I Love eBay

I've just sold Her Majesty's and Clive baby swing on eBay and it went for far more than I was hoping to get. Check it out!

I really need to get my other stuff up and listed ASAP.

Halloween Revisited

I've just reread my Halloween post from 2 years ago and wow - was I a cranky bitch or what? As a commenter said, "who pissed in your WeetBix that day?" I admitted to be cranky, and I admit now to cringing when I read it. Sanctimonious much? My sincere and unreserved apologies for the tone of the post.

But I stand by the basic premise of the post - Halloween as it is known today in America has no place in Australia. And I loved Halloween as a kid, and even as an adult. Look:

It still has no place here, despite the efforts of retailers to make it so. Why wouldn't they? Halloween is the second most profitable holiday in America after Christmas, and there are no other holidays in Australia before Christmas to really rake in the dough. As kids are exposed more and more to American customs via television at younger ages they put pressure on parents to celebrate this holiday where they get to dress up and get chocolate and lollies. What kid wouldn't love that?

However, I still firmly believe that it is a holiday that should be kept out of Australia. It is a holiday that has a lot of religious significance, and if that didn't give it credence to be carried over by the original settlers of Australia - be they convicts or not - then there is less reason for it now. The Pagan seasonal reasons behind the holiday - the end of summer - are stood on their head here, quite literally. Even the Americans had to wait until the mass immigration of Irish to start celebrating Halloween, with the gradual evolution of the holiday as it is known today coming later than that. Had the original settlers carried their Halloween traditions over with them back in the 18th century, I doubt that the modern day version of Aussie Halloween would have ended up like the modern day American one. I lived in Germany for a few years and can tell you it's not the same there, so there is no reason to suppose it would be here.

American expats living in Australia should keep their traditions alive, if that is their wish. Go ahead and celebrate Halloween, and show your friends and neighbours how we do it. Go into the classroom and have a costume party, teach the little ones how to bob for apples or carve a pumpkin (if you can find one) and share some candy. But please remind them that it's an American holiday, and you do not expect them to adopt it but merely share it with you. When we start expecting everyone to behave like we do, we invite trouble and reinforce the "arrogant American" stereotype.

Happy Halloween!

Eyes Have It

Pain, that is. More specifically, my left eye. I woke up yesterday morning with stabbing pains in my left eye, to which I immediately thought "That's not good." Yes, I'm a fast thinker at 6 in the morning.

I've been having some intermittent problems with my left eye for months now. It would get rather itchy and bloodshot, would feel like I had a sand lodged in it and have a bit of stickiness. I do know what bacterial conjunctivitis looks like and as my symptoms waxed and waned, ranging from 20 minutes to a couple of hours, I chalked it up to allergies and muddled on. My only concession was to take my contact lenses out as I didn't want to tear them as I rubbed my eye.

So Monday night when it started up again I didn't think too much about it. I took out my contacts, popped on my glasses and tried to finish what I was doing. Then it started to hurt, a dull throbbing type of pain. I gave up and went to bed, but I found sleep to be difficult. Finally I feel asleep with the thought that if I could just get a couple of hours of sleep my eye would be better.

Except it wasn't. I was in agony when Her Majesty woke me up. I could barely open my eye as the light was causing me a great deal of pain, and the stabbing sensations weren't helping me. True to form I tried to function - changing Clive, getting the younger kids breakfast and waking Miss Thing up - but when it came time to drive Miss Thing to her bus I gave up and had the Hermit take her. I just couldn't open my eyes long enough to see. I was going to give it a few hours and see how I was, but a snort of derision from the Hermit and a wave of nausea from the pain quickly made me see (no pun intended) I was being silly. I phoned the GP and got an appointment for later than morning.

After being questioned by both the young medical student - who wanted to know what skiing was like in New England - and the GP, and having dye dropped into my eye during which I felt like an extra in CSI what with the black light, it was determined there were no ulcers or tears. They concluded I had viral conjunctivitis, which left me both relieved and dubious. Relieved because it could be treated by them and I wouldn't have to go to a specialist like the Hermit did when he injured his eye, but dubious because viral conjunctivitis usually isn't painful. Maybe I had a severe ongoing infection as this has been an issue for a while and the pain was just the next step in my symptoms? I was left with a bit of guilt that I should've gone sooner rather than letting it get to this point.

