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Post by corinne11 on Dec 28, 2015 12:36:43 GMT
I'll be in. I bought Charmaine Solomons Asian cookbook - it was my mum's cooking bible and I also have a nice collection of Jamie Oliver Cookbooks that I have barely ever used!
Oh and of course a nice selection of recipes on a Pinterest board.
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 28, 2015 11:36:36 GMT
We are flying to Sydney to celebrate my MIL's 80th birthday on the 1st of January. She is in a nursing home so we will be having a luncheon celebration there which should be nice.
This has been planned all year. I was expecting to just hang out at my SIL's house like we usually do during visits. Yesterday my husband mentioned something about "the show". Apparently we are now booked into some kind of dinner and show event on New Years Eve. Great. He's SURE he told me about it.
I have no idea how fancy it will be so shall ring my SIL tomorrow to find out. We usually don't even make it to midnight most years so I'll need an afternoon nap before the big outing!
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 28, 2015 9:12:21 GMT
My treadmill is great for holding laundry, collecting dust, and taking up room. When I mentioned to my cardiologist that I was thinking of buying a treadmill for Christmas, she just smiled and shook her head gently. She said most people don't end up using them, adding that her mother bought one and it's a great place to hang all her handbags!
I still want one, but I think waiting for a second hand one will be a good idea for me. I definitely will get an electronic one, I have used one at the gym and found it quite easy to use.
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 28, 2015 0:46:16 GMT
I am paranoid about any changes or new spots/moles that appear so I'd be at the Drs very quickly. Unfortunately one of the side effects of medication I will need to take for the rest of my life is that I now have a much higher risk of skin cancer. I used to see my specialist dermatologist once a year, but now he wants to see me every 6 months. He does a whole body check.
Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancers in the world and everyone I know who has had biopsies or moles removed have been diagnosed by their GP's first. I have an autoimmune disease that affects my skin and it is very rare- 1 in 100,00 people. My GP diagnosed me two days before Christmas and when he tried to get me into a hospital, they said it was highly unlikely that his diagnosis was correct and booked me in for 3 weeks time.
Luckily my GP was persistent and managed to book me into my dermatologist on Christmas Eve, who biopsied, officially diagnosed me and was able to prescribe medication to start on straight away.
Hope yours turns out to be nothing serious.
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 28, 2015 0:29:56 GMT
I didn't even think twice when I wrote that! Homy Peds are a brand of shoes mainly sold in chemists and used to be targeted towards old grannies needing supportive footwear. Very comfortable but a little bit daggy in the style department. It's a running joke in our family with my daughter leaving their catalogue out for me because I complain about having trouble buying comfortable shoes. I had bought a beautiful pale blue summer dress and needed some shoes to go with them. When I saw these through the window I immediately had to try them on. And now I can wear them with my Christmas dress.
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 27, 2015 22:46:17 GMT
where did you get that dress? Love it! Thank you, you have all validated my decision to buy it. It's from Modcloth, where I buy all my dresses.
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 27, 2015 22:44:25 GMT
My husband has worn a Hawaiian shirt for the last 3 years on Christmas day. He has 10 so I have no hope of him running out. We always take family pictures every year, but this year was our first Christmas without our Mum, so I thought I'd change our tradition a little to be a little distracting. I bought Christmas tree , reindeer, elf headbands and of course some Santa hats.
We had lots of fun swapping props for different group photos. This one was my favourite. And a picture of my "Winter Wonderland" Christmas dress. My daughter said it was horrendous, but I loved it and might even wear it every Christmas from now on . Corinne
That dress is fabulous! And with those shoes! Thank you! It is hard to see in the photo but the shoes have a very subtle glitter in the material AND they are Homy Peds wedges so they are the most comfortable shoes ever!
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 27, 2015 11:10:27 GMT
I LOVE your dress! I'd wear it every year too. Thank you! She said it would only be okay if I was 6 and a fan of Frozen. :)I'll tell her I got one vote! Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 27, 2015 10:39:05 GMT
My husband has worn a Hawaiian shirt for the last 3 years on Christmas day. He has 10 so I have no hope of him running out. We always take family pictures every year, but this year was our first Christmas without our Mum, so I thought I'd change our tradition a little to be a little distracting. I bought Christmas tree , reindeer, elf headbands and of course some Santa hats.
We had lots of fun swapping props for different group photos. This one was my favourite. And a picture of my "Winter Wonderland" Christmas dress. My daughter said it was horrendous, but I loved it and might even wear it every Christmas from now on . Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 27, 2015 0:00:50 GMT
I only clicked on this thread for 2 reasons. I have no idea what Monkey Bread is and I was intrigued to find out why single people couldn't get any!
