Wednesday
Month: December 2016
Can it be that it was all so simple then?
Isn’t it amazing how the simplest things can take you back to your childhood? Of course, for some of us that’s no great transition since we have never really left our childhood :o) But I made a comment the other week that caused me to remember things we did as children and I used the word “Naughty” and It occurred to me that this word has an entirely different meaning for children than it has for adults, thus anything I said is of a child version not an adult version. Where I grew up we were surrounded by fields and woods and we children used to play in the woods or do things along the river bank. What I meant by naughty is the fact that some us were wicked in that we stole things from our mothers. Oh relax !! – what earthly use did we have for money? No, every so often some of us would sneak into the pantry and “steal”a couple of potatoes from mum’s potato bag, then we would all go off to the woods. Since most of us had been camping on a regular basis, we knew how to set out a campfire. Once we had that lit and going fairly well, we would put the 
potatoes we had pinched round the side of the fire and cook them. A bit of salt if someone thought to bring any and that was our “feast”. In those days potatoes were cheap and were measured not in pounds but in stones. A Scottish stone was equal to about 16.5 pounds. Our mothers had a separate bag for potatoes because mainly they were unwashed and were bought in either a stone, half stone or quarter stone. Potatoes were dirty so they were not kept in the nice, clean grocer but in the back of the fishmonger in great metal tubs, scooped out, weighed on the big scale then dumped into the potato bag. Not like today where everything is washed clean and sanitized and put in plastic bags so we can all have the fun of adding to the landfill. Thinking back, in the world I lived in I had a great childhood, good friends, good school and collectively we hated dentists. Doctors were a necessary evil but dentists were just an evil. Still don’t like dentists. Ah sorry, it’s probably a generation thing. You know, we thought we were so clever but thinking back,I’m quite sure our parents knew what we were up to.
Very strange thing happened to me a short while ago – by short I mean within the last hour. I was going through my mail and other stuff and I could hear Benji pottering about in the background. Never really took a lot of notice as he seemed to be ok doing whatever he was doing. Anyway, I finished what I was doing and made the momentous decision that a coffee would go down well now. I swung my chair round to get out and go make the coffee and that’s when I discovered what the Benji had been up to. All around my chair he had placed all his toys. I don’t know what to make of that – coincidence, seemed like a good idea, no meaning whatsoever?? I don’t know, I really don’t know, but it does seem an odd thing to do.
The weather continues to behave in a weird way. I took the boy out for his walk at 5:45 this morning and instead of light, the sky was very dull with dark storm clouds moving around and the wind was quite cold. About 
halfway through our walk I felt a few spots of rain as the clouds seemed to get darker. However, nothing came of it but the dark clouds are still lurking about and the top temperature for today is 21c. As it happened, the dark clouds passed, eventually, the sun came out but it stayed cool all day and we reached a top of 23c well below average.
The ladies have their coffee evenings on a Tuesday and coffee mornings on a Wednesday. They each pay a few dollars – some of this goes to the hostess for coffee, tea, and so on, the rest gets set aside for charity. This year they will present $1000 to the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), $1000 to Anglicare (Church of England Charity Service) and $1000 to the family, here in the community, of a little child who was struck down with Meningococcal. The child lost several limbs but he survived and will require on-going medical treatment. All of the local community have been great and have been fund raising on their behalf – a community in crisis, uncertainty, concerned about the future and almost 10% unemployment – but we can still pull together to help one of our community who needs us.
Wednesday
Looking Back – Looking Forward
For more years than I care to remember I have used ring planners. For a period I went through the Palm Pilot craze but in the end I came back to paper and ringed planners – mainly Filofax. Of course my planners did not survive the move from Scotland to South Australia being limited in what we could bring (weight) However, like much of our things they were packed in Tea Chests and stored in my Father-in-law’s cellar. The idea was that once we were settled we have the teachests sealed and shipped out to South Australia. Sadly after we had been here a few months and were starting to settle down, my in-laws house was broken into and most of the things from the cellar were destroyed or stolen, that also included all my photography equipment and the photograph
albums. The photographs were of no use or importance so we suspect they were dumped in the nearest safe trash bin. Very little of the crystal and none of the silver we had been given as gifts remained. None of my planners remained. The thing that upset us the
most was not the glass or silver or photograph equipment, but rather the photographs themselves. We have no photographs of the
boys as babies or little children other than what we have taken in Australia. Before we left Scotland Annabell and I took the boys all over the country and took photographs of them at various places, Fort William, Loch Ness, Stirling Castle, Edinburgh Castle and Mons Meg, Sweetheart Abbey, Jedburgh Abbey, St. Giles Cathedral, Elgin Cathedral,
Dornoch Cathedral and Dunblane Cathedral, Paisley Abbey and Dunfermline Abbey, Bannockburn and Robert Bruce, Duart Castle, Loch Earn, The Rannoch Moor, Glencoe and, of course, Glasgow Cathedral and other places too numerous to mention. Photograph of Annabell’s family and my family – all gone.
