A lot of things in my life appear this way – that they’ve been around for such a short time yet at the same time feel like they’ve been around my whole life. Like Michael, owning our home, etc. It all feels like it happened yesterday. At the start of this month, it’s been two years since I started my job. Two years. I can’t get over it, it’s unreal. In August, it’ll be three years since we moved back to Tassie, and two years since we got married in November.

I heard a theory about time, which made a lot of sense to me. I don’t know who originally said it, but it was essentially that 1 year of a 10 year old’s life is 1/10th of their lifetime, whereas 1 year of a 50 year old’s life is 1/50th of their lifetime. This is why the years seem to get quicker as we get older, because every year is a smaller fraction of our current existence. I thought it was a pretty interesting concept.

Onto other things, and we (being me and a few girls from the Tas Pagan Alliance) had a full moon ritual the other night at the beach. It was cold, but an amazing experience. This was my first (in over 10 years of identifying as Pagan and around 8 of practicing) group ritual, and it was so nice to have the company, as well as the combined energies of four fabulous women whom I adore. They’re all so strong yet fragile in their own ways, and every time I meet up with them I feel so blessed because I find out just a little more about their lives, and we all open up that little bit more.

Preparation for the Australian Wiccan Conference in September (OMG!) is all under way and I’m so excited – this will be my first Conference so I’m really looking forward to it. It seems like it’s going to be an awesome time.

All this, combined with upcoming pub moots and women’s circles = a very spiritual, ‘coming into my own’ year. I’m feeling very into my Craft at the moment, even if a lot of the time it’s just thinking about what I’d like to be doing

Anyway, I’m blabbing, I’m really only posting to get another blog post in this month, otherwise it’d never happen.

I don’t know if a lot of these parents realise how precious their children are, though. A lot of couples have a lot of trouble getting pregnant, and their life dream is to have a child. On the other side of things, there’s people who really don’t want kids, but are the ones who have them.

Our friends are of the first group – they have been trying for a long time now, I think 3-4 years – to have a baby. I don’t know the ins-and-outs of what procedures they’ve had or anything like that, because you don’t like to ask, but I know it’s been a rough road for them.

Last night we got a phone call; my friend’s hubby spoke to Michael (they’re pretty good mates now), and then Michael handed the phone to me saying my friend wanted to speak. She said, “We came over Sunday but you weren’t home, and we were going to come over tonight but you said you were going for a drive so I didn’t know what time you were going to be home, but we have some news that we want to share before I tell everyone at work tomorrow – we’re having a baby!”

I was OVER THE MOON, to say the least. These two people are just the most loving people – they would do absolutely anything for their friends and family, and I can’t think of two people in my everyday life who deserve it more. I went out today and bought her a card and a giftcard for a baby shop (she’s only 15 weeks along, but I figured they’ll obviously need to buy stuff for the baby before it’s born!). We are just so excited for them.

It did make me think though – I’ve been on the contraceptive pill for about 5-6 years now. I think it would be devastating to me to try to avoid getting pregnant for so long, and then when it comes down to us actually trying, I won’t be able to fall pregnant. It’s a real issue that has just come up recently for me, and been accentuated by my friend announcing her pregnancy after so many years, but I guess I should be hopeful – after all, it’s a reality for them now.

I think I’ll just stick with the cats for a while.

So tomorrow is Australia Day, and I’m super pumped – I don’t think we did much last year, so this year is going to be lots of fun. My parents are having a BBQ at their place with all the family. I’ve made a zucchini slice/quiche thing to take with me; I’ll be interested to see how it tastes. But most of all, I’m looking forward to a day off work.

I think there’s something about Australians that is so unique – and I’m probably just saying that because I am an Aussie and that’s all I know; I’m sure that every other person from the world’s nationalities feels the same way about their own country’s people – but we’re just so chilled about everything. We’re the world’s lazybums. Today, being the day between the weekend and Australia Day, around half a million Australians took the day off work, with the damage to the economy being estimated at $250 MILLION. And Australia’s population is only 21 million, so what’s that – 2.5% of the population, roughly? But that doesn’t take into account how many of the population are actually employed, so it probably brings it up to around 5%.
Anyway, complete tangent. I was not one of the slackers today – I worked, but there wasn’t really a whole lot to do. I was bored out of my brain, to be completely honest, and really looking forward to coming home.

This is a complete ramble blog entry. I only just realised. I think I’m getting tired. Yup, I am.

I might try vlogging soon – it seems to be the way for a lot of people nowadays, and part of the reason for not blogging so much here now is because I’m typing all day at work, so the last thing I want to do when I get home is type a whole heap.

Anywho – AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!!! OI OI OI!

Happy Australia Day, folks

*pst – less than 3 weeks till my birthday!*

There has been a bit of a saga over my dress, so I’m going to explain it all so you can understand how relieved I was last night to find out it was going ahead…

Firstly, I found the dress on eBay, and fell in love with it for its uniqueness. So I sent a message to the seller asking how much it would be and if the skirt part of the dress could be made smaller, to be told that it would be $170 + postage, and the dress’ skirt size is only as large as the hoop worn underneath. So that was awesome.

