Wet weekend

I had an email last week from Margaret, a friend I made while at the Stirling Royal Infirmary. She wrote saying "You will all be enjoying your summer weather now. I will be thinking of you all ,while i look out of our conservatory windows at grey skies and pouring rain."
How ironic to be writing back "it sounds like the views from our windows are the same as yours".
It's been raining for most of the past week which hopefully is getting into the water catchment areas and filling up the dams. A huge percentage of NSW is drought declared but I haven't heard much about the farmers out west getting rain. The last time they got rain out west they all rushed to put crops in the ground thinking the drought had broken but the rain didn't last and the crops died. Our local baker has a sign saying the price of flour has gone up 45% because of the drought.
As I write though, there is a gentle drizzle, it is cold and we are all wearing jumpers. The newly washed dog has just been for a walk with Ian and stinks of eau de wet chien.
The other night there was another thunderstorm with one huge, loud clap of thunder that rumbled and shook the house. It went on so long we began to wonder whether it hadn't been a bomb.
Our boys are out in all this weather on a Scout camp. It's a water-based camp this time and they are having to build a raft and sleep on it all night. We aren't sure they have taken much in the way of wet weather gear and almost expect them to ring to be rescued.
Clive has just rung to say the Bush Fire Brigade Christmas picnic has been cancelled.
We are going up to Katoomba for dinner this evening for to celebrate Stephen's birthday. The restaurant is called Swiss Cottage (http://www.swisscottage.com.au/). There are escargots on the menu - think we can get Ishbel to eat any? We had a French French teacher at school (Mrs Macnamara of course) who brought escargots in once. Even under threat of getting an order mark I couldn’t bring myself to eat them.
It’s voting day today and as voting is compulsory in Australia we have had to trot along to our local polling place and make our mark.

Joey visit to the zoo

on sunday i went to the zoo and i got to feed and pat a possum i made a frog pond and a lizard lounge and i also caught a tadpole.

Picture: Ishbel and Joanna Kibble

Long Service Award

Yesterday Blue Mountains City Council had a Long Service Award ceremony. There hasn't been one for several years so mine for 10 years was a bit overdue (I started as a casual early 2006).
We were given to understand that attendance was compulsory so a gaggle of us library types organised to meet for lunch in Katoomba beforehand.
After a disappointing lunch (Mountain Memories will be remembered for its rubbish and expensive Caesar salads) we made our way to the Civic Centre for the presentations.
Felicity (Bella's old 'grandma", I'll post a picture when I can) and I were among 6 or so library staff who had 10 years under their belts, one had 15 years and two had 20 years.
Our names were called, 10 year people going first. Of course, Colquhoun was mispronounced 'Calhoun'. I told the guy the right pronounciation and he announced me . . . as Heidi Calhoun - eeek. Shake hands with the General Manager and Councillor Hamilton, get framed certificate and cross stage for hand shake from Dave, or division manager (who likes my hair by the way!). Sit through everyone else getting their certificates. Those with 15 years + of service also got a money voucher.
One of the men from the Springwood Office, Phil, was there getting his 35 year award. His manager had dug back in his personnel file and gave a speech about his time in council. Another man was getting a 40 year award!
I first met Phil when I was working down in Springwood during my chemo treatment. I thought his name was Dave and said "Good morning, Dave" every day. He never said a word about it. It was only just before Christmas last year that I found out his name is Phil and had to apologise. Now I call him anything but Phil - Oscar, Gordon, Basil - yesterday it was Humphrey - and he calls me Betty, Edith, Alice . . .
As the ceremony finished and we were getting up to leave, we were told there was a late entrant. One of my colleagues, Sue, had arrived late and now it was her turn to go up on the stage all by herself. Redface! She'll never arrive late for anything ever again.
As we were tucking in to an afternoon tea, the heavens opened. A great torrent of rain hurled itself down accompanied by thunder, lightning and marble-sized hail. The lights went out and soon the roof was leaking and we had to stand under the awning outside while the half-dome light shades filled with water.
Debbie, the branch librarian at Katoomba, raced off to fetch a broom - the veranda under the awning slopes towards the library door and it floods the library in heavy rain. When I was acting branch librarian there a few years ago we had to shut for several days after the whole foyer ended up under water.
Sadly the GM had left so he didn't see the extent of the problem but one of the senior managers was helping Debbie sweep the water away from the door so perhaps someone will listen when problems are reported in future.
The storm only lasted 20 minutes or so, but left Katoomba and a fair way down the hill to Bullaburra without power (15, 000 homes Ian said was reported on ABC radio).
At home the storm was threatening so we got ourselves prepared by looking out the candles and camping lamp. There was some lightning but we didn't get the heavy rain, hail stones or wind that the upper mountains did.
The boys went out to Venturers last night, driven there by Fiona Kibble who told us that a flash of sheet lightning hit the road in front of the car, blinding her for a good 30 seconds.

