My Friend Made Me This Blog

"Tis The Season

So much to do...so much tinsel to pick up off the floor!

In other news.....I’m considering starting my own crafting company…I have the motto worked out.

Made With LOVE, Not Due Care and Attention!

I have made a quilt for my Goddaughter whom I used to baby sit and she is now my official Catsitter…ah my, how time flies…first they are babies and then they look after your babies!!! Sigh ( he he he he )

I have made it with love…not with skill, accuracy, talent, craft womanship or measuring. You may be spotting a bit of a problem with my efforts already.

To be honest despite putting the top together last night during 2 movies I was watching as well and  then wacking a few lines of sewing down it and doing the dodgiest fold over border you have ever seen in your life…it isn’t even the worst thing I have ever sewn!!!!! I am relying VERY HEAVILY on her long held desire for a hand made quilt of any kind to blind her to the obvious faults. She is a kind girl…my hopes are high! Of course I had lots of help

.

Every time anything was laid on the floor it had to be walked and rolled on…or the very favouritist thing….let the material drift down over you and play tunnels in it. Never mind that some one is trying to trim/cut/ line up anything…the game comes first. At one stage when the sewing was going particularly crooked and wonky I discovered the presence of a warm furry body among the folds creating a black hole effect of mass pulling everything to one side. Caramello was not pleaded to be evicted form her cosy hidey hole but I haven’t a lot of time and this had to be done today…..so I can move on to any of the 1 million things still to do. Finished item...middle photo at the top.

I have made NO CCC items for my self or others this year and at this rate there aren’t going to be any.

Masses of CCC ( Crappy Christmas Craft) going on at school. The kids are loving it. No pics as yet…no time to breathe far less take photos in the middle of craft chaos. There have been all the usual events….over come with PVA fumes, overdosing on glitter, dropping the sequins box ( sigh) making things that look like not only were they made by the 10 year old in question the teacher wasn’t even in the room at the time…even though I was. Some things are just lovely and some will make lovely firelighters!!!

I forgot to report on our Big Day Out. We went on an excursion to the radio telescope at Cambridge
and then to the maze at Richmond…no I have not lost my mind thank you very much. We have been working on or International year Of Astronomy things for 2 terms and we could have just gone into the planetarium…but we had a mobile one come and set up in the library in 2^nd term and we made our own in the art storeroom…yep…27 of us crammed into the art store room with constellation boxes and a battery and a bulb and made stars on the ceiling.,..it was VERY EXCITING! So we went to the radio telescope and the Grote Reber Museum. If you are ever down that way and they are having an open day I recommend you go in…it was amazingly interesting and fascinating and bloody huge and all  in all quite excellent. It was donated the the university by NASA and they also gave lots of the control equipment too. The Uni has since built another, smaller one of their own and a 3rd is currently being installed...they'll have their own little array going very soon. The control room is a mass of wires and towers and blinking lights and knobs and buttons...more Ecosalv than NASA and everything is second hand but they are still doing interesting and important work so second hand doesn't matter!
  Look a machine that goes bing!
It was worth every bus sick minute on the trip there (me, not the kids) and back. We were back by 5.40…yes the parents knew we would be late and it went without a hitch. Not one problem. Hardly had to speak to any student about their behaviour at all…which let me tell you is a total miracle. I didn’t manage to leave anyone in the maze…the smell of icy poles lured them out I think! It was a great day. It cost over twice my whole excursion budget for the year but I think we were being rewarded for our Science Talent Search entries and our general devotion to science this year so some extra pennies were found…quite a lot of extra pennies actually…we have been VERY GOOD!

So the end of the year approaches. I have my air tickets for Singapore…Christmas in the tropics this year. My sister has bought ham and turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce and mum has taken a cake and pudding with her…..tropical doesn’t mean a change of traditional eating fare…just a change of location and a huge air con bill!

The Catsitter is booked and I have completed about 6 of the about 20 vital tasks that are required before I leave. That doesn’t include social events or shopping! No time for Nanna Naps this week.

Merry Christmas to everyone if I don’t get back to Blogland before the 25^th.

Reports...well....ummmm...not quite!

I have had a phone call from Architectural Digest. The main gist of the call was that they would like me to cease and desist immediately all present and future building projects on the grounds that I am UNQUALIFIED and it looks like it was built by small children with no supervision!

The cheek. I think they are sending round their law enforcement department!  HA...what do I care?

I have a degree...not in architecture (obviously) but gee...harsh!

