My hectic social life …

It happens every year. I know it is going to happen, but it always hits me like a ton of bricks.
December is just So. Very. Busy. It started in November, and it will no doubt creep into January. Like a virus, really.

I have constructed a “living list” of social events and appointments on my calendar. By “living” I mean a list that is growing, evolving and expanding at a rate of knots. Let me tell you, it felt really good to cross off a dozen things that I had on there for November! Here’s what’s left for December (that I know of!):

1/12
Tyler – Doctor 8.40am
My work Christmas Function 6pm
3/12
Church 9.30am
Joshua’s Dedication
Choir practice 5pm
5/12
Music practice 7.15pm
6/12
Drinks with girls from Coffee Group 7.30pm
7/12
Kindy Christmas Party
8/12
Ethan & Tyler – Dental Nurse 9am
Rob’s work Christmas Function 8pm
10/12
Church 9.30am
Wayne & Mari’s Baptism 12 noon
Lunch with ex-Adis girls 1.30pm
Choir practice 5pm
12/12
Music practice 7.15pm
14/12
My specialist appointment 9.30am
15/12
Preschool Christmas Party
All-Staff Christmas Function
17/12
Choir performance 9.30am
Choir performance 7pm
19/12
Last day of Kindy
22/12
Last day of work
24/12
Christmas Eve service 10am
Christmas Eve service 7pm
25/12
The Big Day!

I’m pretty glad that I have 4 weeks holiday this Christmas. I am entitled to 4 weeks paid annual leave each year, but very rarely do I take more than 2 weeks over the Christmas/New Year period. This time I’m taking 3 weeks over Christmas/New Year, and then another week in late January/early February. I’ll be back at work for just 2 weeks inbetween

But boy, I’m going to need all the rest I can get!

An update

So I got an email this morning from Little Treasures magazine, and unfortunately Tyler didn’t get chosen for this particular photo shoot Of course I am a little disappointed, but she is keeping his photo on file and hopefully he’ll get chosen another time.

In other news …

I took Ethan to a Kindy concert & disco on Friday night. We had a great time! He was happy to dance with me. They had cool music, dry ice, a bubble machine and coloured lights. Most of the kids were completely fascinated with the dry ice. They kept throwing themselves onto the floor, pretending to gag and choke like they were being gassed or something. Well, the boys did. The girls just stood around trying not to get it in their eyes, lol.

Ethan now knows about his bike being stolen. And as I predicted, he was really upset. He kept saying “why are there bad people in this world, Mumma?” … man, how are you supposed to answer that?! I just tried to be honest with him but he was still shocked that any “bad” people would live in our neighbourhood [You know what? We were surprised about that, too]. We told him that we were going to get him a new bike, but he said he wanted his old one He also said he hoped that the Police would catch the bad people and shoot them!!

Mum told me a little story about something that happened at her place on Saturday. She was about to go out to her work dinner, and she was taking Ethan with her. Tyler was staying at home with Grandad. Mum overhead this conversation just before they left:

Ethan: “Now Tyler, come here. I want to have a little talk with you. I’m going out with Nana soon, but you are going to be staying here with Grandad. Now I need you to be a good boy for Grandad, and don’t be naughty. There’s to be no screaming or crying, okay? And you have to do what Grandad tells you, okay? Alright, Tyler?”
Tyler: “Alright.”
Then Mum came in and Ethan told her about his “talk” with Tyler. She asked Tyler about it.
Tyler: “I be a good boy for Grandad”. And apparently he was.

Vertigo

So last night was the U2 concert: Vertigo.

Man, it just totally ROCKED!!!!!!!

It was the BEST concert ever, I was so completely blown away by it and I hardly have the words to describe it!!

The best part of all was that we were among the first 4000 to be admitted into the stadium, which means we got into the special roped-off area right by the stage. We called it the “holding pen” because it was caged off and we all got “branded” with green stamps on our necks so that we could go in and out to get food, use the toilets, meet people etc. I know, totally awesome!

It wasn’t even part of our plan to get there early. But we arrived at 3.30pm. The gates were due to open at 5pm, so around 4pm we started getting into line outside gate A. While we were waiting, I looked ahead and thought “there are not that many people in front of us, perhaps we will be part of the first 4000″. Bonus! Then I noticed an area off to the side where some people were being sent through a different gate and then ushered into a HUGE tent. I told Rob to go and find out what they were doing. He wouldn’t go, so I kept on nagging him, lol. Eventually he went over and a few seconds later he was motioning at us to follow him. We started walking towards the big tent and he said inside were the “first 4000″ people!!! They let us go in because we asked! They weren’t advertising what was happening and it was just a matter of “you ask, you get”. But we knew there was still no guarantee that we would be one of the 4000, because they were just roughly counting and the “official” counting would be done down on the field (with handheld counter thingies). So we tried our luck and waited inside the tent for 45 min. Then finally we were allowed into the stadium. It was a mad rush for the front, and we made it!!! About 10 seconds after we got there, they closed it off and said “sorry, no more”. We were SO lucky!! Seriously, we were just about doing backflips when we realised we had made it, and that we would be able to go in and out all evening thanks to the green stamps!

