Ding dong the other witch is dead! Well, the warlock actually. Andrew is gone from BB, another sour character who took himself way too seriously.

I liked him to begin with but towards the end he was doing my head in.

[The little voices in my head are telling me that I hate Emma and Andrew so much because they are somewhat like moi! NOOOOOOO! Say it isn't so.]

I'm a bit scared to actually write this but... there is a good chance we will be moving... into a waterfront apartment. It's a fabulous apartment we saw a few months ago but put out of our minds because of the price tag. Some things have changed and it may be a possibility.

I have always wanted a waterfront apartment. A dream. Given, this one isn't on Sydney Harbour but we can work our way towards that. It is on the Parramatta River and we would have our very own shipwreck right outside our huge entertainment deck.

Anyway too anxious and crazy to go into more details right now. So much to do and think about.

Stay tuned for more info.

Here's a sneak peak if you're interested. My new home?

I used to listen to the youth station Triple J but these days, having well and truly become an old[er] person, I find the music incomprehesible rubbish and the talk... well, more incomprehesible rubbish. Which is why the non-denominational mystical entity in the sky must have been looking down upon me when I was driving to work last week and pressed the Triple J preset for a second. What was playing? The gorgeous Regina Spektor ofcourse. So I stopped by to listen and was rewarded by news of her upcoming concert tour of Oz in July.

The pre-sale started that very morning and very soon after I was the proud owner of 2 Regina Spektor tix for 11 July. Happy happy joy joy! Can't wait to hear her sweet voice live and in person in only a few short weeks (how refreshing for concert tix to go on sale only a month before a show, mostly I buy tickets 6, 7, 9 months in advance - the promotor hangs onto my hard-earned and I live in danger of loosing tickets which must hang on my fridge for months on end).

I never loved nobody fully
Always one foot on the ground
And by protecting my heart truly
I got lost in the sounds
I hear in my mind
All of these voices
I hear in my mind all these words
I hear in my mind all this music

And it breaks my heart

Ding Dong The Witch Is DEAD!! Whooppee. Well, she may not be dead but she's been evicted and that's the Big Brother equivalent.

Emma has been evicted and all is well in my BB universe.

The cherry(ies) on last night's cake were the two new intruders - Michelle (the pint-sized female equivalent of Travis) and Zach (the campest camp camper you're ever likely to see - he makes corsets for a living and wore one underneath his spiffy white suit, all of which he sewed with his own fair hands). [ I loved last year's camp offering Rob. I so wished (and continue to wish) that he was my gay boyfriend.]

Oh Joy! Bring on the new BB dynamics - now that the evil witch is gone I'm hoping for something bigger and better in there - and hoping that my hoping is not in vain but fearing (going by many years of past experience) that it is.

I have been too bored with Big Brother to post much about it. Of course I've been watching it religiously but it really is just a bad habit and while it's better for my health than smoking or drinking (if we're talking bad habits) but it's not great for my mental health.

Most of the people on BB make me yawn.

Currently only two inspire strong(ish) feelings of any kind.

1) Travis. He's fan-bloody-tanstic. He's a walking Australian-isms dictionary and everything that comes out of his mouth needs to be recorded into some sort of time capsule of Australian language. While I would certainly kill myself if I had to live with someone who spoke like that all the time, I eagerly await his pearls of wisdom each night. Travis to win!!

2) Emma. I want her to die. Painfully. Immediately, if not sooner.

More than enough said about BB. Bring on Friday Night Live.

Sign #427 that the world is simply, unarguably mad:


Australia shamed on IR blacklist


Words fail me. But this helps:





















And this: GET A GRIP LEFTY NUTBAGS!!

According to this fount of knowledge! Carbon Credits seem to be worth AU$23 per tonne. Whatever the fuck that means?!

I wonder how much the Martians will be paying for their Carbon Credits?

Sheesh!

My dad has suggested the next Labor Party recuits from the ABC will be Bananas in Pyjamas.

I haven't laughed so hard for ages.

