Screeeeech! Bang. Oooooooowww!

As Ms Morissette sang all those years ago, 'Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on yeeeooooou when you think everything's okay and everything's going riiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeiiiiight'.

And dogs, it transpires, have a funny way of sneaking right up in front of the bike tyres of husbands riding home in the dark, sending them flying not too gracefully over the handlebars.

Poor old Galumph. He hobbled in the door, clutching his chin, and whimpered (in a manly sort of way, of course) "I think we're going to need some Dettol". After sitting him down in the bathroom, and getting him to remove his hand from his chin, I had to deliver the bad news that his chin, jaggedly sliced open and oozing copious amounts of blood, was going to need a little more than Dettol. After calling our old neighbour to come over (because I don't drive, although that was definitely a time that I wished I'd gotten my licence), I patched up his knees, thighs and hands, all of which were magnificently grazed, then sent the fellas off to the emergency 24 hr clinic to get the chin looked at.

One puffy jaw, a lovely square banage and quite a few stitches later, he was back home, and definitely with some bizzare sort of delirium setting in. He kept laughing hysterically, even though I'd implore him not to, as it would make his stiches hurt.

This morning, however, it's all about the moaning and "Can you please make me another cup of milo - with a straw?". So folks, send a Get Well message his way. The old Galumph needs them!

PS I'd post a pic, but it's gruesome.

PPS The dog was fine. Stupid thing.

What Jorth did next

So, on the weekend we did the following (in no particular order):

- Had lunch at Brighton with the grandparents, where they were severely berated for forgetting my birthday, and then we enjoyed a nice stroll on the beach. Oh, and if you squint really hard at the pic you can see that somebody had graffitied 'no dog sh*t' on the sign. Whoever did it was obviously on some sort of community announcement mission, because we counted it 7 more times.

- Laughed ourselves silly as Grumbles clunked around the house wearing my red heeled boots. The kid has quite the cowboy swagger going on!

- Drove throught the city in the rain. How I love a rainy cityscape!

- Enjoyed a movie and a pint with my pal (the movie, Wah Wah, although excellent, was a little too close to the bone in relation to my own teenage years, so I did end up feeling kind of disturbed by it)

- Watched a rather scary episode of Four Corners which talked about the peaking of oil supplies, and how dooooooooomed our energy-hungry society is going to be when it alllll ruunnnnns ooooouuuuutttt! Top viewing.

- Finished the main section of my yoga wrap, which is proving to be wonderfully warm, a good thing considering that in a few years we're all dooooooooomed! I, however, will be warm and dooooomed.

Happy birthday... to all of us!

Today, my dear but somewhat invisible friends, is my birthday. Usually it is customary for the birthday person to receive the gifts, but since I am a benevolant and kind maintainer of the blogosphere, I have decided to share the gifty love around with a pressie bonanza!

All you have to do is be the first to email me, detailing which of the below gifts you would like to receive, then hang around your mailbox, salivating anxiously until it arrives. Pretty simple, huh? So, to the showcase we go!

Gift 1: Unusual Toys for you to Knit and Enjoy by Jess Hutchison.
Fabulous little booklet, this one. I got so excited when it came out that I ordered two copies, but never found anybody worthy enough to give the spare to, so hit the send button and it's yours!

Updated: This has gone!

Gift 2: Rowan's Big Easy
Been there, done that. Have you? Give it a try!

Updated: This has gone!

Gift 3: Rebecca Magazine No 23 - Summer.
Lots of cool patterns from the talented folk at Rebecca. See more here. And it's now sold out, so it's officially a rarity. Ooooh!

Updated: This has gone!

Gift 4: Rebecca Magazine No 24 - Winter.
Oh, so you prefer the winter knitting, eh. I hear, you buddy. Click, click away! (also sold out, so hurry up!)

Updated: This has gone!

Gift 5: Rebecca Magazine No 19 - Winter.
How old is this one? Just as well the designs are timeless! Dude, it's like, totally, vintage AND sold out! Quick, grab it before it crumbles into dust and overexcited archeologists start hovering over it.

Updated: This has gone!

Gift 6: Rebecca Magazine No 25 - Summer
More gorgeous summery patterns for all you summery knitters out there.

Updated: This has gone!

Ummm, that's about it. Now, only one pressie per person. Thems the rules. Good luck - if you don't hear from me for a bit, it's because I'll be in the city enjoying my Yum Cha birthday feast!

Mexican party wrap up

She reckons this isn't hot? Jeebus!

So, the party was a blast! I managed not to make the Frijoles con Queso so hot that it couldn't be eaten (I have a tendancy to be a little heavy handed with the jalepanos), and woke up the next day with not even a hint of a headache, thanks to only indulging in the wine very mildly, and drinking more water than anything else. The same, however, cannot be said for the Galumph, who got into the swing of things a little bit too much for a teetotaller, and suffered the consequences the next day, silly old bear.

