Yet another blog account

The one with the holiday in glorious Western Australia

2011-06-19T21:56:00.001+10:00

Ahh the sun setting in the west. It’s the most wonderful thing in the world. And while I’ve been saying it for years to my hubby, this is the first time he’s acknowledged that I am right about it. Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. But I wanted to start with a beautiful picture and Monkey Mia is certainly lovely.

We were essentially forced to holiday in WA because of my father’s estate. Despite insisting (and hoping desperately) that she would qualify for a loan, my sister is unable to buy Dad’s house. To be honest I’d have been shocked if she did. She’s hardly worked her whole life, instead choosing to have children and live off the govt payments. And she has a drug habit, which I hate, but have come to accept as something she’ll probably never throw. Sadly, it’s not a drug that she can really overdose on, or this would have been over one way or another years ago. She would have ODed or hit rock bottom and got clean. So instead she oscillates from user to not, according to events in her life and how much money she has.

Anyway, the sad conclusion is that the house must be sold. We’d love to keep it ourselves, but we live on the wrong coast for it to be any real use to us. A four-hour flight plus a three-hour drive does not make a weekend getaway. So we decided to spend a week of our holiday cleaning it out and preparing it for sale. We thought it would be a big job, but we were shocked at the state of it when we got there.

You see, I had told my sister that she should take her children there for a seaside holiday before it was prepped for sale. And she basically trashed the place. A three-day job turned into a five-day nightmare because of the five bags of unwashed clothing and linen she left there, the dog sh*t all over the floor (INSIDE) and the unwashed dishes (a lot of which went straight in the bin). Like everything in her life, she had a little disaster which left the dog locked in on his own for four days and when she returned to get him, she had to turn around and leave straight away without cleaning up the mess. The less said about it the better. Except that she also took a lot of the stuff that was valuable and I imagine, pawned it.

Darren was a brick through all this. It broke my heart going back there to sell the house. And going back there knowing Dad wouldn’t be sitting at his table waiting for us as well. The new Indian Ocean Drive has opened up – finally – and it was a lovely and easy drive up there. Dad spent years talking about “when the road comes through” and how much prices would go up and how much easier it would be to get there. Well it opened less than a month after he died. He never saw it.

Sunset at Jurien Bay.

I have to rave about how I love that town. Everyone was sympathetic and helpful. For city folk (which they continually called us), it was truly lovely to have people help for no other reason than to be helpful, to refer us to others if they could help more and generally be all round nice people. Also, the weather was AMAZING. It’s winter. Well, it was late Autumn at the time. And the days were sunny and 23C or more, the whole week. Thankfully. As Dad had a huge double shed full of crap and we filled two 6m skip bins of rubbish from the house and shed. And still left the shed half-filled with stuff for my sister as she feels a lot of stuff Dad had is nicer than what she currently has.

So anyway, after a week of beautiful weather while we worked until we fell over (literally), and I struggled to sleep because of the emotional stress, the weather turned on us when we finally got to drive off on our holiday.

We saw this on the way. We dream of becoming Grey Nomads before we are actually grey. I’ve been tossing up the idea of using the money from Dad’s house to make it happen – we’re both due long service leave in five years, so we can take six months without losing our jobs, which is pretty awesome.

(holiday story TBC tomorrow. I have to go to bed now)

I got in trouble from Gamiila

2011-06-19T21:04:00.002+10:00

…so have decided it’s high time for a catchup post.

I have to admit that the main reason I haven’t been posting very much is that life has been… ordinary since my last post. I have a friend in Perth whose habit is to shut down and stop communicating when things are crappy for her (which seems to be more and more common, and I often have to reach out to make sure she’s okay). Anyway, I seem to be doing the same with my LJ. I think I have nothing to say, but the reality of it is that I (feel I) have nothing happy to say.

Firstly, we have given up trying to have a baby. The pathology on the embryo that I lost in December came back really bad. Heartbreakingly. Not one, but two genetic abnormalities and the report's comment basically said it was due to maternal age. I was 40 at the time. The obstetrician told me that we could keep on trying, as the eventually one egg would be good, but she'd known couples to have 6-10 failed pregnancies like mine before finally having a healthy baby. The other choice was IVF, where they could choose a healthy embryo. Since the emotional and physical toll of both of those options are completely unappealing to me/us, and we'd really only been trying to have a baby because I was out of time, we decided to give it up and just focus on enjoying our lives as they are and stop torturing ourselves trying to have a baby (that we may not even like or enjoy having).

Life's a crapshoot and in this case I left it too late and we lost. *shrug* I was never that keen on parenthood anyway - the only time I desperately want it is when someone near to me has a little baby, and I'm well aware that those impulses are hardcoded into our makeup. :/ There is a lot less hoping and then disappointment, but I do feel a little sad every time I think about it and revisit the decision often. I guess, like a lot of missed moments in life, I'll always wonder what if...

To be honest though, the child I want is my bridesmaid Ali’s, I’m pretty sure that a child that Darren and I had would not be as clever, attractive or precocious. It would probably be ugly (neither of us are model material) and cranky (Darren has the worst temper, and I can be very reactive and stubborn), though I have no doubt it would be smart. So I’m just going to content myself with getting cuddles when I visit (while trying to avoid the head lice she proudly announced she may have) and just watching her grow. And then being glad that I’m not going to have to parent her through puberty, which is sure to be a nightmare.

Following on from this, I got a phone call a couple of weeks ago from a much-loved friend who got married a couple of months after I did. She’s ringing to tell me she’s pregnant. I knew from the moment I got the call, because we are mostly net friends and hardly ever speak on the phone, or we meet up in person. Actually, a lot of my friendships are like that these days. Anyway, her accidental pregnancy, while wonderful, is – if I’m completely honest – a bit of a blow. I know she won’t have the same problems as me as she’s ten years younger, and they’ll have a happy, healthy baby. So I’m happy for her, but it stings a little as well. I don’t think I’d be human if it didn’t.

