Mamalade

It seemed a little bit cooler this morning. Mum and I went to church – the first time we’ve been since Christmas. Mum hasn’t been well enough since she had that awful virus, then the reaction to the penicillin. I don’t think the rash has quite faded yet. And I haven’t felt like going either in the dreadful heat. It makes me feel woozy.

But it wasn’t too bad this morning,and it was a very nice church service. Pastor Jack talked about praising God no matter what happened – and he told such a funny story about how he forgot to say “Praise God!” when he got into bed and discovered that his little dog had messed in between the sheets …

By mid afternoon, the weather wasn’t so pleasant. The air was totally still and we were drenched in perspiration. It was almost unbearable. Mum and I took our game of “Skipbo” out to the little table by the front window in search of a breath of air. After a while there was a little gust of breeze that blew most of our cards off the table.

“Oh, blast it!” said Mum, who had been winning.

“You’re supposed to say ‘Praise God,’ ” I reproved.

“Well, praise God there’s a bit of air at last!”

But it was short lived. The heat grew more oppressive as dark storm clouds gathered.

“I’d better go home before I get caught in a storm,” I said, gathering up my things.

I just made it home and got the cats in before the storm broke. There were some loud thunder claps and each time the lightening flashed, it made my new light- sensitive doorbell ring. My old cat Ingrid slept through it all. She used to panic at the slightest rumble of thunder, but she has become quite deaf.

It didn’t seem a particularly violent storm, but when the lights suddenly went off, I knew someone somewhere else must be copping it. Later, I heard that Ipswich had a lot of damage from tornado-like winds and a man was struck by lightning in a Southside park.

We don’t realise how much we depend on electricity until we lose it! I didn’t know what to do with myself. It was too dark to read, and I couldn’t use the computer or T.V. Or even make a cup of tea.

The worst of the storm was over, when the phone rang. It was one of my friends.

“Is it dark at your place?” she asked.

“Yes – wait till I plug in the cordless phone so I can move around.” I had unplugged it during the height of the storm. I fiddled with the plug in the dark, until I got it into the power point.

“Are you there? Hello? That’s funny…it doesn’t work!”

I returned to the normal phone. “I don’t know what’s wrong with the cordless phone. It was alright before I unplugged it!”

“Isn’t it boring without power?” said my friend. “I can’t do anything. It makes you feel so …powerless!”

“This is what it must have been like before they invented electricity.”

“Yeah, people must have gone to bed when it got dark.”

“And they would have got up as soon as it was daylight.”

I ate a bowl of cereal while we talked about what it must have been like in the old days, then we moved on to discussing Jack’s sermon this morning.

“I like what he said about God gathering up the mist and the rain coming down,” I said. “That was in Job, wasn’t it? He gathers up our praises and rains down blessings.”

“And we don’t know where they will fall…Hey, the power just came back on!”

“Mine hasn’t - oh, now it has!”

“Praise God!”

“Hallelujah!”

“Hey,” I said, “the little light on my cordless phone has come on. It’s working again! Oh….of course! I know why it didn’t work before. The power was off!”

We were setting the table for lunch at Mum’s place.

“What will you have to drink Callum?” I asked my young nephew who was spending the day with us.

“I’ll have Milo, please,” said Callum.

Mum took cutlery out of the drawer while I got out the shaker and poured in the milk and added three teaspoons of Milo. I shook it vigorously.

“Oh, no!!”

The lid came off and all the contents sloshed down into the cutlery drawer.

“That’s why I always do it over the sink,” observed Mum.

“Now you tell me!”

“I told you last time,” she said, “but I didn’t think to tell you today.”

We cleaned out the drawer and washed all the cutlery and the floor.

We spent the afternoon playing “The Golden Hammer,” Callum’s favourite auction game. He won, of course.

It would be easier, I think, if I wrote something each day. Don’t worry, I’m not likely to do it, but it would take away the feeling that I get after a break, that now that it’s been so long, it’s up to me to write something WORTHWHILE. Now, that thought alone is enough to paralyse the mind and stop the creative juices percolating!

So I’ve been getting quite good at playing Freecell and I’ve discovered all kinds of things I can do with my OpenOffice programme.

So what has happened since my last update?

Christmas, of course. It was good to have my youngest son Ben and his wife Agnieszka here. Queensland really turned on the heat for their visit, so it was nothing like the cold Christmas I spent with them last year in San Francisco.We went around to Joel & Frances’ place on Christmas morning to see the kids open their presents. Santa had left lots of new toys, but Hayley was engrossed with the cardboard tube out of a roll of Christmas wrap. When we had finished handing out gifts, Hayley pulled the cardboard tray out of the bottom of an old apple carton, and walked around with it, saying, “Wow, look at this!”

We all went to my sister Lea’s place for Christmas Dinner. I thought we would be cool there in the air conditioning, but the air conditioner couldn’t cope with all the hot bodies packed into the room. Every so often someone would say, “It’s got to be cooler outside!” and they would go out, only to come straight back in saying ,”It’s even worse out there!” We still had a good day. Relle had made bon-bons and put a little gift in each one, as well as a handful of confetti. I got someone on the other side of the table to help pull mine, and when it snapped all the confetti fell into the potato salad.

After Christmas, Ben and Agnieszka spent a week camping at Lady Musgrave Island. Not my idea of a holiday, but Ben loves snorkelling. There are no facilities on the island. They had to take their own food and water etc. Agnieszka spent two days cooking food to take with them. Sauerkraut and curry & stuff, which they took packed in dry ice. (She’s Polish and they eat a lot of stuff like that.) I would have just taken some cans of baked beans! And they took enough cans of coke to last them a week. Ben put them in the freezer overnight. The next morning, the fridge was making funny popping sounds. I thought it was because it was overloaded with food, then on the fifth pop, I suddenly thought, the coke!!! Three cans had exploded and Ben had to clean out the freezer.

Mum has had a nasty dose of flu since Christmas. She has an awful cough. I finally convinced her to go to the doctor last week. She kept saying, “It’s getting better. Why should the doctor take the credit?” I felt relieved when the doctor put her on antibiotics – until she came out in a bright red rash. She was allergic to the antibiotics!

Did I mention the heat? It has been hot, hot hot! But yesterday it finally rained. All day. Hallelujah! Still hot and humid today.

Most organisations are in recess at this time of year. So I’m having a break from our World Vision Club, Jumble Sales, Toastmasters, etc. Just as well – its too hot to even think about them. I still have just over a week to get my mind back into gear. I’ve been putting off sorting the things that have come in for our Jumble Sales during the break, but this afternoon when I came home from shopping I found that someone had left some stuff on my doorstep – and beside my doorstep – and all along against the wall on the patio and right out to the front steps. I had to pick my way over it, 40 bags full of clothes!

I dragged them inside and sorted and priced them. I’ve packed up a few bags of rejects to pass on to another organisation, sorted the most wrinkled clothes into a big bag to be ironed and packed the rest into boxes and carried them out to the shed. I’ll have to clear some space in the shed and sort the stuff thats already there. Looks like my holiday is over. .