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Archives for December 2008

Spyro, and Christmas dumps

December 24, 2008 by Jen

During a weak moment the other day I bought a new Playstation 2 game. I ummed and arred over this because I have it on good authority that JJ is getting some other video games for his Playstation this christmas but I gave in. It was a toss up between The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon and the new Crash Bandicoot game but JJ chose Spyro.

It’s a two player game so we’ve already wasted more hours than we probably should have on the game. I justify it to myself by saying that we’re on holidays and this is the sort of thing you’re supposed to do, spend time in front of a screen trying to figure out how to kill all those baddies.

Because it is a two player game we have to work together and we have huge arguments about where to go next and what to do next, but when it comes to the crunch, ie defeating those baddies, the teamwork effort comes to the fore and we triumph. Well usually.

And it helps having another mind on the game so when the generation X one fails, the seven year old one comes through. Yesterday Spryo and Cynder were in the enchanted forest. We’d found the key, unlocked the orb thingies to get to the raft to do the rescue and for the life of us couldn’t figure out how to get the damn raft moving. One dragon (Spyro or Cynder) could grab hold of the raft but not both of them. We tried one and two player mode and still nothing worked.

I’d just come out to the kitchen to look on the internet to try and solve the problem while JJ played around and he found out how to do it. Because these dragons can fly, one dragon was anchored to the raft and the other dragon flew and dragged the raft along. They dragons are anchored to each other by a line and the line only stretches so far.

I don’t know that I would have the patience to have figured this out myself, not without leaving the game for some time, but JJ figured it out. Clever boy.

When we finished the game Spyro: A new beginning I found that fairly frustrating because it wasn’t always clear where you had to go and it happens here too. I think something should be built in, some sort of timer, so that if you’re lost and have been lost for some time a clue comes up, or an option for a clue is available.

My other frustration with this game is that the two dragons look very similar in colour so when they are fighting the baddies it’s hard to tell which dragon you are in two player mode.

It’s a playstation free day today because we have other things to do around here like prepare for family on christmas day.

I’ve spent the morning waiting over half an hour just to buy prawns and then spent some time driving around the supermarket carpark to get the last bits and pieces I need for tomorrow.

And I feel really down today. Yesterday a friend rang at midday to invite me to drinks last night with them and some mutual friends who are in town. Drinks would be at their place but I wasn’t allowed to take JJ even though he would be in bed. It made me feel really unwanted and unloved. I know my son would have been no problem and I didn’t really see her problem with it.

Then I found out that another friend had a party recently that I wasn’t invited to. I’m not a really close friend but they did come to a party I had and we live fairly close to each other and get on very well. Again I felt really unwanted and unloved. It’s hard to switch off from these feelings and it’s not how I want to spend a couple of days that are supposed to be fun.

My posting frequency will be very light on here over the next couple of weeks so enjoy your holidays everyone.

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The last DVD giveaway winner

December 23, 2008 by Jen

Thanks to the people who commented to win the last of the DVDs. Using my tried and tested number picker (my son picks a number), the winner, is commenter number 4 – M&B.

If you could please contact me via my contact form and let me know your address and I’ll post the DVD to you.

Thanks to EntertainmeTV for the opportunity to do these giveaways.

For now, I must go and do some gardening and other household duties.

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Three months old

December 22, 2008 by Jen

This was when JJ was three months old at my birthday barbeque. I can’t believe I organised a barbeque for my birthday when JJ was so little. I haven’t had a barbeque for ages and I’m seven years into this motherhood thing.

The fog after having a newborn had lifted for me one month earlier and I felt half human again. I’d lost all my baby weight and actually looked fairly good. He’d also started sleeping at night and, finally, during the day which helped enormously. I was hugely focused on getting him to sleep in those early months and it paid large dividends. I could take him to parties and put him to bed and not be worried about him waking up and never going back to sleep. If I couldn’t have done that then I would have had NO social life.

I do remember at this barbeque feeling really lacking socially. I’d been out of practise and had forgotten how to do small talk. Small talk is not one of my strong points anyway but I felt quite socially awkward and it wasn’t very nice.

It took a while, and a few more social outings, to regain some of that back. I wonder if I was alone in this or have any mothers who read this felt the same thing when they became mums for the first time?

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You have until nearly midnight tonight to enter my last DVD giveaway. Get commenting.

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A winner and the last giveaway

December 16, 2008 by Jen

Please go and check out the winner of the last DVD giveaway of Stupid Stupid Man, and see the details of the last DVD giveaway.

