Poor old Steph...

Old girl nearly gave me a heart attack - again. She was lying down at dinner time, then when she started to come up, she lay down again. She wouldn't move, and rolled a bit like she was colicky. We offered her a little food, which she wouldn't eat. Rang a vet, who said to walk her. So we put the halter on and the daughter lead her round and around. After about the third time around, the mare had a great passing of manure, a huge fart ;-), and then we gave her a little food. She ate the food with great gusto.

We kept an eye on her a bit longer, offered her some water, which she didn't really want. She and Bell stood around the food shed for a while, then wandered off in search of the steer.

I checked on her again about half an hour ago, offered her a piece of carrot. She not only ate her piece, but swiped Bell's as well. So hopefully she is fine now. I will keep check on her during the night. More later.

Boys

With tomorrow being Christmas the boys are really excited. So because they are excited, it means arguments, squabbling and yelling at each other. I have had to threaten both of them that I will cancel Christmas. The daughter was called into work early and most likely will not finish till late as they want to set her shop up for the after Christmas sales next week.

My patience is wearing thin, and they could be banished outside if they are going to keep it up.

Wishing all my followers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Lets hope it is a good one.

Christmas ...

Early Depiction of Santa

Well, it is almost that time of year again, when the Bearded one dumps his garbage under our moth eaten tree. Actually, it is already there. The boys know "who" Santa is and as long as they get goodies, don't really care. I shall ask them to tell me the true Christmas story and read it to them. We shall wander off with our stuff and except for lunch it will be a fairly normal day.

The boys are more interested in raising $20 each so they can get three months' registration for some fantasy game they are playing on the computer and can buy goodies with the money. We are fairly critical of the commercialism of Christmas and if it wasn't for the peer pressure put on the boys about it, would probably skip Christmas. They do like their goodies, though. It needs some thought, obviously.

My youngest sister and I met up in Campbelltown last night and enjoyed a fine meal at George's. I have known it was there ever since I first walked down Queen Street some 15 years ago, but last night was the first time I had actually been in there. It is a very nice little restaurant, with no stairs to get into it, it's biggest selling point. You can also eat at tables on the footpath. The prices are not bad either and it was reasonable to good quality food.

My biggest drawback was that I have lost my glasses. Still have not found them. I took them off before I went to shower for going out, and when I went to get them afterwards, they were not where I thought I had left them. I searched everywhere and then some. They will turn up eventually. Meanwhile I am left wearing my dark glasses, which luckily are the same formula, just shaded for the sun. On the white screen of the computer, the sunnies are actually much nicer and softer on my eyes.

More updates soon.

Negligence...

Just as well the blog can't charge me. lol.

I have really not been doing much. I am finding the muscle cramps a bit of a distraction and have to wait till January for the MRI for the spinal specialist. Four days later I am getting the first of my dental work done. Although I am nervous about the pain I am starting to feel excited about the finished result when I get my dentures.

I am fully committed to loosing weight, and even though the exercise part is difficult, I have been doing it. So by this time next year, I will be a totally new person. My 2012 New Year's resolution will be to get fit enough to start horse-riding again. So I suppose my 2011 Resolution will have to be to stick with it.

The photograph above is of a lady who is 75 years old and had not ridden for over twenty years. When I saw this photo on one of the horse forums and realised how much older than me she was, getting back in the saddle, I was just blown away. I know I can get back in the saddle at a much younger age. (yes I do have permission for the photo).

So while I am loosing all this weight, I am saving up for a quality helmet, boots and maybe a pair of joddies. I keep looking at Bell in that way. lol.

Christmas is just around the corner, and this year we are prepared. This is the first time ever I can say this. EVA.

Slip slidin' away ...

The Sister (note straight hair)

Gosh here it is Saturday already and I haven't blogged about last weekend yet. I feel like the week has just frittered away (it hasn't but feels like it).

Last Friday I got the train down to Canberra, to stay with my sister in order to visit my father who now lives in a Care facility there. My sister met me from the train and we went via the shops to her place. First thing I noticed was that she had straightened her hair. She has always had wavy to curly hair, a rich honey blond. Now it is dead straight.

My sister is a great cook, probably learned during the years she was a vegetarian. She made us a lovely meal with fish and an assortment of Mediterrainian vegetables. Followed by sorbet and frozen raspberries. To die for.

