Dog is so lazy. M took him outside to relieve himself. He had to be pushed off the porch and then he only ventured as far as the car to pee. Then ran back into the house.

M's cooking spaghetti bolognese. It smells delicious.

Rain and more rain. It's been raining for over a week now, and the forecast is for another week of rain. The driveway is partly flooded. The rabbits look miserable even though the hutch is covered by a tarp. Dog looks miserable being stuck indoors for most of the day.

Managed to go out for lunch....got my hot chips, but I still want more. Tonight M is going to make me spaghetti bolognese. I'm looking forward to it.

All I ask is for a little bit of sunshine!

The trouble with being pregnant is you wake up thinking about food. Unfortunately not necessarily the things you can easily put together, or have the necessary ingredients to make. So you settle for close enough. Which if you've ever been pregnant is not nearly close enough. Half the time when you do eat, it doesn't feel right. I haven't thrown up yet, but I do get a little nauseous every time I eat. The food just seems to sit in my throat.

The strange thing (or not so strange) was when I first found out I was pregnant, I was completely off bread. But after a few weeks it was back on the menu. Then I started craving raw tomatoes and chilli which I usually avoid because of my arthritis. Of course then my arthritis came back with a vengence and I had to hobble around the house for a few days. Now no tomatoes...okay raw ones anyway.

I don't usually eat cheese because I never liked it now I'm thinking it's not so bad. Same goes for yoghurt, although it still has to be smothered in fruit of some sort.

Okay now I'm tired again...

I've officially resigned. Now I have to get my balance back. Been a bit unsteady these past few weeks. I always thought I'd have a good pregnancy. Still believe that....

It's confirmed, we're pregnant. Now I have to resign from work, because there's some concern about some of the chemicals we use in the lab. Some of the fumes are making me nauseous. I've got to tell my boss tomorrow.

We're pregnant! It's not 100% confirmed yet. Still have to go see doctor.

M is home. Yay!

What is it about pets? I can spend hours watching the rabbits do nothing.

Last night was fun, it was just me and Dog, dancing around the house, me wearing the red tutu that W had made for me. Dog freaked and ran into the hallway when I took down my dancing sword. The mood was broken when M called again. He's on holidays, and in my opinion shouldn't have to call so often. I wouldn't bother if I was him. Then again I'm not a typical female.

I don't wear make-up. My friend sent me some you tube links to make-up tutorials. You think she's trying to tell me something?

M is away on holidays, bushwalking with S, so it's just me and Dog. It's been great, he follows me everywhere. Pity I can't have the rabbits and guinea pigs in the house too.

Dog is just too cute. Every evening when we let him in the house, he drags his bed from the hallway to the lounge so that he can sit with us.

Still exhausted...sick of work, getting homesick, wedding plans stressing me out. I don't want a big wedding. Heck, if I had my own way, I would elope. I'm not even sure if I can take time off to go away aftewards but M wants a honeymoon then a trip to Ireland later in the year. So he's pressuring me to quit my job if I can't get the time off. Then he'll start resenting my unemployed state...again. Even though he promises not to. There's a big difference between intellectually accepting something and how you really feel.

Sometimes I'm tempted to just run away...

I got a $2/hr pay rise, so now I earn just above the poverty line. Oh, and I'm in charge of the lab now. I have to approve everything and if anything stuffs up it's my fault. All correspondence goes through me. I'm not sure if I'm happy or not about this arrangement. I'm not an ambitious person, I prefer to hide away in the lab doing my thing. A says that he has plans for me and that he doesn't want me doing R&D forever. He's been testing me for the past few weeks and apparently I passed with flying colours.

E resigned, but he only told everyone on his last day He's a sneaky one. So now it's really quiet in admin.

I'm exhausted. It's been one crisis after another, in production, in packaging and every day I get 4 or more projects added to my to do list. Not to mention all my new duties.

Okay, I know why I'm tired all the time. Drum roll...it's because I get too hot at night. I wrap myself in two doonas every night and wake up exhausted the next morning. Now I remember why I got rid of one of the blankets in the first place.

I don't know why I'm so tired. I almost fell asleep driving home today. The traffic jam didn't help. I was so tempted to just close my eyes.

