Mamalade

“There’s a bear up there.”
” A bear? Where?”
“There! In the air!”
“Who put him there?”

I first noticed him on Wednesday. Suspended by a long cord tied around his neck and hanging from the telephone wire in front of the house across the street - a shabby old teddy bear, sodden with rain, swinging helplessly in the wind.

How did he get there? Is this some kind of cruel punishment for bad bears? Was it a joke, - or a mistake - maybe a joyride that went wrong?

Perhaps Teddy submitted, thinking it was a new bow being fastened around his neck, then the noose was pulled tighter, till his button eyes popped out. And the stuffing in his belly churned as he was whirled in accelerating circles ……. faster, faster, faster……then suddenly released to whizz through the air……..

Wheeeeeeeeeee…………did he think he was flying? Headed for the moon maybe, then………

Aaaaaargh!! He lands on the telephone wire and hangs high above the traffic in the street to serve as a grim warning.

Give anyone too much rope and they’ll end up hanging themselves!

High Keys

A fellow I know once got his house keys caught on the overhead wires. He was walking along the footpath, feeling happy with life in general, and amusing himself by tossing his keys in the air and catching them. A harmless practice.

But he tossed the keys a little higher each time…. until oops! They landed on the electric wire overhead and hung there way out of reach. The fire brigade had to come with their ladder and all the street turned out to watch.

Most embarrassing.

In the eye

This has to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.

I’ve been trying to dig up a big clump of Paspalum grass in the backyard. Early this week I finally decided to declare war and poison it. But when I tried to spray it with Zero weed killer, nothing came out of the nozzle. So I turned the spray bottle around to see if the nozzle was turned on. Somehow my trigger finger jerked, and I squirted……..potent weed killer……in my eye!

“Now don’t panic,” I told myself as I rushed to the tap, “I’ve still got the other eye.”

I thought it would have stung, but it didn’t hurt. My eye (when I dared to open it ) could still see, but the fact remained. I had sprayed weed killer into it! And I’ve seen what Zero does to plants.

After flushing my eye with plenty of water, I was beginning to feel hopeful about the outcome. But just to be on the safe side, I phoned the Poisons Information Centre. (Their number is in the front of the phone book.)

“It will probably be alright.” The girl reassured me. “Zero is quite acidic. As long as you flush your eye for about ten minutes and get medical attention if any pain or redness develops.”

“It’s already red from flushing it!” I told her, but I flushed it for another ten minutes to be sure.

I’ve been double-checking my cupboards for poisons in case Miles gets into them. He loves to play with the water spray bottle. (The one I use to squirt Buddy with when he scratches the lounge.) If he discovered a spray bottle of a poisonous substance he wouldn’t know the difference.

Isn’t it amazing - there are no locks on most bathroom or kitchen cupboards, but there are locks on the wardrobes. There’s nothing dangerous in my wardrobe nor anything worth stealing!

I’ve pulled a lot of weeds out of the back garden and planted out some plants that have been getting rootbound in pots. I promised them their freedom months ago. I planted some Golden Candle shrubs, some pink and white Jacobinias, big yellow fluffy daisies (don’t know what they are called), Blue Salvia and Geraniums. The Paspalum is starting to curl up it’s toes and die.

My eye is fine.

Answers to last weeks quiz: 1. Go for GOLD, 2. Modest VIOLET, 3. Tickled PINK, 4. WHITE Elephant, 5. True BLUE, 6. EMERALD Isle, 7. See RED, 8. SILVER spoon in mouth, 9. BLACK out, 10. YELLOW Streak, 11. GREY matter.

Ingrid is asleep on my bed, curled round like a little roast, with her paws over her eyes. They say you can tell the temperature by the length of a sleeping cat. Today is much cooler - and rainy.

Yesterday, Miles was in his highchair, clamouring for a spoon. I couldn’t quite reach across the table. I leaned across as far as I could and said “Catch” - and tossed it onto his tray.

Miles was delighted. “Catch!” he said, and hurled it across the table, onto the floor.

“Meemar teaches Miles all his bad habits,” said Joel.

Family Tree

Relle drove Mum and my aunt (Mum’s sister) to Chatsworth for a Centennial School reunion, so I spent most of the day with Dad. Dad and I spent an interesting afternoon, looking through his Family Tree books. A while back, Relle and Dad had sent out forms for all our relations to complete and return with information about themselves. Most of them had returned the forms and some (not many) had even written about some of their memories and anecdotes.