In the end I really don't care as the steroid eyedrops have done the trick. I still had a bit of trouble yesterday afternoon when I left the Hermit asleep on the couch and took the kids to get the usual pizza-and-DVDs (all much cheaper on a Tuesday) - I think Sparky was more than a little nervous as I covered my face at stop lights, trying to get some relief as tears of pain poured down my face from the setting sun - but I managed to get home without crashing. Today is much better. The stabbing pain has gone and I'm left with just a bit of soreness and a lovely shade of pink sclera. I drove the kids to school without any problems, just looking very dorky as I prop my sunglasses over my rarely worn eyeglasses.

What's the lesson learned from all this? Go to the doctor sooner, you say? Don't be silly. The lesson here is to pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster that this doesn't happen again.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Gabe
(even though that's not your actual name and I'm singing the song with your birth name right now)
Happy Birthday to you!!!!!

Even though I'm posting this Monday my time, it's still Sunday his time and therefore still his birthday. If you're thinking that photo of my little brother Gabe - I'd guess he was about 9 or 10 - looks like a certain other young man, you're absolutely correct:

That'd be Sparky, taken Dec '04

I also need to wish a Happy belated Birthday to Mrs. Gabe, whose birthday was 10 days ago. So please stop Gabe's blog and give them both some birthday love.

Saturday Skinfest

I'm staring to twitch a little bit what with the NRL season over. I tried to watch an American football game the other night on ESPN - I think it was Detroit and... some other team. Yeah, it was that exciting. Where are the short shorts, the bulging muscles, the blood, the dackings or just the sheer physicality of the game I've come to love? Sure some of the NFL players are fit and good looking, but you'd never know it under all that padding. And when was the last time you saw an NFL guy tackled by his waistband, giving us this type of view:

Or have a defensive lineman look like this:

Or have the entire team look like this:

What do you mean there's more to the NFL than hot bods? Perish the thought...

When a woman falls pregnant, the bonus for the men is the visit from the Boobie Fairy. I think she might be a distant cousin of the Tooth Fairy, but instead of taking away body parts she adds to them. Why just recently she visited Halle Berry:

More skin next week!

Photo Friday

Boy am I glad that circumstances forced me to do a late post today. Hermit's L'il Sis sent me this doozy of a picture after her recent hospital stay:



Hells bells! I'll let her set it up:

"It (the picture) was taken 3 days post-op. That would be the underside of my forearm. That’s an oozing hole near the top of the pic which I’d had covered with Neosporin and a bandaid. In the daze/haze after surgery and morphine, I pulled and peaked under the 3 gauze pads along my arm to see what was underneath. It was 2 or 3 in the morning. Holy Crap!! 1) I certainly didn’t need 3 gauze pads to stop the bleeding from the ¼” cut mark 3-4 inches below my wrist; and 2) WTF!! Were they digging for gold!? I can only think they went fishing for a vein after I was under general anesthesia."

I'd guess she blew several sites - I can see what I think are additional needle marks - until finally they said "fuck it" and put in huge bore IV. This must be a genetic thing, as the Hermit also has horrible veins and blows IV lines routinely in addition to bruising easily with needles. I wonder if Hermit's Big Sis is the same... Clive is showing signs of it with his immunizations. But Hermit's L'il Sis wins, no question.

Hope this picture didn't freak you out too much.

Is 8 Years Really So Long?

I guess the answer to that question depends on the context. Eight years can seem like the blink of an eye to a parent, but can seem like forever to a teenager. When I think back to what I was doing 8 years ago, sometimes it seems like only yesterday the Hermit and I were shacking up moving in together in the tiny town of Hopedale. And yet, 1999 was the last century and the Y2K bug was going to destroy all mankind.