So that’s been one of the things that I need to speak about. I went back on the Pill in March, when I turned 41. It did make things easier though as we had a holiday planned an no-one wants to greet Aunt Flo on holiday! (holiday post to follow)

Look at the size of that thing

2011-02-02T17:54:00.001+11:00

What Cyclone Yasi (currently bearing down on the North Queensland coast) would look like if it was over the US.

I don’t know who in QLD ran over a black cat, but they’ve had some serious bad luck lately.

I never believed it could get worse.

2011-01-11T12:35:00.001+11:00

The rain still hasn’t stopped in QLD and it’s positively biblical in some parts. The water is now threatening the state capital, Brisbane. There are 32 suburbs on flood alert.

Check out this news report: cars piling up in central Toowoomba. When I first heard there’d been flash flooding in Toowoomba, I couldn’t work out how it had happened.I’ve been there a few times, the town is at the top of a range on all sides. But there’s a hollow with a stream running through it in the middle of town and that must be where all the water thought it was going as it runs down those streets.

I just got off the phone to my cousin, who lives there and she said that while she’s high up and her family are not under threat, she’s unsure if she’ll be able to get home from work as some of the roads are already flooded. Nobody’s actually working anyway, she says, they are all looking at the news online and worrying about it. Eight are already dead, 71 are missing and it’s just going to get worse.

I’m repeating my appeal for donations to the flood victims. I suspect when this is over, over 5% of Australia’s population will be affected and god only knows what effect it’s going to have on our economy. The main export port for mining in the state is shut down, and I’m sure it won’t be the only exporter unable to get its goods out. Farmers are saying their crops are ruined (mind you, they are almost always complaining about that). My mother is fielding cancellations almost continually as no-one can get there as the main highway is flooded and we already know no-one is visiting from overseas because of the stupid high Aussie dollar. She may lose her business over this and her town is under threat from flooding as well.

I’ve come to tears over it already and no-one I know personally is affected. To say nothing of the animals, domestic and wild.

Queensland floods

2011-01-03T21:06:00.001+11:00

Some of you may not be aware of the size and devastation of the current flooding crisis in Queensland. Thankfully, though a few of my family are in the flooded areas, none have lost their homes just yet. However there are at least tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of people who have, with more to come.

I know that Australia is a well-developed nation, and should be able to cope, but the amount of land underwater is mind-boggling. It’s four times the size of the state of Victoria (which means it’s at least one and a half times the size of the state of Texas). If you can spare the time and some money, the Queensland premier has set up a website for donations. The Red Cross is directing people there as well. People will need temporary accommodation, shelter, clothing and eventually, they’ll need to build new homes. Thank you.

Happy New Year

2011-01-03T20:45:00.002+11:00

And thank whatever gods you worship that 2010 is done with. It was truly an annus horriblis for me.

I know I posted about my miscarriage when Dad died, but since then I’ve had two more, the last being far more traumatic because I had to take time off work because of the threatened miscarriage, have several blood tests in a lab that had (seemingly) hundreds of pictures of smiling babies on display, two ultrasounds and finally a d&c when it was confirmed the baby was dead.

And we had (for the first time) allowed ourselves to get excited and told the in-laws that we were expecting (mostly for fear they’d hear it through other means than us and get their noses out of joint). Thankfully, MIL resisted spending up big in Baby Next as it was so early on. It’s so awful, I can’t begin to describe the trauma I felt when I had that second ultrasound that confirmed what the blood tests had been hinting at but not stating definitively. My baby was dead – there was no heartbeat or blood flow. And I had thought I should be 8-9 weeks along but the ultrasound was showing only 7. Seeing the little thing there floating in space was wonderful and heartbreaking. More so when the sonographer turned on the doppler to assess blood flow and there was none where all my uterus around was pulsing with life there was nothing to be seen in the little baby. Just dark and (seemingly) cold. And of course, like the previous times, Darren was away from home and could not comfort me (a further cause of distress for him).

And this all happened a week before Xmas. The timing couldn’t have been worse. I had to have the d&c on Tuesday – I felt almost normal on Wednesday, and went back to work on Thursday. Xmas was on Saturday, and it was just the to of us and Darren’s father, who’s been visiting from the UK for a few weeks. There was supposed to have been more, but Darren rang our other guests and asked if they could find somewhere else to go because he was worried about me.

I had a weekend to think about having the d&c (because I could have just let nature take its course as I had previously), and I was lucky enough to fly to Sydney to attend Mimbles’s Xmas/Adam’s 42nd birthday party. Darren and Jon met me at the airport and we had a lovely evening with the Browncoats of Sydney and their friends. On Sunday made a brief pilgrimage to the QVB building, then visited with a couple of friends of mine from Perth who now live in Newtown with a very adorable whippet puppy. We ate at a place called Pastizzi's on King St. It’s at the far end of King St, and it was amazing. And cheap. Sydney people, go check it out.

The good news in all this is that the d&c went relatively smoothly. I was very stressed and upset going in as I was alone and had no idea what to expect from the procedure or the anaesthetic. I seem to have recovered from it well enough and we are generally healthy and happy and will be moving on with our lives.

I am SOOooo glad 2010 is over with. Bring on 2011!

Under doctor’s orders

2010-09-17T09:33:00.001+10:00

I have to admit to being surprised at how well I’ve coped with going back to work. Of course, that was okay while I was only working shift (effectively a few days a week) but going back to days this week was a little difficult. This week, I seem to have lost my shit. Well, today really. I went to work – well I didn’t want to go to work (but when do I ever?) – and didn’t get there.

I freaked out while waiting for the bus.

I’d caught the train as far as Hoddle St and was waiting for the bus that takes me the rest of the way to work and I just got so sad about my dad that when the bus appeared, I got up and walked away from the stop and got back on the train and went home again. I called in sick. And then felt guilty about it. But I was in no condition to go to work. I do not know what came over me, I was just so, so sad about my father. And I was so relieved to get home again.

Late in the afternoon I went to the doctor, and she listened.