I just found out that my friend S is pregnant. I don't know why but I'm really excited.

Since we were so pathetic yesterday, M and I decided we needed to get back into shape. So we went swimming tonight after work. It's been over two years...okay make that 6 years since I went swimming. Not a good thing to plunge right into a 50 m pool. I did manage 700 m. I was so hungry and M had had enough swimming, so we went home. My blood sugar was down and I almost fainted when we got home. Managed to shove a mandarin down my throat just in the nick of time.

Really pathetic.

Finally got to try our new bike rack. After weeks of planning, finally it stopped raining long enough for us to take the bikes out. I am so unfit, almost threw up 20 minutes into the ride. There were too many hills to negotiate for a novice like me. Of course when you go up you have to go down eventually. It was freaky, the track is full of loose rock and small rocky creek crossings. I spent most of my time off the bike. The last leg was much better. I finally supressed my fear of going down hill, long enough to make it back.

Need to get fitter. I was pathetic today.

What a week. So many stuff up at works. One after the other. Mislabelling (and consequently confusing the clients, Alan not to mention myself), batches not working for one reason or another, production problems, not being able to find anything...

Oh not to mention the crazy traffic...being stuck behind slow drivers...others who shouldn't be on the road.

Had a not so good day at work. The drive home was even worse. Usually I don't hit traffic until I hit the M6. I encountered every red light and every incompetent driver on the road. One guy in particular got me so worked up I almost gave him the finger...I settled for giving him a dirty (he had kids in the car after all). He was in the right turning lane but decided at the last second to merge in front of me, doing 20 km/h and proceeded at this speed. I had to break suddenly, so did the cars behind me. All the other lanes were busy, so no-one could overtake this guy. Then he mounted the curb somehow, still doing 20 km/h. I've got a headache just thinking about it.

I've got to do my taxes on Thursday...3 years worth. I've been so slack. M had to book an accountant for me, since I've been resisting. Nooooo...there's too much paperwork to get organised. I'm the queen of procrastination when it comes to my finances. If I don't think about it'll all go away...away...away...

S had a great laugh today at E's expense. K came late today, so I was left to do line clearance. S needed me to check the weights, but I was in the middle of a project so I asked E to do it for me instead. S said no, he didn't want E to do it because E is too picky. But E insisted. In the afternoon S came into the lab. He was telling us that one of the weight of the materials required was 150 kg. So he got the a 200 kg drum of the product and took out 50 kg. E insisted on weighing it. So he tried to push the drum onto the scales. S pretended to help while throwing encouragements to E.
"Come on E, you're almost there." Meanwhile S has his hands on the barrel pretending to pull.
Poor E.

M and I had a fight about what I wanted to do with my life - careerwise - he's leaning towards me going into the public sector. As usual completely missing my point. I wanted to know what type of jobs not what organisation.

What's a budget?

Monday
- restaurant $100
- wine (we didn't drink them all at once) $60
- second hand books $80

Wednesday
- cafe $50

Thursday
- cafe $60

Friday
- restaurant $40

Saturday
- cafe $40
- shopping (grocery and household) $200

Sunday
- cafe $30
- botanical art $600
- restaurant $150
.
hmm...that's why my bank account is always empty

I feel sick. Since I'm surrounded by a lot of men at work who have no sense of smell, I have to smell every sample that gets sent in. E and K made me smell a sample of sheep placenta extract that just arrived today. It smelled so bad, a mixture of sheep pooh and urine. I almost threw up. We showed it to A and he gagged after smelling it. Another one for the reject bin. I don't know why anyone would want to rub sheep placenta on themselves, but people pay good money for this stinking stuff...defies logic.

odd one out...

I'm still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up???

I had to make a 10 kg mock batch for a client before they approve production for delivery tomorrow. That part went fine, but when I was cleaning the mixer I forgot to lock it into place so I ended up dumping 5 L of water all over the floor and onto my shoes. The water was mixed with lactic acid as well as other chemicals from the cream I was making. Lucky for me I practically live in my car, so I had a spare pair of shoes locked in the boot. But what a waste of time...