See for yourself my latest endeavours completed, not 1 litre of blood, 1/2 a kg of skin off my knuckles and 20 mins ago. I have made changes...I'll say they are improvements...to the basic construction but in all honesty it was just that I ran out of wire and I am not going to Bunnings today.

But lets face it , no great architect builds the same building twice ( obviously those employed by Gov't departments would disagree but I did say GREAT architects)

There are always mixed reactions to my Cateau building efforts. My more conservative friends make polite noises about how nice it must be for the cats. My less conservative friends acknowledge the inherent insanity in the system and give me encouraging and helpful tips and pointers in construction at this level ( somewhere just slightly about kindergarten box work) My mother just kind of sighs and tries not to see it at all. I get all my building and measuring and design skills from Dad so he hasn't a leg to stand on!

So here is is ...the second last stage of the great Cateau construction of 09.

As yet there are no photos of the intended occupants in the new section. The furry ingrates are apparently too tired out from 2 hours of lizard stalking, lead tangling, leaf chasing, fence climbing, stick chewing and fly swatting ( we wont mention the fly crunching in any detail). They are both crashed out in the shade and refuse to move and explore their new domain. 

Any way Architectural Digest can rest easy...only one more bit to go and then I am designing and building no more. I realise in many ways it would  have been quicker and cheaper to just get some one to make an enormous frame that covered my whole back yard and covered it in chicken wire and be done with it...but who knew the madness would run so deep for so long??? 

 

In the shadows on the right near the fence you can just see the least attractive of my efforts. It used to sit out on the cement but the new green framed section is there now and the girls LOVE the fact that they can roll in the crunchy leaves, lie in the shade and see into the field through the fence.
Sometimes birdies fly down and land on the wire...but not for long!They aren't often in there together because Miss Cleo likes her space to be Caramello free a lot of the time. I'm making a big effort to maximise their exposure to different textures and entertainment opportunities. The new section has an absolutely enormous bit of log that I managed to transport from the field using my trusty wheelbarrow months ago..the wounds from that little endeavour are well healed. It weighs a tonne...being a huge lump of wood and all...but I am sure they will like scratching  it and lying on it...and it will attract potential friends...or snacks...(thanks 2paw for that one) so I feel it is worth the muscle strain and crushed fingers. 

So...I have been up since 8 am. This is the weekend dedicated to report writing. They are due in to SS on Friday. I have constructed, bled, drunk coffee, played with the cats and generally fiddled about. Time now 11.32am.

Reports written...0.

Current interest...0.

I think I will go out and see if my efforts are being appreciated yet...yeah...right...you would think I would know better than expect signs of appreciation from a cat...but you never know. Perhaps my servitude will be rewarded but a patronising glance or an imperious demand for a head rub!

Cateau Alert

Greetings all.

I am a hopeless blogger. Totally hopeless. It has been weeks and weeks since I blogged…oh…feeling a little bit Catholic there….and I’m not so I better stop!

I have achieved the opposite of Blogtober and not blogged at all!

What have I been up to since the last time? Nothing really. I accidentally have a social life , back at work gong into week 8 ( I think it is week 8…maybe not), reports are looming, made a start on festive planning but other than that…nothing.

On the home front I have begun work on the final stage of the Grande Cateau. I think it is Stage 6 but there is and accidental Stage 7 in the works at the same time.

As you can see I have constructed the second green frame and it only took about 1 ½ hours. My brother put the first one together for me and now I am in total awe as to how he did it with several drinkies inside him and one in his hand. I was doing it stone cold sober and even following the instructions and I still made more mistakes, incurred more injuries and took longer than he did.

I have a blood blister thing on my hand, a crunched finger and my toe has nearly stopped bleeding….toes tend to bleed quite a lot when you saw them even a little tiny bit. I hammered some chunks out of the cement too…but that didn’t hurt a bit!

Now I am exhausted and it is too hot out there to do more. The girls had a nice time getting in the way, terrorising lizards and trying to get over/under/through/around the fence to next door. Stumpy came over and helped for a while too. It was handy because both of mine weren’t really able to cover all the key helping areas-

• lying on the instructions,
• walking on all the pipe pieces so that they roll everywhere,
• winding a lead around and round me or the pieces or the box,
• getting stuck half way up the fence
• chewing the instructions (sigh)
• clawing up the foam packing and strewing it around the yard.

 

See....far too many jobs for 2 kittens.

So tomorrow , maybe this afternoon , I’ll get to work with the wire and by next weekend I hope the girls will have at leas tone nice extension to their outside living area.

Mad cat woman rating increased by 15%!

A Distant Memory

Isn't it weird? A few days ago I was in Singapore and now it is all a bit hazy like a dream! However I will show you my boring holiday slides.