I had trouble getting myself out the door and driving was an effort. She asked if I felt that what I was feeling was abnormal – no, I don’t. I’m just surprised it’s hit me a month after his death like this. She told me to go home and take a long weekend, and offered me more sleeping tablets (I did take a few before the funeral, but I think I’ve been pretty good about it since then) and valium if I felt I needed it. Both of which I refused, but despite thinking that taking another day off work was a bit self-indulgent, I have decided to listen to her about that. But she says I should go out and do something today. The only problem with that is it really conflicts with my protestant work ethic. I’m off sick. I should be sitting at home being sick. And going out (or going shopping which is what I want to do) seems to be a little immoral. However, I am under orders. The reason being, she said, I’m at risk of becoming a shut-in because I had two freak-outs yesterday.

So what to do? Does anyone feel as I do? That shopping is inappropriate?

August Horriblis

2010-09-02T09:31:00.000+10:00

Apart from the appalling hung parliament that was thrown up by the recent federal election, and my absolute horror at the prospect of having Tony Abbott as Prime Minister for the next three years, August has been a bad month for me.

I’ve been miserable this Winter here in Melbourne. I feel like there’s been no sunlight at all. Just relentless grey cloud, hanging over all of us, but not favouring us with much rain.

I discovered I was pregnant (a combination of huzzah! and OMFG! feelings followed).

Then I miscarried.

Then, when I was miserable and being comforted by Darren, my mother phoned to tell me that my father had died.

I had to fly to Perth to sort out his affairs and organise the funeral. At least the weather was sunny and mild for the most part.

It was very sudden, apparently his heart just stopped. He didn’t tell anyone he was ill.

He did not leave a will or any instructions. We’ve been forced to just make arrangements and hope that he would have approved. The memory of him in his coffin is going to haunt me for months, perhaps my whole life. He looked so small because of their stupid shroud, which I ended up pushing aside. He was not a small man. And he looked so well – they’d put makeup on him – he looked like he was about to sit up and say “haha, suckers!”

It’s now September, the start of Spring. And thank the gods. Though the weather’s as bleak and miserable today as the winter has been, it’s at least not as cold.

I am going to disable comments as I recognise that all my f-list will feel the appropriate sympathies. Best wishes to you all. x

I love you Dad.

August Horriblis

2010-09-01T16:44:00.001+10:00

I’ve been miserable this Winter here in Melbourne. I feel like there’s been no sunlight at all. Just relentless grey cloud, hanging over all of us, but not favouring us with much rain.

I discovered I was pregnant (a combination of huzzah! and OMFG! feelings followed).

Then I miscarried.

Then, when I was miserable and being comforted by Darren, my mother phoned to tell me that my father had died.

I had to fly to Perth to sort out his affairs and organise the funeral. At least the weather was sunny and mild for the most part.

It was very sudden, apparently his heart just stopped. He didn’t tell anyone he was ill.

It’s now September, the start of Spring. And thank the gods. Though the weather’s as bleak and miserable today as the winter has been, it’s at least not as cold.

I am going to disable comments as I recognise that all my f-list will feel the appropriate sympathies. Best wishes to you all. x

I love you Dad.

There’s something about New Zealand

2010-08-01T15:23:00.001+10:00

Trips to New Zealand seem to generate inordinate amounts of stress for us.

A couple of years ago I actually got to the airport for a Friday evening flight to Auckland, was parked and waiting for the airport bus when I realised I didn’t have my passport with me.

There was much associated stress and panic. Because of the time difference and the length of the flight, missing a flight to NZ can cost you a whole day. On that day at least, it was the last flight for the day and the next one would have had me in NZ at 3pm the following day! So you can imagine. Anyway, about an hour of insane driving later, I made it back to Tullamarine, most agitated by this point and expecting several speeding tickets to arrive promptly in the mail) , ran to the check-in desk with my luggage in tow and begged them to not close the flight to me. Then ran back to the car where I’d forgotten my mobile phone so I could actually call Darren to tell him I made the flight (and no, I still haven’t learnt his number, and today I learnt he hasn’t learnt mine yet either – stupid technology crutches). The FAs, when I reached the plane, gave me water and told me to sit down because I looked like I was going to have a heart attack. I didn’t, but I did have asthma for a few hours from the unaccustomed exercise. Also, despite NZ food and booze, I lost 3kg that weekend. Just goes to show what running can do for you. :)

Fast forward a couple of years to today. Darren is off for two weeks for work in Wellington. Up at 5:30 (though as an aside, Barry and hunger because we didn’t eat dinner last night, meant that I’d been awake since 4am), drove Darren to the airport and headed home with plans to drop back in bed. As I’m parking the car at home, looking forward to heading back to bed, I notice Darren’s black fleece jacket in the back seat.

Haha, I think, after all that fuss about packing he’ll have to manage without it. I thought he was overpacking anyway.

So I ring him to let him know.

And the phone vibrates in his pocket in the jacket.

OMFG!!! It’s a BUSINESS TRIP. He NEEDS the phone.

Back out on the road (cursing for the thousandth time our non-automatic garage door that I have to get out to close and lock AGAIN). Desperately trying to phone the airline desk at the airport. I’ve tried this before, does anyone have any inkling how hard it is to contact an airline’s desk at an actual airport? And does anyone have any inkling how USELESS Three’s (the phone company’s) directory assistance is? Anyway, on the third try, some nice lady with a broad Kiwi accent in AirNZ’s travel desk get a message through to check-in for me and the message came back that if I got there by 8am, they could make sure he gets it, but they couldn’t page him. As I’m turning the phone off so it’s locked (because I’ll be handing it to a stranger), I realise his WALLET and KEYS (to the locks on his luggage) are also in the jacket pockets! (have I mentioned that I hate this habit of his, as I’m always scared his stuff will be lost from falling out?)

(I’m tempted here to insert the head-explodey picture again – but I stole it from someone’s blog http://www.fuchsiamac.com/ actually )

So not only has he no phone, he’s got no money or cards to buy another or clothes without possibly breaking his bag!

At this point (of course), I get caught in a traffic jam entering the airport.

