Thurs 8/4

Up early this morning to clean up and pack. I had serious doubts about fitting everything into the cases from whence it came, but we managed .. just! Better not buy too many souvenirs in Sydney or we'll be paying excess baggage for sure. Maybe we could just leave one of the kids behind and put the extra stuff in their seat .. hmmmmm, food for thought. Will get back to you on that one ...

Managed to get everything shoved into cases and cleaned up by 9:30am so we headed over to Mark and Bec's to give them the leftover food and to say goodbye. Had a quick chat then got into the car and headed into Cairns, where we had a (very) early lunch at McDonald's (blech!) on the Esplanade. I wanted to do a bit more shopping browsing but we had run out of time, so we went to find a petrol station, to avoid paying the $3 a litre the rental car companies charge!

As I mentioned before, Cairns airport is undergoing a major renovation/extension and as a result, the directional signage was open to interpretation. As you can probably guess, our interpretation was wrong and we ended up delivering the rental car to the right area .. if we were flying international.

The international terminal is not that far from the domestic terminal .. as the crow flies. As we aren't crows, we had to walk there and it worked out to be about 1.5kms. Now I can hear you saying "1.5kms isn't that far" but with our four suitcases, five backpacks, CPAP machine and Peter's 'manbag', as well as the fact that a lot of it was outside, over rough surfaces and in the rain, by the time we fronted up to check in, I was sweating like the proverbial pig (has to be the proverbial pig, because real pigs don't sweat!)

After giving the nice little man at Qantas all of our suitcases and assuring him that I wasn't going to pass out or worse, throw up, from heat exhaustion, we went up to the thankfully air-conditioned departures lounge to await our flight to Sydney.

We took off from Cairns at 1:10pm and had a nice smooth flight until we started our descent into Sydney, when the plane turned into a possessed metal bucking bronco, determined to rid the bellies of all of those in its belly of their lunch. According to the captain, it was mild turbulence. but according to my insides, it was the kind of 'mild' you get after eating a five alarm chili meal .. nothing mild about that people! I'm not normally a nervous flyer but it was enough to have me gripping the armrests on my chair whilst thinking to myself: must.not.scare.children. do.not.show.fear. Luckily the children were distracted by the injustice of only two out of the three having window seats.

Andrew managed to get this shot of Sydney Harbour as we came in to land:

Once we'd survived the mid-air rodeo, landed and walked halfway back to Perth, again, to collect our bags, we then tried to find the rental car office. The office inside the terminal was unattended and had a sign that told us to make our way to their carpark office, with no directions on where that was. After getting caught up in the parade of lemmings crowd of people heading for the exits, I managed to spy the competition's office and figured, quite rightly, that our hire company couldn't be too far away.

We happened to walk in on someone returning their hire car and having a major hissy fit about the fact that they were to be charged for some damage to the vehicle. She was arguing that the damage was there when they picked the car up and that the staff had failed to notice it before it was given to them. She then started spouting on about how they hadn't done their jobs properly and why should she be late for her plane just because they were all stupid. I resisted the urge to point out that she wasn't going to win herself any fans, or any assistance from the 'stupid', inept staff and just had a nice little dialogue in my head instead.

"Did you not read the instructions on your rental form? You know, the ones that state to please inspect the car before leaving the lot and report any damage not noted on your copy to the office staff? The same office staff who were available to you at the ungodly hour of 2am when your flight landed, just to make sure you would be able to get your car? The same office staff who are now staring at you with disbelief and pure loathing while managing to keep their thoughts to themselves?

While you're noticing those looks, you may want to take a look at your partner's face. Can you see that expression? The one that says, 'for heaven's sake, shut up! You know we did that damage so for the love of all things holy, shut up before you get us arrested for making a scene'? Can't see that one? Well guess what sweetheart, everyone else can! Leave while you can!!"

After watching that little meltdown and telling the very apologetic woman who served us that some people just needed a good kick in the pants, we managed to get the keys to our car. this time we ended up with a Ford XR6, with Victorian license plates. Andrew was happy because he's a Ford man. Peter was happy because having the Victorian plates meant the NSW drivers would stay out of his way.

We found the car, inspected it (see stupid lady .. that's how you do it!), then spent the next ten minutes trying to work out how to open the boot. With the Commodore, you push the boot unlock button on the remote and the boot actually pops open. With the Ford, it just unlocks the boot but you still have to find the button on the boot itself to open it.

With that sorted, the boot fully loaded and the GPS programmed, we headed off into the organised chaos that is Sydney traffic. The GPS asked if we wanted to avoid the toll roads and knowing absolutely nothing about the toll system here, we decided to take the safe option of avoiding the toll roads and the possible fines. I worked out that we went an extra 19.7 kms to save what turned out to be a $5 toll. Better safe than sorry though!

We arrived at the unit (one in a complex of 25) and found the garage way too small for the car. After a quick look around, we parked the car in the car wash bay and lugged everything inside. Peter was getting very cranky at this point, so I made the executive decision that it was now officially time to get food.

We went back out to the car to find it was raining quite heavily. Must have brought it with us from Queensland! Headed off to the local shops hoping to find somewhere to get some dinner and found a food court. After a heated 'discussion' with the oldest and youngest boys about what they could have (Peter had decreed no more chicken nuggets and chips), I ended up storming off to find out what else was there and returned with two extremely healthy Wendy's hot dogs. At least they ate them and didn't complain!

Did a quick food shop for breakfast and lunch the next day, then headed back for a shower and bed.

Wednesday 7/4

Slept in this morning .. isn't that what holidays are for? ... then decided to take another trip up to Kuranda to see if we could actually see Barron Falls this time.

It was fairly overcast but there weren't too many low-lying clouds so, after a trek along a lovely rainforest path .. puff, puff, pant, pant, that's my exercise for the year! .. I managed to get some photos of Barron Falls in almost full flow. Taken from the top lookout:

and the bottom lookout: The lack of rain made it so much easier to take pictures but also made it so much more humid so after trekking all the way back up the rainforest trail .. puff, puff, pant, pant .. we poured ourselves back into the air-conditioned comfort of the car and headed for Kuranda.

We sent the kids one way (with their mobile phones of course) and we went the other way. It was lovely to be able to just wander through the shops on our own, especially when we came across a fudge shop! Had to buy some, just to compare to WA fudge. Very nice but not really anywhere close to Candy Cow fudge but I may have to try them both again just to be sure.

It was starting to get quite warm so we poured ourselves into the car again and headed back down the hill to the air conditioned shops in Smithfield, where Peter bought himself a rash vest and new swimming shorts. A bit late considering that we leave tomorrow and won't be swimming in Sydney .. too cold! .. but at least he's got them now. Then it was back to the apartment for lunch to try and use up the rest of the food.

After lunch we went down to the pool with the crocodile slide for a swim .. and for Peter and I to see if the girl that was checking Alex out last time was there again. She wasn't :-( I think he was relieved that he could just enjoy a swim and some more hot chips!

We headed back up to 'our' pool where I jumped inched my way into the freezing water with Brad and Drew. Well, I inched my way in .. they, already being dripping wet, threw themselves in with gay abandon, blue lips and chattering teeth. Can't let a little thing like cold stop them!!

They were just attempting to drown me .. exhibit A: ... when Peter came back from a visit to Mark and Bec to tell us it was time to get out and get ready for our walk down to the pub for dinner. We raced upstairs for a warm shower and quick change and met them downstairs and headed off to Palm Cove via a mangrove boardwalk and the main street along the beach.