My feet here below and Sister and Demon Spawn to the right.

Feet nibbled by fish. Ok…gross. It is. Really it is …but sooooooooooooo relaxing once the tickling sensation goes away and you have such nice clean feet afterwards. You have to thoroughly wash your tooties first but still…..pretty gross. But not so gross that I didn’t do it twice!!!!! You can have a neck and shoulder massage at the same time although Demon Spawn and I opted for feet nibbling and then a foot massage when we had our second go.

Singapore Flier….a big ferris wheel like the London Eye and it gives you a great view and moves slowly and freaks out my sister! It was a very touristy thing  so you have to do it and get the T shirt…actually Demon Spawn had a t shirt already so that was good.

It looks out on the site of the new Sands Marina Bay Casino…the reason for the move from Macau to Singapore.

MRT….so easy for getting around in Singapore. You buy a swipe card…load on some money and off you go. The map is easy to read and everyone is helpful, and speaks English, so getting lost is quite hard to do. The taxis were also very good…not exactly cheap….cheaper than here, but not like Macau prices.  

Demon Spawn and I travelled right across the city to get to Sentosa Island without a hitch…she is particularly good at the sorting out which train thing. She is possibly not related to me in the sense of direction department! 

A few little pics of Sentosa...The 3D movie place, Underwater World....that's a shark heading your way...very blurry though, The Merlion...very tall, Signage, the Chair lift and DS inside an aquarium bubble with the fish.

Ok…the Sentosa Island Pictures are woeful. We were too busy having a good time. We got there by about 9.30…and let me tell you….it was DS, me and about 5 others in the whole place apart from the workers. No one goes there till 12 at least. This was no problem to us though. It was a bit cooler and there were NO QUEUES. At all. We went on a heap of things and waited not once. Actually we didn’t wait hardly ever at all ,even a tiny bit all day even when there were others around. Mid week, during the school term and just the 2 of us pleasing ourselves …excellent. I recommend it highly.

So …the things we did.

      1. Walk up to the Megazip ride…only to find it doesn’t open until 2pm

2. 3D Log Ride experience….made me car sick…very good though.
3. 4D Pirate Movie experience- moving seats, water sprays, flappy things at your ankles, 3D glasses. Most amusing.

 

These first 3 things we experienced just the 2 of us…no one else there. Then…

4. Chair lift.
5. Lunch at Subway.
6. Feet nibble and massage
7. Underwater World…big aquarium with a travelator, touch pool, feed the stingrays (I did that…DS wouldn’t touch the raw squid to feed them!), bubble to get into in order to be among the fish, fresh and salt water fish to feed,  dugongs , displays to look at, South American Piranha cousins to see, Sea horses …you know the type of thing….all very underwatery and interesting
8. Snake handling….you get to hold a snake and when you are fully occupied with that the man puts and extremely silly hat on you…and of course with your hands full of a sodding boa constrictor there is little you can do about it. then he gives you anther one to hold and then you pose for the photos. I have several REALLY BAD photos of me snake handling.
9. Buy souvenirs
10. Go on a million free bus rides between all the different activities…planning…nah…that’s for sissies!
11. FINALLY IT IS 2PM. This was what DS was waiting for…the Megazip. And all I can say is OMG…..really loudly. Bloody thing. 450 m long…about 5 million m in the air….hang on…back up to the really bad bit.

    12. Pay….of course, then sign a release…the usual stuff “if you die it ain’t our fault”.

13. Then you are WEIGHED AND YOUR WEIGHT( mass? 2paw...any comment?) IS WRITTEN IN RED   FELTPEN ON A YELLOW WRIST BAND!!!!!!!! 

14.THEN…. you are fitted into a full climbing harness…al la Cliffhanger. Oh so contouring…. guaranteed to emphasise  every roll, bump, squidgy bit and plaster your shirt to your back. Don’t touch the metal parts…..get this….in case you are allergic to them.

15. Now you walk up the hill to the 40 m tower….4 storeys of stairs…climb it. In the harness…accompanied by a totally excited 10 year old who just cant wait.

16. Get to the top…..try to cover up the way you are totally puffed out….notice the others in the group are too…feel better.

17. Wait till you are motioned over to have your harness checked …AND TIGHTENED….then step over to the edge. The girl cheerfully hooks you onto the flying fox type gadget on the long long LONG wire and then you have to step out over the edge and sit in your harness till the people on the other lines are also dealt with.

18.Hang there.

19.For what feels like FOREVER.

