Can you ROSTER a ROOSTER - we need you!

Ok - we have already established it doesn't take a terrible lot to amuse me. This really tickled me but. It is like the person who typed this up has used her naughty draft instead of the real one! The trouble Word auto correct can make!

The fundraising person has to CO-ORDININATE A ROOSTER. Line up the hens maybe? Make sure his feathers are in place and matching? Wake him up in the mornings so he can cock-a-doodle-doo on time? Tell him which hens are failing to make the egg grade? Mind boggles!(One of my Aunts collects Roosters - I think she was born in the year of a Rooster - she should put her hand up hey!)

I particularly like "going on a rooster"? Should we call the RSPCA? How many people exactly would fit on this Rooster? Do we bring our own Rooster food?

Warning - this stuff is just me bitching. Scroll to the next one.

Their maths also amused me. One hundred and sixteen players forfeiting the $600 canteen duty fine... costs $20 per player? And I berated myself for my dreadful maths! Last year I was secretary to the secretary - and I thought that was very funny! But I do always hate the tone of these damn letters. IF they needed my help why didn't anyone ASK? I am not going to go out of my way to find extra stuff to do - but if they ask they already know I never say no. (OK - so I have hidden behind cars before when I realise they want help in the canteen - but mannnnnnnnnn you should see how horrible that is. It can take a full five minutes for some ladies to add up what you have bought - and by that time the hot stuff is cold and the cold stuff has melted. Or worse - when they hand you your drink and their fingers are on the INSIDE of the cup. I take my own. Sigh.)

Preparing for Father's Day

This Sunday is Father's Day. So today I selected the presents for my youngest child William to present to his step father and father on the weekend. It is also my youngest daughter Janes birthday on Friday - but her father has got in first and she is spending the weekend with him. (I had hoped to deliver some magnificent cake creation to boarding school and delight her with her gifts there or at the beach - somehow I COMPLETELY forgot all about fathers day until I got an earful via said father.)
I let William wrap them as he saw fit. I probably should of known better. As you can see - spelling is not his strongpoint. I was tempted to stick an extra "R" & "T" in his sperm donor father's one..... and then remembered that would only antagonise.... and even if I do antagonise him with something witty and funny it takes him way too long to get over it... so best I dont. Oh yeah - trust me ole sperm donor has never had to brave three different shopping expeditions with the kids to find the "perfect" present for me.

Anyhoo - so the plan now is I drive to his dark and abysmal home* an hour and a bit away - all of us have to smile and be sweet and us females are expected to eat like ladies.........No sucking the chocolate off the licorice and putting it back on the plate in front of him.. no sireee... It can be funny - one of the girls swear or answer me back and he jumps right on them. The most shocked one is usually me. He will make the girls wash up - I better be careful with the planning of the cake incase he insists one of them vacuums too.

He will insist the gift recipient expresses the correct and proper thankfulness (Oh - too good - tomorrow I will wrap up some tea towels - that should be funny) and share any bounties like chocolates. Poor buggar - he has no idea why they avoid him.

Anna has bought him a garbage bin and some decent pillows (cause the house has none) and I will ring Jane tomorrow to find out what she wants me to get him.

I said William could stay the weekend - forgetting of course that soccer season is almost over and its.. not semi finals the one before that this Saturday. So Jane is stuck there for the weekend by herself. Anna has work and she got out of this weekend by saying she would take the weekend of his birthday off. It will just be the opening of the gifts, mutilation of the cake and the drive back home.

My Dad is owed a million letters and pictures and tomorrow I will delay the painting to put all that together and post it. Christian's Dad I will have to buy something and throw in the post too.

That sounds dreadfully flippant doesnt it? The fact is all the fathers in our life... yep sperm donor included have done a heck of a lot and have our eternal respect. It just seems kinda sad that we have to send them a crummy box of $10 chocolates and pay $12 to post it with a crummy card...And my oldest baby doesnt even have that option this year (her father died recently)and I wonder what she will do.

Righto - I better start sorting out what to send my Dad from two pc's and heaven knows how many bloody cds. He will love the blokes yard at Theodore with all the dead tractors. Sigh.

