Oh dear, it's happening...

I found out this week I have osteoarthritis!  I suppose at 70 things like this are bound to happen, but it's not a lot of fun - aches and pains all over.  Am feeling very sorry for myself right now.  I can barely walk some days and find it really hard getting down to potty level with a 2-year-old. In fact, everything with a bouncing, energetic 2-yr-old is mighty difficult!

Progress - at last!

For years I've been struggling with Japanese and yesterday I came across the most marvellous website, put up in 1997 by a fellow calling himself Tim Sensei (Teacher). He's the first person who's been able to explain in a way that I understand, and it's free!  He even has beautiful pictures, like the one of sakura (cherry blossoms) above.

You've no idea what a relief it is to me, as I was beginning to think I was extremely dumb.  And if there was a person capable of explaining various things about the computer to me, I would understand that, too.  Michael, over the years you've been able to explain some things very well. Philip has no patience.  If only such a moment of enlightenment would happen with the piano...

Winifred, your comment about the buggies on the bus made me laugh, and is a good example of what I was talking about.

Later.  Well, it just goes to show!  Don't get too excited about anything, Diane.  So much for feeling pleased that I at last understood some Japanese verbs - when my student arrived for her lesson she said, 'Oh no, this is not  correct - we don't to it this way at all!'  Oh well, back to the drawing board...

Singing - swearing, more like - in the rain...

This is not Hugo - it's more than my life is worth putting a photo of him online!!!! - but a pic I found of an anonymous child in a Bugaboo.  The Duchess of Cambridge may well have bought one, and it was my gift when Emma was born, but I've never seen a more ridiculous contraption in my life!!!!  These modern-day strollers are as big as tanks and almost impossible to manoeuvre.  

I had to mind both children on Thursday and it POURED rain.  As you can't leave a 2-yr-old at home alone, or even in the car while you dash into the school amid rainboots, raincoats and umbrellas with the older one, it's a case of taking both.  (This has to be timed between potty sessions or there'll be wet on the inside as well as the outside.)  Of course, it's impossible to get a park within about a kilometre of any school on a bright, sunny day, let alone during a downpour, so it means quite a lengthy dash, slipping and sliding in the mud as you go.

At 10:45am there was a BIG morning tea to raise money for the Cancer Council, so I somehow got Hugo into the Bugaboo at 10:35, buckled him into the seatbelt, pulled the raincover over and set out on the 10-minute walk to the school.  I very soon discovered that steering the wretched, heavy buggy with one hand while attempting to hold my red umbrella with the other is simply not possible.  It took us so long to get there that Emma had given up hope of meeting us at the morning tea in the hall and had long since gone back to her classroom in tears of disappointment. (But they did raise $1,100 which was great.)

The into-the-carseat-and-buckle-up performance had to be repeated at 3 o'clock, when there was the heaviest downpour I've ever seen.  We waited under shelter outside the classroom for it to ease off, while Emma played with her tiny new $3 ball (which I'd bought for her to raise money for Stewart House, another charity).  One of her friends deliberately chucked it into the bushes, bringing yet more tears from Emma.  The teacher very crossly ordered the naughty child's father to retrieve it, which he did, quite stunned at being treated this way. Then we trudged, slipped and dripped our way back to the car, a kilometre away, for the two-minute drive home.

Autumn leaves in Wahroonga

This morning I dropped Emma at school, then went to my favourite patisserie for a coffee and croissant.  On the way back to the car I walked past - well, walked into - my favourite bookshop and bought four books for the kids.  I simply cannot resist books.  You can hardly get inside the door for books, yet still I buy more...

This is one of them, 'Hugs and Kisses'.  Absolutely adorable.  Emma can read almost anything now, thanks to my teaching her the Sounds of Reading way, using both books and Oz Phonics apps.  Other kids in her class can't read a word.

A rest day

Today I'm just going to curl up with the cat, some beautiful music, a Virginia Woolf novel and a cup of coffee...