I'm still not sure what it is so I'm off to Google!!
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 26, 2015 11:46:25 GMT
I'm with AussieMeg , I would like to feel generous and interested but lets face it , its going to be one of 2 sexes so I don't really get the big deal about gender reveal 'events' anyway. This was me too. A girl at work decided to bring in a cake to do a gender reveal in the staff room. I was a little taken aback to walk in and see two posters - A and B are having a boy?? A and B are having a girl?? I wasn't there for the cake cutting event, but apparently BEFORE she cut the cake someone asked how the cake was done?? She automatically replied, " oh I just mixed some blue food colouring in with the........ whoops!
Although it's not something I'd do ( I love the old fashioned idea of announcing the gender and the name AFTER the baby is born!), I'm sure she chose to do it at school because it had been a difficult journey to get to this stage and it was her way of thanking people for the support. She was just so excited about the baby, I can understand why she wanted to share it with everybody.
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 26, 2015 7:12:30 GMT
In Australia, everyone I know has crackers. We pull them before lunch so we can wear the hats, tell each other bad jokes and throw the cheap toys around. These photos are a few years old but I love them. We didn't realise until I downloaded them that my mum had trouble with hers while I was taking a photo of my sister and her husband in the foreground. And yes the pirate patch was a cracker surprise! Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 23, 2015 5:44:12 GMT
I used to participate but don't anymore. But I do have stories! The woman who sat on her butt in her office ALL day long and I couldn't sneak in to leave her little gifts so she whinged loudly about what a crap Kris Kringle she had. She then left before the final gift giving round so I took my gift home! She also gave a girl in a bikini thing to hang in the car- when it got hot I think the bikini disappeared! She gave it to a very modest Christian woman - her reason? She says she had heard people call her "Rudie Judy" ??
Then there was the teacher who complained loudly in the staffroom about the crap gifts he had got. I said "oh sorry, I thought you would like them". He was shocked for a second then laughed. I said ' but what if I HAD been your KK?" His reply- "well then you should be suitably embarrassed". Unfortunately it did get back to the gift giver who didn't turn up for the final round and I'm pretty sure the principal called him into his office for a little chat.
A teacher who kept all the edible gifts I gave him but re-gifted the other ones to his KK, who just happened to have the pigeon hole ABOVE mine, so I kept seeing my gifts. He too thought it was funny when I called him out on it.
Last week we had our KK and only about 10 from a staff of 50 participated. The first one to be opened was a box with the recipient's name written really big with the letters MILF underneath it!! Did I mention this is a school setting? She was red faced and only briefly showed us one thing from the box - red and black satin and said she wouldn't show us the rest. The young, new teacher who gave it to her said "well you said you liked 50 shades of grey" to which she replied "yes, READING it!!"
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 21, 2015 22:02:16 GMT
This happened to me a few years ago. Except I was on a plane heading home to Australia from Hawaii and not checking Facebook. When I got home I asked my grandson if anything exciting had happened while we were away- he casually replied "oh I think someone said Nana died" Turns out a cousin of mine in India met someone at the shops who said my mum had a fall a few months ago and had now passed away so she posted condolences on my wall and those of my two sisters.
However, no one commented on it as it was on my wall and my friends obviously just check their news feeds. My younger sister did make a statement on her page, only because her 15 yr old son was in Switzerland and she was worried he might see it before she could ring him. I privately messaged the cousin who was mortified and very apologetic. Considering she is friends with all 3 of us, surely she should had noticed there was no announcement. Of course my older sister, queen of the drama rang the nursing home and insisted they bring my mum to the phone at midnight and then made a big, dramatic post on facebook. She then actually went and visited my mum the next day (so she could post the photos of course - "Here she is, alive and well!") She hadn't visited mum in months so this was a good thing.
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 20, 2015 23:00:09 GMT
Beautiful photos! And teenage boys who look genuinely happy to be in family photos? Extra bonus. Enjoy your Christmas.
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 20, 2015 21:55:30 GMT
I've replied with "Just so you know, this story is not true" and posted the link to Snopes. One of my colleagues now goes to Snopes first and the other person, a relative, said "Thanks, I will leave it up though with your link so people will know it wasn't true"
Each time it was one of those internet hoaxes - Bill Cosby at 83, a little 8 yr old girl running in the Boston Marathon in memory of Sandy Hook killed by the bomb. I think they posted them without actually thinking about them.
I do have a F/B friend (wife of one of my husband's lifelong friends) and she posts some very questionable links/stories but as they are religious related I usually choose not to respond. Once I gently responded that the story was not true but one of her friend AND her replied with" Well it should be said!" Fine, say it as your opinion then, not as some racist, anti muslim rant. (I didn't say that to her!!)