But I made it there with time to spare (again, I expect multiple speeding tickets to arrive), and found Darren just inside the doors to the airport (I thought it prudent to look for him before trusting his wallet – don’t care much about the phone – to strangers), pacing up and down, getting more and more frantic that I didn’t appear back with his jacket. Queue dramatic emotional scenes of relief and the awarding of mega wife points! \o/

And now I’m absolutely exhausted and wrung out. But I did finish a knitted hat this arvo, so I feel good about that. :)

Mad March Continues

2010-07-24T16:39:00.002+10:00

Sunday dawned clear but still windy and we had a late start, a hearty breakfast, packed up some drinks and a lunch and headed out to the Promontory itself.

Despite booking the closest accommodation to the actual Prom that was possible, it was still a good hour’s drive into the national park before we reached the campsite and general store. We’d done a bit of research about walks, and told the park staff where we were off to, just in case. Ever since the fires in the park last year, they like you to let them know where you’re likely to be, just in case.

We’d chosen a short walk, a couple of hours around a little cape with views to the Squeaky Beach. There were lovely views all over the place. Looks like an easy enough walk, doesn’t it? It got harder.

The river leading to the beach near the campsite.

People making their way to the beach.

Squeaky beach, from on high. And rocks. This is where we started heading back downhill, and it got hard on the knees and ankles, and a bit slippery underfoot as well. I need better hiking shoes (add that to the list of things we can’t really afford).

Dead tree with hill.

Random wildflowers.

Weird fungi I spotted.

The view of the campsite as we rounded the final bend.

There was a guy there about our age walking the trail with two intellectually challenged and one Down Syndrome kid. They were all teens actually, and they were having the time of their lives, while the bloke was doing it a bit tough, like me. We were treated to the magical picture of the Downs kid doing pirouettes on the trail while he waited for the others to catch up with him. I was inspired to do a few pirouettes of my own:

I did it!

(Darren’s been walking The Tan every day at lunch and a lot fitter than me at the moment)

Following that adventure, we judged we deserved a bit of a swim and headed to the Squeaky Beach. Which lived up to its name. The sand is so fine and white and clean that it squeaks as you walk on it. I have to admit though that the water was so cold, I chickened out when I was waist deep. It’s not like swimming in the topics down here in the Southern Ocean, not at all, and it seems our holidays in Broome and Darwin (where the water is warm and the pools are heated anyway) have made me into a big wussy. Never mind, I had a nice laze on the beach while Darren proved himself hardier than I once again.

After that, we decided to head back to our cabin for a well-deserved shower, spotting a huge wedge-tailed eagle on the way, and had a big dinner and were in bed early. Which meant the next morning, we woke up and dragged our blankies outside to sit and watch this:

But it got weird. Can you see it?

What about now?

How about now?

I did a search of satellites, comets and other space objects and even spacecraft (thinking it might be the shuttle, but I found out it takes 18mins for orbit, so it wouldn’t have been visible and near-stationary for so long, and also, it wasn’t out at that time) when we got home and could not find any explanation for it. It stayed visible for at least 5mins before it disappeared (presumably as the sun moved and was no longer lighting it). It was not a plane or meteorite as it would have passed from sight sooner. If anyone can tell me, I’d love to know what it was.

Soon, though we were just left with this:

And finally this:

And that was our last morning on the Prom. We drove around a bit and had a good mooch at a local market on the way home (where I found six sixpence for $15, intending to put them in a Christmas pudding, and then Darren declared that most of them were too valuable and he was keeping them!). Barry was happy to see us on our arrival, and we’d had a lovely break.

Mad March

2010-07-24T15:34:00.004+10:00

March. Was a mad month. Two birthdays and a mini-holiday, with work and the previously mentioned trip to Mum’s thrown in.

Darren’s birthday was greeted with enthusiasm by at least one of us

And there was help with the unwrapping

And then we headed out on the (slightly long) drive to Noojee to join the World’s Longest Lunch at the Noojee Trestle Bridge

(looking at the recent photos, I’m a bit worried about my camera’s light metre *sigh*)

There was some milling around beforehand, while we wondered where we would be seated, and with whom.

Then we headed up to the top.

And discovered we were right at the other end! Which actually was great (though it was the furthest from the porta-loos) because it was nice and shady when it got hot later on. Yes, the weather was amazing that day, bright, sunny not to cold at first, then not too hot when it warmed up.

Note Darren in the hat being shamelessly flirted with. One of our fellow diners took a shine to him. I’d like to say it made me mad, but I enjoyed it that my man is wanted by others.

A good deal of food and wine was consumed, and then I was reminded (in this photo) that I still have a lot of weight to lose.

All too soon it was time to head down again.

And head to Wilson’s Promontory. This is the view we were greeted with from our little cabin.

It was incredibly windy for two of the three days we were there. The owners apologised and said it was unusual, but I came to suspect that it’s windy there all the time. Only another visit where the weather is perfect will convince me otherwise. ;-)

There was also cloud covering the hills on the Prom for almost the whole time we were there. It’s weird that the cloud stayed despite the wind.

The next day, we went into town for provisions, a bit of a mooch (seriously, anyone who wants a Konica Minolta Dynax 7 digital and tripod and lenses for $600, I know where you can get it – I came soooo close to buying it for myself. I love Minolta cameras). Yahtzee was purchased to pass the evening in the cabin (nostalgia), and then we went for a drive

And discovered the adorable town of Fish Creek.

…and their great collection of street chairs.

They also had a great second-hand bookstore (we love those) and a couple of galleries where local artists showed their stuff. Sadly, as usual, we couldn’t agree on any single piece.

I better cut this off now and continue in a second post. There’s pretty beach photos to follow. :)

Kitten for adoption - Melbourne

2010-04-23T15:11:00.001+10:00

A friend of mine is looking to rehome the most adorable little cutie!

She is approx 8 weeks old found on the swamp lands of Geelong. Re homing fee of $160 which will cover de sexing, first round of vacc, worming and micro chipping.

She is currently almost litter trained and LOVES other animals. She has had exposure to dogs, rabbits and birds however I would always make sure to watch her around them. She will also need to be rehomed into a house that either is home most of the day or has other animals she will not handle being left alone for long periods of time!

She will be ready to go in the next few weeks once her desexing is completed, visits from new owners are always welcome. She is a mixed DSH however I have had people say that she looks like she has some Bengal in her.