Along the way, I spotted some 'sleepy plants' .. no idea what their real name is but we always called them that because the leaves close up and go to sleep when you touch them .. and Alex had great fun showing Lachlan and Kathryn how they worked.

The reason we picked the pub for dinner was that kids eat free .. every little bit helps people! .. but of course it was one of those "one-free-kid's-meal-with-every-adult-meal-purchased" deals. Alex, being a growing boy young man, wanted more than just the usual fare of nuggets and chips, so we ordered him a 300g rump steak, thinking that if he didn't finish it, Peter would. Just for the record, Alex is not a big meat eater; not in the form of steak anyway. He'll quite happily eat mince, sausages, kebabs, etc but not usually a hunk of meat of its own. Peter didn't even get a look-in! It was inhaled in record time and thoroughly enjoyed too, if the expression on his face was anything to go by. File that away for future reference .. Alex likes his steak done medium and hot!

Poor Bec didn't get much of a chance to eat her dinner as Mackenzie was rather unsettled and only wanted Mum; not even Dad would do. I remember those days and am so glad they're over! The rest of us enjoyed our meals and dessert (pavlova nest with white chocolate mousse, berries and cream ... very naughty but extremely yummy!) and then started the walk back.

Why is it that the walk back always seems longer? Nothing to do with the fact that we were now loaded down with food and drink and tired from all the exercise (sorry for the bad language!) of the morning. I was carrying Mackenzie for part of the way home. I had totally forgotten how heavy little ones get and when Bec told me she only weighed 13 kilos, I realised that she was only part of what I've already lost. I couldn't imagine carrying an extra 20 kilos around again!

Mark and Peter stirred poor little Lachlan all the way back by telling him there were crocodiles in the bushes along the beach. Every little noise was attributed to these fierce boy eating crocodiles .. "they only eat little boys because they taste better" .. and by the time we got to the mangrove boardwalk, the poor kid was just about jumping out of his skin. So when Uncle Peter disappeared from the back of the pack, right before the boardwalk, he was quite worried. I threatened to send Peter over to deal with the inevitable nightmares at 3am and funnily enough, he reappeared, none the worse for his ordeal. Apparently, he wasn't tasty enough 'cos he's too old!

In all the commotion at the back of the pack, no-one noticed Alex had gone missing too. Just as we reached the end of the boardwalk, Alex jumped out of his hiding spot and frightened the daylights out of Brad as well as Lachlan. In the ten seconds after he did it, I think Alex thought he was going to get in trouble, but when we all roared with laughter, he relaxed and had a laugh along with us. It was so good to see him being a kid and having fun with his cousins.

We finished the walk back, put all the kids through the shower again and then fell into bed for a well-deserved sleep.

The beginning of the rest ...

of the holiday journal, that is!

Tuesday

I was determined to check out the Butterfly Sanctuary in Kuranda, so all ten of us headed back up there after breakfast. It was still raining, a fair bit heavier than the last time we came up, but most of Kuranda is undercover so I figured it would be ok ... once we got from the car to the undercover part!

We went to the Butterfly Sanctuary and were the first ones there so we managed to get a tour guide pretty much to ourselves. She was lovely and took the time to talk to the kids, instead of just talking at them. She took us on a tour of the laboratory where they 'grow' more butterflies and moths, then took us to each of the different feeding stations. Each station had a different kind of food so there were different butterflies at each one.

Kathryn was wearing a rainbow coloured outfit (rather bright) and managed to take the fancy of one of the beautiful blue Ulysses butterflies. He didn't want to leave so she just stood there with him on her arm and let all the other tourists take photos. Such a good sport about it all!

I got some lovely photos of all different sorts but will have to play with them a bit to actually find the butterflies in them. They all moved so quickly, it was hard to get decent shots of them!

Once we were finished there, we headed down to check out the Heritage Markets where the boys bought some 'stress heads' (stress balls in the shape of a face with woolly hair) then, after dragging me away from yet another opal store (he's still not getting the hint!), I found the ultimate touristy thing ... a kangaroo fur bikini! Nope, I'm not kidding .. here's the photo to prove it: Who would wear this?? On second thoughts, don't answer that. I really don't want to know!

We did manage to buy all five of us a new hat, Akubra style but a lot cheaper, before having lunch at the fabulous bakery again, after which we all piled into the cars to go to Atherton for some more headstone hunting.

Stopped at a lovely little shop called The Humpy and bought some warm roasted cashews and honey roasted peanuts ... very yummy! Peter bought himself another travel mug (I know .. sur-prise, sur-prise, sur-prise! Excuse me .. just channelling Gomer Pyle for a minute there!)

Asked at the tourist bureau for directions to the cemetery and had to laugh at the look on the guy's face. Bet that's a question he doesn't get very often! Found out that there's actually three cemeteries but we managed to rule one of them out as the grave we were looking was classed as 'modern' not 'pioneer' .. that is, Aunty Veta died after 1950.

We wandered the cemetery for a while, not having much luck but after checking with the staff at the crematorium, we managed to find her headstone, clean it up and get photos of it for the family tree research.

It had started raining again by then, so we headed back into Atherton for some undercover entertainment at The Crystal Caves. The guy who owns this gemstone shop has built a 'cavern' underneath it and placed all sorts of gemstones and fossils into the walls and ceiling. It's supposed to look like an underground mine, so of course the two big boys didn't want to go .. "It's fake! We'll have coffee and pick you up later!" .. and that's exactly what they did.

Bec and I took the six kids down, with our ultra-sexy hard hats on, to look at all the, to quote Andrew, 'rocks and stuff'. There was a huge amethyst thingy down there so, being the horrible mother I am, I made the boys stand next to it for the obligatory tourist photo. Don't they look impressed??

Once I had dragged them kicking and screaming finished taking the children on the very enjoyable tour, we bought some souvenirs, collected the big boys and then parted ways with the other Hawkins family.

We headed off towards Cairns via the Gillies Highway with a quick detour to the Curtain Fig Tree. Hasn't changed much in five years but I managed to get some photos of the boys. I really like this one of Alex:

And introducing 'Andyinna Jones' (Indiana Jones) and 'Crocodile Bradley' (Crocodile Dundee) in their new hats:

After that nice little stop, it was off to brave the winding, often scary, Gillies Highway back down to the south side of Cairns. Last time we came down that highway, it was pitch black, raining heavily and full of little hazards caused by, and being fixed by, roadworks. Luckily this time we only had to contend with the road and the way it winds back on itself almost constantly. I swear, if not for the fact that you spend most of the time going downhill, sometimes you'd think you were going back the way you came!

A quick stop off at KFC for dinner then 'home' for a quiet night .. what was left of it anyway!

We're home!

I didn't forget to blog the remainder of the time while we were away ... the laptop decided to take a little holiday of its own and, as a result, I'm now suffering major 'share-the-mundane-details-of-my-life-with-everyone-just-because-I-can' withdrawals.

Once I finish organising the children's school uniforms, what to pack for the trip to the block tomorrow and fitting in some more catch-up sleep, I'll finish typing out the rest of the holiday diary and post it for you all ... 'cos I know you're all just dying to hear more of my incoherent, sarcastic ramblings!

A busy couple of days (part 2)

Monday

I demanded a catch-up sleep-in last night before going to bed and threatened them all, Peter included, with dire consequences if they woke me before 9am. Peter came down to the bedroom, making as much noise as possible, just as I was starting to wake up and started talking about what time we were leaving. I was getting ready to follow through on the dire consequences when I had the presence of mind to ask what time it was. Upon being told it was 10am, I (reluctantly) decided to not pursue the retribution and got out of bed.

