Mamalade

 ”Do you know, you won’t see me again till next year!” I told my grandchildren Miles and Hayley. They had spent most of the day with me.

“Why? Are you going to visit Ben and Agnieszka?” asked Miles.

“No.”

“Are you going away? Are you going to hospital? Why?”

“Think about it.” I said. “What day is it today?”

“New Year’s Eve - are you going to a New Year’s Eve party?”

“Well, I am,” I said. “But that’s not the reason. What day is it tomorrow?”

“New Year’s Day. Oh, I get it, it will be next year!” Miles laughed.

But Hayley was still worried. “I wanted you to come to my Birthday,” she sobbed.

Once we explained it to her, she enjoyed the joke.

Last night I saw the New Year in with a small group of friends. We had fun playing Cranium. The men sat and looked on while we women made fools of ourselves, trying to do impersonations of Marilyn Monroe or the Easter Bunny or hum tunes that no one knew.

A couple of us had to act out a Conga line. I put my hands on my team partner’s shoulders and we danced through the room kicking our legs out at the sides.

“I know,” shouted someone. “Its the front and back end of a horse costume!”

“Why don’t you go and watch TV?” suggested our hostess to her husband.

“There’s nothing funnier than this on TV,” he said.

I’ve had a quiet restful New Year’s Day. It has been rainy and windy - not at all like our usual weather for this time of year. Most of the beaches in Queensland are closed this week because of the wild seas. Other parts of Australia have been sweltering in heat waves.

Tomorrow is Hayley’s sixth birthday. I’ve just wrapped her present and yes, I will go to see her!

13 people round the table for Christmas dinner. An abundance of food and laughter. Suddenly, someone started to scream….

No, its not a murder mystery - it was Hayley, with her knee stuck in the back of her chair, squealing like a stuck pig. I don’t know how anyone can put their knee through the rungs in the back of a chair while they are sitting at the table, or why they would even want to, but that’s what she did.

Now, you don’t get a photo opportunity like that every day, so I rushed up and took a photo while Joel & Frances tried to free her.

“Don’t worry,” I soothed, ” I’ve never heard of anyone getting married with a chair stuck on their knee.”

What I meant was, no one is still stuck by the time they are old enough to get married. (I have a weird sense of humour.)

And she did get her knee free in a few minutes.

“The poor kid probably thought she would never be able to get married,” said Lea, when the fuss was over.

“Yeah,” said Joel, “If you visit a Nursing Home, you’ll probably see some old spinsters with a chair stuck on their leg, all wailing about missing their opportunity to get married!”

We were at Lea and David’s place, in its beautiful bushland setting. It was a really good day. The weather was lovely and cool for a change. The kids were no trouble - they played computer games, tried out their new roller blades, and swam in the pool. The adults played Lea’s new games, “Sequence” and “Smart Ass.”

Before we left, Hayley tried on the ring she had got in her Christmas bon bon. She couldn’t get it off her finger.

“You could leave it on for your wedding!” I suggested.

She didn’t think it was a good idea, so I took her into the bathroom and helped her to rub soap on her finger till it slipped off easily.

The ring, I mean - not the finger.

 So much for my weekly Newsletter, that turned into a monthly Newsletter and now…it’s been 6 months!
It’s late & I’m tired, but I’m determined to write something before the end of the month. (I have 45 minutes left.)

Today, we had our second last World Vision jumble sale for the year. The final one will be next Friday, then we’ll have a break till the end of January. One of our helpers arrived with her finger plastered in bandaids . She had the slammed the door on it as she was leaving home. She still managed to arrive before me and had started setting up. Her finger kept bleeding, so we sent her off to the doctor. The doctor couldn’t stitch it, because the tip of her finger had been cut off. She found it when she went home, still stuck on the door. “I hope it wasn’t wiggling like a lizard’s tale does when it falls off,” I said.

On Tuesday, we had our Christmas Auction and it was our best ever. Instead of exchanging Christmas gifts, we auction them - as well as other things. It sounds crazy, but it works well. Everyone has a great time and we raise a lot of money. Everyone got into the spirit straight away and the bids went higher than I expected. I noticed that the neatly boxed parcels with pretty wrapping brought in the highest bids.

