Ishbel has her wish come true

She's nagged and nagged and nagged about doing this for ages. She wanted to do this for her birthday party. We have resisted as long as we could.

Here you see Ishbel with her new friend, Angel. Angel is a Build-a-Bear toy - you go to the shop, choose the casing and stuff it yourself. You even get a little heart to put inside. Apparently Ian had to kiss the heart before it went in. Angel was also kitted out in a top, jeans and shoes and Ishbel is already planning to purchase pyjamas for her too.

. . . and the worst of times

About 12 yesterday I got a call from a friend saying she wanted me to go round to see her. I said fine but I had to leave to go to book group at 1pm.
I ended up staying all afternoon until after 4pm.
I've known this friend since first coming up to the mountains as she was in the same new Mum's group as me, although she and I didn't see each other a lot, it was nice to bump in to each other every so often.
She rang while I was down in Canberra. She was in hospital having had a bowel cancer removed and wanted to speak to someone who had experienced chemo, etc so Ishbel and I went down during the holidays to say hello. She was then doing well, the surgeon had not had to remove as much bowel as he'd thought and she was expecting to have the chemo and then make a good recovery.
I saw her again on Thursday morning while doing an errand at work and wished her luck as she was due at the Cancer Care Centre for the first time that afternoon.
What she told me yesterday is that, at that appointment, rather than discuss the chemo, she was told that the biopsies had shown that, although the surgeon removed the main tumour OK, there are lots of little microscopic cancers all over the peritoneum (abdominal covering) and that the chemo will be life-prolonging rather than curative. She was told she probably has another two years to live.
She is a few years older than me. She has four children who range in age from the oldest daughter who is the same age as Jamie and Robbie down to a 9/10 year old. She has a drop-kick of an ex-husband who is currently a bit of an unknown quantity in the support department. She is from New Zealand and that's where her family lives. One sister is here just now but goes home on Friday. The other sister comes then for a few weeks and then her brother, but in the long term, support will have to come with friends.

The best of times . . .

Busy weekend with the boys and I up and at 'em early on Saturday morning to join in the Valley Heights Rural Fire Service annual doorknock appeal. Round the streets of our area we trudged, knocking on doors asking for donations (sausages and beer money). Because I had my full gear with me I was assigned to the tanker so that if anything happened (and it was a hot, dry day) and we were called out we were ready for action. Jamie and Robbie were teamed up with adult members of the brigade and went with them.
Our first stop was the local retirement village. I caught most of the oldies in their pyjamas, apologising that they weren't ready they'd been away - there had been a DAY trip to Victoria the day before (that's like going to London from Edinburgh for the day!!) Then we hit some of the streets around the station before going back to the station to count up the loot and have some lunch.
One of the houses I went to did not look promising, all overgrown and unkempt looking. I assumed the ihabitant would be a cranky old hermit who hated to be bothered and had "issues with you people" as one man had already told me! How wrong, the lovely lady with the north American accent had me wait while she rootled around for yesterdays clothing, she'd got money out for us specially (there had been a letter drop during the week letting people know the door knock would be on). When she handed me a $50 note I offered her change, not only did she refuse, she gave me a second $50 note. When I stammered my thanks for her generosity, she was astounded that everyone else wasn't as generous and scandalised that $5 was the norm (I didn't tell her about Mr Issues!)
Not only did I collect around $670, I also scored a Bible - the only one in the Brigade to do so.
After lunch we hit the streets again. Not such a good haul this time. In a couple of hours I made $47.70!! There were an awful lot of houses with cars in the driveway, front doors and windows open, but no-one home!! After losing my partner, Nige, and a couple of hours of trudging in rising temperatures I was bored and ready to go home.
We got home about 4:30 and after a shower I was right back out again to have dinner at Jackies. Her boys were camping for the night so she had Gabi and I round for dinner and games.