This whirlwind week

We've hardly seen each other this week, Ian and I, with one of those lots-of-meetings-and-stuff weeks.
Monday: Me, James and Robert in, Ian and Ishbel out at Joeys.
Ishbel had stopped going to Joeys but went a couple of weeks ago when the Melbourne Cup was on and they were making racing silks (out of crepe paper) and doing horsey races round the hut. There is an activity on today (more about that to follow) and I told her that, if she wanted to do the thing today, she'd have to keep going, not just cherry pick the more interesting days. After this there will be Christmas parties, etc. to keep going for.
Tuesday: Ian and the kids in, me at a Tanderra (Ishbel's after school care centre) meeting.
Wednesday: Me and Ishbel in, Robert and James at Venturers, Ian ferrying boys back and forth. This week the Venturers went to Glenbrook pool for fun and games there.
Thursday: Ian and the kids in, me at Joanne's. It was Joanne's first day of chemotherapy and she wanted someone to "babysit' her because she didn't know how she was going to be feeling. She had a long day as she also had a port inserted - a little device that goes under the skin with a tube fed into a vein - the next time she goes the chemo line is clipped into the port. Her chemo is fed in over 2 days so it means her arm isn't strapped up with a drip in it and she can be a lot more mobile. Unfortunately there was a bit of trouble getting the port in and she was feeling pretty bruised and sore.
Friday: Ian, James and Ishbel in, Robbie at work and me out at Bushfire Brigade training. this time we did Pre-incident planning in the shed then went out doing some Local area familiarisation (very important that we know trails, waterholes, hazards, etc in our area) which involved some bush bashing and the removal of a tree from the track by pulling it out of the ground - we aren't allowed to use chain saws after the sun goes down.
Saturday: Ian and Ishbel in, Robbie at Lee's, Jamie to Kirsty's birthday party and me working at the Timelines Local History conference. Ishbel had her friend, Zanny over to play. Robbie is away overnight. Jamie was back shortly after 9pm having enjoyed his pool party. The conference went smoothly although there weren't enough attendees for the library to even break even so it's doubtful that it will continue in coming years. My colleagues Jenny, Gillian and I were there to register delegates and sort out the catering while our supervisor Robyn and John the local studies librarian ran the conference. Most of our day was fairly boring, waiting for the next meal break. Unlike last year when we spent lots of time preparing morning and afternoon tea, this year the catering was all done for us (the Leisure Centres have a catering service called Aquafresh which is very good). I came home with a big plate of sandwiches, a cheese platter and lots of cake thinking the boys would soon polish it off, forgetting they were both out. desperate calls to Karen and Dan, Sharon and Janet and Steven to come and help us finish them proved useless. Luckily Zanny's dad agreed to take sandwiches for the cricket team today but an awful lot of food went into the bin.
Sunday: Everyone out. I'm off to Katoomba for book group in half an hour or so. We've been reading Alice in Wonderland this month. I've enjoyed it. I started to read it to Ishbel when we lost Harry Potter but gave up when Harry turned up again so I'll try again later. Robbie is still at Lee's. He'll be back later then out again, I see he has to work again this evening. Ian, Jamie and Ishbel have gone with the Scouts (Joeys, Cubs and Scouts) down to Sydney to the zoo. Jamie wasn't keen and went off kicking and screaming and grumbling but I wasn't going to have him doing nothing all day, especially with everyone else being out. I know going to the zoo is quick and easy for you Edinburgh types but it's a big deal trip for us. Ishbel was excited and keen to see her favourite - the Tasmanian Devil.

