Archives for January 2009

Google-Feedburner runaround

January 30, 2009 by Jen

Just as well I’m fairly active in the blogosphere, twittersphere and a few other electronic spheres because I’ve been hearing about people having to move their Feedburner account to a Google one.

I login to Feedburner every now and again and all I had to do one day was sign in with my Google account. I didn’t receive any notification to do anything else and so I didn’t.

But apparently I’m supposed to change my Feedburner address and add a 2 in it in some places.

To say I’m quite annoyed is an understatement. I’m not so annoyed that I have to move to something else that is Google, although they’re taking over Microsoft in the takeover stakes, but I’m annoyed at the fact I haven’t received any information about it.

Surely, an email to all Feedburner customers would have been in order with step-by-step instructions on what to do?

I’ve found something along those lines over here.

So this post is a bit of a rant about what a hassle (and I nearly wrote another word starting with H but this blog is the one place I don’t swear more than bloody) it’s been and to make sure that this appears in the feeds okay, both for me and for you.

I’m now off to make some food to take to the pool. Ta ta.

Heatproof

January 29, 2009 by Jen

This is a graph featured on the Adelaide Now website of the temperature over the last day (click to view larger image). Note that it didn’t get below 34.4 degrees celsius last night. That’s night-time folks. The night’s when we want to sleep.

I had the air conditioning going all night but it didn’t make much of a dent in the bedrooms as it’s situated in the lounge. Tonight, the foam mattress I reserve for guests might make its way into the lounge.

If I don’t sleep in the lounge the spray bottle will get another workout.

The #adelaideheatwave is being talked about on Twitter if you want to read others’ comments.

I’m keeping an eye on the ETSA website to see who’s out of power and I note that the power was out in suburb my sister lives in (the sister who’s had her air conditioning on non-stop since Monday evening).

Nuts to the heat

January 28, 2009 by Jen

photo credit: -sel

Today was 45 degrees celcius in Adelaide, in other words really bloody hot. It was fine while I was at work because we have air conditioning.

The public transport system was having heatstroke so one trainline was completely closed and the tram was having problems too. Fortunately I caught a bus home. Unfortunately the air conditioning and even a fan to push the hot air around was not working. I looked on the bright side and thought at least I’m headed home.

Unfortunately I got home to no power. It was stifling inside and even more stifling outside so I rang my sister and asked if she had power. When she answered in the affirmative I told her that we were coming around. She also has a swimming pool which we used after sitting in her air conditioned comfort eating fish and chips I bought along the way.

I also took Monty with us because I’d felt sorry she’d been stuck in the heat today. This morning I wet a patch of dirt for her outside under some shade and she made use of that. It’s the first time I haven’t minded filling in a hole that she dug. She’s also got access to the bathroom’s cool tiles.

Of course school has started back amidst this stinking heatwave we’re having. Luckily they have air conditioning in their classrooms these days. In my day we would have been sent home which means we wouldn’t be at school all week.

JJ was a bit nervous about starting school yesterday with a new teacher and some new kids. He was really hesitant to walk into the classroom, but it didn’t take him too long to feel fine and wish me goodbye. There’s a brand new kid to the school who’s even taller than JJ. Up until now my son has always been the tallest in his year, but no more. This kid’s parents dropped him off and I could see where he gets his height from.

JJ’s school is nut free and I found out last night that I’d accidentally dropped my little container of dried fruit and nuts on the classroom floor. JJ is allergic to nuts and as parents were informed via a note tonight, one kid is really allergic and gets anaphylaxis from nuts so it was lucky I didn’t inadvertently cause a crisis with my accidental nut dropping. They were in a container, but nut traces can cause problems.

Tonight it will be 32 degrees celcius and I’ll leave the air conditioner in the lounge on all night, something I rarely do. I’m hoping I won’t wake up at 5am again and not be able to get back to sleep.

If you’re reading this and it’s cold where you are, you should now feel warm.

I like em chunky

January 26, 2009 by Jen

One of my weaknesses is jewellery, particularly big and chunky rings. I thought I’d share some of my chunk with you.