Here in Australia the Palm Pilot was the thing so I went through a Palm Pilot phase and I think I still have a couple hanging around somewhere. But I tired of that and went back to Ring Binders again. I have been there ever since. Generally I used a Filofax and did so up until a few years ago when I started to use an Organizer from a Dutch company called Van der Spek. Generally I change my Organizers/Planners every two years and I have just ordered my third Van der Spek and for the very first time ever, I have chosen something that is neither black nor brown. I have chosen a colour called French Blue. People thought I was being silly when I asked what colour/shade French Blue is as there are so many shades of Blue. All I got in reply was “Blue” which didn’t really help. It should be here in a few weeks and I am anxious to see what it looks
like.
This time last year I had great hopes for the coming 2016. I had lost both Chienne and The Man and there was still much sadness there but there was Benji and I looked forward to life with him. I suspect one day I will get out of the habit of referring to him sometimes as Chienne. There has been much sadness in 2016 but there has also been joy and I will see the year go with mixed feelings. My one shining light has been Benji – as it should be. I have lost friends this year, some fur-friends, some human friends, some who have passed and some I have just lost and they are the saddest of all. But I have also found new friends and that helps with the sadness of loss. Again I look forward to the coming year and hope that 2017 will be a better year, but like all years there will be a mixture of joy and sadness, laughter and tears, but we need them both, one to balance the other, and all we can really hope for is that the joy will be more than the sadness and the laughter greater than the tears.
I have no doubt that there will be other posts between now and the end of the year, but for now, I want to say thank you to all of you for being here and for your lovely comments and conversations. I hope we can share 2017 together.
Playing Santa – Toys for Benji
The reason I went to Adelaide by coach rather than driving down was that I wanted several things and I believed that I only needed to go to one place, Muno Para Shopping Center, and I could attend to them – Telstrashop (New Travel Modem) Bunnings ( Garden things) and some things for the Benji. Well, I guess two out of three is not bad – although having said that, I could get these two things anywhere but not the Bunnings things. Well, I got the new Travel Modem – I got things for the Benji and discovered that Bunnings Muno Para has closed down and moved to another area. I had been to this particular Bunnings in Muno Para several times before and now, it was gone. Here’s the rub, had I been in the car I could simply driven to another store in another part of town, – Modbury, Mile End or Pooraka- but relying on public transport and having to watch my time for the coach home, kind of put paid to these notions. I suppose I came out ahead, but not really because I actually NEED the units that I was going to get in Bunnings. I did not have the time to go elsewhere and getting there was not all that crash hot on public transport. As I said, I have
driven to the Muno Para Shopping Center several times before, so when I went over to the train station in Adelaide I got a ticket to Muno Para – seems logical, yes?? Well no! I got off at Muno Para Station in the middle of nowhere – almost. I happened to see a person and asked them where the Muno Para Shopping Center was and they informed me that the Muno Para Shopping Center is in Smithfield – which was the last stop. So I had to go over to the other side of the station and wait for a train back to Smithfield. Agreed, not difficult to do – not rocket science – but time consuming.
After I got the things I was looking for (except the Bunnings things) I went back to the train station and took the train back to Elizabeth and had a look for some things there. Did buy a second toy for Benji so that was good. I have this theory that a dog can’t have too many toys. Also had a belated lunch. I was back in town by 16:40 and spend three quarters of an hour at the Central Market where I finally found a collapsible water bowl. Overall the trip wasn’t a complete loss but a lot of time spent traveling and getting nothing done. I mean 11 hours in coach travel alone. Why Bunnings – why not get what I want elsewhere – because like Ryobi Tools in Australia, there are things that are exclusive to Bunnings – what I wanted was part of that.
