tickets, money, passport!!!!!

well i posted the touch and go 'straight to..... number one' video clip this morning so i guess there's not much counting left... tomorrow's the day...

the house is spotless, the ironing is finished, the last of the washing is on the clothes horse and it should dry before i head off in the morning... it'll look like a display home once again...

i ended up making a last minute call to the medical centre to go and grab a letter from the doctor just to clear myself of any possible problems of a slapelle corby nature whilst overseas.....

i'm proud of my minimalist packing, i was conscious of the bag weighing 100kgs empty, but luckily it was just under 5kgs whilst empty..... my current approximate bag weight is around 12kg so that gives around an extra 10kgs space, should i manage to collect some goodies during my time in portugal...

so i am a bit excited about heading off - finally get to ride a few A380's - i've admired them from afar for many years but now i finally get to experience flying inside one, that's pretty exciting...

the only slight kick in the guts about it all was the phone call to mum tonight... i know she's just being careful and wanting things to go smoothly, but when she basically tries to shove me into a closet again, it makes things a bit hard on me.....

i am well aware that i'm going to be questioned as to why i'm single and not married - it's portugal, it's a given, i've grown up realising that the pinnacle goal of a portuguese person's lifespan is to marry your childhood sweetheart who you met at a mighty 4 years old (or some such)....

obviously by now if that were the case, there would be a skank in my bed every night by the name of kylie..... thank god that is not the case since she has married a cross dresser by the name of glenn... but that's another story for another blog spot lol

so back to the point, i have already given good responses in the past to people as to why i wasn't married off or seeing anyone, and so i think i could manage to do it for a bit longer still, i wasn't about to go out of my way to out myself to every possible person at every possible opportunity...

i told her that i understand it's because i would be an embarrassment to dad, and she tried to knock it down saying it wasn't the case.... i wasn't getting shitty, i was just making the point that i understand how dad thinks and so i know what he'd be like if it did come up, and he would most likely be embarrassed... it's not my problem and i really don't care...

it just annoys me that it always has to come up as a disclaimer for anything that goes on..... that along with anything else "oh don't say xyz to dad just in case of abc happening" etc etc

i know she wants to avoid conflict, and so do i, but it really is at the expense of my brain power....

so then it just makes me think that maybe this would be the last time i try to make effort to visit family over there... i dunno....

it's things like that which make me think that i wished i wasn't a guy who is gay....

but it's not the case so i just have to (once again) get over it...

and that's one of the reasons why i was happy to stay on my current dosage of meds until after the trip at least cause the last thing i would need right now is to be overseas, closeting myself (which i was already going to muzzle anyway), dealing with strangers in a strange land and also coming down from meds.....

it was really good to see people at work and talk about my trip and get lovely wishes for my trip, that's the sort of thing that makes me feel like i have family at work - and i like that feeling

i have my short list of things to do, things to buy for people, postcards to send, and i thought at first that i might have to deal with it asap after getting there just so i got things done and out of the way, but i really have nothing else to do apart from be a passenger for a couple of weeks, so i should just not worry about the timing of things and do things as the opportunity arises....

i think my roaming mobile is going to be ok, just been hard to test it properly being in ballan as the reception is almost non-existent.....

and the newly laid bed sheets were heaven last night - so much so i actually said to teddy that maybe i would just stay snuggled in bed for 3 weeks lol

the house is sprayed, fingers crossed it kills some nasty creepy crawlies while i'm gone.....

might play a few games and wander off to bed soon, i am actually tired so i might just be able to get to sleep without too much hassle of anxiousness.....

bon voyage.......!

the day of cleaning......

damn, what a great day!

house is absolutely spotless!

used a few cleaning products i hadn't used before, viva shower wipes and bam shower cleaner - wow these things work like magic!

finished all my chores, plus extras not on the list, around about 6.30pm

• vacccuummmeedd
• mopped floors
• washed bed sheets and quilt cover
• washed mattress protector and pillow protectors
• cleaned both bathrooms and toilets
• put down flanno sheets on the bed (mmm looking forward to bed tonight!)
• stoked the fireplace for the next time i use it
• chopped some pine for kindling to let it dry in the garage while i'm away
• planted my succulent (from oak flats) that i had growing in a glass from a new cutting
• trimmed back a heap of the herbs out on the front porch area and watered everything - should be nice with new shoots when i get home
• cleaned the kitchen bench tops

i took a room by room approach so that made it a bit easier to deal with by breaking it down to smaller segments

it's incredibly windy tonight though, hopefully there isn't rain with it otherwise it may stain the clean windows lol

i have a small pile of ironing but might leave it until tomorrow night as i'll do one last load of washing during tonight

i'll send the dishwasher on it's merry way during the night too...

