I am so looking forward to 2012.  I have so many things to look forward to! To begin with, in April, there will be the birth of two  niece (s)/nephew (s) (One official and one unofficial).  I also hope that I can add a miniature ’woowaa’ to the list of 2012 births – we’ll just have to see.  Then of course there’s the very real chance that Matt’s business will take off meaning that he will finally be happy at work.  If it doesn’t? Well then he’ll get an equally lovely chance in another (who knows what) job to finally be happy at work

We had a lovely Christmas – as you might have been able to tell from the piccies in my last post. We were both really lucky and had so many presents! Thank you to everyone who sent something over – I know it’s not easy.  The fun part about delays in postage is that Christmas keeps on going.  Since Christmas day we’ve had more cards from relatives and friends and even an extra pressie from one (CHOCOLATE BUTTONS and SNOW! – she knows me so well! )

and i haven't drunk a drop...

We spent the New Years weekend over in a place called Marion Bay.  Its about a three hour drive from our place.  We’ve been there before with Pete and Caz and they invited us again  We definitely couldn’t’ say no to the sea, sand, sun (40 flipping degrees it’s been all weekend) and the opportunity to have no mobile signal, no internet, no Twitter, blogs, Facebook, Google plus and all the other techie things that Matt and I both fill our days with! Instead there was sitting, talking, reading, (crocheting… just a bit ) and relaxing.  We even managed to keep Matt down at the beach for four whole hours.  That must have meant that he was really relaxed!

Matt and Pete in Innis National Park

Of course I also managed to achieve my first Jelly Fish sting….  Not as bad as you’d think.  I’ve never been stung by any animal but if there’s one thing in the sea I am scared of it’s jelly fish… the sneaky, see through little critters are just so hard to spot and then avoid!  One got me right on the shoulder blade!  We managed to up the anti though when we got home.  We arrived back at the house and headed straight back to the beach (I know… terrible life it really is).  At 40 degrees the best place to be is in the sea.  We were quite happy in there too until the RSL set off the Shark alarm. We didn’t actually get to see the beastie in question (that would have been cool) but we did have to vacate the lovely cool, bath water of the sea pretty sharpish! Unfortunatly, we were forced to lie on our towels in the sunshine until we dried off….  shame.

We have had one cool change today meaning that we’ve gone from 42 to 36 over night. Another is expected this evening that will bring the temperature down to 25.  After the last few days I wouldn’t be surprised if I didn’t have to “rug up” a bit! lol 25 will feel chilly.  The temperature are evening out to the low 30s now though.  It’s a shame the weather wasn’t like this for ma and pa last year.  I don’t think they believe me when I tell them how HOT it gets! It’s never happened when they’re here.

Anyway, that’s enough from me about what we did – you  can see for yourself  Here are some silly pictures of our shenanigans at Marion Bay

Now, as for New Year’s resolutions: I’m going to be brave and record mine here…. where it will be in Google and archived and everything (so it will have to be done).

1) I will either join a choir or get some vocal training – It’s about time I returned to that.

2) I will carry on with my Pilates every week, even when I feel rubbish, and will try and add two more classes a week to the mix (Zumba is good fun and maybe I can work my way back up to body attack/pump.)

3) I Will  try again with my book.  This time I’ll pick a local publisher and I will have an ISBN for it by the end of 2012 – so help me!

4) I Will finish the two iPod apps I have written for lesson planning and publish them to iTunes

5) I will be happy and healthy so that I can support my family and friends to do the same

What about you?

This set starts on Christmas Eve.

I’ve been adding to it since lunchtime yesterday  Enjoy!

Thanks for all the lovely pressies  We’re having lots of fun with them all

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Here’s a little something from us to you!

This week was going along quite nicely until i went for my consultant appointment with the Oral Surgeon on Tuesday.  Wanting to avoid not being able to eat solids over the christmas period I asked if he could fit me in sooner rather than later.   I wasn’t quite expecting him to say “sure.. I’ll shove you on the end of my list for Friday.”  So, here I am less than 48 hours later minus the one wisdom tooth I owned.  Instead I have a sore throat and a chesty cough caused by the tube the put down my throat for the general atheistic and a stitched up gum (ouchy) I should be fully recovered and ready to roll for Christmas though

We’ve also put up our Christmas decorations.  After bug bombing the shed to make sure we didn’t transfer and 8 legged beasts into the house with the baubles (we’ve had quite enough of those already thanks!) the tree, tinsel and all other shin/sparkly Christmassy bits are up.  I think Matt wanted to cheer me up!  :)  I do like Christmas!  Nearly all of the present buying is done and posted.  Most of you will have had your Christmas cards already and some of you will receive yours in a parcel with presents Keep and eye out for that posty van and try not to get too confused if a nondescript parcel arrives from amazon and you don’t remember ordering anything… That’ll be Matt forgetting to let you know that you shouldn’t open that until Christmas day.. lol

Despite being invited out for Christmas dinner, Matt is determined to have his own turkey. I’m leaving it to him to order it!  He’ll be eating turkey fo r a fortnight as he’s the only one who eats meat in this house (unless you count the cats). How are your christmas preparations going?