Relle took Mum & Me to Dreamworld again on Sunday to see the tigers. The baby tigers are 7 months old now. They are so beautiful and playful. The best part was late afternoon, when most of the crowd had gone, all the handlers came out onto “Tiger Island” and just romped with the babies. You can tell that they really love them.

Nearly December. I’m off to bed. Back soon.

You wouldn’t think such a tiny thing could create such havoc. I still haven’t quite finished putting everything back in order.

It all started when I was wakened one night at some unearthly hour. Oscar was pouncing all around the lounge room. I was feeling too sleepy to investigate.

About a week later, when I opened my a drawer in my kitchen, I wasn’t quite sure, but I thought I saw a little shadow move quickly under the cutlery tray. Maybe a cockroach -  or had I imagined it? I ran hot water over my knife & fork before using them, just in case.

A few days later, I pulled out the drawer and the little shadow darted away again. There was no doubt about it this time - it even had a long tail! Oscar’s mouse! That was the last place I expected it to turn up.

Easily solved, I thought. I took out all the cutlery (and washed it, of course) and replaced it with a mouse trap baited temptingly with a pumpkin seed.

Half an hour later, I heard a snap. Got him!

But no, when I looked the trap had been sprung, but it was empty. Even the pumpkin seed had disappeared. This was one cunning mouse!

At least it was in a confined area, I thought. I gingerly emptied out all four drawers, expecting the mouse to spring out at any moment.

There was no mouse.

Then I discovered there was just the tiniest gap at the top of the unit, just big enough for one tiny mouse to squeeze through. That meant he was now in the cupboards under the kitchen bench. There are no dividing walls in the whole unit. He could be anywhere in there.

It took days to move everything out of those cupboards, because all the crockery had to be washed. Even tins and packets of food had to wiped over. Normally, I would clean out a section at a time, putting things back as I went, but with a mouse still at large, it had to be totally emptied.

The mouse was very elusive, but he had left tracks. Each day brought a new surprise. The boxes of cat food had been chewed through, and the contents scattered. Then I found a packet of cake-mix had been spread the full length of one cupboard, and mixed in with the bran. Next he  sampled some packets of chicken-noodle soup. I was furious when I discovered he’d had my corn chips. I’d only bought them the day before and was looking forward to snacking on them.

Meanwhile, I couldn’t use the kitchen to cook a meal, because all the bench tops and the table were covered in boxes of stuff I had pulled out of the cupboards. Luckily I had a few meals in the freezer. It was frustrating though, because we had a street stall that week, and I couldn’t do any baking for it.

Finally, I emptied out the last cupboard and found - no mouse! The wretch had escaped. There are tiny gaps where the cupboard doors meet in the corners. I have now filled them in with blue tack.

I set traps around the house for about a week (Where the cats couldn’t get into them, of course.) He visited them each night and gratefully took the food I’d left in them. But eventually, his feasting was his undoing. He must have put on enough weight to spring the trap and so he met his end.

So now I have clean tidy kitchen cupboards, but there are still boxes sitting around filled with things I think I can live without. I didn’t put my silver cutlery set back in the drawer. I never use it. A lot of the crockery can go. And I don’t know how I managed to accumulate nine vegetable peelers! It all needs to go out in the shed ready for a jumble sale, but the shed is overflowing and really needs a good clean out before I put anything more into it.

If I tell people about the mouse, they say, “How could you have a mouse when you have two cats!” 

 It’s those darn cats that bring the mice into the house and let them go!
 

 I closed the car door before I pulled my head in properly when we were out shopping yesterday. My glasses fell off. Luckily they fell inside the car, but they felt loose and wobbly when I put them back on. I popped in to the Optometrist and asked if they could be tightened. “I think I have a screw loose,” I said. He did it free of charge.

At least it wasn’t as bad as the time I got my head stuck above the car door. The car was parked too close to the wall of the garage. So I wriggled between the car and the wall. I had to step on a ledge, which made my head higher than the car door and slid down into the car. But my head got caught above the door as my body was dropping down. As I hung there, my mobile phone which was out of reach, started to ring.
I don’t know how I get into such predicaments. The other night the shower screen jammed and I had to crawl through a tiny space. And today the zipper on my handback got stuck when I was trying to take out my purse.