so tomorrow is dentist day... get my moulds done of my teeth for my new splint apparatus thingo... i'm hoping it might mean i can get the wire taken out from behind my bottom teeth since i'll have a mould of my teeth to wear every night to keep them straight and aligned... i'll see what they say...

then i'll head in to work and say bye byes to the team and get an european charger with usb connection, and get a new door knob for the tv cabinet....

will have to get my script filled - thankfully i found a new pack of my anti-reflux tablets, so that will be money i don't have to spend :-)

and i'm loving the fact that i was throwing loose change in the bottom of the centre console in the truck - i completely forgot about doing that and found about 15 bucks in there!! nice addition to the money box :-)

my house looks wonderful! :-) i'm so pleased with my efforts :-)

sunday evening.......

i love murphy brown

i just wish they did release the whole series on dvd and not just the first season...

i'm watching it again as my lead up to the trip, a nice gap filler before cracking into frasier on my return home...

finished washing the windows this afternoon, damn they look good :-)

but most importantly, i got to finish work for 3 weeks yipee! :-)

i'll head in on tuesday to say bye byes to my team and get a last couple of bits i've been meaning to buy...

so i'm going to have a nice lazy evening tonight and hopefully have a great rest tonight before waking up tomorrow and launching into the cleaning frenzy.....

looks like the blog post i did at work from my phone worked alright so i'll be prepared for whilst i'm away...

i had a couple of guys i know visit the store today and one of them patted my belly and commented that my weight gaining exercise appears to be working, so that was a lovely thing to hear :-)

neighbour bear is up to speed with looking after the girls for me, i told him to also take home any eggs, strawberries and tomatoes that were available as i wouldn't be here to eat any of it.....

finished more of the left over food in the fridge today... might end up having takeaway dinner the next two nights but will try to keep it down to just tuesday night to save money.....

and i didn't get an email from the trains this week telling me i got the boot, so i can only assume i'm in the list for the next lot of assessments which is good news.....

fingers crossed!

just call me sadie......

damn i love to clean almost as much as i love to sing lol

washed all the windows and the fly screens and it's made such an amazing difference...

now if there are any birds crashing into my windows from now on i'll accept the accusation of how clean my windows are :-)

today was sure busy at work... that's the nice thing about finishing at 2.30pm... i can escape the mad rush to avoid going a bit crazy myself lol

one more day of work before holidays time... nice feeling...

so washing the windows crossed another chore off the list... monday will be top to bottom cleaning day, vaccuummmmminnnnggg, mopping, change bed sheets and quilt cover, do the rest of what laundry needs doing, ironing etc

caught up on the yummy non fish food from yesterday, eddie's stir fry chicken noodles were yummy and it was nice to have a bit of the chorizo i grilled along with a couple of snags.... and plenty of salad leftover, i reckon the chooks might get a big feed on tuesday lol

i'm thinking i might have takeaway for dinner on tuesday, just to finish off without having to do the dishes...

then wednesday finish packing and spray the chemicals everywhere to kill all the bugs in and around the house...

maybe try to fit in a bit of wood chopping too.... set up the fireplace so if i need to heat up the house on my return i just need to flick a match and let it roar... have a snooze on the floor in front of the fire :-) that's a great feeling!

distracted with kath and kim so i might leave it at that for now lol

merry easter bunny hoppity day.....

happy easter weekend!

sitting here by the embers of the fireplace resting up after an eventful day at home...

jake stayed over last night which was lovely and then today i had alex, melton and ballarat pauls, and eddie (big excitement at this point!)

also finally got my roaming sim card to make some sort of contact with a device other than my own, so that's finally in order and ready to go for next week...

so the pre-trip goodbyes have started tonight with those who showed up today...

melton paul has been good enough to agree to offer me a ride to the airport on wednesday...

so the goodbyes are starting to make me feel a bit sad, but at the same time it's started to make things become a bit more real that the trip is literally days away

it was so good to see eddie, it's been so long and a cuddle from him always makes me feel good, he a great big fella and has a great heart, i'm lucky to have him as a friend...

