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You are here: Home / 2005 / Archives for December 2005

Archives for December 2005

It all goes so quickly on the actual day

December 27, 2005 by Jen at Semantically driven

Christmastable There’s so much preparation and stuff to do in the lead-up to Christmas Day that by the end of the day you realise it’s all gone so quickly.

I went over to my family’s (sister’s) on Friday the 23rd as there was a street party on in the town where she lives and a friend that lives in the same town was singing at some Christmas carols so I thought I’d go then.

The street party was a bit of a fizzler. We did get there a bit late and the weather wasn’t that great for a summer evening. The Christmas carols was a bit more of a religious affair than I was expecting but my friend, her friend and my friend’s son all performed and it was pretty good. During the performance my sister took JJ home as she didn’t want to come out with us afterwards. I’ve hardly ever known her to turn down an invite to the pub but it worked out for me.

There was a 2-man band playing at the pub who were actually pretty good and quite diverse and I guess there were the usual crowd at the pub. There were quite a few young boys and before you second guess what I’m about to say, I was checking them out because they only looked like they were about 16 and it made me think that in 12 or so years time that could be my son at the pub having a few drinks. Scary!!

It was a late night (2am) and luckily I’d drunk spirits so I just suffered from tiredness the next day. It was a good day though. We all went (including my friend and her family) to check out a camping spot for around the new year. We went along the coast at Wauraltee to find a spot for a few families to setup camp. There was one perfect spot. It was a sort of a valley with sandhills surrounding it and not far from the beach at all. Unfortunately someone had got there before us. We talked to them to see if anyone else was coming to join them and asked how long they were staying. They said others were coming along and they would be there until the 2nd. We went further up and found a pretty alternative and hopefully nobody else gets it before us. We want to be close to the beach as that’s the drawcard for camping near there. The sea breeze will be good also.

After an early sleep so I wasn’t awake when Santa came it was Christmas day. It was the usual present opening frenzy and JJ was very pleased at part of his haul being a bug catcher. My sister’s partner had organised breakfast so her family, me and JJ, mum and dad, and another couple and their two kids had breakfast.

My sister and her partner then left to come over to Adelaide and I went to mum and dad’s to finish the day off with a lot of prawns and a rest.

See the photo wrap up.

Now, to prepare for the New Year.

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I bought myself a Flickr Pro account

December 22, 2005 by Jen at Semantically driven

Last night a friend came around to do a bit of a Christmas present swap. She got JJ a little gardening set – the little spade, fork, some gloves and a cute bag that it all sits in. It also came with some seeds. He was really excited about it and immediately wanted to go outside and ‘do some work’.

My friend also brought around her dog. When Monty first met Toby, Toby hadn’t been socialised very well and he’d also just been desexed so all he did was try to hump Monty which annoyed her no end.

This time they were really good together. They’re the opposite looking, Monty being mostly black and Toby being nearly white.

I uploaded some photos I took of them together at Flickr. I decided to get a Flickr Pro account. It’s so cheap at $25 US, shouldn’t be too much in Australian dollars.

I’m off to my folks for Christmas tomorrow so will be off the air for a bit.

Have a great Christmas everyone. Try not to eat or drink too much – hard I know.

Enjoy.

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Nearly three days, but who’s counting

December 20, 2005 by Jen at Semantically driven

I finish work this Thursday for three whole blessed weeks. I have not had three whole weeks off in a row since I left my job four and a half years ago to have a baby. Now that’s ridiculous. I’m well and truly due for a longer than two week break.

As a consequence of not taking many holidays over the last four years I have loads of annual leave under my belt and I’ll be taking heaps of it from now on.

I’ve got my three weeks off in three days time, then a week off in February to go to Kangaroo Island. JJ starts school in July next year so I’ll take some time off during that week probably and then I’ll probably take off two weeks in October when it’s school holidays.

Gone will be the wild and carefree days of dropping him off to childcare and knowing that this is there for him nearly all year. I will have to figure out what to do with him during school holidays. School hours just do not fit in the most workers. Vacation care will probably become my friend.

But in the meantime I look forward to not having to take JJ to childcare then drag myself off to work for three whole weeks.

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Jaycees Jewellrey

December 19, 2005 by Jen at Semantically driven

I’ve started making jewellrey. I was inspired the other night when watching part of a current affairs tv show and someone made a pair of earrings and did it really quickly. This appealed to me for two reasons. One I like jewellrey, and two I like producing something quickly. Something that takes a lot of time and effort I will sometimes do but I do like quick results.

I started off making three pairs of earrings including my Christmas themed ones. This was a total accident. When I bought the beads it didn’t occur to me they sort of look like Christmas trees. Apologies for the blurry photo. I still cannot get the hang of taking a closeup with my digital camera.

