Day #1 of sort-out

It happened again! I'd just about finished this blog when it completely disappeared. The gremlins in the computer do this sometimes with emails, too. I could scream.

I'll be very brief now, as I don't want to write it all over again. In my first attempt at a sort-out, I've hung some of my winter clothes on the line in the sun. Lots of my summer clothes are too big, so they'll be going out. Don't quite know what to do with them, as even the charity shops are overflowing with stuff and don't want any more.

Several pairs of boots are covered in mould. Mr Google said to wipe them over with white vinegar, so I've done that, and put them in the sun, too. I've started putting a fan in my walk-in wardrobe. Hope that helps. It's strange that I've been here for 9 years and have never had mould before. I wonder what the difference is.

I'm in desperate need of an organiser

I'm 76 years old and my life is still a huge mess. It seems I'll never learn how to organise things. When I look round the living room, for instance, I see piles of things that need attention: Japanese books, French lessons, English lessons, reading lessons, cats' toys, photos, games, CDs, books to be sorted (and read), cards (when do you throw them out?), nicknacks, newspapers, iPad (crossword to do), windows to be cleaned, surfaces to be dusted, floor to be vacuumed...not to mention my lovely big TV screen (mainly Netflix and YouTube to be watched.) It shows everybody's bad skin - lots of pimples and blackheads!

Then there's the bathroom. It's glaringly obvious (especially to me) that I have far too much stuff. But honestly, I do use it all! Creams for feet, hands, body, neck, face, eyes, scalp. I seriously wonder why all these things should be used in specific places only - what would happen, for instance, if I put hand cream on my feet or feet cream on my hands?? 

No need to describe the rest. You've all got it, but maybe not in such vast quantities. 

There are enough cleaning products in the lower section to last the dirtiest person three lifetimes.

Then we turn to look at the shower recess. The seven shampoos (+ one body wash) are on the floor because the  two shelves higher up are full. Why, I hear you ask, does a person with one head need 97 shampoos?

I hardly dare mention the bedroom, where I keep my computer and filing cabinets. Ancestry alone can take hours at a time, and cause thousands of pages to be spread all over the bed and can lead to visits to cousins in Queensland, and cousins from USA coming here (Wonderful!!). Hours are spent, too, on updating and printing my reading books for my students, and attempting to answer the almost 4,000 mails in my Inbox. Oh, I almost forgot to mention my favourite thing - online jigsaw puzzles! I have been know to do at least 50 in a day.

One of the worst problems is gifts. Just look here at the foot of my bed:

I appreciate the lovely things people give me, but don't quite know what to do with them. (The large bag full of art books was returned to me after I'd given them away to somebody else!)

Gremlins in the computer. For no apparent reason, the alignment has changed itself and refuses to go back. Time to stop before I get too cranky.

Be still my beating heart

A funny thing happened to me yesterday. Emma wanted me to buy corn syrup so she could make toffee apples. I looked in Coles, and asked for help, but still I couldn't find it, and had to rush off to meet a friend. (I had asked Mr Google, and discovered corn syrup is the same as glucose syrup - both terribly unhealthy.)

After coffee with my friend, I decided to keep looking, and, as Woolworths was closer, I went there and asked at the front desk. A young man came to help me. When I told him I'd already been to Coles (the opposition), he said in mock horror, 'Be still my beating heart.'

I thought that was an absolute scream. It illustrates beautifully how not-class-conscious we are in Australia. He could be doing a PhD in literature for all I knew or cared, not a 'mere' supermarket employee. That's the thing I like most about Australia - respect for everybody.

He took me off to search and we ended up with glucose syrup and Emma made her toffee apples.

Lady who lunches

I frequently go out to lunch with friends, mostly in reasonably priced restaurants, but recently I went to a very expensive French restaurant called Felix. And my goodness, it was worth every cent! To be honest, I didn't even look inside, and got a surprise when I found this photo just now, as we sat outside in the lane.

