October Aussie Spec Fic Blog Carnival

Is not here. But I am going to be compiling it, after responding to Nyssa’s cry for help a few minutes ago! 

So, if you blogged about something pertinent or interesting relating to (in some way), Australian Spec Fic, please email me at editormum75 at gmail dot com, or leave a comment with the link!

Thank you!

Everybody coughing, coughing, coughing…

While husband is the only one who seems to be relatively unwell, and I’m pretty much over it, we’ve all got this hideous cough that just won’t quit. Alongside that, Bub has the most enormous tooth sprouting on the top, which is causing him all sorts of grief. So we’re a bit sorry for ourselves and weary – not sleeping all that well, and with the 5am starts (thanks to bub), I’m starting to feel a bit brain dead. I need to be going to bed earlier, but that’s hard too, especially with a bucketload of assignments to mark. Ah well, will get there in the end!

Work is good. Kids are good. Things are happening on the home reno front: got all our new window coverings yesterday, which look great. Paid the second deposit for the back patio and finalised the colours today and booked the install date. Then booked the date with the fence guy, because once the patio goes in, our old pool fence will be gone, and that’s not good. And supposedly (he’s not all that reliable), the pool liner will go in on Friday, which will be great. So things are all happening!

I also booked our tickets to visit the grandparents after Christmas – braindeadness cost me about $400 cos I’m an idiot, but we’re booked, which is nice. Helps with planning, and it’s one more thing done.

So now I’m focussing on marking assignments, working on the school yearbook (which should have been at signoff point, but unfortunately, due to staff changes, didn’t get done throughout the year), and getting caught up on three terms of work

Mini-Reviews #19

To the detriment of other things that really should be getting done, I’ve actually managed to get through quite a few books recently, including a few urgent reviews.

Going Bovine, Libba Bray - Gave up on this – skipped the second half and read the last couple of chapters. Yeah, went where I thought.

The Uncrowned King: Book Two of The Chronicles of King Rolen’s Kin, Rowena Cory Daniells - Thoroughly enjoying these books and delighted they’ve been released so close together, because it means the wait is less! Daniells is a nasty, mean author to her characters, but to very good effect. Fairly straightforward plot but the characters jump off the page.

The Usurper: Book Three of The Chronicles of King Rolen’s Kin, Rowena Cory Daniells - Very fast paced final book, but I was very cross at the ending! There’s definitely more to come in this world!
Eight Grade Bites, Heather Brewer - Not a bad read, and a good one for boys to read that beats the more romancey YA stuff!

Ninth Grade Slays, Heather Brewer - Interesting portrayal of vampires as fairly amoral, although it’s a bit conflicted in the characters.

Blue Bloods, Masquerade, Revelations and The Van Alen Legacy, Melissa de la Cruz - Surprised by how much I enjoyed these (very much linked) books. Some interesting ideas and quite compelling characters. Give to the Twilight set!

Need, Carrie Jones – Nothing fancy here, but a solid addition to the YA Paranormal pantheon, this time with pixies and shapeshifters. 

Wolfbane, Sue Bursztynski - Thoroughly enjoyed this – could have wished for more detail in characterisation and a bit more plot development, but a great read.

Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins - A bleak but solid end to the trilogy.

Back at work

And it’s kind of nice. I mean, I’ve loved these last nine months being home with the kids, and having as much time as I like to work on publishing, and to go visiting, and whatever else strikes my fancy, but I absolutely love my job, and my school, and the staff (generally) and the kids (mostly), so it’s really really nice to be back. 

The last few days of the holidays were about me figuring out what I absolutely had to get done before work started again, regretting that I hadn’t done more on my leave, and then getting some things done. Miss Five passed her swimming level and will be on Level 3 when she does her next lot of lessons. Given that won’t be til next Easter most likely (as it looks like we’re going to do Queensland for a few weeks after Christmas this year, which is when the next Vac Swim sessions are), I imagine she’ll probably be ready for Level 4 by then, as we’ll have been swimming all summer! She really enjoyed the lessons though, which is nice – her enthusiasm for ballet and other activities was never as high as she sustained throughout the swimming, so I guess that shows where her real passion is.

Confession time – we didn’t cancel the birthday party. I just couldn’t do it to her, and you know what? We keep getting advice saying not to punish the behaviour, rather to reward correct behaviour. Which is what we’re trying now (again). So yeah, good mummy felt too bad about it and let the party happen (and justified it with psychological reasons). And she really enjoyed it. And the little fairies all looked very cute.