Anniversary

2010-04-20T23:55:00.001+10:00

Today marks two great years since Darren and I got married.

He’s a wonderful man, patient, thoughtful and kind and I’m so happy we took the plunge together.

I love you, my hubby. <3

Updatey

2010-03-02T00:58:00.001+11:00

Man, why do I neglect my LJ so much? I read LJ and Blogger every day, so I don’t understand why I’m so crap at updating it.

Example: my incomplete holiday entries. Will I ever get around to finishing them before we head off on our next holiday? (unknown)

What have I been up to? Darren’s Aunty Rae and Uncle John visited from England, which was nice. We got to play host (took them to Donovan’s) and drive them around the state (the Penguin Parade!) a bit before packing them off to the other rellies in Warrnambool. And Xmas with Mum and co. up in Murwillumbah, which was nice, and would probably have been the last time I visited there, as my mother is moving again. Why does she wait for me to get really comfortable and attached to a place (and her in it) and then up sticks and move? It’s only been three years! I don’t like to move more often than once every five-ten years, but it seems she can’t help herself! Anyway. It’s a bit upsetting. But I’ll survive. The fact is, I love that little town and it’s always a wonderful respite from Melbourne. The weather’s never the same there as here, and it RAINS there. A lot. At Xmas, we thought we were going to get flooded in because of the swollen river. Coming from Melbourne where we are carrying grey water to our camellias in buckets so they don’t die, it’s wonderful to see. I wish we could move up there and become hippies like half of the rest of the population. Though I’d make a shit hippie, as I like new and trendy stuff and, you know, bathe and wear deodorant. (seriously, can’t they smell themselves?!) If only Darren’s company had an office there. Or a reason to set one up, haha.

Anyway, it turned out they weren’t moving as soon as they’d hoped, so I was able to fly up last week and squeeze in one last visit. Unfortunately, Mum and I had a doozey of a fight which we both tried to pretend afterwards didn’t happen, but I’m still upset about. No doubt she is too. But our POVs on these issues are so different, I doubt we’ll ever agree. She thinks I’m wrong and I think she’s wrong. Never the twain shall meet as it were. And the next day, to make peace, I offered to stop doing the thing that upsets her so much and she told me it was okay! Which is also frustrating. Family, eh?

I did get to drive a nifty little VW Jetta for two days, which gave me some idea of what it would be like to own a VW, as I’ve been eyeing off a Tiguan for a while now. Liked the car, wasn’t a fan of how hard the ride was. We do a lot of country driving and I want a car that smoothes the bumps on country roads, not just a tight-handling city runabout. But we don’t want to buy anything huge, so it’s hard to find the compromise. Especially now that Subaru have ruined the Forester by making it huge. :(

Other than that, we’ve popped up to Sydney in November and caught up with friends (Brendan and Di and Meghann and Siggi) there. We ate at a restaurant called Strangers with Candy, which was expensive, but worth it. So good. Hope to be there again in early May. It’s the replacement holiday. We had planned to go to WA again, but because we overspent at Xmas, we’re only having five days in NSW instead. We’ll look at WA again in Sept to see if it’s do-able or will have to wait a couple of years.

We went to the Palais and saw Tim Minchin, who just about started a riot a few rows in front of us with one of his songs. We’d never been inside that building before, it’s amazing. I think it’s supposed to look kind of Roman, has columns and so on. The best part was that we had seats in The Lounge, which actually meant lounge-chair type seating which was huge and really comfy. They are refurbishing (much needed!) but I hope they retain the original seats (a recovering might be nice though). We’re going to see Huey Lewis there soon-ish (Darren’s choice, not mine!), so I hope it’s still the same.

Next week will be Darren’s birthday. I have already bought his present (unusual planning on my part) and the next day, we are going to The World’s Longest Lunch at The Noojee Trestle Bridge and then on to Wilson’s Prom for a couple of nights. Barry won’t be lonely either, one of the girls from work will be moving in for the few days we’re away.

Soon after that, I hit The Big Four-Oh. Yep, I’ll be an old fart. I’ve been resigned to it for a while now, but can’t say I’m enjoying the prospect as it draws ever closer. I guess the worst of it is – apart from the outward ageing, Darren and I have been trying to get pregnant and failing. The upside of this is that I can – and will - get trashed on my 40th. The downside is – is it ever going to happen? And how late is too late to have your first kid? (my sister seems to think any kid after 35 is a huge mistake, let alone the first)

The other nagging worry is that I want to move to a bigger house, but we can barely afford the mortgage on the one we have! And house prices are even more insane now than when we bought it in the first place! I keep reading that first home buyers are despairing of ever owning one, but I can tell you that third home buyers feel the same way about getting something that fits more their needs! (in our case, these needs are: stay close to current locale, third bedroom at least, proper backyard, better situated home, semi-detached if possible) If anyone has a spare couple of hundred grand, I can put it to good use, haha. And of course, we probably can’t afford to buy a new car AND a new house. I’m glad our current car is paid off and costs us very little.

I’m working shift at the moment. The money’s good, I get a lot more time off and I feel far more autonomous at work when on shift. The downside is, if I keep at it for too long, I’ll get too old, and they’ll never promote me. That said, I can earn more money doing shift than I can as a senior and the hours are better. Perhaps I should be willing to accept that I’ll never have a proper career with progression. I dunno. I’m sure there’s been hundreds of millions of people who’ve come to this point I’m at, where they realise they’re unlikely to go anywhere on their current course, and have to decide whether to accept that and make the best of it, or try and push their way up against the tide, as it were.

So anyway, that’s me at the moment. And more personal stuff than I usually post on LJ, but I’m feeling a bit reflective. Sorry it’s so long.

Happy New Year, yeah!

2010-01-01T00:24:00.001+11:00

It’s hot here. Or it was – until the massive thunderstorm deluged us with lovely, lovely rain.

Hubby and I stayed in, haven’t bathed, cooked junky food, drank champers and geeked out all day. I can only hope the rest of the year will be as harmonious and happy. With more bathing, of course. :)

I wish everyone who sees this only the best for the coming year.

