Katie Clift - Brisbane, Australia

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Katie's blog is now being published online by City South News.

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Archive Blog
(pre-October 2008)

18th August 2008 - I never thought I'd be eating fish heads ...

Yup, you read correctly. Big, angry looking fish heads straight from the sea to my plate. It's one of Super Spouse's latest health fads, where he turns our life upside down after a recent revelation of our diet and its long-term affect on our body.

I received a call a few weeks ago telling me I was in for a surprise when I got home to the dinner table. I thought maybe some take-out, or he'd cooked my favourite meal. I never imagined the surprise would be wided-eyed, staring up at me bearing its tiny teeth and roasting silently in the oven ... but alas, this had become my demise - fresh

4th August 2008 - When winter takes its toll that tad too much!

One of Super Spouse's pet hates at the moment is driving with the top down on our brand new MG - which means everywhere we go, day or night, rain or shine, we're scootin' round town without a roof.

I've been pretty fine with that in winter, 'cause one of the big plugs when we bought the car was the fancy heater installed. So we simply ed the dial to the highest temp, and were on our way warm and snug and cosy in our brand new car! We've been amazed at how well our feet have been being taken care of in such an old car- when everything was freezing outside, our feet were toasting away inside... or so we thought, for several weeks.

A trip to the mechanic had us discover the MG doesn't have a heater at all! Yup, we've been imagining all along that warm air was coming out of the vent when there isn't even a vent at all! Probably just the engine, or it could be that winter is taking its toll on us that tad too much, and turning us delirious.

Needless to say it's quite cold in our little un-roofed car now. I think I liked it better when I lived in warm wintery ignorance...

27th July 2008 - Furniture Fiascos ...

It's such an exciting thing to make a new purchase for your home. Especially one you've been saving months for, dreaming about, visiting several stores for weeks on end to find just the right kind. We've been in the market for a new TV unit for as long as I can remember, but it had to be just right - mahogany, solid wood, correct dimensions and at the right price.

We spent weeks visiting nearly ever antique and furniture store within the greater Brisbane area, and finally bargained down a gorgeous mahogany unit. We piled it into the back of our 4WD and drove it home. All the excitement of the purchase distracted me from the reality that we'd have to personally unload and move the furniture upstairs... which is where the fiasco begins.

It took 20 minutes just to unload the unit from the car and get it inside the foyer of our apartment building. It was far too heavy and awkward for me to carry, and we had to buzz ourselves in and try to move the unit before the door closed, then carry it to the lift and angle it just the right way so the lift doors didn't close on it and damage it. All the while super spouse is lecturing me on how important it is to concentrate and move slowly not let anything touch it or let it slip at all or drag it across the carpet even a little bit ...

After 30 minutes, and some awkward angling in the hallway, we had the unit inside our apartment! At last! Super Spouse set it up, decorations and all, drilling and wiring and mounting ... and managing to knock a speaker off the top of the TV onto the unit to create a chip front and centre in the wood.

After all we'd been through. After my aching bones and tired mind had worked so hard to prevent any damage... and five minutes into decorating we've managed to create a big chip in the middle of our best new piece. I call it the furniture fiasco of the year. We've since spent many afternoons darkening it to the right colour with some varnish from Bunnings. Every time I see it though I think of super spouse's clumsiness, and it's definitely a talking point when guests come over. I'm just glad he's the one to blame this time.

22nd July 2008 - When they grow up ...

Super Spouse and I sat down to watch a DVD last night after a hard day's work. We chose the film 'Wild Hogs' which is all about a bunch of middle aged men leaving their lives behind to re-discover themselves through a motorbike road trip across the US. It was a very empowering film for the average man, and though my husband is not middle aged, nor does he even know where to start in mounting a motorbike - this film inspired him to heights never seen before.

Five minutes into the film he left the couch and started tapping away on the computer in his office. When I got the guts to ask what on earth he could be doing, he said he was on a search for places in Australia where he could go on a road trip ... with a hired motorcycle and a few of his friends ...

This isn't the only recorded case where he's latched onto an ideal, or an image or dream, and wanted so bad to make it his own. We saw Get Smart and he wanted to be a secret spy agent, we watched Narnia and he wanted a sword of his own, we sat down to watch Property Ladder and he wanted to become a professional renovater ... you get the idea.

And it's not even a funny passing joke that lasts for a day or so and then fades as you'd imagine. He has his heart set on becoming the next world champion, the next President or Prime Minister, the next daredevil - and the few weeks after his epiphany, his desktop overflows with research, articles forwarded to me by email on the subject, pictures and video clips all throughout his workspace ... until he sees another film, gets another dream, and so on and so on ....

It's not that we don't have an exciting life (from reading this blog you can tell it's incredibly eventful), I think it's just that kid coming out of him - wanting to be anything and everything when he grows up! ... I'm just not sure when that will be.

14^th July 2008 – When dinner parties go wrong!

It seems to be the case when you get married, and your friends around your get married, that you progress into sort of an ‘adult’ world, where you live out the events you always watched your parents frock up for. I have to say one of my favourites is the old dinner party- when it goes according to plan.

