Spitting Into the Wind

We had a lovely Christmas day lunch with most of the family and everyone was in great spirits. There were lots of presents exchanged, hugs and kisses, with good food and good feelings. Christmas is a special time of year in my house.

It's always good the next day too, because all that rushing around that leads up to Christmas is behind us. I don't go back to work until the Monday following New Year, so this year I'm going to get a few jobs done that I never seem to get around to. Like re-potting some plants, and hanging a few photos. Alex is going to spend 2 weeks with his father at Cowra and if I can get him to clean his room before he goes, that would be better than any Christmas present. I remember doing as I was asked when I was young. Alex is out the door as soon as he hears "Can you .....".

We hit the shops for the big sales on Boxing Day to spend the gift vouchers we all received and everyone came home excited about their purchases. It wasn't as crowded this year and I suppose the economy has much to do with that.

Tomorrow I'm going over to Wagga to visit two low-care nursing homes so we can get the ball rolling for Dad. He's allowed to stay in the residential ward at Junee Hospital until early March, but then he'll need somewhere else to go. I have forms for nursing homes all around the region and although I don't want him to end up at Tumut or Narrandera, if a bed comes up we'll have to take it. Dad's slowly getting about now. He uses a walking frame to go to the bathroom and twice a day the nurses take him for a walk up and down the corridors. He has to get some mobility back and he's doing his best to co-operate. His feet are bandaged because he has post-op sores on his heels that are taking forever to heal so it's making walking even more difficult.

I thought I'd share a photo I found, it shows how some people in India spent their Christmas.

A giant-sized Santa Claus carved by internationally acclaimed sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik in the town of Puri in India's eastern state of Orissa.

Posted to Family at 12:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |

I had a bad scare on Friday. I'd gone along to the Year 10 presentation to collect Carly's School Certificate because she was working in Wagga and unable to attend. It was held during my lunch break, and it had gone over the 45 minutes we're allowed for lunch. I ducked home afterwards and grabbed the mail, ripping into it as I was getting into the car to go back to work.

Last week I'd had a free mammogram, one of the benefits of turning 50. The letter I opened was the results. I was trying to read it without my glasses and my eyes flashed to the bold << visible evidence of breast cancer. As I'm seeing this, my mind is fixed on the << and I'm thinking, "Oh, they use fields and it hasn't inserted properly". Then I'm searching through my bag for my glasses, my mind thinking "I knew it, I knew it....". I found the glasses and then the lens popped out and fell on the floor of the car. I'm driving back to work by this stage with a million things going through my mind. "It will be okay, God, I have cancer, I just knew this would happen," and so on.

When I finally got back to work I sat in the car and fixed my glasses and read the letter again. The bold type read "there was no visible evidence of breast cancer." There was also no "<<" characters in the letter. I can't tell you how relieved I was. My mind was now saying over and over, "Oh thank God, thank God".

Breast screens are extrememly important for people of all ages, especially the over 50s group. So is wearing you glasses before reading something important.

Posted to Fridays at 10:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |

I'm the parent of two teenagers, Carly 15 and Alex 13. I've also written lots of posts recently about teenagers out of control. I saw this photo and had an urge to put it all over town.

Posted to Funny at 9:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |

Straight on the heels of my last post about the outrage I felt at parents dumping their teenage children in Nebraska, I'm equally outraged at the behaviour of teenagers over the last couple of years. Every day the news seems to be filled with more and more stories of teenage terrorists, teen murderers, robbers and just plain aggression.

In one night's reading I came across the following headlines, and this is just in Australia:

13-year-old girl wields knife at Casuarina Square mall

Melbourne Xavier College muck-up boys scared neighbours

Youths charged over shooting

Youths charged over attack on media

Gold Coast schoolboy zaps mate with stun-gun

Vehicle slams head on into police car

I wrote a post two years ago about bad teen attitudes, wondering if things would improve or get steadily worse, and I've come to the conclusion that the latter is the case.

Just last night I had a run-in with my own 13-year-old son who had a stretcher in his ear. In case you're wondering what that is, it looked like a tapered nail. Stretcher piercings are a trendy way to be a little different to the normal person who just has normal pierced ears. Alex was quite adamant that it was cool. I've confiscated it, but there's no guarantee that he won't try doing it again.

I know there's plenty of teens out there that are doing the right thing, and having normal teenage fun. Both my teenagers are good kids. They like to argue to get their way and they want everything they see, but I take much of the blame for that on myself. They've been given nearly everything they want. I think this generation of teens has been over-indulged, and we as parents only have ourselves to blame.

Posted to Trends at 5:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |

I was quite shocked after reading a news item tonight on BBC News :

A mother has driven for 12 hours across the US to abandon her teenage son in Nebraska, under a law allowing adults to leave children at state hospitals, and the state's safe-haven law prevents prosecution for abandonment.

I have a 13-year-old son and know the trials that raising teenagers can bring. Carly is nearly 16 and we've had our share of clashes and screaming matches. Alex is just now trying to assert himself with lots of arguing and refusals. True, I don't know the circumstances surrounding this mother's abandonment of her son, but surely things couldn't have been that bad.

The boy was left in Omaha in an emergency shelter, and I can't even begin to understand how he might be feeling. It's a really sad reminder of how lucky we are to have strong family ties. Mine is not a perfect family by a long shot, and I have my moments when I wish the kids were old enough to be out on their own, but I quickly think how lonely it'll be when that time comes.

So sad, I hope they can work it out and there's a happy ending here.

Posted to Add category | Trends at 9:40 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) |

As categories grow so do page-loading times, so last night I did some housekeeping and added pagination to the category page. With 60 posts and growing in the Newsworthy category, this page must have took an age to load for anyone with a dialup or a slow connection.

Pagination splits up a page into smaller, more manageable sizes, and adds navigation to the bottom for the pages it creates. In this case, I've chosen to show 7 posts on each page, in keeping with the main index page.

Getting the style right caused me some problems, but with a little help from the plugin developer, I was able to get the look I wanted.

Posted to Weblog Tweaks at 6:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |

I was disgusted today to read that a musical comedy is opening in Melbourne tomorrow night entitled Beaconsfield: A Musical in A-Flat Minor. In April 2006, miner Larry Knight was killed in a rockfall at the mine on Anzac Day 2006, while Brant Webb and Todd Russell were trapped for 14 days. Another victim of the tragedy was Richard Carleton, 60 Minutes reporter, who died of a heart attack outside the mine while covering the cave-in.

The play is advertised on the fringe festival internet site as being about "two men, one cave and the Foo Fighters".

Following outrage from the family and friends of the man killed in the disaster, the playwright later today changed the name of the play to Beaconsfield: The Musical.

Posted to Newsworthy at 6:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |