Weird vertigo-nesss

or ... vertiginousness...
or something.

A few months ago, I was driving to work one morning and as I drove along, something really odd happened. It was like, the entire world had just picked up and shunted itself sideways. My vision went off in a truly bizarre manner and for a moment I thought someone had run the light next to me and had pushed my car sideways, very quickly, just without the impact.

It had me running scared for a week. I thought I was going nuts. I hadn't swerved, I hadn't crashed, no one had hit me. I was fine. But the world had literally (it seemed) moved a giant step sideways and i had been left behind for a moment. Or something.

It happened again today. I was driving again (different car this time) and was minding my own business, looking ahead as per usual, watching out for hazards, you know, the stuff you do when you are driving. And then the world picked itself up and shunted sideways.

It's a very very disorientating feeling. I don't know what it means, or if it means anything. I can't remember the circumstances surrounding the last time, I don't know if I was stressed or hungry or anything. I do know that without a doubt, both times there has been NO alcohol and NO drugs of any type whatsoever in my system.

I have been very stressed out lately and I do confess that I think I've been making it worse for myself than is absolutely necessary. I'm getting bogged down by the weight of the things I feel I need to do, rather than stepping back and just doing them one little bit at a time, like I should.

I wonder if that's got something to do with it.

It's rather frightening. I hope it doesn't happen again. And no, there's no time or money in this place right now for me to go to a doctor to get it checked out. Not a single tiny cent. If there was, I'd be getting my 6 years overdue pap smear next week, wouldn't I.

Somebody needs to buy a half a dozen spinning wheels from me. Then I can afford to go to the doctor.

Linking today

I wanna blog this article (thanks very much to Sonya from permaculture pathways for making me aware of it!)

It's old, but it's just awesome.

Here and read the bit by Clay Shirky. I like it, I like it a lot. A revolution that's there without being a revolution.... *grin*

Oh, and OK, so I like gin too, but that's not the point!

I have taken over the house

There is a bathtub full of fleece, a bathroom full of bags of fleece, a kitchen full of dinner cooking, a study full of paperwork and computing and a lounge room draped in both crates of market goodness and fabric galore from my cutting so far today.

What this means is - I'll have a cranky DH when he gets home. So really, I should go and make the bed. Because that's the LEAST I can do, right? Give him ONE room in the house that he can walk into that's not a complete disaster. Where he can put his feet up and relax a little.

Oh, and I better get the trail of clothing out of the hallway too. And the towels off the laundry floor.

Today I have not quite achieved as much as I would like to have done. I've really only got one lot of fleece washed (not one fleece, one lot of fleece, which is 4 basketfuls, which is not very much compared to an entire fleece) and although I've cut out MOST of my nappy order, I really wanted to finish the cutting today. Perhaps I'll do some more tonight. I really need a cutting table that's a bit higher than the card table I'm using in the lounge room, I find I'm bending too far and my upper back is hurting right now. But the show must go on, and if it continues to be a pain I'll trace around the bits that are left to cut and give the sewing scissors a work-out instead.

Right. Make bed, clear hallway. I shall be off!

The last few days

I have not blogged.
Mostly because I've been way too busy! Quick run-down:

Work. Day off cleaning house. Work. Day solving a customer's nappy drama (ended in a nice order and a vote of confidence in my product that i really needed!), delivering to another customer, fixing a friend's computer, and more house cleaning.

Evening madly entering stock into the new databse/POS system, trying to make sure it's all going to work properly. Packing stock into crates and stressing.

Day of madness - market set-up, loads of chatting and listening and learning. Properly inducted into the spinners and weavers group. I have a fabulous felted sheep badge, it's very exciting. Tempted to wear it to work tomorrow LOL. Then we had market pack up, home to get kids from school, FIL arrived for the afternoon while I fiddled with more invoicing and to-do lists and emails and all sorts. Borrowed carder from spinning to card up the fleece I have here (phew) faster but now my lounge room smells like fleece. FIL stayed for dinner (his shout - thanks!) and then toddled off to his hotel. More carding and carding...

Today however, I did have a rest. Of a sort, anyway. I was driven into town by jarrod - and we went to see Spiral Dance at the Brecknock. After all, it's st Pat's day! I drank a few guinnesses, and listened to some fabulous live music, and it was all good. Then, home, kids, dinner. The usual. ran some more fleece through the carder.

Tomorrow I'm working all day. Not a normal working day but i've got bills coming out of my ears so I best get the cash where I can. Then work on Friday, and i have to haul all my fabric out for sample photos on Saturday. hopefully I don't get lost in the colours!

So today was...

A day of doing nothing.

Well, that's what it felt like. WE did shopping, for a certain little fella's up coming birthday. We didn't find what we wanted, which is a real shame because it's stuff he's wanted for at least 6 months now! So I'm hoping I can find it between now and then!