Much love and peace out, man. \o/

Holidaying pt 2 – Broome the second

2009-08-16T21:32:00.001+10:00

Following on from the previous post, we drove from Gantheaume Point back towards Broome township, via a dirt road that ran past Deep Water Point, where the large ships are docked.

I didn’t feel well, but Darren walked up the dock and on the way back, spotted a turtle:

And then headed into town and located the Japanese Cemetery, which has been restored with the help of the Japanese people, but was also vandalised soon after.

It was unlike any cemetery I’d seen before and very lovely.

Later that day (after the required pool time) we went to iconic Cable Beach to watch the sunset from one of the restaurants there. It’s the place that everyone recognises from pictures of Broome – often with people taking a camel ride up the beach at sunset. Darren had been keen on doing this, but honestly, I’ve been on a camel before, they are nasty smelly beasts that spit and the ride is NOT comfortable. I told him he was welcome to, but after reading about the dodgy dealings that went on when last the camel operator licenses went up for tender (scroll down for story), Darren was put off as well. They only walk them on the section of the beach North of the rocks and have banished the cars up there as well, leaving the Southern section (it’s a long beach though) for the swimmers to enjoy in peace. That’s at least one good decision the Council have made as I had thought our time on the beach would be ruined by yahoos in 4WDs (though they seemed to exit the beach quietly enough after sunset, so I may have been mistaken there too).

Many people picnic or BBQ on the beach at sunset, or just come to look at the view, which is worth braving the crowds for.

We took those from our table, and afterwards wandered down to the water.

I am in love with this shot, I want to put it on my wall:

As you can see, the beach was a bit rocky, and I was glad it was low tide and the rocks were exposed and easy to avoid. The water was much colder than I expected though, despite the sign stating it was 22C, it seemed worse!

More to come…

LiveJournal Tags: Holidays,us,Broome

Holidaying pt1 – Broome!

2009-08-16T15:00:00.001+10:00

LiveJournal Tags: Holidays,us,photos,Broome

All my adult life, I’ve wanted to holiday in Broome. Pretty much ever since they started promoting it on Perth Radio as a winter destination. Though given the mild weather in Perth while we were there, I don’t think they need it, and we should move it closer to Melbourne, haha.

Some readers might be aware though that Darren and I were very ill in the fortnight before we went away. Darren with swine flu (during which I worried about him a lot and considered taking him to hospital more than once), myself with whooping cough. For those who don’t know, apparently your vaccinations to whooping cough (that you have as a baby) wear off when you are in your mid-thirties. And it’s been on the rise for some years, leading to an epidemic in the northern rivers of NSW, which is where my Mum lives, and I visited her two weeks earlier. I blame the prevalence of hippies in that region. If they’d seen a baby with whooping cough (as I have), they wouldn’t risk their children by not vaccinating them. Whooping cough is no easier for adults. In fact, I was diagnosed when I went to the Dr in hysterics because I’d been unable to sleep for coughing the entire night before. Not to mention the other unmentionable consequences of coughing as violently as I had been. Anyway, both of us made it back to work in time to do two days of work before buggering off on holidays. \o/

So, leaving Barry in the care of the lovely and wonderful housesitter Anna, we snuck off early in the morning, heavily laden with luggage (for we were to head South to Perth after Broome and had been told that it was freezing there) and flew to Broome. We headed off to our accommodation, the wonderful and now highly recommended Frangipani Resort, which was blissfully quiet the whole time we were there, and had a beautifully quiet pool as well. After we’d put on appropriate clothes and stocked the fridge with food-type goods and plenty of alcohol, we headed out to do touristic things. I’ll not give a blow-by-blow account of all our days there, instead, I’ll say that we tended to get out in the morning, head back and spend the afternoon by the pool and then head out in the evening (either to the beach or for dinner), very much as we did with our trip to Darwin. The best way to cope with a warm climate IMO is to do very little in the heat of the afternoon, which also means you’re not out in the sun getting sunburnt too. :)

Anyway, we went to Gantheaume Point, where sadly the tide was too high to walk out and find the dinosaur footprints – though on our second visit, it may have been low enough IF we’d had a guide to take us out there and show them to us (but we were too scared of the rapidly changing tides compared with the time it might take us to locate them!). Still, the contrast of the red pindan soils with the blue blue of the sea and sky was amazing.

Looking North towards Cable Beach.

Walking down to the point.

Obligatory tourist photo

This shot was a complete accident but has garnered a lot of comments. I liked the drama of the sky behind Darren. Others have noticed something else…

This amuses me.

Lighthouse keeper’s “cottage”. I LOVE this shot, the dirt, the sky, everything. Though I wish I’d had some low-speed slide film and a polariser on the lens. Then it would be even more poppy with the colours.

Looking south-east around the point towards the township

Birthdays

2009-04-02T14:17:00.001+11:00

Both Darren and I have had birthdays recently; he’s 38 and I’m 39. I think we both felt appropriately fussed over for our big days. I got some lovely gifts, took the day off and went shopping for clothes (best idea ever – I’m never going to work on my birthday again!), was drunk on sav blanc and champers by 6, and also had a delicious risotto dinner cooked lovingly for me by my hubby.

His mother was lovely enough to send me a present from England, and while I was thanking her on the phone, she asked about how I felt about the upcoming 40th. It’s interesting: I don’t feel at all like I did when I turned 30. Turning 30 was a disaster for me; I was so far off what I considered my life path, it precipitated a slide into depression that lasted a couple of years. I had seriously expected to be married, promoted and somewhat reluctantly approaching parenthood by that point. When I got there and none of that had happened, I was devastated. I also had (rather interestingly) had a strong conviction that I would die before I was 30, so getting there was a shock on that level as well. So anyway, I made it past 30, I’m so far off what I thought was my life plan that it’s irrelevant now. So I’m not concerned (yet) about the prospect of turning 40. We’ll see how I feel 11 months from now!

