Roller Boogie memories....

Yesterday I read a story that brought a few little sad tears to my eyes.

It was all about the redevelopment of the Red Hill Skate Arena as it was called by all the hip and happening kids back in the day!

OMG the fun I had at that place. It was situated in the neighbouring suburb to where I lived and from memory (which is a little blurred right now...) I would frequent it on a Saturday afternoon and on the odd occasion maybe a Friday or Saturday night, as I got older.

The music & the kids were a big part of it. Ohhhh and of course the skating too hehehe but prob in that order...

And of course in the early days I had to hire the "boots" from the Arena and of course this made me look not so cool BUTTTTT of course deep down I was :)

I begged my Grandparents and Funny Nana for the holy "White Boot Skate with the very BIG Stopper at the front" butttt alas they were very very expensive and we couldn't afford it. So that meant I had to keep wearing the "used rented type of skate" and I was a little sad but understood. :(

But then came the MOST AMAZING DAY ON THE PLANET... you see from time to time my Nana would spend the day at the Horse Races here in Brisbane, and at this point I should add (because my Nana would have liked you to know this bit) she honestly didn't go very often and so a couple of times a year Grandad and I would drop her to Eagle Farm Racecourse and then pick her up in the afternoon.

Actually looking back now it was a pretty big thing I would have thought for a woman back then, and we are talking the 1970's here, for a woman to attend the races by herself!

Anyway the point is she never went very much. So this one afternoon Grandad and I go to pick her up anddddddd she had a huge smile on her face because you see she won BIG TIME! Shame that I can't tell you how much because even I am curious to know but back then, being a child I wasn't privy to that type of info!

But here is where the story gets good!!!! My Nana bought me.......
yep you got it! These:

Now this was the closest picture that I could get to what mine looked like. I didn't have the pink wheels though mine were more like a brown with wood grain. I know sexy right! LOL

And I can only imagine my face the day Nana said we could go buy them! I mean here I am some 30 something years later and I can still see those skates and still see me skating in them :)

Ohhh and I can remember cleaning the wheels with Methylated "Metho" Spirits and the white boot polish... ahhh those were def the days my friends!!

And a fire on Boxing Day in 2002 cause so much damage and it has sat derelict and vacant since then...

Here is the clip that I watched and they have big plans to keep as much as they can of the site but to now turn it into something beautiful. To see the back of the rink where at the start I used to hold on for dear life not to fall over, well that was the bit that made me sad for the building!

Here is the link:

Plans roll on for Red Hill Skate Arena to turn it into function centre

And whilst we are kinda talking about wonderful parenting I soooo have to share this little bit of GOLD from a lovely male friend of mine, who is the BOMB at Parenting Teenage Girls..... hehehe

This is what I read this morning via his Facebook:

Having trouble getting your kids to clean their room? Roll up a sultana, squeeze the ends, lay it next to their bed. Next morning walk in to their room, ask what that thing is, suggest it's rat poo, then gently pick it up and eat it in front of them! I love being a Dad! The reactions you get!

I love this guy sooooooooo much. Mind you when I was 14 and at high school he along with another guy, would put my pencil case on top of the ceiling fans in Speech & Drama because me being short, I couldn't reach it and ohhhhh they would laughhhhhhh! LOL

And on other news, last night James and I worked a little more on the spankin new website and the plan is to launch it sometime during the early hours of Monday 27th February, so stay tuned for that one Groover's.

So the rest of my weekend ie. Sunday was spent doing my "homework" HUH? I knowwww me tooooo! But I had homework aka My Book to start and I have to say I had an enjoyable day doing this :)

Oh and before I leave you tonight I have an update on my Dove Family! Okkkkk so last I left it there was one teeny little egg as you saw via this pic!

So since then both Mum & Dad Dove have been taking turns to lay on the egg to keep it warm, safe and protected. And finally this morning I saw either that Mum or Dad feeding the little baby dove! Then a bit later in the morning I heard a little noise and Mum/Dad had finally flown off the nest to go get some food soooo when I had a look this is what I found:

TWOOOOOOOO babies!!!! And they are sooo tiny! I tried to get a good pic for you guys but this was the best I could get because it didn't take long for Mum or Dad to return and I didn't want to be caught out!!

Oh and before I forget here are the pics of my manicured hole!!

Before:

Meets after:

Isn't she pretty!

Oh and tonight I had a wonderful chat with my good friend Chris, it's been a long time in between phone calls but geez we had some good laughs. And I promised that I would mention him in The Morley Report tonight and confess that he had the inside scoop to the stories that appear in tonight's Morley Report! A high honor indeedy Mr Chris :)

And that my friends was Sunday. Nice quiet weekend doing things that I love. Not bad if you can get it :)

Night

Me xxx

Operation Dove!

Ok so this morning I heard a little noise outside my window and guess who I saw? Both the Mum and Dad Dove!!

They were obviously looking over the empty nest and working out if they should rebuild a bit or move on....

They decided to rebuild, which was great news except for one little factor:

The nest really was only hanging in there by it's chinny chin chin on a palm leaf.

Now Baby Jake the other night, once I told him or should I say reminded himmmmm of my Baby Doves, said that I should probably cut the palm leaf down just incase they came back (which of course they did) and rebuilt (which of course they have started to do...) and if I didn't well then did I want to find dead Baby Doves in my garden? :(

I knowwwwww he just has a way with words doesn't he! And to think I gave birth to that! LOL

So what was little Kazzachezza to do? I knowwwwwwwwwwww ask my good friend from work Greg for some help. Now not many people would get that I wanted to help my Dove Family and not many people would take the time out to help a Crazy Bird Lady! But my mate Greg did, love ya Greg :)

And so began "Operation Dove".

What we did first was check it all out from my bedroom window, which in turn scared them off so that we could weave (or screw in) our magic. The first step was to cut the palm leaf and then I had to hold the leaf in place, and can I just add here that it was such a muggy day but I DID IT FOR THE DOVES!

I had sweat pouring down my face, in my eyes butttt I couldn't wipe my face as I needed to hands to steady the leaf. I knowwwwwwww I'm a good kid :)

And then Greg got to work as he had made us a bracket with some timber for the nest to sit on.

Did you see Embee and I in the background looking out through the window?

Now this was the only way we could think of to give the nest support because not only does the Mumma Dove sit on the nest for a couple of weeks (I'm an old hat at this now...) the babies hatch, usually two and thennnnnnn the mother and father take turns to fly back to feed them so it has to take the weight of two babies and one parent!

And some days I was sooo scared with the last "generation" as the leaf had moved a couple of times with either the wind or just really the leaf growing!!

So Greg did an amazing job, then it was time to give him the leaf and wipe my face OHHHH HEAVEN!! And we or shall I say GREG! cut an extra piece of palm leaf and laid this down first then we put the nest + palm leave that is kinda holding it in place, onto the leaf covered wood and now we wait.....

When I got home tonight I did of course check a few times but at this stage no Mum or Dad. But Groover's I am not giving up hope as they may come back tomorrow and the way we looked at the situation today, we could have left it as it was and something bad happened to the next generation of babies (as Jake said) orrrrr take a chance on some Kazzachezza sweat, 1 x bracket, 1 x piece of timber and ONE SUPER HERO GREG!! :)

Sooooooooooooooooooooooo we wait.

I promise to let you guys know as soon as I can if they do in fact return with a special *** Dove Newsflash Blog ***. So stay tuned kids.....

Over and out fellow Dove Lovers!

Me xxx