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.

A beautiful tribute to a dying man

https://www.inspiremore.com/richard-gill-composer/

This is one of the nicest things I have ever seen. A few days ago Richard Gill, a much-loved music educator and composer, lay dying in his home. His friends gathered outside to farewell him. Go to the link and scroll down for the video. Very touching...

A hard night's day

I'll start typing while I'm waiting for the photo to come through. Both cats stayed out all night and came in for breakfast looking very guilty. Mr Naughty must have had a hard night, as he hopped onto a chair and fell into an exhausted sleep the minute he'd eaten his breakfast! Just look at him, three hours later!

Yesterday Mrs Polly Wolly sat beside the pool and watched me swim for the whole 30 minutes! I was surprised the other day when Mr Naughty stared at me in amazement. Just goes to show animals experience things much like us. For them it was something entirely new, seeing a human in a pool of water, and they just couldn't take their eyes off me!

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to catch up on emails. Well, I didn't. Can't drag myself away from the  jigsaw puzzles.

I've realised that Emma has inherited my discalculia.

Dyscalculia /ˌdɪskælˈkjuːliə/ is difficulty in learning or comprehending arithmetic, such as difficulty in understanding numbers, learning how to manipulate numbers, performing mathematical calculations and learning facts in mathematics. It is generally seen as the mathematical equivalent to dyslexia. It can occur in people from across the whole IQ range – often higher than average – along with difficulties with time, measurement, and spatial reasoning. Estimates of the prevalence of dyscalculia range between 3 and 6% of the population.

I started her with a tutor last week, but she really didn't understand Emma's difficulties, as she's used to tutoring top students aiming to get into selective high schools. I decided I'd do it myself, so every morning Emma comes downstairs at 7:30 and we do half an hour of maths together. Talk about difficult! I can barely do a single thing, so am very grateful everything is explained online. Last year I had a maths tutor myself, but have forgotten everything I learnt and am back to square one.

Hi Sandra! Good to read your comment.

First swim of the season

I don't know where time goes! I cannot believe it's so long since my last post. One reason is that I spend less time at the computer and more time watching Netflix. Last November when Manami moved out, she took the TV, so Philip got a new one, with a 55-inch screen, and that's fine for their very large, open space upstairs. But unfortunately it didn't work, so was replaced by a new one. Then the original one started to work again, so that left him with two big TVs. Recently he brought the second one down to me. My first reaction was how tasteless, a huge screen in a small room, but immediately it was turned on, I loved it!!!! I am glued to Netflix and have watched 'The Crown' twice, as well as absolute rubbish like the worst of the 'X Factor', etc.

The cat story is developing well. From two very scared, non-touchable cats in June, I now have a very cuddly Mr Naughty, who abandons himself to cuddles and caresses as often as possible, and Mrs Polly Wolly, who actually allowed me to stroke her back and tail for the first time this morning. She frequently comes close and even rubbed against my legs yesterday. They are both allowed out during the day and are quite happy to come in for dinner in the evening, and stay inside all night. So far as I know, they don't ever go out of the yard.

I kept my bedroom door closed for months, so there was no chance Mr Naughty could wee on my bed again, but forgot the other day, and caught him asleep on the bed, with no puddle. Since then he comes into my bedroom whenever he wants to and there have been no accidents. In fact, neither he nor Mrs Polly Wolly use the litter tray at all now - they both prefer the garden, which makes life a lot easier for me.

This morning I had my first swim of the season and Mr Naughty looked on in amazement when he saw me in the water! He couldn't quite believe his eyes. I love swimming and plan to hop into the pool every day from now to the end of April. As you can see in the photo, the surrounding trees have thickened up and look wonderful. I usually dread summer, but am determined from now on to convince myself I love it, and will spend uncomfortably hot days in the water, therefore having nothing to complain about.

I've got so far behind with emails that today I plan to sit at the keyboard all day to catch up. We'll see...another distraction for me is the online jigsaw puzzles, and sometimes I do several at a sitting. Try it yourself:  https://thejigsawpuzzles.com

All's well that ends well

I threw Mr Naughty outside after the last bed-wetting episode, but he refused to go away! He kept coming inside for his meals. I keep my bedroom door shut and he's not interested in peeing anywhere else.

