It's A Boy It's A Boy IT"S A BOY!!!!

My daughter Kathleen Jean Rose Cook nee McDougall had a
son at 5.06 a.m. on Friday the 27th June, 2008.

His three older sisters think he's cute and so do I. He
wighed in at 3.434 kg and was 48 cm long.

This is his first photo.

A Rant (Cont)

On Thursday 6th June I was telling a scrapbooking friend
Karen about the trouble I had at Big W. As I said to her
it was the last day of the sale and surely I was not the
ONLY PERSON to buy one of those little metal signs yet no
one had picked up the error as it had not been corrected
in the Big W computer.

She told me how she had gone to Bunnings one Saturday
morning recently to attend a session on tiling which was
to start at 10 a.m. Well at 10.15 a.m. no instructor had
come but a few other people had come and gone. Well as
she wanted to attend another session which was to start
at 11 a.m. she went to the registers and asked to speak
to the manager. Turned out there was a miscommunication
as the person who was suppose to do the first session was
ill. So the manager gave her a $50 voucher on the store
for the inconvience! and she hadn't even bought anything!

So on Friday the 7th June when I sit down to work out my
monthly expenses and check the Big W docket you can't image
how cross I was to find the till girl had rung up the
'woof' sign not only as 1 cent but at the special price
of $1.65.

She never mentioned that she had rung up the item already!!!

So on Monday the 10th June I head back into Big W and ask
to speak to the manager. I tell him the story and when I
get to the part about having to wait in the long line and
therefore had a chance to read the sign over the register
lane I turned to point out the sign to him and low and
behold IT IS NO LONGER THERE!!!!

Well the young man Daniel is only the manager for the DAY
not the manager of the shop and he says "Oh that's easy
fixed we'll just refund the $1.65" and I say "Well that
would have worked when it happened but not now seeing as
how much inconvenience I had been put to just to 'right a
wrong.' I told him Karen's story about Bunnings and said
"and she didn't experience nearly as much inconvenince as
I have."

Well he asked "What do you want?" and I replied "$25"
being 1 and 1/2 hours of my time at $14 an hour and petrol
costs of about $3 plus the amount due back of $1.65 being a
total of $25.65. But he said he could not make a decision
and would have to speak to the big boss on Wednesday.

On the Wednesday Daniel rang me and said the manager was
only prepared to offer $15!! so I actuall ended up out of
pocket as I had to make another trip down there and it was
another 1/2 hour in time!! total cost to me $32:65!!

So I was not happy at all about the result. I doubt if I'll
shop there again.

A Rant

On May the 28th (Wednesday) I headed down to the local Big W
store in Mid Valley, Morwell. There were fleecy lined track
pants and tops on sale at $8 each. They were in larger sizes
BUT there were no tops so I asked for a rain check.

On the way to buy a set of five plastic containers (to put
all my scapbooking STUFF in) I passed through the scrap-
booking section. Low and behold some items were on special
including ALL the metal tags about two inches by 1 inch. I
saw one that said WOOF on it and thought that would be great
on the page of the dogs in their Christmas hats.

So eventually I head to the register and I have two pair of
pants, the sign and the plastic container set, (4 itms in
total). There is a quick register and the one with a long
line, but the quick register says 3 items or less. So I'm
forced to stand in the longer line.

I get to read the sign above the register a HUGE sign about
a meter by a meter. It says Big W guarantee that correct
prices will be scanned. If an item scans incorrectly $3
will be taken off the total purchase price. Or alternately
if the item is under $3 the customer will receive it free.

So I present my items. The 'woof' sign came up at $1.98
yet it was on special at $1.60 something, so I said to the
lady "I'm sorry but that item is on special.." So she
called for a price check. It was 2.50 p.m. At 3.p.m she
had to close the register and end her shift so I was moved
to another register. At 3.05 p.m. a young man comes up
with the tag and says yes it is on special for $1.66, so
the young girl goes to put it in and I say "Excuse me but
don't I get the item for free?" She says "No." So I point
out the sign. She said she didn't know about it. (What
sort of training did she get??) So she calls the front
end girl and tells her what I said and the front end girl
says "No you pay the special price." So once more I point
out the sign! She then said the young man must have made
a mistake and checked the wrong item!!!!!! So sends
someone else to check it. I say I'm going to pick up my
watch from the jeweller's.

I come back and it is 3.25 p.m. The front end girl informs
me that the article is on special and she is just checking
with the manager to see if I get the item for free. At
3.30 p.m. she says "Yes, I get it for free." The till girl
says how does she do that and the front end girl says you
ring it up as 1 cent.

So I was right!! but it did take some time and I was
NOT HAPPY JAN.

More on this next time. Yes there is more!!!

Friday the 13th June BAD luck day.

Well it certainly was. Nothing terribly bad went wrong, just
a lot of minor irritations.

My mind so active that I got no sleep on Thursday night.

Kylie being late and I having to wait for her when I went to
pick her up Friday morning.

Not being able to find my thermal mug (left it at Cliff's as
it turned out!)

Not being able to find all the little containers of milk,
though I found just enough to last the Friday.

Running out of time as Beryl took too long waiting for Phil.
He turned up at 12:45 p.m. and she had been waiting to see
him since 12 noon. Yet her nagging me not to go too fast when
I was doing 100 km in the 110 km zone!

Arriving at Kath's house at Yallorn North and having to get
out in the rain and risk my neck on their terrible back stairs
only to find they were not home.

Realising when I got to Cliff's shop I had forgotten to pack
my lunch!