Anyway, Darren and I went to St Kilda Beach for breakfast on my birthday eve, at my request. We had breakfast at The Pelican and then a walk past the markets – like we used to when we lived there. We enjoyed both and the weather was pleasingly mild but sunny. At about 1130, we were walking back up along the beach outside the Stokehouse, when we came upon these two lovelies who had obviously stumbled out of the nightclub strip and onto the beach, too drunk to go further.

I know it’s callous of me to take photos but we couldn’t resist! They were already getting burnt in the sun, and no doubt would wake up with cracking headaches, but everyone was gawping and laughing and even the lifeguards wouldn’t go near them. Bonus photo for the eye makeup:

The good news is that one of them stirred soon after I snapped this with my phone, so hopefully they didn’t spend too much longer there.

Black Saturday.

2009-02-28T21:04:00.002+11:00

You’d have to have been living under a rock to be unaware of the devastating wildfires that have burnt through (what seems like) half the state in the last three weeks.

Black Saturday brought with it record heat and winds, and an appalling death toll. It’s been heartbreaking to watch the news and I’ve been especially affected by stories like this one, and its follow-up. I think a lot of people, when faced with stories of thousands who lost homes and a death toll currently at 211 forgot about the devastating effect fires like this have on wildlife. I even got off my (usually complacent) arse and made a decent donation to Wildlife Victoria.

It’s true that fire is a normal part of the natural cycle here in Australia, and certainly the Aboriginal custodians of the land have been using fire for hunting and to maintain the bush for thousands of years. What’s unusual in this case is the ferocity of the fires and the size of the devastation. There’ll be plenty of discussion to come about whose fault it is that this happened. Some of the fires were deliberately lit too, which makes it so much worse – that someone could do that, knowing that we had that day what amounted to a 300% fire risk day (yes, on a scale of 1-100, the risk was estimated at 300).

The hospital I work at is the main burns centre for the state (ironic I left Royal Perth to get a job in a hospital with an almost identical case mix of patients and also the main trauma centre for the state, completely by accident). So of course, as it was after the Bali bombings, we’ve had an influx of critically ill patients, who require lots of blood tests and blood products. If you are in Australia and eligible to donate (and haven’t already), now’s the time your blood is really needed – after the initial influx of donors has died down. Because burns patients can go through (the equivalent of) 200 units or blood per day for months.

Darren and I actually drove down really early to Red Hill Market early that day, with the strong intent of buying more of those incredible sausages we got in early December, and maybe hitting the beach afterward. Which is exactly what we did.

Of course, Darren took the usual unflattering pictures of me.

But it was GLORIOUS. We really enjoyed it. I didn’t enjoy coming out of the water and suddenly weighing my full weight again (when is that diet going to start anyway?). We left when the hot wind arrived from the North. As we were driving back we stopped for an ice cream, but really we just scurried home to turn on the a/c and flop. And then later, watch the horror of the tragedy unfolding on the news. And it hasn’t stopped. The fires are still burning, I can’t imagine if there’s going to be any of the beautiful temperate forests left after they burn themselves out.

I can’t end this post without mentioning Marysville, which was completely destroyed. This was a town Darren and I had passed through on our way to the snowfields last year, and talked about whether we could move there. The air had agreed with me so much and it was so beautiful and historic, that we thought it might be a nice place to contemplate for a tree-change/commute belt life. Not anymore. :(

What we've been up to.

2009-02-18T09:58:00.001+11:00

In this post, I talked about our trip up the mountain to the snow. I have finally uploaded the (two only, alas) pics associated with our merry funtimes up there.

And one of Barry looking expectant as he waits for water. Heh.

(I wouldn’t bother clicking “view full album” as these are all that’s in them. Most of the pics are actually on Photobucket, but with this editor, they are uploaded to mysterious places.)

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Fast forward to Australia Day weekend this year. Darren and I went to Warrnambool to see the rellies on the Saturday. There was much joviality and a BBQ, in which hubby gleefully did the honours with the cooking. While the animals milled around (well, Sam the dog milled around while Mr Bigglesworth studiously ignored him), while Den modelled Darren’s hat and her favourite dressing gown.

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The next day, we headed towards SA, but stopped on the way at Nelson and travelled up the Glenelg River to visit a fantastic limestone cave. The river journey was a lovely way to spend the afternoon. It was all gorges and water (which we don’t see enough of anymore here in Melbourne), and the captain fed the ducks all the way along the river, which was entertaining in its own way.

When we reached the Princess Margaret Rose Cave, it was rather spectacular (and I’ve seen a lot of caves, coming from WA, where they are seemingly all over the place) and well worth the journey. It was also nice to get a bit of a respite from the heat.

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That night, we stayed in a small cottage-style accommodation and had a fantastic steak meal at The Barn, which was a short walk from where we were staying.

The following morning we were up early with a long drive ahead of us. First, we had to visit the Blue Lake in Mt Gambier. Because when we went through there on the way back from our honeymoon, it was a sad grey colour. But in the warmer months (something to do with algae or something), it turns a spectacular azure blue. Not a shade of blue you ever expect to see in nature. It was worth seeing, but it was one of those moments where you go “wow” then immediately think “okay, what’s next?”

Next was a long drive up the coast (which was so underdeveloped, considering how nice it is) because Darren HAD to see Larry the Lobster in Kingston SE. It was huge, probably the best Big Thing we’ve seen so far (Darren just loves them).

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Following that there was an interminably long drive home. Kingston SE is actually only a couple of hours from Adelaide, so that meant we were at least 6 hours from home. :( One thing that struck us was that there were areas of farmland that were still pretty green. And areas that were so dry they were grey. I wish it would rain.

Headachey

2009-01-13T16:34:00.001+11:00

What is it about me and night shift? It's been cool almost the entire Summer. Lovely, in fact and we've been enjoying it immensely. But the two times I've been on night shift, that's when it hits 37C!! It was cool this morning, so sleeping was easy, but once it warmed up, forget it. And I've had this permaheadache since about 3am, hoped it was just lack of sleep, but have finally caved and taken some neurofen. And it's not really going to cool down until Friday, when I finish night shift. :P

I do feel a little bit accomplished as I finally managed to post of the lovely you-beaut, guaranteed non-toxic, recycled rubber tree wood toys from Poland that I bought for my friends Helen and Vanessa's babies. The purchases were made back in September, so why I'm patting myself on the back for posting them is anyone's guess. I hope they are well-loved by the recipient little ones and handed to the next little brother or sister afterwards. :)

I'm also very excited as I bought tickets to see Colin Hay play at the Corner Hotel on Friday night. Ever since we saw him on a Scrubs DVD last year, I've wanted to know more about what he's doing now. Now I will. Yay!