It was our anniversary on Sunday (thanks to my friend Maz for reminding us, we'd forgotten). M took me out to dinner to a Japanese restaurant. It was the first time we'd both been there, the food was yummy but the place was small and echo-ie (okay that's not a word). Of course we ended up getting into an argument...It wasn't a big fight, but poor M was anxious all night. I, on the otherhand, in my usual manner dismissed the incident straight away and went back to enjoying my food and M's company.

So take two, on Monday after work I took M out to dinner. We decided to get out of the shire this time. I'm more organic and unorganised in my approach to going out. So I picked a suburb and we trawled the streets till we found something we liked. We ended up at an Italian restaurant and the the food was de-lic-sious. We ended up in a second hand book shop later that night...and we both collect books. M went a bit crazy and had to restrain himself. It was a great night. M's still in a good mood.

My aunt died on Easter Sunday, so it's been a bit chaotic organising flights to QLD, arranging time off work...For a family that rarely keeps in touch we know how to come together. It was the first time M had met my extended family and he was blown away by us all. I hadn't seen some of my cousins for over 10 years but it was like...coming home (that was after I worked who was who!).

Two nights before the funeral I had a dream (or maybe I was awake) that someone was stroking my hair as I lay on the bed. So I turned around and I saw a blob of white light. It freaked me out a bit so I just rolled over and attached myself to M. Dog was restless that night too. He kept on running in and out of the room and wouldn't settle.

Early in the morning Dog wanders into the room and stands beside the bed watching me. He nudges me awake. I pat his head. He starts to make choking noises - oh no he's going to vomit again! - I jump out of bed and drag him outside. He's not a happy dog, he spends the next 5 minutes barking at the birds. I give up on sleep and get ready for work.

Crazy guinea pig mistook my finger for food the other day.

The nightmare is over...for now. I managed to colour match the lip gloss to the client approved standard in less than 10 minutes. Tomorrow the second coloured batch is going to be made (berry). I hope it turns out right the first time. I hate colour matching! I don't have time anyway, I've got a few projects due tomorrow.

I must be getting old and prudish. Last night M and I went to the cinemas to see the Watchmen. For the life of me I can't understand why parents would let their kids watch this movie. There were several families in the theatre, with kids of primary school age. This movie contained lots of graphic violence not to mention the sex scenes too. Am I just too prudish?

Ah the stress. Production is making a new type of lip gloss in four different shades. I've been having nightmares about this stuff, because I didn't do the initial R&D for this product. When I tried to make this myself following Y's instructions I couldn't match the colour. So because we had to send the samples off A decided to just use Y's batches.

So Thursday night, I was dreaming about the batches stuffing up. First problem, S tells me there's solid particles in the batch. I tell him to keep mixing. Late in the afternoon he brings me a sample. K and I almost have a heart attack (A is in Melbourne), the dyes haven't dissolved. K panics because he weighed out the dye. I call E in (he's on his way out). We all have a heart attack. We check the dyes to see if they are the right one. E checks their solubility even though we tell him that the dyes were pre-dissolved before being added to the mixture. E tells S to keep mixing, when he leaves we find out that he's been mixing while the batch is still too hot. I run down to production to tell him to cool the batch down otherwise the dye will not mix.

After half an hour he brings me another sample. The colour doesn't match the standard. Now I have to try and colour match. A is not going to be happy on Monday.

Bad day at work. K is really angry at A. You can tell from his body language. He's keeping to himself more and since I share a lab with him it's affecting me too.

All hell broke loose this afternoon when A couldn't find the 3 batch cards. One was my fault kind of, because K was away on Monday and since I'm not really sure of the procedure it was up to me to release the product. So I fudged my way through and gave the batch card to warehouse for them to release documents, which I'm not supposed to. Only people in production and lab and A are allowed access to the card. Even E got really stressed and raised his voice. E is the most affable person there.

Oh and we didn't get paid today because the accountant is off sick.

Watching the IT Crowd. What a cack!

Had such a good day today...sure I may have confused a sample or two...but I helped K with some of his projects and brightened his day just a little.

M comes home tonight. Yay!

Had a bad day at work...well at least K had a bad day. I just feel bad for him because he cops a lot, while me being the newbie - I've still got my 'get out of jail free' card - I just pretend ignorance (most of the time it's not pretending).

