We Interupt normal programming for an unashamed PLUG

A couple posts ago I told you I was leaving Centrelink, to start work at a new company USWITCH. The company is an online website www.uswitch.com.au and compares your current gas and electricity costs and tells you the cheapest plan for you. By switching ( it costs nothing to switch) you can save anywhere from $50 to $600 per year depending on where you live and usage etc. The website has an easy step by step guide to help you along or if you get stuck, you can call the company directly for help. In this day and age where prices just seem to be going up and up it's nice to think you can make savings somewhere.



Anyhoo last night on A Current Affair they ran a story on USWITCH and the website had in excess of 100,000 hits an hour. WOW!!! what a response and of course you guessed it the server couldn't cope and the website crashed. Today John and the crew have been madly taking calls and ringing people back to help them out. A Choice magazine representative was very impressed with the site and to paraphrase him, said the site was simple to use and good for the industry, and would make the industry more accountable and competitive.



So if you want to have a look at the story from last nights show follow this link http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/general/ and under select video (on the right hand side of the screen) click on USWITCH 15/04/08. So far the only state that can't make use of the Service is WA as they haven't privatized their gas and electricity. Over the next few months you will also be able to use the service to compare your home phone plan as well as broadband/internet.

Well I think that's a big enough plug, switch and save I say.

cheers

Leeanne x

Short and Sweet

that's what this post will be..... believe it or not. (well by my standards anyway)


Friday: Maddy returned home from camp at Foster tired yet on a high. She had a fantastic time and talked excitedly the whole way home and then some. Then she had time for a quick shower, quick dinner and we were off to Rod Laver Arena to see Matchbox 20. What a great concert that Rob Thomas sure has a sexy voice. I ran into a couple of people I know;the funniest was running into Vicki B in queue for the loos. A quick photo or two later and I was on my way. Not sure what the people in the queue thought about the two mad women taking photos. Anyhoo the support band was Thirsty Merc, and they were fantastic alot More rockier than i thought they would be.

Maddy didn't quite make it thru the whole concert without having to have a bit of a snoozy on my shoulder. I brought the tickets back in early December before I knew the Camp dates, so while she enjoyed what she saw, she really was too tired to take it all in.



Saturday: Was pretty quiet really Back to Netball (they won) then in the afternoon Neil headed off to a jam and I headed down to debling in design. Deb had asked me to judge this months Layout challenge and I had, had the layouts at home for a week, checking them all out and coming to a descion. Boy is that a harder job than you expect. Everyone's layouts were fabulous and they all had little unique touches that I loved. However as they say in the classics there can only be one winner. Can't say who yet as I don't think Deb has announced it. So mums the word here. I also got to catch up with Merle while I was there, I haven't seen her in ages and it was lovely to see her.



I completed a layout last night using the new BG Sugared line. The design is based on a Sketch from the penciline web site from a little while ago.






























Ok thats it for me..... see not quite as long as usual.

Cheers

Leeanne x

That was the week that was............

Wednesday... wow what a great day to have off, that was the day of the wild winds in Melbourne. Hooley Dooley what a day. No real damage done here except for the big gum tree in our backyard near the bungalow; which lost a couple of large limbs from high up in the tree. Because of that it looked like a waterfall of gum leaves around the tree. Then our front nature strip tree also lost a main branch (no photo), which was still attached at the bottom of the tree but had fallen and landed on our front fence, across the footpath and into our front yard. I called the council about that one and they were out within the hour to clear the footpath, then they arrived the next day to pick up the rest of it.

Thursday I went off to physio re my foot, and they gave me another couple of days of work to rest it. To cut along story short my foot is still really sore even after a couple of rounds of physio. They don't really know whats wrong with it so I suppose its a bit hard to treat when they don't know. Thursday was still school holidays here in Melbourne and a friend of Madeleine's Dad took them to Gold Class to see The spiderwick chronicles which from all accounts was pretty FAB. Then we caught up with Neil's folks and his sister at Doyles in Mordialloc to celebrate Neil's birthday.

Saturday morning we headed off to have Madeleine's haircut. The lovely Ally cut and thinned out her hair and then straightened it. It looks absolutely fantastic and Madeleine is so happy with it......it gives her even more reason to always be looking at herself in mirror (lol). Here's a few shots we took before she headed off to one of the girls from her school birthday party that afternoon.

Saturday night we picked up Madeleine for her party in Lang Warren and then headed over to Bentleigh to our good friend Sheree's 50th. I have known Sheree and her husband Bill since I started work at Social Security back in the late 70's (boy that ages me doesn't it). It was so nice to be part of her celebrations she is such a great person and together they are two of the world's loveliest people. So Happy Birthday again Sheree it was a great night.

Tuesday school started back again and this morning I had to drop Madeleine off by 7:30am to catch the bus for school camp. They are heading for 3 days to a camp down near Wilsons Prom. I haven't even got any photos this year, in fact I dropped her off and pretty much left straight away. rrrr the times they are a changin.

So this morning I met up with a girlfriend for coffee at 9am at the Blue Chair and then I was back there again at 1pm to finally catch up with Wendy for her birthday. We had a lovely catch up and then look what I got.

