Bruce the koala ...

Has left his tree. He has been gone since Saturday last weekend (not yesterday) and we have checked every day. We are a bit sad, although we knew it would happen sooner or later. In some respects it is good, because it means he is not afraid of whatever was in the bushes before that drove him so close to us. The motorbikes haven't been there for most of the summer. Well the rain resurrected the old creek and there is no bridge. The growth in the bushes itself has been phenomenal, so I guess it might be a bit difficult.

We were disappointed with the responses of the groups that we contacted to find out more about him, and to perhaps do something about the plight of the koalas. So they better not ask me for money any time soon. I will be leaving comments on their websites and blogs.

The other lovely thing about Bruce is to know that there are still koalas about and that there will be others through here. The tree is still a koala food tree and I can see five others close by.

Bye Bruce, thanks for the good time ...

Fire ...

Friday at work, we had a fire drill. This consists of the Boss carrying on with his loud hailer for a few minutes then disappearing to push the Main Button to sound the Alarm. Our building fire warden, who is non other than his secretary, shoos us all out the door - and no, you can't go back for your cardigan. An arguement ensued for a moment with her and the woman who wanted her cardigan.

However, for me, five minutes before the alarm rang, a man turns up to enrol his son in the Apprentice course. He was told by the teacher to come, and when he had rung the switchboard, I had told him to come see me and I would take him to the teacher for the enrolment. I explained to him about the fire drill (rolling of eyes) and we walked to the nearby park where I took him to one of the other teachers. This was because the teacher who he was booked to see, was the fire warden for that building. He called by later to tell me they had been enrolled successfully and he was quite pleased about it all.

And prior to this on Wednesday, the Boss had actually asked me to type up the process sheets and laminate them for the Fire Drill. This was new, the Boss asking me to do work for him.

My classes are progressing. I have had four MySQL lessons and two Dreamweaver. This is because the Dreamweaver classes are on a Monday and last weekend was Easter. We have a revision in MySQL next Thursday and then an exam.

Waiting ...

... for glue to dry, is frankly quite boring. lol. Not alot went on today, I have pottered along with a few projects and art. No one around except the old person and he went did some stuff and went to bed.

The big news in the racing industry is that Sheikh Mohammed has purchased the biggest Australian Stud, Woodlands Stud. I think the real news is that the people concerned were able to keep it a secret for so long. When John Hawkes, Woodlands trainer for twenty years, left their business, I had a feeling there was something going down.

Sheikh Mohammed already has Darley Breeding operation in Australia, so I was a bit surprised that it was him who purchased it. Still Woodlands had some stallions and mares that are real treasure and have never been bred outside the stud. When you have around 500 mares I guess you can decide not to breed outside. It is a real foal factory and worth quite a pretty penny.

I will say this, I believe that the mares are cared for properly - i.e. they are fed properly and would receive proper veterinary care, but when you have that many, I guess unless it is one of their special ones, the mares are just another form of income. Ingams made their money in the 60's selling chickens to Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets. So it is money that was made through death and misery, and nothing will change that fact.

Her ladyship ran through her gate this morning when I opened it up for her and whacked my leg as she dashed past. So she is not in the good books. The old person says she is too spoilt; which up to a point is true, but she has no other companions and we have to be companions to her for a while. She just wants to be down where we are.

I am picking up the grandsons two days a week now, since the Government will not help the daughter this year with childcare unless she gets a job. We will pay for it Thursday mornings and her friend picks them up after school Thursdays. So it works out okay. They can be boisterous, and her banning them from watching TV isn't going to go down with me. I don't have the patience anymore for full on 9 and 10 year olds. They aren't naughty, just boisterous.

I shall bore you no longer ...

Ooooo ...

Someone outside the family has left me a comment, and by Jove, it is Captain Jean-Luc Picard himself. My heart is all aflutter! My (and several other million Star Trek female fans) favourite Captain of all time. Not as self centred as Kirk and not as painful as Sisco. And I do so love his You Tube dancing in The Picard Song. Needless to say - this has made me day. (Yes I am that easily amused!) lol.