Saturday we went to visit my father in his care facility. He has a largish room with a bathroom. It has cupboards, a bed, some shelving, his computer desk, his bed and some chairs. (My sister and I squabbled in the car going home about who would inherit it ;-) ). It has a pair of large French doors that open onto an unenclosed roofed patio. There is a white hydranger bush next to it and it leads down to a beautiful garden of plants that flower all year round, and lovely trees. Just a delightful setting.

My father wanted me to adjust some clothing for him, so most of our time was taken up with working all that our - measuring, trying on, pinning and telling stories. He was in great health and has grown quite a beard. We agreed to meet for lunch the following day. The afternoon was taken up with unpicking some clothes for some adjustments for my sister and talking.

On Saturday we met Dad up on Red Hill, the highest point in the city itself. There is a restaurant there. We had a lovely lunch; Dad and my sister had steak with salad and I had a chicken terrine with slices of toasted Turkish bread with a tomato relish that was the nicest I have ever had. Dad has always been a story teller and a collector of stories, so now that he is living somewhere new he has new stories. It is never dull spending time with him.

After lunch my sister dropped him home, since he lives in the same suburb. She has borrowed her son's ute for a while while she waits for her new car to be delivered, so she can only take one person at a time. I used my phone to take some photos of Canberra, which I will share soon, while I waited.

The afternoon was spent talking and sewing. Her grandsons came home (they live with her) and we chatted with them for a little while. We watched the Iron Chef that night, which is a bit amusing.

The Father

Monday I did some more pinning and sewing. My sister collected my father again for lunch. We chatted about things as I kept on sewing. Then I took some photos. They are not the best, done with a phone camera, but you can get the jist.

Later I went to the station to get the train. But due to some "Operations failure" (i.e. probably drunk train driver), they had cancelled the train and put on buses. I am not the best traveler after dark on the roads. Meeting up with the old Person doesn't help matters either as he hates driving at night as well.

And final say of all goes to my sister's 18 year old cat, Lala - talk to the tail...

Talk to the tail....

This is my sister's 18 year old cat Lala. Lala was a rescue from the RSPCA about 10 years ago. The poor thing is quite senile and is due to have all that fur shaved for summer as she isn't capable any more of caring for it herself. She keeps fairly good health for a cat of her age.

I will tell you about my trip to Canberra later on today...

A quick update ...

Yes, I am still here, still pottering and still vague as ever. My health has improved somewhat which is a relief. I am off to Canberra this weekend to stay with my sister, but also to visit with my father who I haven't seen for a few years now. I am really looking forward to it.

I have just updated the Alien Thoughts blog with another of my opinions. I will update everything again once I am back from the weekend in Canberra. I have been thinking and looking up a number of things I want to share... assuming I remember of course.

The grab for personal attention....

So some idiot religionists in the USA are going to burn Qurans. Like that is going to help the American situation, and apparently, while attempts have been made to stop them, there isn't anything anyone can do. I am so glad I do not live in the USA and I am deliberately writing this so that my Muslim/ME friends know that I do not support this sort of crap in any way, shape or form. It sickens me that they are allowed to call themselves "Christians" and anyone who claims God via Christ's sacrifice is labelled as Christian as well.

The other attention getter being dear Professor Hawkins. What an old codger. Saying the Universe doesn't need God, because the Laws of Physics work anyhow. Oh, yeah. And dear Professor Hawkins, who wrote those Laws? Hmmm...

Good grief ....

So I finally went to the doc again today, with my X-ray and CT scans done last Thursday. Turns out my spine is deteriorating - thanks to having ridden horses for years and giving birth to four whopping great babies and probably a crap diet for so many years. So the numbness down a third of my body is likely to be there for the rest of my life.

Now this wouldn't bother me too much, but he says in two weeks I will be fit for looking for work again. So tell me, are there any employers out there who would not have a problem with someone who has little to no control over their bladder due to numbness? If there is please give me a call.

He had to ring the pathology lab for my heliobacter test results. Turns out I probably have an ulcer in my stomach or duodenum. Explains the feeling I have in my abdomen. So I have some antibiotics to treat that. The specialist said I have to take them for three months. If it isn't gone by then, I have to go get the colonoscopy done.