In 1999 I graduated with my AS in nursing and, after much fear induced dry heaving caused by the NCLEX exam, my RN license. I was, and still am, proud of what I accomplished when I graduated. And I love nursing - once I figured out that nursing was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life (and if you're of the opinion that nurses are merely handmaidens, go read that Wikipedia entry on the NCLEX to see what we have to know just to get licensed), I couldn't wait to start. Whilst it has been a joy to stay at home with Her Majesty and Clive, I miss nursing. It's not a just my job, it's part of who I am.

As you may have read, I spent a lot of time the other night - and indeed since then - trying to reach someone at my former school to get more information about my nursing classes there. It seems the Queensland Nursing Council wants more details before it agrees to give me a license here. I don't fully understand their reasoning but I'll hold my tongue for now on that subject. The good news is that I finally reached a real person - huzzah! The bad news is I may not be able to get what I'm looking for.

I knew the nursing program was undergoing some class changes the year after I graduated, but the department has undergone so many reorganizations and have so many new instructors that they may not be able to find any information from "so long ago". It's only been 8 years - is that really so long? There is still one instructor from my time there, and the person I spoke with will discuss my needs with her (I left a message with her as well) to see what they can come up with.

I suppose the worst case scenario is that my license application is denied, and I must complete my Bachelors degree here in order to get licensure. That's not quite so awful as it sounds, as I've already taken 6 of the 8 classes I need and I've taken them here, but I'm sure I'd have to undertake clinical training as well and that's something I haven't done.

So keep your fingers crossed for me. I'm due to have a little good luck come my way.

11:15

It's 11:15 at night and I'm trying to reach someone, anyone, at the Holyoke Community College Department of Nursing to get some documentation on my classes - both theoretical and practical - during my years there. I'm attempting to get my nursing license transferred to Queensland, and the Queensland Nursing Council requires more information than is presented on my official transcript. If only it was this difficult for doctors to get a license here in Queensland.

I keep getting people's voice mail, inviting me to leave a message so they can call me back. Needless to say, I haven't taken them up on the offer. I really don't want someone calling me back at 3 in the morning as most people who don't interact globally on a daily basis can't grasp the huge time difference.

"Australia, huh? What time is it there? It's tomorrow? Really? Wow, that's so cool." And it is, except I'm awake to witness it.

Please answer the phone, please answer the phone, please answer the phone.... AAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!! Doesn't anyone just sit at a desk anymore?

UPDATE: It's now 12:11 am, so it really is tomorrow and I still haven't reached a real person. Since I have to be up in 5 and a half hours (give or take, depending on Clive) I'll try again then. I'd be frustrated, but I'm too tired.

Tales From the Trip - Longreach

For a town that is located in the middle of freakin' NOWHERE - I think my father would've called it West Bumf*ck - and has a population of around 4,000, Longreach was a surprisingly nice place to visit. There's no way in the world I'd live there as the flies would drive me insane within a week (honestly, Clive looked a baby from a Unicef commercial what with the flies constantly in the corners of his eyes) but it's worth exploring.

Longreach is located along the Tropic of Capricorn, so you know it's really friggin' hot. Its a lot of scrub land, which means it's very flat and pretty dull. Occasionally you'd see another traveller, or cows along the road - or on the road - but generally there was a whole lot of nothing in between towns. This also marked the first time I'd ever seen a tumbleweed. I have to admit that, growing up on the outskirts of Boston, I wasn't convinced tumbleweeds weren't some invention of Hollywood as a way to visualize desolation. But we saw them, and collided with several of them, along the Capricorn Highway. I, of course, felt compelled to point out each one and make a noise when one disappeared (barely) under the 4WD. Have I ever mentioned I'm easily amused?

Our first port of call was the QANTAS Founders Museum. I have an interest in aviation dating back to my Civil Air Patrol days, so this was a fun stop for me. It's easy to find as it has a Boeing 747 parked out front whose tail is visible throughout town. You tend to forget how big that aircraft is until you see it alone, then you wonder how the hell it gets off the ground. The museum wasn't terribly large - you can comfortably see it in half a day. The information on the 'hows' & 'whys' was well presented and easily digested - even the film they make you see when you first enter the museum is watchable. It also helps that you've just come in from blistering heat and you get to sit in a wonderfully air conditioned and fly-free theatrette. There are models of early planes and mock-ups of an early passenger compartment. If you haven't already, visit my pictures to see what I'm talking about.

