Grand plans out the window

Well, I must admit. I had grand plans for the weekend - you see, I was going to take multiple outfit photos (and multiple outfits) so I'd be a little ahead in blogland, but it wasn't to be. Saturday I studied my little rear end off, and I even created my very first program in Visual Basic (hereby referred to as VB). It was only a tiny little thing that opened up a picture, but technically still a program. Sunday was the day I intended to take my outfit shots, and I was ready - makeup done, hair sufficiently dirty to set... but nope. At 9am I received a phone call from J's parents asking if I could babysit his little brother NOW.

You see, J's poppa is unwell and in hospital, and he's gone downhill quickly. So I jumped in my car and raced around to their place, which thankfully is only five minutes up the road. They dashed off to the hospital, and I spent most of the morning cleaning their house. I am a crisis cleaner (plus I really like cleaning) - there is nothing worse than getting horrible news and coming home to a messy house. So I did the dishes, vacuumed, cleaned the kitchen, took out the recycling, put away their clean laundry, made their beds, you name it. We haven't heard any bad news yet, but we're expecting it any time now.

Then the little guy and I went back to my place, and waited for J to arrive home from Warrnambool - he was at the Speedway Championships - something I was looking forward to attending before I got glandular fever and ceased being able to sleep in the back of a ute in a noisy campsite. Then we all went for a two hour swim in the creek with the two dogs, which is lovely and deep thanks to the floods! Shower, food, nanna nap, food, Monty Python, bed... that was the rest of my day!

So you see, I really did have good intentions (albeit a little sneaky) so I apologise. All I have to offer is some Instagr.am pictures from my week, so I hope that suffices. I will promise some outfit photos this week!

 (The wheel of J's dad's Indian Chief - he lovingly rebuilt it over 30 years. It's been finished for 5, I think)

(the remote control plane is the best way to tire out two puppies - they run around the paddocks chasing it until they collapse in a heap)

(HMS Poppy going for a dip)

(Clouds in the creek)

(J harvested some honey - from two frames we got around 5kg of the stuff! Sticky and messy but the house smelt so good)

(I'm overloading on the study right now - with my IT degree plus Chinese tutoring. I want to find a Russian tutor too, but I can't find one)

(J's new bee-suit... doing the robot)

(Footy-loving dog - the unpredictable bouncing drives him crazy!)

(My beautiful Mary and her freaky eye - apparently quite common, says my Uncle)

(And finally, cool clouds on Saturday. The moon was out too, but refused to be photographed)

Normally this annoys me

Does it annoy anyone else when modern designers create vintage style clothes, or is it just me? I usually don't like it even if it is just the top designers, because it eventually trickles down into the mainstream trash. And I hate looking like I'm following a trend (although that's not the main reason why I wear vintage).

But this collection from Christian Dior is A-MAY-ZING! I want them all, particularly the pale yellow prom dress. I have an inkling it might be waaaaaay out of my price range though! You can view the complete collection at Style.com.

Fully sick, bro

Morning all. Thanks for all your lovely thoughts during the floods - we're A.O.K now, but I unfortunately am not! I've been sick since last Sunday, and the doctors think it is glandular fever (mono for those in the States)... but I'm still waiting to hear back about my blood test results. Either way, my neck is swollen and rock hard, and I'm sleeping 16-18 hours a day, and STILL tired! I haven't been to work all week either (apart from a lousy 3.5hrs that I lasted through on Wednesday before being forced to go home for a nap).

So, I took some snaps for you of the things rocking my world at the moment.

Cadbury Creme Eggs... oh how I love you. I wish you were available all year round.

Medicine. Lots of painkillers (because it feels like the skin in my neck is going to split, it's that swollen) and antihistamines (to help keep the swelling down).

My munchkin (and instagr.am). Don't they say that patting a dog is a great way to soothe stress? Well, if it works for stress, it surely must work for illnesses too.

My new desk. Only $50 from the Trading Post, and big enough to use as a sewing table too. I hate the tangle of cords underneath though, there must be a better way.

My new Barry Morgan's World of Organs tee. If you haven't seen Barry on Spicks and Specks, hop to it - he's hilarious.

STUDY! I got into the IT Grad.Dip I wanted at Southern Cross Uni, and they already have their textbook lists up so I've started reading and summarising already. Geek to the max.

And finally, my blue tipped hair. I took the plunge last week and got my hairdresser-friend to do it, and it was a mammoth task to remove all the years of black hairdye from my tips! The ends are pretty much dead now - they go mushy and stretchy when wet (yuck!) so it needs some TLC.

Now it's back to bed for a nap - gosh, how I hate sleeping away the days.