Meanwhile, Mrs Polly Wolly got out accidentally. After two days of searching for her, she turned up! They now are both inside and outside cats and we're all very happy. 

Mr Naughty has finally discovered how nice it is to sit on my lap and be patted:

Mrs Polly Wolly prefers to camouflage herself in the garden:

End of my tether

I softened after locking the two cats in the bathroom overnight, and allowed them to sleep on the sofa in the living room last night. First thing this morning, when I got up, Mr Naughty did a poo in the litter tray in the bathroom, and I'd accidentally left the bedroom door open, so he hopped straight onto the freshly-laundered bed clothes and did a huge wee.

That was the last straw for me. I opened the doors but he would not go out, even when I tried to chase him. Eventually, after about half an hour, he did go outside, then came straight back inside again. I put him out again and closed the doors, and he just lay there.

I put his breakfast outside the door, but he didn't come near.

Meanwhile, Mrs Polly Wolly was hiding in the storeroom and wouldn't come out for her breakfast. I went out, and when I came back, she had eaten it and gone back to disappear in the storeroom.

Mr Naughty has now disappeared and his breakfast remains untouched.

What a disaster!!!! I paid $250 for him, followed shortly by $100 for a vaccination, and $100 for her. Flea and worm tablets cost $55, and remain unused, as I can't catch either of them to administer them. Then there's the cost of food - probably about $3 to $4 per day, and litter. And, after two and a half months, not a single cuddle from either. What did I do to deserve such a problem?

Banished to the bathroom

Oh dear, what did I do to deserve such problem cats? After two and a half months, nary a cuddle from either.

And bed-wetting!!! Yesterday I got up early to wash the bed linen. I took the sheet, pillow slips and doona cover off the bed and put them in the washing machine. When I walked back into the bedroom, Mr Naughty had piddled on the electric blanket, and the wee had gone through that to the mattress cover. Fortunately, these days electric blankets are washable, so I threw these two into the machine.

The day was warm and windy, so everything on the line dried. When he got home from work, Philip came to help me make up the bed with the fresh linen. (In the morning, I had thrown a top cover that Mr Naughty has shredded, onto the floor, as it wouldn't fit into the machine. I always put it on the top so he doesn't get the chance of shredding any other doona covers.)

We'd put the mattress cover, the electric blanket, the  sheet and the doona back on the bed, and I leaned down to pick up the shredded top cover. Oh my god - it was soaking wet!!!!!!!!!!! There was no smell, and I hadn't noticed in the morning, so it had lain there all day. I had kept the bedroom door closed after discovering the wet electric blanket, so that naughty cat had obviously piddled in two places in the morning.

I was beside myself, and locked them both in the bathroom for the night. But they looked so forlorn (see photo) I knew that wouldn't last long. So, this morning I've allowed them into the living room but not the bedroom.

I really don't know what to do.

A little bit of good news - Tommy out till next court case

This is a great article by Douglas Murray, setting some of the facts about Tommy Robinson straight:

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/05/tommy-robinson-grooming-gangs-britain-persecutes-journalist/

I particularly like this section of the article:
"The problem — as I said in 2015 — is that any challenge Robinson presents is all a secondary issue. The primary issue is that for years the British state allowed gangs of men to rape thousands of young girls across Britain. For years the police, politicians, Crown Prosecution Service, and every other arm of the state ostensibly dedicated to protecting these girls failed them. As a number of government inquires have concluded, they turned their face away from these girls because they were terrified of the accusations of racism that would come their way if they did address them. They decided it wasn’t worth the aggravation."

This is a video by Andrew Norfolk, the Times journalist who first exposed the rapes and coverup by the Establishment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7P7ih1GuuQ

One of the comments following the above video:

Alex Busby

"Great work Andrew Norfolk and the Times. Proper journalism at its best. Those responsible for suppressing this scandal should hang their heads in shame, 'though it's pointless demanding those directly responsible hang their heads in shame, as they have none. The UK is in a dire mess with this particular type of 'enrichment', and it will get much worse before it gets better."

Channel 4 interview with two of the raped girls:

Published on Nov 9, 2017:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAvRj6BQ0AM

Thank goodness Tommy is getting a lot of support from decent people all round the world. Including me.