3 more...

3 more books read, 3 DVD's watched & 3 more layouts done.

Number 9

Number 10

Number 11

I watched 'Hereafter', verdict - pretty good. 'Whats your number?', verdict - pretty good and Chris Evans is very easy on the eye. I also watched 'Crazy, Stupid love', verdict - pretty good and Ryan Gosling is also easy on the eye.

My books are keeping me up at night, novels by Harlen Coben and Dianne Blacklock proving to be real page turners. Meanwhile the ironing basket is full and my battle with the caterpillars on the grapevine is a losing one.

The rain has finally stopped, the sun even came out yesterday and it was quite warm, today cool again. My heart goes out to those in the north of the state who are inundated with muddy water & are hoping for no more rain. We had about 50mls all up and no flooding.

And my nose is good.

Reading/watching...

I watched the movie 'the Help' to fill in some time and thoroughly enjoyed it. Down side was that at the end my weepiness made my nose run which was not pleasant. I thought the performances were all really good and loved Celia & Hillys' mother as much as the 'help'. I hope to read the book soon, I've heard that it is a very good read also. Fittingly I watched 'Guess who's coming to dinner' the same day. I had my fill of civil rights and wondered how I would have felt living at that time.

I was also entertained by the Oscar presentation. I love the fashions and the frocks and thought they all looked fabulous. All except Melissa McCarthy and Meryl Streep, not my favourites at all.

This was my favourite, but it was hard to choose just one.

 I have a list of movies that I want to see including

with my boyfriend Ewen McGregor.

Erin and I popped into the library so I could swap over some books. I have started Jodi Picoults' 19 minutes and have absolutely devoured it.  I'm up to page 312 of 588 and will back into it any minute now. Its one of those books that is hard to put down to do the necessary things like cook a meal, sleep etc.

                                                

2 out of 3...

2 out of 3 ain't bad, so they say and I proved it  today.

I borrowed 3 DVD's from the local hire shop and really enjoyed 2 of them.
I can recommened 'Tomorrow when the war began' and 'Everybody's fine', but don't bother with 'You again', it was very predictable. The Rotten Tomatoes movie review site gave it an 18% rating and I think that was generous.
The 'Everybody's fine' movie was very touching and had me mopping up tears at the end. The tomato review only gave it a 43% rating but I think it was better than that. 'Tomorrow,' gets a resoundingly good 82% but as with all reviews it is rather subjective isn't it?

My reading fared much the same. I borrowed 3 books just at random from the local library, 2 were good, the other I didn't finish as it just wasn't doing it for me. The best book of the bunch was Stuart Diver's story of survival from the Thredbo disaster, very interesting. Along the same theme, I want to see 127 hours, Hayley saw it and told me the gruesome part is ...very gruesome, so I'll probably wait til it is out on DVD too.

Don't want to be screaming/fainting/swooning in public now do I?

The year in review...

A great bonus of keeping the blog is the ability to look back quite easily at the happenings over the year. With the addition of pictures my journal is a colourful history of our life. Not that it is riveting reading for anyone else but me, but today I had fun reviewing the year.

Here are some highlights...

January saw us holidaying in Port Fairy and then later celebrating our 25th wedding anniversay

February was when Erin commenced secondary school and Chris quietly celebrated  turning 50

In March Bacchus Marsh was flooded with what was the beginning of much rain, so much so I stopped counting the mls

In April our family got together for a picnic

In May I got glasses

June saw Erin become a teenager

In July we met up with Chris' cousins whilst on their trip to Australia from Manchester, UK

In August we saw both Hayley and Erin perform in Oliver!
We also got to vote in a new Prime Minister

September saw Collingwood play in the Grandfinal and win it in a replay match (20 years between flags)
I held my first big study day, then went on Long Service Leave to get over it.

October saw us celebrate both my birthday and Yvonne's 40th. in NSW. Erin got to go on her first plane trip and we had a lovely holiday in Terrigal.

November saw Callum get his motorcycle licence and a new motorbike.
Hayley started her new career in  the Dentistry field.

In December we saw the Hoodoo Gurus live, celebrated Christmas with family and took a breather at the end of the year.

In reflection I have also read quite a few books, seen a few movies and it looks like I've done loads of scrapping, cooking, shopping and TV watching. I've also dabbled with yoga with surprising results.

These are the highlights, we've had a few lowlights too but it all balances out in the end. I believe you need to have a positive attitude even if things aren't going well.

So here's to the new year and the beginning of a new decade...

Have a good one!

Travels to the movies...

Erin and I went to see Gullivers travels today at the local cinema

It was pretty entertaining and a good way to fill in a chilly first day of holidays.

We are heading to the coast at the end of the week and I hope the weather improves so we can get in some good beach time.

A glorious weekend...

Finally the sun has broken through and given us a perfect weekend. Aside from the stunning draw in the football grandfinal, the weekend has been just perfect.

I was able to do some walking, baking, cleaning -I even washed my car. We went for a ride with Callum and for a while there I was glad he was behind us and I couldn't see what he was doing. For the short time he was ahead and I was yelling in my helmet...merge, merge or STOP STOP.

Father teaching son...listen closely grasshopper...

 

Learning on a bike is not so different from learning in a car, they still need instruction, supervision and time to gain experience.  Chris can't be the boy racer at these times, Callum needs to know that he can follow his fathers lead to be a safe rider, these are not the times for riding for pleasure.

I've seen 3 movies this weekend, firstly Erin wanted to see Avatar The Last Airbender, which was quite good but she tried to explain the whole thing during the movie which was a bit annoying but showed how much she like the whole Avatar story. We were just 2 of a dozen people in the theatre.









Erin  borrowed the new Alice in Wonderland from the local rental, she enjoyed it but I don't think she was completely sold on it. I went to bed I didn't like it much and I love Johnny Depp.








 I also borrowed Beneath Hill 60 which I really enjoyed and recommend. Based on a true story of an Australian unit fighting on the Western Front during WW1, I was thinking of our ancestors whose stories I have been researching lately and it made it all the more poignant, an insight to what those men went through and how hard it must have been to come home to a normal life after the war.


As Molly used to say 'do yourself a favour'