A very eventful 24 hours

Yesterday afternoon we drove to Melbourne to pick up J's new car - he's bought an XR6 turbo ute. We were about 500m away from our house when we discovered our ford (it's a floodway that dips down, instead of rising up like a normal bridge) was flooded under 40cm of water. So we drove the looong way back home, then went off to the nearby town of Shelford to visit our mate who was trying to save their cricket club rooms.

The clubrooms were deserted (and surrounded by water) so we drove towards the light - generator lights at a nearby house that usually floods. J grew up in Shelford, and he even had a premonition that we'd be down there helping soon... and he was right!



We helped move furniture out to higher ground, and then I got stuck into making sandbags - after two hours I was dripping with sweat and my arms ceased to function - much better than any workout I've ever had! The high water time was revised from midnight to 5:30am, but we noticed it starting to drop ever so slightly at around 2am, so we decided to pack up and go home.

And getting home was a challenge - all the local roads were closed due to flooding, and everybody had a different idea on which route would be best. We ended up driving to Inverleigh, then back to Bannockburn, and the road was under water parts of the way, but it was driveable. Our poor friends only lived on the other side of Shelford, but they had to take the same route as us - nearly a 1hr round trip just to get to the other side of the river.

We got home to discover the creek had risen to 60cm, and we were almost expecting to hear cries for help in the middle of the night - in the last flood, a car got washed off the ford and my uncle had to tow him out with the tractor.

We wake up at 10am to find that we could see the creek from our back step. We wandered down to find it was at the 1m mark, and water was running through parts of our paddocks too - we guess about 1/3 of our lucerne paddocks are under water.

 (the usually bone dry creek bed - it's about 10 feet deep)

(The Moorabool River, taken from the Russells Bridge bridge)

(Bye bye lucerne paddock)

(Our ford. Looks can be deceiving - if you didn't know this road, you wouldn't know that it dips down quite low. We saw a few people attempt to cross this morning before the SES put up road closure signs, and they all quickly reversed back out when they realised how deep it was - not like the flood marker is anything to go by!)

(A pair of stuffed gates. Most of our brand new fencing is ruined, but my brother was frantically running around cutting the wire so the posts wouldn't be ripped from the ground by the weight of the debris catching on the fencing.)

J had to move his bees to higher ground, and then the day took a turn for the worse when I was stung by a bee on my head. There are lots of natural bee hives in the river banks, so the water has displaced them and they're PISSED OFF! I am highly allergic to bees, so we raced to the doctors for an epi-pen (I don't carry one seeing as it has been 10 years since my last sting). Painkillers and antihistamines later, we drove back out to Shelford to see the damage.

The cricket clubrooms only received an inch or two of water in (and it is build up about 6 feet off the ground), so they only had to steamclean the carpets. We heard great news from the house we tried to save the night before - the sandbags held and the house was fine too (apart from the carpets, but that was more from people traipsing through).

 (J saved a yabbie that was stuck in a pool of water! She had eggs on her, so she went back into the river)

 (The batting cages have seen better days. The current was so strong, it ripped out some of those bollards)

I then came home and had a massive sleep. I think I have an infection in my foot - it got cut sometime during the night, and we spent most of the time knee deep in floodwater that contained leaking septic goo. My arms are also so sore from lifting 20kg sandbags, but I don't care... it feels awesome to know that we could help, especially after feeling so helpless seeing the Queensland floods.

Queensland floods :(

It really puts things into perspective when something terrible like this happens. And it also makes me proud to be an Aussie. I've watched the news and Twitter feeds today in horror, and sometimes in tears. I only wish I could help in more ways than just donating money, because money is the one thing I don't have right now.

I'm not going to say much, mainly because I don't have such the great way with words that some other bloggers have, so instead I will share pictures.

(and for some feel-good pictures)

(source for all above images - this link shows all pictures being tweeted)

(source)

If you can donate (even a few dollars - it all adds up), please do so here:  http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/ ... I'm thinking of selling some more vintage dresses on eBay so I'll have some money to donate.

I just hope all those affected are safe and sound, and there is no more loss of life... seems unlikely though seeing as the worst is yet to come. It's time to pray, people.

It's Hot Rod Show time!

I cannot believe it has been a year since the last Colac Custom Car and Bike Show! How time flies. Here is my post from last year, if you are interested. It's on again this Saturday, the 15th of January in Colac, Vic.

J and I are most likely riding his bike down for the day (much easier for parking), but the possible rainy weather might negatively affect the turnout of both cars and spectators. I am taking my fandangle camera down, so I should have some nice snaps to share with you.

And the Queenscliff Hot Rod Show is only weeks away too, on the 6th of February. I just hope the weather will be nicer that day - I'd like to wear some summery dresses this summer please!

