Renovating. Its a long slow process…. apparently

Well, it’s been months since I have posted.  such is the excitement that is my life I guess.

To be fair, it’s been winter.  It’s been bloody cold and bloody wet and I become extremely unmotivated at this time of year.

But, we have made a start on renovating our family room.  Now, don’t go getting excited.  If you know my hubby, you will understand.  If you don’t, well, let me give you a brief rundown.

Renovating costs money.  Renovating takes time.  Renovating means buying stuff which costs money.  Renovating needs time to think about what you are going to buy that will cost money…..  get the picture?

OK.. so,  This will be a bit of a picture blog, showing the progress I’ve made in the last few months… yes.  I said months.  Five months to be precise.  We hit walls, regularly.

But to be fair, I’m retired and we only have one income, so I’m being patient.  On the outside.

Inside?    

Our family room was last painted around 18 years ago.  We had three young boys who were, quite frankly, tearaways, full of beans and I, being the cool mum that I was – and still am – used to umpire basketball games for them.  Inside.  In our family room.  So, we, meaning I, had the great idea to let the boys pick the colour of the family room, seeing as it was the room that they used all the time.

Yes folks.  I allowed three boys between 5 and 8 to choose the colour of our family room.

 What can I say, I had had three boys within four years, was a stay at home mum, who’s only friends also had kids the same age and I strongly believe that this caused me to have an extended version of baby brain.  For about fifteen years, and by that stage I was in too deep to dig my way out of boys, boy stuff, boy friends, boy games.  Yep, I lived my life surrounded by boys.  I might also say, I loved every minute of it, and now that they are grown and have moved out, I miss the noise and mess and smell (yes, even the smell) greatly.

But, having finally surfaced from that, I finally convinced hubby that we really REALLY needed to get rid of the bright moroccan “gold” that our boys chose all those years ago.  Granted, it was washable and took a massive hammering and it did hold up well… but GOD it gave me a headache these last ten years.

  

So, I chose the new colour, hubby bought the paint, and then I waited ten months for him to tell me he was ready to paint the room.

  yes…. ten months.

But of course, he first had to wash the walls, pull out all the old picture anchors that had been there since we moved in 23 years ago, plaster up the holes, sand it down, replaster because he “missed a bit” resand and then rewash the walls all over again because of the dust………  and then he decided to brick up the windows that looked out under our carport.

Now, truth be told, those windows were rubbish.  They didn’t open and they looked out into the messy garage.  Stupid placement of windows, but they were there when we moved in and we hadn’t done anything about them.  So we got a couple of quotes, booked in the guy and that got done.

      

And then we began painting.. finally!

Here is a quick pic spam of how that went.  We actually got it undercoated and three top coats done over a three day long weekend.

We are guns!!   

 

   

  

Then came the discussion about window coverings.  Which actually was a really quick discussion because I knew what I wanted and had, in fact, already gone out and selected exactly what I wanted, and I was just waiting for hubs to give the go ahead.

Which took about 5 weeks, and then he told me to get quotes………….

You might, by now, be thinking “this woman is a saint!”  

And you’d be right, so, he wanted me to get quotes.  Which I did…  and then he sat on said quote for as long as he could before ordering the blinds I’d chosen.   But, they arrived within three weeks, and were installed.

  

Nothing overly fancy, but they do the job and I’m happy with them.

And I found a clock.  Only $12 from KMart!!  Bargain!  

So here we are.  We’ve got the room painted, blinds installed, no quote for a new sliding door – which we desperately need, no quote for new flooring – which probably won’t be done until next year, and no new dining chairs – because you know, they cost money!, and a bunch of flat pack boxes that will be assembled soon.  I’ll update with a new post about that!

I never thought it was going to be easy, but I didn’t think it was going to take so long.  I’ll get it done eventually I expect.

Someone once said, slow and steady wins the race.  They clearly had no bloody idea what they were talking about.

Life and Death Of Well Used Laptop

Today, I am using a beautiful new silver HP Envy laptop.  Why?  Because a week ago, my 7 year old HP laptop crapped itself, taking with it everything.. EVERYTHING!!!

All my photos, writing, assorted documents that I wasn’t supposed to lose, like receipts, and the one and only game I play, The Sims 4 disc, which was stuck in the disc drive.

I was horrified.  Devastated.  Close to tears.  It had been hovering on the brink of death for weeks, months even.  It started running hot.  So hot in fact that I needed to put a towel and cushions underneath it to protect my leg from getting a 3rd degree burn.  Then it started not waking up after I shut the lid.  And it also would take multiple presses of the power button before it would power up.  So I set it up so that when I closed the lid, it just stayed on.  Risky I know, but I was trying to stretch out the time before we ordered a new laptop.

Imagine my distress when I came out one morning and saw that the light wasn’t on.  IT WASN’T ON!!!  I hoped that it was that the power cord wasn’t pushed in all the way.  I’d had that happen as well.  The battery had drained, so after plugging it back in, it would do a reboot.  But of course, it didn’t.

All I could think about was how I hadn’t backed it up.. I’d tried, but I didn’t have an external drive or flash drive big enough.  I had backed up things like photos and documents, but not everything.  And I knew there were receipts and files that I probably would require, but hadn’t gotten round to saving them.  Typical.  Leaving things until it’s too late.

Lappie had been good to me.  It had only been fixed once in all the years I’d had it.  It’s had a hammering.  I use it every day.  To see what’s happening with friends, to order things I don’t really need and some that I do.  To research things for hubby.  To chat with friends.  To watch TV shows I’ve missed, or ones that I can only watch online.  And of course to play the one and only game I ever play.  The Sims 4.. lording it over and controlling the lives of my little families.

Luckily, hubby was able to arrange the purchase of a new laptop.. bigger, brighter, prettier, but not before my old one gave up the ghost.   I managed quite well without one for the week to ten days I was without it.  Luckily I still have the old work horse up in the lounge room.  A twelve year old desk top that is hanging in there by the skin of it’s teeth.

Hopefully it will last a bit longer because I use the laptop 95% of the time now.  I have backed up photo’s, documents, music etc, just in case.

So now I’m sitting with a bright pretty new machine on my lap.  Thankfully, the IT guy at hubby’s work, set it up for me, and even more miraculously, managed to retrieve a mirror copy of my old hard drive and installed it on this computer.  So I have not lost a single thing!  He has even set up the desktop.  I have not ventured into the Windows 8 tile screen yet.  I was scared that if I did, I wouldn’t be able to find my way back to the desktop!  Yes, I’m Windows 8 challenged.  For now.  I’ll work it out over the weekend I expect.  For now, I’m sticking with the desktop view.

She’s lovely, sleek, two inches bigger than Lappie and everything I could possibly want in a laptop right now and I shall call her Silvie.   Let’s hope she lasts as long as my old one did, and I don’t kill her too quickly.

the thought also occurred to me that I’m way to attached to technology….

meh….

Finding My Green Thumb – Entry 7

OK, so it’s been exactly (exactly meaning give or take a day or two) three months since I started this adventure in vegetable growing.

I’ve had some massive successes and I’ve had some woeful failures.  But, incredibly, things are still growing, in fact, they appear to have sped up!

I don’t know if it’s the mild summer weather we’ve been having here in Adelaide, or my amazing gardening skillz…..yeah, I have mad skillz…..  But either way, I’m still enjoying pottering around in the garden.

Hubby and I are at war over our little plot.  He wants to keep planting green, green, green boring as fuck green plants.  And I’m all about injecting some colour into the garden…… Give me another week or two and we’ll see who’s won that little argument.

But back to my update.  Cos I know you’re all DYING to know what’s happening with my green thumb.

My Roma tomatoes have given me a surprise.  I thought they were done and dusted, dying leaves, browning, shrivelling, then lo and behold, a whole mass of new growth and they are lanky, tall, leggy and loading up with fruit!  What the hell?  I’ve struggled with keeping them upright.  Now they seem to have become this weird, curved, bent, winding mix of vines being weighed down by the tomatoes that are really starting to come in thick and fast.

 

My Vine tomatoes are still giving me anywhere between 4-6 tomatoes ripening every couple of days and they have been SO delicious!  I’ve used them and my basil to make some delicious bruscetta’s.  They’re the best!  This plant too, has gone berserk, growing long and leggy and curling around.  I’ve spent this morning trying to tie them up a bit to get the fruit up off the ground.  Literally the ground.  Still so much fruit on the plant, and lots and lots of new growth and flowers still happening!

I’ve cleaned a lot of the dead growth away from the plants.  Not sure if you’re supposed to, but in my head, I’m figuring half dead growth is only pulling nutrients away from the healthy plant.  I guess I’ll find out if this was the right thing to do or not.

 

The cucumbers.  Well, I know nothing about growing these.  So it’s been a complete learning curve on these.  The plants are going gangbusters, finally.  I’m getting loads of both male and female flowers and the plants are starting to grab onto the trellis and grow.  But so far, my only claim to fame is this poor little thing…..

 

I’m finally getting some chillies!!!   But my capsicums have been a bust, so far.  I still have hopes they will kick in soon.. but I am probably just running on wishful thinking.

In general, I’m happy with the way things have gone.  I’m still learning a lot, and we’ve decided to move one of the garden beds because it’s just not quite in the right spot.  It gets too much shade.  So we’ll be emptying it and moving it forwards towards the lawn.  I also made the mistake of not mixing in a good amount of  compost into the soil before I planted.  So over winter, I’m not going to grow anything, as originally planned.  I’m just going to let it sit and hopefully all that compost will produce some great soil for next summer.    Learning, learning all the time!

Empty Nest Syndrome Is A Bitch

My kids are all gone.  And Empty Nest Syndrome does exist.

My eldest has been “gone” for 2 years.   He was the last one to go.  I cried.  Several times, when he left.

My middle son bought a house about 3 years ago and moved out.  I was fine.  I was proud of him.  Then two and a half years ago, our youngest son moved out with his girlfriend.   I was fine.  He had eased me into his moving out by staying at her place three or four nights a week prior to moving in with her permanently.

But when the last one left, I didn’t do as well as I thought I would.

I used to joke about having the freedom to make as much noise as I want on Sunday mornings.  I threatened to walk around naked after a shower (not really but it was fun watching the boys faces when I said it).  I told them their father and I would be able to have sex in every room now  (also fun watching them turn white, then green).  But since its actually happened.  It’s not so much fun..

When we come home after being out, the house is so quiet.  It was usually quiet on a Saturday night when we got home from an outing.  The boys never got home before us, but they always came home.  But now, it’s different.  I know there would be nobody stumbling drunkenly to the bathroom after a big night out.  There would be no need to keep the volume down on the TV in the morning.  There is no need for Zac to tell me to keep my voice down because I will wake the boys up.  There is no need to tell the dog not to bark excitedly when we get his food out of the cupboard.  There is nobody here to disturb.

Our house is empty now.

Yes, we have a great guest bedroom now.   But until the time someone wants to come and stay it will remain an unused room.  I suppose it’s nice to have an extra room to store the ironing board and the washing baskets that used to be overflowing with boys clothing.  Its  good to have somewhere to put those things that always seem to clutter up a corner of a room because you don’t have anywhere else to keep them.

And it’s not like I have that umbilical thing going on.  I’m happy they are strong, independent young men.  They have great jobs, beautiful girlfriends whom I adore.  They have good friends and active social lives.  They are men that I am proud of.  That I raised.   I always knew that one day they would move out and make lives for themselves… in my head I knew this.  My heart has been a different matter.  I wasn’t prepared for the tug.  It clearly has not caught up with my head.  I’m not sure if it ever really will.

But I will be OK.   I look to my hubby for a hug every now and then.  He understands.  He admitted that he struggled with it too.   I’m glad I’m not alone.  We just have to pull together on this one.   We know that we will always see the boys.  They have close ties to us and each other.  We do family dinners each fortnight and get them all together to catch up on news.  And of course there will be birthdays and holidays and Christmas.

My house is empty now.  But my heart will always be full.

It’s Good To Have A Dream Or Two

I have long had dreams of being a singer. A dancer. A musician. An actor. But now I’ve hit my mid 50’s its blatantly clear that this is all they have been. Dreams. These are the things that move me, drive my spirit along. And I’m OK with them only being dreams. We all need them. The trick is being able to make the decision to chase them, or to be satisfied with them just being dreams. I chose the latter.   I’ve found other ways to express myself artistically. I write. I make vids using music that I love. I fiddle around with art programs creating wallpapers and pictures that I share with my friends.