We recently hosted a more ‘informal’ dinner party for two of our best friends. Super-spouse Matt decided he’d make it an interactive evening and opened the entire kitchen to pizza making. As the rest of us watched from the sidelines, sipping wine, Matt proceeded to make the dough from scratch on our kitchen bench- without a bowl! He just fashioned a well in the middle of the mixture on the tabletop and attacked it. Five minutes later after much savage punching, pounding and pummeling, the dough was stuck to the bench, all over the wall and floors, and had created a new design on our carpet Pro Hart would have been proud of. If that wasn’t bad enough, the first pizza Matt actually succeeded in making, ended up all over my recently washed floor when his attempt to place it in the oven on a giant pizza spatula went spectacularly off-course.

Unfortunately this mishap only seemed to strengthen Matt’s resolve to become West End’s most famous pizza chef. More dough-punching followed and eventually we each sat down to a perfectly incinerated (Matt called them ‘lightly crisped’) disc. It was probably just as well the apartment was rapidly filling with oven smoke: at least we wouldn’t have to see what we were about to eat.

Looking back the night was a bit of a laugh, but three weeks later I’m still finding bits of leftover dough in the oddest places. The next time Matt gets the pangs for pizza, I’ll be setting the oven to 1300 Dominos.

7th July 2008 - Living in an email age!

Which is what you don't appreciate, until your husband decides to send you an email over the weekend - when you're both home. Sure, we were in separate rooms, but still…

Anyway, it wasn't so much the fact that he emailed me as much as what he emailed me about: ‘Tips on how to wash my clothes better’ …

Super-spouse Matt had noticed his clothes starting to fade so he took the matter into his own hands and 'googled' it to find out why (which is something I'd never do - I'd just let the clothes fade and buy new ones- what’s wrong with that?) Anyway, he found some links, copied them and attached them in his friendly email to give me a 'heads up' on how to do our washing better. Sure, they were good tips, but why the electronic delivery? Probably because it’s quicker and probably because it avoids direct conflict and the possibility of an argument; plus the fact Matt figures I'm more likely to take the tips on board when they come from a website rather than him personally- more credibility you see.

So this week I did change my cleaning habits and I must admit the washing does seem much whiter and brighter. Matt will be pleased. In fact I’ve just fired off an email to tell him….and to say the ironing’s ready to be done.

30th June 2008 – Unscaled fish, anyone?

I know it sounds crazy, but for my entire life I've lived in Brisbane and haven't taken full advantage of the markets we have on our doorstep! It hasn't seemed that appealing to me because I was dragged to markets as a kid and wasn't too impressed, but Super Spouse and I ventured to the West End markets only a couple of weeks ago and had a fabulous time.

I didn't know there was such a thing as 'market etiquette' though... we showed up without any bags, inappropriate footwear (on my part- probably not smart to wear a pair of your favourites through the mud) and clothes that got us a few stares along the way (I don't own a pair of fisherman pants or a hippy scarf...)

We felt totally out of place with everyone so prepared holding green bags and grocery trolleys and probably should have done our research before showing up. Surely we could have googled it and avoided the amount of stares we got as we shopped for fresh fruit and veg, and, to Super Spouse's delight, fresh fish...

The fish is so cheap because it's straight from the ocean- unscaled- so the customer has the privelege of personally preparing the food for consuming. Needless to say it's gotten Super Spouse so inspired he's attempted to purchase a scaler (thankfully Coles didn't have one) and every time we have eaten fish since he's expressed his ambition to get 'back to nature' in our own home. I ended up calling a fish scaler to get the low-down on the mess factor, but we convinced me it was low. I think it's extremely gross though.

All in all, the markets left us with fresh inspiration, cheap food and an excitement to visit their world of bare feet and big smiles again. We'll probably take green bags along this time though. And I’ll aim to avoid that unscaled fish...

23rd June 2008 - The joys of an MG!

That's right, my hubby and I made a purchase last week we've been wanting to make for a long time. We bought ourselves a 1968 MG sports car convertible! It's immaculate, so much fun - light blue, it's gorgeous! And as much as I thought my excitement was the extent of excitement one could possible feel from a new car purchase, it seems Super Spouse has proved me wrong ...

Not only does he wake up in the morning and say hello to the car before walking to work, but he spends extra time with it during the day and loves to drive around for the sake of driving. The cutest part is the way he loves people looking at him and whispering to their friends when he pulls up at a set of lights in it.

It's too cute. The car is fully automatic and heated too which is a bonus - and essential, because Super Spouse hates driving with the top down. We've had so much fun taking it on the road so far and trying our best to navigate traffic and switch lanes, which we found hard because our indicators weren't working... which we had no idea about at the time...

We're just so excited to have bought the car now with a long time to enjoy it! You only live once and we weren't going to wait till we aged to indulge!

16^th June 2008 – Unleashing the kid on the inside!

“Watch me, watch me!” he cried as I held the shopping bags and he prepared to launch himself, on the back of a shopping trolley, down a public ramp alongside Coles.