Now I know why M rarely gets a full night sleep. He's usually up dealing with Dog, while I snore away (allegedly!). Now that M's away, I have to deal with Dog running around the house at night, moving his sleeping mat into our room or plonking himself beside the bed and barking. Usually I just end up putting him outside.

barkscape

Hmm...should start posting photos. I'm such a lazy bugger.

Daylight savings ends (or is it starts) next weekend. What I don't understand is why all the digital t.v stations have already changed their times. This always happens, it's bloody annoying. During the Sydney Olympics they decided to change the daylight savings date. Of course it caused utter chaos (especially at the airport), because the time on peoples' mobile phone changed on the wrong date.

I get really paranoid around this time of the year for that very reason. Last year, the time on my housemate's phone automatically changed...on the wrong date, so he ended up going to work an hour earlier.

I hurt my back trying to move the rabbit hutch...again. Supposed to be at my cousin's birthday party at the moment, but don't think I can make the 3 hour drive there. I was so looking forward to the food. They're great cooks and my uncle is a fisherman. I love seafood.

...guess I'll have to eat some chocolate (which I bought as a gift for M)...and maybe finish off the packet of chips.

I did something really stupid this morning. The front door (which really is the back door since it leads into the kitchen) has a flap which opens to let some air out. This morning I unlocked the flap but didn't pull the flap down before opening the door. Of course when I opened the door the flap fell and hit me on the head.

Ever since M's been away, Dog has been waking me up at all hours. I was woken up by some strange noises, like someone or something trying to break into the rabbit hutch, in the wee hours of this morning. I didn't hear any distress sounds coming from the rabbits, but then Dog started getting really agitated. He ran into the room and stuck his head out the window. So I got up and let him out the back door. He ran around the yard for a few minutes, sniffing around and sounding anxious. So I let him out the front. He charged out and disappeared for awhile. I tried calling him but he was off into the woods. So I had to grab the torch and go check it out. I didn't see much, but the rabbits and guinea pigs were okay. Dog came back and began marking his territory all over again. A few hours later he was still agitated, so I let him out the back, where he barked every half an hour or so, just as I was beginning to fall back asleep.

M is away for a week, visiting friends and family. So it's just me, Dog, the rabbits and guinea pigs. Is it bad to say I'm absolutely loving the solitude.

I've been working with a lot of dyes at work this week. Everytime I blow my nose, it's blue.

What a night it was. The city recorded over 2000 lightning strikes. M's dad was up for the night, helping M fix a few things around the house. We took him out to dinner before M went to his meeting. B and I drove home in his car, it wasn't till we reached the driveway that I realised that M had taken my house keys with him. M's meeting wouldn't finish to 9 pm so we decided to go to a cafe for coffee and cake. By the time we finished it was 9 ish, so we decided to head back home (did I mention it was raining by this time). M didn't get back till close to 10 pm. It was then we found out that Dog (who's terrified of thunder and lightning) was missing. Luckily after a frantic search of the property a nurse called M. She had found Dog wondering around near the weir and had picked him up on her way to work. M and his dad ended up driving to G's hospital to pick him up.

This morning I burnt my fingers making breakfast. I'm a bit frustrated with myself. I'd left the spoon near the pot and it took my sleep fogged mind a few painful seconds to realise that my fingers were burnt. But I was running late so I couldn't do much about it. I had trouble holding my pen today, since my thumb is all blistered up.

What type of world am I living in, when a man is bashed to death at an airport in front of eyewitnesses?

Bugger spent too much on work clothes today.

I am scarred for life.

I'm always one of the last to have lunch at work. Today however, when I walked ino the lunch room, the big boss's wife (T) and her sister (S) were in there (most of the the staff hate them, but I rarely have any dealings with them). They had the aircon on full blast and it was freezing. To make matters worse, S with her big saggy boobs wasn't wearing a bra and a thin see through, skin coloured T-shirt. Ahhh, my eyes.

I've got a non-contagious fungal infection...hence the exhaustion, fever and sore throat I've been suffering for the last few months. It's supposed to be a self-limiting infection, usually lasting up to six weeks...sometimes it can go on for months. Knowing my luck it'll be the latter for me.