20. In space, over nothing but tropical rain forest…ok there is a safety net…about 2 m wide and looking like it was woven by George of the Jungle. Perfectly safe I am sure….just doesn’t bloody feel like it.

21. A count down…1 , 2, 3 and there is a kerclunk, you drop suddenly and then the forward motion begins and you fly, screaming, 450 m down to the beach.

So why did I do it? I hear you asking. Well…because if I didn’t then DS couldn’t go on it. I had to accompany her up there and then there was no one to get her at the other end and it would have taken me a good ½ hour to get to the bus and get all the way down to the beach to get her…couldn’t take the risk really. It isn’t the done thing for the Auntie to come home with out the niece!

And that was that. By the time we got our bags back we were totally cream crackered and so we came home.

 

It was a good day. I counted up the cost $$$$…and I’m not telling you what it cost…to terribly indulgent and extravagant! If you are going….take PLENTY of money!

Ok...that isn't everything but the rest will have to wait.

There are a few Megazip movies on youtube if you want to check it out. there isn't much because it only opened on the 5th of Sept so there hasn't been time for a lot of people to upload stuff. On the site...I linked to it, click on "with cousins" but imagine it being me....with a lot more screaming !

 

 

Burnt

Yes...I got sunburnt.

We went to the  pool...nearly got it all to ourselves. @ kids were having the WORST swimming lesson i have ever seen. Our 3 rd yeat PE students could do a 1000% better job than this guy!!! But I digress...apparently you can ge totally toasted at 10 am in Singapore...and I dont mean at Raffles Bar!!!! Sigh. It should do wonders for my vitamin D deficiency though!!!!

Today is an Auntie day. I am in charge. Well...technically I am but in reality the 2 year old is in charge. We have been swimming twice, helped do some unpacking ,walked to the shop....HOT SWEATY walk to the shop, then more pool time. There is quite a lot of Tv time in this day too.

I am NOT confessing to my mum that I let her grandson eat chocolate cake for lunch. I am also not telling her that my sister let her grandson eat chocolate cake for breakfast!!!!!

We have been touristy..Have been on the Singapore Flyer...pics to come, had my feet nibbled by fish...photos to come....been to Orchard Rd to look at ridiculously expensive shops...pics to come...are you seeing a pattern here?

Demon Spawn and I are off to Sentoso for a day of fun and frivolity on Thurs or Friday ...once the Nonie is back we wont have to take the Boofhead with us. Life is a lot quieter without the tantrum king in tow!

Right...the worker is home...better go.

HAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

You'll still need to ring Greenpeace!

Cover Your Eyes

I have bought bathers....don't panic...there will be NO pictures. Please ring Greenpeace and tell them I am fine and I don't need to be rolled back into the ocean.

So....how do you spend your weekends?

As I said before, I spent one weekend making these.........

And these....

 

And the Student Council Kids made more and we sold them for the RSPCA Cupcake Day.  

All in all we sold 390 cupcakes over 2 days in our Cupcake Smash event. Just in case you even want to do a cupcake based fund raiser I can recommend doing it this way. The cakes are much easier to transport uniced and the Student Council really felt involved as some kids took the money and gave out cakes, others iced ,and the rest assisted with the smashing. Of course my room had a layer of 100 and 1000, Whiz Fizz, Fruitloops and cake crumbs. Fruit loops were a bit of a surprise topping of choice, Coco pops went well, mini marshmallows were good but they are a bit expensive for this  way of decorating because you can get A LOT on when you grind your wetly iced cake into a bowl of them. Sprinkles of varying colour remain popular and you could certainly offer fewer choices to keep costs down...but I don't believe the old saying "less is more" I believe MORE IS MORE and I like people to feel they got value for money even if they are supporting a charity. I think our kids will feel better about philanthropy if, as little kids, they don't feel ripped off before they are old enough to understand the "charity "angle of things.

2paw and I have began our SG Atlantis Season 5 viewing this weekend. Very exciting. As we were blathering on and on in our usual style we were trying to remember if we had watched the last episode of Season 4. We tend to have to re-watch the last episodes of things because we have forgotten what happened so the cliff hanger loses it's drama and we spend ages pausing the DVD trying to work out what happened. We often say we should actually watch the end of a season and just keep it for when the next one is released. So there we were...she was saying" I cant remember if we watched...." and I'm saying.."of course we did, we wouldn't be able to stop our selves. I opened Season 4 just to check and found this note.........

Isn't self awareness a wonderful thing? We laughed so hard we cried and kittens whirred around the house in panic at the maniacal guffawing! Then I though of my brother in law who always looks pained when my sister and I cackle like insane old crones...which makes us worse...and I laughed all the more even though he is far far away!!!