*This house is a gorgeous old Queenslander but as a single man he has simply outfitted it with the bare necessities and other than badly or unframed pictures of the kids no decorating at all.

Two (Really three) interesting blogs today

Ok - this one is somewhat disturbing and .. hmmm... scarey. HMHB's blog is very interesting itself. But hey! SEVEN HUNDRED Al Qaeda sympathisers released from prison after being "corrected" in Saudi Arabia.

The mind can boggle I tell ya. It is my fault - I just finished reading Colleen McCullough's Caeser. Now HE had some interesting methods of "correcting"! It can be better if I simply don't think some days.


Ok - and then over at Pavlov's Cat we find the objectional moronic, stupid argument that the new Cervical cancer vaccine "Gardasil" (today available for Australians who have the $400 spare for their daughters! I will be saving!)- and out come the lunatics who have to say dumbass stuff like... the drug will encourage teenagers to be promiscuous. (Oops and as Tigtog says - for the boys too of course!)

Hey - Saudia Arabia has 700 spare prison places for idiot "Christian value" parents who would forgo a vaccine that could spare their daughters cervical cancer incase their daughters interpret that as to go forth and have sex with as many men as possible! Don't mention the sex word - the children might hear! Blah - cant the world be stupid?

P.S Scroll down in Tigtog's blog - I love the 6 year old saying the word "penis" and her father who declares her as "traumatised". Sigh. I thought EVERY parent knows not to react when a child says "fuck" or "dick" but penis? Yep - that poor poor 6 year old.

Painting a RENTED house

About a month ago I rang our landlord/lady to ask if I could cut down two trees out the front to make for easier access to the yard with the two boats, three trailers and two car stuff. (I despise being parked in.. it is a terrible and stupid fear as I have no reason whatsoever to be so fussy about this.. but I really hate to find my car is parked in. I don't even like driving! It really isnt the most rational thing about me. But it really will upset me if I feel my car is parked in a way I cannot access it when I want? Actually I can completely not want nor be capable of driving and will still get upset if my car is parked in.)

Anyway - I got the him - not the her. And his answer to my request was "Mel - you CAN DO WHATEVER YOU LIKE" which, ya know in hindsight he is probably going to regret saying. Especially when I tell his wife the reason I did it was because he said I could. It was like the cartoon lightbulb as I placed the phone back into its hook. "Mel - you CAN DO WHATEVER YOU LIKE" It - well I just wish I could hear those words more than I do.

So I interpreted it rather broadly and decided to paint the interior of the house bright yellow. It has always pissed me off that the bad paint job and terrible patch up of the previous tenants holes seem to attract the attention of my guests and friends. (Oh - the hole in William's wall was Lancelot, Christian and William being boys and the hole in the built-in wardrobe was Jane being impatient with the door/her sister and the perfect iron burn mark in the carpet in Anna's room was - according to Anna - always there even if no one saw it for a year and it is the perfect fit for our iron.)

And it is looking really nice. But I forgot that painting is so slow and boring. I shake all the time (just the degree varies ..from very mild to absolutely out of control usually only if I have drunk too much or am completly nervous and agitated and havent eaten) and so I need to hold my painting arm to get the perfect line cut in. I am pretty fussy too.. if I am going to do a job it has to be perfect.

And it is painfully obvious I am not used to hard work. My whole body is in agony and the climbing and balancing is not as easy as I remembered it ten years ago. But it looks lovely and is bright and cheery.

Maybe, in hindsight bright, yellow wasnt a good idea. It seems to be attracting bugs. Wonderful. It is also terribly clean looking which makes the blue and red sofa's look very dirty. Alright, they are dirty. Britex time. After painting etc.

To me - it is also a conclusion. An admission that I am not just camping here and am living here. That is a good thing. Perpetually feeling like you are just camping isnt a good way to be. From grey with terrible mismatches to bright happy yellow of daisy style.

Interesting Katrina aftermath blog

Found this blog whilst checking out Elsewhere's travelling blog - both are very interesting. I think it is very sensible to try blog whilst travelling - all those times we have travelled around Queensland and I can no longer remember names of places? It isn't just that for a while I thought I would have to wait three weeks for pictures and stories. Honestly.

I will have to look later and see if there are any interesting ones about Larry? (And I wonder why Robyn removed hers?)

