Creepy crawley

Take a look at this creepy crawley then check out the video.

Farewell George, we're going to miss you

Here are some pearls that will go down in history!

'I have opinions of my own --strong opinions -- but I don't always agree with them.' - - George W. Bush

'We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur.' - George W. Bush

'The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country.' - George W. Bush

'If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.' - George W. Bush

'One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.' - George W. Bush

'I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future.' - George W. Bush

'The future will be better tomorrow.' - George W. Bush

'We're going to have the best educated American people in the world.' - George W. Bush

'I stand by all the misstatements that I've made.' - George W. Bush

'We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe ' - George W. Bush

'Public speaking is very easy.' - George W. Bush

'A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls.' - George W. Bush

'For NASA, space is still a high priority.' - George W. Bush

'Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children.' - George W. Bush

'It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.' - George W. Bush

More GWB quotes and here too

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Took this photo to show how the puppy has grown and to show you how well the dogs get along. As I type they are at my feet, under the computer desk sharing a bone. (It's a very old bone which Bella dug up somewhere in the garden. She seems to have a stash somewhere; perhaps someone was murdered!!!)

Australia Burns Chinese New Year Day

It's become our tradition to host a combined Robert Burns and Australia Day celebration. This year we had the added interest of Chinese New Year falling on the 26th of January too so we sent out invitations to our friends to come and do the lot.

Ishbel slaved for quite a while to make a lovely Australia Day banner (above), exhausting her yellow and green pencils.

I'd been out and bought haggis, neeps and tatties and kangaroo to make a kangaroo and macadamia nut salad and we also made a roast eggplant tabbouleh and we had dim sims and spring rolls for nibbles. The others were to bring something Scots/Australian/Chinese.

We had a lovely time. Lunch wasn't served until after three because Ian discovered the gas bottle was emptied but no one seemed to mind.



Here we all are:
Along the back L-R: Iain Hosking, Hugh Patterson, Cameron Hosking (or Brendon), Jamie holding Josie, Robert, Graeme Walker, Nick Walker, Brendon Hosking (or Cameron), David Kelly
In the middle L-R: Ian, Nigel Broadbridge, Amanda Broadbridge, Francoise Matter, Janet Addison, Kim Walker, Catherine Humphries, Kate Addison, Heather and Mark Lucas
Front L-R: Heidi, Ishbel and Bella, Georgia Addison, Chase (one of Jamie's school friends)
Inset: Steven Addison who took the above photo.

Sad day

My friend Joanne died yesterday morning.

Joanne had been diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer about 18 months ago and I was one of a group of friends pitching in to help her since. She hasn't been well for the last 4 or 5 months and has spent the last month in the Palliative Care Unit at Springwood Hospital. On Wednesday, after being in considerable pain and after speaking with the Palliative Care specialist, she had her pain medication increased a fair bit knowing it would make her very sleepy and that she would be unlikely to wake again. When I arrived at the hospital on Wednesday early evening she was still awake, lucid and forthright as she has been all through. She told me she was not afraid and asked if I was going to stay until the end. Joanne's daughter Claire, her niece Catherine, another friend Jo and I stayed all night, one or other of us staying with her and holding her hand until she finally passed away just after 10 yesterday morning. Jo and I then laid her out for her family to come and say their last goodbyes.

Joanne was one of the women I met when we first came up to the mountains and I joined a New Mums group. Claire is only a few days older than James and Robert. She was both the first of the group to have a second baby and the first to go back to work. She was frighteningly clever and was an Actuary, a job she had to give up last year. We didn't see a lot of each other after she went back to work. Ian used to travel on the same train for a while so he saw her then more than I but she sought me out again when she became sick and knew she would need chemotherapy because she knew I'd been through the same experience. Unfortunately she was not as lucky as I and soon found she wouldn't have much longer to live.

Joanne leaves 4 children in the care of her former husband.

In April last year we went on a holiday to Queensland with Joanne and her kids and had a great time.