I'll be honest - it won't go down in history as the craziest party that's ever been had, but it was lovely to catch up with old, treasured friends, and then feel comfortable kicking them all out before the stroke of midnight so I could catch some shut eye (cooking all day made me rather tired!). One thing I did learn, though, was never to under estimate the amount of turkish bread that will be consumed. I did, and as a result will spend the next four weeks eating all the left over home made dips. Just as well they're tasty!

Weather forecast: Fog clearing, then fine

Well, the sun is back out at chez Jorth. Phew - I hate feeling mopey! I took all of your fabulous advice on board (thanks everybody, much appreciated!), and danced, went for a big long walk, ate chocolate and had some wine - only one glass, though! And then my favourite Aunty came around this morning bearing cool, funky pressies for me and Grumbles, so I'm well and truly a happy camper. Hooray!

You'd have to be one sad, sorry sack of dung not to smile at this - it's RAD!

And as for the house saga, I guess it's a bit que sera, sera. When it happens, it'll happen. Now, I'm off to defuzz myself in prep for my birthday party tomorrow night. We're having a vegetarian Mexican feast to celebrate me turning the big 2-9. Woohooo!

It's official...

... I'm in a fug. A deep, gloomy, London pea souper kind of fug. The sort that refuses to disperse, no matter how frantically I wave my arms around the fog (and this would explain the lack of blogging. Too busy waving to type). Too much fustiness, in fact, around for me even to be bothered to find a pic to post. Oh yes, things are dire indeed. The reason - our trip. Admittedly, we have a nice, relaxing time, recharging our batteries, but the main purpose of the trip was to check out the real estate, or in other words, sort out our tree-change, and hopefully find a splendid, reasonably priced house which we could buy without too many financial difficulties.

Splendid houses abounded. Unfortunately, they were all $200,000 above our price limit. And this is in a country town! A country town which is rather handily situated for treechanging commuters to regional centres on a nice quick train line, I'll admit, but still! And it's not like we're asking for much - after all, there's only ever going to be the three of us, so all we want is a small, 2 bedroom house with enough of a backyard to put in vegie patches and fruit trees, hopefully not next door to skanky neighbours.

And you know who's pushing the prices up? The greedy sods who insist on having second homes. We went to the open-for-inspection for a great home - affordable, in the good part of town, lots of light, nice garden, etc, and whilst we were there this old crone told the agent that she was quite keen on it, as she's looking for her FOURTH INVESTMENT PROPERTY! The Galumph had to hold me back, because I was this close to tackling her to the ground, giving her a good thumping with her walking stick and screaming "Why do you need a fourth home? You're going to die soon, anyway!"

So, anyway, we came home and sat in front of our budget spreadsheet, and figured out ways to save even more. "The life of frugality must be embraced!", declared the Galumph, which in itself is pretty darn depressing, as the ol' belt doesn't have too many more notches to tighten with. With only one income coming in, it's not like we're indulging in fine dining every other night, or throwing money away on fun things. We only eat out twice a year for birthdays, for flips sake! (although in the interest of Operation Save And Become Mega Tight Asses, I've cancelled my own dinner out this year, so if you hear me crying next Wednesday, you'll know why)

Thus the fug. I know, I'm really lucky, and I have so much to be thankful for, but I'm still feeling a little gloomy. Please excuse me. Our treechange, which we thought we happen so soon, seems rather quite far off now. Plus I have a sneaking suspicion that I have my phantom period (since I don't get an actual one any more, but still have all the hormones buzzing around doing their thang like making me teary and hormonal, yes, sorry, faaaar too much info), which isn't helping matters.

So, I'm going to put on my new favourite song, and dance around the loungeroom whilst watching this until I feel better. Any other ideas for fug removal would be appreciated, as long as they are cheap!

Toodles!

Yes, yes, yes, I've had to dig through the archives to find a pic as we didn't do anything exciting on the weekend except walk into the city, walk around the city, then walk home from the city in the pouring rain, with Grumbles ensconced under the rain cover of the pram in a snug-as-a-bug fashion, the Galumph valiently strolling along wearing nothing extraordinary to protect him from the elements but (whispers) a Microsoft VSIP beanie (gah, the horror! and it was made out of bright blue polarfleece!) and me wearing my private eye disguise (vintage tan woolen coat with matching trilby, such the funkster!). So instead you are all treated to a pic of Grumbles wearing a top and a pair of overalls made by moi last summer, not that you can see them, doing her very best myopic look. As just for interest's sake, I'll mention that she is standing on the balcony of our old place that we moved from in a hurry, despite the fact that we loved it, as our scary neighbour went a bit psycho one day and stabbed himself and the police sent a swat team with full ammo around to deal with him and then he was sent home after only two days in the psych ward and then began leaving presents on our door step and knocking on the door at 11 at night to visit. Good move, that move. Still, the balcony was nice.

Now, there was a reason for this post, apart from telling you what we wore to get soaked in. That's right - we're off for a week. Down to the country we are heading for a blissful seven days of blobbing, eating, sightseeing if we can be bothered and eating (I get hungry when I travel). Enough blathering and wittering (as opposed to witting) - I must pack! And wash Grumble's good pjs as she has just sent a cascade of milo down them. Gaaaaaaaah!