Awkward Dinner Guests

Wow did we just have an interesting dinner experience...

Today Deno and I dropped in on one of his friends who is going through a pretty hard time. This friend is a bohemian type... artistic, with the eccentricities to prove it. Add to this the fact that he was in an accident fifteen years ago that left him a little brain damaged, and the fact that he has a substantial drug and alcohol habit... well, lets just say we're not dealing with a full tank here!

But he's a nice enough fellow. He would do whatever he could for you. He's sincere and has some interesting philosophical thoughts.

So as he was talking about his recent set of unfortunate circumstances I felt that we should invite him to dinner.. so I did....

The last time the kids had seen this guy was about six months ago. At that time, Josh still had short spiky hair. Now he's been letting it grow and it looks pretty good but it's completely different to how it was before. Sarah of course is a teenager and her looks change as often as the weeks do.. (Love ya honey)
So when our dinner guest arrived and Josh answered the door, he almost thought he was at the wrong house! He came in and saw Sarah and his jaw dropped even more... He was still reeling from having seen Deno's new longer hair style earlier in the day! Luckily for me, I still looked "normal"... frizz and all!!

So he spent the next thirty minutes going on and on about how different everyone looked. While the rest of us ate.

As I mentioned before, we're not dealing with someone on a full tank so it's not like you could just tell him to get on with it..

He started getting into boy/girl type stuff with Sarah and Josh... it was bordering on inappropriate but Sarah and Josh know what he's like and Deno and I were there...
Our dinner guest apologised for his behaviour before heading into his next inappropriate statement.

We were five around our round dinner table but our guest had one half of it, and Deno, Sarah, Josh and I were around the other half. That should give you a little idea of what we were dealing with tonight!

He's harmless but by god will we have some interesting memories from tonight!
No other dinner will ever compare to the one we just had that's for sure!

Images of A Mother

I thought it only fitting to write about Mothers seeing as it is Mothers Day on Sunday 10th May.

I received an email during the week that states our thoughts about mum during the stages of our life and thought how true it was!

Here’s a copy of it for anyone interested

4 YEARS OF AGE - My Mummy can do anything!

8 YEARS OF AGE - My Mum knows a lot! A whole lot!

12 YEARS OF AGE - My Mother doesn't really know quite everything.

14 YEARS OF AGE - Naturally, Mother doesn't know that, either.

16 YEARS OF AGE - Mother? She's hopelessly old-fashioned.

18 YEARS OF AGE - That old woman? She's way out of date!

25 YEARS OF AGE - Well, she might know a little bit about it!

35 YEARS OF AGE - Before we decide, let's get Mum's opinion.

45 YEAR S OF AGE - Wonder what Mum would have thought about it?

65 YEARS OF AGE - Wish I could talk it over with Mum.

I saw this email for the first time when I was in my late twenties and thought the descriptions were pretty accurate. Now that I’m on the other end of the mother/child relationship, I’m seeing the “my mother doesn’t really know much” attitude coming in. Although it can be frustrating at times, I know it’s just a step in life’s journey and try to take it all with a pinch of salt (and a large glass of wine!)

Watching them grow from a child to pre teen, to pre adult brings about new emotions that are sometimes hard to deal with. I find myself often wondering what my own mother thought as I made that journey into adulthood, no longer having to rely on her for my day to day living.Yes it’s true, we think once we hit our early twenties we know everything, and certainly more than our old fashioned parents but something happens during the mid twenties and we start to realise that perhaps there is a bit of wisdom in what mamma has to say.

No body will love you as unconditionally as your own mother. And I’m sure Mothers Day will come and go with barely a “Happy Mothers Day” from my kids but I know the time will come when they’ll value what I have to say a little more than perhaps they do today. And I’m happy enough seeing them grow into the wonderful children they are, not perfect but who is?

And finally, the email had a few sentences about what “real” mothers were like. Can you think of any more?

Real Mothers often have sticky floors, filthy ovens and happy kids.

Real Mothers don't want to know what the vacuum just sucked up.

Real Mothers know that a child's growth is not measured by height or years or grade... It is marked by the progression of Mummy to Mum to Mother...

Exposing Myself

Those who've seen me on facebook may be aware that I've started trying to write and record songs again. I did this quite a bit in my younger years (oh how sad does that sound!) and recently had fun reviving some of my old songs and creating a couple of new ones.

The trouble with writing songs is that you're exposing your emotions. Whatever you write or sing, if you want to come across as genuine, has to be real to you.

But then everyone who hears my song will know what I'm thinking... at least, what I may have been thinking when I wrote the song.
I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that!

The latest song I wrote is "I like that". I drew on my memories of when Deno and I first met. Actually it was nice to think back to those times and remember our first few months together.
But what about the times he makes me really angry? I'm sure I make him really angry at times too but there's not too much of a chance that he's going to go off and write a song about it! (Love ya Deno)
So do I stifle my creativity to respect my man and marriage?

The simple answer is this.
Every song that is lovey dovey is about you my honey bear Deno, and every song that is negative is about people that I knew before you were in my life.
That sounds about right to me!

Now, what can I write about next?