No stripping at funerals!

There you go!

A pleasant change maybe from drunk-off-her-tits Aunt Mabel stripping whilst Uncle Bill falls after his beer into the grave? Funerals are funerals no matter where you are!

It sounds pretty familiar to me. Except I guess all the ones I attended no one could afford to pay strippers so we just supplied them ourselves. Or someone keeps supplying more booze.

Theodore

Christian went to Theodore this week for three days with work. I agree with Big Mama - it sucks when your partner is away!

Apparantly These pictures are Theodore. They went there to work on a new sub division. I should listen to what they actually do - but alas I dont listen very well sometimes.

This is partly because as I look at the photos he took - it alarms me that he finds the yard with all the dead tractors as fascinating. He would do that to our yard if I allowed him to. Actually - he is always trying to achieve this look - but thankfully we have Listers - who will remove anything on wheels for free.(The picture of IGA was for Anna - IGA's are EVERYWHERE!)




Anyhoo - I had a plan of all these things I wanted to finish/achieve while he was away and I - achieved NONE. I haven't finished the shellaking; I havent re-sorted the kitchen cuboards and sidetable out; I havent put together and posted all the stuff I have been meaning to send my family; I didnt work on the kids cooking/scrap book;etc etc. Could ramble on for ages there!
Really - other than taxi, cook and make half hearted starts at stuff I did NOTHING.

Rocky the wonderdog was very miserable. To commiserate he chose to sleep on Christian's pillows. William also decided to sleep with me. (I was not previously aware of how loudly he snores)If it wasn't for me hearing all the odd noises of the night - I didnt have to listen hard - Rocky chose to bark his head off at every noise from the safety of my bed.

Before Christian left - I lost his debit card. Two weeks earlier HE lost the card. DREADFUL MEL berated Christian with words like "irresponsible; careless; absolutely impossible and stupid". Such words were not used when I lost the damn card.

Anyway - the card has been found and he has to pick it up from the bank tomorrow (Friday is the only day the bank is actually open when he isnt at work) Kinda like forced savings! He shall have his new boat motor very soon.

BUT - doesn't absence make the heart grow fonder! My churlish behaviour when he is under my feet, eating everything in sight (especially when I have visitors coming and he is eating the stuff I am preparing for them),sitting on furniture when he is filthy dirty straight home from work, the rotten habit of scraping his boots of mud at the front door, taking over my art/decorating projects - oh the list goes on!

STUPID MEL decided the way to handle the mouse in the trap situation in Christian's absence was to hoik it out the back door - trap and wee pretty dead thing (Yes - I find mice very pretty and that is why I hate them dead)...... was in hindsight a very stupid thing to do. Of course, the dogs found it and played with it for a day and bought it back inside. Naturally the dogs waited until I had a visitor before bringing the thing inside. Of course.

SO - our partners certainly have their uses aside from sex when you want it and to carry heavy things. Best we get him the new boat motor soon.

Christian thought I would like a picture of the bouganvillia. And of course he is right - it does look splendid. I didn't even mention that he could of moved the sticks and orange plastic first. Bravo to the nice Mel!

New Fridge and freezer

Kids love the cardboard boxes from whitegoods. William is not too old for them - I had thought of giving them to younger kids whom I thought would enjoy it. Twelve is not too old to still love to play with boxes. When Will heard my idea to give away the prized boxes he was disgusted with me.

Last weekend he and his mate A painted the fridge box into their version of the tardis. It is completely nothing like I would of made - but hey it is Will's box. He has been SLEEPING in the freezer box. Yes - I agree there is something wrong with practising to be a homeless person.

And YES his room normally is as messy as that. The tardis idea comes from the times my girlfriends and I have wine and nibblies - or coffee - whatever and they are amazed at how many kids come in and out of Will's room when no one ever seems to know exactly how many are in there. Especially me. Will has great mates and somehow they all fit in the room. I can hear boys playing soccer outside so I am sometimes surprised to find "extras" in his room playing Xbox, gameboy or board games. I have just learnt never to assume I am alone in the house. My friends find it amusing that it doesnt worry me.

