Jo: January 2008 Archives

{Disney}
When I lived in Cambridge I worked for the Disney Store which opened up on Petty Cury. I was really nervous when I went to my interview and had never done a group interview before either. It was also my first job interview in the UK and I was stoked when got it.
We got to set up the store from scratch. and wear the most lovely uniform, khaki shorts, white shirts and a vibrant two tone blue cardigan! We had to greet people on the door, and be super duper friendly at all times but that was so easy as the work was mostly really fun. I made some lovely friends there but have lost contact now with all but about 2 of them now.
I have some fantastic memories from working there..like the time a little girl came into the store and she had bought me a gift as I had been so friendly to her when I had served her just a short time before. I was so touched but apparently she had insisted to her Mum that they go get me a gift..bless her it made my day.
Opening day at the store was fantastic too, we had loads of other Disney Store workers who came to our store just to help out and there was a radio competition where kids could win a breakfast at one of the hotels around the corner and would get to meet Mickey and Minnie and I was thrilled to bits to be able to help co-host the breakfast and meet some of the kids.

Here's some pics from Opening Day!

{Digiscrapping}
I completely, 100% blame KateF for my addiction to digiscrapping! She told me to try it and helped me out on a few questions I had..and then I was off. I think that would have been back around Feb of 2005 and I haven't stopped scrapping since. I have not only got loads of great pages to share with the kids when they are older but have also met the most incredible bunch of friends whose love, support and friendship mean the world to me. As someone who is severely challenged when it comes to being arty I was thrilled to find that digiscrapping was actually something I could do. It didn't cost a ton of money (well not in the beginning!) and I didn't have to use scissors or glue which was a huge plus for someone like me. I love having a creative outlet and both my Mum and MIL reap the benefits of lots of lovely scrap albums.

Dad

This is a particularly hard post to write as today is the 5th Anniversary of my Dad's death. I generally try not to dwell on these things and keep extra busy which has worked well today but being that I am due to blog D and he is on my mind I may as ramble for a bit.
He was a pretty busy kind of Dad, I vaguely recall a time when I was fairly young that he worked two jobs. One his normal day job at the Defence place in Salisbury and then also night fill for Woolworths I think it was. I do remember playing with him a good amount as a kid though, backyard cricket, swimming and he would take us up to Para Wirra Recreation park fairly regularly and we would go on long walks and go bird watching.
Twice a year we would head off in the Big Brown Beast (aka Dad's Valiant) to Wallaroo and spend a week or so there, Dad would take us fishing every day, we'd catch worms in the seaweed, build sandcastles on the beach, go crabbing around the rock pools and play frisbee.
I would say that he and I always had a good relationship even from my childhood. I don't think he ever got too mad at me for anything as I was too much of a Daddy's girl to ever want to make him mad at me. I did get in trouble but I wasn't a terrible trouble making kid or anything. I know he used to be frustrated with me at times when I couldn't understand maths homework even though he had just spent a considerable part of the evening explaining it to me but looking back I was really lucky to have a Dad that would actually spend so much time trying to help me out with my homework.
I know he would have liked me to have more direction in my life, perhaps work a bit harder and go to Uni but it wasn't really me and so when I ended up doing waitressing and then onto retail he didn't really understand it. He wasn't a people person and didn't get why I would enjoy working with customers all day, but I did.
I do have to say what a wonderful Dad he was when I met G, the internet was pretty different back then but he was pretty cool with the whole thing and didn't mind too much that I spent copious amounts of time and money talking with G into the wee small hours online. I love that my Dad really liked my choice in husband. It certainly made it much easier than some of my previous relationships with guys he hadn't liked (even if he was right about them all along!) It was also nice that when he and Mum came to the UK for our wedding that he got along so well with G's parents, so well in fact that they all went out for a day and left us behind!
I do wish he was still here, I hate that he has missed out on so much of Abbey's life, and it is so unfair he never got to meet the twins. He and Joe are so alike and I think they would have had a wonderful time together.

More D's about me to come in a future post.

Cat

I am a cat person, always have been, always will be. The only time I ever in my whole life recall not living with a cat is when I lived in Cambridge and we weren't allowed a cat in our unit....so we bought a hamster! He was great but no substitute for the love and affections of a feline friend.
This may sound strange to some but I honestly don't know how things with G would have gone if he hadn't also been a cat person, at least to some degree. I don't think I could have married someone who didn't like cats, or who wouldn't want to own one.
So I guess this brings me to my news of the day......
This morning we adopted a gorgeous new furbaby from the Animal Welfare League. We had popped in yesterday to see about getting a new cat scratching post and just couldn't resist wandering through to see the cats. Somehow it was easy to walk past the first enclosure full of teeny tiny fluffballs that were just 12 weeks old...but when we saw our girl in her own enclosure you could almost hear the audible thud as we literally both fell in love with her. We talked a lot about it over night and we just could not get her out of our head, I could not bear the thought of her being put to sleep if we left her there, so we went back for her first thing this morning.
She has stunning green eyes, a beautiful temperament and is so gentle for a 12 month old. She is yet to be named (feel free to leave a suggestion) and she looks so at home here already.
Here's a pic

Carefree

I used to not care what people thought of me, it wasn't something I really dwelled on. I used to not think twice about larking around with my mates in toy stores, or singing out loud in public places, or jumping on a train to head interstate or even doing cartwheels down the main shopping street of Adelaide.
That all seems to have changed now, I am much more quiet and reserved now and border on terminally shy. I don't like to be noticed, I prefer to just blend into the background and watch everything go on around me. I get very nervous at the prospect of meeting new people in large groups, especially if they all know each other but I am getting there and have met some awesome friends over the last 12 months and we now hang out in a large group.

Camera

My other baby, my Canon 350D! As many of you know in the last 12 months or more my love of photography has really grown and begun to flourish more. I love my camera and all it can do and only wish I understood more of it's capabilities but I know it's a gradual learning curve and I would rather learn one thing at a time properly, then several things in a half arsed way.
One day I hope to actually outgrow my camera and upgrade but I feel a long way off that for now so am happy to just potter along for now learning what I can.

Corey Feldman

Well I figured this is an encyclopaedia about me, and he was a huge part of my teen years and he was literally EVERYWHERE on my bedroom walls,my wardrobe, my dressing table and the sides of my mirror. My mum even made me a birthday cake one year with him on. I used to watch his movies over and over and repeat all his lines off by heart, as you do at that age I suppose!

Celebrations

Tomorrow is the two year anniversary of my blog ...so Happy Birthday Blog!!