So I am in two minds whether to go to see Centre link and find their opinion or just go and see another doctor. I should probably try and find where my last doc went, and talk it over with him.

More interesting than Politics - we still have a hung Parliament - but we think Labor will probably get in.

Election Twenty Ten ...

I think we got what they deserved ... a hung Parliament. If one or the other tries to get too uppity there are the Independents to keep them honest. They haven't decided who is what yet ...

Don' mess wit me ...

I like doing things that people say "Shouldn't" "can't", etc, because it appeals to the rebellious child in me. However, one thing I will not mess with is my internet security, and as such have just updated all our computers with the latest we could afford. Okay, it's not Kasperski, because it is just a home computer. But it is very good.

Updates ...

Our internet died on Wednesday morning, just after we paid all the bills, but before we could get into any of our favs like facebook and yahoo groups. What a horror that was for three days. lol. Finally got it up and running earlier tonight. Daughter has had to spend quite a few $$$ getting new wiring and stuff only to discover it was in actual fact the modem that has died.

She rang the ISP several times before they came to that conclusion. They have her hooked up to the old modem for just now.

My three books from Amazon have all arrived, within two weeks of ordering them, too. One is a Preterist book, one is a book on hat making from the 1920's and the other is the classic, Metric Pattern Cutting for Children's clothing (I already have Women's clothing) - I can now design to my hearts content and not have to worry about copyright and all that, as they will be all my own designs. Woohoo.

I bought three more punches yesterday, a six petal flower than I can make into 3D roses, a palm tree for christmas cards, and a little twiglet that I have coveted forever.

The stamp company in the USA that I ordered some rubber from has also come through and my order is on the wing.

I am happy.

However, I went and saw the Gastrologist on Wednesday, and while he is not too interested in doing a colonoscopy he did say the numbness that I have isn't related to the abdominal problems i have been experiencing. He thinks I should get a spinal CT scan, and that is scarey. My abdominal problems may be related to ulcers, and I have to get pathology tests done for that.

I had another fall this morning, partly my own fault as I was patting her Ladyship and she suddenly moved. She had her usual smell to see if I was okay, but as I called the Daughter she knew I was and she moved carefully away. She is very sweet that way. My knee was sore a bit, but as I have rested and moved it during the day, it seems okay now.

The Daughter was kind enough to buy me the final DVD set for ST: Voyager. So that is keeping me happy for just now; and I can craft as I watch. lol. I'll get back to the sewing over the weekend.

I will go to my doctor again on Wednesday, as he is only a part timer now. He can organise the scans and stuff and I might finally pinpoint what is actually wrong with me and I can start on the road to recovery. I am happy that it isn't cancer and I am happy that I seem to be in good hands.

More Election distortion ...

Leader of the Opposition, Mr Tony Abbot MP

I cannot get my head around this person. I guess as soon as I heard the word "Catholic" used to describe his religious background, I switched off to him. Normally I associate Catholics as being Labor candidates, and the fact this guy is a Liberal is a bit twitchy. But I put up a pickky of JG so here is one of him.

Would I vote for him? I doubt it. His party doesn't seem to have many coherent policies that would actually benefit individuals other than the fact that usually with a Liberal Government, taxes can come down and that has to be good somewhere - if you are a worker. There wouldn't be too much for those of us getting progressively older.

I thought I would follow him on twitter - the guy can't tweet. Anyone who cannot tweet or even get a minion to tweet for him has something intrinsically wrong with them. You are a Politician of the 21C, social networking is where it is at. I don't recall much by way of following him on facebook either.

To give Julia Gillard a few points, however, the woman can tweet, even if it is a minion doing it for her, at least it is there. Kevin Rudd can sort of tweet; I started following him just before the "fall". I felt bad for him, I have to admit. I think most Labor Pollies are a bit more "human" than Liberal Pollies.

My biggest problem is that my Parents were both Liberal supporters for many years, and I mean actual members of the Liberal Party. But one day, my father actually questioned something, and they were shown the door. So I have been pretty brainwashed against Labor, and feel that looking at the crookedness of NSW state Politics (Labor) my brainwashing has been correct.

Which is why i hate voting for either of them.