This week in review

On Tuesday we took Josie to her first puppy preschool class. There were five other puppies there; a black spoodle called Monty, a Weimarana called Rudi, a lovely, tubby, chocolate brown labrador called Ellie, a fluffy lapdog and a Mastiff x Ridgeback which I didn't catch the names of. We had missed week 1 but stayed back after the class for the teacher, Jenny, to quickly go through what they'd covered then. This week we were learning how to make the puppies sit, stay, drop and come - lots of bribery with liver treats and tips for keeping puppies busy during the day so they don't wreck the place when we aren't at home. She also had a solution for Bella's sock fetish - a lovely Tabasco sauce mixture on a sock we don't need should cure her we're told!

That morning Josie had been hungry and decided to help herself to her biscuits. She'd got in to the pantry and had her head through the hole in the lid before she was sprung!

The dogs have been enjoying Ishbel's new trampoline. The other day Josie was inside the netting chasing Bella who was running round the outside. It was hilarious. I tried to take some video but by the time I got the camera they'd stopped - twice.

Bad news on the laundry front. The man came on Wednesday afternoon to fix our machine but he was here less than ten minutes before he told me it needs a new motor which he would have to send away for. That would take a week to get in he said, then they would look at giving me a new appointment to come and install it which could be a further week. Eeek! I think even the excellent Faulconblidge Chineese Laundly @ Maatun Place would baulk at that so I hit the Yellow Pages and found a company to hire a washing machine from. To my surprise and delight they were able to deliver a machine that afternoon so for $75 we are back in business again. Phew!

On Thursday Ishbel and I went down to Penrith to see Madagascar 2. It was forecast to be very hot and it was a way of staying cool in the shopping centre air conditioning. We took Jamie and his pal, Nick, down too but left them to their own devices and we didn't see Jamie again until late afternoon. Ishbel and I thoroughly enjoyed the film, very funny, but it finished just as a Total Fire Ban was proclaimed and we were put on Standby 3 which means the fire station needs to have a crew on site. The excellent Faulconblidge Chineese Laundly @ Maatun Place also has a fantastic occasional child care service and agreed to look after Ishbel for me while I offered myself to be on duty at the station. I just had enough time to drop Ishbel off with Auntie Karen and get down to the station before we were on air at 2pm.

It was all chiefs and one indian. I was there with 3 deputy captains and another, Stewart, who would be the tanker driver so it would be just me running around doing all the work. The first thing we did was go out in the truck to put the Total Fire Ban signs up on the village signs then to the supermarket to get something for dinner later. While there I thought Steve told me to hit him on the head if he swore so he was rather surprised when I donged him on the head with the traffic control light sabre thingy when we were on the way back to the station. What he'd actually meant was for me to hit him whenever he forgot I don't eat meat - he'd ordered ham and beef at the deli and I'd had to request chicken!! Shame it wasn't the swearing - the air was blue with f's and b's all afternoon.

Back at the station we did what the RFS does best - hurry up and wait. We could see some smoke to our north on the plains north of Penrith. There was a fire at Londonderry. Over the radio we heard crews up and down the mountain being deployed there but not us - Steve thinks that because we're next for an RRG they were holding us back, as well as needing crews in the mountains in case something started up here. Anyway as the temperature hit 40+C and we really worked up a sweat just rolling up a few hoses, we were kind of glad we weren't down there where it was really hot. More hanging about until we were stood down shortly after 7pm.

Friday was much cooler and by the time we had training on Friday night the Fire Danger Index (FDI) had gone from Thursday's Extreme to Low. As luck would have it the subject of Friday night's training session was Weather and Fire behaviour so we spent the evening learning how to assess the FDI. Hugh used as an example Tuesdays weather report from Port Lincoln in South Australia where there had been bush fires - they went from Low to Extreme in under an hour and by 9:30am that day and at 4pm recorded an FDI of 147 - the Macarthur meters we use to assess the FDI only goes up to 100!

Today we had visitors. We had Jenny and Genevieve that I worked with in the Dept Medicine at Royal North Shore and their families up for lunch. We try and get together every so often but I don't think we managed at all last year so it was lovely to see them and their growing children. Genevieve's oldest two didn't come, Gen had forgotten to let the family know about the plan, but that was OK because Robbie had to go off to play cricket and Jamie hadn't come home yet. He went to Manly beach with his mates yesterday and stayed the night at Trey's house. Jenny's eldest, Molly, has turned in to a stunning young lady in the year-18 months since we saw her.