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My weekend was chock full! On Saturday I helped Dad cart bales of lucerne from the paddock to the hay shed - we had to get them in before the rain hit, and we achieved with a few hours to spare. I drew the short straw though, driving the 1966 Bedford truck with holes in the floor, vinyl seats so hot they burnt you and no power steering or aircon (unless you're my Dad, who likes to call open windows "aircon". Not the same, Dad). He, on the other hand, drove the tractor in air-conditioned and power-steered comfort - I think it even has an FM radio.

(There are photos of me driving the truck, but I look so unimpressed at Dad wasting time taking photos of me while I'm beetroot red and dripping with sweat, they're never going to see the light of day on this blog!) Photos are taken using the instagram or pudding iPhone apps.

The rest of the weekend I cleaned, and cleaned, and cleaned. Amazing what I can achieve when I don't drink alcohol (oh yeah - I'm trying to see how long I can go without the sauce... 10 days down so far).

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Finally, in other news, Fifties Fiver is now mobile friendly. Took me long enough!

And I've turned the music off auto-play, seeing as I have had some complaints (and a couple of rude retweets in my feed that I think are directed at me - things like that really hurt my feelings).

And here I go again, jinxing myself. I bought BABY CLOTHES! I don't want children for another 5 years at least, but I fell in love with this cute little 1950s onesie on etsy a while back (from bombshellebettie, of course!) and I snapped it up during one of her sales. I will really have to hide it well so J doesn't spot it.

HELP! Missing parcel - what would you do?

I need your opinions, ladies and gents. 

Bought and paid for two vintage dresses on etsy on 26th Nov.
Seller posted dresses 1st Dec.

Nothing since then. The latest update from USPS says "processed through Sort Facility, December 01, 2010, 7:10 am, CHICAGO, IL 60688".

It's now 40 days since I paid, and I only have a 5 day window left for filing an 'item not received' dispute with PayPal.

BUT, the seller has been really lovely during this whole thing, and another dress I bought from her since then has arrived and is perfect. She's also going to try and get to the PO tomorrow to speak to somebody, and she's submitting a missing item form on the USPS website today too (USPS say they aim to reply within 2-3 days). So I don't really want to open a dispute against her, seeing as she's been so nice and all, but I can't afford to lose $100 at the moment either.

What would you do?

Getting out of that blogging-blues slump

Forgive my attempt to jazz up a boring post with pictures - I'm slowly recovering from my blogging-blues slump.

I started back at work yesterday (yay), but I have to rotate to another area in the Library in February sometime (boo) which I'm really not looking forward to because I am in <3 with web development. I should hopefully be starting my IT Grad. Dip in late Feb though (if I get in), so that will satisfy my IT needs.

A few of my work mates and I have decided to travel together to Japan in late Oct/early Nov! Two of us (myself inc) will be Japan virgins, one has been twice, and the other (my supervisor) will have been 5 times by then, so she will act as our guide. It's a little embarrassed to admit that rejigging my budget to accommodate for holiday savings is nearly as exciting as the trip itself!

I've scrapped plans for new tattoos (and also dying sections of my hair electric blue) in order to save frantically for said Japan trip. I should have all my monies saved up by June, allowing enough time to recover from little indiscretions, which we all know are bound to happen.

J is frantically hunting for a new vehicle (he doesn't need, he wants), but that's fine with me because it's his money, but I just wish he'd stop talking about blooming engines! Also, he's getting a ute (like the one pictured), and I don't know why, but men in utes are sexier - that's the inner bogan in me talking, I know.

I have recently become obsessed with Instagram. I've always been obsessed with taking photos of my Cons, for the record. I'll be uploading my pictures into my Flickr account if you're interested. And yeah, I'm wearing jeans today - I'm all dressed out at the minute.

I bought a beautiful ring pillow from etsy, even though I'm not engaged. It had been sitting in my favourites list for months, and I was so scared somebody would buy it, so I just bit the bullet and bought it. Knowing my luck, it will be a bad omen and I'll end up a spinster for life, but I'll take my chances.

I'm enrolled in Auslan (Australian Sign Language) classes beginning late February, and running for 10 weeks. It's always been something I've wanted to learn, so I thought why not? I will be able to communicate better with my disabled cousin when I see him next, plus it looks good on the old CV. Speaking of which, I need to get my CV in order, as my cadetship ends in December of this year, so it will be time to start hunting for a new job (groan).

It's 57 days until I see this sexy man (Rob Zombie) live in concert. Which means it is 58 days until Soundwave Festival, where I intend to get my metal on. Seeing Rob Zombie twice in 24 hours may actually be the happiest moment of my life thus far, and that's not taking into consideration the other amazing bands on the lineup. I also cannot wait to see all the little try-hard goth kids in their all-black outfits and pale skin frying in the March sun. Bring on the sore neck.