After a visit to a WWII-era hanger we queued up for our tour of the 747. It was donated to the museum by QANTAS (there is no official affiliation between the airline and the museum) and flown into Longreach in 2002, a mere 7 days after its last commercial flight. This plane clocked some hours - 92,125 of them to be precise, or 10 years of continuous flight. It was a very interesting tour and very hands-on. You could touch anything you wanted, climb on the seats and flick open the ashtrays or kick the tires. It was cool, at least for me, to see the black box and learn why it's orange - not just higher visibility, but the colour orange burns last. All of the information during the tour was delivered in the typical Aussie 'tongue-in-cheek' style, which makes it fun. We had to pass on the wing walk as you had to be at least 12 and I don't think we could've passed Clive off as a pre-teen. We then had lunch in the cafe, which was surprisingly good, before calling it a day.

The next day was spent at the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame. This was more a history of rural and Outback Australia than just a place dedicated to stockmen and is full of those "Holy crap, how did they manage that?!" moments. This is especially true when you consider just how huge and desolate and totally unlike the UK - where most early settlers came from, whether you were a convict or not - Australia really is. This museum was one of the Hermit's favourite places on the whole trip. He kept insisting he should've been born 100 years ago and been a settler; I try not to remind him of his technology fixation and go with it. Sparky got a little bored here, but as it was also air conditioned and fly-free he didn't complain overly much. We had a quick lunch in the cafe, which unlike QANTAS was disappointing (there are plans to upgrade) and hit the gift shop where the Hermit got this very cool and very Australian hat. You can see the pictures from our visit here, if you haven't already.

There's a lot more to do in this Outback town. You can take a ride in a stagecoach, go for a cruise on the Thompson River, visit the School of Distance Education, formerly known as School of the Air (this was closed when we were there as it was school holidays) or explore the local pubs. I think we'll go back someday when Her Majesty and Clive are a bit older, because it's a place worthy of your time.

Toilette of a Moose

There's nothing like a meme to get you back on the blogging track when you're having some difficulty coming up with a post. Given my week, it's not surprising I'm rather uninspired even though I have lots still to tell about our holidays. So I took Jeff up on his offer to share with you some of my toilette routine. Never fear, it's rather tame. Borrow if you wish, share if you'd like.

1. Conditioner - y/n?
But of course. I tend to get the frizzies if I don't condition every other day. And a frizzy moose is not pleasant.

2. Razor - manual, electric?
I have a battery operated Venus Vibrance razor. It exfoliates as it rids me of unsightly leg and underarm fur. Not that I have a lot of time to do the legs, which is why I wear pants a lot. I'm toying with the idea of getting a epilator so I don't have to do it so often.

3. Shaving cream - foam, gel?
I use really cheap conditioner to shave with - it softens the hair as well as being a lot less expensive than shaving gels, especially those branded "for women".

4. After shave - y/n, brand?
Uh... no. And I don't think there is a female equivalent to put on your legs/underarms after you shave. Maybe moisturiser? In that case usually on my legs but never under my arms. Who would moisturise their underarms?

5. Toothbrush - regular or electric?
I have a hybrid battery toothbrush. It looks like a manual toothbrush but you push the button on the handle and it goes all vibrate-y. I think they market it as "sonic action". I doubt that claim, but I like that I can put it in with a regular toothbrush holder but get the benefits of an electric brush.

6. Toothpaste - regular or gel, whitening etc?
I have an imported toothpaste. I ordered a couple of tubes of Crest Vanilla Mint (I misidentified it as Colgate over on yellojkt's blog - my bad) from an online site in the States and had Momma Mooselet ship it over to me. I love it, but no one else does. This is not a bad thing - more for me.