Then my mum came across another dressmaker, avabridal.com, who sell dresses on their site as well as make custom dresses. I emailed them for a quote on how much it would be for them to make and post the same dress. Their quote was about $50 more, which was fine with me because it was a guaranteed higher quality dress than the eBay seller’s (as they were aware of the quality of the eBay seller’s dresses).

However, we hit a glitch with AvaBridal when they told us that they wouldn’t be able to get the lace overlay of the dress in Hot Pink, and since my colours for the wedding are white, black and hot pink, it was kind of vital that they get it.

I asked if they might be able to dye some lace, or if they could get some in, and that it would be a guaranteed purchase from me if they could. I was told that the lace wouldn’t be able to be dyed, and that they would contact their fabric suppliers and find out if they could get anything in.

In the meantime, I contacted the eBay seller and asked if they were able to get the hot pink lace, because if both sellers couldn’t, then I’d essentially have to pick another dress. I never heard a response from the eBay seller, despite messaging them at least 3 times to ask.

So, much to my relief, I received an email last night from AvaBridal.com stating the following:

Hi Terri,
we can make the dress according to your requirements.

The overlay of the dress we can dye it in hot pink.

We’ll start immediately once payment is received. Dress will be finished and delivered to you in around four weeks after payment is cleared.

If you need the dress urgently, you can also place a rush order for a rush order processing fee of $50. For rush orders, dress will be finished and delivered in two and a half weeks.

If there are any questions or anything we can help, please feel free to contact us at any time.

Best regards,
Ava Bridal support team

This just made me so happy, beyond words. It means I can have my dream dress without too much more hassle (hopefully!). I just need to organise to make payment to them now.

In other planning, we ‘booked’ the venue for the ceremony today. The venue will still be open to the public, but we will have rights to park cars on the grass and such, unlike regular visitors.
And then tomorrow we’re meeting with our celebrant for our first consultation, to discuss what we’ll be doing and how we’ll be doing it, etc. and just get an idea of the process behind a ceremony!

Things left to do:

• Contact my Nan about her making our cake
• Contact my Auntie about MC’ing our reception
• Confirm venue for reception
• Finalise guest list
• Make and post invites out
• Buy shoes (for both of us!)
• Get Michael a suit
• Make my bouquet
• Send email addresses to my sister for Hen’s Day / Hen’s Night planning

So far, so good

So, on Thursday night Michael and I decided we will get married later this year, on November 7th. We have been dwelling too much on the When, Where, How, Who and What for so long that we forgot all about the Why, so we decided to just do it and get it done with!

So as for the details we have so far (and none are confirmed just yet):

• Ceremony – @ the Tasmanian Arboretum
• Reception – @ our local RSL Club (which we are members of and go to often, know the people there, etc.). We won’t be having a sit-down dinner; just finger-food and drinks, which we think allows people to mingle a little more and not have them restricted to talking to people at the one table.
• Celebrant – we’ve decided on Emma for our celebrant, she’s very flexible with the ceremonies and we don’t want anything denominational (but I’d like an element of a Pagan handfasting in there somewhere).
• Dress – I love this dress as it’s so unique, but I need to try some on locally to make sure it’s the right style for me first. Also, I would change the red lace to hot pink (because of course I need to have hot pink as one of my colours!)
• Wedding Party – Michael has asked his brother-in-law to be his Best Man, and his cousin to be his groomsman; I’ve asked my sister to be my Maid-of-Honour, and my best friend to be my bridesmaid. We decided to choose only two people each, as we thought there might be jealousy amongst both friends and family if there were more and someone didn’t get chosen (!).
• Bridesmaid’s Dresses – I have asked my bridal party to wear whatever they feel is suitable, as long as it’s hot pink or close enough. I don’t want them going out and buying a specially-made dress and only being able to wear it the once.

There you go – that’s the plans so far. We haven’t got a photographer or anything yet, and we don’t want one for the whole ceremony or anything – I have a large family so everyone will no doubt be taking lots of photos, so we just want a photographer for after the ceremony to take a couple of professional shots. We’re awaiting a few quotes from photographers before making a decision.

It’s all very exciting and nerve-wracking – I can’t wait!

Even if I don’t win, Sara will make a link for my charity anyway!

From the Tourette.org.au website:

The Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia Inc. is a charitable association set up 1989 for the purpose of serving the needs of people with Tourette Syndrome in our community. Tourette Syndrome is a mainly hereditary, chronic neurological disorder characterised by involuntary vocalisations and body movements called ‘tics’. The TS Association provides education, information and support for its members and interested people throughout NSW. We run support groups and have resources available to explain this condition, which occurs as frequently as 1 in 200 people and is often misdiagnosed or misunderstood. The TS Association of Australia Inc. provides its services without funding and is run by volunteers with experience in the condition.