More Customer Stories

1. I don't know why a customer would call me at 11am, telling me his job was supposed to be done today so where is the service person?
Seriously.
So when I tell him that it's still today, why is he surprised?
Today means any time today!!! Today doesn’t mean at 9am sharp! It mean any time during the day!
And it's certainly not something you'd be questioning at 11am is it?

2. Can someone please explain how a customer can not pay a CENT since being established in August 2008, and then be verbally abusive with me over the phone for his account being disconnected? To my credit I remained incredibly calm.
But how could ANYone, not pay anything for over six months and then be indignant and think they have anything to stand on when I say I won't reconnect them? How do you get to be like that??? I don't get it!

3. Today a lady called me and told me her daily meter readings for the last two weeks. That's right, she keeps a record (for herself) so that she knows how much her meter moves every day. She was calling me because she expected her meter to have only moved 3 or 4 units but it moved 10 units over night and she didn't think that was right.
Can you imagine my jaw dropping? Seriously, isn't there more important things in this world? To add to the stupidity, this woman also told me she'd bought a new heater and had had it on during the night… Only three hours…
Did she think it was an unmetered appliance? I mean come on!

.

No, no!!!! Please don't make me!!!

I don't know if it's a male thing but shopping with Deno can be such a frustrating experience. I swear, in this relationship, when it comes to shopping, I'm the boy and he's the girl.

I'll go to the shops when I need to buy something. I know what I want and I know what shops I'm going to go to. I know the order I'm going to visit the shops and I have a pretty good idea which one I will actually find the item I want in.
It's all about getting the best value in the shortest amount of time.
In and out as they say!

Deno on the other hand, will go to the shop and say "What do we need?"
Really? That's your question? Cos my response to that is if you have to ask, then you probably don't really need it!!
Sure, I'm all for blowing money for the hell of it now and then but Deno's is an automatic response, not a once in a while kind of thing.
Ah Deno, lucky you can be so cute... at times...let's not overdo it now!

The boy/girl thing breaks down though when we talk about what we're shopping for. There are some shops that just make me cringe and I'm almost begging not to go (Deno rarely visits a store alone).
Take Bunnings for example. It's so huge!!! It has aisle after aisle of stuff that I'm never ever going to be interested in!!! And Deno walks so fast!! We must look a sight when we're in there because he's always a pace or two in front of me and invariably, we're arguing. All I can think is "in a little while I will be out of this place... just endure..."
Bunnings is torture!

I'm not one for clothes shopping either... especially if I'm the one buying. I just hate trying things on... but grocery shopping is great! And I love the tech type stores... Dick Smith, Tandy's JB's... I can spend a lot of time in those stores...

So the moral of this story is, if you want a happy wife, know what you're shopping for and leave her home when you want to go to Bunnings!!!

Love ya honey
x

Fill her up please!

There's nothing like going to my parents place for me. My parents bought the house not long before I was born so it was the home I knew growing up. You can imagine the memories it holds!

I don't know why it is but for some reason, the first thing I do when I enter the home, after I greet my parents of course, is check out what's cooking on the stove, or what has just been baked! There is always tons of food!!! And it's always good!
I walk over to the stove, lift the lids of whatever pots are there. Perhaps do a taste test if applicable...
I then check out the counter tops... anything to taste there?
Lastly, I open the fridge to check out what's new in there.
I just love my parents place! So much interesting food.

It's impossible to leave the place without feeling stuffed. I do it to myself all the time! If it's not the food, it's the countless coffees I seem to have while I'm there. Why does coffee taste better at my mums?

Or perhaps it's just that it all tastes better when we're sitting around a table talking about things.

It's nice and comforting and hopefully, my kids will feel the same about coming back to their childhood home when they've got families of their own.

.

Shoe Curse

It could be because I'm always insisting I'm not a girlie girl, but I seem to have such bad luck with shoes.

I hate shopping for them in the first place because my shoes are always in the 'gigantor' section. Forget pretty little strappy sandals, my feet were not made for them! In fact, the less attention I can draw to my feet the better! I'm a full cover, boot type of girl...

So yesterday I went shopping for some new shoes as my last regular 'every day black' pair were biting the dust... I tend to wear things into the ground...I found a cute little pair that covered most of my foot and had a pleasant surprise when the cashier said they were 30% off. Yipee for me...

The excitement was short lived however when I decided to wear these new shoes to work today... I wasn't at work ten minutes when I thought the shoes were a bit loose, and went to strap them in a bit tighter...I gave the strap a tiny little tug and...It fell off.Yes that's right, it FELL OFF COMPLETELY!!!!

I sat there for twenty seconds or so thinking "what am I going to do now" I got up and had a little walk around and saw that although difficult, I could walk around in them if I was careful... and a little work with a needle and thread will fix the rest tonight...(Yes I know I can return them but I hate returning things)

So the shine is completely off my new shoes!!

I was a bit worried about what I was going to do at lunch time as I normally go out to buy my lunch.As luck would have it, it was raining and I was only able to move at a very slow pace so I got drenched!

So another pair of shoes are going to be ruined and that means I have the arduous chore of having to buy some more shoes at some stage... I guess I'll just have to psyche myself up for it!

.