I went to a shopping mall today (something that I have to be dragged kicking and screaming to). I tried to find a NAB ATM. Of course not knowing my way around it took about half an hour to find. Finally spotted one, then when I went to stick my card in, it wouldn't work. So I decided to use the Westpac ATM. They wanted to charge me $2.00 to use it, meanwhile another guy had stepped up to the NAB ATM and it worked. So out of principle I decided to take another shot at the NAB ATM. This time it accepted my card, but wouldn't let me withdraw any money.

Ahhh, I've got all these red marks all over my chest and stomach. I'm not sure if they're insect bites or something much worse!

I'm feeling a little better. At least I don't have a sore throat anymore. Still very tired. Last night I was in bed at 8.30.

Today I'm just going to relax...

M might be deployed to Victoria in the next week or so, to help with the bushfires. I hope he doesn't have to go.

I think I'm getting a cold. NOOOOOOO!!!!

Finally, the house is clean...well most of it. We still have the study and guest bedroom to organise. It took some rearranging and reorganising, but at least now it feels more like home. I even bought Dog a new indoor dog mat, which he loves. He carries a cushion around and uses it as a pillow. He is so cute. The bunnies and guinea pigs are also settling into their new home as well.

We had P and G over for dinner last night. It was great having people over for dinner. It was so much fun. The boys talked shop, swapping fire fighting stories. The big issue was the conflict between RFS and MFS. RFS aren't trained to fight fires when assets are involved. Most people don't like the RFS. P was telling us about the time he got sent to the Snowy Mountain fire. His commander had a go at the RFS (calling them the Really Fucking Stupid) because they misread the map and started back burning the wrong side of the road, so instead of dealing with one fire front, they now had two to deal with.

But at least they tried...Although they stopped the MFS from fighting the Kinglake fires, they turned the trucks away.

I woke up with a sore throat early this morning (my body clock is still set on work time). I got up and took made myself an olive leaf tea, let Dog out for a run and made myself some breakfast. I decided to have breakfast in bed, much to M's annoyance (he slept through most of it). I wasn't feeling very well so I went back to sleep. After M left for his appointment this morning, I dozed for a bit. I must have fallen back to sleep because I was dreaming of my family visiting. I was woken up by the sound of the phone ringing. It was my father. He'd call to say that he was coming for a visit. He hasn't set a date yet but he wants to come for two weeks, before my mother goes overseas. She still has some medical issues to deal with before she can go, so as yet no date has been set.

When M got hom, we got a call from P who lives below us (above the river). He'd just been robbed. Someone or persons had broken in through the kitchen window and taken the plasma t.v and other electronic gear in broad daylight. So now M is going to arrange for a gate to be put in his driveway. We're still waiting for ours.

I should try and include some photos...

I'm so tired. I can't seem to get my energy level up. I thought it was hunger, but I've already had dinner.

Today was a good day. K told me at work, that I'm the first person that he has been able to talk to. Before in the lab, it use to be really quiet, even when there were heaps of people there. It was good because he and S helped me with the Q&A because I was in the middle of a troublesome batch and it was almost the end of the day. The batch (aloe gel) that I was making (for the second time) was supposed to come out clear, but instead I've got a cloudy brown gel...twice. I don't have anything to compare it with, because the formula has been changed...have to think more on this.

K told me this morning that he had a dream that the letter to the one of the laboratories he had to send today was sent to the wrong lab. So first thing this morning he rechecked the letter and he had addressed it to the wrong lab.

I always giggle when I recall, the two of us trying to call one of the labs. K kept on getting our receptionist. We couldn't work out why, so I had a go. K read out the number to me and still we got our receptionist. So K stepped out to try and figure out why. It didn't take him long. He came back laughing to himself. It turned out that we were dialling our number.

I feel a bit better now, writing always makes me feel better...even if I'm writing rubbish.

Once again my mouth has gotten me in trouble....note to self, think before you speak!!!

M suggested we take a walk today after work. We decided to go to Watta because I wanted to walk along the beach It was such a beautiful afternoon. It finally stopped raining after more than a week of constant rain (it was raining cats and dogs this morning). Mic took me to the secret waterfall, which was absolutely stunning. I decided to go swimming, even though the water was freezing cold and I didn't have my swimmers with me. It's my new favourite swimming hole.

