I've been a bit slack lately...

It's a week since I updated the blog...how time flies!
Yesterday, Sunday, we had a long car trip to the town of Goondiwindi. Goondiwindi is near the border of Queensland and New South Wales and is the birthplace of DH's father. There were 4 of us, DH, myself, SIL Mary and BIL David and we set off just after 5.30 am with heavy hearts. Neville, an elderly cousin of DH has cancer and Parkinsons and his (Neville's) sister had warned us that he is failing fast. As we drove along through the various communities we saw the aftermath of the recent floods.
We had breakfast at McDonalds in Toowoomba, as the Coffee Club is still in ruins after that 'tsunami' through that main street.

We got to Goondiwindi at just on 10am and headed around to Margaret's place. Margaret is Neville's carer and also his younger sister. Her niece Susan,  gives her a hand with the heavier work involved with caring for someone so ill. They greeted us cheerfully and said he was having a 'good day and wasn't it lucky we chose that day'? They also warned us that he looked different from the last time we saw him...but even with that warning it was hard not to cry when he was wheeled out to see us. It was much harder for DH as he remembered the times when he stayed in Goondiwindi and Neville was such a livewire. This is what DH wrote on Facebook about the day and I think it just about says it all...


 'Travelled to Goondiwindi to visit my 84 year old cousin who is terminally ill. It is so sad to see someone lose all his dignity as he awaits the inevitable. We treat our pets more humanely than this man who used to double me on his bike more than 50 years ago. Such a vital and energetic man reduced to being treated like a baby - nappies and all. '


Early in our visit



A little later and he is getting tired


I said that it just about says it all...but this is what I 'absorbed' on our visit...the love of those 2 women for their brother and uncle. You could see it! You could feel it! The absolute devotion as they tended him. Neville was weak and had troubled breathing but he listened to all the conversations as the family recalled times long gone...some poignant memories, some painful memories and others that recalled mischief and mayhem from some family members. It was a difficult trip to make, and we all felt sad as we left knowing it would be the last time we would see him but as one, we all agreed we were glad that we went!

This used to be Grandma's House

This used to be Uncle Pat (Neville's brother) and Aunty May's House

This used to be Aunty Olive's (Neville and Margaret's mum) house

On visits to Goondiwindi, the family always visits the cemetry. This is the grave of DH's grandfather and his father Nelson

This is the grave of Margaret's husband

Busy times...

I've been a bit slack writing posts lately. The weekend was certainly full! On Saturday, we went grocery shopping early and also popped into Myer to inquire as to the whereabouts of the small laptop I bought on Boxing Day. After waiting ages while the young man frantically keyed in information from my 'slip' into the register, it became apparent that although I'd paid, the laptop had not been ordered. To cut a long story short, there were none available, but I was offered the display one with a discount. And I decided to take their offer. Then I had to wait while the laptop had its factory settings restored...half an hour.
So all of this was a tiny bit frustrating as I wanted to be home to make a batch of patty/cup/fairy cakes for our little afternoon tea soiree. One of our great nieces had turned 1 and instead of us visiting her, Alex's parents said that they would visit us. So we invited some other great aunts and uncles and our nephew also brought his mum, Sonja who as well as being Alex's far-mor (Danish for paternal grandma), is our SIL. So as well as cooking there was still some vacuuming to do and putting breakables and pet bowls out of reach. Eventually we headed home and got on with our preparations. Just on lunchtime, I checked my FaceBook page and our nephew had posted that his grandmother mor mor (Sonja's 90 y/o mum had had a stroke last week and had been given 6 months to live max) had just died . So we got to work on 2 phones ringing people to let them know. However, Sonja assured us that they were still coming over for afternoon tea.





Alex, our guest of honour arrives! The feet and legs belong to daddy (Dean) and mummy (Jane).




Alex isn't quite sure about this 'blowing out the candle' business!




Some of the lovely people in our family; I have been so fortunate to be accepted so willingly into this family in the last 9 years.

So by just after 2.30 all our guests had arrived and we had an enjoyable afternoon being entertained by little Alex!  And of course sharing lots of memories of Sonja's mother. We also discovered that it was actually Sonja's birthday that day. DH had always thought her birthday was Australia Day and I had sent her a Jacqui Lawson ecard on Wednesday! So we sang happy birthday to the 2 birthday girls.
Our little guest of honour got quite tired by all the excitement so we bid them goodbye as they headed back home to the Southside.
Note:- Here in Brisbane we have 2 areas...north of the river and south of the river. It is a strange phenomen here that people identify with being either a northsider or a southsider. Our nephew and his family are southsiders, DH and the other aunts and uncles are northsiders. So it's a big thing to visit each other as we leave our 'territories'.. ridiculous really in a medium sized city!!

