a Beer, a Whine and The Spirit

6 - the number of times I've used our slow cooker since we arrived in Wang (10 days ago!)
6 - the number of times I've gone to St Vinnies to look for dresser drawers to no avail
1 - the number of times we went to St Vinnies and there were 2 sets of PERFECT dresser drawers there for $25 each but had just been sold. (Man I need to let that go!!)
2 - the number of weeks til our broadband is connected
150 - the number of GB we will get with our broadband connection each month. Hellllooooo Skype!
5 - the number of Yoga classes Hubs and I have left on our membership
8 - the number of clear, sunny, beautiful days we have had since arriving in Wang
2 - the number of bicycles we bought at a garage sale on Sunday
1 - the number of Uniting Churches we have visited and have decided to attend
3 - the number of coffee shops we had great lunches at last week
4 - the number of times I have visited one coffee shop in particular
24 - the number of weeks Littlefoot has been growing inside of me
2 - the number of weeks he/she has been kicking like crazy

Posted by Renae at 10:42 AM Comments

Wow what a week it has been! Hubs has been living it up in Shepparton for the week (well, he's been attending lectures and social nights at least) and Mum and I have been spending it up in Wang! After my blog post on Monday, Mum and I headed in to town and as I was talking to a guy at Optus about broadband (bring it on baby!) I also asked him if he knew of any second-hand furniture places around the place. He recommended a place within walking distance so after a (delicious) pie and coffee for lunch, we set off down the road.

And hit the jackpot.

This place had everything!!! We bought a fridge, 4 chairs, a bed frame, a rocking chair (bliss!!) and the coolest fold-down sewing table imaginable. They had free delivery and gave us a tip for a place around the corner where we could be cheap new mattresses, so we popped in there on the way home and made a purchase there as well. It was about 4:15pm by the time we got home, and by 5pm, everything had been delivered! How amazing is that! Wait til you see the photos of the stuff we bought. We just had the best luck! And the best thing is, it's all second-hand so there was no budget-blowing!

So the last few days have been spent lunching and getting bits and pieces for the rest of the house, and yesterday we had a big cooking day. I've been putting the slow-cooker to good use and we've already made apricot chicken (a family favourite) and pea and ham soup (so goooooood.) I made some more roosoles to freeze yesterday, as well as some pumpkin and dark chocolate cookies.

It's been absolutely amazing having Mum around this week and it will be hard to say goodbye to her tomorrow. But before I do that, we're going to hit some garage sales and look for some dresser drawers, while Hubs spends the day at the snow with a friend who's coming down. Still so much to do!!

Baby update: Lots of kicks since last Thursday - basically all day, every day. A lovely feeling indeed.

No time to spell-check! 4 minutes remaining on my library internet session!!! You'll have to proof-read and correct yourself.... :-)

Posted by Renae at 12:38 PM Comments

Hubs and I arrived in Wang on Saturday afternoon after a great trip up. We were packed and ready to go by around 10am and after a brief pit-stop at our friend's place on the way, we were on the highway by 11. We arrived around 2 and as we drove in to our new place, the neighbours came out to say hello. It was really lovely. Charlie next door made an offer of a cup of tea which we took him up on once we unpacked. How is it that it took 2 days to pack the kombi and less than an hour to unpack!?? Hilarious.

Charlie invited us over for dinner but we mentioned we had something organised already. This didn't stop him though! At 4:30pm there was a knock at the door and there was Charlie, telling us he'd cooked us dinner. Ha ha. It was very sweet. We had pork chops and veges and were home around 6 for some more unpacking.

After the rental debacle, everything worked out fine. We really like the unit we got and it's in a great location. I also landed a casual job at the Council offices (just finished my interview and signed the contract to start next week) which is absolutely perfect! So you see? Everything worked out wonderfully.

Now Mum and I are off to do some much-needed shopping including buying FURNITURE!! And a fridge. Hopefully. I have a big long list and a whole week to check everything off! Hubs gets home Friday night and our friend is coming down for the weekend which will be great. That's about all for now. I'll be baaaaaack....

Posted by Renae at 10:41 AM Comments

I love The Princess Bride. And I LOVE how Vizzini says "inconceivable" all the time. And then Inigo Montoya says "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." My friend recently bought a copy of the DVD because it came with a key ring that says "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my Father. Prepare to DIE." when you press a button. (More memorable quotes can be found here.)

