He Knows How To Make A Girl Feel Good!

Thursday 29th March 2012

This morning I had an appointment with the Volunteer Program.  After speaking with them I had no idea that there were so many volunteer positions available.

I know that I don't have to do volunteering as I am no longer eligible for Newstart, but seeing that I had made the appointment before Tony had confirmation that he had a job, I thought I would keep the appointment just to see what it was all about.  I thought I might go and do some volunteer work even if it's only for one day a week.

As long as the organisation is non for profit you can volunteer for them.  There were lots of positions available in the various hospitals, nursing homes, animal shelters, church organisations and so on and you could do a variety of jobs in these places.   I was quite surprised. 

The person I spoke to was named Bob, and he knew how to make a girl feel good......lol.  He was going through the usual spiel and said that once you become 55 years or more you can do volunteer work instead of looking for jobs and be paid Newstart.  I said that's OK I am 61. 

He just about fell off his chair when I told him and had a look of surprise on his face.  He turned around and said "Oh, I'm glad you told me that because I would have put you in the 45-54 age group bracket". 

I believe he was genuine when he said that and didn't say it to make me feel good.  My head has been in the clouds ever since...............bwahahahahahaha!!!

Cheering For The South Aussies!

Tuesday 27th March, 2012


Firstly, Happy Birthday to Kahra!  We hope your year is a great one!

Dianne rang early this morning to see if we (they didn't know that Tony had started work) would be home later in the day.  They wanted to bring around a card for Tony's birthday as they had been away.  Rick was still on holidays.  They had spent about a week at Port Vincent on Yorke Peninsula.

They came around 10.30 am and stayed for a few hours.  They were going to the movies later in the afternoon plus Dianne wanted to do a bit of shopping.  It was good to sit down and talk without the interruption of kids.  You can guarantee that whenever we go over to their place Jodi will come with the kids.

Tonight is the final of My Kitchen Rules.  It is an all South Australian final, Rocco and Nic versus Leigh and Jennifer.  Tony and I have only been watching it the past couple of weeks.  We have been hooked.  Normally I am not interested in cooking shows on TV, mainly because the food they cook is too fancy for my liking.

                                 taken from Adelaide Now website

Well the show has been aired and a winner has been announced, a little bit controversial if you ask me.  The girls, Leigh and Jennifer won.  The teams had to cook a 5 course meal.  When it came time for the judges to judge they did not find fault with any of the boys courses, they all said that they had made perfect dishes.

                                       taken from Adelaide Now website

On the other hand they said that the girls first course was a bit too delicate and bland and their 5th course (dessert) was missing the chocolate.  They had trouble making the tempered chocolate into rounds that were to be used as a garnish. They had to end up making two batches and the second batch didn't harden in time.

There were a total of six judges in all.  So with these two criticisms they still managed scores of 4 x 10 and 2 x 9.  The boys got 4 x 9 and 2 x 8 and those scores were supposedly for perfect dishes.  I thought a score of 10 is given for a perfect dish.

                                       taken from Adelaide Now website

Hmmm bit sus if you ask me.  Even in the semi finals it was a bit dubious for the girls to have won that.  In one of the dishes they served, two of the judges had bits of gravel in their dishes plus they cooked pigeon and it was raw.

Still, I wasn't there to taste the food that was dished up but it looks as if it was pre arranged for the girls to win this competition.  Maybe they are better for marketing purposes.  Just saying!

Back To Work

Monday 26th March, 2012

Tony went back to work today and it felt like he hadn't had any time off.  I quickly got back into my routine.
When he came home and I mentioned it to him he agreed.  He said that he felt like he had had no time off at all. 

He said that it will take time getting used to working for this company, they do things very differently to what he was used to, but he thinks once he gets the hang of it he's gonna like working for them.

One thing he likes is that they have no real start and finish time.  As long as he gets in a days work he can start and finish when he wants to.

At the moment he is feeling his way around and sorting out the IT problems that they are having getting his computer and mobile phone set up. 

He was presented with a "Welcome" kit which included a tie, cap, umbrella, coffee mug, tiepin and travel mug plus a writing compendium including a calculator. 