You’d think this cry would be coming from a nephew or niece, or a totally unrelated child and I was simply a bystander. Nup, this was my 25-year-old husband, a look of complete glee on his face and scuffed shoes by the time he got to the bottom.

Every now and then, no warning whatsoever- we could be anywhere- and his eyes will glaze over and he’ll get this look on his face where I know the kid inside is about to launch out. Whether mini-matt is breaking into song, going crazy with my hairspray or riding a shopping trolley down a public ramp, I always dread his visits. Often they’re in the privacy of our home, so I’m okay to wait the crazy phase out, but when mini-matt appears in public I’ve either got to make a run for it, or chase after him with a stern look on my face, teeth gritted and smoke coming out of my ears.

Who needs kids when you’re living with one 24-hours-a-day already? Don't get me wrong, I am thankful my husband takes life lightly and is always prepared to have a laugh and a play. But some days I just wish one day I could bottle mini-matt up and control his outbursts. At the very least, I’ll be prepared if the day ever comes to have children, ‘cause they’ll probably be just like him.

2nd June 2008 - I made it to the Gym!

Motivation can no longer be an excuse for me not being at the gym - not having enough time is no longer an excuse either!

I overcame both these things last week, got myself ready - tied my hair back, put on my gym gear from the bottom of the cupboard, chucked my sandshoes, filled my water bottle, grabbed my towel and began the long journey down the lift 4 floors to the in-house Gym at my complex...

Let me tell you - I was ready to get going, to work up a sweat, to exercise hard and be healthier and feel better about myself ...

And the treadmill wasn't working. I couldn't work out how to get any other machine working in the gym either. I spent 15 minutes trying to work out how to make any machine at all function so I could achieve my goal and finish what I had set out to do ... but I ended up giving up and trudging back to my apartment, in shame, because I was unable to exercise yet again.

At least this time I am not to blame - the motivation was there, it was just the machine ...

Perhaps I'll try again next week.

26th May 2008 - When living NEXT TO the hospital isn’t enough …

I haven’t been to the hospital as much in my entire life as I have in the last two years. I can’t even count how many times I’ve woken up in the middle of the night to my husband on the phone to the RBH or Mater asking advice, or about symptoms, or whether the waiting line was huge or not.

Super Spouse has to be one of the clumsiest people on the planet. He’s been nicknamed clumsy in every job he’s been in, people go to great lengths to avoid an area he’s in and secure the loose items on their desk whenever he’s around. Don’t get me wrong- people love him … they just don’t love all their stuff being knocked off and broken all the time.

Since I’ve known him he’s been to hospital countless times for gastro (literally, countless, I cannot recall how many times I’ve sat with him while he’s been sick and waiting to be put on a drip), he got oven cleaner in his eye once (didn’t bother to tell anyone but got a friend to drive him to the hospital, and he now refuses to approach the oven with cleaning gear), and the latest instalment was a few weekends ago when he thought he might have glass in his eye, so he waited in the hospital for 2-3 hours before they checked him and sent him home fine. Meanwhile, I’d had enough, and was shopping …

It’s lucky we live right next door to a hospital – literally. It’s been extremely convenient, especially when you’ve got to make that late night rush. Since we’ve lived here (4 months) we’ve been there 4 times for various sicknesses or worry about sicknesses. They know us by name now. They see us coming a mile away and greet us at the door. They must think we’re the most paranoid people in the world.

I think we're just clumsy. But it's made me think it's not such a bad idea to live right next to a hospital. When you're going once a month on average, it seems to make sense.

21st May 2008 - Who takes out the bin!?

It’s only been 2 years of marriage for me, and still we’re deliberating over whose job it is to take out the trash. Apparently I ended up saying I’d do it last time and never did, because I remember him saying he’d do it from now on to help me out around the house … or maybe I imagined him saying it...?

Sometimes I’m very quick to forget Super Spouse really is super. He cooks, irons, repairs and does the grocery shopping every day. There’s times I find it hard to recall when he’s gone out of his way to create my website from scratch, edited all the emails and stories I’ve sent to him, and spent countless hours upgrading my computer so it runs better for me (amongst so many other things) …

But this is all about the bin! I’m not too sure any woman should have to get her hands and elbows dirty into the mess of an overflowing (and, too often, broken) plastic bag of trash from over a week ago. I’m not sure any of us should be subject to those kinds of smells and juices that can cover our clothes and seep into our hair every time we touch the bin. But I’m yet to convince my husband. At the moment we leave the topic until the bin area becomes too unbearable, or our kitchen starts filling with empty bottles and old wrappers, and then we have a discussion about who said they would become the ‘bin man/lady’ last time, and who didn’t listen, etc. etc...

Just recently in our garbage bag bin war, he's gone to the liberty of purchasing extra large garbage bags (bright green- one of my favourite colours!) just so I can take the trash out quick and easy without spilling anything. He seems pretty happy with himself as I can't use my same old excuse anymore, so I'll have to rack my brain to think of something else to get out of it...