Isn't it yummy. This is my prize for winning the sketch challenge on Wendy's Blog. It has papers from the two scoops range, and the element stickers from the same range. Vinyl alpha from american crafts, chipboard flowers from Cherry Arte, the most divine pink lace ribbon with a velvet centre, jumbo ricrac and the green bling. Thanks Wendy the prize is fantastic. There is a new challenge this month,that went out with the Dolly newsletter (not sure if it's on the blog) the prize this month is a little sister dolly kit.

I also picked up my full kit from Wendy it is absolutely chock a block with cool stuff. Head on over and have a look at the kit and while your there check out the gallery featuring work from Connie Hatch, Willisa Hogarth and of course Wendy using this months kit. If their work doesn't get you all inspired then I'm afraid nothing would.

Ok thats it for now, till next time.

cheers

Leeanne x

Jenni Ballantyne

The purpose of this post is to direct you to Jenni's blog. Some of you, who read my blog, I know already go and visit Jenni's, but for those of you haven't you really must. Jenni has been fighting cancer for 4 years and is now suffering with stage 4 colon cancer. If you're in need of inspiration and perspective you need look no further that her BLOG. Her honesty is amazing and sometimes confronting, but always insightful and motivating.

Jenni has touched alot of people through her writing, re her journey with cancer. She now has people from here and all over the world leaving her comments. These comments of support and love I know mean so much to her and have helped her through all the pain of the last 6 months. She truly believes that the power of positive thought has helped her get this far.

So I would like to invite you to head over to Jenni's Blog and share in this amazing women's journey and leave her a comment. For those of you who don't normally comment on Blogs please do. The more of us sharing in this with Jenni and supporting her the better.

Cheers

Leeanne x

Ramblings....re the last two weeks

I’ll try to keep it short, but I can’t make any promises.

Firstly Madeleine’s wrist is slowly getting better, she’s done away with the brace so that’s a good sign.

Neil completed the Ottway bike challenge on Saturday the 11th March. It was a 142k ride over the Ottway Ranges from Lorne to Torquay. He was in remarkably good shape when he arrived home all be it a little tired. That's Neil behind the girl in the yellow helmet.

The following Wednesday I caught up with a few friends at the Blue Chair Restaurant (no blue chair in sight). Its always good to enjoy good food and wine and great company.

Good Friday Neil and his mates had a Jam at Al’s place and my girlfriend Sheree came over and we watched chick flicks all afternoon. Gotta luv that. Then Sheree and her husband Bill (who was at the Jam) came back for home cooked fish and chips.

Easter Saturday I took Madeleine and Alex shopping at Frankston they had lunch with me and then took off like a rocket when I suggested they could have an hour to shop on their own. I had 3 pressies to buy for friends which I managed to do pretty quickly. One of which is for the lovely Wendy, who’s birthday was on the 24th and I still haven’t seen yet. I did ring to say Happy Birthday though. Bad me for not going around yet.

Easter Sunday we had lunch at Neil’s sisters place with his Mum and Dad which was lovely. Then on Sunday night while watching SYTYCD I noticed my foot was a bit sore. Well mainly my second toe you know just a bit stiff sort of. No biggie.

Easter Monday our good friends Sue and Greg dropped in for a quick visit, always enjoy spending time with them. Prior to their visit, I went on a nice big hour along walk along the beach to try and walk out the soreness in my foot. I thought the walk, along with actually wearing my orthodics might do the trick.... Nope sadly by the time I got home my foot was worse very sore and swollen.
To cut a long story short basically it’s still really sore and swollen which makes it hard to walk. I went to the doctor last Wednesday who told me he thought I had tendonitis in the foot and to stay off it and ice it as well. He also gave me anti inflammatory tablets, and two days off work last week but so far no good. Tonight I have an appointment at the Physio so hopefully they will be able to help more. Fingers crossed.

Last Wednesday I also caught up with Marcia who I met in anti natal classes, her and her husband have recently renovated their home, so Madeleine and I went to check it out and have lunch and a catch up. The house looks amazing in fact when we pulled up Madeleine said “This isn’t their home why are you stopping here” it looks like a completely different home, no sign of the old one at all.

Last Saturday we headed down to Phillip Island for the night, friends had invited us down for the weekend. There was about six families down there lots of fun. The kids had a ball. Sunday we took the kids to the wild life park and Amaze and things. Madeleine and Neil were both very brave and went down a free fall slide. You just hang there in mid air, release and fall …. Pretty scary stuff. It appeared that the letting go bit was the hardest part. Didn't get a photo of that (well one that turned out anyway) they moved to fast. I like the one of Madeleine on the gravity ladder.. cool effect.

In other big news I have told my boss at Centrelink that I will not be renewing my contract after this month as I have been offered a job with a new company called USWITCH. It's much more flexible, 5 minutes from home, the same hours as now, or more if I want, more money, and in school holidays I don't have to work as much or I can work from home. I will be the marketing/promotions Manager. I'm really excited and looking forward to the challenge. I'll tell you more about it later.

So I'm finishing up with Centrelink on Thursday 24th April. I've really enjoyed working there over the last 8 months, and only to find I didn't have a job at Centrelink at the end of April either. Centrelink are going through a major overhaul at the moment and are actually cutting jobs rather than employing new people, and usually the casuals are the first to go.

It's Neil's birthday tomorrow and I haven't really got him anything yet, haven't been able to get around the shops with this foot. But will have to go today anyway.

Ok that's more than enough for now.

cheers

Leeanne x

mmm... just between you and me I think I may have broken that I'll try and keep it short promise. Sorry about that