Noojee trestle bridge

2009-01-12T15:54:00.001+11:00

With the lower petrol prices and fine weather, Darren and I have been getting out a bit on the weekends, seeing parts of Victoria that we haven't seen yet. Both of us being from somewhere else means that there's still a lot that we haven't seen in our home state.

We went out to South Gippsland to visit a brewery to visit the Grand Ridge brewery to buy some beer because Darren's really keen on it. We were a little surprised to find that it was basically a dodgy country pub (complete with locals propping up the bar), but the beer was good and we stopped at the bakery to buy lunch. I had a LASAGNE PIE. Well, it was basically pasta, but who puts pasta in a pie??! And OMG it was good. I'm sure Darren had serious food envy as he had a boring old pastie! It's worth mentioning too this bakery, the Strazleki bakery, had fabulous sweet treats as well. Real rumballs and some delicious apple slice thing, which we fought over afterwards!

Anyway, we decided to loop around through the Yarra Valley coming home, which took us through some wonderful forest and some crappy little old timber/mining towns. We got lost in Noojee, near the bottom of Mt Baw Baw, but then stumbled across this: the Noojee Trestle Bridge

We had a little walk over the bridge and it was a really lovely spot, with a little stream and huge trees and everything. (added bonus: no flies!)

It was just lovely. Used to be a railway serving an old tin mine, but now it's part of a walking path into the town of Noojee.

As an added bonus, on the way, we came across The Big Pheasant. Darren loves Big Things.

My cat is mad, and and obituary of sorts

2009-01-08T12:42:00.001+11:00

I just wish he (Barry, the cat) would either go out or come in. None of this going out for 15min, coming back and yowling at the door to be let back in, the yowling to be let back out again, only to come back again 5mins later this time. And repeat. I think it's related to the weather (looks like it will be crap today), and he's not sure about wandering around in it.

Well he seems to have settled for the next few minutes anyway.

My one NY's resolution that's stuck so far has been to stop going to the SOz board. It's been ruined. I've posted about this before on LJ, but it makes me sad that all the people I see now agree that it was a fun place for a while, but we're all happier catching up in private get-togethers now. We went to the Brisbane meet in July and it was the best time I've had at a SOz thing in ages, because of the people who were there. So we've concluded that we must remember it as a shining happy place where so many of us met lifelong friends and partners (ours being the first wedding, but there's two this year, and also five other couples at the moment who are at varying stages of commitment - which is impressive for a small message board). I can't help but wonder how it would be if Chocky had lived. I'm sure I'm not the only one who does. Looking back, it feels like the sudden loss of him triggered the beginning of the end. Perhaps it was ending before it started, who knows?

Things SOz has given me:

a husband, words can't express how I love him
several amazing friends across the country
an education about veganism (something I'd never really heard of until SOz, which seemed to attract vegans in droves)
Kwan Yin in Brisbane
Kinokinuya in Sydney, and the vegan yum cha before it closed down (sob)
A home in Melbourne, a place I've always wanted to live, but never really thought I would
Acceptance that loving the things I love doesn't make me an insane geek with no mates.

So thanks SOz, for so much. Boo to the people who took it away from us all.

Fantasy live list

2009-01-08T11:10:00.001+11:00

One of my friends posted about bands she would have liked to have seen live - had she been born earlier. Which made me consider the same thing. Of course, hers was basically a list of punk bands as she was mostly lamenting not having been born at the height of the punk era, but I thought it was worth a ponder based on my own tastes.

Kiss (still possible, but come ON),
Bob Marley and the Whalers (I just think it would be fun),
Boom Crash Opera (did see these guys once in Darwin, but they were so fucking amazing I wish I'd seen them a second time even though Wikipedia tells me they are still together, I'm not sure it'd be the same now we are all pushing 40),
ELO (my secret shame),
The Tea Party,
Abba (hell YES!),
Bowie (Thin White Duke era),
Queen (sob!),
INXS (same reason),
Prince before he got all wierd (Sign'o'the Times era would be good)
Madonna's Blonde Ambition tour. I used to have a video of that Live in Barcelona. It got played until it literally fell apart.

There's more, but I'll stop there. I guess I was curious about where this list would take me.

Random thoughts in a list. Because I'm lazy. And because dot point posts get mistaken these days for Twitter feed and ignored. :P

2009-01-08T11:09:00.001+11:00

I'm not making an NY's resolutions because they never work. But I am hoping that once the Xmas food's gone I'll start making better food choices for myself.
I'm pretty meh about 11. Then, I'm not a screaming fan of 10, so I'm more willing to give him a go than some people seem to be.
I wish Barry would make up his mind. Yesterday he went out and was gone for 8 hours until we started searching the neighbourhood for him. Today, he kept coming back after 2 minutes to see if I was still here. Weirdo.
I wish this stupid throat infection/sinus infection/achy thing would leave me be already. It's been 5 days and I'm all blocked up and wheezy. Yay.
I enjoyed Xmas and NY so much this year I might even be willing to do it next!
Mum's getting mopey about not having seen us since October when they were here for Kenny Rogers. I guess I should look to booking flights soon to make her happy. Not that I mind going, but we have responsibilities now. (Barry)
I was sad to take down the Xmas tree and the (I want to say bitchen) wreath of sleigh bells we got given for our front door. Next year, the deccies go up much earlier. Whee!
I backed into someone in the carpark at work yesterday. :( Was tempted to just drive off as no-one was around, but in the end my stupid protestant upbringing got the better of me and I left a note. Couldn't see much if any damage to the victim car, but it's in the eye of the beholder. Still waiting for the call from then owner... did I get lucky and they agree with me? Stay tuned.