Believe it or not, this post is not about my love for The Princess Bride, though I wouldn't blame you for thinking that. This post is about moving to Wangaratta. Tomorrow. I mean, we've known for 8 months (just think about that for a moment - 8 MONTHS!) that this move was coming. In no way should we have been caught unaware. But here we are, with 24 hours to go, our place filled with packed and to-be-packed boxes, our wardrobe has thrown up all over our room, and we pretty much know the kombi needs a push-start each time we want to start the engine. Fun, oui? Well at least we have a home to go to (yay!) and we have a plan. You gotta have a plan my friends.

Exactly 2 years to the day, we moved to college. And exactly 2 years and 1 day after we moved in, we'll be leaving. I've been looking forward to a bit of a change, but leaving here is filling me with sadness. We have met the most incredible people, been shown the most gracious hospitality, and had some of the best times.

But now it's time for new adventures to begin; for new friends to be made, and for more good times to be had. I know that it was God's plan for us to be here at Newman for this time, and I thank him for his great idea often. As I sit writing this, Littlefoot is kicking away (the coolest thing I've ever felt in my LIFE) and I know he/she is looking forward to what is to come.

Posted by Renae at 10:35 AM Comments

As my Mama always says "it's not what you know, but who you know."

I'm mostly okay with that. Truly. I understand the way things work. What I resent is not being approved for a property on our own merit, with no good reason whatsoever, but as soon as they find out we know the owner of the business (a.k.a. I give-in out of sheer desperation and ring the owner of the business who we dealt with when we were looking to buy, and tell him what's been going on for the last 2 weeks) we get a phone call within half an hour saying our application has been successful.

But here's the clincher. She actually says to me:

"I wish you had told me earlier that you knew Gerald*."

I was ropeable. My response:

"That should not have mattered. We had a good application with everything you needed, and knowing the owner of the business should not have made a difference."

I just couldn't believe she said that to me!! I had considered a week ago to ring the owner, but I didn't want to involve him. I didn't want to look like I was using him to get a place. Apparently this would have been quite acceptable, nay, MANDATORY if we wanted to be spared this whole rigmarole.

I'm not going to go in to it any further, other than to say we're very happy it has been resolved in our favour, and that the owner of the business will be receiving a 4 page letter outlining the goings-on over the last 2 weeks. I just think he would want to know.

Oh, and I have an interview for some casual admin work in Wang on Monday. See? I told you everything would work out.


*name has been changed to protect the awesome.

Posted by Renae at 2:18 PM Comments

Drama drama drama. I remember the days when things were simple. When ice cream cones from McDonalds cost 30c, when previews for movies only went for 30 seconds instead of practically showing the whole movie, and when you applied for a rental property and the Real Estate Agents actually returned your calls.

I'm not going to go into it right now, but all I can say is NOT. HAPPY. JAN!! And the people I'm dealing with had better come through with the goods, otherwise they'll be hearing from me.

Posted by Renae at 4:01 PM Comments

Setting the scene: Hubs and Wifey are at their first antenatal appointment at the hospital, answering endless questions from the midwife about conception, family histories, health etc etc. Hubs and Wifey are trying to act like mature, future parents. Well, Wifey is at least...

Midwife: "Did you need any help getting pregnant?"
Wifey: "No I didn't."
Hubs: "I helped!"

Wifey and Midwife look at each other, and are left unable to speak for some time...

Posted by Renae at 4:04 PM Comments

Posted by Renae at 4:21 PM Comments

Dear Channel 9,

I am a Queenslander living in Melbourne. I have embraced AFL and watched many games, and have attended several live matches as well. But like I said, I’m a Queenslander, so I’m a Rugby League supporter at heart. I was so excited when Victoria embraced Rugby League and was positively elated when they had one of the State of Origin matches at Etihad last year, which I eagerly attended.

I think you know where this is going.

I watched the first State of Origin match of the 2010 series from the comfort of my home, and I’m sure you can imagine how pleased I was with the result. I unfortunately missed the second match due to a Melbourne University function (only Victoria would book an event on State of Origin night), so for the last 3 weeks, I have been so looking forward to watching game 3. I know it was a “dead rubber” but when you love a sport, these things don’t matter. Plus, both teams still had a lot to play for – Queensland were looking for their first clean sweep since the 1995 and New South Wales were looking to regain some pride.