But I think the worst was the day I accidently put the leg of a chair on my foot, then sat down on the chair!

Its a shame I don’t write more often, because so far it has been an eventful month. It would be so much easier to write about things as they happen.

Here’s a bit of an update…

Tsunami alert

The entire coast of Eastern Australia was on Tsnami alert at the beginning of the month. I don’t think it has ever happened here, before. Beaches were closed. My elderly neighbour was feeling panicky. “I don’t know how I’ll get out of the house in time if it comes,” she said. “But you are already in a highset house on one of the highest points in the area,” I told her. We were quite safe - nothing happened here, but the Solomon Islands copped it!

Dreamworld

tiredtigers

Relle took Mum and me to Dreamworld one day. The tigers were the main attraction. Relle is crazy about tigers. She’s even been to Thailand recently and patted tigers at the Tiger Temple.
Mum and I like them too. Such beautiful majestic animals! The tigers have been trained (for a reward) to leap and climb trees on cue. But they are never forced to do anything they don’t want to. One of them just lies motionless during the entire performance. The audience is instructed to clap and cheer if he happens to twitch his tail or roll over, because that is all he will ever do!

Easter
 
Our World Vision Club had a Street Stall the day before Easter. I was exhausted & did nothing the next day. Had lunch at Spinnikers with my sister Jan  on  Saturday.

Church on Easter Sunday. Our Sudanese friends sang during the service. It was wonderful! Joel & Frances brought the kids for Sunday dinner. The kids enjoyed an Easter egg hunt. Hayley insisted on hiding the eggs over & over again until they had melted out of shape & our hands were covered in choclolate.

On Easter Monday I went to the movies with a friend to see “Freedom Fighters.” We both enjoyed it.

Bus Trip

visited Ettamogah Pub and the Ginger Factory at Yandina. The Ginger Spread I bought is delicious on toast.

Pot Luck Dinner

mummies

We each took a dish to represent the country we originated from. I liked the Thai Curry best. After dinner the kids had fun wrapping the some of the adults in toilet paper, like mummies. 

Toastmasters

I won the Area Interpretive Reading Contest! We had a Tall Tales contest recently, too. First time we’ve done it. You can read my tall tale if you like.

There was a body lying at the end of the verandah of the church hall when we arrived for our last Toastmasters meeting. It was a homeless man, rolled up in a grubby doonah, sound asleep.

“Some people will camp over-night just to be the first here,” commented one of our members.

Just after our meeting began, the man came to the door and looked in. He reached in and patted the the guide dog that belongs to one of our members, then disappeared into the night. He looked quite a nice fellow.

The meeting proceeded as usual until near the end of the evening, when the raffle was drawn. The winner of the raffle leapt to her feet with a shriek of triumph. Homer, the guide dog, must have thought she was being attacked and barked excitedly. He wouldn’t settle down, so his owner let him out the door. There, the barking increased and I felt uneasy, thinking of the strange man outside.

After the meeting, I went down to the roadway to bring in our Toastmasters sign. The man was sitting on a seat outside the church. I felt it would be rude to walk past & ignore him, so I stopped and said hello. (It was okay, there were plenty of people around, getting into their cars.)

We each introduced ourselves.

“I hope we weren’t too noisy for you,” I said.

“No, sorry I upset the dog,” he said.

“He was already stirred up,” I told him about the raffle.

“I sleep here,” he said. He was really quite pleasant to talk to. “There are graves here, you know.” There is a small graveyard by the church. I wonder if it bothers him.

He waved when I drove off.

I don’t know how many homeless people are in our area. We don’t see many around the streets – but I know there are some about. The “Bag Lady,” used to be a familiar sight. She always carried a big blue & red striped bag, but the name really derived from the smaller plastic bag that she wore on her head. She often used to come into our jumble sales and rummage through the stuff, but she never bought anything and wouldn’t accept anything we tried to give her. I don’t know what happened to her, but last year I heard that she had died.

We don’t see people begging on nearly every street corner and sleeping in doorways, as I saw when I was in San Francisco a few years ago. I still think of them on winter nights when I’m cosy and warm in my bed.

