Exercising is sooooo hard...

I like that, Winifred, 'Sofa endurance event'!  Think I'd beat you to the gold medal here, as lying on the sofa is my favourite occupation.  And I can understand you like watching rowing and horse events as the athletes get to sit down, too!  


I've just come back from a walk I forced myself to go on.  I never actually want to go for a walk, just do it because we are constantly bombarded with messages to move.  Here's a photo I took along the way, of a lovely house in the bush.  Well, every house round here is in the bush:

Getting back up the hill just about finished me off, and I felt very sorry for a mother pushing a stroller up the very steep incline.  

Lina, I hadn't thought that Spanish bikini bottom was so brief because they are strapped for cash and have to be grateful for any handouts!! 


Frank, you're a bit tough in your judgement - it's a very nice bottom, but I think they've got a cheek (pun!!!) presenting it in the Olympics!!!!!!

London Olympics 2012

Seriously - have we all gone mad?  This is a member of the Spanish beach volleyball team.  I kid you not.

It must have been a bit chilly - thank goodness! - when the Aussies were playing, as they wore their bras over T-shirts, and had long tight pants on. The referee appeared to be a very short Muslim woman, wrapped from head to toe in grey.

Then, just when I thought it couldn't get worse:

Is it April Fool's Day?

Safe in my backyard

Yes, you're exactly right, Winifred - though I do understand your point of quick convenience, too, Lina - we shouldn't encourage these firms by serving ourselves and doing somebody out of a job.  I hadn't thought of it this way, even though I constantly whinge to myself about the lack of service these days.  I get especially irritated at having to fill in online forms myself, to save the company time and effort.  And, of course, I think we all hate having to put our own petrol in and having nobody to check the tyre pressure (which I simply never do).


Back to less stressful things...these orchids are growing in the backyard.  They are simply beautiful, aren't they?


Lina, re The Frankincense Trail - Raani was in the 4th episode, in Jordan.  SBS had Egpyt on iView (or whatever they call it) until a couple of days ago, so maybe they'll have the Jordan one on next.  There are several places online where you can download it but I never dare try these things - you have a look and let me know.  Raani appears in the Petra scenes near the beginning, and Kate Humble mentions that his mother comes from NZ.  Read the book and be amazed at how anybody could put up with the primitive conditions!
I mean there are Bedouins and Bedouins...

Oh no!

You'll really think I've taken leave of my senses!  I've always prided myself on being untouched by the world of advertising and, up until this Flybuys thing, had never bothered with any type of promotion, voucher, etc.  But, after being asked for years by various checkout persons every time I paid for something if I had Flybuys (and I didn't), I finally weakened and looked at the website.  However, it was so complicated I couldn't work it out, so just closed the page.  Even so, it must have registered, because now I am bombarded with Flybuys emails and got a letter in the mail yesterday with the actual card. 

You will be very proud of the next bit, Lina!  Early this morning I got up and went to Coles, chose some stuff and got myself through the automatics checkouts!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Not only did I have to scan the individual items, but I used my debit card AND the new Flybuys card AND withdrew some cash AND got some vouchers for the local school!!!!!!!!!!!  (I have to admit the assistant was right beside me, though I probably could have managed all by myself.)

Then, feeling ever-so-clever, I got some petrol, using the Coles voucher for 4 cents/litre off. The man told me if I bought three lots of lollies for $3 I would get an extra something, so I even did that!!!!!!

Goodness gracious me - what a lot of bother.  Why don't they just charge a set price for things and be done with it?

Yes, Winifred, I do value my friendships and keep my friends forever!  And I've always been interested in people from other countries, especially if they are another colour!  If they speak another language I always want to have a go at learning it.  I'm  the very opposite of racist - is there a word for that?

Our wide brown land...

Rest assured I haven't gone off somewhere myself - this pic was sent by a friend who is in Broome for a few days.  (Broome is a five-hour flight from Sydney, in the north west of Western Australia.)  I'm still lapping up being at home, mostly reading, cooking, having friends and playing the piano.  I'm so content, that's why I've barely even been looking at the computer.  (Mind you, I was completely frazzled last night when I tried to look at my emails on my other pc.  When I was asked to put my password in, the letter 't' wouldn't work, so I couldn't get in!!!!!!!!)


Thank you for your compliment, Olga!  That was nice.  I'm glad you enjoy my writing.  Some years back a friend who teaches at a university in England told me she used my blog as an exercise for her foreign students.  That is after all, just like you!  Your English has improved tremendously since I met you.  


