Yarnivorous

G'day all! And I've been doing lots! This has been a pretty incredible year.  Not necessarily the happiest year ever but all sorts of things have happened. We have seen lots of stuff - going to NYC and back to San Jose was pretty darned  good.  We've made some good friends.  We've lived comfortably in Australia's largest city. And the New Year will ring in changes. On New Year's Day, I'm driving back up to Sydney to supervise the packing of our gear and its removal to the States.  Plus I'm taking some extra bits.  On the 4th, I am going to the airport and getting on a plane for Hawaii (meeting up with DH at Sydney airport), where we will spend a couple of days.  Then we get on the plane to Seattle and a new life. I'm going to miss family and friends and Australia and the long days and summer.  I am a long days person.  DH isn't "validating my feelings" about this, which causes arguments.  I am sure things will be fab in Seat...

G'day all! We are now down in Melbourne for Christmas.  My little old bomb (car) made it down without a hitch.  900km/560 miles over two days, in part because we left in the afternoon, too late to make it in one day and in part because I hate driving that far in one day, particularly with only one driver. We have visaed.  (That isn't a word, btw.)  It only took about an hour and a bit, most of which was waiting in a queue.  I managed to read about four pages of my book in that time.  You can't take knitting into the consulate.  At least they provide magazines these days.  The first time we went there, we didn't take books, there were no magazines and the tv was showing the screen saver for the DVD player it was hooked up to.  And we were there for over three hours.  OMG, nearly died of boredom. We were told we should expect the visas next week.  Hooray! So Seattle, yes Seattle for all those who guessed correctly, is GO GO GO...

G'day all! At last I can make an announcement.  Hooray!  This has been weighing on me for a while. Today DH resigned from his job.  Yep.  We are blowing the big G off and going off to a new and exciting location. Sydney's weather, grey and a bit cool, is preparing us for what awaits. We are going to a place renowned for its rainy, foggy, cool weather.  Am not looking forward to that part.  It is a couple of states up the coast from where we lived for a couple of years. Any guesses yet? In the meantime, we have had an extra exciting weekend.  But blogger just ate my great long ranting post - it completely lost 90% of it and I am now peeved with it and do not want to play with blogger any more today.  Plus it made me log in again.  Humph.  I think that deserves a flounce.  It even gave me a 404 page not found error. There is so much to do, so many places to see before I leave Sydney next weekend.  Sigh.  We are...

G'day all! Whoops, forgot to post this before the PiLs arrived, and I've hardly been online all weekend. I am very glad to be home from Brisvegas, though not glad to be home for reasons I cannot reveal until Monday (AFAIK, I am fine, DH is coping, but in the next month there will be some big changes!). So how are you all? I am rather stressed, for reasons that will be revealed soon.  I have so much to do.  Tonight the PiLs are coming to visit, which means moving furniture again and cleaning the place.  Did I mention that I've been away for a week?  And have Even More Stuff to put away? Ah well, it will all be good in the end. So the conference was good, very good.  I learned a fair bit, not the least of which was that even without much sleep, I can still put on my own little show and pretend to be a bouncy outgoing type, until I run out of food at least.  I had a lovely time at one of the dinners (the dinner where they offered me more th...

G'day all! Ah sunny Brisvegas.... Apparently the weather is craptastic all the way down the eastern seaboard.  Someone did not even bother checking the weather forecast and is mighty she brought one long sleeved cardie with heer, cos it is a mite chilly at the moment...  Brisbane is tropical, for those not in the know and I expected it to be warm... Mental note for anyone interested, the supermarkets close with the shops on the weekend...that means don't leave it until six pm to go get some stuff. Conference has been good so far. Talked to lots of people, sat through two awesome talks and two average ones, scared a few people, attracted others (to the work stall which I am manning for a couple of days). I'd talk more about the two speakers I really enjoyed but I am writing this on the phone.  However, I will say I am a walking joy spot and will be happy to show you my gratitude glasses, and that CT scans are apparently quite good for you. A little exposure to radiati...

Gday all! I am off to Brisvegas.  Hooray. For a conference, not for a holiday.  Not so hooray.  I'll be manning the stand for work, along with a coworker. I expect to be knackered by next Thursday. At least there have been no major dramas so far. Here's hoping it stays that way. Woot, boarding is about to commence. Gee, thanks optus for not letting me connect! Now coming at you live from brisvegas Anon!

G'day all! Actually, I lie.  I only apparently hate my left foot.  I really very much like my left foot.  It is very handy to walk on a foot.  (Two feet are even better as long as they are shared equally between my two legs.)  My left foot is more shapely than my right foot.  It is even more shapely at the moment, after I viciously brutalised it on the locking wheel of the chiro couch yesterday and then whanged two toes on the edge of the shower today after tangling in the shower curtain (why yes, I am talented!).  It is also prettier colours than my right foot. But I can walk and run on it so the damage is fairly cosmetic I think.  I hope.  I wonder if I will damage it a third time later today or tomorrow? I have been crafting!  Will miracles ever cease? When the going gets tough, the tough get knitting.  I had been avoiding knitting cos I thought it was making my lymphoedema worse.  Well if I am wearing my compressiv...

G'day all! Sydney has pulled out a stinker today - 38C!  No wonder I am feeling a little hot under the collar, even though I am not wearing a collar.... I've been a bit quiet recently.  I've got a lot on my plate currently - travel last week, a whole of of disruption coming up that I cannot yet talk about.  Keeping secrets is so blah, at least this sort of secret.  Of course it might not happen either, so it makes it even More Mysterious! (There's a few hundred of my "close personal friends" there.  The way people put themselves into other peoples' pictures indicated an intimacy unknown to the photographer.) On the weekend, we went to Bondi to see Sculpture by the Sea.  We and about 5,000 other people.  I think I under-exaggerate.   There were people EVERYWHERE. We saw some really nice sculptures and some that I rather wondered the point of.  I appear not to be into avant garde sculpture.  And some were "affordable" if you ...

Gday all! I was hoping to fly out to Sydney this evening but well I think the attached pic tells a story... All flights delayed and the storm is about an hour wide... dangit! Anon!

G'day all! We are in sunny melbourne and within ten minutes of ferrying off the plane had a domestic. I very clearly said I was intending to go to the loo, which I did.  Nathan headed that way too, only to the men's. He disappeared.  I waited for the luggage, cos I wasn't leaving that behind and I thought he was in the loo still. I could see there was a bus about to leave and I now had the luggage, but still no nathan.  I was waiting inside.  I hear my name, and nathan is outside. He had been buying tickets for the bus. I already had tickets for the bus. We missed the bus. We had a domestic. He expected me to just know that he was buying tickets.  Cos I am psychic, doncha know. I thought he was still in the loo. After all we do have those sorts of days once in a while. So now he is all huffy and stalked off because I'm not a mind reader. Yes he was doing a good thing but if he had said I'll go get tickets, if he had communicated with me, we wouldn't have...

G'day all! Hmm, maybe I should have given this blog entry the title "Boo, hiss, another year older..." I am currently very much in two minds about this whole birthday thing. a) I am very grateful to have managed to reach another birthday.  Five years ago I assumed that I would reach 80-something.  After the fun of the last couple of years, I'm grateful for every birthday I hit in apparently good health. b) another birthday means I am getting older.  And I already feel like a wrinkly old bag some days, especially next to the lovely young things* that Nathan has as workmates.    Now people say they are not wrinkles, they are experience lines, so oh boy I must be rapidly gaining experience in this game of life!  And I can tell what expressions mainly cross over my face from the patterns that are worn in.  And I'm not fishing for compliments either, cos when people tell me I am beautiful, I know they are fibbing or extrapolating the truth somew...

G'day all! It is a year today  yesterday since I finished treatment for cancer.  A year since I last walked in for my zapping by a flesh-searing relativistic particle cannon (thanks, xkcd for the best ever comic!). I remember being a little sad in a way - I was living by myself in Melbourne, I was seeing my workmates two days a week, and I was lonely and bored.  At least I saw people regularly when I was being zapped! I also remember waiting for the weariness I had been promised to kick in.  Hello!  I am supposed to feel exhausted now!  Where's my exhaustion?  I was tired if I didn't get my sleep each night, but I'm always tired if I don't sleep enough.  I think that is fairly normal.  It's just I needed an extra hour or two. But I didn't.  I felt better and better every day, though the "sunburn" got worse for the next week or so.  The chemo had knocked me around so much that the radiotherapy was a walk in the park in c...