If Labor is still in thick with the Greens, well that is just asking for big trouble. Greenies in this country, heck greenies anywhere are major trouble and not interested in people one little bit; other than how they can make the candidates look good. I would never support them, ever. Green politics are whitewashing a terrible agenda, part of which is to reduce the population of the world to less than 1 billion people. I often wonder how they would do that. And it is creepy to think about.

Reading between the lines of the Labor website is interesting, but you would have to be pretty astute to notice the games they play with people.

I never trust people with fake australian accents, anyhow.

Plodding ....

The Old Person

It is not exciting to say we went to the Mall today for shopping - I have to use a trolley to get any mileage out of my old bod these days. The daughter had a few chores to do there so we decided to do our grocery shopping there. At one stage while waiting for her I spotted a papermaking kit on special in the book shop. Now a kid's kit has sort of been on my wishlist, on about page three, so I only bought it because I convinced the old person to pay for it.

Paper making is one of those things that I would like to try my hand at as part of the general craft stuff that I do, teaching myself this and that dabbling, if you will in the amusing arts. So this weekend I thought I would grab the grandsons, and go try it. They will get a bit of a buzz to do something totally different. Grandson1 is in high school now, so it may not be "cool". But GS2 is happy to do "kid" things any time. I think if GS2 could have stayed a grade 3 person forever he would be happy .

I haven't talked about the old person much lately as he hasn't lived here for a while, but he still hangs around. He has to contribute to his half of keeping up her ladyship the ex racehorse. But lately he has become even worse in trying to dominate all things. He wants me to get another job so that we can move to the South Coast and have a little fishing house "sell the horses - we should get something for them"; yeah, the knackers will probably give us $200 for her ladyship and we'd have to pay him to take the really old Arabian mare. Over my dead body. (Yeah, yeah, I know the line from MIB).

I often find myself wondering why the heck I still put up with him, even suggesting to him a few other women who might get interested in him. One sort of was going to, but he said something stupid and now she doesn't want a bar of him. But I guess I am just a sucker for someone with a car who will drive me around without complaining more than usual about it. Also, he will clean up after the horses; even without being asked. He buys their hay too, so I can't exactly go on too much about him.

Moving right along ...

We have an election coming up on the 28th or there abouts. I'm not to bothered by politics. I vote only because in Australia it is compulsory. If you are caught not voting, you can pay a fine. Well I say, bugger that for a joke, go along, get my name crossed off, get my papers. If there is a goofy party that isn't too off the wall, I will vote for them (hey, someone has to) or I will just neatly fold the papers and put them into the box required. I cannot get over how some papers would easily fit my dining room table almost. That is so ridiculous.

I'm not sure taxing the mining companies is a really good thing. Okay, they are making a load of money, but they are actually getting in and doing it, not the government. They pay taxes on their profits and a pretty hefty slug it is too. But they have the Superannuation funds as their main investors, and with more of us getting older, we need a decent return on our money. They also take young people, give them proper training and employment, which not many other large sectors are prepared to do. So taxing them more to pay for some fruitloop scheme that should never see the light of day doesn't really make sense to me.

But then I am a "capitalist" and think everyone has the opportunity to make money legally in this country and should be able to. Yes, our social programs are some of the best in the world, but many of them need a good tweek too. But that is a path best not trodden at the moment so I don't get on my high horse about it.

I am supposed to be happy because we have a woman Prime Minister. I am supposed to be happy simply because I am a woman, not that she has any good/new/decent ideas. As The Daughter said, if she had taken the GST of womens' sanitary requirements, she might listen to the rest of what she had to say. My daughter is not of the same political persuasion as I am, either. (She's the only one - lol).

Sometimes I wonder what the future will hold for those to come after, but I wont be around to witness much of it. I can only prepare my family for what I know, and they have to learn and adjust for themselves to make the future. Hopefully it will be good to them. Okay I don't want to get maudlin here so I might leave this subject.

Still, next week is my colonoscopy, the week after is the Craft and Quilting show at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse and then the election. Two are much the same thing, so I will just look forward to the Craft and Quiltin show at my favourite venue. I love Rosehill Gardens Racecourse it is a super place.

Sleeping ...

All my adult life, until I moved to Sydney, I was never sick. Never spent a moment in hospital unless it was to give birth, and once when I had some stomach pains. Then I moved to Sydney and after about five years, I started getting this and that wrong with me. Often to the words "There doesn't seem to be anyting wrong" after great, torturous visits to the Radiologists. So now that I am pretty much over the worst of my depression, something else comes along. Turns out I have a swollen transverse colon. A CT scan couldn't detect what was wrong so I have been recommended for a colonoscopy.