Frank, it's nice to know your typing skills are improving!  Always good to get your comments, too, Winifred.  As far as not having time goes, I'm halfway through this book set in Petra, Jordan, where time is plentiful:

The author is the aunt-in-law of the daughter of friends of mine (!) who met her in Sydney at her brother's funeral (after he drowned in the sea in Mexico).  It's about her life in Petra, where there is absolutely nothing to do except look at the sunset.  Heat, dust, primitive hygiene...oh golly, I couldn't bear it for an instant, and she gave birth to three children there.  Funny, isn't it, how we automatically think of what we would like - I'm sure it doesn't bother her that I wouldn't like it!


I saw her son, Raani, just the other night on Kate Humble's 'The Frankincense Trail' and jumped up to ring my friends but it was over by the time they changed channels.  The husband died some years back but she and the rest of the family still live in Jordan - though not still in a cave, I would hope - and all three children now have children of their own.

Brain fodder

That is a good quote, Olga - yes cats certainly call the tune!  I never cease to be amazed at the things Muffy does, as it proves how well cats have adapted to life with humans and how much they copy our behaviour, choosing the bits that suit them.

I'm getting back into the piano again, seriously.  I don't want a teacher as I think I can do it myself.  I am completely and utterly without any notion of music or rhythm, so it's a challenge!  I can barely tell which of two notes is higher or lower and can't memorise two notes in a row, let alone an entire, even simple, piece, but am working on improving this area.  I can't sing at all, and will try to learn as I play.

Interestingly, my musical ability matches my mathematical ability - zilch in both.  They are supposedly connected and in my case I missed out when talent was being handed out.  Even though I'm generally good at languages, Japanese has beaten me and, after a break, have forgotten everything I ever knew and will have to start from the beginning next week when my little class starts.

They say one should challenge one's brain to prevent dementia.  If this is true, I'm safe and will never get it!!!!!!!!

Where is Muffy?

Only another cat fanatic will understand, but I thought this was so very cute!  Yesterday evening Philip was here with the kids and Muffy obviously got her nose out of joint and disappeared.  I searched high and low for her - under the bed, behind the curtains, outside - and called and called, but nothing.  About two hours later, when I was beginning to get very worried, I looked in the bedroom again, and noticed this lump under the quilt.

Sure enough, there was Muffy, sulking.


Yes, Frank, that royal website has some interesting stuff.  I just had to put this pic in from the email you just sent me - anybody who denies animals have feelings is completely nuts!!!

Oh dear, what will I get up to next?

I watched an online SBS movie of Queen Victoria the other night and became very curious about her ancestry.  Then, while I was upstairs earlier this morning, I came across a book called 'Victoria's Wars'.  These two things have set me off researching the British Monarchy from King Offa in the 700s to the present day.  (I printed 21 pages then discovered I've got a book with it all in!)  I'm mainly interested in how they've acquired so much wealth over the years.  And what would become of all the golden carriages and diamond jewellery if royalty ever disappeared (which I don't think it will)?  This is a good site:  http://www.royal.gov.uk/ 


Curiously, in the book there's a bit written by Victoria herself at the time of her coronation, which sounds just like my comment on London a couple of weeks ago:  There was never anything seen like the state of this town; it is as if the population had been on a sudden quintupled; the uproar, the confusion, the crowd, the noise, are indescribable...the town all mob, thronging, bustling, gaping, and gazing at everything, at anything, or at nothing;


To be honest, I felt quite claustrophobic and couldn't get out quickly enough.  Appropriate cliche:  Nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there... 


Good to find comments from you Olga, added to the old regulars.  Michael, are you about??

No place like home

That's all right, Infogenium - you're doing OK for a beginner :-))

This took my eye at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  Can't remember what it is, but that doesn't really matter - my knowing what it is obviously isn't vital to life.

Tomorrow I will have been home a fortnight.  I've been doing a lot of philosophising and am going to cut a lot of crap out of my life and concentrate on what matters.  I still need to take sleeping pills, but don't really mind if I just lie awake in bed for hours, relishing  the fact that it is my very own bed!  I used to think my dislike of travelling was neurotic but now I'm coming to the belief that it is a good, normal way to be.  There is no place like home.


Being able to make a cup of tea or coffee when you feel like it, pull out some weeds, paint a picture or play the piano are all impossible when you're not in your own home.  I'm unsubscribing from dozens of email things I never had time to read, anyway, and that gives me time for stuff from friends.  I think I'll limit watching the - always bad - television news to once a week, as what is the point of sitting there absorbing the world's violence and horror when you can't do a thing about it?????????  Instead of listening to talk on the radio I'll stick with ABC Classic FM.  And I never want to help a child learn to read again.


The other night I was curled up with Muffy, watching Kenneth Branagh being Wallander on the telly until I could bear it no longer, so switched it off and went to bed.  Everything is so damned contrived - can't we just have a plain old murder mystery?  Most of the old regulars have become so filled with mangled bodies being examined close-up by forensic doctors it makes me ill.