On my mind...exercise!

The exercise bike with the iPod draped over the handlebars.



On my mind today is the issue of exercising. When people have asked me what I plan to do now that I've started pre-retirement leave, as well as the obvious hobbies, I've also mentioned that I wanted to work on my fitness. Years ago I used to walk for about 40 minutes each day to keep fit. In recent years I haven't been doing that due to a few things...laziness, tiredness caused by severe anaemia as well as hip and knee pain the legacy of a fall in 2002. (I decided to relive my childhood and started to scramble over rocks on the beach at Caloundra...they were slimey weren't they? and I fell heavily didn't I?)

We replaced my old exercise bike a few years ago when the tension went. The bike is a good alternative to walking for me as it does not aggravate the hip and knee. A few times things got so painful when I tried to walk on the paths near the creek etc, that I would have to ring DH on my mobile to come and rescue me. I have iron infusions for my anaemia but there is always that amount of time between infusions where I get very fatigued but I have to wait until all the new tests are done and a hospital booking made to get some iron. Over the last 2 years, I was extremely tired after work each day so after making dinner, I had no energy for anything else so very little exercise was done...well actually , none!

So since Christmas, I have been building up my time on the exercise bike and can now do 25 minutes straight, with the tension turned up for at least 15 minutes . You see I HAVE to do something as a blood test in November showed my glucose levels had gone from 5 to 7.5! Actually I was quite indignant, because for 3 months before the test, I had stopped drinking wine with my meals. So even though, my waist measurement trimmed down, my sugar levels went up...the lack of exercise...and maybe too many choccies????

I do plan to try walking on the bike paths as well though to see how I go. I have a Bowen therapy treatment once a month and it's amazing how the pain levels have gone right down. You might say...why don't you get on a 'real bike' and ride on the bike paths??? I have a confession...I can't ride a bike...didn't have a bike as a kid, tried to learn to ride a friend's bike when I was about 11 but crashed into fences etc and gave up!

Happy Australia Day...

Today is Australia Day and most cities and communities have various activities which people can attend. Other people have BBQs (barbeques) with friends and family to celebrate. Other people just enjoy having a day off work! January 26 is often referred to as 'Invasion Day' by the aboriginal people as it commemorates the day the British settlement at Sydney Cove started, led by Captain (later Governor) Arthur Phillip thus usurping the indigenous people's ownership of the land. For some aboriginal people the day is not one for celebration!

Some of our 'Australiana' that comes out each Australia day!

Australia day has gradually become a 'big deal'! By that I mean that the shops are stocked with merchandise depicting the Aussie flag for months! Community groups, Clubs, hotels and shopping centres host 'family events' with toad races, free sausage sizzles, face painting, jumping castles, rides, concerts etc. People can be dressed like an aussie flag, in flag shorts, shirts, thongs and hats. They can drink from flag waterbottles, flag stubby coolers, put their bbq supplies in a flag esky. They can dry off after a swim with a flag towel...and so the list of items goes on. I don't remember the fervour when I was growing up or for the next 2 decades. The best thing about these celebrations is the fact that those participating reflect the many faces of what an Australian is...many, many cultural backgrounds, but all proud to be Aussies! Today DH and I celebrated at a friend's house by having a lunchtime BBQ. And didn't we have lots of fun!

Day 2 of the 'rest of my life'...

Yesterday was a very satisfying day as when all my colleagues headed off to work with their new classes, I did not! My Sunday night wasn't filled with preparations such as ironing, organising lessons and resources, packing lunch and morning tea etc either. Instead of arising at 5.30 am, I chose a time close to 7 am, and firstly did 25 minutes on my exercise bike. Then a leisurely 'egg on toast' and cup of tea breakfast while I read the newspaper. Then a few quick chores, a shower, clean clothes and DH and I went to Bunnings to buy some more pavers to make paths to the front gate, down the western side of the house and another path to the clothesline. After we had bought the pavers I suddenly thought that we perhaps should have checked out the demolition yards first. Oh well, maybe next time!