I had the best meal and wine I have ever had and would go back in a blink! The whole laneway is restaurants. In a blast from the past, my late ex-husband used to work in a French restaurant here in the 70s, when it was the only restaurant.

Talking of a blast from the past - here's another one! I was having a delightful lunch on Saturday, chez one of my friends. She had invited another one of her friends, who, in turn, had invited one of her friends (also called Diane). 

We were having a lively conversation when, right out of the blue, I said to Diane, 'Do you know Peter Arnold?' She gasped, and replied, 'He's my cousin!' She picked up her phone, rang him, and put me on, and we had a great catchup talk!!!!

What are the chances of this happening?

Now, this Peter Arnold had been my GP in the 70s and had seen me and Philip through some personal traumas, and had even inspired me to go back to uni. I had always admired him and read about him from time to time in the paper. He  gave up his practice after a heart bypass many years ago.

Australian Skeptics congratulates Dr Peter Arnold, who was awarded an OAM 
in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Another coincidence is that I, too, am a member of the Australian Skeptics. It was recommended to me by another GP earlier this year.

Ancestors and living relatives

No sooner have I tracked down one ancestor than I'm searching for details about another one. Yesterday I had great success with an old uncle we knew as Jim Armitage, only to find out from two cousins his name was Cyril Newton Armitage. And just a few minutes ago I made contact with his granddaughter!!!! That is amazing.

I plan to sit at the keyboard all day, interrupted only by a swim and a shower. As well as getting ancestry into some kind of order, I have other things to do. My Inbox stands at an embarrassing 3,426, so there's lots of replying and filing to do there. And yesterday I started to help Emma with her maths homework and came across a very interesting website about factors, so I'll look into that. (I no longer have regular maths tutoring, but can always email with questions if and when I need to.) I've printed the vocab from French conversations so will spend some time learning that.

Of course, I'll always find time for a couple (or more) jigsaw puzzles!

New glasses

I started wearing glasses when I was 18, and, since I turned 76 the other day and have had a new pair every year except last, this must be my 57th pair!!!! I have a big bag full of old ones to give to Lions or Rotary to hand on to 3rd world countries.

I chose this pair in two seconds flat and was a bit surprised when I got them from Specsavers just now at how big they are! I got sunglasses, too. I'll try them on next and take another pic for another day.

Must say the above pic is quite a surprise as from the inside I don't  imagine I look one bit like this. The big nose comes from both maternal and paternal sides - Mum had a big nose, too, yet both her parents had lovely small ones; my dad had a big nose, which I suppose came from his Jewish father (no photo of him).

I'm back into Ancestry again after quite a break. For years I'd been trying to track down George Allen, my paternal great-grandfather, and eventually found he was born in London and brought to Australia as a 1-yr-old. He married Pamela Shilling in Muswellbrook in 1881. One of his sons, Joseph William George Allen, was my grandfather, who fathered a baby girl, Doris, out of wedlock in 1905 and took her home from the hospital and brought her up.

I had always wondered how he managed to do this as a single parent. I'd never been able to find George on any census lists, but two days ago I found the answer - two of his sons, Arthur 1894-1917 (killed in France) and Victor 1891-1942, both stonemasons in Muswellbrook, enlisted in WWI. I have copies of the actual enlistment forms with their signatures, and they both gave their address as George St, Muswellbrook. This shows that George and his 10 children all lived in the very house I myself lived in with my family and grandparents when I was 5. It was number 17.

So, baby Doris's grandparents, George and Pamela, would have been there to bring her up. Pamela herself had a son in 1904. Tht means Doris's uncle was one year older than herself! Pamela died in 1915 and George in 1925.

The story goes that my grandfather really loved Amy, the mother of the baby, so why they never married is a great mystery. My grandmother, Florence Dodds, was apparently employed to live in and take care of the baby when Grandma Pamela died. She married my grandfather in 1916 and my mother, Ida Allen, was born the following year. All her life, my mother insisted she was an only child. She never acknowledged Doris, her half-sister. I wonder if she even knew who Doris was!