I am clearly an artsy type of person. I suppose I always was, looking back at myself as a child. I loved colouring books, drawing, painting, I loved playing with clay or plasticine as we had back then, and building elaborate things out of lego which was awkward back then cos basically you only got blocks and wheels, none of the fancy bits and pieces that kids these days have. (Oh the things I could have built with all those bibs and bobs)

I was also the frustrated director of plays and melodramatic performances that I made my brother and cousins perform at Christmas time for the family. I would spend hours writing out parts for everyone, organising costumes, hammering them through rehearsals to get their lines right. Perhaps I should have been a director? Ah well, we all make a choice to follows paths that are layed out in front of us. Some have lots of choices, some have only a few. I took a path that led me from high school, into a secretarial job, sport, marriage, kids, family and I have, for the most part, loved it. I would not change getting married and having kids for anything. But there are times when I wonder, what if I’d just taken the chance and tried singing, or acting or writing.   What if?   People say, just do it now. Which is tempting, but where would I start at my age?

So I just sing around the house, or inflict myself upon people at karaoke when I get the chance (I’m told I am a good singer but who knows), I dance as though nobody is looking (or when I’m out and everybody is looking – what do I care?) I do my artsy things and keep writing  ongoing fictional stories which I post and surprisingly, people have been reading and following !  And so I find myself satisfied for the moment. I do have a dream to write an actual novel.  I started it, but got stalled. I hope to get back to it one day soon or start a new one. I suppose there are courses I could take, or I could go back to school, but the costs are often prohibitive for the things that I’m interested in, plus by the time I graduated, I’d be too old to employ.  And so I keep my dreams to myself.

But I am not unhappy. Not at all. I am satisfied with the way things are going. I have travel ahead of me. I have engagement parties and weddings and grandchildren ahead of me.

I have my life ahead of me. And that makes me very happy.

My First Pet

You know sometimes, something, a memory from your childhood just pops into your head?  That happened to me.  The story of my very first pet.  I think I was around 8 or 9.  Up until then we had never been allowed to have a pet, (a) my father hated animals pretty much, and (b) my younger brother was an asthmatic and it was worried that any pets may make that worse.  Anyway, I was outside playing in the cubby house that my Papa had built.  He was a carpenter of sorts, making toys like rocking horses, hobby horses, baby cradles and the like.

My beloved cubby was a place were I could be my own little person.. I ran my household probably as badly as I do now come to think of it.. hahaha!

One day I was sitting there drawing, or colouring in (something that I did a LOT of) when I became aware of a tiny sound.  It was very faint, but it caught my attention.  I opened the window and peered out.  Yep, there it was a tiny squeaking sound.  In front of the cubby was an old gnarly lemon tree.  It was REALLY old.  I stood listening and realised that the sound was coming from up in the tree.. so me being me, I pushed my way into the branches, trying hard not to get myself snagged or worse, scratched by the thorns and there it was.

Elderly Rockers Are My Personal Nightmare

After hearing another radio commercial advertising yet another concert by aging rockers… I am forced to say…

There is something intrinsically wrong with elderly men and/or women trying to shake their “things” on the stage… reliving their hey days…

I mean… really…. Status Quo?   What are they… 70?    Roll Over, I Need To Lay Down Before I Fall Over.

Rolling Stones… Time Isn’t On My Side any more cos we’re 70…. Or Start Me Up cos my pacemaker just failed….

The Sweet? It’s It’s The Dislocated Hips   (“Ballroom Blitz” for those of you who are too young to even know who they are/were….. 😀 )

Blondie? Call Me and talk loud cos I’m deaf now…

ZZ Top… She’s Got Legs made of titanium…

The Pretenders…. Got Heart Pills In Pocket…

The Bangles … Walk Like An Egyptian cos my hip is crook….

The Eagles… Welcome To The Hotel California Retirement Home For The Elderly and Infirm….

God I could go on and on….

I’m afraid that whilst I loved these bands in their time….. now.. it’s just sad… Sad that they feel the need to inflict themselves on Australians… who are suckered in to paying ridiculous amounts of money to go see these octogenarians hobbling around stage….  I don’t want to fund your semi-retirement.

Give me a young hot semi dressed 25 year old guy ripping it up on stage any day…

But of course, that is just my opinion…. And you all know that that is what you get if you come here… LOL….

A Day At The Races

If you’ve ever been to the races, you’ll know it can be a fun day.  If you’ve ever been to the races in a corporate room/tent, you’ll know it’s a REALLY fun day!

We found ourselves at a great table facing the race course.. Hubby innocently asked if I would rather sit on the opposite side of the table where I could see the stage where the fashion parade was going to be…. HA!   No thankyou… give me my view of the track… Watching malnourished 14 year olds prancing up and down a makeshift catwalk wearing an amount of fabric that I could equate to a “boob tube” is not really my cup of tea.     Of course the little boys they had “modelling” the men’s suits were quite pretty… but still not enough to make me refrain from abusing the bod in charge of the television screens when he replaced the current race (in which I had money invested)  with endless vision of the clothing parade, which I could just have easily watched if I could have been bothered turning around…..  

