Did You Miss Me?

That old foe fatigue has had me by the eyelashes and I have been offline for some time. Am on my way back but slowly. My work has suffered somewhat over the last couple of months, the struggle to gain my energy is a long process requiring patience. Patience sucks. They call me 'Half day Harry' at work. Being a parent to two teenagers both with jobs and the typical social life of their age and I have been gardening lately. Phew, what was I thinking? Maybe I am getting old....nahh! Mentally I am still immature anyway.

Update: We had one of our ganders die today. I noticed yesterday morning that his wings were droopy and thought fleetingly of tick poisoning but was on my way out to work and let that particular thought go. By the time I got home at lunchtime he was unable to stand. I found the engorged paralysis tick on his neck straight away and removed it but he has been struggling ever since. In the end I was syringing water into his mouth and had him in the laundry basket inside. After a gallant battle he died. I don't know if there was a second tick on him, I looked repeatedly but there are so many damn feathers on those birds it is a near impossible job. It is always very sad when we loose an animal.

Got my first Christmas card this week. It has spurred me on to start mine. Nearly finished my gift shopping. I try to have everything out of the way before the shopping centres go crazy because they drive me crazy with the crowds and noise.

Will post some new photos soon, signing out!

Friends, Family... Same Thing

I once read a quote "Friends are the family you choose". How true is that? I love my friends. Of course I love my family too, I get on with them all. I think close friends hold a special place in your heart.

There is my Twisted Sister from the big smoke, the over sized metropolis, the city of many, many peoples. She flies up and house sits for us occasionally and sometimes visits us just because she can. Twisted Sister has helped me out over the years by playing Dance Mum, Scout Mum, School Mum, chief cook and bottle wash in the early days of my brain injury.

Most of all we have huge laughs. We laugh until we can no longer stand and have tears rolling down our faces. We sing badly together and we give cheek wherever possible. We also have "disagreements", just like sisters but we get over them too.

We have learnt that after two homemade cocktails it is twice as hard to open a farm gate. The bloody thing does not co-operate and when you are in a fit of giggles you cannot see the latch properly anyway. So going for a walk in the paddock is probably not a good idea at this point.

We have also learnt that two heads are not necessarily better than one. When you have a newly acquired greyhound in the back of your station wagon and decide to pick up some dog food and throw it in with her things can become quite unpredictable. We drove for half a block and realised what we had done. OK, we remove greyhound and put the long legged, gangly girl on the back seat of the car instead. She looks very awkward and unhappy. Another short drive, maybe we should swap dog and dog food. Much better idea for Layla. We stop again and switch them. Well derr! The greyhound has a muzzle on! Does it really matter where the damn dog food is? We have to pull over now and get over our laughing fits. Meanwhile greyhound is wondering whether she was better off locked in a cage away from these nutcases.

There is my Soul Sister. We live about 15 minutes apart and work for the same company. We are freakishly in sinc with each other and often have the same thoughts or turn up wearing very similar colours in our clothing. We have shared some zany themes at our work fancy dress Christmas parties over the years and get far too carried away with our enthusiasm.

Soul Sister has also been a huge help to me over the years. She has helped with our children and myself during the early years of that ever present brain injury and still to this day offers to help, even though it is far from convenient for her. I lecture her about it but it doesn't stop her from offering.

We have set out to embarrass the children over the years and succeeded more often than not. We try to ease the transition to womanhood for the Dynamic Daughter with humour and gross-outs and that poor teenager of mine will probably need some serious counselling when she reaches adulthood. Soul Sister is considered part of the family (she has her own of course) but we are her bonus family, her extra one.

We laugh a lot and call each other good names and bad (very bad). The Soul Sister has been nagging me for years to write a book, she says she will be my agent. We joke about riding motorbikes around Australia when we retire. We come out with a lot of waffle, bulldust and songs (also sung badly). We are Soul Sisters.