Ishbel's award

Ishbel got a Core Values award this Friday in assembly. She crosses her fingers and hopes for one every Friday and has had a few. She's been aiming to get at least one of each of the Core Values this year and has finally done it.

Her school, Faulconbridge Public School (http://www.faulconbri-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/) has four Core Values:

1. Positive Relationships - valuing all members of the school community as individuals


2. Healthy Environments - maintaining a clean and safe school


3. Learning - providing effective learning paths for all


4. Personal Growth - sharing and developing ideas, skills and opinions.

As you see, this one is for Learning.

Renovations hit the first hurdle

Got a phone call from Rod the house designer guy - what we'd been talking about last Friday will be way over our budget. He said he'd come over sometime and discuss options but we're feeling a bit down at the moment.

Interior desecrations : hideous homes from the horrible '70s by James Lileks, ISBN: 0307238725

Continuing on the home renovations theme. Anxious to find inspiration for our 'new home' when it eventually gets done I reached for this little gem.

Bad taste in home decoration reached a peak, or nadir, in the 1970s, "a breathtakingly ugly period" as James Lileks demonstrates in this book. Interior desecrations show us the worst of the unlovely, unattractive, unlivable and unforgivable homes of the 1970s.

Room by room Lileks shows us hideous examples of 1970s interior design all accompanied by witty comment. I laughed till I cried over some of the pictures and their accompanying commentry. It's the perfect antidote to Country Style and Australian Home Beautiful.

Also by this author (and I'm reaching now for a couple of the library's Request for Purchase forms) : The gallery of regrettable food : highlights from classic American recipe books and Mommy knows worst : highlights from the golden age of bad parenting advice.

Trying again with the renovations lark

In April this year we had a house design/stuctural engineer guy come to talk with us about extensions to the house. He was recommended to us by a builder used by friends. He seemed nice enough for us to send him $1000 to make a start on the promise of a further $1000 on completion of the work.
The first time we made an appointment though he didn't turn up, didn't ring and say he was running late, or unable to make it, had some lame excuse. Long story short, that happened each time we made appointments. He was supposed to send us final drawings weeks ago and hasn't. Meanwhile, we have been becoming more and more uncomfortable, firstly with the design he'd come up with, and secondly with his knowledge of local building regulations and decided we'd perhaps be better to start again with somebody new.
Sharon used to work with a woman, Marie, whose partner is a house designer. Marie was also head of maths at Robbie's school for a while. It turns out that her partner, Rod, works with a builder that had been recommended to me by a man down the road who is a bricklayer, Nudge. Nudge has taken a little fibro ugly duckling cottage like ours and turned it into a beautiful swan (http://www.harveycarr.com.au/index.php?action=listingview&listingID=166). Thinking he'd done such a good job on his place he probably appreciates good workmanship, I asked him who he'd recommend. He gave me three names including the builder that this Rod guy is in partnership with, Michael Edwards. (http://www.michaeledwards.com.au/).
So we've had a chat with Rod and he's going off to do some preliminary drawings. We're talking having a room built out the back where the deck currently is and a master bedroom with ensuite and walk-in wardrobe upstairs.
Fingers crossed we get somewhere this time . . .