Shopping is very boring for me, unless it's online fabric shopping - so I try not to do it that often at all.

I do have to point out that recently some of the differences in my little children are becoming clearer.

One of them burst into tears the other day because I wouldn't let him watch the end of Sister Act 2. He seems to thoroughly enjoy the music.

The other one refers to the 3 crazy blokes from "top Gear" as "those men who know lots of stuff". Rev-head in the making, do you think? I'm not truly sure, but you never know!

In the meantime, I am frantically knitting a pair of shoes. Yes, shoes. I was hoping to have them finished and felted by tomorrow night but seriously at this point I'm totally dreaming. They will be finished very soon though - and I will take photos. Oooer the first ever photos on this particular blog. How very exciting!

At some point I am hoping to figure out how to import all the past blog entries from my old LJ over to here. One day I will get it sussed.

But yet again, the knitting is calling my name rather loudly, so I will return in a few days. I have an exciting concert thingy to go to tomorrow night after work so hopefully I will get some photos of that on my phone too.

Payson Canyon

Payson Canyon

It might be heavy on the downloads, and HOPELESS on dial-up - but OMG. Colour!!!!!

Here's an inspiration for the next dyeing day - autumn fleeces coming up!

Tuesday spinners

I had a lovely time at Spinner's group today.

We did felting with ... wait for it... electric sanders LOL yep, and it was noisy and FUN!

Once my project is dry I shall take photos of it and post them up here.

I also finished a knitting project that will be for the May craft fair. At least I can honestly say I've completed ONE item.

At the moment there are 5 baskets of alpaca fleece soaking out their dirt in my bathtub. I'm hoping I'll get at least another 10 through the system, and have them attempting to dry overnight and all through tomorrow. I really want to get it all washed and lined up ready so that when I'm at Kathy's on Thursday I can just spend all day standing in front of the drum carder, feeding fleece through it.

I'd really like to try dyeing some of the alpaca too, so perhaps I'll do that at Kathy's as well. It would be nice, anyway!

There's going to be lots of stalls at next week's spinning and they've asked me to come along with as much stuff as I can find about the place. Hopefully I sell lots and even more hopefully, get lots and lots of orders! I need them - have to keep churning over the funds so I can pay for this craft fair.

Teenagers

So tonights conversation went something like this... (N= 15 yrs, M=me)

N: WHY do I have to help with dinner?

M: Because I asked you to, your 15, and surely you can take a few minutes away from your playstation to help out.

N:Fine

M: Don't eat the raw bacon, it's not good for you

N: I've eaten it plenty of times before, it's fine!

M: ( sotto voce) Ahhh, so that's what's wrong with you

N: Look, do you want me to help or not?

M: Do you want to eat tonight?

N: Not particularly

M: Fine, go away then.

N: Fine. (storms off)


That's my household for you.


On another note. Today I did NOT get the other pair of school pants sewn. I did however, go to Bunnings in the pouring rain and did NOT find what I wanted to purchase.

And I am now going to leave the PC and knit again. SO there.

Bad Hostess

Bad Hostess

Yes I'm linking to another blog. Because, well, it's cool

Some reading for you all on a public holiday Monday.

Defac!

Yep.

Well, that was the highlight of my day.

Kathleen (at work) must've been feeling somewhat dyslexic, because she wrote 'defac' on a customers' coffee cup instead of 'decaf'

It had us in hysterics for a long while - quite possibly longer than the hilarity actually warranted, but then, it is a Sunday afternoon. Sunday afternoons at work can get like that - kinda screwed up. It might have something to do with the energy drinks I somehow consume every sunday arvo at work. I know I shouldn't drink them, I'm totally hypocritical to my kids and won't let THEM have any - but by a Sunday arvo i NEED something to keep me going. And the coffee just doesn't cut it.

Anyhow, I'm home now. Didn't finish as much knitting as I wanted to last night, but it's the premier of "V" tonight on tv *yay!* so I'm planning on knitting in front of the box tonight!

I wonder how long this new sci-fi series will get before they can it and I'm doomed never to know what happens.

Maybe one day we'll actually be able to get ADSL2 here, and then I can afford enough downloads to watch my US shows on the PC. How nice would that be!

Hangover hilarity

This morning was hilarious.

I wasn't hungover - but both the workmates were. I walked in the door at 8 (covering a friends' shift as I usually don't work Saturdays any more) to see two very bleary-eyed young fellas blinking at me rather owlishly.

I had a rather amusing morning teasing them about the whole scenario!

Then I came home and attempted to achieve stuff. I traced round a pair of Declan's old pants and ended up with a pair of new ones from some lovely cotton drill I bought from the Crafty Mamas site here.