Yesterday was quiet. The grandsons were given chocolate Easter Rabbits. Only about 25cm long, so they wouldn't be sick. The daughter bought a couple of crates of little eggs, one of which we gave to Her Ladyship who thought it was the best thing next to her biscuit of hay of a night. She just loves hay more than anything else. After that she chewed on the door handle a bit and wandered off.

She has found that the weed grass she normally rejects to the point of being her "toilet" now has sweet tips. The grass has grown to about 50cm and she is just picking off the very tops. She and Eternal Strangers used to use it, but she hasn't for ages, so I guess the tips are just right.

The old person mowed the remainder of the paddock, except for the "toilet" grass near the gate and water meter. We were requested by the Water Company to at least clean it up enough that they could read the meter. So the old person took out his trusty whipper snipper until he got so frustrated by it (he has totally no idea ....) and mowed the thing.

Now he is the first to complain about Her Ladyship spending hours at the back door. But he mowed her paddock and all that has grown back is paspalum. HL would rather eat dirt that than paspalum. Besides, it makes her eyes weepy and her nose leaks. Yuk. The back door is in the shade and she can hear us whatever we are doing and we go out and talk to her now and then. She now nickers at us when we come - nickering is a friendly noise, so whether she is hoping for a snack or just letting us know she is there, I am not sure.

The koala left his tree Saturday night, he was rummaging around on our verandah, as we could hear him, and the daughter turned on the light. He hightailed it out of there very quickly, but wasn't in his tree yesterday. We can only see about three other gum trees that are like the one outside our house, so we are wondering if he went into one of those or in search of females. We don't know if he will come back or not. You can find pictures of him here.

Our birdlife is changing again, the birds that live here in the Summer go somewhere, and new ones take their place. Some pigeons, the top notch ones and wood doves (the sister says they are from India - WTF?), have been visiting Her Ladyship when she has her meals. She is a messy eater and I guess they pick up the seeds she drops. It must be worth their while, because there are five of them now. The magpies still hang around all year long, but the cockatoos leave. Which gives us a break from the racket they make. The only thing worse than their screeching all summer is the billions of cicadas. But I wouldn't trade this place for a town house in the City.

The daughter's female (desexed) cat is getting quite elderly now. She is debating whether to put her to sleep when we move or take her. We are going to get the vet to check her and let us know. She is a dear kitty and it would be quite sad to put her to sleep, but the daughter is concerned about her quality of life.

Well, the old person is back off to Randwick races today so peace will be had for a few hours. Till then, adieu ...

We Won, We Won, We ... huh? WTF??

Last night my daughter received an e-mail telling her she had won the yahoo lottery. She was going to win $US300,000. She was so excited, so she sent off her name and address to the contactor. This morning she had an e-mail telling her that her check had been sent and all she had to do was to wire the contactor via western union $175 and she could collect the check off Fed-ex. And no they would not supply the tracking number until they had the $175. Closer scrutiny strongly suggests it is the same people who set up the original Nigerian Scam all those years ago. If you get a similar e-mail, delete it. It is just a scam. Don't fall for it.

We are trying to warn as many people as possible.

Digging up ...

... something to say is not always easy. I try and think of things but often I feel my brain has frozen up. That is just life I suppose. I will give it a go ...

It has been a quiet Easter so far, with the sister coming over and the trading of chocolate egg type goodies. I won 5th prize in the office Easter Egg raffle which consisted of a large Darrel Lea egg covered in gold paper with a yellow ribbon. So the sister and I ate that. It didn't taste any different to the el cheapo eggs, but we wont tell anybody. We yakked. I encourage her to bring larger pieces of laundry with her so she can wash and dry them while she is here. We have much in common and can talk about most things fairly well because of it. Neither of us know any other people who are interested in the things we are in quite the same way as we are. Mostly we only know city sheople.

I have been arting a little, but nothing has been finished as I was hoping.

My laptop, bless its little Intel heart, has not been happy, because in cloudy weather the RF gain is deflected by the clouds and it is literally slower than a wet weekend. Guess what, Easter is wettish and very cloudy. How is that for timing. Like, for the past few weeks we have had very hot sunny weather, I finally get time off work for a few days, and it is wet weekend. Still this time I am not sick. Last year for the APEC long weekend, I had hayfever, and was sick as a dog. The day I had to return to work, I was as healthy as a mallee bull.