We had made plans with Aunty Jenny to go down to the Esplanade for a BBQ lunch on Monday with the rest of the aunts and uncles, but due to the rain, it was changed to Sizzler. I was under the impression we were still going there for lunch, so when Peter started packing for a BBQ, I got more than a bit confused. Turns out Jenny had rung while I was asleep to say that the BBQ was back on.

It was a lovely morning; a bit overcast but no rain. I got to see all Mum's brothers and sisters again, even Aunty Joan who is here on holiday from New Zealand. Mum has 2 brothers and 3 sisters, who were all there, as well as Jenny's husband, her 2 girls and 1 of their friends, Nanna, and the five of us. A lovely time had by all catching up and exchanging memories from other times we were all together.

After lunch wound up, we went back to check out Pete's new girlfriend, Willow, the red-tailed cockatoo at Cairns Dome. She took more pieces out of his hat but didn't make him bleed this time! Tearing Peter away from her, we went off for a quick shopping trip to one of the big shopping centres at Earlville then home for home-made hamburgers for dinner.

Off to Kuranda again tomorrow to have a proper look at the shops and attractions and to hopefully get to go to the Butterfly Sanctuary. I've missed out on going there every other time we've been here and I'm not letting anyone talk me out of it this time!!

A busy couple of days (part 1)

Sunday

Sunday dawned, if you could call it that 'cos we couldn't see the sun, with heavy showers and more clouds than we had seen so far. I had picked Sunday to go on the Skyrail because the weatherman had said that the rain would be clearing; he didn't mention that it would be at midnight into Monday!

The Skyrail trip was still worth it and, to be perfectly honest, I'm kind of glad it was overcast because that meant that we couldn't always see how high up we were! We went through the clouds and were even above them for most of the middle leg of the journey. The kids were a bit underwhelmed in stages (due to not being able to see much) and Bradley was a bit scared of the whole thing, but I think that was due to Bec's teasing and Lachlan's very matter-of-fact statements about 'if we fall, then we die' and 'if we crash into another car, then we die' and ... oh I'm sure you get the picture!

There's a limit of six people to a car/gondola so Bec and I took a car each with whichever kids wanted to go with us at the time. Kathryn attached herself to Bradley so wherever he went, she went. He nicknamed her "The Limpet" and "The Barnacle" and was starting to get a bit frustrated with her when I said that he had to come with me so we could have a photo of the just the four of us at the last station. The look of relief on his face was almost comical!

It was still raining quite heavily when we got to Kuranda and when we phoned the big boys to find out where they were, they told us to walk up the hill to the cafe. Not happy Jan! We all got pretty wet and once we got there, they had decided that it was too expensive to have lunch in Kuranda. Bec and I ordered the kids a milkshake each and a drink for ourselves and then popped into the shop next door to have a look at the 'hippy clothes' (made from hemp and organic cotton).

After that it was a matter of dodging the really heavy downpours to get up the rest of the hill and back to the cars. Because I kept holding them up by daring to actually look in some of the shops and Peter decided to buy himself a new hat, we ended up having a late lunch at the bakery at the very top of the village (and it worked out heaps cheaper than going to McDonald's!) Score one for me!! We had planned on going to the Butterfly Sanctuary but the big boys wanted to go out to Mareeba cemetery for some photos of family headstones and due to it getting late for the little ones, off we went. We wandered all over the cemetery and found what they were looking for about an hour later, then it was time to head back 'home' for dinner.

Peter and I have obviously forgotten what it's like to have little kids as we couldn't believe the day was over, that is we were back 'home', by 5pm! We could have gone out to do something else, but decided to chill out in front of the TV ... just like at home.

A quiet day

After having a bit of a sleep in, Peter and I were sitting quietly on the balcony enjoying our cuppas, when one of his cousins rang. Christine lives near Brisbane but just happened to be on holiday up here to visit a friend and heard we were here, so she came for a visit. Mark and Bec came over with their kids and the circus started. Six kids, ranging in age from 18 months to 14.5 years, plus 6 adults in one area equals noise.

There weren't any toys for the little ones to play with but I found the tennis balls from last night and then Bec and I spent the next couple of hours mediating the 'discussions' over whose turn it was to have a horsey ride from Bradley and who should have the tennis balls.

Once Christine left to continue her trek up to Cooktown, Bec and I went food shopping while Peter and Mark took the kids to the main pool at the resort. It has a slide in the shape of a crocodile and Kathryn was telling the boys all about the 'crocodile slide.' I had Brad and Andrew convinced that it was a slide for crocs to get in and out of the pool and they weren't too keen on going until Kathryn told them I was joking.

The kids had a great time at the pool while Bec and I enjoyed our kid-free shopping experience. Once we got back and unloaded the groceries, we went down to the pool to join them. It was pouring rain but the kids were having a great time, as were Mark and Peter. The difference was that Mark and Peter were having a great time ribbing Alex about the girls that were following him around, checking him out. My baby's growing up .. waaahhh! He was completely oblivious so there's hope for me yet!

After a snack of battered chips at the pool, we walked back to our rooms and had fried ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner ... we'll deal with our cholesterol when we get home!

Off to the Skyrail and Kuranda tomorrow.

And then there was blood ...

Today started out quietly with Peter and I awake before the kids ... again! We let them sleep in until 8am then got them up and organised for another day out. We didn't want to go too far as we had made plans with Mark and Bec to have dinner tonight so we decided to check out the Cairns Rainforest Dome.

The Dome is on the rooftop of the Reef Casino and Hotel and is full of all sorts of birds and other wildlife. We checked out the pademelons, the huge croc named Goliath, koalas, cockatoos, lizards and freshwater crocs. There was a talk about some of the local bird life and when the handler asked for 2 volunteers, Alex decided to give it a go. They both ended up pretending to be a tropical tree by holding a flower in their outstretched hands while the handler squeezed some nectar onto the petals. One of the rainbow lorikeets came down to feed on the nectar and kept jumping between the two 'trees' and walking up and down Alex's arm. His face lit up as soon as it landed the first time but by the end, I think the claws must have been bothering him. He said he enjoyed it but it was someone else's turn next time.

After the bird show, we went to have a look at Peter's favourite bird (apart from me of course!), the red-tailed black cockatoo. As soon as she saw him, she launched herself off her perch and landed on his shoulder. He was ecstatic until she started pulling on his earrings! When he covered them up, she got stuck into the little knob on the top of his cap. She dismantled it completely and then flew off back to her perch.

Peter couldn't leave it at that though, could he? He put his arm out and encouraged her to fly back onto it. As soon as she landed, she started trying to to peck at his watch so he tried to put her back onto her perch. She wasn't having any of that and promptly dug her claws in ... and then there was blood. Not much, but enough to frighten the tourists just walking through the door into the Dome. My comment of "Now that she's made you bleed, it's time to go" probably didn't help much either!

We went back into the souvenir shop where he got some first aid (a tissue and the offer of antiseptic, which he refused), then we watched some American tourists having their picture taken with a koala named Harvey. Typical Aussie male that he was, he had his paw on the girl's boob in all the photos! After laughing at the looks on the male tourists faces once they realised that, we headed back to the car and off to Crystal Cascades.

On the way there, we spotted a McDonald's and gave the kids an early lunch before they started complaining that they were dying of hunger. We were just finishing when Mark rang to ask where we were. They had arrived only to find that their room wasn't ready for them yet. We gave them the code to our apartment so they could have a bit of a rest while they were waiting and said we would see them when we got back. (They left Perth last night at 11pm and flew via Brisbane, with an hour's stopover, to Cairns. If they're anything like us, they would have been dead on their feet!)

