Svelte Chicken Lives for.... The Lady Who

Well hello there.....
It's been a while and we are all still here, doing what we should be doing living,  enjoying life and getting older.

The light of my life still fills my life with happiness, Love,  and joy.

My little Em, is 15 doing well at college,  loving hockey (she is away at a college tournament for the week)  and such a delight.

Dan is nearly 17 doing well at college,  a lovely young man (if that's how you describe someone his age, I am after all still a young man too. .). Time and life marches on, you can't slow it down, case in point: last night he went with his girlfriend to her ball.
Still I am pleased to say that he still wants me to be tucked in at night, and we normally have a laugh doing so (phew).  Like I did so many years before,  Dan goes to an all boys school,  a girlfriend? I couldn't find any girls at his age.... .

Sam is nearly 20 and is going to University in Christchurch and living with her partner Zane (a lovely man, which is great)

So you talk about kids leaving the nest,  been there,  done that,  not easy at all.  She is doing well,  happy  and messenger keeps us all in touch.

My darling and I have been married 24 years,  and we're basically going out for 6 years (Paula will tell you to the minute).  30 years!  Beg your pardon,  where did that go?

Still, we are always having a giggle about something and having heaps of mini dates (I believe,  one of the secrets of life)

It's been so long since I've been to this blog that I can't remember if I've talked about minidates, I will write about them soon

Now I need to find a picture or two

Love that lady,  she is after all the Lady who....

Svelte Chicken Lives... for mistletoe and no whine

It's Christmas time again, yahoo.....

I quite often hear that it's a busy time and catches up on you quite quickly.

This year I would have to agree, I seem to be under more pressure this year, my new fishtank, although a good place to work, certainly has pressures that are quite different than my old fish tank.

In my new tank I don't really feel as in control which adds quite a bit of stress. All this adds to looking forward to Christmas more than usual (and for me that has always been a lot). I can't wait to just relax and do whatever (fishing anyone?).....

Yahoo, tradition time, that came around quickly, up goes the tree, decorating as a family and recording the festivities for prosperity.

Once again we do not have batteries charged so we used normal alkaline batteries, which don't last very long. Our movie is in a couple of parts. I need to stitch it together, perhaps when I am holiday, relaxing, I'll do it right after I have done Christmas 2014 (and probably 2013)..........

The tree is now tiny in comparison to my giants. I have included a picture of just the tree. Something we don't seem to have much luck with is Christmas lights, our multi coloured fancy ones had a stern talking to, would not perform so were voted the weakest link and kicked of our island. This year we only have little green light bulbs, they don't flash, they aren't flash (aww poor we things) I think we took pity on them when we bought them. Still they make the tree look very green, almost environmentally friendly (if you squint and spin your head rapidly from left to right).

Also included in the snapshots are Angry & Saucy Chicken, looking very festive and right into the season.

Merry Christmas from the Younger Drummonds

The Tree - Beautiful





The Chickens





Svelte Chicken Lives.... for mistletoe and no whine

Svelte Chicken Lives.... for the happiest of noises

It's the school holidays (again!) and I am just making myself a cup of coffee in the kitchen.

What would you say is the happiest noise? or, perhaps what noise(s) makes you smile, makes you happy?

I'm pretty sure for me it's hearing my children laugh. All three of my kids have a different sounding laugh, all three of them bring me the same level of enjoyment, I can't help but smile, it lifts me up inside, on the spot. Actually, perhaps it's laughter in general, the light of my life has the same affect on me.

Anyway, you should hear little Em laugh, I don't know what she was watching (plugged in to a tablet, probably you tube). The happiest of noises, I'm still smiling.

There is another noise that makes me smile, Daniel giving his wobbly version of the doctor who theme (at the start of the show). It sounds like he's gargling something.

Svelte Chicken Lives.... for the happiest of noises

Svelte Chicken Lives.... for frolicking in green pastures

Well what a year I've had, I'm back, actually I never really left......

The fish tank where I worked, swam around so magnificently, encouraged all the lovely worker fish, developed a crack that could not be repaired.

The result was a slow and lingering challenge that resulted in trying to hold things together, maximising throughput and lets face it, minimising losses hoping there would be enough in the kitty (pardon, aren't we fish?) so that we all got sprinkled with the fish food we were owed and deserved.

Still it didn't matter what we did, the water level kept dropping, and with it, my lovely worker fish leaped out of the tank to go and swim in new tanks, making the position even harder. Still as the water level dropped, having less fish was also a good thing, a bit of a double edged sword. I am pleased to say that in then end all of the fishes made it safely to new tanks.

And then there were two fish remaining, both pretty management fish, swimming around the bottom of the tank for a few months trying to make a difference, loyal, waiting around to see if the tank would be repaired and be reborn from the ashes (not an easy thing to do with a fish tank with a bit of water swishing around the bottom).  With hindsight, the only pretty thing about the two loyal management fish that remained is that they were pretty stupid! Seems the loyalty was only one way....

In fact what I want to know is after all of the effort we put in over the years, where the fuck is all of the fish food we are owed? (and are still owed 8 months after all of the other fish were fed), arseholes.

Well I must say that feels better.

Well it all fell apart in a big way, My family and I had dip quite heavily into our savings (retirement savings!) but we pulled through it and I am pleased to say that I am now employed in a career that I also love, just as much as I use to love swimming around my lovely tank....

I owe my new boss a great deal of gratitude, the timing was impeccable.

Svelte chicken has made it too (thank goodness) and lives for.... frolicking in greener pastures

Svelte Chicken Lives.... for a little lego empire

Well here we go again.... more signs that the kids are growing up.