We were SO CLOSE to the stage! Especially the runways that jutted out into the crowd. When Bono and The Edge were standing on them, they were literally only a few metres away from us! We could see the entire stage perfectly, we had TONS of room around us and nothing behind us except 2 fences and some burly security guards … and then row upon row of crushed people!

The show itself was OUT OF THIS WORLD. They did so many awesome songs! Obviously quite a few from How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, but they also did a few from All That You Can’t Leave Behind and then heaps of older ones from The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, etc. Of course they did One Tree Hill as the final encore, which was just awesome! The stage was SO impressive, and the lighting and screens were just amazing.

Man, I just can’t stop talking about it!! My sister took heaps of photos on her mobile phone but obviously we didn’t have our cameras. But it was the show of a lifetime. Just an awesome, awesome night!! It was a long day, with lots of standing and I wasn’t feeling too well, but it was worth it all. We got home at 1.30am but since the kids were sleeping over at my parents’ place we were able to sleep in – bliss! I’m feeling shattered now but I’ll be off to bed shortly. We’ve been playing our U2 CDs all day … I guess we’ve got it in our blood at the mo

Surprises …

Today has been full of surprises!

This morning I got a letter from my bank. Basically the letter said that the bank has reached a settlement with the NZ Commerce Commission relating to disclosure of currency conversion fees on foreign currency transactions. Apparently they didn’t adequately disclose their fees to customers between 17 April 2002 and 31 December 2004, and therefore breached the Fair Trading Act. This was the part of the letter that was most surprising to me: “As you were on of those customers, you are entitled to a payment of $0.38. This payment will be paid to your account.”
Could I BE any luckier? 38 cents!!

Then about half an hour ago, I got a phone call from the editor of Little Treasures magazine. For those who don’t know, LT is the biggest Kiwi parenting magazine. I’ve been a subscriber since I was pregnant with Ethan. When Tyler was about 4 months old, I sent in a photo for their files, hoping that Tyler might get some work as a baby model. Everybody had been telling me how gorgeous and photogenic he was, especially with his red hair and bright blue eyes (which are now hazel). So I sent the photo in, and never heard back. I have to admit, I never really thought about it again.

Well the lady who rang today wanted to know if I could send a more up-to-date photo, because they are looking for little boys to be on their next cover!! I said “you do realise he is 2 years old now?” and she just laughed and said “I bet he looks very different to the baby in this photo I am holding!” … and obviously he does! But she is still keen to see some recent photos so I have just emailed them off to her. I’m thinking perhaps it was a good thing that we cut his hair! I still don’t know if they want him or not, but if they do we will be off to a photo shoot next Wednesday! Apparently they choose 5 models for each cover, shoot all of them and choose the best. So even if he goes to the photo shoot, he may not end up on the cover. But he would still be on their files and have a good chance of future work.

I feel quite proud of my little man! Even if he isn’t successful, he still got “noticed” and that makes me feel pretty good. He’s sick at the moment and pretty miserable, so it is nice to have some happy news where he’s concerned

My version of Spag Bol

I made this recipe up when I went to make Spaghetti Bolognese one night and found I didn’t have some of the “usual” ingredients.
I actually like the flavour of this one, I will probably make it again instead of using my normal recipe!

500g minced beef
1 onion, finely chopped
2-3 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 teaspoons paprika
2-3 tablespoons worchestershire sauce
2 tablespoons tomato relish
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
1 tablespoon tomato paste
4-6 large sundried tomatoes, sliced
420g tin chopped tomatoes

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan. Cook mince, onion & garlic. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for approximately 20 minutes.
Serve over boiled spagghetti, garnished with grated Parmesan cheese.
Serves 4

Chocolate Mousse

I made this for dessert last night. I think it was the first time I have ever made chocolate mousse from scratch! Usually I just use those packet thingies!! But this was yummy and I will definitely be making it again.