They are not so visible here, but I know there are some that sleep in the park, and under the bridge, and probably a lot more places.
 

An evening at Mum’s

We had Pizza at Mum’s place the other night. Joel & Frances brought Miles & Hayley. The kids were getting tired by the end of the evening. I read Hayley some stories. One of them was “The Three Little Pigs.” We got as far as the second little pig…

“And the big bad wolf,” interjected Hayley.

“The wolf doesn’t come into it yet,” I said.

“No, the wolf didn’t come in a jet,” said Hayley. (I really must try to enunciate more clearly!)

So then we made up a story about the wolf knocking down the houses with his jet plane and getting it stuck in the window.

Miles was lying on the floor, almost asleep. He started to sneeze.

“Miles, get up off the floor,” said Frances. “You’re breathing in carpet!”

“Yes,” said Mum. “I don’t want to lose all my carpet!”

The cat leapt in fright and ran outside as we all shouted with laughter.

Well, its really March now. I meant to update before the end of the month, but time has Marched on.

 Everything starts up again in February.( or late January.) The kids are back at school - Hayley has started in “Prep” (It used to be called “Pre-school”) and loves it. Miles is in Grade 4. He has a really good teacher this year, so he’s happy.

Our World Vision Club had a bit of a break from Jumble Sales but we’re hard at it again. Everyone seems to clean out their cupboards after Christmas, and they bring the stuff to us. Its a lot of work sorting everything, but we do enjoy it.

At our last Jumble sale, someone brought an old Land Camera - you know, the kind that develops the picture as soon as it is taken. It didn’t appear to be in working order. I fumbled around with the buttons and peered into it. Suddenly a flash went off in my face, scaring the living daylights out of me, and it spat out the most hideous picture, which was even scarier!

One of our elderly customers wanted 16 buttons. It didn’t matter what colour, as long as they were about the size of a 10 cent piece.

“My cleaning lady keeps bumping the legs of my table with the vacuum cleaner,” she explained. I’m going to make covers for the legs, so I’ll need four buttons for each leg.”

“Ooh, I’d love to see it!” I said. Just imagine, a table in leg warmers - or would it be more like the old-fashioned gaiters? A little frill at the bottom would set it off nicely.

We found her enough buttons, and a large piece of thick padded material.

I met her when I was out shopping yesterday. “I’ve had a better idea,” she told me. “That piece of material you gave me will make a cover for the vacuum cleaner. I won’t have to worry about putting covers on the furniture.”

“What a great idea!” I said. “Make a doggy coat for it!”

She’s promised I can go round and take a photo of it when its finished.

Our Toastmasters Club has started up again too. (We miss 2 meetings over the Christmas Break.)
Attendance was low at the first meeting. It often is, the first night back - people are still on holidays.

“If anyone else doesn’t come, I’ll kill them!” our V.P.E. muttered.

“You can’t kill them if they’re not here,” I pointed out. But it was a good meeting, and we had 6 guests. And more guests at the following meetings. I think at least some of them are going to join. The other night, our president asked the guests what had brought them back again. One of them said, “After the last meeting, I went home and said to my husband, “I have found my people!” Thats how I felt after my first meeting, too!

 

As you can see, I’ve moved to Wordpress. My son Ben has set this up for me. Once I get used to it, it should be easier to manage. I might even update more often!

I spent the week after Christmas in Sydney with Ben and Agnieszka. And a very full week it was! Some of the highlights were …

1st day. A cruise on the harbour. We caught the bus into the city and walked to Darling Harbour, where we boarded the cruise boat. We were able to eat all we wanted while enjoying the scenery. On the way back, Agnieszka did some shopping while Ben & I browsed in a wonderful big bookstore.

That night we went to a movie in the park. There was a huge crowd. We had to park a quite a distance away and walk back, laden with rugs and picnic supplies. In spite of lying on the bumpiest, slopiest part of the park, I’m afraid I dozed and missed the ending of “Kenny.” It had been a big day. A storm broke just as we left the park. We made it to the car just in time.

2nd day. A visit to the Norman Lindsay gallery, just outside Springwood. (I forget the name of the place.) When Mum & Relle were in Sydney a couple of years ago, they visited the gallery, expecting to see a lot of cat pictures. (They’d heard he painted cats.) They were very surprised to find that Norman Lindsay had painted mostly nude pictures! Very beautiful nude pictures, they are, very detailed with wonderful use of light in the paintings. His etchings are the most impressive, done in fine detail on copper.