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Christmas giveaway – Complete second season of Mad About You

First of all, thanks to the people who entered my last giveaway. You all had a great chance of winning! My sophisticated prize winning picking system (ie my son) decreed that commenter number 1, ie Trish is the winner. Trish, please email me with an address to send the DVD to.

Now for the last lot of DVD giveaways. Thanks to EntertainmeTV I’ve got the complete second season (three discs) of Mad About You to giveaway.

It’s about Greenwich Village newlyweds Jamie and Paul Buchman (Academy Award winner Helen Hunt [Best Actress, As Good As It Gets, 1998] and Paul Reiser) reach new heights of hilarity and neurosis in the second season of this Emmy Award-winning comedy series. With lovable characters in both achingly real and hilariously unreal situations, this smartly written sitcom showcases a Manhattan couple trying their hardest to keep love alive in the midst of all the mad, mad, mad, mad, madness that modern marriage can bring! Read some reviews.

I remember watching this fairly religiously when it was on television and really enjoyed it. Word is that this second season is a lot better than the first and it won’t matter if you haven’t seen the first season. You’ll get the idea.

To win this two DVD set, just leave a comment below. This closes next Monday evening (22 December) at 11.55pm my time. Check out here for your time.

The DVDs are for playing on Region 4 DVD players which means these countries: Central America, Oceania, South America, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand but my understanding is that some DVD players are region free. What I’m saying in, is you enter and you’re from another country I can’t guarantee the DVDs will work for you (provided you win of course).

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My handbag dump

December 13, 2008 by Jen

It was kind of fortuitous that Guera tagged me to do this meme as I’d been meaning to show off my new handbag for a little while now.

A while back I mentioned that I wanted one of these bags and I did go ahead and get myself one for my birthday. I think it’s the most I’ve ever spent on an everyday bag. There was that time in London when I spent 130 pounds on an evening bag which, for me, is just absurd but then it was a very strange time in my life. It was around the time I got pregnant and I may have even been pregnant.

I’m like Guera in that I don’t have a gazillion handbags that I rotate all the time so the one bag I do use daily has to be very hard wearing and very functional.

Back to the meme. I’m supposed to show the contents of my handbag. All I left out was the snotty tissues and the tampons.

I’ve got a Coles/Myer voucher (a pressie from work), my sunnies case with my sunnies, mobile phone, earplugs, spectacles, Body Shop vanilla perfume, USB stick, stick-on tattoo, a box of dried fruit in case of emergency (my son’s stomach emergency that is) work’s access card, shopping lists and childcare bill, pens, green tea bag.

This closeup shows my lip balm – Carmex – the best lip balm ever, a couple of lipsticks and a lip pencil and my bus pass.

I try to keep my bag fairly uncluttered but it does also fit a bottle of water in it when needed.

I’m piking out by not passing this on, but please feel free to let us have a nosy in your handbag.

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Have you entered my DVD givewaway? It closes on Monday night.

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Stationery and a Day of Des’s

December 9, 2008 by Jen

Either someone knows about my stationery fetish or the junk mail people were being extraordinarily kind, but today when I got home this little case of sticky notes was in my letterbox.

There’s every single kind of sticky note you can imagine and they’re all mine. Although someone should tell my son that because he’s already opened one of them, but I figure I can afford to be generous.

As for the Day of Des’s that happened last Friday.

I bumped into my ex-boyfriend’s dad, Des, in the Central Market on Friday. I got on really well with my ex-boyfriend’s family and I’m kind of sad that I don’t see them that much any more. This Des wrote a book a while back and I helped out a bit with the typing up of handwritten notes so got a mention in the thankyou section and a copy of the book which I really enjoyed.

Later on in the afternoon as we were about to head off to circus school a man was pulling out of the laneway next to my house and stopped in front of my house. I recognised him as the previous occupant of this house and, you guessed it, his name is Des. He still visits the doctor nearby. We had a brief chat and off he went.

This is the Des that used to save everything he could lay his hands on in the hope that it would be useful one day and when I moved in he left a lot of it with me. I got people to cart some away as their own useful rubbish and hired two mini skips to fill up with the rest. Now my backyard is an actual garden rather than a junkyard. I guess it helped keep the price of the house down which suited me at the time.

And so ended my Day of Des’s.

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Don’t forget to leave a comment over at this week’s giveaway to win the Stupid Stupid Man DVD.

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