So we then watched THE SECOND LAST episode in fast forward and settled in to enjoy the last one, followed by the first 2. It was excellent and I am re addicted. unfortunately 2paw has a life this week so she can't come over and watch more ...blast and damn. I am controlling myself and not even peeking. I am going to soothe the cravings with a couple of episodes of Firefly or maybe 6 hours of Pride and Prejudice!!

Busy

I hate it when I actually have to have a life. I like it when nothing is happening and no one expects too much. Recently I have written reports, done 26 Parent/Teacher interviews and helped celebrate another 2paw birthday. So at least it was a mixture of horrible and nice activities. This weekend is devoted to cooking...and more birthday fun. I am making a lot of cupcakes for the RSPCA Cupcake day on Monday. The Student Council and I are running a Cupcake Smash event. You buy a cupcake which is very freshly iced and then you can smash it into a bowl of the topping of your choice...Milo, sprinkles, crunchie...etc. I'll attempt to take photos even though i will be sticky to the elbows.  I suspect the photo of the floor of my room at the end will be interesting!

The kids are excited and we have to do it for more than one day because we have kinder groups that only come on Tues and Wed. I predict I will not want to see another cup cake for quite some time once it is over but it is all in a good cause.

My laptop has been fixed. Well actually it has been broken more and re fixed and now it is a blank slate. It isn't supposed to be a blank slate it is supposed to have a new fan and motor thingy in it but the technician replaced the hard drive instead. Yes I lost EVERYTHING. Well everything that wasn't saved on the school Intranet but it is a big SIGH event. Most of the photos from the kids flight unit were on it because I am the only one with access to the colour printer so I was printing their photos for their reports. Luckily the photos of the hot air balloon in flames was on one of the class machines, it would have been a second tragedy if those had been lost. Our very nice school techie is seeing if he can get the hard drive back and get me the things off it but I am not holding my breath.

It has caused problems for my Moshi Monster I can tell you. Luckily for my 2paw has been kind enough to do some work on my puzzles so I have ben able to buy the necessary dinosaur extensions and keep hte kids going!. Dont worry, I'm not losing my mind anymore than usual. It is a kids site and they adopt a monster and them earn Rox and buy things to keep thier mmonster happy and healthy. I got one too and i challenge them to have a better decorated room and mmore stuff. To earn rox you have to do English and Maths and General Knowledge puzzles so it is actually very educational.......see....never let a chance go by. With no lap top I have had a lot less tiem to access it and earn some rox. I sometimes can con te kids into doing my puzzles for me but 2paw is very good at them and she makes my average scores look really good.If you have kids I can recommend it as a nice little site to encourage their reading and other skills. If you are a bored adult I can recommend it too. It has a lot of stuff that looks like the brain traing stuff that the "experts" are talking about. It is free too although there is a menbers section where you pay  and get to a new section of the site but only one kid in my class has that all the rest of us are in it for the freebies! And the monsters are cute.

Ok.....off to shop for cupcake ingredients. 2paw has done all the maths for my now all I have to do is be able to shop correctly!

Questionable Activities

We did a big classroom clean up today. It took nearly an hour. A waste of valuable education time I hear you thinking but I assure you nothing was further from the truth. We were able to ask …and answer some of the age old questions that have plagued students since time (at school) began. Here are the top questions…and I will say at this stage they were asked more than once.

1. What will I do with this bent pin/broken crayon/pen lid?

2. Is this a good piece of paper?

3. What IS this? Items varied from a wood chip to dirt to a clay carving tool.

4. Do you want to keep this?….ripped magazine, piece of string 3 cm long, woodchip.

5. Is it tidy yet? (Reminder to line up kids for eye tests as they fail to see that the room still looks like a tornado has ripped through it)

6. Will I put this in my tub?...holding out a book or piece of work clearly marked with their name.

7. Who does this belong to?...presenting me with an un named ink blob style painting.

8. Can I play with/read/look at/share this really cool game/book/perspexed bug/interesting piece of junk……I have just discovered ?( refer to reminder in point 5)

9. Can I have the cover from the ripped magazine because it has Zac Effron/ Vanessa Thingy/ Hanna Montana/ Ben 10 on it?

10. Can we do this until recess time so we don’t have to do spelling?

Sigh.

But the room is really tidy (should last a week!) and we still did spelling and Buddies and Astronomy and watched a presentation about mummified Egyptian cats (very interesting)

Reports are ALMOST done…by the time you read this they should be complete.

Thanks to 2paw for her editing genius.