It was interesting to see where Norman Lindsay had lived and worked in his studio. “I’ll have to tidy my house,” I said to Ben, “in case I become famous and people come to see where I lived.”

“It would have to be messed up again,” said Ben, “so they could see what you were really like!”

It was raining heavily when we left. (Another storm) “It’s too wet to go on to the Blue Mountains,” said Agnieszka. “We wouldn’t see anything.”

“But it’s not far from here,” argued Ben. “And we’d get a good park - everyone else will be leaving.”

He was right. There was a steady stream of traffic coming toward us. By the time we arrived at the Leura Lookout the rain had cleared and there was a magical mist rising through the mountains.

3rd day. We swam in the rock pool and visted the Paddington markets.

4th day. New Years Eve. We had a “Yum Cha” lunch at a Chinese restaurant. I think everyone else there was Chinese. At 9.30 pm we went down to the headland and where we could watch the fireworks from Coogee Beach. Agnieszka & I played “Carcassonne” till midnight, then we all watched the Harbour fireworks on TV.

5th day. New Years Day. Went to South Head National Park and walked and walked… all around the clifftops, over the infamous Gap. The views were spectacular. We had a picnic lunch at Watsons Bay.

6th day. Agnieszka wanted to get birthday presents for Mum and Relle, so she could send them back with me. I was relieved when she settled on a brooch for Mum & earrings for Relle. “They will be great,” I assured her. “They’re light!” I already had my suitcase bulging with the Christmas presents they were sending back for everone. Mum & Relle loved their presents.

We just had time for a cuppa and cherry struedel before leaving for the airport.

It was raining as I left Sydney. I had a brief glimpse of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge before the plane flew into dense clouds. The clouds were beautiful, anyway.

Relle met me at the airport. I arrived home in time to pop around to Joel’s place & give Hayley her birthday present before she went to bed. It was her 5th birthday.

My holiday is well and truly over now. I’ve been trying to tidy my shed - where I keep all the stuff for our World Vision jumble sales. The trouble is, nearly everyone I know seems to be doing a post-Christmas spring clean. Nearly every day, someone turns up with another carload of stuff.

More about that soon…

Only 6 more sleeps till Christmas! I’ve sent out most of my Christmas cards (Ollie helped me to sort them) and I think I’ve just about completed my Christmas shopping. I got Frances to do some of it for me while I minded the kids – a happy arrangement for all concerned. I set up the little Nativity scene last week when I had Hayley here. She said, “Let’s play “Little Baby Jesus. I’ll be Mary and you can be the one who brings the baby!”

All the Break Up parties are over. First there was our KYB (Know Your Bible) group. A young missionary came and told us some interesting stories of their experiences in Papua New Guinea.

Friendship Club Break Up was a very small affair. Only four of us could get there. We had fun playing Scattergories.

Our World Vision Club had their usual Christmas Auction. We auctioned wrapped Christmas gifts as well as other stuff. I ended up with a huge lamp that I don’t know what to do with, (a bargain at $1!) a food processor, (incomplete and without instructions) a man’s digital watch and calculator, glass dishes, a very nice vase, a painted doilley, a lace tablecloth, a book, - forget what else. I tend to let my head go a bit at our auctions, because its in aid of the Fistula hospital and its a fun way of making a donation. Most of the things I bought will go into our jumble sales.

The Toastmasters Break Up was last week. We ate Christmas fare, played some games and had Secret Santa where we exchanged gifts. Speaking of exchanging gifts, check out this site - http://www.reallivepreacher.com/node/848 It’s so funny - this fellow collected bellybutton lint all year and used it as an exchange Christmas gift. The recipient is actually auctioning it on ebay!