7. Floss - y/n, flavored, thick/thin, waxed?
Yes, but not as much as I should. I have a Hummingbird (again with the vibrating... and leave your comments in your head, please) that I like because the floss is thin and taut enough that it doesn't shred between my very close together teeth, and I don't have to pry all kinds of fingers into my mouth - which is pretty small, believe it or not - to use it. My dentists hates it; he's always trying to get me to use something else, to which I politely tell him it's my Hummingbird or nothing.

8. Mouthwash - y/n, brand?
I've never been a mouthwash fan. I use it occasionally - the Hermit likes it - and I make the kids use one that Momma Mooselet sends over because it has fluoride in it and our water in Queensland isn't fluoridated, but I don't. Seems like overkill.

9. Toilet paper - over or under?
Under is uncivilized; it rolls too easily to the floor. No one else in my house seems to thinks so, however, especially my husband. If he changes the roll (and yes, he does change it, unlike the children most of the time) the next time I use the bathroom I switch it to over. No, he doesn't switch it back and no, we don't discuss it.

10. Magazines?
Sometimes. We have a couple of books like "Uncle John's Aussie Bathroom Reader" and "50 things you always wanted to know about world issues... but were too afraid to ask" (really, that's the title) and magazines when they come into the house. I'm a bit of a cheapskate and don't buy a lot of magazines. I'm not opposed to bathroom reading, I just don't get a lot of alone time in there to do it - I have kids under age 5, remember?

11. Hair dryer or towel dry?
A vigorous towel dry followed by a quick blow dry - so both. Now that I have short hair it is very easy to style.

12. Hair "products" - mousse, gel, hairspray, etc?
All of the above. Actually I put a little mousse in, blow dry it, use a little wax to separate the front and keep it from falling flat, and then spray it. I don't have a particular brand preference, either.

13. Cologne or body spray - y/n, brand?
Occasionally. When I was working I rarely wore scents as it could wreck havoc on someone with a respiratory condition, so I never got into the habit. When I do wear them it's usually something with a vanilla base. I also have a bottle of a JPG knock-off that I got for Christmas called "Catsuit" or something like that.

14. Deodorant - Spray, roll-on, stick (gel or white), scented etc?
Australians really like their spray-on deodorants, or their roll-ons. I never cared for either, so I again went and stocked up on my favorite US brand - Suave stick. It's white, but goes on clear. I think it's got a bit of a baby powder scent, but I wouldn't swear on it. I use it because it's good value for money... and I don't stink.

15. Sink and shower soap - liquid, bar, bodywash, etc?
All liquids. The sinks are stocked with Bath & Body Works soaps (thanks again to Momma Mooselet, who either sends/brings their products) of varying scents, mainly vanilla. The exception is the kids bathroom, which has a basic generic liquid hand soap. The shower has shower gels, also from Bath & Body Works. Current scent is Cherry Blossom. There is a bar soap for the Hermit, but bar soaps are far too drying for my taste. And I don't want to be washing my boobs with soap that most recently washed the Hermit's backside, thankyouverymuch.

16. Sink cup - disposable Dixie type, regular?
A regular plastic cup in both bathrooms. I don't think I've ever seen disposable cups here, so it's either a regular cup or the cupped hand method.

17. Make-up - always, sometimes, never? Brand?
My own addition to the meme, as I'm fairly certain Jeff doesn't wear make-up (at least not now... I've seen his band photos from the 80s, so there may have been a time where the boundary wasn't so clear).

As I push bravely past my mid-30s and onto 40, the condition of my skin warrants I wear some basic make-up most of the time. Concealer to hide the lovely shade of purple under my eyes, foundation to hide the post-Clive blemishes (that pregnancy was awful to my skin) and a bit of mascara to widen my perpetually sleepy eyes. Depending on what I'm doing I may go the whole hog, or if I know I won't be leaving the house, or I'm in too much of a hurry, or I just don't give a flying f*ck, I'll skip it. Fortunately for the public I don't have too many of those days. I'm partial to Neutrogena brand foundation and concealer that I get from the US (I refuse to pay the prices here for decent foundation - $30 for Revlon? I think not!), but I'm not choosy about the rest of it. Eyeliner is eyeliner.