But to add to that discomfort, I have been coughing, because I have not been keeping warm enough. I layer up, but still feel cold. So this keeps me awake at night. During the day, warm drinks or food seem to relieve it.

So this morning I slept till 11.00 am just before my daughter left for work. I had been awake most of the night - again. Tonight I am going to take in a thermos full of hot tea and see if that doesn't help. Oh, and a hot water bottle.

It's okay, I will get through this, just like everything else, and probably be told much the same thing. I have loads of crafting to do, and any day now, they will ring about the servicing of my machine and I will be off sewing again. I have plenty to do, so I am not dwelling on this.

Finally sorted the camera and uploading ... lol

Sorry it's been a bit longer than I thought. Life sometimes gets in the way when we are making other plans. I have not been idle, but have got the photos from the camera downloaded to the computer and compressed. They were very big files, for whatever reason. Now they are manageable and I am able to post.







This is the cover for the album. It was one fat quarter of fabric. I tried to get the flower coloured with stamp ink the same yellow as the leaves. The red on the petals matches as well. The button has a gold centre. I have had that button for around 30 years and finally found something to use it on.

The cover is lightly padded with doll stuffing and the inside has a cardstock base. The base of the cover is 2mm chipboard, specially for archival use.





This gives you an idea of the thickness of the album. The pages themselves are 22cm x 22cm and there are 43 of them. I will share some of the pages on Bilum which you can access by clicking here.

Back - after quite some time ...

I have decided to take up blogging again, now that the worst of my depression is past. I was treated this time with a stronger medication and did some time with a psychologist. I am slowly coming off the medication and hopefully that will be that. I know the source of the depression and what to do about it, so it should not be a bother to me anymore.

I have done a few things while away, one of which was a 42 page album with the covers for my Aunt in Adelaide. My father was living in Adelaide and had the family album I made for him, but with him now moving to Canberra, she has not family contact. So I downloaded 22 recent photographs of myself and my sisters and our respective families and grandkids. I did scrapbooking and stamping for all the photos. After I had done all that, I thought I had better tell her who everyone was, so duplicating all the pages I wrote a little about each person. With an intro page, and the pages for the two horses and kitten, it came to 42 pages.

After that, I made the covers for the album with chipboard and fabric. I used some stuffing in the front cover. I coloured up a flower for the cover and hung some tags from one corner. Do I have photos? Yes, some. Do I have them on the computer to show everyone. When I have finished working out how to do this I will post them.

Presently I am working on a small album for the old person. The daughter has been taken to work almost every day by him, so it will be a small thank you for him. It has pictures of Her Ladyship the exracehorse and her two foals, Goldie and Cody. I will put in a few more over time.

I am preparing a couple of great diatribes, one for Alien Horses and one for Alien Thoughts. Well just expressing some opinions, anyhow. I hope to be taking both of those blogs in a little new direction soon.

Thank you for being so patient, and I will update from time to time as memory serves me.

Purity of Heart

When I was a child we lived by a code of sorts, and of all things, purity of heart was the most important.

Much of the code consisted of things like, giving to the poor (luckily we didn't know any poor people, or I would have wondered what to give them).

Help little old ladies across the road (even though my mother still had to hold my hand to cross the road).

Always let your horse go home on a loose rein (even if he could outrun the Melbourne Cup champions at dinner time)

Follow the ten commandments, which in turn consisted of love God before all other gods (there were others?), do not steal, do not kill, do not bear false witness (and if I was ever to be a witness in court, I would not bear falsely) and do not covet your neighbour's wife, donkey or worldly goods (since I was a girl, I wasn't likely to covet his wife, he didn't have a donkey, so I couldn't covet it, but I knew I would have if he had had one, and our worldly goods were actually more coveteous than his). The worst things you could be were a yella belly or an Indian giver.

These were sort of formed when I was about seven years old and more or less do me these days as well, albeit somewhat modified. Of course, I now know there are actually 10 ten commandments and I try to live by them. There are other codes that help us live, but these are a good place to start.

I have talked to others from around my generation and a bit before, and they had very similar codes they lived by.