I remember Crystal Cascades as a lovely swimming hole in a river just outside Cairns. I came to the conclusion today that time really does change things. Either that or everything just looked really different when I was a kid. It is now a very fast-flowing river with incredibly steep banks and an awful lot of rapids. This may be due to all the extra rain north Queensland has had recently (two cyclones in the area) but I'm starting to think I have just labelled a mental picture wrong.

We walked as far as we could, getting rather wet in the process as all the little waterfalls on one side of the path had turned into things resembling a burst fire hose, spraying everyone within range. The stream water was lovely and cool but as most women know, you can only put up with wet underwear (especially bras) for so long. We went back to the car, dried off a bit and then headed back to the apartment.

Once we got back, we sent the boys straight to the pool from the car so they wouldn't go barging upstairs like a herd of rampaging elephants, waking everyone up. Peter and I went upstairs to check whether Mark, Bec and the kids were still there and if they were asleep. We must have just missed Bec and the girls as we spotted them from our balcony,walking down the driveway to their block. Apparently they had just woken up and headed down to their room, where Mark and Lachlan were waiting.

Peter and I left the boys trying to drown each other trying to deafen the neighbourhood having a 'peaceful' swim and popped over to visit Mark and Bec. Poor Mark looked absolutely exhausted and, after visiting for a while, we left them to have a nap and to let us know when they were ready for tea.

They arrived at about 6:30 so Bec and I sent the big boys out for dinner and beat back the starving hordes with a whip and a chair until they returned. The food was soon inhaled, as were the follow-up ice creams and then the kids had fun playing with some tennis balls I found in the bottom drawer in the kitchen. (What? Don't you keep your tennis balls in the bottom drawer in the kitchen? No? Glad it's not just me that thinks that's a bit weird!) The kids all had great fun playing horsey when the tennis balls got boring, while the adults rest of us entertained ourselves by seeing who would fall asleep the fastest. If we had continued that game to its inevitable end, I'm sure Mark would have beaten the rest of us by a mile.

They ended up leaving just before 9pm and now I am going to head for bed myself as I have no idea what we're doing tomorrow and need a decent sleep 'just in case'. I think we discussed some possible options but for the life of me, can't remember if we're each doing our own thing or going out together. Oh well, I'll find out tomorrow ...

It's raining, it's pouring ...

... but no, I'm not snoring! Not yet anyway ... it's not bedtime and besides I've got a CPAP machine to stop the snoring.

We've had rain for most of the time we've been here but it got a fair bit heavier today. Luckily, we had made arrangements to have lunch with Aunty Jenny and Nanna and to do some indoor shopping so the rain didn't really bother us.

After managing to buy nothing at Cairns Central shopping centre (apart from some brownies, lemon slice and caramel slice) we headed for The Pier for lunch. It was lovely to see Nanna again but she is really starting to look old. The fact that she is 93 and having difficulty walking may have something to do with that, but she still has her sense of humour. When I asked how she's been lately, she said, in a very matter-of-fact tone, "old". She then told me that I need to fatten my boys up because they are still very skinny .. just like last time she saw them. Or maybe it's just because I stretched them to make them grow taller. Apparently feeding them is easier than stretching them .. who knew? I hope I'm as well as she is when I'm 93 .. if I get that far!

After lunch we wandered around the shops at The Pier then were headed back towards the apartment when I realised it was the Thursday before Easter and that we didn't have any eggs for the boys or Mark's family (who arrive tomorrow), so we stopped at KMart and did a quick shop. Now the place is full of chocolate and none of it's mine ... waaah!! (Apparently some of it is mine because the boys have bought me something but have hidden it from me ... waaaah again!)

We were headed homewards once more, when Peter spotted the Outback Opal Mine. I had asked to stop in there at some point during the holiday and he remembered and pulled in for a quick look. The boys stayed in the car as it was pouring down again and Peter and I went in to check it all out. It's basically an opal and pearl jewellery shop with a museum section about opal mining. I love black opal (the most expensive kind ... damn it!) and found a lovely pair of earrings and a matching pendant but had to walk away without them. I'm hoping to go back before we leave Cairns but I'm not holding my breath.

Once we got back to the apartment, we all had some quiet time just reading and relaxing before the boys decided it would be fun to go swimming. (Bear in mind that it's raining quite heavily at this point.) I pointed out the rain but they still wanted to go. I knew they were determined to go swimming when they put their towels into plastic bags to stop them from getting wet while they were in the pool. Andrew wanted to keep swimming until the pool lights came on ... easily pleased that one!!

After yelling over the balcony that dinner was almost ready, Peter started cooking dinner. Nothing like the possibility of missing out on burnt 'heavily browned' sausages to make a kid get out the pool in a hurry ... not!! Once they were back upstairs and in the shower, the noise level in the bathroom required some intervention so I walked down there just in time to hear Bradley complaining that it was too steamy. "It's so steamy in here, I can't even see my wang in the mirror." (That's the word of the week at the moment .. 'wang'. Don't ask me where he got that one from ... I really don't want to know! ... and it could be much worse.)

Now I'm sitting in front of the computer screen yet again while Peter has gone out to see if the local fish and chip shop will be open tomorrow night. (A remnant of my Catholic upbringing .. fish on Fridays during Lent.) I have no idea what we're doing tomorrow but at least dinner is sorted out!!

A quiet day

I had a lovely sleep-in this morning and woke to the sound of birds outside. I made a cuppa and then sat out on the balcony in the beautiful cool breeze with Peter, just enjoying the quiet before the boys woke up. Check out part of the view <<<<<<<<

We ended up waking the boys up, gave them breakfast then got into the car intending to go into Cairns to check out the tourist bureau. When we got to the T-junction, Peter wanted to turn right instead of left so we ended up in Port Douglas instead. Peter had a great time testing out the car and frightening the daylights out of me in the process. The road is almost on the beach in several places and the constant rain wasn't helping. Despite that, we made it safely to Port Douglas in time for morning tea.

I was very disappointed that there were no nice little bakeries in Port Douglas ... actually no bakeries at all unless you include the one in Coles supermarket. I was looking forward to a nice cream bun or donut, but still managed to enjoy my date muffin and hot chocolate, while the boys had their good ole standby of chips, at a little cafe across the road from the beach.

We went over to check out the beach and found this sign:

In case you can't read it, it says that there are stingers and crocodiles in these waters so please swim between the flags. I didn't know that crocs could read or that they obeyed the swimming rules and regulations! There was that and then a lifeguard in a raincoat so he didn't get wet! Comforting huh?

The rain started again in earnest so we headed back towards Cairns. I talked Peter into going to the Skyrail terminal so we could book a trip up to Kuranda. It's the one thing the boys said they wanted to do while we're here, so I thought I'd better book it so we didn't run out of time or money, which at the rate we're going is a distinct possibility.

After that we headed back to the apartment where Alex put himself to bed and slept for 3 hours while the other two went down to the pool. Peter and I caught up on a couple of TV shows he'd downloaded before we left Perth then we all had dinner and watched the movie 'Meet Dave'.

Now the boys have gone off to bed so we can just have some quiet grown-up time. Get your minds out of the gutter ... he's watching cricket (again!!) and I'm typing this. Tomorrow we're going into Cairns to have lunch with one of my aunties and my Nanna, as well as a wander around Cairns itself. Might even take a dip in the Lagoon:

I know, I know ... it's a tough life!

We're hee-ere!

We flew out of Perth last night just after 10pm and arrived in Cairns at 4:15am.