I took M out to dinner afterwards. So all in all it was a great day.

Work was pretty unproductive today. I did get a few things done, but I spent most of the morning making the base for a foaming cleanser (ie no fragrances), but I didn't realise that when my boss said 'base with no fragrance' he meant no essential oils too. So tomorrow I have to remake it, as well as the organic baby lotion (which I had almost finished today but the formula didn't work) so A and I reworked it. The clients want it by the end of this week. Which doesn't leave me much time at all for all the other projects that need to be completed. At least I managed to siphon off the calibration of the viscometer to K. Poor K, it took him all morning to finish and he has projects that a due urgently. A and I realised today that we had mixed up the organic sunscreen samples and the wrong product was sent to the client. This one wasn't my fault for once, A got mixed up and told me the wrong thing.

When I got home from work today, M suggested that I should go to the garage and look in blue plastic tub. As I approached the garage I noticed something attached to the door. It was a motion sensor camera. M's new toy for the park.

M suggested that I buy him easter eggs with the soft centres (his favourite) after watching an ad for it on t.v. This was done while he rubbed his pot belly. He then proceeded to tell me that the baby was due. "Look, it's alive," he says while pulsing his stomach. It was hilarious.

On a more somber note, 200 people have been confirmed dead from the Victorian bushfires. And the number is expected to rise. Meanwhile here, it has been raining for over a week and is still raining. Parts of the north have flooded and so is many parts of QLD. The northern tip of QLD has been flooded for over 6 weeks, and since the fires they have been the forgotten people. Supplies are down and nothing much has been done to alleviate the suffering of the town.

M

* dwells in the past
* stresses over the things that can go wrong
* can't let go of anything (mentally, emotionally and physically)
* loses sight of the bigger picture because his energy is focused on all the negative aspects
* cluttered mind, cluttered room

Me
* don't like wasting energy on what could have been, or what can be
* live and learn is my philosophy, so what if things go wrong once in awhile. How else is one supposed to learn, if not by his mistakes.
* neat freak (reformed, learning to live in ordered chaos)
* okay, control freak (although slowly learning to lose control once in awhile)


My most favourite sound in the world is the sound of M's laughter. I love hearing him laugh. His voice comes a close second.

Oh, have I mentioned the sharks. All the shark signs have been put up now. There's been two shark attacks in two days. A great white was spotted by a diver at W. Yesterday M told me that some fishermen had caught a bull shark in HR where we swim in the afternoons. It's one of the many that have been caught or sighted there. So no more swimming there for the moment. Dang!

M and I went out for breakfast yesterday. I was reading the list of people lost in the Victorian fires and saw my that one of that one of my lecturer's name on the list. That really upset me.

I got an email from K. She lives near the fires. She could see the fires from where she was. The tragic thing is that even though she and her family are safe, they've lost friends and work collegues to the fire. M had a work collegue and friend in the area, who is currently on maternity leave. He'd been trying to contact her for a week. Thankfully he finally got news that N and her family were evacuated.

I'm just glad that E sold her property in Kinglake. So much was lost, so many lives affected. It's sad to think that the people up north in Queensland who lost so much in the recent floods have been almost forgotten as the country's attention is now focused on the fires.

I drive to work every morning, (although I would like to be able to catch public transport instead, but at the moment it is impractical). Last week was a nightmare. Traffic has increased, now that the summer holidays are over for most people. I usually drive to work listening to radio national or ABC radio. I've had to force myself to stop listening to the radio because the constant updates on the Victorian fires were so upsetting. I didn't want to start work every morning depressed.

I realise now that I'm living on a ticking time bomb, surrounded by bushland. Our landscape is a little different. In Victoria, the bush is designed to burn every 20-50 or so years. Here, we're surrounded by heathland, which burns every 10 or so years. The last time there was a fire, 90% of the park was affected. It was a miracle that all the houses were left standing (thanks to the efforts of the rangers who stayed to defend the properties). M and I decided that if there was a fire, I'm to leave. He doesn't want me to stay and I agree. Nature can be unpredictable. I don't want him to stay, but if there is a fire he's usually part of the incident control team. Thankfully, he doesn't have to physically fight the fire anymore. I use to hate it when he was on fire duty.