He gets a car park at the building......woohoo.... at least we'll have somewhere to park when we go into the city.

Happy Birthday Tony!

Sunday 25th March, 2012

I can't believe that I last blogged one week ago.  Where has this past week gone?  It's not that we have been real busy or anything, it's just that time seems to fly by.

This is for my hubby whose birthday is today.

       "When I think about the life we've made and the friendhsip we share 
         I feel very lucky to be married to you.  And so I want to tell you on
         your birthday that I love you and I love what we have together." 

         Happy Birthday Tony!!

Last week was a fairly quiet week, we caught up on some housework.  Having Tony home before he starts work next Monday was a good time to get him to help with the housework.

On Thursday morning I had another appointment with the Job Employment Service.  I was in there for less than 2 minutes as they said that I had been deleted from their records.  Yesssss!!! sounded good to me.  With Tony back in full time work means that I don't have to go looking for a job now.

After we had been there Tony had to go to the Doctor.  He has another one of those rashes, this time on his leg.  Practically 12 months ago to the day he had one on his toes.  This time the Dr gave him some cream as she said it was a fungus.  He also got a flu vaccine while there.

From there we went and had some lunch and then headed for the hills.  We went to Woodside and to Melbas Chocolate Factory.  We also called into Johnstons at Oakbank and got some cordial.

Tony had been expecting a package these past few days and it hadn't arrived by Friday so he made some enquiries.  He finally got a phone call from the delivery company and they had the wrong address for him.  He then organised to go and pick it up.

So Friday afternoon was spent doing some shopping, picking up the package and going out for dinner.

Saturday was a lazy day, I did some laundry, Tony cleaned the car.

Today, for Tony's birthday we went out to lunch with Robyn and Bob.  We went and had a smorgasbord at the Watermark Hotel at Glenelg.  As usual we ate too much.....lol.

After lunch we took a trip down to the south coast.  We headed off to Victor Harbor.  On the way we stopped off at Alexandrina Cheese, at Mt Jaggard, for a milkshake.  Not that we really wanted one after all the food we had eaten but you can't resist fresh Jersey cow milkshakes. 

On the way, just past Mt Pleasant is a really large farm of alpacas.  Aren't they just the cutest?  Some of these had just been shorn

 Then we went down to Pt Elliott.  They have a Melbas chocolate shop here and so we went and checked it out.  Robyn ended up buying some clogs for work from here.  Yes, they sell shoes as well as chocolate.

Then we went off to Goolwa and across to Hindmarsh Island, called into Middleton Beach and watched some of the surfers and then off to Victor Harbor.  Bob said it had been many years since they were last down this way.

We got back home around 7.00pm after having a really great day.  Robyn and Bob left to go home shortly after.  Neither of us felt like much for dinner and so we ended up having some toast.

Can't have too late a night as Tony is back to work tomorrow.  He says he is a bit excited and looking forward to it.

Just Chillin'

Sunday March 18th, 2012

We've had a very quiet few days.  On Friday I had my nail appointment.  Tony came along and waited in the car for me and then we went off to do some shopping.  While having some lunch the phone rang.  It was to let Tony know that he had got the job.  Yahooooooo!!!!!

Needless to say he was very happy.  They want him to start work on Monday 26th March.  WTG Tone....love ya heaps xxxx.  Tony, you should be so very proud of yourself.  To think that you didn't go looking for a job, both companies came chasing you.  And to think that in a weeks time you'll be turning 66.

We had made so many plans of what we were going /wanted to do.  Now it looks as if some of those plans will have to be put on hold for a couple of years.  I can wait.

Saturday afternoon we spent at Robyn and Bob's just catching up.  In the evening we went out to dinner with them at the Roseworthy Hotel again.  I had the same meal (Satay Chicken) as last time when we went, but this time it wasn't as nice.  Instead of going to have a dessert pizza we decided to take them down to Largs and have an icecream.  We just made it in time before they closed.

Today has been quiet.  We watched a bit of TV (very unusual for us) this afternoon and spent some time on the computer.  It was just nice to chill out.