So, perhaps you can imagine my utter dismay when I turned the TV on at 8pm only to find Daryl Somers staring back at me. “It must be a mistake”, I thought. So I turned over to Foxtel to see if they were showing it live. And then I noticed the delayed telecast to start at 9:30pm.

Are you for real? You want Victoria to embrace Rugby League, so you delay the telecast of one of the biggest matches of the year? This makes no sense to me. Especially considering that there are a few Melbourne Storm players in the competition. I just can not fathom it.

Can you please tell me why you chose to do this? I noticed in today’s paper that you have axed Hey Hey because of poor ratings, which is even more frustrating, since I’m sure you would have had a number of Victorians wanting to watch the State of Origin over Hey Hey. I hope I don’t have to write another letter like this, this time next year.

Regards,
Wifey


NOTE: FYI I stayed up for the delayed coverage and watched Queensland win 23-18 in an absolute CRACKER of a match, and I'll be posting this letter to Channel 9 today.

Posted by Renae at 2:01 PM Comments

I've mentioned my love of Peanuts before (here and here), and my desire to own the complete Peanuts series of comic books (they are still being released!!) and the fact that I am currently struggling through reading a biography about Charles Schulz (that I think I'm going to give up on to be honest). What was my point again? Oh yeah, I love Peanuts. So when we were in Minotaur the other day, and came across the Peanuts 60th Anniversary Book, I went, well, a little nuts :-)

But I didn't actually really consider buying it. It was a bit pricey, and such frivolousness at this point in time wasn't on my mind. But it was on Hubs' mind. He said something like "Go onnnnnnnn. Let's just get it. If you REALLY want it, we can say it was a birthday present since I didn't get you one." This isn't really true - Hubs made me a beautiful photo album that didn't cost much, but that took him hours to put together. Still, who was I to argue?? And since I got to get a new comic book, so did Hubs! (Perhaps that was his plan all along! :-) He wanted Strange Girl and the whole series (5 books) was available at a very good price so it was a done deal.

I haven't even opened it yet. I'm saving it til we move to Wang. The anticipation is kind of killing me, but in a really awesome way. It's going to be SO goooooood....

Posted by Renae at 12:19 PM Comments

College is quite a strange beast. You get thrown into a mix of 272 students who are undergrads, post-grads, male, female, Catholic, not Catholic, shy, smart, funny, social, silly, confident etc etc etc. At meal times, there will be certain people who you might sit with regularly, and get to know them quite well. There is generally some segregation between the Junior Common Room (under-grads) and the Senior Common Room (post-grads) but that's more out of habit than anything sinister.

Towards the end of the semester, and over the mid-year break, the numbers dwindle to about 30 people, and often lunch and dinner will consist of only 2 or 3 full tables. This is one of the best times to be around college. The food is better (last night we had beef osso bucco and mini pavlovas) and you get to sit with people you may never have even said a word to the whole semester. And there are some characters, let me tell you.

The table that Hubs and I sat at today at lunch time was an unlikely mix of people, and I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard. We had an American, 2 Germans, a Pole, Hubs and I, a Fijian, and a Daylesfordian. We started with a joke about 3 philosophers, then covered topics ranging from "the best joke ever" (it wasn't, but the delivery made up for it), to the Smurfs, to the best action movie about to be released (the name of which escaped the person who told us about it, but it could be this one), to peppermint tea (I had my first today and I'm so hooked), and so much in between.

It will go down as one of the best meals I've had at college, and seeing as how we're leaving in 10 days time, it was a fitting way to wind down the clock.

Posted by Renae at 2:18 PM Comments

I wasn't going to say anything, but as most of you know, I find it hard to keep my mouth shut sometimes. I'm talking about this. I didn't actually watch this game, but a friend of ours at college has been watching most matches and was telling us about it the next day. After he gave me a run down of what happened, I had to check it out for myself. Here's the story:

It was Ghana vs Uruguay in the quarter-finals. The game was being played with the usual amount of theatrics, as well as a lot of skill. At full-time, it was dead-locked at 1-1 (as so many soccer matches are) so they started extra time. Towards the end of extra time, it happened. (if you're looking at the video link, it's about 1 min 22sec in) Ghana were attacking and took a shot at goal, which was saved, then they had another shot, which was deflected, and on their third attempt, the ball was in. At least, it would have been in, if a Uruguay defender hadn't used his hand to save the goal. Note I used the word defender, not goalkeeper. This defender took it upon himself to cheat to save the goal. It was so damn blatant and it has made me so mad. He cheated and that's that. There's nothing more to it. It was a certain goal, and he knew it, and he decided in that split-second to "sacrifice" himself (knowing he would miss the next game), use his hand to stop the goal, get red-carded and sent off, and give his team an opportunity to save a goal in a spot kick. (Incidentally, Ghana missed the spot kick - the player hit the crossbar. This is not the point).