This week it was the Minglers Break Up. (A group from our church) We went to a local hotel for a scrumptious dinner – roast turkey, ham, cranberry sauce, vegetables etc, followed by plum pudding and custard. While we were waiting for our meal, I started to take photos on my digital camera. One of the leaders said it would be good to have some photos to put up on the overhead at church sometime to show what the Minglers do. I thought I’d better go around all the tables and get a photo of everyone. The Minglers is quite a large group, and there are some people in the group that I don’t know. So I wasn’t surprised to find that all the people at one of the tables were strangers to me. I didn’t want them to feel left out, so I got them all to pose while I snapped their pictues. When I went back to our table, someone said, “Why did you take photos of those people? They’re not with us!” I went back & asked them what group they were. They said, “We’re here for Evelyn’s birthday!”

My cousin Val is coming on Thursday to spend a few days, so I only have a couple of days left to get organised.

Meanwhile, bushfires are raging in Victoria. A lot of homes have been lost. Not a very happy Christmas for a lot of people.

Whatever your circumstances, I wish you all joy and peace this Christmas.

Another car

I’ve bought another car! It’s old, but I got it very, very cheap because the transmission was slipping on long trips. I never drive far enough for that to be a problem. So far it is running well.

It’s 2 years since Joel resurrected my old car when the head gasket went. It has been running well – except for the times the battery went flat because the doors didn’t close properly, which caused the interior light to stay on. Then the passenger seat belt buckle jammed and I had to put my passengers in the back seat. Another slight problem was, I couldn’t drive west after 4 pm, because the sun visors had broken off and couldn’t be replaced. (I kept a large brimmed hat & sunglasses in the car in case I was caught out at the wrong time.) And the windscreen wipers were a bit erratic – but then it never rains here anymore, anyway.

Poor old car. Its spirit was willing, but its body was wearing out. Today I cleaned out all the junk that accumulated in it. It was unbelievable! 2 hats, 4 pairs sunglasses, 2 pairs socks with the toes cut out (I wore them on my hands sometimes to avoid sun cancer.) a referdex, a pack of disposable drinking cups, a short-sleeved jacket, World Vision & Toastmasters posters & brochures, 2 Readers Digests, 1 book of crosswords, 2 pairs scissors, chewing gum, paper clips, 4 empty plastic bags, umbrella, postcard, yellow nylon rope, bum bag, 2 garage sale signs, an ocky strap, small plastic doll, 2 small picture frames, numerous strips of white plastic used for labelling plants, blue T shirt, a clip-on bow tie …..

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The Department of Transport has given a free backpack and pedometer to everyone who filled out a survey form. It’s supposed to encourage us to get out and walk. I think I’m getting enough walking exercise carrying water to my poor gasping plants. We’re not allowed to use the hose anymore. I’ve been saving water from the washing machine, but it’s a backbreaking chore carrying it. I might have to let the plants die.

Bus Trip

I went with our Minglers group on a bus trip to a strawberry farm at Palmwoods. These were real strawberries – not like those sour white-centred things you buy in the supermarkets. These are allowed to ripen properly on the plant and stored at the right temperature. Makes all the difference. We were all given a strawberry ice-cream & a punnet of strawberries to take home. Yum!!

On the way we stopped for morning tea at Glasshouse. A beautiful area, named by Captain Cook, because the sun shining on the mountains (which are extinct volcanoes) reminded him of the glass houses in England. The bus driver took us up the range where we had a close up view of Mt Tibrogargin. We got out and walked along to the lookout for a better view.

Meg had taken her pedometer with her on the trip. As we got off the bus, I saw her pedometer fall off her belt onto the floor of the bus. I picked it up and put it on my belt.

“She’ll panic when she finds it’s missing,” I whispered to another friend. “I’ll wait till the bus pulls out again before I tell her.” She’s always losing things or leaving them behind.

Meg didn’t notice it was missing. When we got back on the bus, I was just about to sit in my seat when I realised – I had left my bag in the shelter shed. I hurriedly pushed my way back off the bus, hoping the bag was still there. I was so relieved to find the last person getting on the bus had brought my bag with her.

“You should have waited till the bus had pulled out before you told me you had it,” I said. It would have served me right!

Back on the bus, Meg was looking worried. “You know what I’ve lost?” she said. “My pedometer!”

“Did you have it when you got off the bus?” I asked innocently.

“I don’t know. It could be anywhere!”

“Like, here!” I said, and handed it to her. She was so pleased to get it back she forgave me for not telling her sooner.