Strange weather can produce great sunsets

Sunset from Dawesville

- have been getting stressed out by DD1 - need to take a deep breath before talking/shouting at her!
- want to be grateful for what I have
- want to be HAPPY!
- need to set some goals for the year/my life


Think that to be happy I need to work on being grateful and to work towards the goals.


Today I am grateful for:
- DH walking the dog and cooking dinner
- a very enjoyable movie (Tangled)
- time to fiddle around on my computer
- cuddles from DD2


Want to 
- focus on photography
- learn to run

Magnetic Poetry

Found this site today and had a bit of fun

http://www.magneticpoetry.com/poetgame/create.cfm?k=5

Thanks to Agog and Aghast for that (gotnik.blogspot.com)

Some fun sites to try out

Been doing a bit of surfing - reading other people's blogs to avoid facing up to my life (and to get hints on how to work on myself).

Anyway, I have found some interesting sites that are worth a look:

http://bluepyramid.org/ia/bquiz.htm
This one tells you what book you would be based on your answers to six questions. I came out as The Lion, (ha, how appropriate!), The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis. The explanation with it was: "You were just looking for some decent clothes when everything changedquite dramatically. For the better or for the worse, it is still hard to tell. Now itseems like winter will never end and you feel cursed. Soon there will be an epicstruggle between two forces in your life and you are very concerned about a betrayalthat could turn the balance. If this makes it sound like you're re-enacting Christiantheological events, that may or may not be coincidence. When in doubt, put your trustin zoo animals". I have to say that there is an amazing amount of truth to that. Have a go and see what you get.

They also do what country you are: http://bluepyramid.org/ia/cquiz.htm
I came out as Egypt with the description: "Curator of ancient mystical secrets, your life on the surface is fairly typical these days. Though you are in denial about more things than most people. Nevertheless, you're trying to convince people that you're safe despite your more volatile and unstable times that seem to be behind you. You like cats a whole lot"

The other site I liked was http://www.biolovematch.com/
This matches you and your partner/friend/whoever based on your dates of birth in terms of biorhythms (check out the site for better info on how that works!). DH and I came out with a 83% compatibility which I thought was pretty good. Physical was 85%, Emotional was 84% and Intellectual was 78%. Not bad, considering.

There is also http://www.celebmatch.com/ which will find your ideal celebrity or tell you how compatible you are with a chosen celebrity. Bizarrely, my best matches were Noel Gallagher (of Oasis fame) and Luke Perry at 98% each. Sadly, I am only 51 % compatible with Robbie Williams but Tom Cruise comes in better at 80% (91% physical compatibility!).

Well, I had fun with them and maybe I did gain some insights there?!

REM Concert

Fantastic!!!!

DH has had long term connections with an American company who do the on tour sound for many big bands out of America. It all started when The Red Hot Chilli Peppers visited our shores in '97 and their managers were looking for something for the boys to do on their day off. DH hired out bikes at that stage and also did accompanied tours and it was arranged that he and Business Partner would take out a couple of band members and some of their roadies for a tour of the sights of Perth and its surrounds.

And thus began a long association between us and the guys from Rat Sound. Tommy Rat was in charge and he is a great guy - loads of fun, loads of energy, a little crazy (in a good way!) and very open to everything. He joined us for a big Aussie barbie and has been in touch eversince. Whenever he's in town with a band (the next one was the Offspring for the Big Day Out) he produces a bunch of tickets for us and our friends in return for a ride on a motorbike and some good old Australian hospitality. Tommy stopped touring for a while in order to take over the parenting of his beloved daughter, Nicole. At that stage he put his colleagues George and Dave onto us so there've been plenty of concerts attended and band members met.

This week REM were in town and George was in charge. DH has been excited for weeks. George is a great guy who seems to know and get on with everyone and he rustled up a couple of other sound guys to go out for a moonlit motorbike tour of Perth, Freo and the ocean. The guys were blown away and certainly cleared out a few cobwebs that had lodged themselves during a few drinking sessions in the nights before.

For the concert they lined up 6 seats for us just behind the sound desk on a raised up platform and gave us access to the AfterShow lounge (it stank of school kitchens and was full of people like us trying to catch a glimpse of the stars but it did serve free alcohol and the security on the door made us feel special!).

The show itself was fantastic - they performed many of the favourites but also the new stuff which was suitably impressive. There were incredible video graphics, impressive lighting displays and, of course, impeccable sound. Actually, although I know I was paying particular attention to the sound because of having spoken to the guys about it the night before, I have to say that it really was great. The crowd were enthusiastic (well, those on the ground had to be cos once the guys at the front stood up the others had to follow suit, but those in the stands mostly remained in their seats for the entire performance) and we felt pretty pleased with ourselves and our excellent viewing spot.

The good news is that we might get to see REM again in the UK because they are playing in Cardiff while we are in Bristol (only down the road). And there might be a chance that I can get the commemorative t-shirt of choice there because they'd run out here.

For now though, we have to get back to our normal quiet life (ahem!)

Well, here goes, I s'pose

First of all, a big thank you to Sarah for putting me onto this.

Second of all, I'm not going to get right into it all yet!

Third of all, I want to check out how others do this.