G'day all! Well yesterday we dodged one bullet, and got hit by another.  Nathan will be off to a funeral soon - his grandpa died.  Grandpa was old and tired and had had enough.  We knew he was on his last legs, and had pondered sending Nathan off to see him but a) not enough time and b) some work issues.  Nathan will miss him even though they only talked a couple of times a year and saw each other even less often. (Why won't I be going to the funeral?  Because it is going to cost at least $500 per person to fly there and back, and OUCH!  I should go for the family but Nathan agrees that it is $500+ we could put on the mortgage...  Driving is out of the question as it is about 1400km/870m away and my car is small and old.) So things have actually improved here over the last few days, despite Grandpa dying.  Thank heavens.  I am surviving the antibiotics (some give me dreadful side effects that you don't need the details of but not thes...

G'day all! Well things continue on their craptastic way here.  It never rains but it pours.  We are expecting some not particularly happy-making news.  Once any and all of it happens, it will probably be a relief! (I feel a bit like the harbour seal on the left of the pic - no matter how high I hike myself up, I just keep getting inundated) I'm underinspired and quite frankly lonely.  In the last week, I've talked to my MiL on the phone and Nathan and to my workmates and bosses on the phone (thank you MiL and bosses for helping sort some of the crazy).  That is it.  I didn't really talk to anyone on Friday night because I was knackered.  It appears I have a pelvic infection.  I'm now on antibiotics and am regaining energy.  We usually have breakfast with a couple of Nathan's workmates on the weekend but we didn't have breakfast with either of them.  (Nathan had breakfast with some people he jams with.) (Boom, crash!  NB th...

G'day all! Well what a fun time we are having at the moment.  Re-entry from the US has been super-stressful.  DH is having work issues that I am not at liberty to discuss.  They are impacting severely on him and therefore on me. We had a fab weekend - BiL and SiL2b came up and we hung out and did fun stuff, going for long walks in Lane Cove NP and then up in the Blue Mittens (no longer mountains, thanks SiL2b!), and I thought DH was a little sorted.  But no.  I am truly at my wit's end with him.  I don't know what to do. Hopefully I can relay more interesting and positive stuff soon, but for the nonce, anon!

G'day all! What a whirlwind visit it was to the States!  Nowhere near long enough to do everything I wanted - I reckon I got about half of everything done.... Our flight home was uneventful - exactly how one wants it to be.  We nearly missed getting our bags on the first plane as we were slightly later than I wanted to be getting the car back to the rental mob, who had misplaced their end of the contract and then Nathan thought he'd lost his corporate credit card... but he hadn't, he'd just put it in his pocket after they couldn't find the contract.... One excellent thing about flying American Airlines out of San Jose down to LAX is that they codeshare with Qantas, so our luggage was checked right through to Sydney.  It meant we saved a good two hours in LAX, though that meant we spent two more hours sitting around rather than stressing our way through security. We had a lovely not-quite-guided tour of LAX as we were driven from AA's American Eagle termi...

G'day all! We've been in California almost a week now and I have neglected the blog in favour of catching up with a few people and umm, doing lots of shopping...  Just as well we only brought one suitcase with us cos I had to go buy another one. You want pics?  I only have pics of NYC.  I have some from the coast here and a couple of sunset and some from a bay cruise up out of SF but you don't come to San Jose for the scenery. We are about to take off for the weekend to visit the Sierra Nevadas, Lake Tahoe, etc.  If I am lucky, I might see some aspens in their fall colours.  I love aspens.  I've seen them naked, in first flush of leaves, in full leaf but never really in their yellow fall party dresses. I have to run - we are picking a friend up from the station in an hour and we are by no means ready yet. anon!

G'day all! We have escaped New York city.  It is a most fabulous place but totally OTT.  I have pics to share but not until we have real internet.  And I had a lovely time meeting up with my crazy fiber lady friend (links later) and a Ravelry BC mate. We have left our teensy hotel room (apparently they used to be girls' dorms from way back when) and now are lounging in comfort in a Holiday Inn.  We appear to have a king size bed with a pillowtop or maybe memory foam. OH BLISS! (Excuse me whilst I roll around on it, enjoying the support and softness.) Apparently I am about 60-70, or at least my body appreciates some good old fashioned comfort. (Our $368/night plus fees and taxes and charges bed was like a rock.  Me and rocks don't get along too well.  Also the bathroom was so small in the previous hotel that I wanged my head on the wall trying to get out from under the water jet aka the shower and you could not sit straight on the toilet - you h...