I had never even wondered about ancestors until I joined Ancestry.com a few years back. How I wish I'd talked to my mother about them before she died, as she kept track of everybody.

Jigsaw addiction

For a long time now, I've been addicted to online jigsaws. On the site https://thejigsawpuzzles.com there are thousands of pictures to choose from, as well as different shapes and number of pieces. Most days I do several, and houses are one of my favourites. I find it very relaxing...

This morning there was a touch of autumn in the air. Wonderful. Though I do love swimming every day and will be sorry when I have to stop because it is too cold.

Severe storm

Two nights ago, this large gum tree came down in the park over the road in a violent storm. What I find extraordinary is the shallowness of the root system - it's barely 1 foot (30 centimetres) across. It's more surprising that trees ever stand up when they're barely anchored in the ground!

Of course, this happens in every storm. Sometimes people are killed, or houses and cars damaged. It's a risk we all live with, all over the world.

Colonoscopy behind me...

Yesterday I had a colonoscopy in this beautiful hospital. For such an embarrassing procedure, I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed being there! The previous day was not a lot of fun, having to drink 3L water + various laxative concoctions, and my bottom was very sore, but the actual day was a pleasure.

The building is new and beautiful to look at, clean and hygienic, with every mod con. The office and nursing staff, anaesthetist and gastroenterologist were competent, respectful and friendly. No waiting. Philip dropped me off at 11:30am and picked me up about 2pm. Somebody from the hospital rang at 8am today to make sure I'm all right.

For a grumpy old woman like me, it's surprising that I have nothing but praise! I really do appreciate modern medical science and the fact that I was born in a 1st world county. Millions of others are not so fortunate.

Back again after a long break...

Oh dear, I must be the most disorganised person on the planet. Every morning when I wake up, I'm overwhelmed with what I have to do that day and consequently frequently end up doing nothing but lie on the sofa watching YouTube or Netflix.

For starters, I have 3,191 emails in my Inbox, all waiting to be read, filed or answered. Most of them are from DDOLL (Developmental Disorders of Language and Literacy), a reading network I belong to, with people from all over the world commenting on the sad state of reading in English-speaking countries, and sometimes one email contains up to 40 separate comments. I really am interested in what it written, but never have time to read them all, but don't want to delete them.

And the smartphone - oh my god, I still haven't got the hang of it and it takes me ages to figure out how to answer whatsapps, messages, etc, etc. From the moment Philip gave it to me (it's his old phone) I had trouble and seemed to have to recharge it every five minutes. He finally looked at it for me and discovered the actual battery was almost worn out, so now I have a new one.

Then there are the usual chores: breakfast, take pills, feed the cat or cats, empty the bins, tidy up a bit, deflea Floppy (this is his name now, after Storm and Mr Naughty), read the paper, do the crossword, put chlorine in the pool, wash and hang out the clothes, sweep up the leaves and skim them from the pool, maybe a bit of weeding, a swim, shower, hang out the wet swimmers and towel, dry my hair....and on it goes. Now that school has started, I give Emma her breakfast and we'll start doing 30 mins' maths revision again tomorrow. (This is really a case of the blind leading the blind, as I can barely add 2 and 2. I tried a tutor for her last year, but she couldn't get down to Emma's level.)

Since I discovered some time ago that somebody (Floppy or Jewel or both?) had done a wee on the sofa and a poo on my bed, they were both banished to outside. But gradually I've softened and occasionally let them in overnight. Floppy loves company, but Jewel is still afraid and I can't touch her.

The baby in the photo is James, brother of Daniel, the 8-yr-old who comes to me for French lessons.

We've been having a heatwave over past weeks. Thank goodness for our pool! I shouldn't complain, because there are dreadful floods in north Queensland (one year's rain in a couple of days) and bushfires in Tasmania. January was the hottest since records began in Australia.