A hibiscus flower grown by my friends.


Later in the day I watched some shows that we had recorded, 'Lewis' and 'Ashes to Ashes' while I did some knitting...it was bliss! DH had a long conversation with a real estate agent who 'cold-called' us and the upshot of that conversation is that an agent is coming out to talk to us next week about selling our house. I'm of 2 minds about this as we did put our house on the market last year after being talked into testing the market. We're very happy here but I will acknowledge that our 1950s house needs work done again and will continue to do so. The developers are gradually changing the streetscape of our suburb and a developer has bought the property next door. But the developers hope that people will sell to them at low prices...we won't, so that's why we didn't sell last year. And I was happy that it didn't sell then. Because we're travelling in March/April it doesn't seem to make sense to try to sell the house now but DH sees things differently. I guess time will tell...stayed tuned.

A beautiful bouquet given to Yas and Stu (nephew and his wife) following the birth of Harper. There are singlets, socks, bibs etc manipulated to look like flowers, oh and some chocolates too. Very clever and very useful!!!

Today I had lunch with a former colleague who has gone back to university to study for a new career. Yes we did talk school for a while but that should get less and less the longer I am away!

Some links...

Today I'm including 2 links in my post. The first one is a link to the Etsy shop, but more specifically to those craftspeople who are selling items as a fund-raising effort for the Floods Appeal. There are some lovely items that would make great gifts.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AusDisasterRelief

The second link is to a newspaper obit in the Santa Monica Mirror, which pays homage to my husband's cousin who died recently. We were due to finally meet 'Thellie' in March when we travelled to the US. We had hoped to help her celebrate her 98th birthday, but it wasn't to be. Thelma was actually Bruce's mother's cousin and family legends are many and varied about this US war bride. She was a real character right up to the end. DH's brother and his wife travelled to the US in 2009 and met and stayed with her. She always enjoyed relatives and friends from Australia visiting but sadly meeting up with us was not meant to be.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=147950640
 We still plan to visit Santa Monica and we will definitely visit Huntington Beach where Thelma's daughter lives. In the meantime the Aussie relatives are having our own Celebration of Thellie's Life, complete with Fosters, on January 30. Oh how those memories and tears will flow...

The first of the 60th Birthday celebrations for 2011...

This year quite a few people I know are turning 60...including yours truly!  In the last couple of years a number of my old school friends have got back in touch so straight away that makes for a lot of people in my circle having this milestone birthday. Today was the first for the year. My friend Carmel organised a ladies luncheon to celebrate her birthday. Carmel and I were teaching colleagues from about 1975 until 1981 when she took a promotion and moved away. We stayed friends and both of us had our children at around about the same time. Then in about 1989, Carmel decided to send her son to the school where we had both met up all those years before. I was the Co-ordinator of the After school care centre there and Carmel's son stayed in our centre each day. My older daughter also attended this school and eventually both Carmel's and my younger children attended as well. Now we started being involved with the P& C and fete committees and we did this until our children left primary school. Well and truly by that time, I was back teaching but Carmel had always stayed with the department, only taking maternity leave.

The birthday girl standing up and giving the guests some cheek!

I attended her 40th, her retirement dinner and now today her 60th. It was a lovely venue, 'Room with Roses' Cafe right in the centre of the city in the Old Brisbane arcade. DH drove me in but I came home on the bus, using my new GoCard! It was so long since I've been to the city, but I declined to go after lunch with some of my friends to 'look around' David Jones. I frankly have no interest any more in looking around department stores unless there is something that I especially need to buy. And that is getting less and less...I make gifts or buy gifts from the craft markets, I shop at DFO for gifts or buy gift cards...

My post yesterday mentioned iPods and how I planned to get out the manual and see if I could put some more mp3 music files on the iPod. I loved Linni at Home's suggestion of getting a teenager to do it for me. Problem is, when I got the iPod nearly 2 years ago, DD1 put a number of albums on by copying CD files and transferring them and then supervised my buying a 'Skyhooks' album from iTunes. I promised her faithfully that I would then buy more with the credit I had been given by my brother as well as copying some of my favourite CDs....trouble is I haven't done it and I'm too ashamed to tell DD1 or DD2 and my sweet DS-D reckons she's hopeless at that sort of thing...lol! But all is not lost! I now have lots of time to learn these things as I did my last day as a teacher yesterday.