We Looked Like Two Drowned Rats

Wednesday 14th March, 2012

This afternoon we had to go into the city as Tony had his second interview.  Yesterday he got a phone call from Job No 1 letting him know that they would be emailing the paper work for him to read through and then to let them know if he accepted the terms and conditions for the job.  He was to start work on Thursday if he accepted the position.

Shortly after that phone call he got a phone call from Job No 2 letting him know that a second interview had been arranged for Wednesday at 2.00pm.  He had to ring Job No 1 to let them know this and tell them he would give them an answer once he knew the outcome of this interview.

He went off to have his interview while I waited.  When he came back he said that it had gone very well and now had to wait for a phone call. This was the job he preferred as it was looking after just one building in the city.   

He explained to them that he needed to know one way or the other if he was successful as he had been offered this other position and was required to start work the following day and needed to let them know. 

As we had bought the paper work into town with us for Job No 1, Tony thought that once he knew the outcome, and being in the city, he could go to their office and sign any paperwork that needed signing if he had to.

Now it was just a matter of waiting.  We went off and did some shopping and had more coffee.  4.00pm came and there was still no phone call and so Tony rang Peter.  He must have been in a meeting as he wasn't answering his phone.  Not knowing what to do, he thought he would wait until 4.30pm and then  he would have to ring Job No 1 and ask them if they would wait another day before he gave them his decision.

Just before 4.30 the phone rang and it was Peter.  He told Tony that he was going to be put forward to the building owners as the preferred applicant but a final decision might not be known until next Wednesday.  Tony then rang Job No 1 to tell them this.  Thankfully they were pretty understanding but told Tony that because they wanted someone to start more or less straight away, once he knew the final decision he could ring them back and if the job was still there it was his.

As I didn't want to catch the bus in peak hour, which it was by now, we decided to go for a walk and maybe end up having some dinner in town.  We wandered off and as we were walking past the bus stop where we could catch a bus back to the Village the C1 pulled up.  It didn't look too crowded, but I opted not to catch it.  As we got a little further up the road the CX2 came along.  That was practically empty and so we hurried back and caught that.

Also by looking at the sky it was starting to get quite black in the west and as they had forecast thunderstorms we thought that we may get home before the rain came.  The bus was express to TTP.  The stop before the Village is the Park N Ride.  I'm thinking the bus will go onto the Village but it doesn't, it turns right.  I look at Tony, and say, "oh well we'll go for a ride, it's gotta come back this way".

The bus travels to the other side of Golden Grove and through Greenwith.  As there are shops further over I thought that it may terminate the trip there, but it went past these shops and continued on down the road.  Tony got up and asked the driver whether they go back to the Village.  "Oh no," the driver said.  "I am about to go off for my tea break".  By now the heavens had opened, there was thunder and lightning and the rain was pelting down and so the driver offered to drive us back to the Village.

With the bad press that the public transport had been getting the last couple of days this went way over and above the course of their duty.  We were extremely thankful.

The driver apologised to us for the weather when we got to the Village but at least we weren't out in the open waiting for another bus.  Still when we got off the bus we got soaked.  The rain was sooooo heavy.  We didn't have that far to go before we got to some shelter either.  We both looked like we had just had a shower with our clothes on. 

Bugger! I didn't have the camera on me and so we couldn't get any photos.  I could have been a contestant for the wet Tshirt compettion.....yeah right, in ya dreams!!!

We went into the supermarket as I had to get a few things.  With us being so wet it was freezing in there especially near the fridges and freezers.  By the time we came out the rain wasn't as heavy, and so we walked home.  We were so wet anyway it didn't matter anymore walking in the rain.

Soon after we got home Tony got another phone call from Peter.  He told him that the 2 interviewers were very impressed with his credentials and he should have some paperwork in relation to the job within a few days.  He said he would wait until he gets the paperwork before he rings Job No 1. 

He said he is ready to go back to work.  He reckons he's not ready for retirement just yet.

Perfect Weather For A Long Weekend

Monday 12th March, 2012

We have just had a fantastic long weekend with the most perfect weather.  Tomorrow and Wednesday the temperatures are going to climb up to 34 degreesC with some rain forecast for later in the week.

Friday we went and met up with Katie.  After picking her up we went and had some dinner at Vili's and she asked whether we could go and get an icecream from the beach.  She didn't have to ask twice....hehehe.

