Rats deserting a sinking ship

Top nob in England has mysteriously departed the Norgren Titanic hopefully with no buoyancy vest.
Apparently he was the one who yee-ha'd JDE to the IMI board way back when.
We plebs have all agreed that it looks like Australia was the experiment.
England went online one week ago and now one head has rolled or jumped.
Us sucker Aussies have put up with this crap for four months.
The English originally told us 'You Get What You Get' so every workstation in the place has a YGWYG sticker. Our attempt at humour. If you didnt laugh, you would cry and never stop.
JDE has to be the most frustratingly sloooooooow, mouse clicker happy system in the world.
So far we have had 3 internal, 1 external and 1 key account sales guys pull the pin. Couple of admin people as well.
And as for stocktake, I heard that we were 70K up, then 70K down. Is it so hard??
Long live the AS400 - bullet proof, never broke down, easy and quick to use, reliable information, system controls.
Change is inevitable but change for the better or at least equal...

Ferrero Rocher countdown

Move update:
ADSL ordered from Telstra after numerous phone calls and misinformation. Here's crossing fingers and toes Kimmy that it all works out ok - I am so over dial up.
Dropped off postal redirection. Organised finance.
Settlement time is 12.30 Friday - so hopefully carpet can be restretched and cleaned in the afternoon.
Visited Bunnings tonight and got a sample pot in anticipation of slapping it on the walls to see if it looks as good as in Zoe's house!!
Kelly's bed picked up by Luke tonight. He will be painting it a shade of pink yet to be determined by Kelly (I am thinking it will be brighter than I would prefer!!) and delivering it to the new place. My bed will be dismantled and given away this weekend.
Disconnections/reconnections to be organised early next week
Things are happening, better pack another box. Ok that is done, I deserve another Ferrero Rocher, down to 17!

Honestly Im just cleaning out the fridge

Well well well. Imagine what you find way back there in the back of the fridge. Threw out a few vegetables that looked like a science project gone horribly wrong. Dig a little deeper, oh, mmm, what could this possibly be - 20 Ferrero Rochers!!! So quickly made a nice cuppa tea and count is now down to 18. Don't know how they survived Kelly's beady little eyes.
I got my first semester certificate from TAFE - Medical Office Essentials - 'Connie is an excellent student and is a pleasure to teach' - nah I made that bit up. But I did get my certificate. Halfway through my Cert III now. I am really enjoying it, though very tired. If only I didn't have to fit in my paying work around it!!
We will be doing Powerpoint again tomorrow. Last week we started a slide show from instructions in our text book. I was having so much fun changing colours, moving text, adding clipart, rotating stuff. Two of the other rebel students were giggling at what I was doing, the other 1 of our 'chick click!' tut tutting. I had 4 slides before I knew it. Then I turned the page of my text book and read the first line...'now for slide number 2' Ooops, think I went out on a tangent there, better stop having so much fun and delete all that stuff!! Oh no the teacher is looming, oh she has noticed my text is red, not white...matches my face :D
Anyway I got the last laugh around page 10 or so where I was reading the instructions out loud to myself and answering myself with 'oh i know that, i did that before'. I had the girls in giggles. Everyone agreed it was a lot of fun.

Leftovers - burn them alive!!

Gotta start cleaning out the freezer as the move count down is on.
We had a total freezer dinner tonight. Lamb chops, broccoli, peas and corns, wedges.
I know a few of you will have a laugh that yes, yet again I set the smoke alarm off. Kelly was quite perturbed as she was sitting on the loo at the time and I jokingly teased her that it was her that set it off!!
Only ever met one girl who appreciated my culinary skills and she had four legs :D

See Kelly run

Kelly had her 'walkathon' last week at school. Kelly likes to run. But for some reason she became quite shy when I went to take her picture. She was having a break by doing walking and I thought it was the ideal photo opp but she saw me in the nick of time and sped past. One photo only had an arm in it!! Check out her flappy hand actions!! She has always ran like this. We had to borrow her yellow 'house' colours...I am a bit dubious re the house scheme for the littlies, too competitive
It was overcast that day but fairly humid so she was in bed early. Bedhog is not the word!! New house, new rules. I am getting my bed back to myself, I may be persuaded to share for a couple of nights for a weekend treat but honestly this is getting ridiculous. I cannot even roll over without a swathe of curly hair swamping my face, ppphhht ppphhht

A rose by any other name...

Desolate and dateless this Valentine's Day, I resorted to buying a potted rose for myself.
The horticulture students at my TAFE do themselves proud with their cheap potted plants and bunches of flowers. There are lots of side benefits of being a student. Today I got a $2.00 bone scan (ultrasound on my heel). I received a very low risk rating which was good. Also got a drink of milk and a muesli bar for my 2 bucks.
Oh but getting back to the flowers, not many people would know that I am a truly hopeless ditzy romantic at heart and love getting flowers. But I could count on my two hands (and maybe a couple of toes) the amount of flowers I have received as gifts in my lifetime. How sad is that? I did go through a period where I bought them for myself...sad but practical (Capricornian traits again!!).
Oh so now I have told you all, I suppose you will rock up to my new house with a bunch in hand!! Roses are great (grab a bunch from TAFE for dollar value!!) but I would appreciate a spring bunch just as much.
Maybe I will just plant a rose garden.

