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.