I was a bit concerned when I saw how many very young children were on the flight with us. I had visions of having to poke my eardrums with something sharp to stop the noise, until I remembered that there would be nothing sharp on the plane due to all the new rules and regulations. Then my mind wandered to other possible solutions, most of which involved opening the doors mid-flight to eject screaming child(ren) and their parents, if the parents hadn't already committed hari-kari from the sheer frustration of trying to quiet a fractious child 10 kilometeres up in the air whilst enclosed in a fragile tin can with wings. Luckily for everyone concerned, all but one of those children were absolute angels. Unluckily for everyone, the other one tried her damndest to make up for all the rest. Luckily, her cry, whilst being almost ceaseless, wasn't actually that loud. The boys managed to get small snatches of sleep between playing musical seats but they were still exhausted by the time we arrived, as were Peter and I.


Once we got off the plane, we discovered that Cairns airport is undergoing a major renovation so we had to walk halfway back to Perth to collect our bags and organise the hire car. We then went out into the rather wet car park to find our hire car (a literally brand-new Commodore with only 17km on the odometer) and headed for our home-away-from-home in Palm Cove, north of Cairns.


Seeing as it was now close to 5:30am, Peter and the kids decided they were hungry so when we spotted the golden arches, we stopped in for a quick bite to eat and then proceeded to get slightly 'geographically misplaced' .. thank heavens for GPS! We finally found our parking space only to find someone already parked in it, so we comandeered another unit's space, unloaded the copious amount of luggage and went up to our penthouse suite. (It's a really nice three bedroom apartment on the fourth floor with a lovely view out to the hills and over one of the seven pools available for our use during our stay.)


We had a sleep until about 11am then went food shopping. It's amazing how much money you can spend on junk food and ice creams when you're on holidays! Actually, it's amazing how much you can spend on it any time but especially on holidays!

So far this afternoon, we've had a bit of a rest while Peter watched some cricket, had a very relaxing swim in the pool downstairs and now all the boys (Peter included) are watching "The Cannonball Run" while I sit here and think about what's for tea.


A mother's job is never finished ...

The countdown has begun ...

It is now only two sleeps (three if you count the plane trip) until we arrive in Cairns.

As much as I have told myself (and you) that I don't really want to go and that we won't be able to do much due to budgetary constraints, I think I'm actually looking forward to it. (Hey, I'm a woman .. I'm allowed to change my mind! I just wish I could change it for one that worked better and more often!!)

The house has been cleaned, the bags are (almost) packed and the house-sitters have been introduced to the Lord and Master, aka 'The Dog', 'The Boss' or in lighter moments, Brutus. I have to admit, I was rather concerned about his reaction to having a 'strange' male in the house but he reacted to Bevan like a chocoholic when finding an open box of Lindt: initially wary (what's the catch?) then all over him like white on rice. (Sorry for all the similes .. or is it metaphors? I can never remember which is which and surprisingly enough I know, I don't actually care .. lol!)

Isn't it strange the things we women get in our heads to do just because someone else is coming to stay? I was pondering that exact thought just the other day as I sat on the kitchen floor, surrounded by mismatched Tupperware while trying to stop the dog from pinching any to use as a chew toy. There I was, completely emptying out all my cupboards so I could wipe them out with disinfectant and boiling hot water, all because a stranger was coming to stay.

It didn't seem to occur to me to make the front of the house more presentable by pulling out the triffids weeds growing along the edge of the driveway, or to empty both the carports of the extra stuff that I'm sure has parties after we go to sleep (parties that have been advertised on the internet and as a result now other people's leftover junk is still 'sleeping it off' at our place).

It didn't occur to me to me make sure that the numbers on the letter box were all still there so the house-sitters could find the house without the aid of a search party and bloodhounds, lured by the scent of the doggie treats I used to try to distract the dog from the all the lovely chew toys plastic ware strewn from one end of the kitchen to the other.

It nearly didn't occur to me to ensure there was sufficient food for the 'Lord and Master' but luckily one of the children is slightly more on the ball than I, so Brutus will be well nourished during our little trip to the other side of the continent. (The child will be given food but I cannot vouch for its nutritional content as we will, after all, be on holidays and that entitles us to some leniency in our intake of all things artificial .. apparently.)

However, it did occur to me that I simply must:

• paint the main bedroom (which I managed to achieve)
• paint the boys' bathroom (which I did not manage to achieve and have forgiven myself for .. temporarily at least!)
• have matching mats on which to place all the different candles and their decorative holders that I have acquired (despite the fact that they have somehow managed to still look pretty in spite of their lack of a suitable resting place for the past few years)
• clean underneath the fridge and freezer (because every house guest I've ever come across moves the fridge and freezer the second you're not looking .. don't they?)
• re-pot the peace lily that adorns the bench in my ensuite (because the pot was black and every else is shades of brown/beige/blue and we wouldn't want them thinking I'm colour blind)
• torture the children ask the children to help me get the house into some semblance of order by removing their will to live cleaning their rooms ... Yes child! I meant under the bed too! ... even though no-one would be staying in their rooms. (I know, how incredibly unfair of me to make them empty their rooms of dirty clothes, the rubbish in their bins and the mutating lifeforms under their beds and in their school bags.)

And on that cheery little mental image (school bags always make me shudder with apprehension .. eewwwww!), I shall take myself off to the Land of Nod to dream up more torture things for the boys to do tomorrow.

Sorry!

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But Muuuummm ...

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This was the boys on Monday night during the storm that knocked our power out for 12 hours.

Actually it was me, not the boys.

They were happy enough to light every candle we could find, then lounge around reading books or playing their DS's until it got late enough for bed.

I sat there with them, talking to them and reading my own book(s) all the while annoyed at Mother Nature for ruining my evening of planned comedy watching. It's just not the same watching Good News Week on the computer .. sulk, sulk, stamping foot, sulk some more ...

Yeah, yeah .. I know .. Toughen up Princess!

Toughening commencing ...

Letters I'd like to write ...

also known as: "things I have to stop myself from blurting out in case I get hurt".

• to the man sitting at the traffic lights: putting your window all the way up before picking your nose does not make you invisible. Incredible as it may seem, glass is actually transparent and we could all see exactly what you were doing. Thanks for that .. NOT!!
• to the parent who flipped me off in the drop-off lane: I'm so sorry I dared to indicate my intention to move out in front of you and then, after seeing you stop in the through traffic lane to let your children out (naughty, naughty .. very dangerous!), pulling out in front of you, leaving at least four car lengths between us 'just in case'. Good thing I did, as how was I to know you were going to roar up behind me and do your own little impersonation of the road runner .. beep beep! Next time, I will make sure you have exited the drop off lane school zone hemisphere before I even attempt to do things by the rules.
• to the rude little 'darlings' who (a) throw money across the counter at me, (b) grunt and scowl at me when I wait for you to pick it up and put it in my hand nicely and (c)conveniently forget all semblance of manners in the process, all while I'm on canteen duty: do that again and I will ensure I personally squash, mutilate, mangle and otherwise destroy every item of food you wish to purchase. Oh and I might just forget my maths and give you the wrong change .. not that you'd notice because you're too busy being up yourself!! (disclaimer: most of them are really good and have had manners instilled into them. There's just a select little group who think they are above interacting politely with the 'help').
• to the woman who snatched the shopping trolley out of my hands because she "saw it first": I realise that getting a good shopping trolley, one that goes in the direction you want it to, is becoming an increasingly rare occurrence, but snatching it off me .. did you really need it that badly? And how stupid did you feel when it turned out to be a dodgy one that I was just moving out of the way to get to the decent one behind it? Karma, lady .. go look it up!
• to the young people wearing clothes that are totally the wrong size: I think you should all swap clothes. The guys with pants 3 sizes too big, that hang down to their knees, and the very large girls wearing shorts 3 sizes too small, and therefore so tight we can all see what they had for breakfast the day before, should all swap clothes so that they all have some chance going out in public without blinding all those around them with flashes of underwear or worse! Just a little hint people, underwear is called underwear for a reason!