I didn't have any real plans for the weekend.  I thought we might catch the bus into the city and go to the Garden of Unearthly Delights to see something of the Fringe.  When I mentioned this to Katie she wasn't too enthusiastic, instead she asked to go fishing.  That sounded good to us.

After a leisurely start to Saturday morning we got ourselves organised and ready to head off to Wallaroo.  It was perfect sitting on the wharf, not too hot although very windy.  Katie and Tony soon had their rods in the water and it was a matter of waiting.  No-one was catching too much, an occasional crab was being caught, but as for fish......nothing.

A lady further up from us caught a squid.  Katie thought this might be a good thing to try for.  Tony put a squid jag on her rod and shortly afterwards her rod bent right over.  She started reeling it in and whatever was on it, flipped itself off.  She was undeterred.

I never thought that Katie would have the patience to sit and fish.   She has proved me wrong.  She doesn't like the fact that she doesn't catch anything, but we explain to her that catching fish won't happen everytime we go.  She accepts that and says we'll get one next time.

We stayed on the wharf until around 6.30pm.  As we were leaving a couple of guys were reeling in some fish they were catching.  Perhaps we were there a little too early.  Next time we'll come later said Katie.  Still it was a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

We called into Kadina and had some dinner and then headed home.  Sunday was a relatively quiet day.  We ended up going to the Adelaide Aquatic Centre in the afternoon.  Since the opening of Marion Leisure and Swim centre, Adelaide is not as busy as it once was.  Katie enjoyed it, she spent all afternoon jumping from the 3m springboard. 

At the changeover of Lifeguards the guy didn't think she could swim and so he asked to see her swimming.  She showed him and he said to her "you're OK to go".  One of the requirements jumping from the diving boards is that you're able to swim.  One of the other girls that was jumping was not allowed to continue as the Lifeguard didn't think her swimming was up to par.  Some Lifeguards have different rules to the others.

Around 5.30pm we dropped Katie off and headed back home.  Today has been a do nothing day.  It is a Public Holdiay (Adelaide Cup Day).  I did get some laundry done.  Today is also Andrew's Birthday so we wish you a very Happy Birthday!!

"I won....na na na nana"

Decisions

Thursday 8th March, 2012

This morning I had another appointment with the Job search organisation.  Today they talked about my options.......I could either do volunteer work, at least 15 hours per week or I could have paid employment.

If I choose to go down the path of employment they said that I would have to be retrained, meaning go and do a course involving business study.  To me it seems a waste spending that money retraining me but the person said she believed that once the womens's retiring age catches up with the men, 65 years old, the government will raise the retiring age for men and women to 70.  She said if that's the case I could have at least 8-9 years of working life in me.

After I finished there we had to go to the bank so that Tony could get some papers certified.  We did our shopping, had some lunch and headed down to the beach for an icecream.  OMG the icecream down at the Largs Kiosk is to die for.  We have the passionfruit with a scoop of strawberry. 

While shopping Tony got a phone call.  It was from where he went for that interview last week.  They had some good news for him, he may have the job.  This puts him in a dilemma.  When he was at Clipsal on Sunday he was told by several people that a certain person was looking for him.  On Monday he gave this person a call and it was to do with another job.

Yesterday he had an interview with this company.  He said it went really well and was told that next week he would have to front for a second interview.  He would prefer this job as it would be managing one building in the city, plus it was full time.  The other job is only casual to start off with and it involves going from building to building plus also buildings out in the suburbs.

I would rather Tony have the full time job.  That would mean I wouldn't have to do volunteer work or look for paid employment. 

Sounds good to me.

We're Generating Our Own Power!

Tuesday 6th March, 2012

Yesterday the Telstra technician came out to look at our modem and guess what...... it was working!  Isn't that always the way?  About 30 minutes before he showed up we only had 3 lights working, when he showed up all the lights were on.  Grrrrrrr.

Still, he was a nice guy and offered to give us a brand new modem for nothing.  He said ours was pretty dated and after time they lose their effectiveness so he said that he would replace it.  To save us from having  to go into another contract he said he would just write it off.  Hmmmm sounded good to us.