These were the most interesting. It gave me an insight into what life was like when my parents and their brothers and sisters were growing up. Life was certainly harder, then!

I’ve been meaning to write about some of my memories for Dad. I keep putting it off, probably because I feel I have to do it really well. But after reading these I realise it doesn’t have to be a literary masterpiece to be interesting. The best way is probably to just write down little incidents as they come to mind, without worrying about the chronological order. I really must get started!

My aunt might be famous!

Relle and Mum arrived home about 8 P.M. Mum had met a lot of her old school friends and had a good day. I haven’t heard all the news yet, but Mum just had to tell us about this incident!

Relle had pulled into a Service Station just outside Gympie, so they could use the toilet. As Relle came out of the toilet, the man from the Service station appeared with a bunch of keys and informed them he was locking the toilet because he was sick of the public using the toilets and not buying anything from his shop.

“I’m not buying toilet paper for everyone,” he said.

“Well, I’ll just pop in while you are arguing,” said Mum, and went into the toilet.

“I always stop here,” Relle informed him. “and I always buy something.” And she walked into the shop. He had to run into the shop to serve her, so my aunt slipped into the toilet.

She might go down in history as the last person to use that toilet!

I know that particular carload of people will not be shopping at his Service Station again!

I went to the beach. Alone.

I used to always take my old friend Jean to the beach on Good Friday. It was tradition - along with the hot cross buns for lunch. I thought Jean would always be part of my life, but she died just over a year ago.

It was perfect Easter weather. I can’t remember it ever raining on Good Friday. I walked along the bike-track, past all the families setting up picnics under the trees. I felt a bit weary after the stall the day before, so I looked about for a place to sit. Then I saw her.

No, not my old friend - a new one! A little old lady was sitting on the grass under a tree looking through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars. I’d met her once before at a bus stop and knew she was friendly, so I went and sat with her.

She promptly passed me her binoculars to look through. They were not very powerful ones but were easy to use and brought everything much closer.

“But try the other end,” she urged. “I like it better.

I turned them around and the world fell into perspective. Where ever I looked there was a perfectly framed disc containing a beautiful scene. Better than any china plate collection!

My companion was a joy to be with. She told me she gets up at 5. 30 every morning to watch the sunrise. She spoke about her love for the sea - and recited “Those that go down to the sea in ships…..”

When RAAF planes flew overhead and made breathtaking precision dives, she gasped “Oh beautiful! I’d love to fly in one of them!”

I could just imagine her, flying a plane. She must live her life to the full.

I hope I meet her again.

I had hot cross buns for lunch when I went home.

It was a good day for a Street Stall. The street was crowded with shoppers stocking up for the long weekend. I don’t think we’ve ever had a five-day weekend before. Anzac Day falls on the day after Easter this year and it’s also a holiday - at least in Queensland. Last year when I was visiting Ben and Agnieszka in Melbourne I discovered it wasn’t a public holiday, there.

Anyway, we had a very successful stall. And I didn’t get as tired as I usually do. I enjoyed sitting on my folding stool amongst the plants watching the people go by and chatting with our customers. All the rabbits sold, and the cakes and all the dolls that Mum had dressed. A lot of people asked what it was in aid of (even though we had a big banner) and were happy to hear it was for World Vision.

Sometimes people get us get confused with other organisations. One woman kept insisting that we had promised when she had visited our stall last week, that we would bring jam. We couldn’t convince her that we weren’t there last week - that it must have been another organisation. (It’s a popular spot for Street Stalls) She just stood there and demanded her jam. Since we didn’t have any this time, we couldn’t produce it!

Lots of laughs at Friendship Club this week. We all played Skipbo and tried to distract each other by telling silly jokes. You can really get to know people when you are able to relax and play games and joke with them. We had a quiz, too. See if you know these. I’ll give you the answers next week:

Rainbow Connections - Find colour phrases from clues (The first one is “Go for Gold”.)

1.  AIM TO WIN
2.  SHY
3.  DELIGHTED
4.  USELESS OBJECT
5.  DINKY - DI
6.  IRELAND
7.  BECOME ANGRY
8.  ADVANTAGE OF BIRTH
9.  FAINT
10. COWARDLY TRAIT
11. BRAIN

As we were leaving, the last person out slammed the door shut on the end of her skirt and was left dangling on the top step.

