Brooksy's World

I Wish I Could Blow Up The Telly... (okay, and the mobile phones)

2006-08-09T17:02:00.000-07:00

A few things have been getting on my goat recently and I just gotta get it out there and say my piece, even if no-one reads it!...

Are you familiar with The Whitlams song "I wish I could blow up the pokies"?, that song has always held a special meaning to me, not because I have a gambling addiction but because I know so many who do, and unfortunately I have seen this addiction literally, “take the food off the table”! We all know the social problems as a result of a gambling addiction, and what are we doing about it? Nothing….

In fact it’s getting worse….”The pokies” are now in OUR HOMES in the form of television and the SCUM are targeting our teenagers!!!…On no less than two occasions this week I have had Ethan come to me asking to use my mobile phone to enter television competitions, one was for a $3000 prize, all you had to do was text the answer to the SUPER EASY question, play the multiple question quiz and you could win win win!…I asked him if he read the fine print on the ad, and he hadn’t. He simply saw a way of making a quick $3000 bucks. I asked him to consider the following multiple question quiz and how “easy” the next question may be, and then to consider the cost of sending these SMS messages, often the cost of receiving a response is just as much!

On the next occasion the television had a SMS competition for a reverse auction, the prize was a Plasma TV, the competition seemed quite simple, text your lowest bid to the number and if your bid is unique and the lowest you win the prize for your bid amount. Once again Ethan asked to use my mobile phone to place a bid, he was quite sure he had a unique bid amount and would win, I asked if he had read the fine print, and again he hadn’t. I waited until the ad played again (which not surprisingly, was the very next ad break) I read the fine print out loud to Ethan and he was surprised to discover placing a bid cost a tidy little sum of $5.00 for sending and 55 cents to receive a response. No doubt it would be very difficult to achieve a unique bid AND retain it for the life of the competition. Remember, it has to remain the LOWEST unique bid to win! How much money does one have to spend to attain the lowest unique bid in the first place?

Imagine the money these SCUM are making from our imprudent teens with access to a mobile phone!. As a mum I want to be able to provide my child with a mobile phone for safety reasons and safety reasons alone. Never in my wildest dreams did I think the mobile phone would introduce our children to something far more sinister than the dangers in society. This is only setting the foundations to a lifelong gambling problem!, Teaching our teens to gamble before they are legally allowed to! What happens when they are legally allowed to walk into a bar or a casino where the prizes are much bigger? How many of us are going to be feeding our grandchildren because Mum or Dad blew their pay at the casino?
Shame on these SCUM for running such “competitions” and shame on the television networks that promote them! Wake up…there’s a gambling epidemic headed our way!

Quick Update

2006-07-03T02:12:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick update, the kidlets are on holidays and so is the other half, so not much time to do anything other than entertain, clean and cook...

We took the kid's to the show on Saturday, it was their first time so I was all excited, I mean really hyped about doing this big family day out, only to find it ended up quite a flop...Lesson learned, don't let the kids get their showbags till the end, they spent the remainder of the time complaining they wanted to go home and play with their new toys, not even another go on the bumper cars would persuade them! We did manage to see all the animals, did I ever mention I am terrified of horses?...I was walking down the path to the cow pavilion only to be confronted by a horse, of course it was on a lead with a person walking it but that didn't stop me doing a quick turn and running in the opposite direction...I'm sure everyone had a laugh because I stood there and watched quite a long procession of horses being lead out to the ring and refused to go down that way until Keiron went down and cleared the way for me...To get to showbag alley we had to walk past the stables also, should have seen me running my butt off to get past those stables, must have been quite a sight...lol

All in all it was a good day, except the kids wanting to leave bit, showbag alley definitely comes last next year!

Saturday!