On the journey up as it got dark I was puzzled by all the lights around us, then I realised that it was the farmers working into the night – under lights- to get the harvest in whilst it was still dry. This was on both sides of the highway all the way up through the farming areas. After the wettest spring on record, you can hardly blame them working hard to get their crops harvested in case the weather breaks.
Travelling to Adelaide by coach these days is very much a waste of time. The coach leaves at 6 am – arrives in Adelaide at 11:30 am and departs again at 4 pm – not really a lot o
f time to do much other than wander around Rundle Mall. Thursday the departure time is 6 pm so that certainly helps – although it used to be at 6:30. I can understand the coach company reducing services – last Thursday, for example, there were six people on the coach leaving Adelaide. Four left at Port Pirie, one left at Port Augusta, so for the last 80 klms I had a 44 seater coach all to myself. -With the driver, of course. Still, two new toys and a water bowl for Benji – seems like a good day out to me :o)
Adelaide and Forever Easy
As expected the weather has been cold, wet and windy and to add insult to injury, the area in front of the house is about to be dug up as the Fed. Govt. workpeople lay in the National Broadband Network (NBN) cables. They are not quite up to my section yet, but they are about seventy meters away – our section is next, probably in the next few days. I am concerned in that there are many people I know who have been discussing the NBN and how slow it is and yet it is being touted as being able to deliver Internet connections, better and faster. Most of the people who are complaining I know and will probably see some of them in the next day or so. I think you actually have to apply to join the NBN and if it is as they say, I shall delay that for as long as possible.
Tomorrow I start working on another problem – that of finding a new Vet. Not that I need one and could probably put the issue off for some time, but I think I should do this now – when I don’t need a vet. The problem is that Mustafa – our vet for many years – has gone back to Turkey for an indefinite period. His mother is very ill and he has gone to his family home to be with her and at the moment there is no indication when he will be back. I have heard good things about the Vet at the ABC Village, so I will probably go and see her and ask if she would accept Benji as a patient. As I said I don’t need a vet right at the moment but it’s good to know that there is one around that you can call on if needs be.
Yesterday the boy and I drove to Port Augusta. It was a warmish day (33c) but I kept the A/C on most of the time so it was a pleasant enough drive. I got some of the things I was looking for at Better Homes, but I still need a trip to Bunnings to get the rest of what I need for the back garden. On the way back up to the main highway we stopped off at a park and I took Benji for a walk to stretch his legs for a bit and this time I did remember to bring a water bowl with me.
Amazing – truly amazing! Yesterday – as I said – the boy and I drove to Port Augusta and back – it was warmish to hot and we drove with the A/C on. Today, it’s chucking it down and the temperature is about 19c and this is the last day of Spring and whilst it is now in the records as the wettest spring ever, perhaps it’s giving this last rain storm – just to make sure. The interesting thing is that the long range weather forecasters have consulted, whatever it is they consult, and suggested that we are going to have a long, hot summer and that a hot summer means hot north winds off the desert – increased levels of Hay Fever. Not fun in the sun.. And talking about illness, I discovered something new – well new to me anyway. There is this thing called Thunderstorm Asthma, which I had never heard of until a few days ago. Apparently it is caused by the pollen absorbing moisture, which then breaks up into smaller fragments and dispersed by the wind. The smaller fragments can reach the lower areas of the lung and cause terrible consequences. From what I was reading there have been 8 deaths in Victoria ( Melbourne area) in the last few months. Bit scary.
Yesterday (Thursday) I was in Adelaide and arrived home at midnight last night. I did not drive down as I normally would but went down by coach. I decided to have a quick check of my on-line mail before my taxi arrived. To say I was in shock is an understatement – Easy Gone!. How, why what… My taxi arrived to take me to the Bus Terminal and all the way down to Adelaide on the coach I thought of little else. The last thing Easy asked was for us to make a short travel post for his unwell cat friend and I was thinking about that and how I could sent the cat to Mount Gambier and the Blue Lake and I will do that. I think we are all still in shock with the suddenness of events and I am so very, very sorry. I wish there was something I could do. Our thoughts and prayers are with Easy’s family and when I came home last night, I gave Benji an extra hug.
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