whybother?

Had a great weekend…

Got rid of Mollie for the night last night and went to a FABULOUS party. It was a housewarming, and it was held on a property. There was a bonfire, and yummy finger food, and stew and LOTS of alcohol! It was really, really fun.

After a few days of rain, got up this morning to fine weather. Took the opportunity to do multiple loads of washing…..no dramas today, unlike last week!

Was supposed to go to a family bbq tonight, but had no willing participants, so went alone. It was good for the first hour, then I thought……this sucks! Everyone else had their family there, but I was an orphan. So I went home and threw a tantrum about what bastards Darren and Mollie are then cooked dinner for them. Not Happy. You get that.

Now I’m sitting back with a bottle of red…..might crawl into bed soon, for something different.

What an interesting day I’ve had. Mollie managed to convince me to let her stay home today. Yesterday was a pupil free day, tomorrow is ANZAC day, so it wasn’t hard to see her point. So while she enjoyed a lazy morning in bed, I visited a friend for coffee. Then I had a balance, then Mum, Mollie and I had lunch at the pub. Daz came home with champagne to celebrate the job success and it was all good!

I’m looking forward to crawling into bed tonight. The weather has turned cold after last week’s heat wave! I can’t wait to snuggle down under the doona. I may even switch the electric blanket on!

I wasn’t planning on going to the ANZAC march tomorrow, but I probably will after all. I know that plenty of other people will support it, but still, it won’t hurt me to make the effort. I don’t necessarily have to stay for the service. Mind you, I don’t know what they’ll do if it rains. The diggers will be right because they are on mini-buses and jeeps, but those who actually march may find it all a bit damp. I’ll see how I feel in the morning. A friend wanted me to go to the dawn service with her, but last time I did that I said ‘never again’! Call me slack, but it totally stuffs your whole day when you get up that early, and I am NOT a morning person. Last time, we went to the service, had breakfast at Macca’s then went back to bed. I could NOT get warm. I had a tracksuit top on, my blanket, my doona and my electric blanket and I STILL could not stop shivering. I felt like crap all day after that, so not gonna happen.

Haven’t got much else to report, same shit, different day!

Just had a phone call telling me that I’ve been successful with my job application for Centrelink! That’s pretty exciting. It was a long, difficult process, so I’m very pleased! Yay me!

Well, it’s been a few days since my last post. On Friday, we went to Sydney to visit the Aquarium and the wildlife park. For those of you who haven’t yet had the pleasure…..the zoo is a better bet. Compared to Melbourne Aquarium, Sydney is a bit, well, pathetic really. As for the wildlife park….I could probably see more wildlife in my backyard! It’s probably OK if you are an overseas visitor, but for us locals, it’s a bit of a cliche. The bilbys were VERY cool, but the rest of it did very little for me. The whole school holiday thing does little for me- there were far too many small children about for my liking! Not to mention their moronic parents.

Due to having such a busy week, attending Newcastle for 2 days in a row to organise job interviews, and spending 2 hours waiting at the doctors on Thursday, I got very little housework done. Thus yesterday was spent catching up with the washing. All was going well until the very last load, when Darren failed to remove his notepad from his pants pocket. Well, you can imagine. For those of you who can’t, please find attached photographic evidence of the full extent of the damage. You know what it’s like when a tissue goes through the wash? Mulitply that by about a million, and you could get some idea! What a nightmare!!!

Today is shaping up as a lazy, do little day. I’m cooking a pot of vege soup and am about to do battle with the ‘notebook’ washing. Not sure how to overcome the problem, but I’m sure I’ll come up with a solution!

So much for my sleep in this morning! I was awake at 6.30- a truly Ungodly hour. So I did what anyone else would do, and rang a friend! She’s always up at the crack of dawn, but for some reason she was still in bed! What a role reversal. Luckily, she wasn’t cranky, so I went over there for coffee. As usually happens with this friend, we ended up sitting in the backyard drinking wine (not at 6.30!! We waited until lunchtime). I eventually rolled home, and spent the afternoon applying for jobs.

I have an interview tomorrow, so hopefully this dreadful unemployment will end soon. It would be nice to have a bit of spending money again, that’s for sure!