Christmas Cake Ingredients

I used to work with a teacher who , like me, got very excited about Chrimstas.   Sometime in October, she’d start telling me that she could feel Christmas coming that you could “smell it in the air”.  We used to have fun seeing who would detect the onset of Christmas first.  It’s true though, you can tell when Christmas is coming (and not just because the Xmas trees are out in all the stores from about August!), the seasons change, it gets darker, colder and the air smells damp and cold.  Christmas is coming.

Here in Australia of course the seasons are changing the other way.  It’s getting lighter, warmer, drier and dustier… Christmas is coming!  In fact, it’s the Christmas Pageant next weekend and I’ve just sat and written out as many of the Christmas cards I can that need to be sent over to the U.K. A lot of our Christmas pressie buying is done and I’ve just shoved the Christmas cake in the oven.

How are your preparations going?

Christmas time is coming!

Both summer and Christmas are clearly on the way. The temperature this week has gone up and down from 33 to 22 and the decorations have started to appear in the stores. Of course, being over here , we’re going to have to start xmas shopping very soon and get anything tat needs posting over to the UK within the next week or two otherwise, Santa might find himself arriving little late!

The clock have already “sprung” forward so that the sun shines on well after I’ve returned from work and. So, the days when the sun is burning hot, it makes a real difference to be able to come home and head down the road to the beach for a cuppa in the warm sunshine  That, “Living in Oz, is like being on holiday” feeling is creeping back in again.  Lovely!

It’s strange to know that all of my UK teacher friends have already completed the first half term of the school year and are about to settle into half term.  It’s even stranger to receive and email from HR asking me to tell them when I WANT to book time off  and telling me I have to use all of my days before the end of this year… I’m not used to that!  Usually, the council tells me when I’m not going to come in.  I’m also not used to having to work for months and months in one go without a break.  Having said that, my current job is no where near as exhausting as my old one and I know that realistically, for most of my friends, this half term is more about working from home than holidaying!  I get to work from home too so I guess that’s ok

Stan enjoying the sunshine with Pinky (the mouse) in the "water feature"

The half term break does mean, however, that I need to get on with making a Christmas cake!  It’ll need to be slowly fed brandy until Xmas day.  It looks like it’ll just be me, Matt and the cats this year as no one has booked themselves in for a barmy Xmas ont he beach so far.    I guess there’s still time!  Matt has made it very clear that this year we’re having turkey… even if he’s the only one eating it..

I haven’t really been doing such a stellar job of keeping my blog up to date with events from the last few weeks have I? I guess we’ve been so busy running around doing things that I haven’t really had a moment to myself to sit down, reflect and write. I did manage to shove up loads of pictures of us opening pressies and the like but so much has been going on since then I am afraid that this post may become behemoth in size.

Christmas on the beach

An antipodean Christmas and New Year is certainly different, even if you have your parents around. I’ve had interesting Christmases before but when it’s actually supposed to be the norm it is most unusual to sit on a beach, dipping your toe in the sea on Christmas day.

It’s also very strange having Summer and the Christmas holidays all at once. I don’t envy all my pals back home who have returned to work, I still have another 4 weeks of hols left, but I’m sure I’ll be desperate for a longer holiday in 6 months when I should be getting another, medium size break for either Christmas or Summer.

It is lovely though and although we had to ‘ship’ everything, including the fridge (in the form of an eski) down onto the beach, the day had a very un-chrismassy relaxed feel. Usually, Christmas is a massive job from start to finish, breakfast, present opening, cleaning up from present opening, preparing 3 course lunch, eating lunch, cleaning up after lunch and then keeping everyone entertained all afternoon before preparing a buffet style leftovers option for all the other visitors who may appear during the evening. This Christmas we ate cold meat and salad (probably what would normally be the left over bit) and then wandered off to the beach. Simple and strangely relaxing! I didn’t even have to worry about what my “Christmas outfit” would be. No posh frock.. just my

bikini….

Feeding the ducks

Pretty early on mum established a relationship with Honk and Honk .  She discovered the duck and chicken feed available at Coles and they have been spoilt every day since.  They have been chomping their way through bag after bag of the stuff!  Unfortunately for Matt and I the ‘honks’ like to come to our bedroom window and make loud noises until she goes out to feed them!  Not sure what’ll happen when she leaves on Sunday Hopefully they’ll return to their bread diet as before.  They’ve certainly been fattened up over the holidays! Matt keeps looking at them an muttering “Good life Pizza, ginger jam.. Hop on!”