Today ETSA and the solar installation guy came back and connected our solar panels up to the grid.  The meter quickly started showing the panels putting power out.  It was nice and sunny which helped, hehehe.

Later on this afternoon we went to the airport as Tori was coming back home for good.  Jodi had rung me in the morning letting me know what time her flight was getting in.  Her flight landed 10 minutes early.  Rick and Dianne were also there along with Jodi and Taylor.   After we collected her bags we went over to Ikea (that's where we had parked the cars) and we decided to go and have coffeee.

It was nearing 7pm when we left there.  Where did that time go?  Most of it was spent just sitting around talking.  At one point Jodi went off "window shopping".  To exit the store why do they make you walk through the shopping section.   To try and get Jodi away is hopeless, she has to look at everything and I mean EVERYTHING! 

It just reinforces why I don't go shopping with her anymore.  She spends hours looking at everything in the shops and then sometimes (not very often though) will walk out without buying anything.  That's why Dianne and I like a day out together occasionally, we get so much more done.

When we got home Tony went out to check the solar meter.  We had generated 9.5Kw of power and had only used 1.3Kw and that was for half a day.  Our next electricity bill is due in a couple of weeks but the one after that will definitely show the benefits of having solar panels.

One can only hope it does!!

Mad March Is Well Under Way

Sunday March 4th, 2012


Time is marching on, no pun intended, and Summer has left us and along comes Autumn.  Even though we can still have some nice weather during the day, I'm not looking forward to when the nights start getting nippy.


The Clipsal 500 got under way on Thursday, it was mainly a day for the support racers.  On Friday night was the start of the Adelaide Festival.  The opening act was composer, Ennio Morricone, and he was conducting the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra at Elder Park.  Even though it was held outdoors it was a ticket only concert.


As the concert was getting underway so the racing was still continuing down at the Clipsal track.  Apparently the noise of the cars was drowning out the orchestra.  Uh-oh.  Now the race track used for the Clipsal, which is around the city streets, is in the east end of the City, maybe a kilometre away from Elder Park. 

Well apparently the Premier, Jay Weatherill was not impressed and so he got onto his minders to get onto the organisers of the racing to get the racing stopped.  Then to add insult to injury, during the second half, an employee of the Festival Centre decided that the empty bottles needed to be thrown into the bins and so there was the noise of empty bottles echoing through the park.  Bwahahahahaha, sorry, but I find it funny.


Now Ennio Marricone, an Italian composer, is well known for composing movie themes, mainly spaghetti Westerns.  His most well known piece of music is "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly".   Apparently it was a real coup for the organisers of the Festival to get him here to Adelaide as he doesn't like to travel.  He was not going to appear anywhere else in the country and so there were lots of interstate visitors here for the concert. 

I suppose we'll have to expect some more bagging from our interstate cronies now.  As it is they think we are a backwater city.  But those Victorians would dearly love to pinch the Clipsal 500 from us (like they did when we had the Formula 1) and also the Tour Down Under.

On Saturday we did very little for most of the day.  Around 4pm we went down to Outer Harbour as Queen Mary2 was back.  This time we stayed until it left around 6pm.  Just as it was ready to leave down came the rain.  We didn't wait around too long as we were getting soaked.  Our favourite pizza place was closed for the night (for whatever reason) and so we had to find another one.  The pizza wasn't as good.

On Sunday Tony went off to the Clipsal.  I stayed at home and caught up on some washing until the power went off.  That's one thing we don't have too many problems with.....power going out.  It stayed off for almost 90 minutes.  When it came back on I could get no internet access, the modem just wouldn't connect.

The corporate tent Tony was invited into

At 4.30pm I left to go into the city to pick Tony up.  All the racing was over by 4.30pm and the Ford flags were flying high.  One of their drivers had won the race. 

When we got home Tony tried to connect us up to the internet but had no luck.  He rang Telstra and they suggested having a Technician come out to have a look tomorrow.  Lucky we have on the go broadband access.  It was OK for Tony and his laptop but my computer is old and has no wireless connectivity.  Still it gave me the opprtunity to sort my scrapbooking files.