For many reasons, the in-laws don’t visit us very often. I was able to persuade them to join us for lunch today, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I cooked a leg of lamb with all the trimmings (no cheating today!) and for once everything was ready simultaneously, and nothing went cold before we’d had a chance to eat it! I consider that to be a BIG achievement! Better still, I managed it all without getting drunk!!

The really good news is that they took Mollie back to their place for a few days. We’ll all enjoy that, that’s for sure!! It sounds awful, but I am SO ready for a (temporary) break from that child.

The weather has been unseasonably hot, which is somewhat confusing. It’s supposed to be autumn, but it feels more like late spring/early summer. I’m not complaining- I love it when it is hot and sunny through the day and pleasantly cool (but not cold) at night. It’s ideal, really. Long may it continue!

Darren is out at a fire call (he’s a NSWFB officer), so I have the whole place to myself! Blissful peace and quiet. AND I don’t have to cook dinner, cos lunch was so huge. You’ve gotta be happy with that.

I’ll get to sleep in tomorrow. Wake up at my own leisure, get up or not, as I feel. Nobody asking what we’ll be doing today, nobody demanding to be entertained or fed. Nice. Can’t wait! It really is better when it’s not school holidays!

Today is my beautiful mother’s 55th birthday. She had to work this morning, so we are having dinner together tonight. I’ve decided to cook an Indian dish, but I’ll be cheating, and using a packaged sauce! Too many ingredients for this little black duck. I’ve also made a birthday cake (also out of a packet!). Cooking is not really my forte. I mean well, but I’m not what you’d call gifted in the kitchen.

We’ve had a pleasant day. The weather has been absolutely beautiful- perfect for hanging three loads of washing out! Daz mowed the lawn and Mollie helped with the housework. Actually, for the first time ever, she did the majority of it herself! I wonder what she’s done with the real Mollie?

I had to go and buy a new electric blanket. The weather is starting to get cooler, and the old one just couldn’t cut it. All the tie downs were broken, so it was impossible to keep it in one place. The new one is fitted, so that should be comfier. God, I’ve just read back over this….it is riveting! Still, as accurate records of my life go, this is it!

I’ll go and see if the champagne is chilled. Might post a few photos later.

Oh My God! It is day 9 of the Easter holidays and I am over it! We’ve had a busy week, although nothing terribly exciting has happened. We’ve just been down the street, picking up a birthday present for Mum, having a look around, and visiting the library. Mollie has done nothing but whinge and moan the whole morning! Nobody would know that she recently had a birthday, a party, a sleepover at a friend’s place. According to her, she has had the most rotten, boring, horrible holiday possible! All because I wouldn’t spend $17 on a combined pencil/texta package! $17!!!??? For that price, they should draw pictures on their own! I offered to buy a $2 pack of pencils and got howled down! So guess what? No pencils at all!!!

Welcome to whybother. What’s with that name? Well, why bother? Why bother publishing details of your life on a website? There are some really great blogs out there, but the question in my mind has always been: why bother? So, I’ve decided to find out.

Who am I? My name is Tracey. I am a mother, to 10 year old Mollie. I am a wife, to Darren, and a daughter to Val.

I live in a thriving metropolis called Cessnock, about two hours north west of Sydney, NSW, Australia. I am prone to more than a hint of sarcasm. There is nothing thriving, nor metropolitan about Cessnock! Put it this way, when we got our own Big W, it was the highlight of most people’s lives, the ultimate in entertainment and a real mark of our community’s coming of age. To this day, the carpark is chockers for every waking moment of Big W’s day. I guess the next biggest event in the life of Cessnock was the coming of Aldi. You can really measure a town’s worth by whether or not they have an Aldi. It really does leave Coles and Woolworths for dead. Let’s face it, anyone can have a Woolies, but only a very select few gain access to the dizzying heights of an Aldi. You really know you’ve arrived when a German multi-national chooses to invest in your town. Does it get any better than this?

So, I’ll leave it there for now. I’ll keep in touch, and let you know what I think of blogging. Maybe I’ll reach my own understanding of why people do, in fact, bother! Go with angels.