2006-06-16T21:59:00.000-07:00

Wow wow wow what a fun fun day we have had... We did a photo shoot today, for two reasons, I wanted some professional looking shots of the whole family for a photo wall I'm working on, and two I wanted some pics of me in my new clothes!...Yes I went out Thursday night and bought $210 worth of new skinny clothes, I had so much fun I think I tried just about everything on just to see if it fits...It's hard to believe sometimes, I hold up this tiny little shirt and think there's no way that's going to fit me, but often I surprise myself and it does..I guess I still think like a large girl!..Anyways here's some of today pics which will soon be gracing my new photo-wall...

Whew & Thankyou!

2006-06-14T15:46:00.000-07:00

Man what a week it's been!..It's seems I'm finally getting caught up with things around the home, can you believe I let the paperwork pile up since December!..This week I have set myself a goal, I pick one cupboard a day and I'm sorting through and finding new homes for everything, I cant believe the amount of junk the family just toss in a cupboard!

On the fun front, I completed 3 projects this week, but again I can't share as they were for SM, but it's good to have done some scrapping again!

I would like to send out a big thankyou to all those who have sent messages of encouragement/support for my healthier lifestyle...I can't say its been easy, but when you put your mind to it and you really want it then you will just make it happen... In recent times I have come to realize that perhaps I was pushing myself a little too hard on the exercise front, previously I was jogging for an hour morning and night on a 10 incline at 7 kmph as well as weight training, 10 km on the exercise bike and floor exercises, I was easily burning up more than 1200 calories per day and leaving myself with little or no energy to cope with everyday life...After discussions with some lovely girls on a diet chat I have reassessed my schedule and from this week I have reduced training to 1.5 hours of a morning only, which includes cardio work and light weights, burning on average of 700-800 calories per day!..

On the diet front, I have spent many months reading what's good and what's not, at first I started with just buying and eating anything that said it was 97% fat free and that included my favorite lolly, Chico's, that was, until I realized that I could have so much more healthier choice foods for the same amount of calories that a 5 piece serving of Chico's would contain! Eventually, I moved on to skim milk and wholemeal bread, cut out lollies, chocolate and soft drinks, and at the end of the day, what they say is true, I do feel better for it! My system is regular, my skin has cleared and those dark bags under my eyes are lightening! I think the most important thing I have learnt are..

Eat breakfast no matter how much you hate it, by eating breakfast I don't find myself starving at 11am and pig into the quickest thing I can throw together...

Never let yourself get too hungry, if I get peckish I drink a glass of water first, often that takes away the desire to pick, if I'm still feeling hungry I have an apple or a light snack.

Portion size...I'm from a frightfully British family, we love our BIG meals so for me I found it best in the beginning to have heaps of salad and vegies with my small lean meat portions. Think of a regular dinner plate, half the plate to be filled with vegie's or salad, 1/4 with lean meat (fish and chicken are great) and the last 1/4 with your side dish such as potato, rice or pasta, speaking of which, I switched the whole family to wholemeal rice and pasta and no-one noticed, the truth is pasta is flavor-less, its the sauce that counts and you can do so much with that too! I do however, try to reduce the carb content from my evening meal.

Desert...Yes I still have desert every night, but in moderation. Cadbury make awesome light ice creams, I love the Turkish Delight and Vanilla Light, I have only one scoop and team it with fruit or lite Jelly which is really low in calories. During the day if I have a sweet tooth I occasionally suck on a Chuppa Chup or a hard boiled lolly, they take ages to get through and generally only 50 calories per serve.

Understanding...The Chico's thing was a real eye opener for me, especially when your a big eater like me, 5 tiny little chico's counts for the same amount of calories as a pack of rice wheel chips or low fat honey corn from the health food isle and they are much more filling!

BMR, BMI, Waist to hip ratio, body fat...Sound confusing?....I have been using these great Harris Benedict calculators which give you a great idea of what your body needs to maintain/lose weight...

So basically, I'm not really following any hardened diet plans, there's a wealth of information out there on the WWW and in today's supermarkets there's a healthier choice substitute for just about anything...

