Man, why do I neglect my LJ so much? I read LJ and Blogger every day, so I don’t understand why I’m so crap at updating it.
Example: my incomplete holiday entries. Will I ever get around to finishing them before we head off on our next holiday? (unknown)
What have I been up to? Darren’s Aunty Rae and Uncle John visited from England, which was nice. We got to play host (took them to Donovan’s) and drive them around the state (the Penguin Parade!) a bit before packing them off to the other rellies in Warrnambool. And Xmas with Mum and co. up in Murwillumbah, which was nice, and would probably have been the last time I visited there, as my mother is moving again. Why does she wait for me to get really comfortable and attached to a place (and her in it) and then up sticks and move? It’s only been three years! I don’t like to move more often than once every five-ten years, but it seems she can’t help herself! Anyway. It’s a bit upsetting. But I’ll survive. The fact is, I love that little town and it’s always a wonderful respite from Melbourne. The weather’s never the same there as here, and it RAINS there. A lot. At Xmas, we thought we were going to get flooded in because of the swollen river. Coming from Melbourne where we are carrying grey water to our camellias in buckets so they don’t die, it’s wonderful to see. I wish we could move up there and become hippies like half of the rest of the population. Though I’d make a shit hippie, as I like new and trendy stuff and, you know, bathe and wear deodorant. (seriously, can’t they smell themselves?!) If only Darren’s company had an office there. Or a reason to set one up, haha.
Anyway, it turned out they weren’t moving as soon as they’d hoped, so I was able to fly up last week and squeeze in one last visit. Unfortunately, Mum and I had a doozey of a fight which we both tried to pretend afterwards didn’t happen, but I’m still upset about. No doubt she is too. But our POVs on these issues are so different, I doubt we’ll ever agree. She thinks I’m wrong and I think she’s wrong. Never the twain shall meet as it were. And the next day, to make peace, I offered to stop doing the thing that upsets her so much and she told me it was okay! Which is also frustrating. Family, eh?
I did get to drive a nifty little VW Jetta for two days, which gave me some idea of what it would be like to own a VW, as I’ve been eyeing off a Tiguan for a while now. Liked the car, wasn’t a fan of how hard the ride was. We do a lot of country driving and I want a car that smoothes the bumps on country roads, not just a tight-handling city runabout. But we don’t want to buy anything huge, so it’s hard to find the compromise. Especially now that Subaru have ruined the Forester by making it huge. :(
Other than that, we’ve popped up to Sydney in November and caught up with friends (Brendan and Di and Meghann and Siggi) there. We ate at a restaurant called Strangers with Candy, which was expensive, but worth it. So good. Hope to be there again in early May. It’s the replacement holiday. We had planned to go to WA again, but because we overspent at Xmas, we’re only having five days in NSW instead. We’ll look at WA again in Sept to see if it’s do-able or will have to wait a couple of years.
We went to the Palais and saw Tim Minchin, who just about started a riot a few rows in front of us with one of his songs. We’d never been inside that building before, it’s amazing. I think it’s supposed to look kind of Roman, has columns and so on. The best part was that we had seats in The Lounge, which actually meant lounge-chair type seating which was huge and really comfy. They are refurbishing (much needed!) but I hope they retain the original seats (a recovering might be nice though). We’re going to see Huey Lewis there soon-ish (Darren’s choice, not mine!), so I hope it’s still the same.
Next week will be Darren’s birthday. I have already bought his present (unusual planning on my part) and the next day, we are going to The World’s Longest Lunch at The Noojee Trestle Bridge and then on to Wilson’s Prom for a couple of nights. Barry won’t be lonely either, one of the girls from work will be moving in for the few days we’re away.
Soon after that, I hit The Big Four-Oh. Yep, I’ll be an old fart. I’ve been resigned to it for a while now, but can’t say I’m enjoying the prospect as it draws ever closer. I guess the worst of it is – apart from the outward ageing, Darren and I have been trying to get pregnant and failing. The upside of this is that I can – and will - get trashed on my 40th. The downside is – is it ever going to happen? And how late is too late to have your first kid? (my sister seems to think any kid after 35 is a huge mistake, let alone the first)
The other nagging worry is that I want to move to a bigger house, but we can barely afford the mortgage on the one we have! And house prices are even more insane now than when we bought it in the first place! I keep reading that first home buyers are despairing of ever owning one, but I can tell you that third home buyers feel the same way about getting something that fits more their needs! (in our case, these needs are: stay close to current locale, third bedroom at least, proper backyard, better situated home, semi-detached if possible) If anyone has a spare couple of hundred grand, I can put it to good use, haha. And of course, we probably can’t afford to buy a new car AND a new house. I’m glad our current car is paid off and costs us very little.
I’m working shift at the moment. The money’s good, I get a lot more time off and I feel far more autonomous at work when on shift. The downside is, if I keep at it for too long, I’ll get too old, and they’ll never promote me. That said, I can earn more money doing shift than I can as a senior and the hours are better. Perhaps I should be willing to accept that I’ll never have a proper career with progression. I dunno. I’m sure there’s been hundreds of millions of people who’ve come to this point I’m at, where they realise they’re unlikely to go anywhere on their current course, and have to decide whether to accept that and make the best of it, or try and push their way up against the tide, as it were.
So anyway, that’s me at the moment. And more personal stuff than I usually post on LJ, but I’m feeling a bit reflective. Sorry it’s so long.