Fiddling

Last night we went to Fiddler on the Roof put on by the Blue Mountains Musical Society. It was a special preview showing for volunteer organisations which we got alerted to via the RFS. Sadly for the musical society, there weren't many people there so hopefully the official opening tonight will be better patronised.

It's a long show and it was after 11pm before we got home, a long stretch from 8pm for the early to bed types like Ishbel and I but it was pretty good. A big improvement on the performance I remember going to with the school in Ayr. We all got into trouble from Miss Higgs for laughing when the snow scene dumped all the snow in about two seconds.

The man in the lead role was especially good.

Philip Island, motoGP

Over the last weekend Dad, Robbie, Jono and I were at the MotoGP on Philip Island. We saw Casy Stoner win the big race by 6 seconds. he had a lead of 8 seconds at one point but was told to slow down by his pit crew just incase he broke some thing on the bike. It was pretty amazing as the day before he came off over the handle bars around the corner we happend to be sitting at.
this photo is Casy Stoner coming round the corner we were sitting at, the same corner he came off the day before. Stoners team mate Loris Capirossi came second while seven time world champ Valentino Rossi came third. Nicky Haden, last years wold champion was coming second right behind Stoner but he droped out with technical problems. The winner pf the 250cc race was Jorge Lorenzo who will be Rossi's team mate next year. he thrashed the other 250cc riders by 19.6 seconds it was fantastic and to selebrate he planted his "Lorenzo Land" flag in the sand trap near us.
All in all it was a great copple of days
Jamie

A thousand splendid suns by Khaled Hosseini : ISBN 9780747582977

Mariam is 15 and lives with her mother in a village outside Herat, Afghanistan. Her father visits weekly and she idolises him and yearns to be accepted by his legitimate family. When her mother dies, rather than be looked after by her father, she is quickly married off to the much older Rasheed and goes to live hundreds of miles away in Kabul.
Many childless years later she is joined by a second 15 year old wife, Laila. Initially hostile to Laila, the two women find comfort and support in each other.
All this time trouble and strife is raging in Afghanistan with mujahadeen, Russians and the Taliban all wreaking their own kinds of havoc. Life is a struggle, Rasheed is brutal and the women suffer much before reaching breaking point.
A wonderful story. I highly recommend it, as well as the first book Hosseini wrote, The kite runner.

Jono's visit

The boys are away at the Motorbike Grand Prix. Jamie, Ishbel and I collected Jono from the airport on Wednesday morning. We spent the afternoon at Roey and Pete's having a long lunch before heading home and dinner with Karen and Dan.

Robbie didn't come with us to the airport because he was starting his first job. He's got casual work for Eagle Boys Pizza (great job for him - pizza is Robbie's favourite!). He only did a couple of hours (we worried he'd been fired already when he called to get a lift home) but was quite happy. His uniform is a treat - bright pink! Will post photo as soon as I can get someone to help me nail him down to have it taken!

The fellas left for Victoria at 4 on Thursday morning. Ishbel and I didn't get up to see them off!!

She's not a Derek

We've got a wussy dog. Curled up on my lap in the evenings, Ian has to take her for a drag round the block. Not a Derek as I said the other night. Him we couldn't even mention the word 'walk' but he'd be at the door, bouncing around, itching to be out.

Here she is, snuggling up with Robbie.

RFS

With regard to the previous blog i would like to point out that the green tree snake is NON-VENOMOUS and wasn't actually reared up so there was no actual threat. also while we were sitting at the bottom of martins lookout Rob pointed and said "Holy c@#$ look another one" and scared the begebus out of Mum to the amusment of the rest of the guys at the exercise.

The first in 20 years!

Jamie, Robbie and I went to RFS training on Sunday. We out to Martin's Lookout and did some trail cutting along the tracks there. Lots of hard yakka going down the hill clearing leaves and stones off the paths. Robbie was in my team, Jamie went in the opposite direction with his team. Robbie had fun wielding the brush hook, hacking away at the undergrowth. We were acting out a scenario in which a fire was making its way up the hill and we were clearing a break round the edge in preparation for lighting a backburn. Then they told us the wind had picked up and the fire was racing up the hill and we had to head for safety down in the creek at the foot of the gully. Down, down, down we went. Tramping along the bottom, me in front, I suddenly spied a snake, green, facing my way, in strike pose. I've rarely run so fast. I let out an expletive and raced back up a rock!

