Concerts

We all have different tastes in music and associated artists.

I grew up in the world of pop music, top ten charts etc. When I met my husband he introduced me to country music, which I soon became hooked on, listening to Tammy Wynette on cassette in the car, singing " My D I V O R C E became final today" will forever be embedded in my memory.

On the pop side - John Farnham has been one of my long time favourites and I have attended three of his concerts, The Entertainment centre in Brisbane, The Tent in Lismore, where I plucked up enough courage to walk up to the stage and shake his hand!, and the last one was back in Brisbane at the Qpac centre. My one regret was I missed his show at Twin Towns, which was booked out before I even knew about it.

Ronan Keating was another good show, which I attended in Brisbane.

On the country side, there have been many great shows at Twin Towns, Lee Kernaghan, Adam Brand, Tanya Kernaghan, The McClymonts, Beccy Cole just to name a few Australian artists and then there was American stars Don Williams and Charlie Pride.

The most recent show at Twin Towns and one of the best I have ever attended was Adam Harvey/Troy Cassar-Daley. Every song was a winner and the performance by these two guys was unbelievable. Troy's guitar playing was outstanding and Adam's quick wit and funny jokes was a bonus. The love of music and the admiration they showed to one another just lit up the stage and I am sure not one person in the packed auditorium didn't come away from the show with a sense of admiration for these two great Aussie artists.

Tell me about the most enjoyable show you have attended.






 

The Garage Sale

Organising and executing a garage sale can be quite a daunting task.

Last weekend I took part in the Shirewide Garage sale, as I needed to clean out some overloaded cupboards and my daughter also had alot of craft items and goods stored underneath my spare bed.

My first day was sorting drawers and racks of clothing, which was a chore I had long been postponing, so that in itself was an accomplishment.

Day two was preparing the garage, cobwebbing, sweeping, mopping and then setting up the tables to display our wares.
 

Day three was a quick trip to town, to get change and visit work for some free 'Sale' balloons.

The rest of the day was getting everything displayed and priced.
 

Having a storm everyday and having to shuffle 3 cars that had now become homeless wasn't very timely.

Sat arrived and I was up early erecting signage and balloons and doing the final check. By 7:30 we were open for business, having already sold two items to a neighbour who popped in the back door.

It was a day of many experiences:   a lady who fitted on a 50c belt and asked for a mirror to check out the look,! Two ladies who purchased a near new electric wok for $15 but before closing the sale, turned the wok upside down on the floor and unscrewed the bottom plate and then could not put it back together! 
A man arrived with a typed story in a plastic sleeve and explained he had appeared on the 'Today Show' and had given all his worldly possessions away and to cut a long story short, was from Brisbane and was asking for a donation of  books or soft toys, luckily I was able to oblige him with the toys to which he was very grateful.

To sum up:  was it worthwhile? - yes, I did get rid of a lot of excess stock. Would I do it again? probably not. Lesson learnt: do not buy anything that you do not really want or need!

I am still cleaning up the leftover stock and this morning made my first delivery to the local op shop.
After all, it is time for Spring Cleaning and having a Garage Sale is a sure way of kick starting the operation!


 

HATRED

The meaning of the word 'hatred' - intense dislike, prejudiced hostility or animosity, a vehement aversion entertained by one person for another.

Over the weekend, the election results were finalised and Tony Abbott is about to be sworn in as our new Prime Minister. For those who voted for another party, most have accepted the majority vote and are happy to see what the future holds. However, I was amazed by the deep emotion and extreme dislike that was directed against Tony Abbott on Facebook.

The hatred directed against him was extreme and alot of people have been taken back by these unjustified and cruel comments, especially when based on untruths.

I enjoy 'Facebook' and love a light hearted comment now and again but to use it as a tool of       Hatred is totally incomprehensible.

Hatred rears it's ugly head in all walks of life but the world would be such a nicer place if we could only choose our words more carefully and remember the old saying 'if you don't have something nice to say, then don't say anything.'

 

New Baby

Today, seeing Kate and William leaving the hospital with their newborn son in arms brought back many memories for me and I am sure alot of mothers out there.

Alot of emotions run through your body, excitement, anticipation, fear, but the joy of holding your baby for the first time is something that stays with you forever.

Just over 34 years ago I left hospital holding my beautiful 8lb 7oz baby girl, after a traumatic birth and a week in hospital. I was lucky to have a healthy baby but as a new wife and mother, there was alot to learn.
I remember continually checking her sleeping in her bassinet to make sure she was breathing.

Times have changed alot since that day but I am sure everybody who experiences the birth of their first born child, will agree that the feeling of becoming a Mother will never change!

Please let us know your story.

Return to Sender

I am sure we all have a tale or two to tell about the time taken for a letter to reach it's destination.