I was quickly churning through my allowance for the day, when I finally hit a few places.. and then, thanks to my darling hubby, I placed a bet on a second horse in the Melbourne Cup… I had already made my own choice, but he seemed so confident… in fact, several people at the table took his tip, and of course the rest is history… his tip won! Lucky for me… the other horse I tipped… came in second!!   So I doubled my original money, in one race…   Oh happy day!!

And of course my other source of amusement for the day was the over the top fashions on the women at the race.   Now me, being the boy that I am, wore a simple top and pants… no biggie there… makeup, couple of bracelets and that’s it.. the hair was as it always is… on my head.   There was some conjecture as to whether I would wear a “fascinator”… or “vominators” as I affectionately prefer to call those pathetic bits of fluff and feathers that women seem intent on pinning to their heads… seriously… I would rather have plonked a HTFU baseball cap on my head than be seen dead in half a dead bird arranged coquettishly upon my head. Please note: I use the term coquettishly very, very loosely… I’m hardly what you would call coquettish…   blokey.. yes… boyish.. yes …   a bit of a ladette.. yes…. and that’s the way I am.   ( HTFU translates to Harden The Fuck Up, in case you were wondering.)

Oh… and FYI…. burnt orange…. is the new tan…. apparently!!   Oh the shades of orange I was treated to… was as wide and vast as a double rainbow.   Probably the most memorable was the “hooker” for want of any other description, in her red dress (if you can call two strips of red ribbon crossed over a pair of enormously enhanced breasts and a third ribbon strained around her buttocks, a dress…..) combined with her precariously high hookerheels, her Farrah hair, and of course…. her “tan”..   Now I’m no colour expert.. but I’m pretty sure that whilst blue and green should never be seen,  wearing orange and red? I’d rather be dead.   Seriously love, your tan was competing in hue with your ribbons.. errr… dress.

And once again, the fight in the women’s toilet was not actually to use the toilet… it was to get within cooee of a hand basin or mirror afterwards…. seriously… I had no idea how much miniature makeup once can jam into a 3 x 4 inch “bag”!!   And really… I slapped on my face in the morning (having first found it in the jar that I keep by the door) and that was it for the rest of the day… I swear I saw the same girl retrowelling her face 4 times during the course of the afternoon…     YES I have a nanna bladder.. OK?

Anyhoo….   You would be amazed at how unpopular one becomes when trying to wash ones hand after ones ablutions….   I practically had to hip and shoulder one “girl” (and I’m still not convinced about that!) out of the way so I could use the sink.. after handing her a lipstick and a pot of moussey stuff and her brush, which she had kindly deposited in the sink whilst readjusting the piece of pink curtain fabric across her shoulders….   popular much?

And so was my day at the races…. Well fed (the food was amazing!!!), well lubricated (thanks to hubby being flush enough to buy my G&T’s – seeing as spirits are never available at catered functions) and my pockets well lined by the end of the day, not to mention my imagination.

I Used To Work….

Once upon a time I used to have a job.  And I was extremely good at it, if I do say so myself, and, I used to blog about it because if I didn’t I might have gone completely batty.    This is a glimpse into what I used to do.

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Anyone who’s job involves greeting the public and answering switchboard will understand the strange and wacky world that is “Reception”.  I have seen and heard some strange, funny, scarey and downright weird things over the last 6 years…  and it has been suggested several times that I should write about them…. well clearly I can’t tell you everything… but I suppose I can let you know what the view is like from the front seat… and so I shall write about some of the things that I encounter…. all in good fun of course!!!

Any given Monday you can find me… sitting at the reception desk at work… a mixture of fun, happiness and loathing…    I arrive at work usually quite usually happy to be there, although there is always that Monday morning where you would rather be peeling off your own skin with your teeth rather than be at work… But generally I look forward to catching up with people, begin taking calls and generally be the old bag at reception that you see when you walk in the doors.   And about 20 minutes in to my day… the realisation hits…..  It’s Monday…. group interview day…..    Oh….. yay ……  If it were at all possible to write with a font that drips sarcasm… that’s what that “yay” would be written with….