We got a new rabbit. V spotted a white rabbit in the park and set a trap for it. M decided we were going to keep it if it was a female, as a companion for Moxy. We had her quarantined for a few days. M took her to the vet today, they found a tick on her. M and I decided to name her Roo.

We finally introduced the two rabbits today. She escaped from the hutch later in the evening. Dog chased her round the front until she eventually ran back to the backyard, where M and Dog had her cornered. So until we fix the hutch, we've got her in the lounge. The things we have to do.

Last night I quit work...well at least in my dreams anyway. It wasn't a pleasant dream. No wonder I'm so exhausted, it seems like I'm at work 24/7.

I keep dreaming of work!!! NOOOO get out of my head!

What a week. We've had fire outbreaks, fallen trees, unconscious kid found at one of the falls, attempted break ins, and a break-in.

One of the FO's came this morning to rouse M out of bed. He'd just discovered that the VC had been broken into, and wasn't able to contact the duty manager. So M had to go down and have a look. It wasn't until the VC staff arrived that they discovered that safe had been broken into and $7000 stolen. The cops arrived soon after. They think it was an inside job, because the alarm had been switched off, and the safe opened then closed. The computer was switched on.

Also being a public holiday, there was a constant stream of visitors. BV was filled up at 9 am this morning, W and G soon after. So needless to say M decided to go into work this afternoon, although it's his day off.

On the stomach front, I keep on wanting to eat. Must be bored.

M and went for a 6 hour drive yesterday, to get away from the Australia Day long weekenders. We had a great day, but by the time we got back my back had siezed up and I was getting cramps. So I decided to take a nap. I must of been talking in my sleep because twice M had to come in and ask if I was okay. I could have sworn I was having a conversation to two people outside the bedroom window. I finally got out of bed close to midnight because I thought I was at work and had to finish a project.

It's been a long day.

Usually time flies at work, but today it just seemed to drag on and on.

Some crazy guy had lit 12 fires near our house until he got caught. M is heading the fire management team. At least it's been raining, although it could be more of a problem than a relief. There's not enough rain but there's lots of thunder and lightening.

It's going to be a long night.

Had to do overtime at work tonight to try and meet the deadline. We still haven't quite finished but everyone was so tired we called it a night. Didn't even get to eat my lunch (again) because I was in the warehouse trying to look for some of the ingredients which weren't where they were supposed to be. We had to cheat a bit, because we ran out of yellow pigment, so had to halve one of the mixes and make the rest up with the retenton samples. Spent most of the night talking about food while we were mixing away, because we were all so hungry and tired. Usually I have to wash all the lab equipment but my boss wanted to go home, so I just dumped everything in the sink and soaked everything else. I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. I was so tired, lucky the roads were almost empty because I don't think I was driving in my lane half the time.

These last few weeks have been so busy I haven't had much time to play with the rabbit and guinea pigs or dog. Dog's been acting strange since we picked him up from the kennel. He ignored me when M first brought him back and ran straight out the back.

SH just got engaged. She called M to tell him the good news tonight (she's been trying to contact us these past few days, but we keep missing each other's calls). N had her baby today as well. NM is going to find out if her job will send her to NZ for 13 months next week. She really wants to go. They've already started making plans. It's all happening now.

It was M's mum's 60th on Friday. We stayed in a hotel in the city on Thursday through to Sunday. We went to see The Complete Works of Shakespeare on Thursday night. It was so funny. On Friday we took them to a very expensive restaurant where the 4 of us spent more than we should have on food and wine. Then on Saturday M and I went to hindu wedding. All I can say is wow!!! It was so beautiful...all those colourful and beautiful saris. It actually put us all to shame with our standard black dresses. Had to put up with the Bollywood dancing and music but the food was DELICIOUS. It was so much fun. I just wish I had the energy to enjoy it more. I piked on the after party. Of course M was still up for it.

Not making much sense at the moment. zzzzz....we have visitors at the moment so that has to wait.

My friends are pressuring me to join FACEBOOK. Guess I'm too stubborn to bother.

What a day! The other lab technician resigned during the holidays. He faxed his resignation letter in during the holiday period, so my boss was running around like crazy today. So I'm the only lab tech they've got at the moment. Of course my first concoction was a large sample. We usually only do 100 or 25 g sample. Mine was a 2 x 5 kg sample. I didn't even get to finish the first lot, because I spent most of my day looking for the ingredients. It's a jungle out there!