Birthday partys and pleasant walks

Today was J's birthday party (another lovely local kid who frequents our home and heart)- sensibly held at the Marina. All parents know the horror of hosting them in our own homes. I offered to make the cake. Well - actually I have made J's cakes for the past couple of years (barring last year) and he doesn't let me forget when his cake is due.

That cake is meant to be a dinasaur. You just have to use your imagination. Sometimes things dont end up looking as wonderful as I originally planned them. J didn't seem disappointed at all though.

While the party was being held Christian, Anna, myself and Dotti the wonderdog (who you may recall is completely deaf and somewhat...... difficult to train) decided to walk from the first set of swings around the entire marina to Spinniker park and enjoy the sights. It is not easy to walk Dotti. Really not easy. This photo of Anna and Dotti is kinda how the whole walk goes. She doesnt know whether she wants to a) walk b)run (she is very strong) or c) attack the lead. She desperately wants to say hello to every other dog and will crouch down and pull so hard to get to them.
The marina makes for a lovely pleasant walk. We strolled and spent a few minutes in a new store that sells jetski's. I managed to drag Christian out with only a small glint in his eye. The store owner was actually very congenial, full of very interesting information - something I find rarely here. A pleasant experience.

By the time we got back to the first set of swings at the marina the party was ready to be packed up and the last of the kids waiting to be picked up.

Wednesday 16th August News

Is it just me? Or was today's news more....... revolting than usual? Or did they run out of real news? Or is this the reason I rarely bother to read the news and just rely on television.

There was the horrid story of the 60 puppies dying in a truck fire in the USA. Luckily I read that alone at home and so didn't have to stiffle my sobs or worry about getting teary.

Then there was Warrick Capper now stripping with his new girlfriends male stripper group. The Capper antics in the 80's were gross enough - but this......... oh man... is just plain disgusting.That picture with the mullet was in the 80's for heavens sake. Some people just don't understand the getting older thing. They seem to believe it will earn money. The saddest thing is it probably will. Gross Gross Gross.

Ian Turpie's lying about his sexual impotence to promote a NASAL SPRAY to remedy it. Oh Gawd. I tell ya - it is just plain scarey and WRONG!

Day two of the Queensland State Government campaign for the election and non-stop bitching and griping there. That can get funny though. Yesterday our Federal government was in an uproar over the use of the words "drongo" and "pork chop" during debating. Yep - exciting stuff.

And only in Australia? The sentencing magistrate of an attempted rapist describes him as a "fine young man" before chuffing him off to jail for 12 years. Magistrates can afford better booze I guess?

I think that is why I prefer to read the blogs I like instead. I found Ann Altman's at Ms Fits' site - now THAT is way more interesting!

Good bugs

Well - maybe not so good for hibiscus. But hey! Hibiscus are tough plants. We call these Harequim beetles. I don't really know if that is the correct name. This is the first one I have found since we left Brisbane over 4 years ago. They also come in a magnificent peacock blue. If you could have your car, dress or hat in these colours you would. They dont seem to mind when you wear them for a few hours. I don't have a hibiscus in our yard so this one was lost. When I finished playing with it I took it two doors down to a neighbours yard who does have hibiscus. (Neighbours probably don't like me an awful lot? Nevermind)

I thoroughly enjoy finding these beetles.It is similar to feeding the ducks, eels and turtles or sitting and watching dolphins play. Doesn't take a terrible lot to keep me amused.

The One that Got Away!

This cod was found dead in the marina last week. Not a mark on it and it apparantly simply died of old age. Love the size of the mouth? (The bad Mel thinks immediately - my death wont be from marauding sharks - no it would be just my luck to be swallowed hole by the damn thing I AM TRYING TO CATCH.)

It was front page of our local paper "The Observer" last week. Pretty cool huh? That would sink our little tinnies!

I suspect I am being an imposter!

This morning - we all overslept. Anna woke me exactly 15 minutes before I had to be at work. There are positives about living in small cities. There are bad things about dressing in a hurry in a dark room. The shirt I had pulled on's colour had faded and looked like I was wearing a bib or a very large drool mark. Thankfully I was only there till 12.30.