Thus endeth my gripe session.

What gets your goat? Let me know in the comments .. please?!

It's been 22 years and boy does it show!

I have been sitting with Alex for most of the morning so far, trying to motivate him to finish at least one piece of homework that is due in the next week. As far as I know,we have he has an English essay to research, a maths worksheet to complete and a rough draft of a SOSE (social studies/history) essay to write.

His English essay is on the effects of the internet on today's society and the pros and cons of the internet in general. One of the cons he had listed was the unreliability of some information on the internet; for example: on sites like Wikipedia. The best entry regarding this particular topic was found on .. you guessed it .. Wikipedia! We have managed to find evidence supporting some of the points he had made in his initial summary, but after trying repeatedly to find out the actual due date of this assignment, and whether or not it was to be done in class from his notes (quite a common occurrence), I we have moved on to his maths worksheet.


This worksheet was actually due at the beginning of last week and he has already received a lunchtime detention for not handing it in. However, as his teacher's aide explained to me, he is still required to complete the work and hand it in for a zero grade. I realise that this is supposed to teach them to hand it in on the due date next time, but that concept just does not fly with Alex. His logic is that he knows how to do all of the problems and has demonstrated this in previous tests, so why should he have to do it all again. I can understand his point but rules are rules, and contrary to certain people's beliefs coughcoughPetercoughcough, they don't just exist to be broken or bent so much they resemble a yoga master impersonating a pretzel.

I started doing some of the questions on my own piece of paper and was actually doing quite well with problems like:

If y = x(cubed) – 2x(squared) + 3x – 5, find the value of y when x = 4

therefore y = (4x4x4) - 2(4x4) + (3x4) - 5

therefore y = 64 - 32 + 12 - 5

therefore y = 39

and this:

Simplify (5xcubed - 7xsquared + 8) - (3xsquared - 9x + 2)

5xcubed - 7xsquared + 8 - 3xsquared + 9x - 2

5xcubed - 10xsquared + 6

Not bad for 22 years since I looked at algebra .. or so I thought. The next question involved compound interest which I always hated. I left that one for him to do and moved on to the next one:

A golf club has a 5-year-old lawn mower, which is now worth $5190.35

and which the club has been depreciating by 18% pa.

What was the purchase price of the lawn mower, to the nearest dollar?

What will the value of the mower be, to the nearest dollar, if the club keeps it for another 5 years?

It was at this point that I decided that I didn't need to know the original purchase price, as surely the club's accountant would have this information stored somewhere, for no-one to ever look at again. Besides, it was probably purchased from a 'mate' at a heavily discounted price, which was done as a favour to the president of the club to enable the seller to keep his membership after he was caught sleeping with the president's wife, so the paperwork was probably doctored anyway.

The value of the mower in five years time may be relevant to the tax department but considering that it has probably died a slow painful death due to planned obsolescence and the fact that it had probably been out in all sorts of weather, I think that working out the value of the rusting hulk behind the maintenance shed is a slightly over-rated pastime.

There were several more questions along the lines of the 'simplify' one listed above and then I got to some more word questions:

Bronwyn received her pay and spent 1/3 on rent and 1/4 paying off her mobile phone bill.

She then had $210 left. How much money was Bronwyn paid?

I did manage to work out that she was paid $504. What I'd like to know is:

• Weekly, fortnightly or monthly pay?
• Where Bronwyn is living that she only has to pay $168 rent! Maybe she lives in a share house with heaps of friends but that seems to be unlikely considering that her phone bill was almost as much as the rent. I mean .. come on .. $126 on a phone bill? Has she never heard of mobile phone caps?
• If that's the phone bill for the assumed share-house and not her mobile phone, was that just her share or is she paying the whole thing? If she is, she needs to move out and find somewhere else to live 'cos she's having her generous, giving nature abused in a major fashion!
• Didn't anybody teach her to budget? Why is she paying 1/4 of her wages out for a phone bill? Don't spend what you can't afford people! Oh, and don't forget to put some of that away for a rainy day and a bad hair day does not count as a rainy day!!
• Why do I give a damn anyway? She's probably one of the young kids of today who don't appreciate that I had to walk ten miles, barefoot, uphill, in 50 degree heat just to find a phone box to prank call someone! I don't know .. kids of today!!

Now that I have totally lost the plot forgotten where I was going with this, I think I better go have a nice cup of tea and a good lie down!!

Some of the things in my head right now...

I have so many things running through my head right now and have a need to get some of them out so I can filter through them all to decide what's actually important. Apologies to those who were hoping for some profound words of wisdom (snort!)

I have been seeing a hypnotherapist to try and help me with my weight issues. Despite having the lap-band, I have managed to persist with my old, bad habits of comfort eating and making the wrong food choices. This morning I made the decision to stop seeing her as I haven't noticed any improvement in these behaviours and really can't justify the cost involved, especially as I don't get any money back from my private health fund. I'm sure that if it was working, I would find a way to pay for it but as it's not, I'm letting it go. I have lost 19 kilos but I still have about 25 to go and I need to get myself into the right head space. "If it is to be, it's up to me!"

Bradley's hypnosis seemed to have worked well until the last couple of days. He isn't back to having 'accidents', but is also not 'going' as he should be. Looks like more intervention is required .. oh yay!! (Please note the dripping sound .. that would be the sarcasm!) It's just difficult finding the right balance between too little and too much interference. I don't want to make his body dependent on the medications to be able to function but at the same time, he obviously needs some help or we end up in the emergency room. The possible complications, whilst unlikely, are enough of a possibility to make me want to avoid them at all costs.

We can't really afford to go on our holiday to Queensland but seeing that we would lose all the money we have paid out so far (over $4500), we have made the decision to go and try to enjoy ourselves anyway. We were originally supposed to be going for a family reunion (of all the cousins on Peter's side) but the plans for that never eventuated, so we're just going for a holiday instead. The boys are looking forward to it so I will just put my game face on and get on with it. I realise this probably sounds incredibly ungrateful .. I mean we are going on an interstate family holiday to one of the more popular tourist destinations in Australia .. and I'm sure everything will work out fine but I guess I'm just too much of a homebody at the moment to want to go anywhere else. To quote myself though: "Suck it up, Princess!"

Speaking of money, I really need to get a job. There's not much point in applying for jobs yet, due to the holiday in a few weeks, but I am going ever-so-slightly-crazy being at home. Then there's the whole what-sort-of-job-do-I-want/am-qualified-for, full-time-or-part-time and local-or-further-afield questions to answer. Peter wants me to go back to work full-time but I don't want to do that with him being away so much. I know there are lots of parents, single and partnered, who don't have the luxury of choosing not to work full-time, but I do and I want to be there for the kids at least some of the afternoons during the week. Plus, I think working full-time and dealing with teenage boys would tip the scale so far into the crazy spectrum that it would take forever to tip it back. Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when we get back from Queensland.

I have managed to do some of the things around the house that I have been meaning/wanting to do for ages. You know, stupid things like emptying out cupboards to clean the shelves, organising bookshelves, finding the floor in the laundry .. stuff like that. I have also managed to paint a feature wall in the master bedroom, just in time for Peter to come home and help me to empty the water bed, fix the bed frame and move it all. Here's hoping it all fits and looks good after all that. Next up is painting the boys' bathroom .. the idea of which started the whole bathroom re-tiling saga of 2009 and still has not been started, yet alone finished!