The old person has been complaining because they have raised the cost of entry to the races. I think that it is absurd, but I guess they figure it will deter pensioners, so they can focus more on a younger audience. But I overheard a conversation last weekend at the races, where a group of young people were saying they never bet at the races and they didn't know anyone who did. I rather got the impression they didn't even watch the races. Buggered if I know what they were there for, then. But if what they said was true, or even that they knew, it does not bode well for the next generation. Our warnings off for smoking, drugs, drinking, AIDS and problem gambling has worked, but to the point where it backfiring on the suppliers. lol. If no one smokes, there will not be the taxes from tobacco, if no one does drugs, much law enforcement will not be employed, if drinking cuts out or down, we will loose some large industries and export $$$, AIDS funding is still lucrative for researchers and lack of gambling will mean - no Pokies, no horse racing, a breakdown of much of the horse industry, and vet supply and well, that is a path I think someone else should go down. (mode = whisper)they might even start caring about what sort of Thoroughbreds they are breeding (/whisper). (But that was never uttered through my lips, okay?)

We are watching the 20,000th showing of "The last of the Mohicans" at our place. The historical facts have been lost by Hollywood, but as they say, never let the truth get in the way of a good story (although here, even the definition of "good" is being extremely stretched). I will say this, the Irish sounding music is nice. A bit Man from Snowy Riverish.

Now I am rambling, gotta go. Till later, dudes ...

Annoying people ...

Yes it is Thursday night and I am blogging. This is because the teacher let us off early. It is Easter this weekend, and I guess he wanted to get home. I finished all my exercises in class and left.

Work was okay, till this afternoon. The boss came by, which he hasn't done for a while. He stood there making idle talk, then made some sort of anti-religious comments. Strange little man. Still I said nothing, he is the boss and what he says is not going to be changed by me or anyone else. Then he comes up with the fact he is really grateful he is not a woman. He has made sexist remarks before, and mostly we let them go because he is usually just stirring like the incident with the kittens. But today he was in real earnest. He said a few disparaging things about men and women's roles that would have been acceptable in, say, the 1970's, but not in the 21st Century. I asked him if we were going to face gender issues, because that seemed to be the direction his talk was going. He said he had no gender issue.

Naturally, I was a bit pyst with this, but later I considered. Well, Buster, I would rather be a woman than come from a family, one of whose members has publicly embarrassed the entire family (not the boss, but a close relative of his). Embarrassed in money with lots of noughts after it and in a public entity as well. I can imagine why his first marriage did not last, and I wonder if the new one knows his feelings about women.

He didn't say this in front of the Supervisor and it was the other woman's day off. The loudly spoken one who is a member of the union and would have yelled at him about it all. Oh, yes, his timing was very good. He will find out though.

Other than that I have had a reasonably decent day and have five days before I have to return.

hahaha ...

Long and painful ...

Well, here it is Monday and I am only settling down to post now. It has been a painfully slow and frustrating week, and seems to be replicating itself this week already.

It started Wednesday. The daughter does the weekly grocery shopping Wednesday, because Thursday nights used to be the time I did it, but now Thursday nights are taken up with one of my classes. She knows this. The old person knows this. So when I egress from the train and walk across the road to where the old person collects me - no old person. I do not mind catching the bus, however, I do like warning. I assume he is marginally late. I SMS the daughter, no reply. I wait a little longer, send another SMS, no reply. The daughter's mobile phone is attached to her body as an organ would be. You know the sort of person, it is constantly hanging from her ear. So if the daughter has not got back to me, she cannot be able to reach her mobile phone. Only a dire emergency is going to cause her to do that.

So I start to worry. Which of the grandsons has hurt himself? Chances are good it is the younger one, he has done some doozies in his time. I decide to catch the bus home and be able to telephone the hospital from there. I get to the bus stop and there will be half an hour till a bus comes. Still better than never. My phone rings, "what's happened?" I ask, my daughter said the phone had switched itself off. Why was I coming home? I really wanted to yell by now, but instead I just hung around for another fifteen minutes while the old person came and got me.

Saturday, I had had to commit to accompanying the old person to Rosehill Race Course, because he had gained a free ticket and they would be giving away free stuff. The free stuff consisted of being given a card with a scratch panel. When we scratched the panel on our ones, wow - we had won two tickets each to any race meeting at Rosehill or Canterbury except for the Golden Slipper carnival. Oh joy, oh be still my beating heart.