They will be for school for the next few weeks, as it is starting to get too chilly for shorts, but definetly still too warm for polar fleece or tracksuit material. The last pair of drill school pants that he had, he tore through the knee in no time, so I put an extra two layers over the knee section of these.

There were a few mistakes in them - they ended up not needing an elastic waist-band as they fit rather well without it - this is good now, but if he gets a bigger bum in the near future they will not go over it! So when I make the next pair (tomorrow night for Rory I think) I will have to cut the top of the back pieces wider and keep the waistband part quite a bit longer.

Generally speaking, when it's stuff I'm sewing for home I'm lazy and I cheat as much as is humanly possible. So although I could have done two patch pockets, I did one. And although I should have double-layered the pocket flap, I short hemmed it instead. And although really I should have overlocked the inside seams, I just couldn't be bothered LOL

Regardless, Declan has pants. I have a basic pattern that works and only needs a small modification.

And I feel like I have actually achieved something this afternoon.

Tonight, I am determined to finish one, possibly two knitting projects. And maybe spin something. Maybe.

Tomorrow is a full day at the slave-market so there will be nothing achieved there other than a sense of impending doom.

and yet another day

it all kinda blew up last night and I've spent my morning so far tip-toeing around the house trying not to have to look at or talk to DH. I won't go into details on this, given it's a public blog and there's that whole thing about dirty laundry and all that - but I'm already having a bad morning, simply because I had a bad night.
Thought you might wanna hear that, anyway.

Finishing tomatoes, cleaning the kitchen, taking some photos and uploading, and possibly doing some sewing - these are the things that are happening today. Then this arvo I'm off to Kathy's to pick up some stuff I left there last time and drop off some sauce, a few cucumbers and a peice of zuchinni. There may have been something else I was supposed to take but I've forgotten it already.

It's March, obviously

So the March flies are here. Quite possibly the first time that I've noticed them 'in season' so to speak.

I don't like flies. I don't like them inside my house, especially. And march flies are a particularly heinous type of fly. I think they may be intending to take over the world.

There is something overtly malevolent about the march fly. It has a very deliberate flight, slow and steady and more often than not, in a straight line - towards your face. Either that or it's flying low, around your knees, again in that deliberate fashion that makes you wonder if it's thinking about tripping you up somehow.

Yes, I know it's a fly. But it has deep red eyes, and 'hums' rather than 'buzzes'. It has INTENT and a slow, solemn depth to it's flight through my house. I want to squash it but I end up running in the opposite direction - and more often than not, it follows me.

They give a nasty bite, you know. Nasty painful nasty, with a lump that will itch for days as a follow-up.

I wonder if by anthropomorphising a fly, I'm allowing some sort of strange insight into my own psyche?


When my husband comes home he will get out the fly swatter and go on a hunt for the nasty critter. He will also get the 3 blowies and half a dozen black house flies that made it inside as the kids did their running in and out earlier. My house will be fly-free again.

Quantum procrastination.

I'm blogging because my dishes need doing and those tomatoes are YELLING at me from the dining room. Oh, and there's washing that needs to be hung out. So what else does a blogger need? A distraction, obviously.

Last night I had a distraction. Somehow I got onto quantum physics. (Actually, I remember how. A friend on Facebook joined the Deepak Chopra Australia group, so I followed that through to some transcendental meditiation stuff, and onwards to quantum mechanics. Stream of consciousness, much??)

I didn't do physics at school. I did Biology (well) did chemistry (so-so) and attempted maths. That's where I fall down. Maths is not good for me, or to me. Maths hates me, actually. My brain sees numbers, it freezes up into a some kind of ultra stupid moment and simply won't work from then on.

Words are another matter entirely. I LIKE words. Words are my friends.

So I start googling around, trying to find a suitably wordy explanation for quantum mechanics and physics and anything quantum related, that would help me to understand it without the need for weird formulas with NUMBERS (not to mention other odd things like greek letters) in them.

I found a couple of hints. I think I have what can only be described as a VERY BASIC grasp of the theory behind it all. Lots to do with waves and particles and how things can be BOTH at the same time, as well as different aspects as different times. The word 'probability' popped up a lot.

My understanding of probability goes a little something like this "buy this lottery ticket and tomorrow when you don't win anything you will probably be ashamed that you wasted your money". Obviously, every now and then the probability of shame doesn't preclude me from wasting said money. Happens about once every 6 months round here.

But yes, back to the quantum thing. I can tell what you are all thinking - why would I bother reading up on quantum mechanics in the middle of the night when my brain is exhausted. Hell, why would I bother at all? Not like I'm going to NEED it, right?