All this introspection has made me thirsty, so I'm going to take myself off to find some refreshingly cold water and then start re-assembling the bombsite that is my bedroom. If you got this far, thanks for listening/reading and hope everything is going well in your respective parts of the world.

Recent conversations ...

Me: Good afternoon! How was your day?
Brad: Aren't you going to ask me if I learned anything today?
Me: In a minute. How was your day?
Brad: Educational.
Me: That sounds interesting. What did you learn today?
Brad: That it hurts when a basketball hits you in the face.
Me: Ouch! You OK?
Brad: Yep. Just missing a few more brain cells. I'll be fine ... eventually!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Andrew: Hey Mum!

Me: Yes Drew?

Andrew: Prepare yourself!

Me: Sounds ominous! What for?

Andrew: (jumping around the corner in the hallway dressed only in undies)

For the adventures of Nearly-Nude Man! (strikes superhero pose)

Me: (laughing) Who?

Andrew: Nearly-Nude Man! Ta-dah!!

Me: Well, Nearly-Nude Man needs to change back into the mild-mannered Andrew, and some clothes, before his arch enemy the Tickle Monster finds him!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On that note though, I suppose it would make more sense to be a superhero dressed only in undies:

• no cape to get caught in things.
• very easy to change into your crime-fighting outfit.
• no expensive costume to keep replacing because some super-villain managed to damage it.
• no agonising over the colours and/or symbols to go on the costume in the first place.
• very easy to get back into your mild-mannered persona's clothes (provided you can remember where you left them!)

On the down side:

• it would be rather embarrassing if you were going commando and forgot.
• it was washing day and you were wearing your 'only-in-case-of-laundry-emergency' undies.
• having to have lots of the same type and colour of undies so people recognised you as a superhero and not as some weirdo running around in their underwear.
• it could be rather cold which, in the case of male superheroes, could result in shrinkage and diminishing your 'image' in the eyes of your fans.

What do you think?

So many things ...

• ... running through my head. My mind will just not shut up and give me even five minutes peace at the moment. I need to find my relaxation/meditation CD and just do it.
• ... to do! Where to start? "Start at the very beginning. It's a very good place to start." (You're welcome for the tune wedgie!) There's the usual housework (blech!), preparations for Bradley's birthday tomorrow (yum ... cake batter!), pre-holiday planning, homework police duties and the few small home improvement projects to get finished before aforementioned holiday. I think I should make a list and make it my new best friend!
• ... to say. With so many things running around in my head, I need to get some of them out to the appropriate people. Note to self: find tact and diplomacy before attempting this!
• ... to change. Bad habits, paint colours, sheets on beds, towels in bathrooms, furniture, attitudes and menu plans.
• ... to get rid of. How do we manage to accumulate so much stuff? I am slowly working my way through a lot of the stuff we have amassed and am whittling it down to those things that are useful, look good or make me happy. Preferably all three but sometimes just one is enough!
• ... (bills) to pay and never enough money to pay them with. Everyone is probably in the same boat with this one. It just continues to amaze me that with so much money coming in, there still never seems to be enough to go around.
• ... to be thankful for. We have a great home, enough money for all the essentials (despite my whinge in the item above!), our health and, most importantly, each other.
• ... I love. My boys are all such wonderful kids who are turning into lovely young men. Sure we have our moments, doesn't everyone, but they are good people who are trying their best. My husband, who loves me despite my failings and occasional rants. My family, who are always there for me, and my friends, who know all about me and love me anyway!

This morning ...

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At the risk of TMI ...

... my week has been crappy .. in the literal sense. (Warning, liberal use of quotation marks and toilet talk to follow!)

As many of you know, Bradley has ongoing bowel issues that result in him not 'going' regularly and getting quite, to quote the doctors, 'loaded'. This often results in 'accidents' (which usually weren't dealt with until he was called on it .. aarrgghh!), feeling miserable/embarrassed and just generally unwell. The constant laundry and replacing ruined clothes doesn't help my mood either!

After dealing with this problem for most of his life and consulting with several medical professionals (who all said there was nothing actually wrong with him; his bowel is just lazy and slow-moving .. like the rest of the family .. lol!), I had come to the conclusion that a significant portion of this problem seemed to be psychological. Straight-out talking and counselling didn't seem to help at all, so I decided to try turning him into a chicken hypnosis.

I had my doubts as to whether there would be any benefit but I talked the idea through with him and, upon receiving his very vehement assertion that he did want to try it, I made the appointment with a woman who only deals with children and their various problems.

So, on Monday afternoon we found ourselves in her very lovely house, having a discussion as to what Bradley wanted to achieve. Having dealt with many medical/psychological professionals in my time, I just sat there biting my tongue to make myself keep quiet. The results are partly dependent on the child wanting to make a change in their behaviour.

Once she was satisfied that he did indeed want to be there, was willing to try anything safe to fix this problem and assuring him he wasn't going to be turned into a chicken (unless that was what he wanted!), she hypnotised him. It was very strange seeing him 'going under' and then watching his facial expressions and body language change as she talked to him about what would happen if he continued down the 'low road', was all rather surreal. Then to see his face light up like a Christmas tree when she spoke about the 'high road' and having this problem fixed was absolutely beautiful. He came away from that session speaking very positively about the whole experience and the changes he was hoping for.

Here's where the TMI stuff really starts, so for those of you who can't handle bodily functions, stop reading now! You have been warned!!

The next morning (Tuesday), he came down to my room and showed me a 'huge lump' that had appeared in his belly overnight. Normally, when I palpate (feel) his abdomen, I can feel something like a solid sausage all the way across. That's what the doctors are referring to when they say he's fully loaded .. his bowel is full all the way across .. which in itself is not a major problem but this lump was a whole 'nother can of worms kettle of fish story.

It was about the size of an adult man's fist and, when pressed on, would disappear back into his abdomen only to re-appear a short time later. He wasn't in any pain, had no fever or vomiting but it just didn't seem right to me and if it's one thing I've learned over the years, it's to trust my instincts when it comes to one of my children and their health.

After dropping the other two boys at school, I decide to skip the middle man, in this case our GP who would have advised me to do what I did, and took him straight to the Emergency Department at our local public hospital. (With money being as tight as it is, I figured he would be taken care of under Medicare and I wouldn't have to fork out the gap payment for the private hospital ED).

We got in to see a doctor within 40 minutes which is very unusual for this particular hospital (actually who am I kidding? It's unusual for any hospital!) and probably also due the fact that his stomach looked like an alien was about to burst forth at any moment, hopefully singing and dancing and generally entertaining the other patients. Either that or the clerks were scared he was going to burst in the waiting room and they would have to clean up the mess, so they pushed him through quickly.

The doctor came and examined him (1 hour wait), organised for an ultrasound (2.5 hour wait), waited for the results (another 2 hour wait) and then told me what I knew all along .. "his bowel is fully loaded." Swallowing back the retort of "Really? No shit Sherlock (no pun intended) .. I figured that one out myself!" I asked the all important question of "So what can you do about it?" His response was "I don't know. You have to wait to talk to our paediatrician. He should be available after 5pm."

By now, it was nearing school pick-up time for the other two boys and I had well and truly had enough of sitting there, waiting for them to tell me what I already knew. I asked if he was in any danger from this and, after being given a list of things to watch out for, went and picked the others up from school, resolving to take him to the other hospital in the morning.