G'day all! Sorry, no pics yet.  Our internet allowance is minute, rather like our hotel room.  But I'm in NYC and it is very NYC.  Lots of traffic, lots of noise, lots of horns and squealing tyres (I have no idea how they manage to squeal tyres when it is bumper to bumper traffic).  Lots of people. I have not seen too much in the way of people cutting back on spending.  There are people shopping until they drop.  Wholefoods was doing a roaring trade.  (Oh how I've missed you, Wholefoods!  Your glorious $1.99 a pound organic apples... your beautiful cheap organic produce (organic veg in Oz is expensive) ... your huge range of gluten and dairy free icecream... your gluten and dairy free frozen meals... rice chips... and today I even found some decent fresh GF and DF bread!  But our minute hotel room doesn't have a fridge or a microwave so I have to hold off until we are in San Jose.)  Then again I guess I am in one of the most expensiv...

G'day all! Looks like the big G is having a few issues at present - I can't post under the new Blogger interface and then when I provided feedback as to why I've swapped back to the old version, the Google doc failed.  So some lucky engineer somewhere has to sort that out. Wonder if this post will go through. I am looking forward to visiting friends in the States.  They'll notice a few changes - I'm wrinklier and my hair is somewhat shorter and darker (though given it has not had a chance to sunbleach yet and I've done the chemo thing, it isn't that surprising). (Rosa laevigatum has beaten all the roses to flowering) Spring is definitely sprung here - over the last two weeks, the trees have suddenly sprouted beautiful lime green leaves.  I love spring green.  The wisteria is in flower as are the crab apples. But I am feeling a bit flat.  My story writing has slowed down quite a bit and I feel a bit lonely.  Odd that I should miss characters...

G'day all! I had my first proper haircut this arvo. I got rid of the duck's butt/mullet, and have a style cut. Is skeered now. Is looking like my mother. Except my photo is skewed again... It must be a bug in mobile blogger. Is very skeered. But the haircut is pretty cute. Must work out what I am taking to the usa...  We leave on tuesday! This extremely shallow post brought to you by poet's day. Anon!

G'day all! I am sure some of you have entirely forgotten I started this blog to share my knitting conquests. It has gone a little sideways from there over the last while, and I fear it will go more sideways yet. But at last I have found the pics I took of the Tardis socks, though they are not the Best Evah shots. I embroidered on half the Tardis markings whilst sitting on a park bench at Glebe Point. Do you like the view the socks (and I) had? That's the Anzac Bridge with the Sydney Harbour Bridge underneath it.  I admit that there isn't too much of the seashore there, more just a border of rocks but it is still a very pleasant place. The finished socks do not have Police Box embroidered on them as the sock yarn was too thick.  As it was, I bollocksed up part of it trying to write police box on and had to duplicate stitch over the manky bit...  Shhh, don't tell anyone, ok?  :-) Hmm, blogger has a new interface and I am not sure I like it as much as th...

G'day all! Just a quickie - I am being a very bad blogger. But I have been blogging for over seven years now. My 7th blogiversary was 10 days ago, and I totally forgot all about it, like I do every year! I have a pair of socks to show off, if I ever remember to get pics of the finished items. I finished DH's Tardis socks in time for his birthday, though I did not put the police box words on them as I need a much lighter weight thread for that - the sock yarn was too heavyweight. We had a most excellent party at one of our favourite restaurants here (Haiphong Harbour I think it is). 24 of Nathan's closest friends up here in Sydney. I had a lovely time crapping on (aka talking to people). Nathan made various of us get up and move around the room, reshuffling the deck to get people to talk to different people. At first I started off talking to people that I know reasonably well, and then moved to other people only two of whom I had talked to before, though that ...

G'day all! I am on my way back to Sydney. I'm taking the train and bringing my bike with me. I decided to cough up for first class in hope that I don't get sitting next to me a pimply fifteen year old heavy smoker who has a nasty skin condition involving a lot of peeling skin which he can't leave alone... Shudder I am glad I didn't have to move the bike and my luggage more than about half a kilometre... As it is, I'm knackered! Oh we are off (and as I love to say, we are going as well - does off have a meaning of rotting and being stinky issue of oz and nz?). Anon! Ps hope the pic isn't rotated but it is fairly much how I feel as present...

G'day all! Some lovely spring blooms for you against a blue blue sky :) Tests all came back clear, hooray! I am looking forward to getting back to Sydney and having a rest! I've been on the social rounds for days now and this hermit needs a break. I'm not used to seeing so many people 8) I have three days to finish nathan's birthday socks. Pity I forgot to take them to the clinic with me, I could have had a good hour of knitting instead.  Tomorrow evening me and my bike are off to Sydney on the train. I'm going first class :)  Percy the bike will be in a box... And it looks like I have to book tickets to the usa too! Anon!