For me I think it basically boils down to what I always knew, I have to make the healthier choices for myself, and most importantly, take time out for me to work towards my goals, if we can spend hours in a salon getting our hair done then why cant we take an extra hour out of our day to look after the inside too?

Remember When?

2006-05-26T22:39:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember my weak attempt at cutting Mak's hair a few months ago? Well I've been at it again, only this time I was armed with hair dye!...A spur of the moment decision (I was really shopping for a disposable camera) I walked past the hair dyes, noticed the rinses and asked Mak if she would like to try being a redhead, just a rinse because I didn't want to damage her hair, while I was at it I thought I would have a go at streaking Ethan's hair and putting a few foils in my own. Ethan's hair looks awesome, because it's so short it looks like a leopard print and mine turned out okay too, a little blonder than I would have liked but oh well, you get that! So anyways with so much blonding cream left over I decided to put a few foils through Mak's hair, on top of the red, and oh boy am I impressed with how it turned out!..Talk about cheap too, I did 3 heads for under $15 and everyone is impressed with their new do's!

Hope to get some pics of mine and Ethan's just as soon as he wakes up from his "teeny-nap" and someone is available to take a pic of me!

ETA: Ethan has finally woken from his "teeny-nap", so here he is, Mr photogenic himself, had I known he was this photogenic I would have had the camera in his face all the time!
How cool does this leopard style look?

And of course his well practiced mirror pose :-)

We Did It!

2006-05-20T18:25:00.000-07:00

Well we finally got the courage up to get our first tat's and it didn't hurt a bit!...This was my birthday present to myself and I am very pleased with it. I didn't want anything too big (I'm worried about old age and the look when I'm 60..lol) It's still a little raised and the lines aren't defined as the colours take a week to settle but the rose is turquoise entwined within a treble clef note, music is a big thing in our household so I thought this one was perfect....

Keiron on the other hand chose a much larger one, or should I say I chose it, after much debate we decided to sit for a while when I spotted the one we decided on right at the top of the wall, it is yet to be coloured but I kinda like it the way it is, without the colour! The colours he has chosen is a mix of blues and turquoise similar to my colours.

A friend and I were discussing getting tattoos quite some time back, I was a little hesitant because I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to pain so he scratched me on the arm quite hard to give me an idea of how painful, well I gotta say, I think the scratch hurt more!...lol

Some exciting news, I jumped on the scales this morning and I am 5 kilo's away from my goal weight and healthy weight range, I'm so excited as I begin to enter the maintenance phase of my healthy living plan, Keiron snapped this pic of me on Thursday and normally I wouldn't share because I wasn't even prepared or smiling, not to mention I tried a new face cream which burnt the clappers out of my skin and has left me with blotchy red raw skin! Anyways it's the most recent pic and inspires me to get that last 5 kilo's off so here it is for you all to see....

Big difference when you compare it to this!...

Yep that's me on the left, as incredibly embarrassed as I am to be sharing this pic, I think it shows just how hard I have worked and that's something to be proud of!

3 Days In A Row!

2006-05-17T20:44:00.000-07:00

I scrapped again today, am quite pleased with this layout except I'm not so keen on the photo of the layout, there is so much more dimension to be seen yet it doesn't seem half as effective in this pic...Oh well here it is anyhows!

I Wanna Be A Big Star...(Miss Mak plans on being both and actress and a singer)

And Again!

2006-05-16T20:32:00.000-07:00

I scrapped again, I am loving this!!! And I actually like the finished layout this time! My absolutely gorgeous Mother in Law, we are so much alike it's frightening, we have the same taste in home decor, same moral values and we both adore her son...When he's behaving that is...LOL

I printed the photo onto criss cross cardstock, I am so in love with the texture and the resulting photograph!

A Layout!

2006-05-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

Okay so here's the layout I scrapped yesterday, a little bit of this and a little bit of that all mixed together, not so happy with the final layout but love what the printing stuff up did to the photo, the hat and glasses are black and it's a brand new ink cartridge!