There is my pSychotic Sister. Wow, where to start with this one? She has been with me through thick and thin, some very low times both hers and mine. We do not live far from each other and met at the local playgroup when our children were small. Our children have been friends for years and pSychotic Sister and I have been there for each other's children as well. This woman is amazing. She laughs (it seems to be a theme with me doesn't it?) and she cries but most of all she is an unbelievable friend. pSychotic Sister has introduced me to an amazing group of locals that have been my friends for years and the community feel around here is to be treasured.

We have had some crazy times. We have sung with our empty water bottles as microphones, we have sung at a pub when a local band called three of us up to do back-up for "Mustang Sally". I in fact just mimed because I really do sing that badly. But here is a twist, pSychotic Sister can actually sing! How did she get into this story? We have been on many picnics together, we have had Christmas Day together, camping in the bush, by the beach but our favourite place to go is the local country cemetery. We have had some great summer evenings there on the hill amongst the headstones. The view is terrific, the food way to plentiful and the wine flowing nicely.

Naturally this pSychotic Sister has been a huge help to me over the years. She has broad shoulders, fantastic listening ears and a heart that gives and gives. We are each other's sounding board. It is not unusual for one of us to ring the other and rant and rave, get something off our chest and feel so much better for it.

I have other friends who are like family. My family and I are good friends. It doesn't get much better than that. I am one lucky woman who happens to be an appalling singer. But you know the more I see people wince and cringe at my singing the more encouraged I am somehow. Encouragement is something we all need and friends and family have that responsibility and need.

Camellia - the plant that says "I'm Sorry"

I have plans to plant a row of camellias down the side of our house that, from a gardening perspective, has been neglected. Having decided this I prepared the existing and very old garden bed with chook poop and weed matting.

One night the Lovely Husband and I had a fight. We broke the golden rule and went to bed angry. The next morning we were both sorry and over it. Later that day the Lovely Husband comes home with a decent sized camellia plant and a loaf of Turkish bread for me. That is love! I, of course, was truly delighted as we are not generally a gift giving couple.

One week down the track we decide it is time to buy the next camellia. We are spacing our purchases as they are not cheap. We decide it is time for another fight, the tradition has begun. He called me a cow and I called him the son of a motherless goat and then we smile at each other. Fight done and dusted, he can now buy another camellia for me and he does. That is love.

Balloons in the Early Morning

Isn't this beautiful? It must be so peaceful up there and at that hour of the morning. Not for me though. I would be terrified. How early must they have to get up to be in the air before sunrise? I have had two friends do this and they say the experience is fabulous, even the breakfast afterwards is something special.

Goose Family

They are all grown up now and paying homage to their mother, as all families should do. (Actually I think that is Bruce with his head up, and they are actually eating) but never let the truth get in the way of a good story eh?

Karate Chop Chook

We have had chickens for about 16-17 years. All personalities and idiosyncrasies. Never in my life have I seen a hen with such an aggressive self defence mechanism. Our cute and fluffy little frizzle hen I named Sparky needs a new name. The Young Negotiator had told me she “explodes” when defending her egg laying rights but I thought he was exaggerating. You know how teens can be. Just recently I was releasing the chooks into the paddock and collecting the eggs. This sweet little girl was so low and prostate in the nest I thought she must have died so I poked her lightly. Bloody hell!! She is ninja hen, her peck/strikes were lightening fast and deadly accurate. I couldn't believe it. I tried again but again she was like Chicky Chan or Chook Norris. I grabbed an egg carton to distract her so I could check under her for eggs but even with the carton in her face she was incredible. Again the lightening strikes and silent death stare. Whoa, I was not going to collect that one tiny little egg today. It is not like she was broody/clucky either. She was just laying a bloody egg! Now there is a female who takes her job seriously.

No-one but no-one is going to move her until she is well and truly ready baby! Just imagine if she actually had chicks to defend….or a clutch of eggs. Ooh we would just have to drop her and her chicks into a war zone and she would clear the whole mess up by herself. Well, OK that is a slight exaggeration but she could certainly straighten our a school room of rebellious kids or delinquent youths. She is the Power. She is Ninja Chicken!!