Well, yes and know. I do occasionally fancy myself as a bit of a writer. Generally, I stick to the tried and true - crappy romances, or fantasy writing. Fantasy writing is good. Fantasy writing has MAGIC - this means I don't even need a pseudo-reasonable explanation, my characters can do the impossible JUST because of that label. I LIKE magic.

However, sometimes I am called upon to read (and very occasionally inspired to write) sci-fi. Sci-fi still has awesome 'magic' in it - but it's got to have the relevant techno-babble. And IMO, for it to work properly, it needs SOME modicum of truth in it - otherwise it aint really sci-fi, it's fantasy again.

Hence - quantum mechanics.

I still need to do a lot more reading on it before I'd ever be able to write anything about it or even including it. But I'd like to think that last night's efforts have put me in a better place for next time I find an e-zine with a short story that involves black holes.

Maybe.

Today

Swimming again. Wonder who I'm getting a lift with this time. Hopefully I'll be getting a lift anyway, silly car chews through so much fuel it's ridiculous.
Starting to wonder if it needs some exhaust attention. However.... I'm broke so it's probably pointless.

I'm on the verge of phoning up centrestink today and asking them if I could re-adjust our family payment level. We get our family payment on the very very base rate of only one sort, and then have a nice lump sum land on us at tax time. While this is good and well, my craft fair is BEFORE tax time - and I'm struggling to get the money put aside so that I can actually buy the stock I'll need to take with me!

Also, the insurance thing came yesterday. I did forget to ask them if it can be paid monthy. Right now they want the full sum within 7 days. Bah! Like I can find that much money in 7 days! Why is it that the minute you say "business" everyone assumes there is a whole pile of cash just lying around waiting to be spent??

Must be like the word "wedding". Attracts greed or something.

I need coffee. Ciao

Yowsers I'm Tired

It was a day that has somehow left me longing for my bed already, and it's only 8.30.

So today I did the swimming thing (another half a lesson happy half a lesson crying his eyes out for Rory) and then I did the spinning thing (half a kids poncho knitted and yet again, a HUGE appreciation for our older population felt. They are all so giving of their knowledge!) and then I did the school pickup thing and the tomato thing and the dinner thing.

And now - I'm knackered.

I think having the period belly from hell isn't helping. Blah I hate hate hate it. (Yes, I'm whinging.) Damn painful, it is.

I did go and spend some of my paypal savings on some new mama fluff though. Which is good because some of my trusty faithfuls aren't so trustworthy anymore. I seem to be having dramas with wicking through seam lines. And really, if one has these dramas with a little bub in nappies, it's a PITA - but it's just not the same when one has these dramas with a mamapad and one is out in public. It's never fun to be flashing a large red stain on one's clothing.

I could obviously sew my own but quite frankly I'm about as motivated to do that right now as I am to climb Mt Everest. Aint gonna happen. Not until this nappy hunt, and this database update, and this big craft fair, and possibly this entire year is over. Hell, I might have time to do it once menopause sets in - but then I'll probably be sewing incontinence pads.

I think I should probably go now before this becomes a long rant that has little purpose.... oops! Too late!

mah belly

Mah belly, she wants to kill me!

That's about it, really.
Now i'm going to stop complaining, get the children out of bed, and make some coffee. And then see if I can squeeze in some quick Mama pad shopping before it's time to go to swimming, then spinning, then pick them up again !

Kids Swimming

That was fun - NOT
This year was Rory's time to be a sad, miserable little fellow at swimming. Last year he was in kindy and went along as a addition because, well, if I went anywhere, he came too. And Last year, Declan stood in the pool and cried and cried as the teacher asked him to put his face in the water and blow bubbles.
This time, Rory cried. Although not quite in the same way as Declan, obviously. He dropped his bottom lip, looked away from everyone else, and just stood there immersed in misery for the last half of the lesson.

On the way back to help them get dry and dressed, he started to cry for real. His lip was sooo droopy it almost touched the floor.

Once he had a towel around him and a good cuddle he was better, so I asked him why he was crying. I was expecting a "I don't want to get my face wet" kind of answer - but instead, I got a "I couldn't do it right!" followed by more lip dropping and more tears.

It always amazes me how two small children from the same parents, born so close together, can still be such complete opposites. And it astonishes me how often I mis-judge the poor things.

Glad that he wasn't crying due to water fear issues though. That's always a good thing.


PS there will never ever be any photos of my kids on this blog. DH is a bit anti putting photos of the kids up anywhere - so yeah, no pics of children. I will randomly upload pics of flowers and scenery and other cool stuff though. I like taking photos - even though I'm pretty crap at it, and I just use a glorified version of a point-and-shoot for them.
I think maybe it's because I SEE things that I think will make great art images - but I don't have the technical skills to capture them properly on film, or paint them or draw them or anything like that.
I wish I could turn pictures into music. Perhaps I should practise on that violin more often.