Well, the old person has a lady friend and her husband who join him most Saturdays wherever racing is held. For convenience sake, let's call them Frank and Margaret. Margaret is 77 and Frank is 76. So they are both older than the old person, and both find their mobile phones indispensible. I mention this, because the old person still totally refuses to use one.

It was really hot at the race track and even in the stands where it is usually quite pleasant, so Margaret and I moved down to the seating and tables in the Chantilly lounge as it was not open for service. It is on the mezzanine level and about 20 steps away from the TAB desk, where you place your bets. They had employed this elderly gentleman for that day and he was an old sweetie. Why can't the old person take lessons and be an old sweetie? Anyhow, that old guy got my return business.

Now going apuntting with the old person as your guide is a sure way to loose money - which I think I have mentioned elsewhere previously. Luckily for me, from years back, I learnt to read form which holds me in pretty good stead. Plus after all this time, if I don't know bloodlines of Thoroughbred horses, no one does. I know which lines produce dry runners, which produce wet runners and which are born with their own flippers and snorkels. (Yeah we have had that much rain). I also know which are the exceptions to the rules as well.

My best bet came about thus: the daughter is a mad keen Dr. Who fan, which I have also mentioned previously elsewhere. So a horse is running called Tenants Tiara. David Tenant is the current Dr. Who, so jokingly I SMS her and tell her. Then I notice that the horse's odds are fluctuating (going down fairly quickly). Off to the TAB old bloke, put on my couple of pennies each way. Sure enough, the filly just ran away with the race. But the really fabulous thing with the race was, the jockey just had to sit there. That filly was just racing for the sheer joy of running. When you see that, particularly at the races, it is just the most special thing. This baby girl just knew she could run and beat all those others and off she went as effortlessly as you like.

Later another filly did the exact same thing. It is terrific for me to see that, because so often the horses are just like numbers and trained to a formula and if they win good, and if not, bad. When you can see the joy in their faces as they run and their body language it is just special.

The worst bet I had was a horse called Blessus. He is magically bred, being out of a sister to Saintly. He should have won, but there was something fishy going on. The betting for the horse that did win, that had not shown much previously, fell from $40+ to $6.00 in a matter of minutes just before the race began. It won by quite a margin. If the stewards weren't questioning the trainer, I suspect foul play - I don't mind loosing my money but I hate feeling cheated.

Frank and Margaret had managed to get a bet on because Frank is very astute to things. I guess they would have shared the information, save that the old person never listens to anyone but himself, but yellingly demands everyone listens to him. Of four races I picked the winners to out of six I bet on, he won only one race out of six. Then later he complained to me that Frank hadn't alerted him to the falling prices on the horse. Well duh!

The old person has been yelling at me to hurry up and get ready, but he then takes about ten minutes to remove cobwebs from her ladyship's neck. You can see how she is enjoying this.

Our trusty means of conveyance. 1997 Ford. We only drive Fords, the old person says, because all Taxi's in Sydney are Fords and they are the choice of the Police too. There has to be a story there somewhere, but I'll be buggered if I am going to ask for it.



The backside and main entrance to Rosehill Racecourse, the Grandstand. Yes it goes up five storeys and I think there are about two or three levels underneath as well.

The outside view to the Mezzanine level (where the people are on the "verandah"). That is where the Chantilly bar is, and the outside area is a barbeque and smoking area.

The view to the stables area from the Mezzanine level. The building next to it is the Convention centre. It is funny to see how it has changed from when we first started going there.

Next time I go, I will remember to photograph the race track itself.

Then this morning the daughter was threatening to drop out of TAFE - again. She is finding the work a bit much and hard to keep up with. Loads of talking and explaining and advising her which people to discuss it with, she went, very reluctantly. Aarrgh!

I don't like these chances ...

Photographs ...

You may have noticed that I am not big on photos, and I am not big on elaborating who the various people are in my blog. The reason for this being is that the daughter had a terrible relationship with the father of the grandsons. He was a really vile person. I wont go into the details, but suffice to say it wouldn't be prudent to put photos of the boys onto the internet. In some ways, I am sad about this, as I know several of my relatives read my blog and would dearly love to see pictures of the boys. But don't worry, I am doing some nice scrapbook pages to send out to them of the boys, myself, the daughter and maybe the old person.