And yep, couldn't fit into my pants. Oh well, got to go shopping again!

Some of my friends from M came to stay. They were on their way back from their road trip. It was so good to see them. I didn't realise how much I missed M until these past few weeks, what with friends and family coming to stay. On the other hand, it feels like I haven't left at all. It's great to be able to just pick up from where we left off even though we haven't had much contact (mainly due to my stubborn refusal to join the facebook community) since I moved away.

I start work again tomorrow. It feels like going back to school again. For the past few weeks all I've been dreaming about is school. I hope I'm still able to manage the 5.30 am starts. I should organise work clothes, but I'm dreading it. I've gained a bit of weight especially during Christmas and New Years, so I hope I'm still able to squeeze into my pants. I don't feel like wearing skirts (they're not very useful in a lab). Hmm, shouldn't have been in denial for so long...now I'll have to go shopping.

M and I usually just relax on the couch after dinner. Then he goes off to his office (to play WoW) or my office (ie the dining table) to do some work. I usually end up staring at the t.v or if I can be bothered some writing. M jokes that if we need to talk, we can email each other.

I decided we needed to do some other things after work besides sitting in separate rooms. Now we take walks after dinner or before, depending on the weather. If it's really hot, we take Dog to M beach and go swimming. If we don't have much time, we go down to the river. Sometimes we swim, other times we just explore. Tonight it rained, so I suggested we do some crazy dancing just for the fun of it. It was hilarious. I picked a cd and we had a great time being silly. We spent some time playing soccer with Dog in the lounge as well. We have so much space now ever since we rearranged the area. Still, there were a few hairy moments when we knocked a few things about.

Oh, did I mention my encounter with a funnel web spider this morning. I don't have a fear of spiders, in fact I'm a big fan of them but everyone here has been telling me to stay away from funnel webs (they can kill). The heat has brought them out early this season. 'The males are the one to watch for, they are more venomous than the females. So I've been ever vigilant, trying not to walk around the yard in bare feet. I was moving some wood around in the yard this morning and out came a funnel web. I went to have a closer look at the scrambling arachnid. Dog had the same idea, and in my panic (he was getting to close to the thing and my hands were full) I squashed it with my shoes.

Is it mean to think that I wish I got a photo of it first?

Is it me or is the world getting more violent? Everytime I turn on the news, there's been another shooting, another brawl ending in tragedy, another road accident involving young boys full of testosterone...

Believe it or not, I woke up happy this morning. That was until the police helicopters flew by. I called M at work to see if he knew what was going on. He was on his way out to the accident scene. There's been a major accident near our house. This coming off the back of the 3 year old child falling a few metres down some rocky cliffs at W the other day. Luckily the child survived. M had to deal with complaints from the mother yesterday over the incident. I'm not even going to mention the past week....

M and I took Dog to M beach yesterday. It was so much fun, barring all the scratches I received all over my body (Dog's attempt at trying to rescue me). Instead of heading to the spit as usual we headed out the other direction, which was a lot more isolated but with a lot more sea grass. We had our goggles (we have to update our snorkling gear) and went swimming with the fish. At one point M almost swam head first into a jelly fish. Dog didn't like being left alone in the shallows and kept on paddling out to us. Once in awhile he would pounce onto one of us (painfully). It was so much fun.

I feel like walking down to the river for a swim now, but I have a fear of sharks, and apparently this year bull shark spottings have increased in the river. M and I went swimming there are few weeks ago. One of the fishermen commented on the bull shark he hooked there the other day. I don't mind swimming in the river, as long as I'm surrounded by other swimmers. It's all about probability!

Serenity now!!! Finally some peace and quiet. I don't have the energy to keep up with 7 kids, not to mention pets running around barking at the wildlife and scaring non-bush-savy adults.

I need to stop eating so much junk and all the stuff I'm allergic too. My arthritis is kicking in again, which is great for work - not - it'll be so much fun not being able to pick up any of the lab equipment with my balloon fingers. I'm not that old!!! So I guess that'll be my new years resolution.