After an unproductive and uneventful night, despite the medication in both ends of his body, I took the others to school and headed off to the other ED. Remembered halfway there that I was supposed to be taking the dog to the vet for his 6-week-post-accident checkup but concluded (rightly!) that the child was just slightly more important at the moment, especially considering the dog has absolutely no trouble pooping .. anywhere!!

We presented to the triage nurse and were classed as category five which usually means about an hour's wait on quiet days, but lucky us managed to pick a busier day so we got to wait for 2.5 hours!! Luckily I had thought to actually pack some entertainment for Brad this time and one of the lovely volunteer tea ladies made me a nice cup of tea to go with my catch up reading of last year's gossip magazines. The ED had changed their billing structure, in that you now have to pay the gap payment at the time of being seen so I dutifully forked over $165 (inflation is a bitch!!) and then went back to waiting.

To cut a very long story short, I know .. too late!, the doctor assessed him, organised an industrial strength enema and let it take its course. Upon seeing hardly any result, he ordered another to be administered 1.5 hours after the first, much to Brad's disgust.

After trying to encourage Brad to just let his body get rid of it all and listening to his laments of "I just want to go home", I was rather shocked to hear him come out with "I just want to die! Why did I have to be born with this?" We had a little 'come-to-Jesus' talk about counting blessings and stop focusing on the negative after that which seemed to work for a little while, then he just gave up and either lay on the bed ignoring me or sat on the toilet doing the same.

Just as I was about to call the nurse and/or doctor back to say it wasn't working, a noise not unlike that of a tsunami came from the bathroom. The look of relief on his face was almost comical as was the nurse's face when she came in to view the result. (Poor nurses .. having to look at all sorts of gross things day in, day out!) I said that she was probably going to have to arrange for a plumber to unblock the toilet as Bradley appeared to have given birth to his alien in there. She just laughed and pronounced it a nine-pound 'poo baby'. (No, I'm not making birth announcements for it!!)

So after all that, Bradley's lump had gone, he felt much better and we headed for home where he proceeded to have a nice, soothing, warm shower then fall asleep for three hours. All that effort really took it out of him .. literally!!

Overall, I'm glad that he's feeling better and it was nothing serious.

I'm glad that he has now been given the chance to help himself with the hypnosis without the physical obstacles.

I'm glad that I have my happy child back.

I'm glad that he is back at school and can freely play without worrying about having an accident.

I'm just trying to get my head around the fact that it just cost $165 for my child to poop! It would have been much cheaper at home child ... lol!

If only ...

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Ella sketch #3

I'm loving the six weeks of sketches over at Ella as they seem to have revived my motivation and are giving me inspiration at the same time.

I did sketch #3 almost as soon as it was posted but forgot to take a picture and post it here .. oops! So without any further ado, here is my interpretation:




I rotated it, mirrored it and changed the photo sizes a bit (and now it probably looks nothing like the original sketch!) but I like it! Wouldn't have a clue which papers are which because I don't keep track of all that .. sorry!

I also did this layout of Andrew:



It's very linear and started out based on one of Donna Januzzi's sketches in her "Stretch Your Sketches" e-book (Ella Publishing) but as is typical with sketches, it ended up looking nothing like the original! I'm still trying to decide if I'll cut the striped paper to the width of the blue as there's something bugging me about it. What do you think?

Journalling reads:
The first thing most people see when they look at these photos is the lovely mess you have made of yourself with your current favourite biscuit, the humble ginger nut.
Not me. All I see are the gorgeous chubby cheeks, cute little button nose, the happy smile underneath all that mess and your eyes... those beautiful blue eyes.
I really hope you get to keep those lovely baby blues but I doubt you will, so I'll just enjoy them for now and look forward to watching them change as you grow. (Feb '98)

Am I being unreasonable?

I have been stewing on this overnight and most of this morning and I need to know if I am being unreasonable in expecting my husband to take our children shopping to get me, their mother, a birthday present?

He has never been big on the whole present giving thing .. he says he never knows what to get me, which is a totally different issue .. but couldn't he have at least taken the boys out and let them pick something little or encouraged them to make something from the multitude of options available in the house? The usual excuse of 'I didn't have time to go to the shops' really doesn't ring true as he took two extra days off work this time (without telling me first) so that he would be home for my birthday.

Now I do appreciate that he made arrangements to do that, but given that he dislikes where he is working at the moment and doesn't want to be there anyway, and he has even admitted that it was convenient for him to stay home, it feels like he did that for his benefit, not mine. Yes, we did go out for lunch at the local food court (my choice), but that is something we do almost every time he is home. Yes, I was the one who didn't really want to go see a movie, because there is nothing on at the moment that really appealed as a must-see (for me or him).

At the risk of sounding materialistic and greedy, my birthday is one of the few times times a year I expect some sort of present to be purchased/made, wrapped in something other than newspaper and given to me with a smile. I would have loved a home-made cake decorated by the boys, a coupon book of things they would do without me having to nag, a magazine served up with a cup of tea or coffee or something along those lines. He said several times that he was planning on taking the boys out after school but something else always seemed to come up. Yes money is tight at the moment, but anything would have been nice! To receive nothing at all and to then have to remind two of the boys that it was even my birthday, cut a neat little chunk out of my heart.

I think what it comes down to for me, is that it really hurts that they think so little of me and all I do for them all. Everyone likes to be appreciated and this feels like they couldn't even be bothered to exert the effort to give me a slap in the face. He thinks I am 'pissed off' at him, which I suppose I am, but the overwhelming feeling at the moment is hurt and disappointment, which I have verbalised but I can't even look him in the face at the moment. He had gone back to work this morning before I got back from dropping the kids off at school and running a couple of short errands, so it has just been left hanging.

Anyway, back to the original question .. do you think I'm being unreasonable?

Happy birthday to me!

Yes, it's my birthday and according to this website, these are my current stats:

As of 4th February 2010 3:56:35 AM EST
You are 37 years old.
You are 444 months old.
You are 1,930 weeks old.
You are 13,514 days old.


Go check it out to see how old you are. It's one way to make yourself feel better. Yes, I do mean better because you have made it through all those years, months, weeks and days and are still here to check how old you are!!

They're baaack ...

... at school that is!

This morning was the first time in a long time that I have seen Alex happy to be going to school. He was up at 6am, ready by 6:40am (we don't actually leave home until 8am!) and was off like a shot as soon as I allowed him to get out of the car in the car park. I hope this is a sign of a good year to come!

Andrew was a bit nervous with it being his first official day of high school (because apparently last year wasn't really like high school because he had the same teacher for the four core subjects and only had other teachers for everything else .. "Jeez Mum. Don't you know anything?" insert eye roll as only a teenager can here). Alex actually realised that Drew was a bit concerned and offered to take him on a tour of the school to help him find the right classrooms once they get their timetables. Thank you Alex, for helping to de-stress my little stress head.

Bradley was very concerned that he was going to have the same teacher as last year, but luckily he doesn't. The look of relief on his face once he realised that he didn't have Mr C and that he was still in the same class as his best friend, was absolutely priceless. I'm surprised no-one reported his sigh of relief as a mini tornado!

I hope all your little and not-so-little ones have a great time at school and that there are few, if any, tears. If there are, remember that it's hard to tell the kids not to sniff and wipe their noses on their sleeves if they see you doing it, so pack some tissues for a cry in the car on the way home.

Anyway, it is very quiet around here and I have some time all to myself, so now I just have to remember what to do with it ... and if anyone says laundry, I'm going to curl up in the corner, in the foetal position of course, and just quietly melt down!!


Well, maybe not quietly ..


OK, OK, definitely not quietly!


Some things never change, do they?