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!

Christmas

Christmas to me is about families, enjoying the ones we have and remembering the ones who have departed.

I have been fortunate enough to have spent Christmas with my parents every year while they were alive. Every Christmas we gathered around in the big ballroom size lounge room and I often acted as Santa to hand out the many presents.
Each year the numbers would grow as another grandchild arrived and then later on great grandchildren.

Now on Christmas morning I visit my family in the cemetry before going on to enjoy Christmas with my husband, daughters and grandsons.

Not all family members are in the position to travel or come together at Christmas, but there are so many other ways you can keep in touch. I know of many lonely parents who for some reason do not have family visit for Christmas and are on their own  and that is where the local church group are saviours and put on a Christmas lunch for those who are by themselves and don't want to spend it alone. These volunteers give up their time to make lonely people feel wanted.

I feel very fortunate to have always had family around me at Christmas and  my wish is that families all around the world could share happiness together this year.

Driving Miss Mazzy Part 3

New fines recently imposed upon NSW drivers is long overdue in my opinion, especially doing a u-turn across unbroken lines.

In my home town, the introduction of nose-in parking seemed to go hand in hand with the regular use of u-turns to cross to the other side of the street to snare a park. As this practice seemed to go unheeded by the police, it  became common practise, that is until two weeks ago, when there was a blitz with the introduction of the new fines.

The illegal u-turn has caused several accidents and near misses with raised voices and horns blowing. Then there is the reverse u-turn across the street and some sights you would not believe unless seen with your very own eyes.

Many motorists have nearly come to blows as the person doing the right thing in obtaining a park is confronted by an irate driver who wanted to cross the double unbroken line and take a short cut across to the very parking space that the other motorist had acquired legally.

What is the answer -it all boils down to using a bit of commensense and being aware of the road rules and the rights of your fellow road users and maybe a big dose of tolerance. 

Visiting the Loo

Working in retail, it is sometimes hard to get a laugh but at my place of work we have something that always creates hysterics.

We had a promotion many years ago, which included a life size cut out of a man, we shall call Tom for this story. Well Tom had to be stored after the promotion had finished and he ended up standing in the shower, which adjoins the toilet (one room).

The toilet is not for public use but we do get the odd customer, for whom we have to allow in. Other than that there are the reps and delivery drivers.

Everytime there is a new rep or somebody who hasn't entered our loo before, we lay in waiting for their response as they emerge. You can imagine after closing the door behind you, and suddenly being confronted by "Peeping Tom," what your reaction would be!  If only the walls could speak, there would be some funny expletives uttered I am sure. Mostly we all end up having a laugh together after they get over the shock and see the funny side of it.

The funniest episode was an elderly customer who retreated and said to one of our salesman that there was a man in the toilet, after assuring her that he wasn't real she had acouple of attempts and then she just left the door open, I guess for a quick escape.

We had two victims this week so we really truly have had our fix of evil laughter.

Have you had any funny episodes on visiting the Loo?