue suitcase (the one with discarded clothes d’oh). Remember thinking it’s OK as I’ll just buy clothes from Tesco (hmm must have been travelling to England I guess). The plane is waiting for me. My brother is there asking what took me so long. Get onto the plane and Evie is waiting for me on the seat.
So a torrid night of dreaming. Really bizzarre dreams. Most of the dreams I am getting upset because I am out of control (Mocha not coming back, family pressures and not enough time/getting lost). My brain is good at fantasising different locations that I’ve never seen before. I didn’t wake up in a cold sweat or anything. At least the final dream ended up with a more or less happier ending.
Is My Hubby Actually an Idiot?? August 24, 2010
Posted by graciek in Evie, Life in General, WTF?.1 comment so far
Grrrrr. Sometimes I get annoyed at having to pick up after not only my child but also after the hubby. This morning it’s the final straw and he got a really massive ear-bashing over the phone as a result. Because of his laziness and not putting things away he almost poisoned our daughter. We have a metal locked cabinet for the pool chemicals and all other dangerous items are locked away in hubby’s shed (which in turn is inside the pool enclosure) so our backyard is relatively safe. It was a lovely sunny morning and I let the dog out and opened up the wonderful cafe style concertina back doors. Evie went out to play – she likes to pretend water the plants. I went to the kitchen to get her some milk. A couple of minutes later I returned to find her asking me if I wanted some “tea” or “apple juice”. Well not unusual as she does often request that I drink her imaginary cups of things. I wasn’t prepared for the shock I got as I got closer to her and realised that she had a glass laboratory beaker in her hand filled with something that looked like apple juice. She also had a metal clamp stand and a glass funnel. Next to her was a bottle with the screw cap off containing more of the brownish liquid and there was even more of it all over the floor in a puddle around her. Why, you might ask, is a 2 yr old doing some kind of chemical experiment… and indeed why is this equipment at my home in the first place???? I tell you – I almost had a heart attack as I had no idea what she was playing with and no idea where it came from!! Scooped her up and made sure that she hadn’t drank any (gave her plenty of water and milk just in case). Rang hubby – turns out he decided to borrow various bits of equipment from work (he’s a science teacher) and for some unknown reason he believed it was a good idea to try and filter out some acetone that he’d used to previous strip some paint and brought all the bits home and proceeded to filter it on the floor of the garage and then just abandon it all there. He says he “forgot” to put it away… I said “forgot” isn’t good enough – he could have killed her!! Thank God he wasn’t doing some kind of experiment with sulphuric acid!! He really is a total buffoon sometimes. In fact he often complains when he leaves things lying around and she plays with them (like laptops, etc). Every night before bed I have to toddler proof the house as he’s invariably left stuff around like his hobby crafts, a crossbow (once) or knives lying with the handles overhanging the counters —–arrrrgh. And when he’s looking after her at the weekend he pretty much just gets on with whatever he was already doing and she gets up to all sorts of naughtiness. Funny how she always has an potty accident when he’s looking after her at the weekend and she’s totally dry all week with me.
