I just realized that today is the first year anniversary of my blog.  I’m impressed, I actually stuck with it.  I’ve  had a love/hate relationship with blogging.  I’ve almost quit many times.  But today I’m really glad I didn’t.  What do I love about blogging?  I think mostly that it’s a form of self expression.  My blog is a creative outlet that allows me to play and is a place where I can distill my thoughts and shape my words.  My place.

But it’s not just my place, it’s a place I share.  Isn’t that what blogging’s about,  communicating and connecting with others?  And that’s what’s special.  But it also means putting yourself out there and I do struggle a bit with that.  Who do I think I am?  Why would others be interested in my life, in what I have to say?  Am I a self – promoting attention seeker?  I hope not, at least not all of the time.  Then at other times I get disheartened because I don’t engage my readers enough.  Well if I had any …  Boy oh boy,  who knew it was going to be this complicated?

However, most of the time it’s a lot of fun and I plan to stick around a bit longer and hope you do too.

I do have a serious dilemma though.  I recently learned that my eldest sons have been chuckling away for the past year about the blog name – My Pink Door.  Apparently, it sounds like the name of a porn site.  I didn’t know…  did you?  I thought it was a great metaphor, but not for that.  They may have ruined it for me.  What to do? Your thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Anyway, now because it is all about me, particularly because it’s my blog’s birthday, I’m going to share some of the joy I’m feeling today at My Pink Door.  And I am not going to feel self conscious one little bit.

What to do about loud, hard partying neighbours? Please advise, I’m going ‘round the bend. These are people who often party all night and well into the next day, which is very annoying because there’s no point in mowing the lawn or getting at the teenager’s drum kit at 6.00am or even 11.00am. They wouldn’t notice. I have been doing my best to be Buddhist about the whole thing, trying to find peace and quiet within – but at three o’clock this morning I was glad/sad that there were no weapons of mass destruction in the house. I would have used them.

Hot off the press … Just arrived home and thought I’d tell you about dinner while it’s fresh in my mind. My hubbie who spends his week travelling and eating out, comes home for a – well, home cooked meal – and I’m just dying to get out of the house. So tonight we ventured to our newest local – Egg Bistro in East Brisbane. Very European, Melbourne decor, I like…

Just so you know, Egg Bistro is BYO.  I was a little disappointed as I do like to try out new wine by the glass when I’m out.  There is a bottlo over the road, but it’s pretty limited.  Not to worry, I survived…

Now, can you see, well how could you not, hubby’s T-shirt?  We bought ( I made him buy) it the other weekend in Bangalow, where I want to move and own a groovy shop.   I loved the stripey, kind of tie dye look.  At the time, the teenager said, ‘cool, cool, very indie…’ However, tonight he wasn’t so sure, and I have to admit I was a little startled myself when I saw the hubby dressed for dinner. A  little dizzy, no doubt due to being faint from hunger, or the onset of a migraine. Stripes can do that to me.   His ‘look’ was also a little familiar.  I’m thinking escaped prisoner,  ‘Oh Brother Where out thou’ . (Have you seen the movie? If not, you must.)   How could I have been so wrong, the T looked so right last week?  Anyway, my beloved didn’t seem to notice that I looked anywhere but at him the entire night – just in case I threw up  (stripes can do that to me).

Anyway, the food… Our meals were delicious. I chose well – duck on lentils, red cabbage and cauliflower – and something I would never cook myself.  Unfortunately I forgot to take out my camera so I can’t show you any photos.  I did consider asking the diners at the neighbouring table if  I could photograph their meals instead, but my companions persuaded/manhandled me not to.

Teenagers… Here’s the kid who was dining out at 2 weeks old, attending cocktail parties at 6 months, asking for billy goat’s cheese at 3 years, making a mean salad dressing at 5, and at almost 15, slurps his drink like a neanderthal – no hands – in public. I rest my case.

I think this could be the last time this man is seen wearing this T-shirt.

PS  I did take a few days to actually get this post up – so it’s not technically hot off the press anymore.

PSS  Have you got a headache?

I’m back, I’m on line and I’m not going into the number of conversations I’ve had with broadband technicians in the last few weeks.  How I was told, I don’t know how many times, that the problem (different problem each time, mind you) was fixed.  Actually, I will tell you about this – the piece de resistance – the day I nearly lost my mind.  The day the (first) technician came to the house. (At least I think he was a technician.  I did notice that he wasn’t wearing any form of identification – that was a little odd.)  Anyway, after quite some time poking about, whoever he was explained that the problem had been loose wiring sitting in water in a pit outside the house.  He had dried and reconnected the wiring and was arranging for someone else to come in the next week to drain the pit.  Everything would work perfectly now, he assured me. He waved good bye with a big thumbs up. “Woo hoo” I shouted and skipped gleefully to my office.

You’ve probably guessed that in fact everything was not working perfectly.  In fact, nothing was working – at all.  But wait for it …  When I rang the folks at Bigpond, in tears, they weren’t surprised.  They knew that my internet wasn’t working.  Their notes read that the malfunction was due to my faulty internal equipment.  Excuse me?  “There is nothing wrong with my equipment, what about the water in the pit?” Nothing about that in the notes.  “Yes”, I shouted, “someone’s coming to fix that next week”.  Apparently not.  I still don’t get it and I really wasn’t taking hallucinogenics that week. 

Anyway, seems like the problem wasn’t my equipment, surprise, surprise, but an ‘outage’, at least that’s what the notes say, and ‘it’s fixed’. As long as only one person is on the internet, it turns out, two and we’re in trouble.  So we’re doing shifts, taking it in turns, day by day. And I’m recuperating, gathering my strength, grateful for small mercies.

For over a week now, I have spent way too much time on the phone talking to Bigpond technicians about the ’outage’  that is affecting/disabling my internet connection.  Still no satisfaction …