Well, that's about it. Ishbel is having a sleep over at Zanny's house tonight. Ian and I were going to go to the movies but we were kind of late with that idea and all that's on is Quantum of Solace which doesn't interest me at all so Ian and Robbie have gone. Jamie has gone to bed and I'm left with rubbish on the tv. Should I go to bed and read, I'm reading Memoirs of an Infantry Officer by Siegfried Sassoon which is great, or put Love Actually on?

News update

Realised I hadn't posted much news, probably because there hasn't been a whole lot to report post Christmas, except for Josie joining us. It's the long school holidays here now. Ian's work closes down for a fortnight over Christmas so he took time off then while I was part of a skeleton crew at the library. We mainly just emptied the after hours returns bins for all the branches. Now it's my turn for a break and I'm off now until 28th January. Such a loooooong time to fill in.

I was up in Katoomba last Sunday with one of my bookgroups. We put in $5 each time we meet and spend it on a nice posh lunch each year. This year we went to Echoes. Here we are L-R standing: Heidi, Kaydee, Jenny (a new member, it was the first time we met her), Di, Wendy, Melanie, Denise and Vicki and, seated, Merilyn and Jeanne. It's always interesting and stimulating getting together with these women.

Ishbel is good and often has friends over who then invite her to their houses so she's occupied but the boys would rather just XBox or World of Warcraft the day away and then forget about calling friends to organise outings, etc. Jamie has a job but he's the paper boy on the train station at Springwood early in the morning 3 mornings a week. It means he's finished by 8am and still has the rest of the day to fill in. Rob was working for a pizza place in the evenings earlier this year but they suddenly closed and he was heavily into rugby and then he was going away to Japan in December so is only now starting to look around again. He has an appointment at the Blaxland McDonald's next Monday.

We haven't done much with the holidays yet. I chilled out for a couple of days at the beginning of last week then the weather got really really hot, too hot to go out and we just sweated and tried not to use the air conditioning too much. It cooled down over the weekend but we are looking to having temperatures of almost 40C mid week this week again. Yeuch!

The only good thing is that it might spark a bush fire. Our brigade is at the top of the list to go on the next 72 hour RRG. I'm not sure what RRG stands for but it means if there is a major bushfire out of our area and they need assistance we can be asked to send a crew. I've put my name down to go as we've been told it provides invaluable experience. It would mean being away from home for about 5 days - only 72 hours in the actual location with a day travel to and from. Karen has kindly agreed that I can drop Ishbel off with her if we get called out (we'll only get a couple of hours to get ourselves organised) and then Ian would need to arrange for her to go to Tanderra for a few days.

Meanwhile we'll just keep going to training. Both boys and I went yesterday morning. It was a huge turn out - too many for the truck and the PC and some of us had to walk in along the fire trail to a place called Wogo crossing where we were going to do pumping and drafting. I'd been there on a training session about 8-10 weeks ago and there was enough water in the creek there that we were able to draft water into the truck. Yesterday, even though I would have said we've had a fair bit rain in the intervening time, the creek at the crossing was bone dry. However, a little bit of bush bashing along the track and we found a waterhole and drafted water out of there instead.

We've had Josie up at the vet this morning for her stiches to be taken out (all RSPCA adoptees are de-sexed before you can take them home). The vet was lovely and spent a lot of time telling us - we went en masse; me, Rob, Jamie, Ishbel, Ishbel's friend Zanny and Bella - about the importance of socializing Josie well for when she is a big girl. It seems we got her just at the right time - puppies are most receptive to changes and learning before 4 months or so he said. He's going to arrange for us to get in to puppy pre-school even though we've missed a week of the current set of lessons and gave us lots of tips on what to do with her.