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 19, 2015 1:51:20 GMT
I'm in your hometown Allie and yes it's expected to hit 44C- 111 F here today. It has been close to this for the past 4/5 days. Hopefully the cool change is coming through tonight and it will go down to 26C -78.8F.
It's currently 41.4C at 12pm.
Christmas Day we are expecting 29C- 84.2F. We will still cook our roasts but will have lots of cold ham, prawns and maybe crayfish or crabs. Our pool is out of action but we did buy one of those blow up pools so we have something to sit in at least!
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 16, 2015 23:45:22 GMT
Yes, my older sister blocked my younger sister and me on F/book when we called her out on her lack of help regarding our mum's care. We were taking it in turns to do her shopping and she often cancelled leaving my younger sister to do it. Too sick on Saturday to do the 1 hr drive but fine to drive down to watch her children's half sister play netball Monday morning - and not even visit mum who lived 10 minutes away from netball courts. We spent most Saturdays for 4 months sorting my mum's house out when she went into care. She couldn't come because she scored at netball. Couldn't come any other day as her children worked fast food on weekends and even though she only worked 4 hrs a week couldn't seem to make it during the week either. Offered her petrol money- Dr then said she couldn't drive alone, but did drive alone when she needed to. She said I had been a bitch to her so that's why she didn't come. My younger sister (way more feistier than me!) had stayed out of it but finally asked her "okay, but why didn't you come to help mum and me?" No answer - blocked both of us and dramatically announced it all on HER facebook and inferred that she had considered suicide thanks to us. ( our brother committed suicide at age 25 so not a thing to throw lightly around in our family)
We have kept in touch with her children through F/B and she with ours. She did announce that "although she missed our children she didn't miss the drama and negativity we brought to her life" Most ironic thing ever. I figure that anyone who is friends with all 3 of us can make their own decisions and I don't really care what strangers think about us- we know the truth.
Despite this, we invited her and her kids to share our hire car when we travelled to our father's funeral and to lunch. We managed to spend the whole day, plane trips included without once speaking to each other. It has been 4 years and I always thought one day we would patch things up - my husband tells me I should. However, I don't think I can ever forgive or forget that she visited our mum in care maybe 2/3 times a year (both of us live an hr away- she no longer works, I work fulltime) When we rang and told her she was in palliative care and needed to come now (on a Tuesday night), expecting her to come down in the morning she never did. Mum died Wednesday evening. We asked her specifically NOT to bring an aunt (my dad's sister- parents divorced for 30 yrs) who had caused a lot of trouble in our family to the funeral, she did. The saddest thing is she will never ever acknowledge her actions, her entire life has been spent blaming other people and events for where she is in life now. It is always someone else's fault, not her choices or actions. My younger sister summed it up best, at first we were angry, then sad and then nothing. It has in fact brought us closer together and we are the ones with wonderful memories of our mum during her last years. Sorry for the epic novel, it's our first Christmas without our mum so these thoughts have been on my mind.
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 15, 2015 11:45:42 GMT
We also don't buy each other presents, not even for birthdays. If we want something we buy it. That said I am buying him/us a Christmas present this year. I am buying us a Zoo Membership for the year. We can visit our local zoo, several open range zoos (both in and out of our state) and Taronga zoo in Sydney. We travel to Sydney to visit family regularly yet have only visited Taronga twice. While there are some things about zoos I don't like, our zoos have good breeding programs for our endangered species and have moved most of the bigger animals out to our open range zoo. Our open range zoo, Monarto has lots of great events that we will get discounts on. Feeding and following keepers, opera at night under the stars.
We have 2 pandas visiting from China for 10 yrs and we want to see them before they go home.
A friend of mine has membership and she says her and her husband often just take a picnic lunch on nice days and go sit by the otter enclosure or penguins. When you don't have to pay $50 per visit you don't need to rush around looking at everything.
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 15, 2015 7:29:45 GMT
Looks absolutely beautiful! My stepson runs a restaurant in Bangkok so we keep saying we will go visit him then head down to one of these stunning resorts- I'll keep this one in mind!
Recently a friend and I were discussing tropical holidays (I've been to Fiji 3 times and Hawaii once) and she said that she could never wear bathers because she was self conscious about her figure. Mind you, she is a size 10-12 women in her mid forties who would look totally fine and it surprised me to think that someone would forgo an amazing holiday because of it. I don't love photos of me in my bathers but still take them - I want to remember the fun I had and the beautiful place I had it in. Yes I'm 52 and chubby but I'M HAVING A GREAT TIME IN PARADISE!! (all that to say you look great in your bathers - very relaxed and happy. )
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 15, 2015 4:42:46 GMT
I have read all of her books. This one probably wasn't my favourite, but I still enjoyed it. I liked the fact that they are all set in Australia so I identify with the locations. I really liked Big little lies, The Hypnotist's lover and 3 wishes.