It was identified by one of the team as a green tree snake, one of only two tree snakes found in Australia. Agile and slender, this non-venomous snake can grow up to 2m but is usually a little over 1m. Its colour ranges from green to yellowish-green, brownish-green, black - even blue in a rare form. Under threat, the snake raises itself, revealing splashes of blue between its scales.

At a clearing at the bottom we met up with Jamie's team and had a bit of a rest before heading out - up, up, up, up, up , up, up , up, up , up, up , up, up and more , up, up - it was quite arduous. What with that and the snake I am considering joining one of the plains RFS teams way out in Dubbo or somewhere!!

Homeward bound

At last it was time to pack up and come home. After our experience with the hotel restaurant last night we decided to get breakfast in Manuka before heading back for a quick look at Parliament House. It didn't take us long to take ourselves round and we could head out of town - the only time we were on the right road the whole way!


Stopped off at the Scottish Shop at Sutton Forrest where I got a Colquhoun mug for Ian. I told the lady I was bringing my sassanach friend for a look (Gillian) but she hadn't a clue what I was talking about. We also stopped in the historic town of Berrima for a wander and a bite of something light for lunch before going straight home.

Canberra CODA Conference Friday 5 October Part 2

Not finding a way round the lake, we headed back to the main road where all the traffic had been earlier. It was much lighter now and we got across the lake to Commonwealth Park - too late for Floriade.
We had only just missed it - we asked for the location of the nearest toilets from the man locking the gates. He sent us off over the hill. After asking a man in an anorak for directions to the toilet (to Gillian's great embarrassment), we found the toilets which I used. Gillian then decided she'd use them too. I said I was going to go back up the hill to take a photo of Floriade from the top of the children's play equipment. She persuaded me to stay and wait. Good job too - next minute she's calling me - she was stuck in the toilets!!
Had a little walk alongside the lake before deciding to go to the Telstra tower on Black Mountain for views of the city as the sun went down.
Gillian doesn't like heights so I went up the tower quickly on my own. At that height (over 800m above sea level) the wind was so strong it was hard to catch my breath. I took a few photos and came back to the hotel for dinner.
Had a buffet meal that was just the same as we'd had at lunch today and yesterday and were horrified to find we'd been charged $107 for two meals and two glasses of wine! Dunno what we're going to tell the boss!

Canberra CODA Conference Friday 5 October

There I was, lying in bed, thinking it was 5:45am and that I could watch a bit of TV before getting up. There was a company sponsored breakfast that started at 7am and I'd told Gillian I'd be there at 7 while she was aiming for 7:30.
Put the TV on just in time for the person to announce it was 7am. I leapt out of bed and was showered, dressed and downstairs before I'd woken up. Still, Gillian had beat me down.
Listened to more STUFF. Worked out that there were a couple of sessions after lunch where we'd either heard it before, or they were about products we don't and won't use so we decided to play hookey for a few hours and went to visit Old Parliament House (OPH).
It being school holidays, it was very busy at OPH and very noisy in the foyer where there was a bushman type doing a song and dance routine. We didn't have the time to wait for the guided tour so pottered about by ourselves using a brochure to work out where we were. Thoroughly enjoyed it and am keen to come back and do a tour properly.
Back to the conference for more boring bits then at the end we decided to head out and do something active. We'd been talking for weeks about hiring a bike and riding round the lake but when I rang to make enquiries we were too late and it was rather expensive anyway. I also wanted to go again to Parliament House but by the time we'd had a cuppa and changed our shoes it was getting late.
We headed out in the car to see if we could find Floriade - the spring flower festival. Couldn't believe the traffic. For the past three days we've been marvelling at how little traffic there is in Canberra and how few people we'd seen walking about. Now here they were - the ENTIRE population of Canberra it seemed on our road.
As we'd originally thought we'd ride round the lake, we thought we could drive round instead so abandoned the Floriade idea for the time being and took off left past the British High Commission and the Chinese Embassy.

