A True Australia Day!

Nothing says summer in Australia like a 41 degree day, where you feel like you've mistakenly opened the oven door when you venture out the front door to get the paper at 8am.

This Australia Day we headed down to meet Mr Mel's parents at his aunts house on the Central Coast for the day.  We had a great day, lovely lamb cutlets and prawn skewers on the BBQ, with warm potato salad, and an avocado, tomato & cucumber salad, just delish. This was followed by coffee and a lovely lemon & lime cheesecake Mr Mel's mum made, nice and tangy.  We drang verdelho with our meal, always a lovely drop.

We spent the afternoon just chatting around the dinner table, since I met Mr Me's aunt & uncle 3 years ago, I've not really had a chance to chat 1 on 1, it's always been in a group of 20+ family members. So it was lovely to just chat about whatever came up, their family, growing up in Sydney, their parents passing, the passing of a daughter, my family, plans for the future, travel ideas, etc. 

Time flew and before we knew it the clock was showing 5pm, so we had to head home. Mr Mel's parents back to Sydney, us back to the Hunter.

When we left the coast it was warm, but not uncomfortable. When we arrived home it was like the temp had been turned up again. We were sweating carrying the esky back inside, and our poor puglet was panting his head off at the gate (soon fixed by a douse with the hose, he headed back to sleep out the heat).

Our home was like an oven, even airing out all night hasn't really, helped, so on went the aircon in the bedroom so we can sleep.  It's 10pm and currently 33 deg!

The forecast says thunderstorms tonight then 36 deg tomorrow, excellent, back to work on a stinker!

Life is good here in the lucky country, bloody hot, but very very good.

Till next time,

New Business - on the way!

Finally I got round to sending off the registration form to NSW Fair Trading, to register our additional business name.

We've done alot of the groundwork for the business, registered domains, started researching and sounding out contacts.

So now we just have to wait to see if Fair Trading will give us the name we want!  It will operate under our current ABN, so hopefully, according to our accountant, there won't be 'too much extra paperwork'!  We shall see!!

In any case, can't die wondering, so we're going to have a go and see what happens. Once we're up and running I'll post something online :)

Till next time,

Doc Update

Happy to report that I am indeed a woos!

The Doc was lovely and happy that I was well informed, and realistic about things, given my age, etc.

He was happy that I'd started on the weight loss slog and gave me a pathology request for a raft of tests.

So I shall be heading to the vampire next week, to get blood drawn, and find out what blood type I am!

Till next time,

Lost Some Of My Courage!

Further to an earlier post http://canwedoityepwecan.blogspot.com/2011/01/doctor-here-i-come.html

I'm feeling quite ill about my appointment this afternoon, I think I'm scared about getting bad news, up until the last 18 months or so I'd never really thought about my ability to fall pregnant. And since organising the appointment, I've done nothing but think about it.

I've had dreams of being pregnant, nightmares about not being able to get pregnant, and have felt sick all day today.  I know (well more hope than know) it's better to know than not, so here's hoping the Doc doesn't have bad news for me.

Yes I'm a chicken, I know! Shall report back tomorrow!!!!!

Good ol Dr Hibbert, always good for a lollipop for wooses! :)

Till next time,

A Gratuitous Pug Shot

I just couldn't resist posting this pic of our pug Ollie, taken at the B&B we stopped at overnight at Euroa, on our drive to Warrnambool after Christmas.

Mr Mel, Ollie & I had just had a walk around town, before retiring for the night, we'd left home at 5am and arrived at Euroa at 3.30pm. Ol had been such a good boy, we set him up in the back seat, with a hammock protecting the seat from the onslaught of pug hair (don't get me started)!  He had his sheepskin rug to lay on, and after a 15 minute freak out when we headed off, he travelled like an angel. Slept most of the way, apart from the odd scramble to the back of the drivers seat to look over Mr Mel's or my shoulder to make sure we were going the right way!  We stopped every couple of hours to let him stretch his legs, have a drink and piddle.

I just love the happy look on Ollie's face, and that he's happy to sit on the bench on his own, after I got some pics of him with Mr Mel, the photo sums him up, our little puglet :)

Till next time,

Doctor here I come!

Ok so the story so far, I turned 37 a few months ago, Mr Mel and I have had all the talks that can be had, the end result, is we want to get married and start a family this year (gods willing).

SO, I just made an appointment to see my Doctor, to get the whole kit & caboodle so to speak checked.

I know the first item on the agenda will be weightloss, and I'm getting there, but I think the Doc will give me a good enough scare that I'll drop those kgs quicker than ever! I'm going to ask for the blood test that can tell you if you're cycling ok, other than that I'm open to anything that needs to happen!

Given my age, the stats are starting to scare the life out of me.

• Fertility - gradually decreases from 30 on, at 35 - 39 it's a 52% chance!
• Infertility - gradually increases from 30 on, at 35 - 39 it's a 15% chance!
• At 45 you're half as fertile as you were at 25, and at 40 you're half as fertile as you were at 35 - now that's a kick up the backside!
• Complications - Chance of complications goes from 10.43% at 20-29 to 19.29% at 35-39 years
• At 35 years + 1 in 440 pregnancies result in the baby dying in utero at the end of the pregnancy, compared to 1 in 1000 for under 35 years
• Down Syndrome - At 40 the risk is 1 in 60 for a baby with down syndrome, at 25 its 1 in 1,500!

That's enough stats to scare me, and probably you for now, but wish me luck, I've only been to this Doc once, and never seen a Doc anywhere re trying to get pregnant!

I'm not taking Mr Mel with me for this first appointment, too much info would blow his mind and distract him from the end goal, so I'll see how it goes, then fill him and he can come to the next appointment.  Don't you just love guys!!  :)

Till next time,

stats from www.babycenter.com.au

Qld Floods - let it be over soon!