Time constraints peventing me from doing my Curves work out.

Forgetting to take my photo paper to Cliff's.

Getting the raffle booklets for the RSL to take to dinner on
Friday night only to leave them sitting on Cliff's coffee table.

Going to have my tea and discovering they had given me chips
instead of the vegies I had asked for.

Cliff harassing me to leave early from the club as he had won
$330 and having so little control he was worried he might put
the money back in the machine when I was on a winning streak.
So I left being only $25 up. The poorest week in over six weeks!

Getting back to Cliff's to watch the Movie on Hallmark only to
find I had seen it before.

Lucky for me Friday the 13th doesn't come around all that often!

D.V.D. Marathon

This week end I had Kirsten and we had a D.V.D. marathon. As
usual we went to the R.S.L. for tea on Friday night. Kirsten
played in the play room and Cliff and I played the pokies.
Again this week I was a winner, winning $63. Of course I
stopped then. Again Cliff lost just over a $100. Like me he
is complaining that he has no money but he has not changed his
spending habits one iota.

On Saturday we went to Video Ezy and picked up "Bee Movie" and
"Mr.Magorium's Wonder Emporium" (with Natalie Portman and
Dustin Hoffman) Beryl came around about 11 a.m. when I asked
her to come around at 10 a.m. so we would see both movies
BEFORE Cliff came home from the shop.

I enjoyed the "Bee Movie", especially as it was topical. I
doubt many children would have heard that there is 'something'
killing bees and one scientist claimed that after the last bee
died it would be three years before all 'mankind' was dead too.

The movie pointed out the fact, it is the bees which pollinate
the flowers, without them all the flowers will die. However
if flowers die will there be animals who die because there are
no flowers? and I don't believe the bees have any thing to do
with the growth of trees and plants. So there will still be
oxygen. I can't see how the human race would die out if there
were no bees.


Of course Cliff came home before we had finished watching the
second movie. Luckily it was only half an hour so he did not
miss too many races.

On Sunday Beryl came around again and we watched the "Golden
Compass" I was disappointed. It is not a single story but
the first of at least a trilogy and leaves everything up in
the air there is no real ending.

On Sunday night I got "National Treasures Two" as I thought
Cliff would like that and Kirsten could watch it as it was
rated PG, but once the movie was on he started talking and
when I said shh! he got angry and went off to bed saying 'a
man couldn't talk in his own house' so he stayed there
sulking. Not a very good example for Kirsten or very adult
behaviour and considering Carlton had turned a sure loss into
a win, he should have been in a better frame of mind.

On Monday we watched "Enchanted" and I had to love it,
really was a very funny send up of 'fairy tales.' I'm sure
most kids would take it at face value but I, and I'm sure
other adults would see the funny side.

31 on the 31st!

Meg had her 31st birthday on Saturday. Some of the people did
not come and everyone was gone by 11.30 p.m. and she had booked
the hall till 1 a.m. so I think she was a little diasappointed,
especially at Kim and family.

Shirley is down from Ipswich and is looking good. She is
staying at Elsie's for the week and then going to her brother's
for a week before she goes home. She still doesn't know if she
is going to move back here. She said she will have a garage sale
and see what happens after that.

The most amazing thing is she gave me two medals that belonged
to Uncle Harry, apparently Don had them. How or why is beyond
me. The truth of the matter is that I did not even know that
they existed. They are two Lodge medals and Cliff is going to
help me find out more about them.

The kids knew nothing about them either. I asked her about the
McDougall Shield and she said that it is gone. She thought Don
Jr took it, but he said he did not, so it's possible that Uncle
Bill took it. I said to Donald that it is rightfully his as I
bought it as a birthday present for his father. As Uncle Bill
has no children it will come to Donald when he dies, but I'd
like to check to make sure he does have it.

Finally met Meg's friend, Catherine. She is a lot heavier than
I thought. She will end up looking like me when she gets older
if she doesn't keep exercising and watching what she eats.

Meg was annoyed that Catherine made no contribution to the cost
of petrol to the airport. It cost Meg nearly $100 to drive down
and pick her up and then take her back. Meg said that she gave
Catherine $30 each time to pick her up AND take her out to the
airport and it is only 1/2 hour from Catherine's home, not the
2 1/2 hours it is here. Really is cheaper going by train now but
it is getting from the city to the airport that is the bugbear.

Deb and Tony were there there are still seperated but not divorced.
Tony did not make the cake for Meg, Deb bought it from Safeway
in Morwell. It was lovely. I thought there would not be enough
to go around but there was so much over that Meg bought a couple
of slices for Ross, Cliff and I on Tuesday at lunch time, she
even took some in for the people at work.

She said that she had a good night. Most of the people left her
party to go to the Rossmore to see a particular singer and she
went with them. So they continued on from there.

The Funniest Garage Sale Ever!

Well on Saturday morning the 31st May, 2008 I reckon I went
to the funniest garage sale ever!

Of course they had the usual books, C.D's, D.V.D's, bric a
brac, clothes, furniture, crockery, silverwear, oods and ends,
but they were also selling their CAR! at $32,000 and the HOUSE
for $230,000!! but not the garage. Why not you ask? well
they never got around to building the garage. The sale was
held on the concrete slab where the garage was going to be.

Why sell everything? well it turns out the young couple are
moving to Perth in about six weeks and they are going to fly
over and so evrything MUST GO.

A true sale! just a pity there was no gagarge as that really
would have been the icing on the cake!!!