To practise your mouse skills . . .

When you are in need of a mindless break give this a try: http://www.sharkbreak.com/

Take the cursor up and down and watch it swim up and down. You can change the fish by clicking on the pictures down the left side and the background by clicking the top pictures.

Just catching up

We're having a bit of a quiet weekend - well, kind of. Nothing earth shattering to report, but lots of stuff going on as usual.
Ian is doing a First Aid course for Scouts this weekend. He came back about 4pm today, earlier than I'd expected. He had a deep red mark along the bottom of his lip - like he'd been in the wind licking his lips all day. Said it came from doing the mouth-to-mouth thing with the dummy wrongly!!! Then had the cheek to contradict me when we were discussing the breathe/chest compression ratios later on when Iain Hosking turned up. He's to go back tomorrow too.
Jamie is away tomorrow with the Venturer Scouts. They are going to be building a raft.
Robbie meanwhile is going to Bushfire Brigade training. His BF assessment day is the first Saturday in December and he has to get 20 hrs or so training under his belt before then.
I'll be at home with Ishbel. I've got a copy of The Railway Children on DVD from the library so perhaps we'll get around to watching that. There are markets on down at Richmond which I fancy having a look at but we'll have to be back about midday to get Robbie after training.
We've had rain all week but it's been clearer today (cloudy but no rain) and tomorrow is supposed to improve further so I'm hoping to get some washing out on the line. I don't know how I can stand the excitement!
I was at RFB training last weekend. The boys preferred a lie-in. It started out cloudy but fined up to a beautiful blue sky which was just as well given what happened later in the morning. We went down to the National Park at Glenbrook to a little dam (pond) there and practised drafting water into the truck. As the truck was already full however, we also had to get the hoses out and let some water out. It got a bit boring and was too much for Bec who started a water fight. Great fun! I could hardly breath for laughing and wincing at the cold water at the same time. The sunshine dried us out relatively quickly though as we got the generator going, boiled the kettle and made a cuppa.

Exit Music by Ian Rankin

As he is trying to tie up all loose ends before retiring, John Rebus is called to his last case. A Russian poet has been killed in what looks like a mugging gone wrong. To muddy the waters a high level delegation of Russian entrepreneurs, Scottish MPs and Rebus' nemesis Big Ger Cafferty seem to be involved somehow. Things go from bad to worse when Rebus himself becomes a murder suspect. Has Rebus gone too far in his zeal to nail Big Ger?

The last in the Inspector John Rebus series. Classic Rebus shambling about Edinburgh being belligerant. Several plotlines to keep you busy.

At the moment Rebus is on TV on a Friday night and we are very much enjoying it. Ken Stott is a much better Rebus than John Hannah, much as I like him.

Bella's 1st Birthday

Today, according to the paperwork we have, is Bella's
1st birthday. Ishbel had been banging on about having a birthday party and inviting some people with dogs so we rang Auntie Karen and Uncle Dan and invited them and their dogs, Sasha and Mishka for a little tea party.
Ishbel also insisted we got Bella a birthday present so here she is with a tyre on a rope. To Ishbel's intense disappointment, Bella initially wouldn't have anything to do with her new toy but later she got right into it and she's had a ball, throwing it up and wrestling with it.
When Karen, Dan and the girls arrived this evening Bella was out in the back garden, barking. When let into the house she went tearing along the hallway then saw the two big dogs and stopped in her tracks - at least she tried to stop but with our polished floors she skidded about 4 feet before she could turn back, hackles in a ridge from neck to tail. A very funny sight.
We made a birthday cake this morning before going out to school - how's that for organisation! And this afternoon we made a doggy birthday cake with chicken, doggy biscuits and gelatine.
We put a candle on the doggy birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday.
All three dogs seemed to enjoy their cake and Sasha and Mishka went home with doggy bags of extra cake, a paw-shaped doggy biscuit and a Smacko snack!