Bruce Meekat says "g'day"

Mum and the fake Pandas

Of course, mum wouldn’ t be satisfied with just geese and ducks and so we’ve visited the Zoo,

Moriala and Gorge Wildlife Park.She’s spent an hour taking pictures of pandas and hogging the panda exibition spots (holding off small children who wanted to cuddle them) We found Bruce Meerkat and she’s even cuddled another Koala. We did attempt to see Dolphins at Port Adelaide but unfortunately – and unusually, they decided to swim the opposite way up the river.  We spent 2 hours on a boat and when we got off we found them under a bridge. We had some pancakes and a wander around the town too. Dad took some piccies of the lighthouse (a strange one it is) and mum found some pirates to talk to.

Light House Port Adelaide

No Dolphins - Sulk - Port Adelaide

Pirates at Port Adelaide

Relaxing in the Hammock

Despite being dragged around all of these lovely wildlife parks (he loves it really!) Dad has managed to get some rest. Whilst hanging about in the hammock or messing about on a sun lounger he has taken the opportunity to be all entrepreneurial and see if he can expand the business out here. He’s even flown to Melbourne for meetings, met with bank managers and accountants and registered websites. He probably now knows far more about Australian business and tax practices than I do (despite having had a business for 12 months).

Chim Chimeny!

I’ve kept mum busy.  She was being annoyed by grass that was not the regulation half an inch in length and really doesn’t understand the concept of a dishwasher.  As a result, she decided to the mo the lawn dust in her new dress and turn into a swamp monster.  She has also managed to get through 2 bottles of fairy liquid (I’ve had the same one for a year now… never use the stuff!) Was amusing to see her very muddy face when she realised what she looked like. Especially after she’d already marched out the front to have a chat to the locals resembling something like chimney sweep.

Windy Penguins

Apart from spending time on the river I’ve also taken them to Victor Habour so we could visit the “Little Penguins”, visit somewhere new and let Matt enjoy a bit of the “holiday” feel whilst we celebrated the New Year. Hilariously, it turned out to be a

Up the Bluff Victor Harbour

bit nippy and windy the night we chose to visit Granite Island. Well… that is if you can call 16 cold. I honestly have no idea how they’ll survive when they get back.  Mum has been describing temperatures that are well into their 30s as temperatures “like back home”… Perhaps that’s the air-con working well?… too well?

We walked up the Bluff, a very beautiful hill /hump on at the pinnacle of a lovely sweeping bay, ate fish and chips, “froze” whilst watching penguins waddle about and enjoyed the facilities at the McCracken Country Club. All very lovely.

House Hunting

Some time has also been spent looking at real estate and land. I’ve driven mum and Dad around loads of the areas that we’re thinking of buying in.  We can’t afford anything here in Grange so we’re looking further down south in Port Noarlunga / Moana or slightly further north in Largs’ Bay / Semaphore.  We’ve been approved for a mortgage (yay!) but we’re attempting to be very careful this time… Interest rates are rising, new builds aren’t going up as fast as they were (even though it all looks like it’s booming and the house prices just keep going up… surely that has to stop at some point? Probably, knowing our past history, at the point where we have just finished unpacking the boxes.  It’s fun having a look around though :0) Mum’s fancied herself as a bit of an Amanda Lamb I think!

Ipads... addictive.. apparently...

If you’ve seen my faceache or Twitter status updates then you’ll probably know that one of the gifts I got at Christmas was an Apple MacBook Pro.  I’m using now… So I’m attempting to be different and try something new and stylish.  Mum and Dad arrived with Ipads in tow.  Picked up in Singapore – because everyone had one – I don’t think they can actually go more than 4 hours without playing with it!

Dad’s got the radio, the papers, his email and the archers on his.  Mum’s got solitaire, tennis (which she plays enthusiastically whilst dad’s trying to sleep – occasionally knocking him with her tennis elbow) and soooo many more apps.  I constantly here ” can I have… it’s only 59p”.  She’s even discovered she can get mild porn Mils and Boons to read on there! She is as I speak, warming up dad for the purchase of Series 1 + 2 of Merlin for the plane home… lol  They’re worse than the flipping kids!

Botanical Gardens SA

Motor Museum SA

LOF gets Floaty

Piccies!

Coming at ya!

They arrived just over a week ago and they’ve experienced just one day over 30. It’s been cloudy, rainy and cold (oops) until today (phew). Of course, when I say cold I mean about 20 (at lowest) and I guess, if you’re reading this from the UK, you want to scratch me and spit a bit (oh no that would be a cat). The sun is out today and we’re sat out in the garden. Mum, refusing to stay out of the sun (silly girl) has her legs in the full sun, dad is lounging on the steamer and I’m sat at the outdoor table typing It’s probably 25 today. Nice

We had a great time chugging along the Murray last week.  There were some rather ‘funny’ moments.  The top ten would include moments like when Dad managed to wedge the side of our house boat onto the swim deck of the boat parked next to us as we were leaving Mannum.  The poor kids aboard the boat came dashing out to help us to un-wedge it! Thankfully, their parents were in the shower at the time.  They offered to fetch them but, needless to say, we didn’t really see a reason to draw to their attention the small dilema we had caused.  We managed to sail off eventually, with a little bit of front to back spinny wheeling.