Since Daniel was small (well old enough to be trusted not to jam assorted size lego bricks up his nose) he has had lego everywhere.  Lego has been a staple "go to present" every year since then.

He has bucket loads of it.  I shudder to think how much has disapeared up the vacuum cleaner over the years.  He has a desktop that we lowered so that he could kneel at it and set up and leave out all sorts of creations and have wonderful adventures.

I am sitting in the lounge and the Light Of my Life is in the dining room talking to Dan, I hear her say, "ask Dad".  That of course got my attention.

The Light Of My Life looks at me and tells me "Dan wants to pack away his lego, get rid of the desk and have some room".  Simple words in themselves, but think of the connotation.  I could see in my Darlings eyes that she could see what I was feeling.  This was reinforced by a frowny face when Dan left for his room.

Good grief, I need a picture of the lego.  What a shame I didn't get one of him younger playing at his desk.  I can see it clearly at the moment, I hope I still can years from now.

I also used to love playing lego, I stopped years ago myself, Little Em's into it now.  The pile of Lego we have is massive, and hopefully will continue to expand.....


Svelte Chicken Lives.... for a little lego empire.

 

Svelte Chicken Lives.... For his baby turning 11

On the 14th our baby turned 11.

I have been asking little Em if she is sure she is correct, isn't she 7? 11 she tells me, apparently her maths skills are excellent, (at an 11 year old's level, she's only 7 remember...)

Like every year the birthday boy or girl as the case may be gets to choose what they want for dinner.
This is normally a take away of some description and an excuse to eat something we would not normally eat. This year little Em chose lasagne (cooked by the light of my life). "Lasagne?" I said to her, immediately greeted by the light of my life saying "what's wrong with my lasagne?". "Nothing, it's very yummy"  (dodged that one)...

So little Em, "what shall we have with the lasagne?" Me thinking of some high powered purchased entre and desert. "Garlic Bread" she replied (we have that in the fridge, that's not very exciting I thought.) "What else"?  "Salad" said Em, and "for desert a self saucing chocolate pud with cream".  "Do you mean those little ones we buy every now and then"? I said. "No, Mum's going to make one" said Em.

Now the light of my life is a good cook and everything will be yummy but all I could think is lets have takeaways on your birthday (Thursday night) and Lasagne on Friday..... (and everyone wins...... The light of my life gets to create a yummy meal, Em get's lasagne, and I get, hmm I never got to decide that... Still, being the mature one in the family I reminded myself, it's the birthday Girl's choice).

 I will help by playing Xbox with Em in the lounge.

Truth be known, we don't have lasagne very often so it is a rarer event than a takeaway so it is probably more special (perhaps my clever 11 year old baby may in fact be on to something.... )


Here's a picture of my 7 year old baby (not the picture of the chap in brown pants....)

And now 11......

"That's the hankie you wanted......." (a beautiful "Yeah right Dad"   look from Em)

By the way, dinner was fantastic, we made a good choice Em....

Svelte Chicken Lives.... for a bithday to remember 2014

Well here we go again, we are both now closer to 50 than 40. 

No I say, as part of my birthday powers bestowed upon me in my imagination I have decreed that I am 44, not 46.

This of course means that the Light of my life is now also 44 and not 46 and that the kids all made mistakes in their cards this year, who’s 46? Not us.

 Of course we all want to grow to the oldest age possible, and while doing it be fit, mobile, healthy and not snookered by Sudoku. I of course am happy growing old (very old in fact, along with my Darling may we one day be in accordance with the previous statements and not looking like prunes (is a panda’s bum now an appropriate description?)

Anyhow, our birthday has been and gone. This year, like last year, we promised ourselves that we would not buy each other pressies, very grown up. We did however buy ourselves a board game that the five of us could play together during forced family time (there is no such thing really; our kids are still at the age where they want to spend time with us). 

So there we are, our birthday, a Saturday morning a very busy day ahead of us with sport, little Em has a hockey tournament to boot. We would not get to open our present until later in the day. 

It’s now later in the day, Little Em would be off to hockey soon. “Let’s open our present” said my Darling.  Ok then, sitting at the table, looking at the little pile of presents thinking to myself “what the h@ll have I done? Where are all of the flippin’ presents?  I’m not ready to be grown up” 

My Darling of course did get me a couple of pressies, and I got her one as well.  I ordered my Darling’s pressie online the week before, she knows what it is, she paid for it (that’s her department). She seemed a bit miffed when it arrived via courier and when she asked if I was going to wrap it up and I said “what for”. I thought the yellow courier pack was very colourful..... I very quickly realised my error and wrapped the present (Or should I say little Em did....)

My pressies from Her were some star trek socks (very smart, too good for work, unfortunately my safety shoes will put holes in them by the end of the day).  I immediately put on the science officer socks. The other pressie was some star trek  jammies. They look like James T Kirk’s uniform (very commandly if I say so myself). I now think of it as James T Kirk is running around in my jammies, how embarrassing for him. 

The kids all created wonderful cards (even though they mistakenly thought we were 46) and pooled their money to buy a movie voucher for us both to go on a date to the pictures. 

Thank goodness Catherine and the Girls didn’t get the memo and we got cool pressies and home made cards (you have to love home made cards).

After the hockey tournament we all had a lovely dinner.

OK now it’s  time for the captainly command jammies. I must say after looking at myself in the mirror I look quite the part. The light of my life has a lovely smile on her face as we get ready for bed. The jammies didn’t seem to work correctly, even though I look the part it seems I am still not in charge....

Svelte Chicken Lives.... for being showered with pressies