And the completed layout...

I scrapped!

2006-05-15T00:32:00.000-07:00

Finally got some scrapping done today, nothing special and not sure I even like it, but it was good to be scrapping again anyways, it's kinda funny actually, I really stuffed up on printing the photo and it came out all this orange colour but somehow it was appealing so I scrapped it as it was...Hope to be able to share tomorrow as it's a bit late in the day today to get a good pic!

So I'm the big 30 today, the phone has been ringing off hook with well wishers, all with the same question "so what did you get for your birthday?" most are shocked when I answer "Nothing", I mean am I seriously the only woman in this world who's husband doesn't buy a birthday gift? In truth if he did buy me a gift you can be assured it would be something utterly disastrous, he never has been good with gift shopping, so by choice I tell him not to buy me anything...Instead I have opted to go wild and have my first (and probably last) tattoo!...I'm all booked in for Saturday and there's no backing out now so wish me luck! I have been madly dieting for 6 months now so I'm treating myself to some chips and gravy for dinner yummmmmm....

A mad story for all you scrappers out there...I share my birthday with two very good friends, one of which has a 10 year old daughter who thought it would be nice to write her Mum a story on why she loves her so much, it's all good yada yada, until she gets to the FOUR pages of cut up precious photographs, the sad thing about this is, my friend is not a scrapper and as a result has a very small stash of photo's and her daughter cut them ALL up for her project!... What can you say?...Her heart was in the right place, but I don't know that I would have been able to contain myself!

Anyways, I'm off to eat my chips and gravy and mayhaps I might just treat myself to a tripple deck peppermint chocolate...ohhhhh my mouth is watering at the thought... :-)

Crook...

2006-05-09T05:12:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to say thankyou to all those who have emailed me recently, I have been meaning to sort through the inbox and get back to everyone and blogging again but am feeling seriously out of sorts with a throat that feels like a volcano and body aches galore...Oh how I love it when the kids bring home the nasties for me to catch NOT!

Snake!

2006-04-09T23:09:00.000-07:00

Just the other day I was watching this thing move out near my clothes line, I was working out on the exercise bike at the time and assumed it was a bird so never went to look, I was picking in the washing today and got the shock of my life to discover the remains of this snake skin!...I am buying myself a dryer tomorrow!...

Whoops...

2006-04-08T15:51:00.000-07:00

Totally neglecting the blog and the blogging world here, ever since the demise of my laptop finding computer time is becoming harder and harder with 3 adults and 2 children vying for the use of the two remaining computers...Anyways, just a brief catch up for now till I have something more interesting to talk about...

April Fool's proved to be an interesting day, it's Keirons birthday but the joke was on me this year, he got a little too drunk and went walkabouts, spent hours walking the streets looking for him, met the new neighbor's in unfortunate circumstances with them helping me in the search, turns out he had fallen asleep in the car which was locked away in the garage, although I did look in there I obviously was not looking past my nose!

Yesterday after my second step machine failed I decided to go the whole hog and buy a fan-dangled expensive treadmill, it's huge and just barely fits in my room, love all the features and the program's but went a little too far yesterday trying 2 different program's, the second involving high intensity running, ouch ouch ouch, I am feeling the pain today, I'm not as fit as I used to be!

Scrapping, well sadly I have only completed one layout, another SM challenge so can't share just yet but I was exceptionally pleased with it, I've got a million ideas going through my head but just the thought of unpacking it all and printing pics is enough to make me find something else to do..On the flip side, my house is clean and tidy and I've even managed to do some spring cleaning...I know, I know that's gotta sound crazy, a scrapper choosing to do housework over scrapping because she's too lazy to pull out the scrapping gear....lol

Anyways I'm off to read some blogs and catch up on what everyone's been up to, have a great Sunday everyone!

The Little Boy Who Couldn't Sit Still...