I have mixed feelings about group interviews…   It is great that we have so many people wanting to work for us… it’s a great company and there are many many wonderful people working for us… but its just …. well… if you have ever been to a group interview… have you actually checked out your competition?   No?   It’s …. interesting…   There is always the chirpy, bubblyl happy person (who shits me to death being like that so early on a Monday),  there’s the emo one… with depressing hair and makeup and several facial piercings that make my eyes water, there’s the school kid looking for after school and weekend work, and there’s always the one that is there because they “have” to be… (not my favorite kind).

And there’s ALWAYS the ones that turn up late… and have excuses…   the excuses are the fun part of my morning…  Seriously.. I’ve heard em all..    I got lost  (hmmm, OK.. if I go somewhere totally new.. I check out exactly where I’m going either in a street directory, on the internet, or ask… I also leave about 1/2 hour earlier than I need to .. just in case I do get lost).   The bus took me to the wrong street  (yeah… well that one I can’t help, but surely you check where the buses are going before you get on one… I can’t comment as its been  *mumbles* years since I caught a bus).   I couldnt find a park  (ok.. again… going somewhere unfamiliar… leave earlier… I hate repeating myself)…   ooh… here’s a good one…   I had to take my friend somewhere first and it took longer than I thought   (WTF!!!  you have an interview for a job.. which you clearly need… tell your friend to catch a bus or taxi or walk)     I couldnt find the building   (seriously??  Its a frikken huge building on a corner… you couldnt see it???? )     And….   Sorry I’m a few minutes late   (Mate!  You’re 45 minutes late dude… ….. blank face …  yep… no concept of time… excellent ….)   I am still waiting for   The dog ate my resume  (now that one would make me laugh).

I have a spiel that I go through… welcoming them to the interview… asking them to sign in… asking them to write their name on a sticker and put on their shirt/top …  sounds easy?   Apparently it’s not that easy… I need a set of flash cards with pictures I think….  It may save my voice and my sanity…  constantly repeating the same instructions over and over and over…. not to different people… usually to the same person  (there is ALWAYS one that cannot understand what I am telling them.)   I have even developed hand actions… I write with a magical invisible pen on the sign in sheet – to demonstrate how to do it… I then move across to the sticker sheet and pretend to write on a sticker… then peel off an imaginary sticker and stick it on my own chest)   You think that would work….   NUH UH…..   :-\      I have about 26,000 virtual stickers on my chest at this point in time….  (maybe that’s where all that extra weight on the scales is coming from??????  *starts peeling off 26,000 virtual stickers in hope that my weight will drop*)     As a last resort… I have had to actually write their name on the stickers for them and peel them off and give them to them….I cannot tell you how tempted I am to write “Loser”  “No-Hoper” “Emo”  or my favorite “Do Not Employ Me.. I’m Useless”.      I can pretty much guarantee none of those applicants work for us now… (at least I hope not!!!)

I also love the ones that storm out half way through their interview because they have been told that they are not going to be allowed to have black lipstick and drawn on tears at work… and their piercings must be removed…  However, I have often wondered how handy it would be to have a hole in your ear large enough to carry a pen… at least you would always know where your pen was!!!

I think I should get a very very large coffee provided at the end of these sessions… just to calm my nerves and rejuvenate me… *makes mental note to put in that request this Monday….   ask for VERY LARGE COFFEE *

So that is a little glimpse into my Monday mornings, the view from the front seat….  fun times people…. fun times…..

Random Thought In My Head Right Now

Is there anything better in the world than living your life! My thought… NO!!

I’ve realised that you just have to let go… be who you want to be… it doesn’t matter what other people think… there are always going to be those that will look down their nose at you, or point and giggle, or blatantly ignore you, but really, does it matter.. I don’t think so..    And there will be people who get you, like you, even love you, just the way you are.

I like who I am… I know that I’m not to everybody’s taste… I’m odd, childish, irreverent, emotional (I blame menopause), politically incorrect a lot of the time, funny (I think I am), rude (yes, I can be), and I’ve been known to suffer from bad bouts of blurt which is often complicated by idiocy, and I think that a lot of what goes on around me is hilarious…but hey.. that’s me… take it or leave it.

And it took me a long time to realise it, but my life is mine to live as I want. My mantra has become “Life is a wonderful ride, you just have to get on”   I’m definitely on it, sometimes I get a bit motion sick, but I’m not getting off it.. and I’m on it for as long as it lasts.