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.

Dinner from Hamburg

Well, not really from Germany... We got home early from school/child care today (4:30pm instead of the usual 6:30pm) so I decided to cook hamburgers for dinner (mostly at Dante's request). I didn't have all the ingredients - Dan had to get hamburger buns on the way home - but I made do.

500g beef mince
1 carrot, grated
Handful of mushrooms, finely chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 slices old bread, soaked in water until really soft then squeezed out
½ packet French onion soup mix
1 egg

Sauté onions and garlic until slightly browned.
Put everything into a big bowl and mix well.
Shape into patties and cook in a fry pan until done.

Serve on toasted buns with cheese and lettuce from the garden.
And tomatoes if your family will eat them. Mine don't so I had to go without.

Sorry, no pictures.

A hit with the boys. Elora "helped" and hence knew about the hidden veges and refused more than a mouthful of the meat. Ate lots of bread and cheese though!

Want!

Saw this bike a few weeks ago at a bike store and have been seriously drooling over it. So nice! But perhaps a little bit big for me.



Then I found this one on their website and while it's not as graceful-looking as the first, comes in a smaller size and would be perfect for this not-so-confident-on-the-streets cyclist.



Sigh. Both well above the amount I'm willing to spend on a bicycle right now, alas.

Snowed under

Ever get so busy and stressed that you can't get it together enough to actually get things done?

That's the way I'm feeling at the moment. At work (eep! Still struggling/fighting to keep my job!), at home (housework), at leisure (craft stuff)...

ARgh.

100 and counting!

I've had several comments lately about how tall this girl is getting.


So I measured her this morning.

100cm and growing! She's grown 4cm in the three months since I last measured her. That's 1½" in the Imperial scale.

Wow!

Listening to. Reading.

I'm so sick of seeing that complaining post - about time I update this here blog with something more interesting. (Things haven't gotten any worse here at work... maybe there is a bit of hope? I don't know. Trying not to think about it too much, spent a chunk of the week writing up a two page document, "Twenty reasons to keep employing Jen" or something to that affect, which I hadn't written earlier because I'd been trying not to think about the possibility of losing my job and almost made things worse. Ack. Talk about downward spirals. Anyway.)

So just quickly. Because now it's the weekend and I've got a zillion loads of washing to do and another zillion other household chores to get through.

This song has been stuck in my head recently. I just can't get enough of They Might Be Giants.




This book has been stuck in my hand constantly. When I'm not reading it I am thinking about it and when I will next get a chance to read it. Even so much that I read in the car the other day, and I am very prone to motion sickness (but was willing to risk it)! Will write a full review when I'm done. But let me just say, "Wow. In a confronting and thought provoking way."

That will be all.

...

Home again. The holiday was wonderful! The journey back was nightmarish. I will write all about it soon.

But first I need to get something off my chest. It's three in the morning and I'm wide awake, unable to sleep. And I'm usually asleep by half past nine most nights and up in a couple of hours!

Today I suffered incredible disappointment, not wholly unpredicted as I got an inkling yesterday from certain mannerisms, and not life threateningly awful but upsetting nonetheless. Today the head at my workplace took me into a meeting with just the other manager and told me that in the new restructure my 0.6 FTE (full time equivalent) position was probably not needed. Lots of "It's not set in stone" type comments but one can tell by the sympathetic-not-quite-sympathetic looks and the repeated "We appreciate everything you've done for us" that the decision to get rid of me has been made. I'm not holding my hopes up, no matter what they say.

I managed to hold it together as much as I could in that meeting room. I'm quite surprised. Saved my bawling for back in the privacy of my office. What a way to come back from a wonderful family holiday.

My colleague, who will be directly affected by this considering his workload is already sky high and will have to take on all the extra work, is pretty devastated and shocked. I'm really touched by his reaction. They (the bosses) implied that they told him yesterday but not in so many words. He didn't realise just how far they were taking the restructure. He has thought of lots of things to say against the idea which he will take into his meeting with them tomorrow. He says we will fight this stupidity. I couldn't be more grateful.

But now I don't know what to do. Is it worth the fight? If a fight it will be? Do I want to stay in this place which doesn't want me? Is it time to think about a career change, something I've considered in the past? But it's a great place to work (despite the "You're fired!") and I've made the most wonderful friendships which I'm not willing to lose. The flexibility with hours has always been great... But I can't help think that my move to part-time work at the beginning of 2008 was the start of my downfall. I've never felt really discriminated against for wanting to work and raise a family before, but today I really did. I felt that being female and a mother was such a huge disadvantage to my situation and "career". I've never been overly ambitious. I thought I would be happy in the same position at work for years to come. There are other possibilities for my role at work, but when I suggested one I was met with surprise. I would be interested in looking into more training in Electronics? A girl? I don't know if I misread those raised eyebrows in my shocked and upset state, but that's the way it seems to me. They'd never even considered it but were happy to suggest it to my colleague. I'm disappointed to say the least.

So here I lie in bed tonight, thinking back to all the things I could have done differently to not be in this position now. Thinking about all the things I will need to do tomorrow to show Them that I'm not so dispensable. I've been in this place for 11 years. A third of my life! Nearly all of my working life! I've put in many more hours than necessary, than I've been paid for, but ruthlessness and The Budget prevail. It's all about the money in the end, isn't it? Not loyalty. "Thinking of the future," I was told. Whose future? I'd like to know. Certainly not mine, nor my colleagues. He'll get more money perhaps, but certainly more stress to go along with it.

So anyway, that's off my chest for now. I'm still not any sleepier though. Just "in limbo". Hoping they're wrong. But at the same time not holding any hope. Self confidence at rock bottom. Sucks to be me right now.