2006-03-06T15:28:00.000-08:00

So this is my baby brother who turns two this coming May, he came to visit a couple of weeks ago and it was so strange seeing him so grown up, I haven't seen him since he was just a few months old...Anyways, try as might do you think I could get the little man to stay still for a photo!...I even had to bribe him with lollies to sit still for a photo with his big sis!...He's a little chatterbox and loves to play fetch, he spent the entire 3 days throwing things over the edge of the verandah and making us go fetch it back for him...He is most adorable though, and he's even got my big dimples!

I Never Claimed To Be A Professional....

2006-03-06T15:05:00.000-08:00

So this is the new look Mak, she had been wanting her hair cut for some time but I kept putting it off for some unknown reason...It was really just a spur of the moment decision, no time like the present so I went to work with the scissors...Mak is rapt, she reckons it makes her look like Lizzie McGuire, I'm not so sure, I'm not by any means a hairdresser and just when I thought I'd gotten it straight I would see more dangly bits and would have to cut higher to get it even again...Must admit though, I do kinda like the fringe, something I have always disliked myself, but it looks cute on her!

Can't Believe My Luck!

2006-03-06T13:23:00.000-08:00

We finally got the gearbox fixed, another costly venture, But just to top off my week I was in the room trying to fix my exercise bike which had broken the day before only to walk out and spot my laptop monitor flickering away like mad, I quickly shut it down but it continued to do it, worsening each time...It's now in the shop but I'm told in most cases it is cheaper to buy a complete new laptop than get the monitor repaired... Great that's all I need!

Some really exciting news...A good friend has asked me to be her Matron of honor at her wedding in January 2007, she had originally wanted a pink princess theme, pink is so not my colour, but it is her day and whatever she wants will be, I offered a few suggestions and much to my delight she loved them, we fell in love with these dresses from Into Camelot ... Kate loves the Galadriel and I adore the Kaitlin . How awesome is the foot jewelry !... She still wants the pink colours but with the medievil theme, so I am thinking soft pink and charcoal grey would be a great combination, but of course final colour decisions are up to Kate...I'm so looking forward to this, I used to babysit Kate when I was in my teens and now here I am about to be the matron on honor at her wedding!

Well that's about all for now folks, I'm off to get the kiddies ready for school and go for a workout, have a fantasmagorical day everyone!

Gotta Laugh!

2006-02-27T02:43:00.000-08:00

So just to make life even more fun Keiron's car decides to up and pack it in now...He rode off to work this morning with it clapping and clanking away and right about that point I suspected he should have taken my car....We were lucky enough to pack it all into a tight schedule this afternoon, the car goes into the shop, we race home to organize dinner, Keiron has to go back to work to lower the flags and then we get a call from the NEW mechanic and he says pick your car up NOW...I race around to get the dinner finished, Keiron races home and we get there to find the shop locked up and the car out front with the keys left in the letterbox....Pleased the total cost was less than $200 I went on my merry way back home only to see Keiron pull over to the side behind me, I carefully (and illegally) maneuver the car through the lanes to go back (right in front of a police car) only to find Keiron's car is stuck in low gear and he cant go any faster than 40 clicks....Oh the joys!...The car didn't even have gearbox problems when we took it in!!! We eventually got it home, albeit painfully slow!...I will be calling RACQ tomorrow morning and get them to have a look...I've decided losing weight is even more imperative now, with all this car trouble I could do to fit into a little black dress with alot of cleavage!...lol

I finished a layout today...Yayyyyy...First scrapping in quite a while, but sorry, cant share it with you just yet as it was for a SM challenge...I feel good actually, despite today's dramas I managed to achieve quite alot of things I had planned to do today so I will be able to rest well tonight at least!

Anyways I'm of to rest my aching body, I will leave you with this little funny I got this evening, I have to say this has got to be the funniest clean joke I have heard in a while!

Mujibar was trying to get into Australia legally through Immigration.