Jayceesjewellreychristmas Once I made this pair and two others I thought I’d make some for Christmas presents.

Off JJ and I went to the bead shop on Saturday morning and he helped me choose some beads and then helped me make some earrings later on that day.

We made four pairs that afternoon and I’ve even branded my earrings by calling it Jaycees Jewellrey.

I bought some cardboard and wrote the name on it so there’s something to put the earrings on. The earring findings are sterling silver even though this second photo looks as though they’re gold.Jayceesjewellrey2

It’s quite addictive going into a bead shop and looking around for something that you like then making it into jewellrey.

I’m sure I will do more both for myself and for others for presents. And it is something that JJ and I can do together for the time being.

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Well that’s the accommodation paid for

December 16, 2005 by Jen at Semantically driven

This morning I got out of bed at 6.30am which is unheard of for me on a day I don’t have to go to work. We walked the dog, came home and had breakfast and then went to Marion shopping centre.

It’s hard enough to get a park there on a day that’s not near Christmas and/or school holidays so I thought I’d get us there nice and early before most others. It paid off as I got a Hollywood park that I auctioned off to the highest bidder when I left (I reckon I could almost get away with this).

As well as doing our usual Friday grocery shop we did some bits and pieces including buying a tent. This is the first time I’ve ever bought a tent. I don’t go camping that much so I didn’t fork out heaps for our tent. JJ and I put it up this afternoon and it’s quite big. I didn’t want a small 2-3 person tent and the price difference between the 4 and 6 person tent was pretty minimal so I went the 6 person tent. It’s quite large.

Tent2_1

We’re going camping for New Year’s Eve and I’m sure we will be able to use it other times also.

Come inside and see the tent.

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How can it possibly get busier each year?

December 12, 2005 by Jen at Semantically driven

The last couple of weekends have been frantic and it’s not just because of the buildup to Christmas. I’m sure it’s busier this year than it ever has been.

It seems to be a busy birthday season. In the last two weekends JJ and I have been to three birthday parties, a 70th and two first birthday parties. One of the first birthday parties also included a surprise naming ceremony and wedding. That’s for another post though.

We turned down the invite to a fourth birthday party that happened on the same day as the 70th, albeit at a different time. I didn’t fancy going to the first one in the city, finding a park, finding the people in the parklands then tracking all the way across town for the 70th.

The fourth birthday party we didn’t go to was yet another kid in childcare who I don’t really know and I’ve never heard JJ talk about him so I gather they’re not really friends. I wonder at the parents who invite kids their child doesn’t really know to a birthday party. I’m guessing they just invite as many kids as possible so their kid can feel appreciated that they have lots of friends who will come to their party, and of course they get lots of presents.

I have trouble keeping the list down at JJ’s birthday parties. First of all there’s my friends who have kids around the same age that we actually see pretty regularly, then there’s the mother’s group kids so I’ve never felt the need to invite childcare kids too. It’s only really this year that JJ has forged friendships with some kids at childcare so for his fifth birthday I might get the urge to invite some of them, but I will not be doing a blanket invite to every kid in his group. That would be insane.

I heard a story recently about a kid who’s about six or seven who only had one kid turn up at his birthday. Nobody wanted to come because the birthday boy apparently has anger issues and not many kids like him. How awful for that kid.

JJ hasn’t even started playing sport yet or school so in the next few years I’ll probably have to contend with school concerts and goodness knows what other functions and possibly sport stuff. I think I’ll have to put a birthday party attendance policy in place as I can see that there will be more birthday party invites from school kids. I’ll also have to put a mummy social policy plan in place so that I still get some ME time.

I haven’t any social plans for this weekend. I need to spend my time doing some work in the garden and shopping for Christmas presents I haven’t bought yet. I am really looking forward to a relaxing weekend where JJ will actually get to bed before 9pm. Pity it’s only Monday and I have to work before I get to my weekend.

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Tuna and cottage dip

December 7, 2005 by Jen at Semantically driven

As per Nina’s request to a recent post of mine I’ve put this recipe up to share. It’s a healthy one and very tasty and filling and JJ loves it. Seeing me hook into it has helped him eat lots more fresh vegetables and he can out eat me in the carrot stakes.

Adapted from ‘Body Business’ by Donna Aston:

  • 185g tin of tuna in springwater
  • 125g of cottage cheese (I use just over the recommended amount so I can use half of a tub of cottage cheese)
  • 1.5 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (I use slightly less than she says)
  • 2 tablespoons flaxseed/linseed oil (I reckon you could use something else but I got this oil from a healthfood shop)

I mix all this up in a food processor. The recipe says just to combine it all, so either one is fine.

Eat the dip with fresh vegetable sticks, eg carrots, celery, cucumber, green beans, blanched asparagus, cauliflower, snow peas (mange tout).

Enjoy!

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