I cannot tell you how much this has upset me. How it has taken the fun out of watching the World Cup. If this was a Rugby League game, and a player committed a professional foul to prevent a certain-try, the team would have been awarded a penalty try. This should be a rule in soccer. Now before you get all up in arms about how hard that would be to police, give me an alternative. Do we just let teams win any way they can?? Any way they want?? And you know the worst part about all of this? That cheater has been hailed a hero.

Yeah, well done for being a big fat cheater who cheats his side into the final. Nice work. Bravo. Three cheers for the big cheater. And the comments left on one of the forums really paints a sad, sad picture:

"congrats uruguay. you deserve this. the sacrifice made in this game shows you have true passion for soccer. sorry ghana, not a good day. GOO URUGUAY!" 
Passion is no substitute for fair play; for being a good sport; for not being a lousy cheater. (Or for bad spelling).


"Well, Uruguay played well and deserved to win. Suarez (the dirty cheater) made a wise move and paid the price for it."
A wise move?? Paid the price?? Missing a game?? Aw the poor cheater misses a game. Waaah waaah waaah.


Seriously! What is this teaching young kids who want to play professionally one day? Winning is everything? Win at all costs? "Sacrifice" yourself for your team's glory??

If Uruguay make it past the next round (I'm not going to watch their game) or if worse comes to worst, they make it through to the final, I'll never watch another world cup game again.


Note: The Netherlands knocked Uruguay out in the following round. Justice has been done.

Posted by Renae at 3:10 PM Comments

...and a triple espresso so you can stay awake." Okay, so it wasn't an all night movie marathon, and it was an affogato, not a triple espresso, but we did stay awake! Hubs has been complaining whinging noting that we have been having an earlier bed time than usual - actually, the comments were around the fact that he had a bed time - and wanted to stay up later on the weekends. So I went one better and planned a night of movies on Friday night. We had nothing pressing all weekend, so I figured we could sleep all day Saturday after staying up all night.

I was keen to see Avatar, but we couldn't get it working on the computer, so we started with Back to the Future III. We had watched I and II in the last couple of months so we completed the trilogy. We then watched Kung Fu Panda which we've been meaning to watch for ages and it was SO good! It had laughs all the way through and a lovely message at the end that we can all relate to. The third movie took a bit of deciding on, but we ended up going with The Royal Tenenbaums which I had seen AGES ago and liked it and thought Hubs might too (I was right).

By this stage it was 4:40am and we decided to call it a night. We had consumed choc-dipped strawberries, bullets (my FAVOURITE!!), and I made some choc-dipped snakes as well so we were pretty buzzy but very very sleepy indeed. We crashed into bed and slept soundly... until the phone rang at 10am! Should have thought to put them on silent!! We had another nap that afternoon (from 4-6pm!) and got around to watching Avatar that evening. It was pretty good! As Hubs calls it, Fern Gully with guns, but I really rather enjoyed it. It wasn't in 3D but I still got the general gist.

So that was our movie marathon weekend! Now it'll take me a few days to catch up on sleeeeeeeep :-)

Posted by Renae at 1:42 PM Comments

We were in America. Clearly that post isn't about us being in America. This is what we were doing on 1st of July  2009. Aaaaaah. Chilling at the Lake of the Ozarks with Kimberley and BJ. In all honesty, this was one of the best times of my life. It's my happy place. I can still feel the humidity of the mid-west; taste the pain-in-the-ass that Kimberley made me and the Reuben burger we had for lunch; and smell that sweet sweet waft of being on holiday with not a care in the world.

And what about this time 2 years ago? Well, I was writing this.

As we prepare for the next step of our journey (and as I continue to put off the packing!) it's fun to reminisce.

Posted by Renae at 11:53 AM Comments