The Immigration Officer said, "Mujibar, you've passed all the tests, except one. Unless you pass it you cannot enter Australia."

Mujibar said, "I am ready."

The officer said, "Make a sentence using the words Yellow, Pink and Green."

Mujibar thought for a few minutes and said, "Mister Officer, I am ready."

The Officer said, "Go ahead."

Mujibar said, "The telephone goes, 'green, green, green, green' and I pink it up, and say, 'Yellow, this is Mujibar.'"

Mujibar now works at Telstra, perhaps you have spoken to him?.

Totally Consumed...

2006-02-21T20:28:00.000-08:00

Well I haven't been around much lately, my life has been totally consumed with house guests and a car that keeps winding up at the mechanics once or twice a week. As a result the mechanic has totally lost my business and I'm waiting for my ride to "hopefully" pick my car up for the final time from the new mechanic (several thousands later I might add!)

I have been on a massive health kick, since December last year I have lost 14 kilo's and still have a bit to go. It's been a complete lifestyle change, food wise I am doing just great, I'm not eating enough according to my diary, but exercise wise it's getting to me, I do 20km a day on my bike, 4000 steps on the step machine and a one hour aerobic and weights session. It takes quite a chunk out of my day and I am totally exhausted afterwards, but I'm loving the results. Most will say I'm probably going too hard, but I keep telling myself it's not hard enough, if I miss out just one session I start to hate myself, I know this is not right but I just don't know how to get my head around it! I guess the point is I recognize it as a problem and I will try to seek a more professional opinion, perhaps this is why some need a personal trainer, to keep us grounded when we are pushing ourselves too hard...On a good note I am loving the new Biggest Loser series, keeps me motivated, but I'm like WTF 15.5 kgs in one week my backside! But I'm so happy for them all, except for that sly bugger that keeps trying to manipulate eliminations, send him home!...lol

No scrapping for me lately, I have been thinking about it, but that's about as far as it has gotten..lol...I got the new SM yesterday, totally inspired me to get scrapping today but I fell asleep after my workout session, doing great Renea...lol...Oh well there's always tomorrow, but clothes shopping sounds more appealing right now, I have a grand total of two outfits that fit me and we're expected to attend a farewell BBQ Friday night for one of Keiron's bosses, oh the joys...hmmmmm...

Anyhoo's, I'm outta here, the ride should be here any minute now and I want my car back!

Picture Perfect

2006-02-09T13:22:00.000-08:00

Check out this little beauty, Miss Mak looking more grown up than ever! She wants to have all that beautiful hair cut off..Arghhhh!

Just A Little Funny

2006-02-08T00:36:00.000-08:00

Just a little funny, some of you may remember from last year Ethan was hit by a 4WD, 4 breaks and many surgeries later he was left with this nasty scar, we thought it quite interesting that it resembled the ACDC logo so we just had to draw it on! He intends to get the real thing tattooed on just as soon as he turns 18.....Hmmmm

Okay....

2006-02-07T17:21:00.000-08:00

So I'm finally figuring this thing out, it's taking it's time but I never claimed to be a computer genius. Nothing much to report, I'm going out of my brain stressing over Sunday, the day my father is arriving with his wife, son and father in tow. I'm supposed find room for 8 people as well as organise transport for the eight of us to Tim's Surf & Turf where we will be having our "Christmas dinner", a little late I know but when your father lives in Dubai you cant exactly pop over there on Christmas day! So Keiron is away, the kids are back in school and Ethan has gone to visit a friend, I think I got a little too used to the holidays, it is so quiet here I have tured all the televisions on just for some noise! I can think of a million things I want to get done but I can also think of 2 million reasons why I dont want to, well okay, mayhaps only one, I cant want to..lol...Anyhoo's, I'm off to play with the blog a bit more and mayhaps settle in for lunch and a movie, here's hoping it's a good one!

Testing

2006-02-06T02:36:00.000-08:00

Testing, Testing One Two Three...lol