Sorry

Way back in the early 80's I must have had a leftie teacher in high school who made us very aware of the mistreatment of aboriginals. I remember having many heated arguments with my father regarding this. It became something of a family joke so much so that when I got my drivers licence, I was given a leather keyring featuring a loincloth clad aboriginal holding his spear. Well that is over 20 years ago and action is well overdue.
Today was Sorry day. Sorry can never be enough for the families that were torn apart. Poor kids being wrenched from the only life they had known. Families not knowing where their children were. I don't know how they could have justified it in those days and we definitely can not justify it now. Quite inhumane actually.
How far reaching will 'Sorry' become?? Compensation?? More or less division?? It is a very emotional subject but basically we pay out compo for car accident victims, crime victims...key word is 'victim'. These children were victims. They were robbed of their rights, how much do you pay for that???
Kevin Rudd is definitely a breath of fresh air and I really liked how he spoke. He seems genuine. Time will tell what sort of job he will do. But at least he has started well, keeping one of his election promises. Actually, yes, fence sitter here, is really quite impressed with him. Well done Australia on a good choice at the last election.

School starts again and deep inner stuff

Well it is going to be full on this semester. Powerpoint presentation on our chosen disease (oh god another choice, what do I pick??) in front of the class (yuk - I love talking but not in front of a crowd), advanced medical terminology and another computer medical package.
We also have to do two days placement, probably at the Epworth hospital in Richmond - I thought how ironic - is there a man in the sky playing cruel jokes on me!! If only I had done that a year ago, maybe things would be different now. But I need to take into account that I am a capricorn, don't like change and am currently in the midst of a midlife crisis!!! So I need to be gentle on myself.
We will be going to placement in pairs. I have made a few friends but in particular I have become friendly with one girl probably because we were going through similar things at similar times. Hopefully we can train it in together. She is the next stop down from me (once I move into my new place). I will be trying to get an accounts/admin position because that is where my strengths lay.
I was re-reading some notes I had made from self help books I read last year
Peace is the absence of worry
Worry is the absence of trust
So basically if we trust, we should attain peace. Sounds easy huh??!!
Use your best perfume and china - refuse to ration the beauty in your life
Yep I do this one
Building happiness requires planning, patience and persistance.
Be kind and gentle to yourself
Well I gotta say, I struggle with this one as I had always found happiness so easily attainable. As I have grown older it seems harder (shouldn't it get easier) and I seem to worry and am anxious about more, both big and little things.
I have tried to analyse this over the last few months and I think it is because of my sense of duty and responsibility (mostly re Kelly) is sometimes overwhelming. I didn't choose nor ever invisage myself being a sole parent (though I believe I got too comfortable/safe in that role and that led to my troubles of the past year, dislike of change again!!). I have recently chosen to accept (not fight) my responsibility and as a consequence, I am taking Kelly more places with me, not forcing her to go to her fathers when she doesn't want to go and generally trying to relax more at home with her rather than always being out and about. She has started singing to herself again whilst playing games, is being nicer to me, loves playing games with me (oh no not another game of Bingo) but also can play solo for long periods of time.
Maybe I am finally getting this motherhood thing sussed!!!
Keep well and happy. Smile - pretend you have infra-red vision!!!

Mum I Look Ridiculous!!

It was so stinking hot in this stinking house tonight that I put Kelly (and my feet) in a cool bath.

She squeezed her bathing cap over her curls and it was a very tight fit!! The goggles just top it off, don't you think??

When she looked in the mirror, she said 'Mum I look ridiculous' though her pronunciation is a little off .

Less than 5 weeks now and I can hardly wait. I am feeling very unsettled in that it will be 3 moves in 15 months but I don't feel at home here at all. I just hope that I can settle into the new house...I think I am going through a midlife crisis.

Interesting article in the Sunday paper....Ikea has built the first flat-pack village, near Newcastle, England (oh they have a Newcastle over there too!!) and almost all of the 93 homes have been bought by first time buyers. The owners will not be facing a DIY nightmare as the homes have been assembled for them.

I wonder how many screws, nuts and bolts were left over. Did they employ equal numbers of men and women?? The women to read the instructions out step by step whilst the men ignored all advice and ploughed through missing steps (gasp, horror).

Love and best wishes to old work mate, Malcolm in South Aussie who decided that the best way to test to see if all four of the bbq's gas burners were turned on, is to use a lighted match...

Luckily he has only suffered superficial facial and hand burns. He was in an induced coma today due to a tube having to be inserted down his throat to assist his breathing. Malcolm, Mr Perfectionist, Mr Safety get well soon. Luv Ya!!