New dress

Annabelle's grandparents sent her a new dress and shoes from their holiday in Singapore. We had to take a picture to send to them so I thought I'd post it here. She looks so grown up!!

Good grief, it's quiet around here

Sorry about that. Last Friday I had a meeting with my research supervisors and got filled in on all the things I have to do to get my final ethics approval from the hospital. There were only a few wee things to be done to get the hospital approval, but I had TOTALLY forgotten that I need to get uni approval too. Derr!! So it's been a mad rush to put together a 2nd ethics application this week, as well as make all the amendments to the first one.

Annabelle was only in daycare for two days and it's been impossible to get anything done with her home so all the while she's been home, I've been quietly stressing about the fact that it's not being done! But over the past two days I've managed to get most of it sorted out I think, so today (while she's home again) we will be busily running all over the city getting signatures and verifications and submitting them all to the respective committees.

To put it in perspective, the group I am evaluating for my research starts in early February. I have to meet the participants, get their consent and give them some questionnaires to do before the group starts but I can't do a single thing until I get the ethics approval. It is now 14th January.... EEK!!!

In other news, Annabelle is gorgeous and I've been loving spending more time with her. She was adamant she didn't want to go back to daycare this week but once she got there she loved it. She is constantly asking me for a baby brother AND a baby sister. She even came up with the amazing plan that to lighten the load for everyone, I could grow the sister in my tummy and dad could grow the brother in his (you know, because he's a boy and everything). So I've told her that only mums can grow babies and there can only be one, so I might work on a brother for her later in the year. She seems ok with that for now.

So far, so good

It's 3pm. I've been to the gym, made a trip to Bunnings, sorted a heap of Annabelle's old toys and clothes out, supervised various craft activities, fed child, fed me, and at this rate, I may well have the house in some semblance of order before Mel gets home from work.

All of this without requiring a nap.

I'm cured.

January blues

Hola!

We got back from Queensland last week and have been slowly settling back into Adelaide life and mentally preparing for the year ahead. It's going to be a doozy but more on that later (no, I'm not having a baby) (although TWO psychics have told me to be EXTRA careful if I don't want to have a baby because there is a spirit baby hanging around me waiting to be born....).

We spent New Year's Eve across the road at our friends' house and we were home in bed by 9.30pm, just the way I like it.

Since then, we have been a bit miserable. I thought I might be sick since I've had no energy or motivation to do the things that need to be done around the place. The house is a bombsite and all I want to do is SLEEP! Mel thought maybe I should go to the doctor and see if I'm iron-deficient since I don't eat meat. But just quietly I'm pretty sure the problem has not been physical, but mental. I feel completely overwhelmed by the workload ahead of me this year. I've got nagging worries about ethics approvals and research projects and managing to get a placement since I missed out on one this semester.

Even though there are three weeks until I "officially" go back to uni, I've got that perpetual uni guilt cranking up again telling me that I should be doing something to prepare. I should be harassing someone about a placement. I should be starting my Lit Review (I really should). I should be cleaning out my office. When will I start Annabelle back at daycare? Should I be paying for daycare when she could be at home with me? Or should she be at daycare so that I can get back into work mode. Blah blah BLAH!!

I think the issue was compounded by Mel being home and "on holidays" until today. His being here was a reminder that it's all coming to an end very soon and life is getting back to normal.

But today he goes back to work and paradoxically, I feel a little lighter. I can get back into my own routine now; the one that involves me managing my days and my time and not feeling pressure to enjoy those damn holidays while they last. The gym is open normal hours and people are back at work so I can contact people and get things done instead of stressing about them not getting done. Hopefully my mysterious ailment will cure itself now.

Boarding

I haven't even posted an update on the fab Sydney trip and now we are
at the airport heading to sunny Queensland. Will post pics and stories
soon.

Bon voyage!!

Sent from my iPhone

My travels

On Sunday I'm heading to Sydney for five fabulous days to myself. I am going to see the Dalai Lama for a couple of days with friends from Queensland I haven't seen for AGES. A few friends are also Dalai Lama-ing so no doubt there'll be some lunches/dinners/drinks for catching up. I'm going to have a look at our house in Summer Hill and I'm going to catch up with Sydney friends for coffees and generally have a lovely child-free break.



On Sunday I'm attending my friend's 40th birthday/Divorce party. They are still in the midst of sorting out property and parenting arrangements and it's all a bit yuck. It's a shame it wasn't all sorted by the time she had her party. Check out the cake:



Then I will be back from Sydney on Thursday night and a week later, we all (me, Mel and Belle) will head to Queensland for our official three-week holiday. We haven't had a three week holiday in.... well since our honeymoon I suspect! We'll spend 10 days on the Gold Coast, a few days with friends on the Sunshine Coast, perhaps a day or two in Brisbane and we'll be in Toowoomba for Christmas.