Then of course there was the moment we drove straight over the buoy that was casually floating in the river to mark the entrance of the marina we were heading towards.  The ‘thud, thump’ of a large orange plastic marker bumping under the house boat whilst praying that it would appear (intact) out of the back of the boat, really is the only way to travel!

Mum worked out after taking about 500 pictures of them very quickly , that Cockatoos really are not that rare out here, Dad has sampled a range of  different beers and Matt has had a well deserved rest as we chugged along taking in all the sites.

Since we’ve been back mum and dad have single handedly solved the slow spending that was affecting trading figures here in the city.  Mum has purchased 8 dresses (in three days) and dad has been raiding the likes of Rodd and Gunn for shorts and T-shirts.  I hope they get to wear them again when they get home   At least they get to wear them out here

Mum has also taken the time to sample the various Lamingtons.  So far, I believe the Michels Bakery one is winning.  Although it was actually the same size as her head! Matt ended up with the mashed up second half of this one.  He, unfortunately, is at work until Xmas eve.  At least it’s going to be all sunny and nice this weekend

We’re planning to be on the beach on Saturday.  I bought a couple of tent poles and was planning to place a tarpauline on them to create a bit of shade.  We’ve purchased a 50L cool box Esky and are nearly ready to go.  That was until Ma’ spotted the gazebo in KMart that has sides to prevent flies.  Now there are threats of xmas decorations.  Ah well.. It’s Christmas after all!  Matt pulls faces when I carry a chair down there!  Goodness knows what he’ll think on Xmas day as we set up camp! Fun, fun, fun!

It’s officially the first of December.  That means I can now start going on and on about Christmas!!!   Yay!  Watch out for new Xmassy rockinmochin logos and everything! (i’m actually thinking of re-vamping the whole site AGAIN) lol

Things have become more and more christmassy this end.  Schools here are winding up (we seem to always go “up” rather than “down” here) for the summer hols and have only this week and a bit to go! That means less work for me in schools but more time to work on things like publishing proposals, South Australian Interactive Whiteboard networks and new ventures for the new year!

I have discovered a rather cool website where I can contact Santa and ask him for a message. Some of you might have received one in your in box already? If not here’s one for all of you

Message from Santa to Readers

Decorated Christmas Cat

We’ve begun putting up the Christmas decorations.  This had all been made a little more exciting by the fact that we actually didn’t own any.  We had to leave them all behind in the UK.  We were advised to because a lot of them had pine cones, sticks or other bits of nature that Customs just wouldn’t have appreciated.

That’s meant a massive Christmas tree and decoration search has begun.  KMart was the cheapest for trees and we got our lovely, 6ft  “Cashmere” tree for just $79  (£48).  We got a few decorations from there too until I remembered driving past the Christmas superstore!

This shop is there all year round and it sells nothing but party goods, silly outfits and erm.. well yes… Christmas decorations and fairy lights – All year round… Lol.. Needless to say it’s rather busy at the moment and we got some brilliant bargains too. Those giant snowflakes next to Hendrix are actually lights that are now hanging on the wall in the living room

Sparkly tree - from outside

Putting the top on the tree!

What with tinsel, LED flashy lights, new baubles and a strange, white fluffy reindeer (that I bought for Mum when she gets here) the tree looks very nice.  Sparkly and pretty.  So far it’s surviving nicely and seems to have only taken a brief beating from Stan.  He doesn’t seem so inclined to chase LED lights around the tree as he did the standard ones!

I’m quite glad really.  I always had visions of coming home to a fried cat with Christmas lights in his mouth -stoopid kitty!

An update on Honk and Honky is also very important.  If you’ve been following my tweets then you’ll know that they’re still around. Only now they’ve gotten into the habit of appearing at the window of the living room at dusk and honking at us.  Honky even tried to jump up onto the window ledge and get in the other day (thank goodness for fly goose screens!) Bless em!

Still visiting!

No Geesies! You're not allowed in! Go to your house!

Anyhoo with all the Xmas pressies now starting to arrive in the UK and a second Christmas cake having been baked (I “accidentally” ate the last one- oops)  It looks like it’s going to be a fun Xmas! There’s just over a week until Ma and Paleave Blighty and head over – weather permitting!

SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW!  You’ve even made it onto our “national” centric news programs!  lol Make sure you send me piccies!