Let It Snow

Incredibly, people in the world are enduring some extreme weather conditions. As you will all be aware Queensland is underwater and, when a friend of mine who lives there sends me his pics, I’ll show you them.

What you probably don’t know is that Charlotte, home of the Nascar Hall of Fame (never been); Billy Graham Library (never been); the Duke Energy Centre (never been) and Trey and Wesley (yay! been there), is currently experiencing its coldest winter since the start of keeping records (or so Wesley tells me. I tried to find it online but couldn’t. I am sure he will correct me if I am wrong)

And Charlotte never gets snow. Not often anyway and certainly not at Christmas. Until this year. A rare event. And I am here missing it. You have no idea how aggrieved I am at that turn of events. Everyone in Charlotte was beside themselves at the thought of a white Christmas. And it came and it was beautiful and it went away after a few days. Everyone was happy. Then it came back again.

In droves.

Wesley and Trey got snowed in at the lake house due to an unprecedented ( and arriving earlier than expected) 372 inches of snow. (Yes I know it wasn’t that much but I have texted and texted asking for the right amount and no reply as yet so I will correct it when I am informed. It was a lot though. A lot in Australia means more than one snowflake so this would have seemed like a blizzard to us.)  Potentially  they were snowed in for  a week but ultimately, at least for Wesley, a patient with a four-wheel drive rescued him halfway through the week so he could return to work.

And the four-wheel drive was needed. This is the driveway. Yes, Australian readers, that is ice. I helpfully suggested that if he had ice skates he could have skated back to work but evidently this isn’t funny when you’re getting cabin fever.

Honestly, snow is wasted on the Americans.  As far as I know Wesley did not get a sheet of cardboard and toboggan down that excellent slope as I would have done.  That driveway is begging for sliding down. Crashing into the house is an optional extra.

Some further pictures:

The driveway before it was shovelled.

The lake

The lake house

I remain verklempt I have missed this. Seriously, seriously annoyed. I feel certain I am meant to be a snow bunny. I think I hide this desire well though. Thank GOD I am stoic and never complain about the heat to my friends……

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Worth The Wait

So to explain yesterdays cancellation; this post was meant to be for yesterday and, as you will be able to tell, was dependent on me thanking  Wesley and Trey for their gift. I managed to be able to thank Trey but not Wesley, so didn’t want to put this up until I had done so.

I still havent technically……

Wesley and Trey are both snowed in at the lake house. Trey would love this however it will slowly drive Wesley insane as he is missing work.  Personally I would have KILLED to have been snowed in there. Snowmen, snow forts, snow angels and keeping warm in front of the fire. They had power cuts so have been unable to talk on the comp or charge the cell, hence the lack of contact.

All of my friends are experiencing weird weather conditions. I may have to blog about it.

Anyways

Remember THIS?

When Wesley posted my birthday card, it took 3 months for it to arrive to me. In fact, it became something of a joke whenever we would talk: “Got the card yet?” “No” “Sigh…”

So, with trepidation on Wesley’s part, my Christmas present was posted to me on 23rd December. Now Blind Freddy knew it wasn’t going to arrive in time for Christmas – This was never part of the expectation (and to be fair, he posted it Express). I was assured by the disorganised one that Christmas had twelve days and it was still deemed not late if it got to me before the 5th. I wasn’t worried. I was just thrilled to be getting a gift.

So the conversations begin again around the 2nd Jan: “Got the present yet?” “No” “Sigh…”  By the 10th we were beside ourselves. Not being anyone’s fool, Wesley had insured the present and had it tracked. According to the US tracking system the parcel had arrived at my local post office in Newton. According to Newton post office, (and, believe me, I looked at their books), the parcel definitely hadn’t arrived there. So that was money well spent on tracking postage.

Anyways, long story short, after both of us expecting ANOTHER 3 month delay, the parcel finally arrived yesterday, 21 days after it had been sent. Now I asked the reason for the delay of the fine people at Australia Post however, God love her, the person serving me was somewhat of an oxygen thief and had put her jumper on backwards and, to no ones surprise, didn’t have a clue.

Not to worry. The important thing is it arrived, and despite having fragile marked all over it, arrived in one piece. And it was beautiful. It was seriously beautiful.

So in pics:

The parcel itself; first impressions…. nice!!! It’s big.

No clue as to where its been. There’s no postmark anywhere to indicate when it arrived in Australia.

This is inside. At seeing the wrapping I had a serious epiphany. Sorry,  private.

And when I showed  the wrapping to my Sister in Law  she had the exact same epiphany.

And inside, in addition to a beautiful card…

…. there was the beautiful gift.

The really beautiful, thankfully received gift…

So Wesley and Trey, thank you soooo much for the beautiful present. Puts my Snowman DVD to total shame.

And Wesley, thanks so much for posting it so well. Please don’t feel that the slow system of getting it to me should stop you from doing so again. It was SO worth the wait.

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Happy Birthday To Me

Dont panic. It’s not my birthday and you missed it. My Birthday is on June 29. You missed it then. 🙂

Wesley sent me a birthday card before my birthday from Charlotte, North Carolina and we weren’t hopeful it would arrive in time for my birthday in Adelaide, South Australia.

As you can sort of see, the card was posted on the 21st of June

Today, the 28th of September I received it. That’s almost 3 months late. One of the things that can happen (note to my  international fan base) is that if you write SA instead of South Australia then the letter/ post etc is likely to go to South Africa. It’s wierd like that.

HOWEVER not in this case. In this case, and according to the absolutely unclear photo below, the card arrived in Newton (my nearest post office) on the 24th June.

I know the pic is not clear but, trust me, it says the 24th June. So it arrived in South Australia 5 days before my birthday and today, 28th September I get it. So my question, and it’s not an unreasonable question, is what has it been doing in the last 3 months? Did it slip behind a desk? Did it get sent elsewhere? (no evidence of that on the envelope) Was it, and I suspect this is the truth, held by an evil employee of Australia Post whom, for some unknown reason because I am a saint, has a grudge against me??? This one makes the most sense.

Anyway my birthday card. Three months late and still gratefully received, thank you Wesley and Trey.  My birthday stretched for three months this year. That’s a record, even for me.

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