No spending for me

I am going to see how long I can go with no spending on anything other than essentials. Limiting it just to me so no more choccy bars or impromptu coffees and op shop buys which are the main culprits! I will of course still need to buy food and in my eyes alcohol is a staple so that's in too!!
Failed yesterday because I bought a kit kat at the shops :(. Today is going good. I'm also going to join Coles online because I figure a huge monthly shop even with delivery will curb my impulse buys when I "need" to pop there every day.

Escape to the beautiful South West

We have just returned from 4 days in the South West Region, based in Donnybrook. Most of these 4 days I hasten to had have been spent driving the kombi thanks to a crappy GPS which must have been last updated in the 1970's.

We stayed in a little tin cottage on an 100 acre farm which was the most gorgeous place EVER! The dogs ran their little legs off, chased and barked at the cows and generally had a ball, getting to spend every minute with us.

We visited Margaret River, Bussleton and Capel, so many more places we should have gone but we were not leaving the house till late morning, the pull of the countryside and freedom was too much to abandon.

The kids loved the space and the peace and quiet and we just thought we'd died and gone to heaven. It has made me even more sure that I was a place with land and space to breathe and no bloody neighbours to listen to!

Wicked

Liz, Helen and I went to see Wicked which is a musical stage show. It was great. The set was fantastic, the acting and singing were wonderful...........just something missing which Liz declared as the songs and she was right. They were all a bit slow and mamby pamby. Nothing to really grab you, tap your foot and make you remember it. It was still a great night and we managed to squeeze a few drinkies in. Unfortunately the piccy with Helen only got her cheek!

Freo Fun

Liz and i spent a girlie weekend in Freo, yayyyh. We had a funky little room right in the middle of Freo, so easy to pop in and out of for toilet stops. We spent the first day doing the op shops and book shops. We found a wonderful Moroccan cafe with the most amazing decor and food. I will be taking Lee back there this weekend when we are down for the squash tournament.


In the evening we did a bit of a pub crawl to get to Little Creatures where we had dinner. A quick play on the swings on the way back..


and a good 15 mins watching all the weird and wonderful forms making their way into the local nightclub. Back at our room we finished our bottle of wine and I passed out! Not pretty.



Felt pretty groggy the next day, swear someone had poisoned my drink. Managed to mope round the markets and have coffee at our new cafe before heading back to normalisation. Think I might give up this drinking lark cos it ruined my Sunday for sure :(

This week...

We have that moving house bug again, the paintbrushes are out and the doors are finally being finished off (4 years later). We have been wandering round Old Quinns whimsically gazing at the lovely old homes and shacks. There is a house for sale which we have nicknamed "the 70's house" which needs heaps of work doing to it due to the fact that it is still in the 70's but hey that would be vintage now, which i love so it can stay. :) Anyway it's too expensive but we can dream.....i'm still holding out for Margaret River or Bussleton at least!

William had another bad will incident where he rang me in tears asking me to go to school because the head teacher had confiscated his scooter. Of course he wasn't riding it when she saw him zoom past the window :(. I got it back but he's not allowed to take it to school and he was in tears with his fists clenched getting angrier and angrier when she spoke to us, to the point where he stormed off. I don't know how to get through to him and help him sort it all out in his too mature but still a child head.

Caught up with Lynn and endured gross coffee which was a laugh.

Gardening wise have planted some carrots, garlic and leek. Peas and beans that I put in are not doing a thing! have been saving my egg shells and crushing them to put round the seedlings to keep those darned squidgy sluggy things away. My pumpkin plant is rambling well but flowers are just dropping off.

Work are looking at changing our shifts, I about blew a gasket because as normal no communication, just have a look at this roster! They want a 3pm start (can't do) and every second weekend, can't do unless I give up CW and loose money. I also loose my 8 days off with 4 days being my longest break. Needless to say it was a crap shift and I spend most of it with a bright red face getting redder every time someone mentioned it. The next day was much nicer when I had got over it. I have to take it as an opportunity to make things better or make a change. I've emailed her and told her what i can and can't do.

Liz is off to margaret river with wendy.................wahhhhh not fair.

Elliot has finished his exams, all 2 of them, he has been bowling, at his mates and up to moore river, he is sure getting out and about, not sure if there is a 'special" girl yet. A few "friends" but like he'd tell me anyway...:(

An adventure to the recycling centre

my friend Liz and I go on a series of "adventures". Today we headed off in Ozzil to the Balcatta tip and had such fun rumaging though a plethora of treasures. There was even a coffin there for god's sake. One of those made out of fibreboard - of course it has to be environmentally friendly. We were too nervous to take a peep inside but I wish we had!

I ended up with a hockey stick (so we can play with Oscar), Army wellies for my little man, a Christmas decco, and a light fitting to replace the one I broke in the dining area. $10 which is quite expensive really, would have been $5 max at Tamala Park.

After that excitement we headed off to Leederville for coffee in a funky cafe called Greens, had a lovely chicken and avocado toasted sarnie and the smallest coffee I have ever seen!

In the evening Lee and I went to the ballet, yes that is correct, the ballet. I have always wanted to see a ballet and it was on my bucket list (in fact the only thing on my bucket list). Hartac are sponsors of the dancer Darryl Brandon so we got free tickets (result). It was a modern production called Helix which has to do with the DNA structure. He is a fantastic dancer. Lee managed to stay awake and enjoy it so I was very impressed.

I take it back

Bad Will is back, got an email from his teacher to say he'd been involved in an incident last Friday (like 5 days ago!!!) where a girl was hit by another girl and a group of them (Will included) had all been egging her on. I am so disgusted and ashamed. Of course he denies any major part but where will it all end. He needs to get his act together....2 kids got suspended, hopefully that is enough to make the others realise their actions have serious consequences. By the way the girl is okay, just a bit of a scuffle but that's beside the point.