did i do that?

leav'n on a jet plane...

Hey y'all!!!

I'm off to the land of stars and stripes!  Won't be back for three whole weeks!

I might even do a post over there if I find the time between shopping, socialising, frolicking and most importantly, observing.

If I may leave you with one word.  I don't want you to click into this blog and find no one home and just click out again!

YOUR TASK (SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT) IS THAT DURING MY ABSENCE YOU MUST LEAVE ME A COMMENT SUBSTITUTING THE WORD -

'CABBAGE'

FOR A KEY COMPONENT OF THE COMMENT.  I WILL THEN MAKE IT MY LIFE'S MISSION TO FIGURE OUT WHAT THE HECK YOU ARE TRYING TO SAY!!!!

Going...

Oh!!!! One more thing...

...Never mind...

what's the deal with qantas?

There has been incident after incident after incident with Qantas of late!  It used to be the safest airline in the world and for what ever reason - whether it is outsourcing maintenance or downsizing employees (not that they will be getting shorter or anything - but... you know what I mean) the inevitable result will be a major airline disaster!!!!

And WHY am I concerned you may well ask!

I'm hopping on a 14 hour flight on Saturday!!!!

My CHILDREN'S MOTHER will be putting my children's future well-being in the hands of a company that may well fail to deliver their mother back to them!

Two words.

HOLY. CRAP.

UPDATE:  (added after I get the impression y'all think I'm a nervous flyer)

OK Alright Alrighty Ok ok ok...

For any of you who don't know me, I am NOT a 'Freak Out' monger.  I have no qualms about venturing full throttle into uncharted territory but you'll have to admit, Qantas is hitting the news stands with a WHOLE LOT of issues in the last few months.  Am I getting a tap on the shoulder or what?

If anything 'untoward' should occur in-flight please know that I have my finger up the pilot's right nostril and I'm giving him a good piece of my mind... well, if I aren't doing it physically, I will be doing it in spirit and wishing a thousand hemorrhoids on the maintenance man who cocked up.  So there.

all systems go...

My life this past week has been focused on organising, completing, preparing, planning and feeling like I am getting nowhere fast. My keyboard is on the fritz so I have small windows of opportunity to post, comment and net surf on the other puter in the house.  The other two puters are down for the count and will inevitably go to the big useless puter yard in the sky.  I've also had an air conditioner in the scrap room go kaput and a washing machine go kaputski as well.  It's not a good thing when there are 6 people in the house.  Mother dearest has been so kind as to take my washing away only to return it washed, dried and IRONED!!! WHEEEEE!!! Do you think she would believe me if I told her it dies every week?

Anyway! It's only several more sleeps and Sherryn and I will be off to the "Land of the Free" as Kristi put it in my last post.

If I wasn't so busy I would have the time to become more excited about finally meeting the flesh and blood people whose cyber presence has made my life in front of this puter thing so much more entertaining over the last two years.

During our travels we will finally be meeting these people in person.

So I've been quite productive this past week in the scrappy department.  Under pressure is an understatement.  I have October and November to get out as well other stuff.  Here are some sneaks...

 

And this was last month's Sketched! at Scrapbooks etc.

Only one more layout to do before I can concentrate on not forgetting to pack anything.

I'm not freaking!  I'm not!

I'll leave you with this little gem...

I worry that I have damaged my children. And if you're wondering what she has in her hand - it's a "mini brain" according to her...

you learn something new every day...

... and this particular day was no exception. This particular day down at the park I had a fiddle with the settings on my camera and noticed that the colours went from this...
 

to this...

Subtle but better none-the-less.  Amazing!  Who'da thunk?  Thems camera maker men are so smart!  First gobsmacker of the day!

I also learnt that the trendy way to swing is on your belly and not your butt as the rest of the world would have it.

You can reach great heights and perform various manoevres when you break the 'Swing' rules.

And when you reach these great heights you are bound to run into an old friend...

Apparently, you can die on a swing as well...

...and it's contagious...

This learning thing is FUN!

My third lesson of the day is that if I had a choice whether or not to take a carload of GIRLS or a carload of BOYS to the park and I opted to take the carload of GIRLS, I was the lucky one...

Girls play NICE!!!

Have you ever noticed that there are some things that are embedded deep within your memory that will probably NEVER go away?  Insignificant at the time but apparently 3 decades later the memory will come bubbling to the surface like a bath after baked beans...

Here lurketh Lesson Four...  And then along strolled Mr Smith...

He is aptly named Mr Smith because of his gait.  Check it...

Meet my reincarnated Science teacher from Third Form (Grade 8).  Skinny dude with a long hooked nose who walked like an Ibis.  He also sounded like those guys on "Dude! Where's My Car?"  Actually, I'm pretty convinced that when he drove that old Humber 80 in the staff car park he secretly worshipped Cheech and Chong.  Because it had the pom pom fringing around the windscreen.  And when he got out of the car it was almost like he would unfold like a transformer with a huge puff of smoke.  He was pretty long was Mr Smith...  Don't recall him ever wearing feathers though...

But isn't it weird how small things like an Ibis will remind you of your old Science teacher?

And this here looks like that hunk o' burnin' love I met nigh on 22 years ago... 

'cept without the technology stuck to his ear... and without the Photoshopped-ness.