Living in Australia, we get used to the extreme conditions to a point, that is until something like the Qld floods that are currently threatening life, livestock, property & livelihoods in Qld.

image from the Courier Mail

To think not that long ago a large portion of the area now inundated by floods was in drought. Farmers were losing stock & crops to lack of water, now they're having the same horrible outcome from too much water.

I was very saddened to wake up to the news that there are now 8 souls lost (RIP) and another 70 people missing.

I have just read that the flooded area is larger than France & Germany combined!

To my friends in Qld, to any visitors to this blog from Qld, or those of you who also have friends & family under threat, my thoughts & most positive vibes possible go out to you all.

Let's hope Mother Nature eases back a bit and gives everyone a chance to get to safety.

If anyone is wanting to donate but not sure how, this link goes to the Qld Government donation site - http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html

Till next time,

2011 - bring it!

So it's already Jan 10, and I'm only now getting around to putting 'pen to paper' re my 2011 goals.  I have put a bit of thought to it over the past weeks, some goals more than others.

So let's see, forgive the typing dribble, but I'll just blurt it all out then try and make sense later, perhaps!  I think I'll go for 6 month goals at this stage.

Health - a major goal is to get healthy, it effects so many aspects of life, it's something that I have overlooked, well more accurately, accidentally on purpose, ignored!  With not great results.  I'm now 37, and not very healthy, I need to lose a fair lot of kgs, and I need to build my fitness up, I work with horses, and over the past year have been doing alot more physical work with them, and my lack of fitness has been glaringly obvious (see my previous post on herding cattle!).  I need to lose weight and get healthy to give my 37 year old ovaries the best chance of producing viable eggs in the next 12 months, with Mr Mel & I wanting to start a family (hopefully!).  Plus I want to lose weight for vanity reasons too, I'm sick of frumpy granny clothes! So let's put a number on it, you read everywhere that you have to define your goals, so here goes, by 30 June (end of fatty year not financial heehee), my goal is to lose 20kgs. After 30 June I'll look at a Xmas goal!

Finances - Mr Mel have been going well, paying almost triple our minimum payment on our mortgage, after 18 months of owning our home we have just over 57% equity. We have made paying our mortgage down, a high priority, we're both in our late 30s and if we want to have kids it has to be asap, and we want a buffer financially, and our thinking is if we can build a buffer in our mortgage, if we happen to fall pregnant and lose 1 or 2 jobs, we'll still have a good 6-8 months of breathing room before things got desperate. So my goal is to be at 60% equity by 30 June.

Business - Mr Mel and I set up our own P/L business last year, he works as a sub-contractor/consultant, and we have invested in broodmares (my speciality), under the business banner.  This year our plan is to expand the business to include a new blog, I can't give too many thoughts away until we get everything registered etc. Our goal is to have our new blog up & running, with 50 followers, and 1 advertiser by 30 June!

Investments - Mr Mel and I have a small share portfolio, we have been quite lucky/fortunate, depending on how you look at it, Mr Mel invested a chunk of cash when the market crashed, and he has managed to double the investment, we took the profit and left the original investment in the market.  This has helped us get to our current 57% equity in our home.  I invested $5k in a speculative share (on the advice of a client in the business) and that share has gone from 0.335 to 0.810 in the past 3 months. Our long term goal is to buy some land, say 10 acres, and build our dream home & farm, so there's no real goal at this stage.  Well actually there is, our goal is to keep on planning for our dream home, it will happen!

Work - While I love my job (most of the time!) I'm getting more and more drawn to working for myself, in my industry I don't know if it's a realistic goal, but I do more than a passing interest in another industry that I could end up working for myself in.  I need to decide if my 'passing interest' is worth pursuing, I need to research and meet with an expert in the field to investigate further. My goal is to by 30 June have a meeting with a local expert and get more info re my possible career change.

Personal - I want to get married, there it is, Mr Mel knows it, he wants to also, but he just seems to get distracted, and forgets to do the whole proposal thing!  Our plan (yes we're planning but not proposing!!!!) is to have a surprise wedding, we will invite loved ones to an engagement party and then get married at the party, it might be a bit risky given most of my family will be coming from interstate, but we've been working on ways to get them here without giving away the surprise.  Our goal is to get bleeping well engaged asap, not by June 30, now damn it!!  :)  Then hopefully preggers will follow!! :)

Home - After having rented my way through 16 years, 14 houses and 2 states, I still have to pinch myself when I look round our home and realise yes it's mine/ours!  The major downside to being a renter for so long, is that I lived those 16 years in a continual state of packing/unpacking, so I never really settled anywhere.  I've found it hard since we moved into our home in July 2009 to try and put down roots, I still think I shouldn't nail a picture hook into the wall, etc.  The end result is our home is a bit of a schmozzle, will no real identity, it's homey enough, but I still as usual have a spare bedroom full of boxes. So my goal is to have no removalist boxes in the house/garage/anywhere by 30 June.  Time to get nesting :)

So there they are, my goals for 2011, well for part of 2011 for now, I'm sure I will edit/add over the coming months!

Till next time,

Welcome 2011 - I hope we can be friends!

It's been a few weeks since I've been online, having driven to Warrnambool and back (3,000km round trip) for post Christmas celebrations with my family, after having spent Christmas Day with Mr Mel's family in Sydney.

So now we're in 2011, and I'm hoping this year and I can be best buddies, as we've got alot to do!

I started this blog with some goals, hence the rather lame name of the blog!

In 2011, the goals are near the same, only with alot more urgency attached. Hoping to put pen to paper so to speak shortly and revise the goals, but for new, Happy New Year everyone, I'll be back shortly with pics from our trip also.

Till next time,