We drove ourselves down a dead end where we could see hundreds of white posts in the park. We discovered it was a memorial to the hundreds of men, women and children who died when the Siev X, a refugee boat, sank (http://www.sievxmemorial.com/sievxmemor

ial.com/). Very sad, very shameful and I had to leave; the poles covered such a large area and each one had the name, age and gender of a person on it.

Canberra CODA Conference Thursday 4 October Part 2

Just back from the conference dinner which was held at the Australian War Memorial. Couldn't find it on the map but thought I knew where it was so headed off, amazed that it wasn't well-signposted only to discover we were on the wrong route and we had to stop, consult the map again and double back (see what I mean about a pattern emerging?)
The museum is a wonderful sight, day and night, but is beautifully lit at night and in a lovely line of sight all the way down from the new Parliament house. We had to go round the back, couldn't work out where to park and where to get in and had to ask the conference bus drivers who were quite taken by our undercover car!
Dinner in quite a dramatic setting in the middle of the exhibit of the Japanese mini sub that entered Sydney Harbour on 31 May 1942 (see here for a 360 degree view of the venue: http://www.awm.gov.au/virtualtour/javap/vr.asp?area=2).
As we arrived an audio-visual presentation about WW2 pilots was just finishing and the Japanese sub on began.
We had a pleasant dinner with some of the Sydney HUGS users we knew and some others we'd never clapped eyes on. Offered Elisabeth and Iveta a lift back in the car but they declined which was good because we did the same scenic drive thing, going back to the hotel via Black Mountain!

Canberra CODA Conference Thursday 4 October

Didn't sleep well last night - dreaming about Gillian and dentures ???????!
Breakfast kinda set the tone for the day with Danish pastries and muffins for breakfast - where's the cereal?
Spent a mostly dull day in a small room where the seats were squashed close and which got very stuffy listening to people warble on about some deadly stuff. Only about two speakers, both in the afternoon, were interesting.
Had lunch with Moira, my former supervisor at HealthLink Directories/Westmead Hospital. She's now working at a theological library in Parramatta and it was nice to catch up with her.
Am currently writing this (in diary at the time) in a couple of hours hiatus before we go to the War Memorial for dinner.

Canberra CODA Conference Wednesday 3 October

Today is the 1st anniversary in the job of Support Services Officer.

Set off early for Canberra. Took Ishbel to Tanderra - she pronounce the Prius officially cool - and then headed to Blaxland to collect Gillian. When I got there realised I'd left my suit at home and we had to go back up to Springwood again - a bitty scenic tour to start the day (watch/read carefully and you will see a pattern emerge).

Enjoyed driving the Prius for a while before Gillian took her turn. I tried to teach her how to use the cruise control but she couldn't get the hang of it and after a while of 'take your foot off the accelerator', 'flick that stick up' and 'flick it down now' she gave up and concentrated on keeping the car on the road as it was buffetted by very strong winds.

We arrived in Canberra just before 1pm and had a little bit of lunch and a visit to the Tourist Information Office. Look at what we saw in the car park.

We arrived at the hotel just in time to join a library tour organised for the conference goers. We hadn't time to empty the car or check in or anything, we just jumped into the bus. Libraries to be visited included the Parliamentary Library in the new Parliament House, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Canberra Institute of Technology and Civic Library (public library in the Canberra suburb of Civic).

We thought the Parliamentary Library would be very interesting but was in the end very disappointing. They'd run short of time because it'd taken a while to get us issued with security passes. Instead of showing us the library though, we were hurried down lots of corridors (past the man playing Solitaire on his computer - so THAT's where our taxes go!) and into a darkened room where we were spoken at for 10-15 mins. then back down more corridors (not past Solitaire man) and out and on to the bus again.