The "design" of my last entry is thanks to NEW Blogger.

Thanks for nothing Blogger.

Sheesh!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Princess.

Back-wise I'm feeling better. Much better. Thanks for the good wishes.

I am starting my research into a convenient Pilates class near home - because that will apparently be my only saviour in the long term.

I don't know what to make of this:

Anthony Kiedis and model girlfriend expecting first child

I'm sort of happy for Anthony though I have doubts as to what sort of dad he might make. I think it's the fact that the mother of his child to be is 20 years old. Nothing new, I know, but I still find it somewhat distasteful. It says something of his character which doesn't sit well with me.

Please prove me wrong AK!

This week I have learnt a few things.

I have learnt I have a slightly bulging disc in my lower back. I learnt this after having $635 worth of x-rays and CT scans. How do poor people find out about their bulging discs?

I have learnt about a whole new world of pain I had never even suspected existed.

I have learnt how hard it is to do the simplest things, like getting out of bed and going to the bathroom, when your back is in agony.

I have learnt that two days of being in bed is fucking boring. I mean really really insanely boring. Day time tv is not fit for human consumption, even with Foxtel I was reduced to Oprah re-runs.

I have learnt that it is very difficult for my anally-retentive personality to let go and allow others to help me. But I have also learnt that my family is the best (well, I already knew that). They have gone above and beyond to help me and I can't be grateful enough.

I have learnt that I am getting old/er and I can't take things for granted any longer. I must start doing Pilates to increase my back/stomach strength so that they may better support my crumbling spine.

I have learnt that getting old/er SUCKS!

I suppose I should recap briefly on the subject of Mother's Day.

I started off in a fairly bad mood because my Swannies got another flogging on Saturday night which was extremely disappointing to say the least. Then Marianna woke me up at 5:20 am which is not the time of day I had hoped I would be waking on Mother's Day.

Things improved when we drove down to glorious Bronte Beach for a scrumptious breakfast with my mum and Jason's mum (who is here visiting us from Perth).

We then drove out to Rookwood to visit my grandmother's grave and to see her newly erected gravestone. This seems to be a popular Mother's Day passtime as there were hundreds of other people at the cemetery.

The afternoon was spent bowling. Thank goodness we bowl with the kids and get to use the bumpers because otherwise I'd be scoring in the single digits. It is sad and somewhat embaressing when you're consistantly outscored by your less-than-two-year-old daughter.

We finished off a busy day with a lovely drive down to Berowra Waters and a trip on the car ferry (much to the children's delight). We took both of Jason's mums to the Waterside restaurant which features a quality over quantity seafood buffet. It was refreshing to see a buffet with superb oysters and smoked salmon, mussels and prawns, rather than the 3rd rate stuff you normally get. The food was lovely and the place was very child friendly so we didn't feel overly stressed about the kids running around the place. There was even a single rose for every mum.... corny but sweet.

Oh, and "the kids" got me a Swedish Goddess Massage from Ella Bache. These vouchers are starting to stack up. I better start making some bookings and let the pampering commence. It's a hard life.

I'm watching Monday night eviction on BB.

Travis deserves to win right now for nominating Emma because she hides toilet paper which makes him very anxious when he has to "take the kids on the waterslide". Isn't that the best damn Aussie-ism that you've ever heard!

That man is the Oz-iest human being I have ever set eyes on. Beauty bonza mate!

There's no better Mother's Day gift than Bodie and TJ being shafted from Big Brother. A happy day finished off with the ultimate gift. Jeez, I hated those two. If only Emma would get struck by lightening... that would really be icing on the cake.

I've also done a back flip on Demet. She seemed cool but has turned out to be a prize shithead.

Down with Emma and Demet!!!

Feeling sad right now.

One serious reason. That poor little Madeleine who was kidnapped in Portugal a week ago. It was her birthday today and the story on the news made me cry. My heart hurts for her and her family. I can't even begin to imagine the horror her family is living through. I will pray in my non-believer way that she is alive and will return to her family. No punishment is horrible enough for the scum who did this.