wow there was lots of food today.... i'm stuffed, it was almost like a christmas dinner thing, so much to eat and lots of laughs

ballarat paul came down on the train and walked along the train tracks in the rain then jumped the back fence lol suppose that was an easy way to remember how to get here hehehe

so 2 work days left... hope i can manage the first couple of hours each morning on my own until vin starts, especially if it is as busy as they are expecting it to be...

pretty tired after today's happenings so i may just get into bed early, i'm not exactly feeling like dinner is required lol

and the girls had a great day out in and out of the rainy periods, wandering the yard putting on a little show for us all to watch them every now and then... i'll miss em too

at the end of the day i'm only going for 2 weeks, but i think it's the distance from home that makes it seem like it's a great big deal.....

time's a tickin'

yay i got my replacement roaming sim card today...

boo it's still not working properly, though it's doing better than the first one...

yay the irish help desk dude has referred me to level 2 support to escalate my problem

boo they said they would call soon after as they had just started their shift for the day...

so whilst i'm waiting i may as well tap out my daily rant...

holy cow! work was flat out today... was out in the timber yard for most of the day which meant i had lots of fun playing with timber on the saw, driving forklift around moving things here and there and brings things down and back up again for customers etc

i can understand that the weekend will be busy, but given saturday's top temperature in ballarat is only expected to be 14° (woo hoo!!!!) - i think it might keep people from making the mass pilgrimage for retail therapy after a day of everything closed for good friday...

so the big wig wankers turned up today... another last minute caffuffle about things from management before these fat dudes wandered the store picking on little bits of bullshit - as expected!!! complete useless waste of time - also as expected!!!

so 2 more work days before annual leave begins... and whilst i thought i might not see some of the guys after today, i said i'd make another visit on tuesday after i get my teeth moulds taken for the splint, as i will have to drive into town since trains will be on trackworks for the week for RRL works.....

will shave the head tonight and trim up the beard in prep for the trip (once the irish dude rings back to sort the sim card), then tidy the house up a bit for tomorrow's little lunch gathering....

no dead mice in the garage today thankfully... hopefully it was just the one mouse making all the racket in the roof and walls...

picked a bunch of tomatoes to make salad tomorrow as part of lunch - damn birds have been eating at the almost ripe bigger tomatoes (buggers) - but i'm more worried about the heap of strawberries that are growing.... although they will most likely ripen after i head overseas anyway so no great loss.....

tick tock goes the clock and i will continue to await my phone call......

facebookin, workin and eatin!

by this time next week, i'll be flying somewhere over SA or NT..... bit exciting... but still subdued excitement... i'll be excited on wednesday morning when i'm on the way to the airport lol

took someone off my facebook today... just sorta had enough of the ranting of politics and their partner... just not interesting to me... i figured that if i was rolling my eyes at almost every posting i saw of theirs, it probably wasn't worth me having them there and i was just disrespecting them by leaving them on my list...

today was annoying at work...

this great big song and dance for the last week about some big wankers coming to visit the store... as i predicted, they didn't turn up... but realistically, all the little nit picking wasn't going to make a difference, because:

• a) they wouldn't even notice those little things
• b) if they did notice it would have been cause they would struggle to find a problem with the store
• c) even if we did these things, and they were the sort of people who 'noticed' the small things, they would've just told us about other small things anyway so they wouldn't be able to be happy enough as it was

apparently they're coming tomorrow, but who knows... at the end of the day, if the place was a mess, it would be an accurate reflection on a current working business that they need to see anyway...

if people just carried on doing their jobs and keeping things neat and tidy regularly, then there wouldn't need to be this big fiasco of running round like lunatics in a padded cell in the lead up to the visiting ghosts......

i bought a phone cover this afternoon, so i might start carrying my phone in my pocket again at work, feel a bit safer cause the pocket i use is next to my knee and i am always leaning against things putting pressure on them against objects and products so i wouldn't want to apply such pressure to a brand spankin new phone at this point...

and the post parcel for the old phone arrived today so i'll drop it off in the morning on way to work to try and speed the process of the payment, but with the long weekend, i won't see it until after i get back from portugal - bit of a saving for later on i suppose lol

bought a couple of things for the little lunch at my place on friday... i got my crumbed fish... i'll pick some tomatoes after work tomorrow to make up a salad....

sliced a few potatoes tonight to make some chips and the fryer is ready to go and my guts are acting like the chooks when they are hungry (yes the little cells in my guts are running laps up and down the fenceline of my stomach awaiting the arrival of food lol)