When we got to the library at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the librarian was in awe of us having visited the Parliamentary library. Her favourite place she said. Had we seen . . .?, No. Had we seen . . .? No. Had we seen . . . ? No.

The highlight of the tour, after having suffered another dull talk, was the AIATSIS library. We walked into a beautiful two storey room with lovely windows giving on to Lake Burley Griffin. Bags I the office with the window.

We had a short break before we headed off to the National Library for a welcome reception. It took us a while to find our way - the girl at the hotel reception had circled the National Gallery, not the National Library and it took lots of driving back and forth to work it out. Luckily Canberra is built with lots of roundabouts so if you go wrong you can just drive to the next roundabout and turn back. Another plus is that there are hardly any cars on the roads so you can dither without upsetting anyone.

Neither Gillian nor I eat meat so we'd ordered veggie meals for the conference. The reception was serving finger food but not a lot of options were vegetarian so we were pretty hungry. We stayed long enough for politeness the headed back to the hotel where a sticky date pudding and hot chocolate dealt with my hunger pangs and off we went to bed.

Canberra CODA Conference Preparations Tuesday 2 October

Had to change the password on my work PC this (Tuesday) morning and ran into trouble shortly thereafter. Long story short, my password used for several library applications and one was spitting my new password out and I had to try again. However, after getting the password working in one bit I found I was locked out of my council account, unable to access the internet, save files or otherwise do my work which included making sure the monthly and quarterly statistics were done before I went off to the conference next day. And we had to collect a car from the depot in Katoomba.

Contacting our IT department, I found they were at the Katoomba depot which I'd been trying to ring since getting in that morning so we could arrange to collect the car. Shane sounded rather harrassed and would get back to us later he said. So, not being able to do anything else without my computer working, Gillian and I headed up to Katoomba to see if we could get the car.

On arrival at the depot we found it was like the Marie Celeste - it took us quite a while to find a person from Stores who could help us. He wasn't having a good morning either; not only was their phone and computer system out of order, someone had put a padlock over their padlock so they couldn't get into their yard, making accepting deliveries a problem.

Then the guy couldn't find the key for the office where the keys for the fleet cars are kept and had to call on someone else to help. Gillian and I are getting a little hysterical about all the time we are wasting by now.

The car we've been assigned is a Toyota Prius, a hybrid car and it has a few differences from normal petrol cars which the fellow tried running us through. He ran into difficulties showing us how to reverse the car - it owuldn't go. He muttered something about how it'd played up when they'd taken it down to Canberra (also our destination). Gillian and I were begging him to give us another car. Please!

Finally he worked out the car wasn't working because he had the door open. Worked fine once he'd closed it.

As you can see from the picture, we're not going to this conference anonymously.

















Anyway, we got back to Springwood without incident and, computer problems meanwhile having been resolved, I was able to complete all my work by close of business.

The zookeeper's war by Steven Conte - ISBN: 9780732285166

Berlin during WW2 and Australian Vera is married to German Axel who is also the director of the Berlin zoo. The story tells of their struggle to save the zoo animals following the bombings, their struggle to survive themselves with friends embroiled in the attempt to assassinate Hitler and a neighbour only too happy to dob Vera in as a foreigner. An affair and a real twist at the end made this an unputdownable read.

Walk to Faulconbridge Point

Today we went for a walk with Karen and Ben and Ishbel’s little pal, Zanny, to Faulconbridge Point. It was a warm, very windy day (first official day of the fire season and several fires around the state already) and it was hold onto your hats as we went and we had to abandon our hats as we ate our picnic lunch at the end of the 6 km approx. track. And then back again . . . Robbie striding out in front with Ben and Jamie in his wake, Karen raced up to the front leaving Ian and I to try and hurry up the stragglers – with very little effect!

Anyhow, we got some nice photos.