“Don’t worry,” I said, “Someone will be here tomorrow night.” - but someone else ran and got the key and released her.

A dozen rabbits are hanging by the ears on my clothesline. Don’t ring the RSPCA, they are only stuffed toys that I have washed for our World Vision Easter street stall. We are often given preloved toys to sell and a night soaking in Napisan does wonders for a jaded bunny. I’ll sort some potted plants later and maybe bake more biscuits.

We are sending the proceeds of this stall to a project in Ethiopia, where they are facing another terrible famine. Every bit helps! Don’t forget to visit the Hunger site while you are here! Every time you visit, the sponsors donate rice to the hungry.

Ooh, my ribs ache from laughing! It was the maddest, noisiest party. We all got together at Mum and Dad’s to celebrate my nephew Robert’s sixth birthday. I think it’s the first time we’ve had all the kids together since Christmas.

It was my favourite kind of meal - no cooking! We just ordered pizza. Mum had set up a card table for the kids, beside the big table. Miles looked at it in wonder and said “little baby table!” in a high squeaky “baby bear ” voice.

Lea had brought a bag of “Millenium” party gear (she got it for 50 cents because it was left over from the New Year) - party hats, leis, horns, blowout whistles, clackers, etc. The kids formed a congo line and danced all through the house, while blowing horns and whistles. Even little Mathew joined in.

Then they played “Duck, duck, goose” which is really a (noisy) modern version of “Drop the Hanky” The two little ones got into the spirit and raced around patting everyone on the head, saying “Duck”.

No Sunday afternoon nap for anyone today!

Sunday night

I thought I was too tired to go out, but Mum and I summoned up enough energy to go to church. I’m glad we did. It was a special Easter service that ended in a joyful celebration with dancers in the aisles and banners waving. A noisy happy ending to a noisy happy day.

It’s so frustrating! I wrapped birthday presents in my bedroom for three people. I carried them (the presents, not the people) into the next room, put them on the table and noticed that one of the birthday cards was not with the parcels. I’m sure it was there when I picked them up. Went back to the bedroom - it wasn’t there. Searched the floor - it hadn’t been dropped along the way. Looked amongst the wrapping papers, behind and under the bed, under the table, in the clothes basket, the wastepaper basket, stripped the bed, shook everything, unwrapped and rewrapped the presents, looked inside the envelopes, inside my handbag, in drawers - even in rooms I hadn’t been in! It’s just disappeared!

How could this happen? Could this be the beginning of Alzheimer’s Disease? There was a documentary about it on the television the other night. I meant to watch it………but I forgot.

I didn’t think I could be so stupid! I did write an entry last week - I wasn’t feeling inspired so it took more effort than usual and I spent quite a bit of time on it. When I had almost finished typing, I inadvertently clicked the “Close” box and the whole thing disappeared. And I hadn’t saved it!!! I don’t know what I was thinking of. I usually save religiously. (Oops…wait till I press Ctrl+S) I just didn’t have the time nor the inclination to do it all again.

A lesson learnt

The weather has suddenly turned a lot cooler. I woke during one night last week feeling cold. There was an extra blanket on the end of my bed, but Buddy looked so comfortable curled up on it, I didn’t like to disturb him. So I got out of bed and found another blanket. I try not to disturb Buddy when he is sleeping peacefully at night. Once he is awake he’s likely to demand food or want to be let out to claim his territorial rights. And he’ll scratch the lounge chairs till he gets his own way. You see, he’s been ’specially trained. When he was a kitten, I put him outside to teach him a lesson when he scratched the lounge. He was a bright young cat and learned his lesson well - if you want to be put out, you scratch the lounge.

At the moment, he’s throwing himself against the front door. He’s trying to draw my attention to his almost empty food bowl.

This morning I cleaned the edges of the doorways at cat height. Ingrid loves to rub her chin up and down the door frames. After a while it leaves a dirty mark. There was one mark on the bathroom door that I couldn’t bring myself to remove - not just yet. It’s a perfect print of Mile’s little hand.

Miles loves the Catz programme on my computer. Last time he was here, he watched the cats wandering around the screen, then ran off and came back with a dish of Buddy’s food and offered it to the “Pusspuss” on the screen.