I once sent very important voting papers to a bodcorp for the AGM. A few weeks later I received the minutes of the meeting, without any mention of my voting paper. When I phoned, I was told the papers had only turned up that day. Well I wondered whether that was just an excuse for office mismanagement or in fact the letter took three weeks instead of three days to reach it's destination.

Today I was shocked to receive a 'Return to Sender' which was post marked 11 Dec 2012, and indeed it was a Christmas card clearly addressed with postcode. If only that letter could talk, we could hear of a travel story that took over seven months to return home!
The envelope is in good condition but appears to have been wet as the card is quite wavy.

I had to phone my friend to whom I had sent the card, firstly to make sure she hadn't moved  (she hadn't) and secondly to explain why she had not received my usual Christmas greeting. As I hadn't spoken to my friend for awhile maybe it was a blessing in disguise
as I picked up the phone and we had a lovely catch up!

What stories do you have to tell about your mail service?

Bare Feet

I recently went to my local doctor and a mother came in with bare feet, followed by a second mother who was dressed in some form of health uniform, who was also bare footed. I am amazed that somebody would attend a doctor's surgery shoeless, particularly where hygiene is so important. I am sure it wouldn't be too hard to throw on at least a pair of thongs!

I personally could not cope with bare feet, how could you probably feel clean when you are picking up dirt and grime and goodness knows what else.

The one exception when bare feet is essential is walking along the beach, feeling the soft sand between your toes and dipping your feet into the water.

If you enjoy going shoeless, I think there are times when popping on some form of footwear is essential when visiting your doctor as a mark of respect.

Removing Sticky Labels

Having recently had a bathroom renovation completed, the final clean-up left me very frustrated and time poor. What started off as a simple removal of advertising/instruction stickers which were mainly on the two toilets, became a real chore. Some of the stickers peeled off very easily, but the others were very stubborn and with alot of help from eucalyptus oil and lots of elbow grease, the job was complete.

This leads to the question as to why labels attached to goods have to be so sticky and difficult to remove? It sort of takes the joy out of enjoying a new product when you have to go through torture to remove unsightly stickers.

I am sure there are lots of stories out there on this topic, all with a happy ending I hope!

Lost & Found

A few weeks ago, my working Friday morning started off as per normal. After serving some customers and looking for stock upstairs, I sat  back down at my desk and my eyes were immediately drawn to my ring finger, where to my shock and horror found my eternity ring was missing.

I searched everywhere at work and through the boxes, where I suspected I had lost it, but to no avail. As each day passed I had resigned myself to the fact I would never find it and was second guessing where I had actually lost it or if I did put the ring on that morning.

The following Thurs was my day off and Sharon, who only works the one day was on duty. That morning when I got out of bed I said 'Sharon, please find my ring today.'

During the day I was talking on the phone and heard my mobile ringing. When I checked the number I found it was work, so I returned the call. Adam said 'are you sitting down?' and at that moment I was overwhelmed to hear the words 'Sharon found your ring'. Sharon had gone upstairs to find some stock and when she moved one box, the ring fell to the ground. It must have been lodged between the steel post and the box.

You may say "it's only a ring" but to me it was a special ring from my husband and in my eyes could never be replaced, it was a perfect match with my engagement and wedding ring and something I will always treasure.

My Blog's 1st Anniversary

Today marks the first anniversary of my first blog and I look back on  the success and failure of my written word.

I have 17 published posts with 'My Favourite Chair' being the most popular (2nd post), followed by 'Tennis' (my first post) and 'Driving Miss Mazzy part 2' coming 3rd (my 13th post).

It seems my first two blogs created the most interest, which is s bit disheartening as you aim for improvement as you progress but overall I have had 950 pageviews for the year and am continuing to get daily views, which is encouraging.

I hope to continue with my blog and hopefully creative enough interest to get more people 'following' my blog and commenting, which seems to be the most difficult thing to achieve.

So this time next year I hope to have more followers, more comments and feeling like my Blog is truly becoming something special for myself and the readers.

Coping with Technology

Being a so called 'senior' I have always been determined to keep up with the changing world of technology, having a computer and tablet.

As the saying goes computers are great when they are working! This week my computer has caused me alot of stress, it kept turning off, coming up with the words 'windows software recovery', and coloured lines all over the screen.  I took  it to the computer technician, who said it was a software problem and charged  me $50.

On plugging it in, same things happened, took it back to the technician and he couldn't fault it.

Tried it again at home, still no joy but happened to unplug and use it on battery and it worked perfectly so my diagnosis is that the problem must be the power adaptor. The technician gave me a power adaptor to try, which would not work, but my old one does recharge the battery! 

To top things off, my tablet came up with a screen security problem, which normally I could exit but this time it wouldn't budge. This time the remedy was easy, the clock had somehow  been set to the wrong date and time!

So this week I have been really tested with the world of technology but I have survived as here I am writing my blog on a computer that I thought was ready for the tip!