Work - an update

A few folks have asked me how things are going with the whole work situation. I just thought I'd update y'all.

At the beginning of October we had a big meeting and determined that we would have a month of "data collection" to see just how much work was out there for my colleague and myself. That ended last week. I thought it went quite well. We were quite busy during that time and I managed to enter a fair few number of jobs into the system. We hadn't heard anything about how things were going though.

Then today, just before lunch, the manager asked me if I can attend a meeting with him and the Head of School next Monday at 3pm. Just the three of us. No indication of why, but anyone with a bit of a brain (which surprisingly includes me!) can guess that it's about "The Restructure" and my Women's Intuition tells me it ain't gonna be good news.

So, yeah. I'm about to head off on a "girl's weekend" with some other mothers from the kids' school. 48 hours of child-free, husband-free leisure time in a freshly renovated historic house in the Southern Highlands. And instead of relaxing, now it will be a stress-filled teeth-clenching grey-hair-making two day wait to find out if I have a job or not. What timing.

Wool. Giant balls of wool.

There was a sale. I couldn't resist. I bought a bucket load (or a very large bag, anyway) of 200g balls of wool from Bendigo Woollen Mills last month. Curse them and their discounts. (Still on sale until the end of November, by the way!)

It was wonderful seeing the package waiting for me on the door step after a treacherous drive home on a very stormy Sydney afternoon. I couldn't wait to rip it open.



"Ginormous balls of wool," Elora exclaimed when she saw them. Followed by "The pink ones are for me and the blue ones are for the boys."

Right she was. 5 colours for a blankie for Atti, 6 for her. "Luxury" 8ply 100% wool 200g balls
For the boy: Leaf, Ice, Ghost, Lake, Junior Navy
For the girl: Frost, Lavender, Purple Storm, Baby Pink, Ruby, Pink.

My intention is to make squares from my new book, 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws and Afghans by Jan Eaton (bought from Better World Books - I highly recommend them) to make blankets for the two youngest kiddies. I feel a bit bad that I'm not making one for the biggest boy, but, he's nearing 10. He's not so keen on my hand made items anymore (except for Halloween costumes... more on that another day I hope).

Tragically, in my eagerness to open the packet, I got a bit overzealous with the scissors. Wah! I cut up my gigantic ball of wool! Well, a few strands.


But I think I can live with it.

Now to get to the crocheting!

Snail mail

Back in June I took a photo of what our mail looks like when I hadn't checked it for a few days, or a week. Or two.


Pretty funny, I thought. Proper "snail mail".

But in recent weeks the problem started getting worse. Possibly because of Spring? I don't know. I took this photo inside the mailbox today. Those junk mail leaflets had only been in there for a day, two at most. It is mostly unreadable. Some other mail was barely holding together it had that many holes!


Now, I'm not a fan of snails. I absolutely detest slugs, and snails are pretty much slugs with shells, right? Eeyuck! Eeyou! I HATE them.

Something had to be done.

So I went into the pantry and found a 1kg bag of cooking salt. And poured it into the mailbox. Not all of it but probably about half. There was a good 5-7mm thick layer on the bottom. So pretty, like snow.


No more snail mail for this family.

First Tues in November

There was some big horse race here today. I was feeling crook this afternoon, so I sat in the comfy chair in my office and played a highly addictive ipad game instead. Naughty, naughty, but why should I be working when everyone else in the entire country downs tools for five minutes or so at 3pm?*


* Just so you don't think the worst of me, and in case my boss reads this (ha!), I actually put in for a half day of sick leave today - around lunch time I realised I just couldn't take it any more, with my throbbing head and twisting insides. But I had to stick around at work since Dan wasn't able to pick up the kids after school (well, not without major inconvenience) and heck, I can catch up on some blog reading and writing while I'm here, as well as curling up in my comfy chair (which isn't really that comfy but good enough when you're feeling unwell)!

Busy times ahead

November: second last month of the year.

Month of the NSW Schools Spectacular which Dante is dancing in for the second time. Lots of early starts culminating in three long days with two extremely late nights...

Which coincides with Dan going away to Saudi Arabia for a couple of weeks for work (hopefully with a chance for some sightseeing included - so close to Petra!)...

Which means he'll miss the annual Thanksgiving lunch which his family have celebrated for the last twenty three or so years...

But will be back in time for December - the craziest month of the year.

Fun times ahead for this gal and her brood.