I passed, I passed, I passed, I passed!

As of this afternoon I am now legally able to operate a forklift. I am soooooo looking forward to a whole range of new employment prospects opening up :D!

This is the forklift I was trained and tested on. I had to bend it through the cone line in forward and then reverse it bending through them again as part of the training.

Cheers,

Robyn Louise xo :D

New experience

I was going to post updates on my knitting and some sleepy cat photos but something more important to my life has arisen so the R&R stuff can wait.

I have spoken to my boss and he has allowed me to change my working hours for next week to fit in with a course I am doing from Tuesday to Friday. It means working/learning 15.5 hours Wednesday and Thursday, 12 hours Tuesday and 9 hours Friday (that'll be easy....if I don't fall asleep!). Thank goodness I'm rostered on to work this Saturday and not the same week as the course.

What am I doing you ask?

I'm training to be a forklift driver!! :D

I figured if I can drive a 4.5tonne GVM truck with 3 horses loaded on it around the hills/corners surrounding Kempsey for years then I can balance an equally breakable load of packaged wine casks/bottles around winery warehouses. It will cost me over a week's current pay to do the course. One of my friends at the winery said not to forget to claim the course fees on my tax and that having a forklift driver's ticket is a definite bonus to gaining a job at the winery. He should know as he's a packaging manager there.

Wish me luck :D!

I'll try to find a few mins each day to take a pictorial record to post here as this is a bit of a milestone for me.

Cheers,
RobynLouise xo

Discover…..

I hate Winter, but I love the sound of rain on a tin roof

I hate cold weather, but I love watching the fire and feeling the warmth from the combustion stove

I hate being surrounded by people, but I love working somewhere that has hundreds of employees

I hate socialising, but I love meeting new people

I hate feeling lonely, but I love living alone

I hate pubs, but I love that it costs nothing to enter and the entertainment is free

I hate that past relationships have gone awry, but I’d love to try another

I hate listening to the rain, sitting in front of the fire, feeling lonely but I'd love if that would change...if I could change.

RobynLouise

Moving out....but not today!

Well, my last job was a job trial and as the hosing part with the "firehoses" was beyond my physical capabilities it didn't work out. I did have fun though and it made me much fitter, as well as paying a good income for the days I was there.

Between now and then I came across someone who kindly suggested my services to another employer in the cleaning business so after last Friday I am now looking for a rental house in Griffith NSW, as I start my new part-time permanent job in mid September, and SO's is too far to travel on a daily basis for work. I will be living a much easier travelling distance to his place though *cheesy grin* and there will be the opportunity of further employment hours in the future as one of the staff is going on pregnancy leave and the company wants to use the existing staff to the best advantage then.

BTW - anyone who reads this and owns, or knows someone who owns, a property in this area that will allow a cat and a dog and maybe has room for 3 horses - all farm animals so trained or useful in their own way - please leave a comment and I'll contact you.

Three moves in 10 months has made life interesting but on the flip side, life becomes better each time - one way or another :). I may be a bit backwards as most people take risks and have adventures in their early twenties but I was being safe then and now, at 51, I'm having the most interesting, exciting time of my life.....sometimes to the consternation of my adult children, but they were the reason I was playing it safe when I was younger!

Some more good news just interrupted my typing of this post. Some money that is owed to me finally looks like being paid. Not all at once, but I will receive it progressively over the next few months - just when I will need it.

I'm not a great believer in stars and readings, though I do find the Chinese signs are more accurate to what is happening in my life than the age of Aquarius stuff, so maybe my stars are deciding to shine favourably on me at the moment :D.

Then, maybe, I'm making a bit of my own luck as one's attitude can also determine one's fate and destiny *wink*.

Cheers,
Robyn xo

Cows and Deere’s….hahahaha…

I started a new job on Monday at a commercial dairy farm. I learnt how to ride a quad bike Monday, attach 2 different trailers to it and tow them - one with the 1 and 2 day old calves in it - and was passenger in the 3 different John Deere tractors observing how to operate them. I also learnt how to put teat cups on cows for the automated milking, how to clean and store them afterwards and used huge hoses like fire hoses to spray the milking shed clean. The 2 “new” calves weren't very co-operative with their first hand feeding session, even though it was their mother’s milk they were being offered  out of a big feeding bottle. Rubber teats aren't quite the same as “mum’s”.