Are they having a laugh?

This revolting 'thing' (called skywhale) is floating in the air over Canberra.  Now I know Britain has that Tracey woman who put her bed into a gallery and those two disgusting men who show their naked bodies doing repulsive things, but I think this comes close to taking first prize for World Art Idiocy!!!!  And it's right there, impossible to miss!!!!

Goodness me, Frank and Winifred, you both have some VERY interesting happenings in your not-too-distant past - a hanging and such a romantic love story!  Any script writers in search of a story out there????

Later - It was made in Bristol, Winifred!!!!!!

The balloon, which was made in Bristol in the United Kingdom and cost A$172,000 ($173,000) has sparked outpourings on social media, with some describing it as a waste of money while others enjoyed the sense of fun.

On the Daily Telegraph website, Tim Blair said it was the perfect symbol for the city which is home to the national parliament – “a bloated, gaseous, multi-breasted monster feeding those who dwell in its poisonous shadow while leeching off the rest of us”.

“I’ve seen more attractive road kill than the grotesque #skywhale” was one response on Twitter.

Mother's Day in Oz

Thanks for this picture, Frank.  Just look at the love and tenderness here!  Makes me wish I was a vegetarian.   I really suffer when I eat animals.  Not that I've ever eaten a giraffe!!!!  I get more upset when I hear about cruelty to animals than to people.

It's lovely having you back, Winifred.  I read in the Daily Mail yesterday about an English couple convicted of hoarding, and making their kids eat while sitting on the stairs.  Just as well we don't have that law here, or I'd be making headlines!  Since I became addicted to ancestry.com I've been digging out old photos, drawings that Philip did when he was in kinder and primary school and various other odds and ends, and they are spread all over the kitchen table.  Emma slept with me on Friday night and I had to give her breakfast in bed on a tray on Saturday morning, as there was no room at the table!!  

Today, even though it's Mother's Day, my task is to clean out the enormous store room and put everything back.

Lina is astonished/appalled that I (and another one of her friends who should know better) read the Daily Mail.  I laughed to myself the other night while watching 'Last Tango in Halifax' when the bloke discovered his lady friend also read it!!!!  I think this is one of the best programmes I've ever seen - I love Anne Reid.  She's a wonderful actress.  The others were all excellent, too.  Did you see it, Winifred and Frank?

Yesterday I stood at the computer for about 18 hours, trying to track down an ancestor.  He was a Jewish dentist who got my grandmother - a catholic nun - pregnant in 1907.  My dad was the result.  Can you imagine the scandal!!!!  A couple of years later she married a bloke called Philipson and they rubbed out her maiden name on the birth certificate and changed it to Philipson.  You'd never get away with that nowadays.  I've contacted quite a few cousins during my search.  So now at least half a dozen of us are trying to track down Joseph Cohen and his descendants.

On my mother's side there's a juicy scandal, too.  Her father got a woman pregnant in 1905 but her parents wouldn't allow her to marry him, so he took the baby home from the hospital and brought her up himself!!!  Imagine a single father at that time!!!  He had to employ a live-in housekeeper but that caused gossip so he married her and they had my mother, twelve years after the first baby.

Then there's an arsonist and murderer...and not too far from me, either.  One never knows...So, Winifred, be very thankful your ancestors were a pretty bland lot.

Spring in Bristol

How lovely to have you back, Winifred!  It seems like forever since you posted a comment on the blog. What a mystery it has been.  Let's hope you've killed that virus off!  Thanks for this lovely pic of spring bluebells.

Here in the Antipodes the weather is reasonably pleasant and autumn leaves are suddenly appearing.  I took this photo of the CBD just two weeks ago and there were no gold leaves, but now they're everywhere.

For the past few weeks I've been heavily into ancestry.com and cousins are popping up out of the woodwork.  It's absolutely fascinating!  No convicts.  Most ancestors came from England, and not too far back.  Trouble is, it's addictive and I hardly have time to do my online jigsaws.