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!!