Saturday afternoon we went up to the airport to collect Master Seven from his Queensland plane. Lucky we left early. We walked off the elevator to the gates as the first of the passengers disembarked from his plane. A full 40 minutes early! He was very pleased to see us (especially the baby, who was equally excited to see his big brother), although he’d been very upset to leave Granna and Grandpop and apparently was quite distraught for the first half hour or so on the plane He thinks we should move back to Queensland so he can be closer to them – it’s very sweet.

Sunday was a getting organised day where I continued to search for the tickets to the Ben 10 Live show I bought absolutely MONTHS ago (and had already wrangled with Ticketek over to change from a Saturday show to a Sunday one when we decided to send the boy over East). I looked EVERYWHERE (and still haven’t come across them) and was resigned to not going (which I wasn’t all that worried about, and interestingly, neither was M7), but when the very lovely Dan Simpson, who was at an earlier show, tweeted to say he’d checked and found out we could pay $10 extra and get tickets reissued, with the credit card I bought the tickets with originally and photo ID. By this time it was 3pm, so I hustled the kids dressed (ahem, no, they weren’t!) and into the car to drop M5 and the baby at a friend’s place and race to the train station. We literally ran over the footbridge to make the train (and M5 enjoyed his first ever TransPerth train ride) and made it up to the Convention Centre with plenty of time to spare. And he absolutely LOVED the show. I really like Ben 10 and its spin offs, and it wasn’t a bad show (although our seats weren’t great and we could hardly see the backdrop, which had projections on it, at all), although I snorted a few times and giggled once or twice at the overacting or silly "fights". It was quite clever overall I guess, but my biggest issue was with the portrayal of teenage Gwen. In the tv show, she’s very capable and very powerful. In the Live show, she seemed to need rescuing by the rest of the cast (Ben, Kevin or Grandpa) a lot, and boy, did they skank up her outfit! Considering the majority of the audience was under 10 (well, except for the parents – I suppose the dads may have enjoyed the "look"), it was a bit much. But the kids didn’t care about the flaws – M7 was so excited and really enjoyed it, so I guess it achieved its purpose.

And then came Monday. Back to work (to a pupil free day) – was nice to ease back in, although to be honest, until the kids come back and the teachers start to need stuff, it’s really not work for me! But it was good to be back. Bub handled his first day of daycare very well, and the carers seemed to love him, which is good. He was buggered though! We went grocery shopping after I picked the kids up, which they all coped with, but by the time we got home, bub was visibly drooping. He managed a bath and a bottle, and then crashed by 6.30, even falling asleep on me, which he rarely does!

Tuesday brought the kids back! Was a full on day, as we were also using our new web-based library system for the first time and it was very buggy. Day flew by and I didn’t leave until after 5. Felt like I was right back into it though By the time I got the kids and we got home, bub was almost asleep! Put him to bed at 6pm and he slept through til 5.30 – brought him in with me and he slept again til 7! And then went down again around 9 and didn’t wake up til 1pm! And had ANOTHER nap later in the afternoon, and STILL went to bed at 6.30! Yep, he’s exhausted – all that playing! So today was pretty quiet – we were going to go to storytime at the library but I wanted to let the baby sleep himself out, so missed all that. Ah well, there’s always tomorrow. 

And isn’t this the most GORGEOUS photo?

Birthdays

Well, Miss Four is now Miss Five. She got a nice little haul of pressies, and was apparently delighted with them all, which is nice. Bub was also very impressed with them, and enjoyed unwrapping them with his big sis! We had a special treat Maccas for brekkie, then swimming lessons first up, then Helen Merrick’s daughter much of the day. I finished off the birthday cake this morning, and after they consumed a bunch of fruit for lunch, the girls were very pleased to devour (with hubby’s help!) at least half the cake! 

This afternoon I popped to the shops to pick up the professional photos I got done of Bub a couple of weeks ago (on the same day the big kids had school photos), and on the way I accidentally wandered into JB HiFi and upgraded my (starting to have little problems) iPhone to a #4. I had only planned to find out the cost, but they aren’t selling handsets on their own. I was very surprised to find I could get the new phone for FREE just for re-signing my Telstra contract (which I hadn’t actually realised had expired) – now costing me LESS per month, with MORE included calls and MORE data! Very strange, but not complaining. I paid $199 extra for the 32GB rather than the free 16GB, but think it’s worth it. And I actually quite like the new shape – seems to fit in the hand better. Oh, and I FINALLY got a new phone cover that has a CLIP! I rarely have pockets, and I like to be able to carry my phone on me when I’m out and about, so was pleased to get this. 

Last day of swimming lessons tomorrow, and I think there’ll be an extended swim with friends after, then a trip to the park or the beach with Miss Five’s school friends. And then it’s only two days til I go back to work!