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 7, 2015 10:30:50 GMT
I too attempted to include my cats in the Christmas spirit. Alas, it was not to be....
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 6, 2015 20:16:45 GMT
Thank you all for your lovely comments.
His girlfriend made the pocket square herself so it matched her purse. ( and saved about $30!) She nearly didn't get the corsage as they are not a "thing" here in Australia. She is English and has always dreamed of having one for her graduation. Apparently she kept hinting and 2 days before had to actually tell him she would like one as he is so clueless and did not pick up on her subtle hints.
They did have a lovely time. The dinner was held at one of our local winery/wedding reception venues and they went in a hummer limousine. There were awards (sashes) for particular things and while his girlfriend one for "Best Organiser", Isiah and his best friend won "Best Bromance"!!
He has worked hard during high school to get pretty well all straight A's particularly in all the Maths and Science subjects so he is so ready for uni. Our beautiful Adelaide University is only 30 min away on our O-Bahn so he is really looking forward to it.
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Dec 6, 2015 6:57:10 GMT
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Post by corinne11 on Nov 23, 2015 11:38:12 GMT
I knew I should not have clicked on this! I just received $700 worth of beautiful dresses two weeks ago. But now I want more!! Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Nov 20, 2015 12:19:58 GMT
Twice and both times to do with an ex boyfriend. (4year relationship, he proposed, broke up,)
We used to get the Saturday paper delivered, but I never really looked up anything in the classifieds. One Saturday I was flicking through them and saw my ex- boyfriend and his wife had a baby. I knew he was married so no real surprise, just a few twinges of regret/nostalgia. However, 5 years later, again randomly looking through the paper came across their 2nd baby announcement! I had miscarried after our breakup which had been quite traumatic at the time and it seemed such a weird coincidence that I would just happen to be reading the paper BOTH days they announced the birth of their children.
Fast forward another 10 years. I'm a teacher and was asked to choose a few of my students to be part of a photo shoot for our major newspaper which ex boyfriend still worked for. I specifically asked our principal for the name of the photographer and she said "Mark something" (if it was him I was going to try and sneak a look at him, but not actually talk to him!) His name is not Mark, so next day sent the kids down to meet photographer and get photos taken. It was not until a few days later when the kids excitedly brought the paper in to show me that I noticed that Mark was the reporter and yes of course my ex boyfriend had been just 20 feet down the corridor from me!
It's actually been over 25 yrs since we last saw each other and I joke that I will probably see him again- on the day I pop down to the supermarket with no makeup and daggy clothes on. Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Nov 20, 2015 11:46:18 GMT
We don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but I always read the threads here about the turkey, the sides, the relatives and of course the drama!
Enjoy! Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Nov 14, 2015 7:20:42 GMT
My 25yr old brother died 23 years ago and I have collected lots of our childhood and family photos but have not yet sat down and put them into layouts. I do put a different one up each year on facebook, when remembering his birthday or commemorating the anniversary of his death - it's the writing down of the story that is difficult. (he committed suicide)
My dad passed away 18 months ago and on our final visit when he was in palliative care, we took photos of us holding his hand. He looked so frail and sick , taking photos of him in bed did not seem right, but the hand photos are precious. We had taken photos of him a few months earlier celebrating his 80th birthday and I scrapped them straight away.
My mum died earlier this year and although she had dementia she still seemed quite healthy otherwise. I took some lovely photos of her smiling only 3 weeks before she died and I scrapped them straight away too. I'm so glad I did, I don't think I could have done them after she died.
I don't think there's any right or wrong way to do it, it is different for everyone.
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Nov 14, 2015 6:59:27 GMT
I was recently at an arts festival our city holds and saw a guy that looked so familiar. I was just about to go up and say hi when I realised that I actually do not really know him, nor have I met him in real life. He is however very good friends with my daughter and she often goes out with him, clubbing etc and he always tags her in photos with him on Facebook! That would have been an embarrassing conversation! Although she says I should have spoken to him anyway, he would have thought it was funny.
Corinne
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Post by corinne11 on Nov 9, 2015 3:39:09 GMT
How long is the flight? My dad lived 8hrs drive away so my sister and I used to fly out to see him for the day. We would leave at 8am, be there by 9 and then leave by 6pm.He had Alzheimers and Parkinsons so would get pretty sleepy by late afternoon so it worked well.
It was on a small 30 seater plane so easy to get on an off too. It meant we could visit him more regularly. If you can afford it and want to do it, why not? Life is short, enjoy it
Corinne
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