I used my "I am awake" face (that I use when I am asleep) and it served me very well. Occasionally I nodded wisely too. I am very grateful that I will never have to use Autocad beyond making it into a pdf, printing, binding or emailing the sucker. Very very grateful. I am almost positive no one heard me snoring. I decided full on erotic daydreams was perfectly acceptable at the bit about using logarithms in Excel.

I kind of understand maths could excite some people. Twenty years ago when I was doing my HSC I battled logarithms. For the life of me I couldnt understand it until a nice tutor told me I was trying to measure the inside of a snail shell. Any other description from any other tutor, teacher or peer could not and would not let me do those bastards. Stuff about atomic mushrooms etc ring a bell but .. NOPE I understood NOTHING. All I wanted to do was pass Maths.

I knew right then when I finally understood WHAT I was trying to do... that there was absolutely no need EVER for me to have to retain that. Never since nor in the future am I going to want to do that. But if you want to do it - that is all fine and well - I will print the sucker out and dispense with it however you see fit. If you like I will add the company logo, page numbers and make a pretty border for you. I have an admiration for people who can do that shit - but no desire too ever do it myself. (Generally I always stamp on snails nowdays too.)

Yep - in hindsight it is a bloody wonder I passed my HSC at all.

I wonder if the engineers think I do understand? Surely NOT! Or worse - that they think when they catch me looking at the maps and graphs I can understand what they are doing with them - I am not I am just trying to find creeks, canals and sandbanks I havent explored yet. Maybe I should just stop doing that incase anyone clicks that I really haven't even the foggiest.

Nevermind - no one has ever complained about my documents, data entry or binding - YET!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Second Princess is home again

Anna's priceless phone call home to Mummy was this one.

Anna - Mummy!

Me - Yes Anna? How are you?

Anna - Its FREEZING COLD and Mummy you will never guess WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me - THINKING - Which relative/friend has been off his or her tits drunk and dobbed me in for something stupid I did at her age when I was just as beautiful? (She is smarter than me thankfully)

Me - talking - err.. what darling?

Anna - Today I saw "baby lambs" in the WILD.

Me - snort/snot/laugh/ sniffle/snot hahahahahahahhahahahahaha

Anna - Mum.. stop it

Me - snort/snot/laugh/ sniffle/snot hahahahahahahhahahahaha

Anna - Well I have never seen lambs before in the wild - I only saw them at Daycare*
or at the mall out of the "Old MacDonald's Farm trailers before"!

Me - Hahahaha you mean you saw lambs with their mothers in the paddocks.

Anna - You arent paying attention Mum - it is COLD here.

Me - snort/snot/laugh/ sniffle/snot hahahahahahahhahahahaha

Anna - Stop it Mummy - be sensible

Me - I am being sensible darling .. ok and what else have you seen?

Anna - Everyone here has BEAUTIFUL FIRE PLACES.

Me - No crap Anna - should I not buy the new freezer and get a nice brass fireplace?

Anna- Heck yes Mummy - they are so pretty we have done marshmellows every night!



Ok - Me - I give up we have spoilt this kid letting her live in our wonderful weather. Keep your frost/sleet/snow/fog and wild lambs. I ... like to whinge it is too hot.



(Coopers Plains Day Care Centre was the best ever child care centre... second only to Samford Family daycare and YMCA at Acacia Ridge should rot in hell) and

Anna does the cold

I sent Anna to her older sisters father's funeral. (Dont correct my apostrophes ffs) It wasnt just the cold. My new job, Anna never being there.. the chance to meet my family (which didnt happen)

Apparantly Sara has a very nice new boyfriend called Chris. The DAY Anna and I were mucking around in Rockhampton ............... Ok... I figure in Rockhampton no one really knows I am a peasant. So i was jumping around at CAPTAIN SNOOZE trying the beds. Anna suffers from old habits die hard. I spent 15 years smacking her and her siblings for jumping on furniture... now she just WILL NOT DO IT. Big ugly salespeople have to lie next to me to see how a bed I cannot afford will feel. Anyway I am mucking around on .. like the worlds greatest most expensive bed while Anna is begging me to stop.. and who is there.... SARA'S BF FROM her brief... (miss a few words here in case she reads them) visit from hell. He is a nice boy and he showed me the budget beds,,, afterwards. He has a new tinney. He was so nice. It was so awful to get busted jumping on furniture again.