I don't think I could be any more excited. Let the fun times roll.

Patience, grasshopper

I got onto eBay and bought a lens for my camera. It's a fairly standard lens except now it comes with Image Stabiliser (I.S) and the one I'm using is the one that came with Mav's camera 5 years ago and back then they didn't have I.S. It cost me $170, but if I bought it with my camera I would have paid about an extra $300 so I thought I got a bargain.

Also, apart from wanting the I.S. function it occurred to me that since I stole all Mav's lenses to use on my new camera, he actually can't use his camera. D'oh! How unlike me to be thinking completely of myself.

Here is the lens that I am patiently waiting to have delivered by registered post. Ok, there is nothing patient about my waiting. I paid on Sunday night and it was posted on Monday from Melbourne and it's still not here. I have checked the post box several times every day. I have called the local post office. I have re-checked the postage date with the seller. That lens had better be here today.





The worst thing about this whole experience (or the best thing, depending on how you look at it) is that I have discovered there are many, many lovely lenses on eBay for a fraction of the retail price. I could really spend some money if I had money to spend. Which I don't (darn being a full-time student). Another lesson in patience....

How remiss of me

It has been brought to my attention that I alluded to the possibility of relocating overseas next year and then never followed it up with details.

Well it wasn't really an accident. We still don't know anything definite which is why I haven't said any more (at least not on the internet). But it looks quite likely that Mav will take a job in the Middle East next year. This will pose a few dilemmas...

Firstly, I need to stay here and finish my Masters. So regardless of when he goes (possibly anywhere up to and including July??) we'll be on opposite sides of the world from each other for a wee while. I'm used to being a single parent but I kind of like that he comes home fairly regularly, so I'm not keen on this idea. I'm quite sure Miss Annabelle will not be thrilled either.

Secondly, even when I finish my Masters, I'm not sure if it will be recognised where we are going so I may have done all this work to not be able to practice. Hmmm.... that would be a bitch to say the least. I still have to find out more about that yet.

On the upside, it would be a great experience for a few years, there is a great ex-pat community so we'd have lots of friends, and coincidentally enough, even some of my Adelaide friends are thinking of going there. So I could just take the Adelaide crowd with me to Arab-land. :)

There is also good money to be made, of course. And there would be excellent schools for Annabelle.

There is restricted access to the internet and no Skype. And I don't want to give up my pots and plants and not be able to get a dog. (I'm back on the downsides now).

So if I spend too much time thinking about it, I'm like a pendulum going back and forth, back and forth deciding whether I'm excited or anxious. A bit of both. So rather than think too much about it, I'm focusing on finishing my course and having a very lovely holiday in Queensland in December. Will post details as they come to hand...

Hello, blog.

I've been rather neglectful of our relationship of late. I've thought about you, but given other matters higher priority. I feel badly about that.

The good news is that tomorrow is my final day of placement and for the most part, it has gone very, very well. I've learned some invaluable skills and I feel like I've really progressed a long way along my path to being a good therapist. Still a long, long way to go of course... but for now I'm happy with how far I've come.

So now I have one essay to write, and an ethics application to submit for my research project (so that I will be able to get cracking with my research in the new year) and that's it. My work is done for the year.

Except that the other wee jobby I have to get done is marking those FUCKING 2nd year assignments. argh! Whose stupid idea was it to take on tutoring this semester? The tutoring bit was ok. The money was so-so. The bloody marking though. Faaaaaaarrrrkkkk... it is never-ending!! At first it was taking me a minimum of 30 minutes to mark a paper, and then after marking a few, I was going back to re-check the marks I'd given. So really about 45 minutes per paper. Which might be ok except that there are 75 of the bastards to be marked!! I did some quick sums and realised that I DO NOT have a spare 40-50hrs up my sleeve.

So now I'm being ruthless and I've got them down to 15 minutes per paper. I figure no tutor or lecturer has ever been sufficiently concerned about the future of my academic career (or my feelings for that matter) to invest 30-45 minutes on any paper I've written. So 15 minutes it is.

When it's all done, I'll be back to share stories. For now, I'm going to bed to get some decent sleep because sleep is something that I've been sorely lacking.

Photo updates

I tend to post all my photos on Facebook and then couldn't be arsed putting them here (it's much slower here...) so I thought I'd post a few recent ones from ....first of all... our breakfast in McLaren Vale at the weekend.