Yesterday I drove the smallest tractor, supervised, and took a bale of hay about the same size as my Nissan Pulsar sedan down to the dry cows. There are 4 steps into the cab of this tractor and it’s about 2 times the length of my car. If I'm allowed to take pics and post them, I will, as I can’t seem to find an online pic as the smallest (and also oldest) tractor is apparently 14 years old. I also shovelled pellets into the quad trailer and spread them in the feeding troughs in the dry cow paddock unsupervised. I’ll need to be a bit quicker unloading though as the cows heard/saw me coming and bolted over! Very difficult to shovel feed when there’s half a dozen fuzzy heads in the trailer and the rest are standing in/beside the ground level troughs. At least they aren't pushy or irritable in the paddock like Brahmans can be and even the biggest Friesian is only 2/3 the size of a Brahman. I haven’t found any kickers yet if you give them a poke to move them.

Spent part of yesterday afternoon helping replace old teat cups by cutting them out then wriggling the new ones into place. Milking was quicker this afternoon as I'm acquiring the knack of sorting out the odd problems that sets of teat cups have and keeping clear of cows with dancing feet. Some of them just rock from hoof to hoof when they hear their set of cups started, before you put them on, but then there are the ticklish ones, or the few heifers that aren't used to it yet, that will kick and swish their tails. Swishy tails makes it difficult to see where the cows teats are so you can put the cups on quickly and have your hands out of kicking range. Lol, I'm learning not to cup heifers but leave it to the 2 more experienced hands to do until I'm more used to it, and quicker, as I scored a bruised finger on Monday.

One thing this job is ensuring is that I have a good night’s sleep! My head hits the pillow and that’s it.

Danni, if having a job you love is indulging yourself - and also has the added bonuses of being with animals you like, earning you money, making you happy and keeping your mind occupied so you can’t dwell on depressing stuff – then I think I am spoiling myself. I also won’t become bored with it as it is seasonal work and will be finished in a couple of months.

Thinking a nomadic lifestyle of farm work might be the go for a few years but I’ll have to trade my “rice burner” for a vehicle I can sleep in if necessary. 

One has to have dreams.

Cheers,

Rob XO

P.S. Before anyone goes politically correct on MY  blog - “rice burner” is not an insult to the car, the makers or their nationality. It is a compliment to the fact that my current vehicle is cheap, economical and easy to use, reliable and therefore very frugal - just like rice!

R.

Re-connecting

Hi!

I've been a bit down in the dumps lately and didn't feel like blogging as I thought I had nothing interesting to say, apart from my health and fitness needing monitoring, which can be boring to others. I also have another blog for that!

Since I've moved I haven't made any new friends, the gardening possibilities are limited, it's a bit cold to craft, I haven't found any groups to join that interest me and finances are.....well I'd rather not say as it would include expletives as would the employment finding dramas!

Then I realised I had been neglecting friends who'd been there all along but with moving, bad internet and personal stuff I'd let the communications from my end stop.

So this week I've begun reconnecting with those who've given me great ideas, who think in a similar way to me and/or live a similar lifestyle (or the lifestyle I'm aiming for), who make me think and who've given me a laugh, or hope, when I'm feeling life isn't being fair.

It doesn't matter about the distances between us or the fact that we haven't met in person, it's just knowing that there are friends who share my interests, That will praise, congratulate, comfort, enquire and even chide if they feel it is necessary - all in good humour - with whatever I post.

This is a thank-you to all my blogging "pen-friends" who help me realise that life is what you make it. That there's highs to balance the lows and that positives can be found even in the most negative experience. To be grateful for what you have not what you'd like.

Cheers,
Robyn xo

The NEW me?

Well, not really, as I've had my hair short since about October last year but I had it restyled and shortened again before Christmas 2012 and I've also lost a few kgs so my face looks thinner. The photo on the left was taken today, on short notice, as I needed a face shot for a forum I'm in. I'm dressed in a daggy old men's shirt I slob around home in. I look a bit different to a photo I took 2 years ago, on the right. Look how chubby my face is in that one, there's no cheek bones!  Move over moonface Bert Newton! That's why I'm not posting full body ones - too embarrassing as being short I look really round while I'm overweight! Another reason for wearing oversized shirts.