Oh oh.. this all makes no sense.

Not a lot makes sense to me.

Oh .. and Cassie and M tell me stories about rapid heart beating. I wrote a heap back.... and lost it all.

Goodbye Raymond

Funny few weeks really. Since my oldest daughter's distraught phone call telling me of her father's death... till now... how life just keeps on going even when there are moments you would really like to say "Just wait.. I will catch up shortly?" My oldest daughter has my ability to shriek... and I remember her shrieking at me that the person she loved most might die at any time. And he did. He simply did. I guess I was hurt because I always wanted her to love me. But from the tiniest of baby - she always liked him more than me. I think it was because he was so... relaxed always. He didnt worry about bills, or lack of.. material things or anything. He smoked heavily and drank rediculously - but he never seemed to fret about those things either.

I spent the last five plus years furious at Ray and I may have said a few things that right now I wish I could take back. He just never stood up to anyone and never worried about what would happen. Maybe he is the lucky one. The best he could ever do to me... and he did it often enough.. was to drunkenly sway his head side to side and look at me crosseyed..and say "You are a bitch - but I love ya"

He loved everyone really. A million stories and a million good things. And really only the fact that not only did he impregnate me as a teenager and make my struggle a little harder... that he did it again to my daughter (Not incest you sick mind - he allowed her to run away from where she was meant to be and sleep with limp-dick hand whose name thankfully almost always escapes me. My daughter took said incredibly exciting sexy boyfriend... doesn't history repeat itself! to Daddy who said dont worry I wont let mean old auntys or mummy put the little dweeb in jail, whip his ass and make sure no more semen can escape- I probably sound a little crazy... JUST cause.). I think she (Sara) would stand up to me and say she did it to herself. And it isnt begrudging my beautiful daughter or her beautiful son... it is just how much nicer it would of been to not make life that little bit harder.

He always proclaimed the cure for the flu was rum. I am an aggressive drunk on rum. I want to fight everyone and anyone. Give me rum and you have a problem for the night.

Anna (my second daughter) described Raymond's funeral and the goings on to me on the telephone. It was kind of funny - but also I felt a terrible wish I had of gone. Of them lighting his cigarettes and putting them in his burial plot for him, and staggering and crying...of stories and well wishes. Of her watching it and being a little scared and me telling her .. no this is just the way they will get over this and its all fine.

I have many things I want to write - just to think... about his death. Twice - not once twice.. Maybe three times really because when my Canadian girlfiend visited I had long ago left the little kids father and it was Ray who looked after her at Tom's house. Blah details. Ray came to Grafton to help us with our racehorses when the father of the rest of my children was sick. Twice he helped for free. Well ok - so you needed to have beer or some kind of booze. And occasionally he got hungry. Not very often and he was never fussy.

He had a wonderful temper. A temper I have never seen on any other human in my life. It just didnt exist. Sara or my kids would draw on the walls... and he would say "what a lovely picture". I would come home three days later with love bites on my neck and he would say... "I cant work the microwave" (I was a teenager.,...)

The story at Anna at home i will do as a seperate post....

Cute doggies

I found this on jellyfish's site. Cute huh?

The third and final...

Things go in three's? Firstly my Aunts.. one expected and one so horridly? And then last night my oldest daughter rang to tell us that her father had died. Ray had abused his body for too long I guess. Still 51 is so young to die.

Of course Sara was very upset...and her pain affected us. Last night's pain meant I had great plans for us all to head south to help Sara deal with all of this. Of course, this morning that is entirely impractical - and Anna can fly down to be with her sister for the coming week. Monday we will get what we can from school, pay for the airfare and send her down. Ray's body is being taken back to Jugiong...and it is rediculous for me to attend. (Especially considering how many times I have told him to... hmm well nevermind!)

After my Aunts funerals, my other Aunt had an operation on her HEART (for Atrial Fibrillation) and she is young and active and healthy ... and how positively horrid?

I blogged once before about how she amuses me... Am copying and pasting it again - linking to the original too.
Some stories are too good too waste
Just received an email from my Aunt Lola in Hobart. And it is too bloody good not too share. (Let's hope she doesnt insist I remove it) The red writing is hers... anything else is mine....