My washing machine has been out of action for over a week now. None of the repairers were available until last Monday morning because of Christmas and New Year. I got on to our usual repairer first thing on Monday and he said someone could come on Wednesday. That was much better than I'd expected, we usually have to wait a week, but then he found we were in extended warranty time and said I'd have to contact the extended warranty people who would then send him a fax and then he'd be in touch to arrange another time. So I had to wait until Tuesday afternoon for him to ring back by which time the earliest appointment I could get is this coming Wednesday.

Meanwhile I've had to farm out the washing. Karen came round for dinner one night and took a load back with her. She rang the next day to say not only had she put it through her washer but put it out on the line and dried it and folded it! Well, needless to say, with that service available, I took another couple of loads round!!!! I also took a load with me when I went to pick up Janet to go to Penrith with us one day last week. I'm now trying to hang out till Wednesday . . .

Ishbel had me take her shopping last week to spend her Christmas money on (another) build-a-bear. It was agony for her because we went down with Janet and Kate Addison and Kate also had Christmas money burning a hole in her wallet and took aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages to choose something in Myers. We did eventually make it to the Build-a-Bear shop though and Ishbel chose herself a panda which she has christened Cassie. Now perhaps the nagging can stop!

Josie settling in

Josie is settling in well and Bella seems to enjoy her company.

Chez nous

Every week the Zits comic strip features in our Sunday paper. The comic strip features an adolescent boy, Jeremy, and his parents. It is often spot on where our boys are concerned.

Here is the one from last Sunday which those of you who met the boys when we were on our big trip a couple of years ago might be able to relate to:


To be able to read it properly you might be better clicking here.

For those of you unable to follow the link here's what it says.

Jeremy : I'm home.
Jeremy then empties the contents of the fridge into his mouth.
Jeremy : I'm going out again.
Dad : Along about the sixteenth year, the pitter-patter of little feet gives way to the ransacking of the refridgerator.
Mum : I'd better not find any chicken bones in the shrubbery again!

OMG, what have we done?

The boys got an IOU for a "real" dog for Christmas and today we took them up to the council pound at Katoomba to redeem it.
40 minutes later we walked out with Josie.

Josie is 10 weeks old (born 21st October) one of a litter of 19 (!! yes, 19, that is not a typo). The people were able to find homes for all but 5 puppies which ended up at the BMCC pound.

Josie is a Bull Mastiff x Irish Wolfhound. Eeeek! She was the smallest of the 4 pups of the litter left. Her brother was twice her size.


Ishbel says : Josie is ADORABLE !!!!! At the pound we were getting Bella and Josie to get to now each other. One of the vet went past and she was OFF ! after the vet Robbie went after her and steped on her lead to stop her. She is Sooooooo energetic. She looks like a Tiger.

Rob's time in Japan #4

Wednesday 17 December

Yesterday was awsome3. That's right, cubed.
First to Tokyo Tower which had an awesome view. Then a boat ride to some big temple place. Outside was a big market street. Gotcha all prezzies. 'Cept Dad, I don't know what he'll like. Maybe a pcket watch, but I like that 2. I think the letter opener . . . if I can get it past customs (he did).
Anyways, ATM I'm waiting for the closing ceremony in a sumo stadium. This trip can be a lot like RFS, ie. hurry up and wait!
Well, that's all folks, prolly no more entries unless I'm bored on the plane back.

Rob

(and there weren't.)

Rob's time in Japan #3

Mon 15 December

Today was transfer day back to Tokyo.
Kohki cried, it was sad.
2 hour flight, so boring.
Anyways, it was great to catch up with Kat & stuff again. We played a good ?? hours of speed. Good fun.
Going out to Tokyo 2mrw. More writing then.

Rob

PS Kat wrote me a letter on teh trip so far. It was really touching.

More on Burns

You lot up there in the northern hemisphere probably already know this; the Burns Cottage Museum, Alloway has a blog where they will be posting Robert Burns' letters on the day they were written from November 1787 onwards.

It is part of the work by the National Trust for Scotland to not only celebrate Burns’ 250th anniversary and raise awareness of the man and his letters, but also the upcoming new Robert Burns Birthplace Museum.

This Welcome from David Hopes, Burns’ Curator, Burns Cottage Museum, Alloway explains the reasoning behind the project.