I have put a link to the Sister's blog, so you can keep abreast of her comings and goings. I hope the Younger Sister will eventually be persuaded to blog as well. Right now she is still flat out with studies and doesn't have time to do one justice. When she does, I will persuade her also to put up some pictures of the fine craft work/art that she does.

I am thinking of joining blog ID which is a way to authenticate my "signature" for all comments on other blogs, but I will also get it put on here. This way you don't have to join anything or have an actual blog yourself to leave comments. (At least I think that is how it works; when I join I will post the details on here).

Just for good measure, here is a picture of some weeds the Daughter found somewhere around our place. I think they are Black Eyed Susans:

Till again I blog ....

Bum on seat ...

The IT department at my TAFE decided this year you could only put your bum on a seat in a class when you had paid your fee and not before. Due to some large bills and the stupid credit union paying one lot twice I only had the cash this week. So Thursday was my "first" class. Since I am repeating it doesn't really matter all that much and they are not yet up to the stuff that was confusing me last year, it is no drama for me. Interesting that another couple of departments have been letting a couple of students in. I am probably not supposed to know that. (snigger).

The sister came over today and we nattered. When I have finished this writing, I will put up a link to her blog so that you can keep up with her goings on as well. Sunnyboy and Grandson1, who used to be deadly enemies, are now quite good mates and it is really good to see this.

I finished some things this week as well, gave my friend her Wedding Album. I have still to make the box for it, but I will go over on Monday and see if they have any papers left. I will have to pace myself Monday, because I have another class on Monday night. I am going to do some hand sewing for my next challenge piece, because it is about attention to detail. I will have to dig out my journal and sketch what I want to embroider then work out how to do it. lol.

Not much has been going on with me lately, not even blogging. I have some horse stuff to go up over the next few days and I have some musing for Alien Thoughts so I will have to really knuckle down and make myself do it all. Overcome this staleness I have been feeling - past the maudlin to totally unmotivated. Ugh.

Till again we meet ...

Running in circles ...

Well at least that is what it feels like. I have finished my stuff, but I have not yet had a chance to photograph it. One of the temps has to go at work so I made her a maze book. Coming up with 16 x 3inch collages all in one go is not easy, but I got it done. Luckily I have some cross stitch and craft cards made up already, so I am giving her one of those as well. It is a nice one, so I will have to make another one with my own bits and pieces.

The circus was fabulous; I will write an extended blog on it on the weekend. They specifically asked us not to take photos, so we didn't, but I will include a link to their website.

I have been picking the grandsons up from school on Tuesdays while the daughter is away at TAFE. It isn't a very long walk, but to get there it is all uphill, and I am really puffed when I get there. The daughter said about 35 minutes, but it is less than 20, and only because I am out of condition. It is about 10 minutes home. There are a few other kids who walk by themselves who set a pace. But first we have to go pat the chestnut gelding who lives acros the road from the school. Like Bell he thinks fingers are for eating. They may contain food.

I am starting to pack/clear space. I need desperately to set up my sewing machine, so I figure I am not taking the buffet with me, I can empty it out and get rid of it. Later the old wall unit will go. I am trading it with the old person for the TV unit. He can have the telly, the DVD player and the old Video player as well. I have my faithful laptop for DVD's and if I really need to watch TV can use the daughter's. The space will allow me to set up another table where I can set up till we go.

The old person is convinced everyone in my family is going to peck me dry of money and leave me stranded. Which would be okay if I had money to be pecked dry of, I guess. They would have to be bloody fast. Even the daughter can't spend as fast as I can. lol. First I need money.

The sister is coming over on Saturday with her Sunnyboy. My grandson 1 and he are getting on famously at the moment where not so long ago they would clash. I guess another year and a further interest in common has been good for them both. Since the Sunnyboy has been going to school and learning to interact with other kids he has mellowed somewhat. The grandson has learnt that he needs to be patient and listen to what the other person is saying. So both are growing up. It is really good to see this in both boys.

Well, it is horribly late - so late they might even get the date right for once. Hoho.

later dudes ...