Follow up cholesterol blood test tomorrow so I'm hoping the weight loss, exercise and change of diet has shifted some of it out of my blood stream. My goal is not so much to lose weight but to eat and exercise my way to no prescribed medicines if possible and a BMI between 21-25. The latter is looking acheivable as I've dropped it 2.2 points to 27.7 in the last 6 weeks. I've discovered BMI isn't about your weight it's about your fitness as I've lost this much weight before but hardly made any impression on my BMI.

No hoping about this, there's going to be a new me before Spring and I'll need all new clothes. Ones that show off a bit more of me rather than hiding it :).

Cheers,
Robyn xo

On a high, when it should be a low

I had an interesting week health wise. I wasn't feeling well so went to visit a doctor early in the week. New doctor, new medical centre, as my previous doctor retired. New experience as this doctor is the first one I have attended who is younger than me and he's Nigerian. I'm not racist as I've had Aussie, Pakistani, Indian, Chinese, Korean and English doctors in the past as I moved about a lot when I was younger. All within Australia!

Turns out I have high blood pressure so I was given a trial pack of hypertension meds to take, an automatic bp monitor, advised I should monitor my bp at least twice a day, given a referral for umpteen dozen blood tests and told I should come back on the following Friday (yesterday) for another checkup . 
Friday - teenager raised my bp in the morning behaving as teenage females sometimes do! I drank over a litre of water to help my veins be plumped up, and hoped my blood vessels didn't collapse.... as they are want to do..., at the site of a needle. Turned the volume up on the dvd player in the car on the drive to town and accompanied songs to keep from thinking about it. Fortunately it was Stella's day at the testing lab and she can take blood out of you without you even feeling it :D. My veins didn't have time to become frightened and hide or collapse! My stomach did a flip flop when I had to check that my name and date of birth was correct on 4 tubes of my blood though *eek*. She must have removed about a cupful or more from me! Can you tell I hate blood tests?

I had time to visit a nearby cafe and indulge in a pot of tea and a horrifically high caloried piece of slice before seeing the doctor.

My bp was still high at an average of around 170 over 100 so I was prescribed mild top up meds, to add to the ones I'd been taking in the morning, that I had to take at night. I also discovered the doc was seriously considering calling an ambulance when I was there on Tuesday and it was only a lower bp on the second reading that made him reconsider. I'd already told him there was no way I was going to hospital prior to that.

I think I'll keep him as my new medic as he answers any questions I have, I can discuss options with him and he explains it in words I can understand, not medical mumbo jumbo, and he doesn't have a superior attitude like other doctors I've had to deal with in the past. He has a sense of humour too, and as part of my attitude in dealing with new bumps in life is to joke about them, it's good to have a health carer who doesn't take this attitude the wrong way. A side benefit is he's easy on the eyes as well and nice scenery can make bad news easier to deal with :). 

Lol, I figure the day I die is soon enough to stop appreciating the view ;P.

I'd best make a dent in some of my crafting projects and cull a few of the more energetic items on my bucket list. Results of the blood tests next Thursday so I'll see how much I've gone downhill in the last 12 months! 

Huh, I'm starting to dislike being 50, but as Ned Kelly would have said "such is life"!

Cheers,
Robyn xo

The 7 Year Itch

About every 7 years or so I become tired of having long hair so I have it cut - very, very cut.


This is what it looked like before

This is, mostly, what was removed as there was a little more trimmed to shape it and add a couple of inches to straighten out the waves

And this is the result

Much cooler for summer! Now if I could just trim the body as easily as you trim hair....??


Cheers,
Rob xo

Tuesday Treasures

This watch belonged to my Great Grandmother, Bertha Matilda, and was given to her by her husband George but I can't recall which important occasion it was a gift for - wedding, birthday or birth of a child. It is rose gold and has had a lot of use as it has little scratches and dents on it as Bertha believed in using things not letting them sit in a drawer waiting for a special occasion to wear them. It doesn't function anymore and I haven't enquired about having it repaired yet but one day, I just may be an eccentric and wear a working wind up watch again as Great Grandma Bertha liked to be different :)!

Tuesday Treasures

I finally remembered! This little chair was made for me by my much loved Grandfather about a year before he died. He covered it with bright red vinyl. I was 3 years old when he gave it to me. The frame is curved, welded steel. My step-father recovered it for my eldest daughter when she was 4. He couldn't find a similar red colour to the original so he chose this nice maroon. It has also been used by my youngest daughter. My eldest daughter will inherit it as I know she will look after it and treasure it as it was made with love and repaired with love.