150g cooking chocolate
4 eggs, separated
300mL cream
2 tablespoons sugar
grated chocolate

Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Allow to cool slightly, then beat in 4 egg yolks. Beat cream until thick, then fold in chocolate mixture. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry, then add sugar. Fold egg whites into chocolate & cream mixture.
Pour into serving bowls or glasses (I used martini glasses) and garnish with grated chocolate. Allow to set in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Site counter stats

After reading Angella’s post about her stat counter, and requesting for lurkers to come out of hiding and post, I decided to further investigate the stats on my own counter. I must admit, I hardly ever take the time to read my stats, but after today I think I will do it more often! Very interesting indeed!

Just as Angella did, I decided to have a look at the particlar Google searches people have done in order to end up here. These were pretty funny!

Junkyard Jalopy
(my kids love this game!)
Waiwera
(what a great place!)
Sore ears after snorkelling
(interesting …)
Tickly throat lost voice
(okay, I know I’ve been sick a few times but seriously?)
What boys want Hannah
(this one I found particularly amusing … if not a little disturbing)
Cough medicine that works
(well I’m also on a mission to find one ….)
I love sudoku + blogs
(hey, me too!!)
Wentworth Miller
(now this one really made me smile

So, following in Angella’s footsteps, I am also going to request that all lurkers come out and leave me a comment. I’d love to know who is reading and not posting! Even if you’ve only read my blog a couple of times. Most of my readers are Kiwis, which makes sense. But I have quite a few Canadian visitors, and I suspect many of them are friends of Angella’s or Jenn’s. In fact, their sites are common referring links

What really gets me is the number of visits lasting 0 seconds. Am I really that boring?? I have to say, if I stumble across a blog (either via a link on another person’s site, or via a Google search), I will generally spend at least a few seconds reading it. But these people obviously click and can immediately tell that I am not worth any more of their time. Why does this depress me so? I guess I thought I was more interesting than that. Perhaps not. We shall see just how many comments I get on this particular post … and perhaps I will make a few new friends in the process!

Bring on the comments!!

Random Monday thoughts …

I have a few things I want to say today, so I’m going to save a few brain cells by just listing them in bullet points

* I am very tired this morning.
* Last night I had dinner with Christi, Ann & Dale at the Mexican restaurant in Orewa (it was fun, thanks girls!)
* Yesterday we had Tyler dedicated at church. Our goddaughter Miriam was also dedicated yesterday.
* I am getting used to Tyler’s short hair now.
* This Saturday we are going see U2 live in concert!
* Most of my weekends are fully booked up until Christmas.
* Between Wednesday and Saturday last week, I did 5 scrapbooking layouts and made 5 cards.
* We haven’t found Ethan’s bike … and he still hasn’t noticed it is missing.
* I got my hair cut on Wednesday and the only people who noticed were my husband and my sister.
* In 7 days, Ethan will be exactly 4 and a half years old.
* I really need to get some work done now!

First time published!

Well, the issue is finally out! And my layout is on page 74 – woohoo!
It feels pretty awesome to see my work and my name in print. I’m sure for many it is not a big deal, but I’ve been submitting to Up2Scrap for about a year without any success, so I’m hoping this will get a foot in the door, so to speak.

Here it is, for those of you who don’t scrapbook or haven’t already hot-footed it down to the local bookstore to pick up a copy

Congratulations also to Christi, Ann, Delys, Julie, Andrea and the other ladies who were published in this issue. I noticed so many “familiar” names this time!!

Chocolate

A girl at work has just passed around squares of 70% cocoa bittersweet organic chocolate.

I’m sorry, but why bother?

Eating this is like eating cocoa powder straight from the box/tin. The aftertaste is beyond unpleasant. It is like eating cooking chocolate. Which I have done in the past, but only because I was utterly desperate and there was no “normal” chocolate left in the house.

It always amuses me to read about the purported benefits of dark chocolate.

- you only need to eat a small amount.
EXACTLY! Who wants to only eat a small amount??
- one small piece will satisfy any sugar craving.
Um, wrong! I’ve eaten one small piece and not only has my sugar craving intensified, my taste buds are protesting because they have been cruelly tricked.
- it has antioxidants.
Well, so does cabbage, but that doesn’t make me want to eat it! And if you really need to boost your antioxidant levels, why not drink a glass of red wine?
- it contains minerals such as magnesium, potassium and calcium.
Um, take a supplement.
- it decreases LDL cholesterol.
Hmm, I know of some drugs that can do that.

I don’t care what they say, I won’t eat this stuff. I won’t waste precious calories on it when I could be using them to eat something much more satisfying. For me, it is milk chocolate all the way. Cadbury is the best, but I would never say no to Nestle or Whittakers.

In my opinion, if you are going to eat chocolate, you may as well enjoy the experience. Now is that a strange concept, or common sense?

I thought so.