Hi NOB ..... Don't worry about this acronym I have just had the funniest experience (despite just being told I dont know who my father is !!!) definately don't worry about that she is one of us no matter how hard she protests ..... do you remember my red agapantha adventures. No - sometimes she forgets to share the fun stuff with me Well, I have a row of aggies agapanthus along the waterfront garden which look very nice because they stand up tall when flowering, with the backdrop of the water behind them. Well I sprayed one of the white ones with red paint ... gorgeous it was ... and I expected some bastard to come along and chop it off and steal it. Well, they've all dried out and are drooping now ( I should chop them back) ... I just looked out the window and there's this old lady down on hands and knees in the aggies and weeds.

At first I thought she's resuscitating someone and jumped up quite purturbed thinking I should ring an ambulance. I stared more closely on the way out from the balcony .... I thought then that maybe she's resuscitating a dog??? I hurried down and see that she's got a little trowel and digging in the aggies. I asked what she was doing and she answered "I just want a little cutting .... are these yours?? I thought they were wild". I said yes, and that they are very hard to keep alive down there in the freezing winds and salt spray, and that I need them in a big clump to protect each other. She kept digging furiously and saying "I just want a little piece" . I realized she was right where the "red" aggie was. I said that this one over here would be much easier to get ... and she said that she'd nearly got it now.

Then she looked like giving up. So I stepped up and said "here, give me a tug" (she was in her 70's) .... A N D ..... noticed a band of green wool tied to the base of the dead stalk. Up came the bulb ... I handed it to her and said "I hope you enjoy it" ..... and marched off quite angrily but bursting into laughter. She's going to nurture that fucking bulb, and all she'll ever get is a white agapantha (if it survived the battering she gave it).

Fancy the old bugger, marking the plant so that she could come back when it dries out and STEAL the fucking thing !!!!!!! Now, that was my only red one as far as she was concerned, and now she's stolen it !!! How incredible is that?? .... what an old devil .... aren't people amazing. I'm shocked. The same thing happened when a young girl who lives close by, noticed the red aggie and came rushing in to tell me about it. I told her what I'd done and she decided to "do" her mothers aggies and borrow my paint. They live out of town so she sprayed them on her next visit. Next thing a 4 wheel drive vehicle pulls up outside, and a guy jumps out with an axe ... chops the plant out of the ground and off he goes with it !!! Can you imagine all this excitement??? The madwoman next door, then decided to "do" a couple in her brother's drive, borrows the paint, and "does" two of his. He's got plastic bags over the flowers now so that the seeds will be caught and contained and he's taking them to the CSIRO. I am kinda hoping Lola cant get in any trouble for this? What have I started with my spray paint?? BUT wont that woman be disappointed when her's is white, and next year I'll spray the one next to that one ...... and she's got the wrong bulb !!!! .... what a joke !!!!!

That's all my excitement for this arvo .... cheers, Lola. p.s. the attached photo is the one I sprayed inside the yard ... I dont have a photo of the one down on the water. I'd better check and see if someone's stolen that one???

See - hardly seems the stuff someone with a faulty ticker would do huh? Anyrate - she is recovering nicely and galavanting about visiting and sightseeing - including Magnetic Island and friends with a catamaran.

My oldest daughter is heartbroken - and Anna is keen to be with her. Sara's 21st is in October - I planned not to go incase I killed Ray - however I guess it could be safe to change my plans now. (I doubt I will go actually... it is just such bad timing for us - and a party at a pub...Anna's exams, work etc? Distance sure can suck for family)

Anyhoo... no rest for the wicked I guess. Life has been strangely mad and hectic and JUST WRONG... but surely now it should all get better.

Oh - and the boat motor blew up (hmm gear thingo..and the repair shop said the new gear thingo was $800 - fifteen year motor..time to buy a new one) so I have a miserable man. And I thought this month I would buy me a new side by side fridge freezer... it just ISN'T going to happen. Anna has broken, lost or had stolen all her mobile phones so I had to buy her a new one today for the trip - of course amid promises she will repay me. Last week she joined soccer and had to be "suitably" outfitted for that.... after paying all that for her boots if she doesnt keep playing I will have to join up myself.