I bought this while Christmas shopping at Sportsgirl. I couldn’t resist it.

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The purple ring below I bought at Miss Gladys Sym Choon at least eight years ago.

This one was given to me by a friend for a birthday a couple of years ago.

I wear these rings all the time. Plastic rings (like the top two) work really well for me. They are a pretty good price to buy and they certainly stand out.

I had taken a couple of photos with them on my hand but because I did closeups, every wrinkle was shown. My days as a hand model are sadly over before they ever began.

I believe

January 22, 2009 by Jen

Recently JJ and I watched Kung Fu Panda together. The main premise of the movie is that a Panda is destined to become the dragon warrior but initially neither he nor his master believes it will ever happen. During the course of the movie they both start believing it, and in the end it does happen.

While this was going on I asked JJ what he believed in. He said that he believes ‘D’ is his best friend. Not quite the philosophical answer I was after but I told him that’s great and that he’s lucky to have this best friend.

While he got back to watching the movie I got to thinking about what do I believe in and I had an epiphany. I finally realised that I believe I am a good parent and that I will raise JJ to be a functioning and happy human being. We certainly have hiccups along the way and there’s things I know I could do better but it’s all a learning experience for me. And don’t you worry, he tells me when he’s not happy with something I’ve done. Sometimes he’s quite right because I’m getting uptight about something that’s not worth getting uptight about. Other times he’s not so right and I’m doing a necessary parental discipline thing.

I also believe that I believe in my son and I believe that he will be able to do whatever he wants in life. I so want to be able to get this message across to him. I have a couple of friends who are quite confident and are both doing well in their lives. They come across as happy, and good things happen to them. The common factor with them is that their parents bestowed this ‘you can do whatever you put your mind to’ upon them and believed in them and were there for them.

But back to the believing in my parenting. I’d never thought about it like this before. I seem to get stuck on the fact that parenting is a damn hard slog and I hope we come out all right at the other end while focusing more on the negative aspects rather than the positive. Now I believe that I am doing a good job and I am seeing the results of that, especially in the last few months.

Is it just a mind over matter thing and a matter of determination that believing I am a good parent will make it so? Perhaps it’s not as easy as this.

There are some things to remember, and do, to build self-confidence in my child along the way as pointed out in this article. There will be more hiccups along the way no doubt. School starts back next week and I’ll need to be very attentive during the beginning of term as that’s when JJ gets anxious because it will be all new again but I’m confident this year at school for him will be a lot better than it’s been so far.

The image at the top was taken at vacation care mid last year.

Water bunny

January 20, 2009 by Jen

During our mini-holiday at the end of the larger not at work holiday we went to Carrickalinga and stayed not very far from the beach. The first couple of days we were there it was a bit windy and cool and not really conducive to going in the water, not for me anyway.

That didn’t stop my son, however, as he was in every day. The day I took the photos below, was a bit warmer and I took them before I finally went for a swim myself.

He borrowed a friend’s boogie board. I must get his own as he really enjoys using them and this time he stayed out there for a bit.

There were a group of other kids not too far away and maybe he was copying what they were doing but I admired his patience. I can just see him looking for a bit of a wave.

As you can see the waves weren’t very big but at least I don’t panic when they are only this big. He doesn’t mind the bigger waves though and knows how to handle them.

When I went in I took my friend’s daughter who’s nowhere near as confident in the water and was very wary of the waves. I showed her what to do and she ducked down for two of the waves and was very proud of herself. Hopefully that will give her the boost she needs for next time.

9rules baby

January 19, 2009 by Jen

In November some time last year I submitted this site to become a 9rules member. To be honest I didn’t really expect to get in but then you never know ey?

Just as well I didn’t listen to that self-doubt because I got in. I nearly fell out my chair at work (on my first day back after four weeks) when I saw my URL in the list. What a great way to start the day, particularly a Monday.

They don’t say how many people applied but I can only assume that there were quite a few as it’s taken two months for the announcement.

So if you’re here from that site, welcome. I’m accepting all virtual pats on the back. Thanks.