One not-so-serious reason. I was watching the 'Til Death Do Us Part Marathon on MTV this afternoon and it made me so sad that Dave and Carmen split up last year. They were so gorgeous during the planning of their wedding and on their actual wedding day. They genuinely seemed like good, weird, but good people. People who really loved, liked and respected each other. I shook Dave's hand at a back stage meet and greet when he toured with the Chili Peppers all those years ago and I felt a deep soul behind those dark dark eyes. I hope you have peace and happiness Dave and Carmen.

Kate was booted off Big Brother last [Sunday] night. The first for 2007. I don't care. She's a weird bird, no doubt about it. Totally loco really.

Last week BB brought out the tired old plastic baby exercise for the housemates. Nothing new. Kate's reaction was new. She came out with her story of having a still born baby 18 months ago. Lots of tears, threats of leaving BB and general shananigins. A lot of teary statements about "never getting over it".

Call me a cold hearted bitch but I don't know how a woman can go through such a horrific experience (I miscarried very early in my pregnancy almost 20 years ago and it almost killed me - psychologically - at the time) and then within a few months apply to go on a shallow tv program like Big Brother. Let alone how she could actually go on it only 18 months later.

There's a part of me that's sympathetic to her pain and loss and a part of me that's like "what the...?".

Which brings me to more cases of "what the...?". Like the Bodie and TJ "relationship". Like Emma and the whole "cool" gang.

Bodie and TJ have been nominated for evicition this week and Gretel was on the radio yesterday saying that the "interesting" people (like these two mental giants, presumably) should be kept in and the "boring" people voted off. I'm sorry, if people like Bodie and TJ are interesting well give me boring any time. Also, my theory is that when the interesting (i.e. totally self obsessed, loud-mouthed, dumb as dog shit) people are evicted it leaves more room in the house for the so-called boring to people to come out of their shell and reveal what in the past has proven to be a much deeper, really more interesting personality.

And if you're wondering why I'm bothering to think so deeply about this tripe, well, yes I am really that shallow. Surprise!

Must go the Big Brother "Golden Key" special is starting.

The Swans had another loss. It was a horrible way to finish Saturday night. After Will's party all I wanted was to go home, put my feet up, have a cuppa and watch the Swans kick the Kangaroos' backsides all over Telstra Dome. Well it was my boys who got a kicking I'm afraid. Boo bloody hoo!

Oh, you know... next week...

I have mixed emotions about children's birthday parties.

On the one hand I have such fond memories of attending parties from my own childhood I am determined that my children will enjoy a birthday extraveganza each and every year of their own childhoods. As a child I remember them as magical moments. The anticipation (usually followed by frustration) of pass the parcel (in my day the mothers weren't as polite as to include a small prize under each sheet of wrapping paper - there was only the one major prize at the end - and many disappointed children). The musical statues (which I could never excel at, being much too excited to stand still even for a moment). The party food - oh the bliss of red cordial and chocolate crackles - a luxury I never experienced in my migrant Russian Jewish household. My all time favourite memory is of being one of a small group, the chosen few, who were invited to Katie's birthday party - at a pantomime. It was the most wonderful thing I had ever seen. I was enthralled and that memory will be with me always.

This is the magic I try to re-create for my children but I'm sure today's children are much more jaded and cynical to experience the joy and wonder I did all those years ago.

On the other hand being the mother of the birthday child is hell on earth. For example, on Saturday we hosted Will's 8th birthday party, a bowling party at his request. There were 23 children all up, including Marianna who wanted to bowl (she won in her lane!). Getting the children's shoes on and lanes assigned was long and labourious. The air conditioning wasn't working at the bowling alley so we were all hot and bothered. I was shit scared of losing a child or having a child hurt themselves or having a bored child. There were so many potential danger areas.

In the end all went well. The kids bowled happily, spent their tokens in the fun zone and ate their party food. Will was a happy birthday boy and went home with a literal mountain of presents.

I swear after 21 they are on their own as far as this party caper is concerned!