Anyway, I’ve been busy. I’ve finally got somewhat of a job – I’m doing a website for a local jewellers. Essentially I’ll be running their online side of things – they’ll have an online store and such, and I’m in charge of all that, so it’ll be an ongoing task. I’ll be paid monthly, and the owner of the business said there’s also the possibility of my earning a commission off sales from the website, which is AWESOME. It looks like things are finally starting to look up
Also, we’re looking at getting our own place – we looked at an apartment for rent yesterday, but it was far too small and there weren’t enough powerpoints for us geeky types. Hell, there wasn’t even space for a washing machine, and nowhere to put bathroom products, so we said no. We’re going to look at another place, which is a lot more money (an extra $55 a week) than the one we looked at, but it will hopefully be a lot better. We’ve worked it out and we could survive on Michael’s income alone, but with mine it should be a breeze.

We also got Guitar Hero World Tour! It’s so much fun – I love the drums, finally something I’m good at! We bought it with money that Michael made selling football cards on eBay. Which brings me to my next point – I’m thinking of starting up my jewellery making again – just little beaded things – and selling them on eBay, to bring in a little extra cash. Goodness knows we need as much as we can get right now. So I’m just looking into that now.

School has been highly unmotivating, and I’ve barely touched my work lately. If anyone knows anything about development methodologies, please get in touch with me because I can’t get my freakin’ head around it! (It’s website development, by the way).

Anyway, that’s enough for a quick update. I’ve been flat out otherwise – with this jeweller’s website, mostly, and since my mum’s been working afternoon shifts it’s meant I’ve had to cook for the family, which has been less than inspiring!

I have applied for Youth Allowance (government assistance) whilst I’m studying, but it turns out I’m only eligible for $50 every 2 weeks because Michael earns too much – go figure. But I did put down a budget and worked out that if we were paying $130 a week rent (and there’s a place available for that right now), and adding in groceries, electricity, etc., we would be able to do it on his wage. If I were to get a part-time job, all the better.

Anyway, since talking about that kind of gets me a little antsy and irritable, I have also made my very first plans for celebrating Samhain this year. Samhain, for those of you who don’t know, is pronounced ‘Sow-ween’ and it is the Witches’ New Year, as well as a commemorative day of the departed, particularly those we have lost in the last 12 months. In the Northern Hemisphere, this is held on the 31st October (Halloween), but here in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s at the start of May. I will be going ‘camping’ (aka simply sleeping in a tent; there’ll be actual toilets and showers available) at a Pagan Alliance member’s house. It’s a fancy dress thing – gothic or emo dress – so I’m looking forward to that. What I’m not looking forward to is the drive down – it’s an almost 4 hour drive, which is a really long time to be sitting in a car, but I suppose it could be worse. But I’m really excited about that, since I’ve never been to an actual event for a Sabbat; I’ve only ever done my own thing.

We’re going to Melbourne for the Easter break (Friday 10th – Sun 12th) so I won’t be here then. Looking forward to catching up with my sister, my friends and Michael’s family.

Anyway, I think that pretty much catches you all up. Sorry if I don’t update here as often, since I’m doing school work too, I have to dedicate a lot of time to that.

Take care

I did stocktake on Saturday. It was okay, but I don’t think I’d do it again. It was pretty simple work, very monotonous (just scanning items on racks). The worst thing is that my body was absolutely buggered by the end of it – standing up and walking around for 6 hours without a break to sit down took its toll. Yesterday (Sunday) I could barely walk, and couldn’t even get up out of my seat without assistance – thank god it was a Sunday and Michael was home to help me out. I’ve tried to keep moving but it is very painful. I’m still sore today, and had to get my dad to take me around to the post office to post my bestie’s birthday present. The post office is less than a 10 minute walk from our house, so that’s saying something about the pain I’m in. This is just showing me that I need to get moving more often.

I did go for three 30+ minute walks last week – on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, with my mum and our family friend. We’re trying to make it a habit, although it’s difficult for my mum, with shift work, but I at least go with our friend and the dog, and get a half hour in.

As for weight loss, nothing’s happening yet. I hit a low when I put on weight over the last few days, but I haven’t been eating well (despite exercising quite a bit). It’s slowly coming back off, but yeah it was kind of disappointing. Just have to regain my enthusiasm that I had in January.

I put in an expression of interest for school last Wednesday, but am still awaiting someone to contact me to confirm. I hate waiting for people, especially since I’m doing or have done everything I can and then it’s just up to someone else. Freakin’ hell it’s frustrating.

Anyway, totally babbling now. I shall post again in a day or two.

I’ve lost nothing, but I look a little smaller – maybe I’ve toned up a little?? This month was a bad month, due to my birthday, seeing friends I haven’t seen in months and eating out a lot, and emotional eating due to the loss of my kitty. Next month, I will be back on the horse. I promise!