I came across this in the school newsletter

Australian Poem

Dusty red roads for mile after mile

Paddocks stretching far and wide

Stands of trees row after row

The golden sun burning the crisp brown dirt

The sun slipping under the horizon.

by Ishbel

Birthday

Out to dinner tonight.

A good weekend continued . . .

We had a lovely meal out with our grown up friends on Saturday night. In the end it was just Janet and Sharon that joined us, Steven had the 'flu (a cold) coming on and we left him at home doing the ironing!

On Sunday morning I picked Ishbel up from Zanny's sleepover party and she and I headed for Sharon's. Sharon had invited Ishbel to go up to Megalong Valley where Holly keeps her horse, Wilga. Holly is away on a school camp but Wilga still needed to be fed and brushed and so on. Ishbel jumped at the chance and those two headed off together.

Meanwhile I picked Catherine up on the side of the highway and she and I visited the Grower's Market at Blackheath before heading down into Megalong Valley to catch Ishbel and Sharon up. Somehow Catherine and I ended up shovelling horsey poo for the afternoon! Ishbel got all the fun stuff to do and quickly made herself scarce. We got 4 big bags of poo for Catherine to take home to her garden.

While we were there Sharon introduced us to Russell who was there with his 10 year old daughter, Savannah. Savannah has a pony, Dexter, and they were kind enough to offer to let Ishbel have a ride. So Russell took her down to a covered arena and gave Ishbel a 'proper' riding lesson for 20 minutes or so - little girl heaven.

See the Flickr slideshow of our day here.

On the way home we popped in on Catherine's friends Michelle and Ben and gave them a gift of a bag of horsey poo. (Michelle is on your crew at Faulco RFS, Karen). A traipse round their garden and a cup of tea later and we discovered I couldn't reverse out of their driveway!!! I rang my brigade Captain, Steve. I knew he would know what to do and he's got a monster 4WD of some sort (it's a brown one). Luckily he was home and was round within 10 minutes - in uniform!! I told him the uniform wasn't necessary - he'd been at a course all day - he said - I think he sleeps in it myself.

A good weekend so far

Lazy morning this morning then shopping with Ishbel who had a gift to choose for her friend Zanny who turns 9 the day before Ishbel. I have just dropped The Girl off at Zanny's for a birthday party and sleepover.

So Ian and I are going out with Janet, Steven and Sharon to the chinese restaurant at Wentworth Falls for an adults only dinner. Feeling very grown up!!!

Went to RFS training this afternoon. Only 3 of us turned up so we couldn't do the trail cutting I'd expected. So we ended up going down one of the fire trails for a drive in the Big Red Truck, did some map work and weather work and THEN I GOT A DRIVE OF THE BIG ED TRUCK. Whoooooooo hooooooo!

THEN, coming out of the track, we heard Winmalee responding to a smoke sighting on our patch. Got back to the station and we got sent out to assist. As it turned out the fire was down on the plains but we had a nice ride down another track!

Relaxing chez Colquhoun

Rob and the dogs just hanging out together

Josie relaxing - maybe she fell asleep reading . . .

Never darken our doors again

I had an appointment with Dr Jayamohan (Dr JJ) at the Cancer Care Centre yesterday afternoon and he has told me they don't need to see me again and, Dr Taper having said the same when I saw him earlier in the year, they have discharged me. Cured!

TGIF - Women who know their place

Barbara Walters, of 20/20, did a story on gender roles in Kabul, Afghanistan, several years before theAfghan conflict. She noted that women customarily walked five paces behind their husbands.

She recently returned to Kabul and observed that women still walk behind their husbands. Despite the overthrow of the oppressive Taliban regime, the women now seem to, and are happy to, maintain the old custom.

Ms. Walters approached one of the Afghani women and asked, 'Why do you now seem happy with an old custom that you once tried so desperately to change?'

The woman looked Ms. Walters straight in the eyes, and without hesitation said, "Land Mines."

Moral of the story is (no matter what language you speak or where you go):

BEHIND EVERY MAN, THERE'S A SMART WOMAN!

Is nothing sacred?

Has this been getting a run in the UK?

Haggis invented 'by the English' not the Scots. The Daily Mail has a rant here.

Wikipedia, that new font of all knowledge has the Scottish poem Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy, which is dated before 1520 refers to 'haggeis' - Thy fowll front had, and he that Bartilmo flaid; The gallowis gaipis eftir thy graceles gruntill, As thow wald for ane haggeis, hungry gled and I'm happy to go with that - Haggis in Wikipedia

Recovery

Josie had her operation yesterday. We dropped her off at he vet in Lawson about 8:30am and Ian and the boys went up about 4:30pm to bring her back home.

The vet says he found and removed a tiny little bit of ovarian tissue about the size of half a matchhead and that hopefully will be the end to the matter.

She just needs 24 hours quiet recovery so I am off work today and dagging about the house with Ishbel.

Ish and I had a late night last night, not getting back from Rock Eisteddfod until shortly before midnight. Another great night of dance spectacular. Springwood High School did marvellously but were rather overshadowed by Northmead High School who managed to get a jumbo jet on stage!!!

Another busy weekend

Usual morning of shopping, housework and AFL. Jamie's opposition forfeited the match this weekend but the team photos had been organised so he still had to go down to his home ground and he'd been warned that the Reserve grade might need players. Indeed he did end up playing with them (older people in their early 20s). Enjoyed the ramped up pace and even managed to score a goal. Chuffed at that. The Penrith team won - Jamie got the impression the Reserve grade hadn't won many games this year because they were stoked - it's what Jamie's team has come to expect.

Once they were back we took Jamie and Robbie's old beds round to a friends. She has recently separated from her partner and was moving into a new place with her children. Several hours and one false start later the beds (Ikea beds - to explain the several hours) were up and we gobbled up some pizza before home to bed.

Jamie and I were up early this morning and out to RFS training. I knew it would involve cutting trails for the upcoming hazard reductions (perhaps 15/16 August, Karen & Dan - although keep 15th free coz that's Ishbels birthday party day). Jamie only came because I said if he didn't make an appearance at the preparation he'd likely not be allowed on the HR.

In fact, we did not only do trail cutting - did a few training drills for the first hour and half or so, including marshalling vehicles. If I'd seen this video, I could have tried some of these moves!



Another big start to the week tomorrow - Josie is off to the vet to be de-sexed again. Here's hoping all gets properly done and we don't have to repeat a third time.

In the evening Ishbel and I are going with Janet to the Rock Eisteddfod. We've been for several years in a row now and always enjoy it.