What a day yesterday was, up out of bed at 5.45am to catch the train down to Sydney and I find there is trackworks. So hop on the rail bus which takes you down via the F3 (now known as the M1) freeway. If you are like me driving on that road, then you have your hands firmly gripping the wheel with an intent look on your face as the road dips and swerves around hills and mountains, across bridges seemingly suspended in mid air and hugging the road as the juggernaut trucks sway past you. Fun, not.  So to sit back in a modern coach as it leisurely sweeps down hills on it way to Sydney is a pleasure where you can enjoy the scenery. You have time to chat to your fellow riders and a couple who will be going to the same market as you. (See paragraph below.)

I came down from the NSW Central Coast to help my daughter with her stall. There was trackworks on the Sydney Trains so I caught a rail bus down opposite me was a elderly lady travelling with her grand-daughter. The lady was dressed in full modern vintage clothes, I asked her if she was going anywhere special and she replied "We've come from Newcastle and are going to the Round She Goes Sydney's Preloved Fashion Market, we have been travelling for 3 hours now, do you know the way to Marrickville?. 

I wish now I had taken her photo.

After arriving at Central, it's onto a city train (yes, some were running just not on the northern or some inner city lines) trundle out to Marrickville then a brisk walk up the hill to the town hall. I bypassed all the hopeful shoppers to the front desk. "I'm here to help my daughter with her stall" I say and am ushered into a hall in utter chaos, people rushing to and fro with armfuls of clothing and dodging racks of handbags and coats.

I finally track down my daughter who is serenely setting up her stall, everything is labelled and tagged, and whom also grabbed some chairs as its going to be a long day. 10am to 3pm.

The doors opened to the general public and it was on for young and old, we took turns to go out and grab a drink and some lunch and then back into the fray again. FUN. We were packed up by 4pm, with not so many journeys to the car as pre market so that was great.

Natalie dropped me off at Strathfield for the journey home. I arrived home at 7.45pm after having to catch two buses, one to Hornsby to change for a coach to the Central Coast. All I wanted was a banana roll and a coffee for dinner, a catchup on twitter and facebook to see what every one else had been up to during the day and then off to bed. 

Today has been Wash Day, getting ready for work this week.

My friend in Queensland, Chris' bull terrier, Chopper died last year and in memory of him, she is donating a pet/owner hampers to flood victims who lost their dog/s during the floods.

ABC News(Australia) have asked the flood victims to record their experiences of the onset of the floods in their regions.

Anne and Bruce Chater, a schoolteacher and doctor from the small central Queensland town of Theodore returned from a trip to Nepal on 20 December in time for Christmas and are now coping with floods waters surging around their house and surgery and are now providing updates and photos.

http://blogs.abc.net.au/news/after-the-deluge/

This site is very funny - http://nycsantacon.com/

Santa's Survival Guide:

What to expect
Santacon is an annual convention for Santa and his holiday brethren.
Expect holiday cheer, unconventional gifts, naughty carols and general mayhem.
Do not expect to be entertained: Santa IS the entertainment!

How to be Santa
Santa doesn’t just wear a cool suit and invade your dad’s liquor cabinet: he also brings gifts!
A gift can be a reindeer game, a song, a dance or a joke to entertain Santa and tourists alike.

How NOT to be Santa
Santa never endangers his reindeer with violence, vandalism, inappropriate groping or theft.
Santa never gets SO jolly he needs babysitting.
Santa never expects to get away with behavior that an ordinary citizen wouldn’t.

It’s not a bar crawl
Every time you call Santacon a bar crawl, a sugarplum fairy dies.

Pic of the Day

ABC Outside Broadcast for troops leaving

ABC Outside Broadcast for troops leaving
Originally uploaded by ABC Archives

Archival Photos from Australian Broadcasting Commission
first Mobile Unit covering the embarkation of troops from
Darling Harbour, Sydney,1939

I found this image

on a site but lost the site name when my post on Saturday fluffed up, it came via a Twitter link.

Persistence pays off.

Yay..went back over my viewing history on Sunday found the site.

Desigg.com which has some awesome wallpapers

desigg.com/funny-animation-wallpapers

Finally back in business. I haven't been able to post for the last few days -- as the posting box was on a loop and wouldn't let me type. You see I updated the new editor as per instructions -

How to enable the new editor

To enable the new editor, first navigate to your blog's Settings | Basic tab. Near the bottom of the page you will see a field called Select Post Editor, and from there you simply need to select Updated Editor and save your settings. That's it!"

Sorry Not Quite - I went back to Setting, Basic and changed back to old editor and wallah (!) the posting box stopped looping and I'm back. Yahoo.