Sunnybum & Swayze

I have replaced the African love bird that was lost to the wild with another the same colour as Splice. They are beautiful together but I have changed their names. New start, new names. Splice is now Sunshine or Sunnybum for short. Her new boyfriend is named Swayze. Why? The night before purchasing him I saw the movie “Ghost”. Hoo har that Patrick Swayze was a hunk of spunk. I always liked him but this movie reminded me just how lovely he was to look at. So, new gorgeous looking boy bird - Swayze! Easy.

Python in the Mango Tree

We have a mango tree just outside our bedroom window which makes it feel as if you are amongst the trees and keeps the room cool in summer. One afternoon at the end of my nana nap I heard a small bird carrying on…….and on and on. After what felt like ages I got up out of bed to investigate this very annoying chatter. Oh right, a carpet snake climbing up the branches probably heading for the birds’ (there were two of them) nest. Photo opportunity!

I grab my camera from cupboard, glasses from case, shove on shoes and hat and am out the back door to capture said snake on film, actually on chip…or whatever is in a digital. After approaching the tree carefully I begin my search. The tree is slightly different from the ground obviously but for the life of me I cannot find the snake. I am under the canopy, wandering, looking but no snake. The birds meanwhile have scarpered.

I was just about to give up on my search for the python when there was a “thud” in the low hanging branches in front of me. OH *%$#@*&! The ruddy great bugger was in front of me at chest height lying perfectly still. I managed to leap back without landing on my behind (a surprise in itself) and be clear of him/her. I think it was warning me it was there, amazing really. Anyhoo, it began climbing the tree then. I was sure it should have been higher of the ground.

Photos managed, I left it to its evil plan. I am not frightened of snakes at a safe distance but this was within arm’s length and not where I intended to be. Don’t you love the country? Always something happening.

Crocodile in the Pool

Do you like the look of Colin? We brought him back from Australia Zoo with us and now he patrols our swimming pool, silently, stealthily, floating with the current, those beady eyes ever watching. And best of all he has not orifices so he has no excrement, he makes no noise and needs no food. Some geese I know could learn something from his example.

Lunchbox Environmental Fee

I have plastic, re-usable lunch boxes for my teens’ school lunches with paper lunch wrap and re-usable ice bricks for sandwiches needing to stay cool. All very environmentally friendly. (We had to make our own lunches for school when I was growing up from about the age of 10 but I know what kind of lunches I made so I make my offspring’s lunches for diet balance and health reasons - control freak?). Unfortunately these plastic lunchboxes often did not make it back to the kitchen for cleaning and storing for the next lunch time. They probably festered in the school bags or amongst the detritus that is their bedroom floors. It got to the point where I was having to use disposable plastic bags and was complaining about their complacency on the matter. Deaf ears!

The Lovely Husband and I have realised over the years that the way to get through to our adolescents is through their finances. That is where it hurts the most.

I threatened that unless I saw those lunchboxes in the plastics cupboard when I make their lunches in the mornings I would charge them an environmental fee. Still no action. OK, the next time I made their lunches and had to bag them instead of box them I wrote on the plastic bags “Environmental Fee $1”. When the offspring came to collect their lunches to pack there were moans and grumbles and those teenage glares but within half an hour I had three of the four lunchboxes in the kitchen sink for cleaning. The lunch boxes have miraculously turned up every day in the plastics cupboard ever since but I still have those dreaded plastic bags and permanent marker ready for action should I need them. Save the earth I say!

My Computer is Fixed....at last!

Our internet went down. I tried everything to restore it. I know enough to be dangerous but was at a total loss this time. Poopanola! The tower has been in the 'puter shop for a week - with the router - and we all felt as if our throats had been cut. Our link to the outside world is back, it functions and I can once again fulfill my driving need to waffle on my blog. I have some posts on memory stick typed on that* laptop ready for cutting and pasting. I am normally sporadic with my posting anyway because I have to wait for a period of time when my fatigue is not too bad. Concentrating on a screen is a real bugger for the ol' brain injury induced fatigue. So look out, a run of incredibly fascinating and mind blowing waffle is soon to be thrust upon you.

* The Young Negotiator's laptop. It has no DELETE button. Hmmph!