Thank you...

Thank you to everyone who has helped me, and will hopefully continue to help me, with my conundrum about the pharmaceutical industry.

We had a huge thunderstorm here a couple of hours ago, and as soon as it finished, this appeared in the east. Awww....

Thought I'd share it (you know, as a kind of thank you for my last chunky post).

Phew....

I did it! I finished and, thanks to the wonderful Ewan, delivered the docs to the lawyer in time. Now it's a waiting game.

Thanks to ALL of you for the wonderful support. It meant a lot.

I also had to hang around for the washing machine repair man. Everything always happens at once, and early last week my washing machine broke down. We've been struggling with hand washing and borrowing my mum's machine. Today the repair men replaced the engine, so here's hoping it's now as good as new.

Not surprisingly, all I want to do now is sleep.

This is last nights' sunset. Taken from my office window.

Idol Fireworks.....

You see, and hear, a lot of fireworks from my place. But last night they were particularly grand and loud and dramatic.

I lifted my head from the legal papers for long enough to realise that these were the fireworks from the Grand Final of Australian Idol... and then to quickly snap away before they ended.

Camera settings were not adjusted in the rush... so what I saw is what you get.

Nothing Doing...

or Doing Nothing....

It's a kid-free day. My boys are with DH which means a Saturday without cricket. Without Uno. Without laughter and squabbles.

It's a hollow day.

But not a sad one.

My parents and I are going to the Sydney Theatre Company this afternoon to see "The Pig Iron People". Should be good.

And then tonight is a Bollywood-themed girls-night-in with my friend J and some of her friends. J shares my birthday tomorrow, so we're going to quietly celebrate early this year.

"Nothing Doing" could also be about my birthday. For the last couple of years I've held a party at the pub across the road, but I'm just not up for it this year. Next year I'll double my efforts and share the joy. Promise. This year just doesn't feel like much of a celebration. Especially without "her". Her birthday is the week after mine, and it feels wrong to do any celebrating while she's still so ill.

*sigh*

So, this is another NaBloPoMo post. A post for the sake of a post.

Sorry 'bout that.

Chocolates..

We had some visitors the other day. Lara and Inigo (from here) dropped by for some boy-adoration time. Awwww..

Toto was away, and so Inigo had Boo all to himself. I love the way my boys enjoy spending time with littler kidlets.

Awww.......




There was SO much laughter!



..and then Boo decided that the world was way "cooler" when seen from an inverse position. Can't say I disagree with him. (Probably because he could see - without all that hair in his eyes!)



This is an unusually early-morning shot of our view to the north. I say "unusually" because it's not like me to be awake before 6am, let-alone UP. Toto needed to be at school for a 6am excursion departure the other day, and so I made the most of it.




Do you ever have times when all you seem to do is cry? I tear-up over everything (and no, I'm not pre-menstrual). I had a run-in with my telephone provider today... and cried for an hour over it. Crazy. I mean, not literally (I hope). And I'm feeling very overwhelmed about the legal stuff with DH and "her" and everything else on my plate.

I guess I just need to cry it out. I feel as though I'm being very tough on myself for even talking about it here (feels kinda vulnerable) and that this should prompt me to "pull it together". I would never be that tough on anyone else.

*sigh*

Life. Is like a box of chocolates..... (thanks Forrest Gump for that clinker)

I love my home....

Yes, I've been away for a week and am therefore delighting in the comfort of being in my own environment. But it's that very feeling that has inspired me to think about the place that I call "home".

My boys and I moved into this flat 4.5 years ago after a very abrupt breakup with my ex-fiance. We had a week to move out of his house, and, as I had sold my house to move in with him and was not working for income at the time, we had extremely limited options.

My parents had bought their neighbouring flat a few years earlier. The idea was that it would allow them to house overseas rellies and visitors comfortably as well as providing their grandchildren with bedrooms for overnight visits. In fact, they had ended up knocking down connecting walls and expanding into the new flat themselves.... and were enjoying the extra space.

They generously took us in, under the strictest understanding that this was to be temporary.

And yet here we still are.

Part of it is because the boys settled in to their new school so well. Part of it is because I could never afford to rent or buy within travelling distance of that new school. Part of it is because, gradually, we put the connecting walls back in. And part of it is because we've fallen into a comfortable pattern of helping each other out.

And now I don't ever want to leave.

I love the idea of living with extended family, but the reality, initially, was difficult for all of us. It took us a long time to manage how much involvement was "helping" and how much was "interfering". My parents aren't young (they read this, so I won't divulge exactly how not young they are) and are suffering from some increasingly debilitating health issues. I believe that their involvement with my boys helps to keep them motivated and optimistic. And I definitely know that their involvement with my boys helps my boys to develop empathy and respect.

It's not always a picnic. As their youngest child, I find myself occasionally falling into patterns of behaviour that didn't become me when I was 16, letalone now that I'm 42. And they would, understandably, prefer to live in an environment without the noise that my boys sometimes make.

But the upside far outweighs all of that.

My boys and I adore them. And my Dad provides a role model to them that DH and my brothers have failed to provide.

And the views rock!

A fresh start? Or a series of unfortunate events?

Everything is breaking!  My MacBook broke, as I wrote, and then my iPhone became an iBrick.  Yes.  It's useless.  And right now (with my brain in its' current state) there's nothing that I can do about it.  And (if I can continue with my whinge) my coffee machine broke down and my home phone is not working well at all.

Wolfie suggested that I look at all of these things as a fresh start.  A new beginning.  But I'm struggling.  I can't possibly replace everything, so I think it's more about a lesson in "letting go".  I've always been quite attached to my "things" and I think that I need to learn to live without a few of them.  

On the good side.... my lovely Mummy and Daddy had my car repaired while I was away.

Some of the things that I observed today about being home:

1. drivers don't keep left unless overtaking
2. we drive an obscene amount of 4WD's
3. I live in a beautiful city