Have I grossed you out in any way? TMI? Or harmless fun to get me back on track? Yeah, the last one, definitely.

Saturday Skinfest

Ah summer. Nothing like a trip to the beach, or the pool. All that water, all those little swimsuits. If only everyone I saw at the beaches/pools looked like this:

Or this:

Or even this:

Of course I hate it when they look like this:


More skin next week!

No News Is Not Good News

Thanks everyone for all the phone calls, emails and comments asking about Shelby. Thanks, too, to Miss WTF for keeping an eye out the other day as she came through my neck of the woods. As of this writing, we have not had any news about Shelby.

I'm am trying to stay positive, especially for the older kids sakes, but it's becoming increasingly difficult. I tell myself that at least we haven't found her on the side of the road, or in the woods along the main road, but I sound a little delusional. I create a scenario in my head where some lonely little old lady has found her and is feeding her all kinds of scraps, which would be Shelby's idea of Nirvana and she has ditched us, who watched her weight to lessen her arthritis and hip dysplasia, not to mention her damaged ACLs in her hind legs, in favour of bacon scraps. At least it makes me smile.

I'll be returning to regular posts today (Skinfest to follow... or precede, depending on how you read the posts) and will let you know when we hear something.

Sadness

We again interrupt our Tales From the Trip narrative to pass along some incredibly sad news.

Yesterday I had to have our 6 year old German Shepherd, Sydney, put down. I will not go into details as it is very painful, but in a nutshell she seemingly ingested something toxic, likely a cane toad given the recent rain and her history of chasing the damned things, and there was nothing the vet could do.

To make matters ever worse - and no I'm not kidding - I returned home from that to find Shelby missing. Shelby loves to takes rides in the back of the Hermit's ute (pick-up truck) and was quite upset with me that I was taking Sydney somewhere and not her. Shelby has a history of escapes from our fully fenced yard and reinforced gate so it was not entirely surprising to return home to find the gate had been forced open and Shelby gone. I wasn't even all that worried - mainly because I was too upset about Sydney, but also because she's done this so often. I simply left the gate open and waited for her to come back.

That hasn't happened yet. The Hermit and I spent over an hour driving around last night searching for her with no success. We'd hoped someone simply had her last night and would call the council in the morning (she has tags), but no such luck. She likes to go up to the main road, so we're quite scared that something has happened to her although we haven't found her nor have we gotten a call from anyone (all appropriate authorities have been notified). The older kids, upset enough about Sydney, are worried sick.

Life would not be so cruel to take both girls away on the same day.

Tales From the Trip - Photos

As usual, it's been a busy weekend and the fun continues today. If by "fun" you mean "pull my nails out with rusty pliers". I'll explain later. But for now enjoy a couple of photo albums, if you're so inclined. They both concern our visit to Longreach. First up is the QANTAS Museum (bonus points to anyone who can tell me what QANTAS stands for without Googling it), followed by the Stockman's Hall of Fame and Outback Museum. I'll blog about them later, I promise. Now, however, I must go and tend a sick doggie.

Saturday Skinfest

We interrupt our 'Tales From the Trip' series of postings to welcome back the return of the Saturday Skinfest. Huzzah!!! Strike up the band, pop the champagne corks, break out the message oils... ok, maybe that last one was too much. How you celebrate is your own business.

It's a tough time of year for me, rugby league wise. The regular season is over and while I have a few one-off Test matches (think All-Star games, US folks) to get me through, it's just not the same. Thank goodness I can still look at all the pretty pictures I've acquired, like the South Sydney bound Craig Wing:

Or the young Melbourne premiership-winner fullback Billy Slater:

Or even the Gold Coast's butt-nekkid Daniel Conn:

In trying to keep the whole NRL theme going this week, I've finally found some more NRL cheergirl pics. It's not as easy as it sounds. So here we have Kate, from Wests Tigers, who was a Fox Sports Cheergirl of the week. I was going to make a kitty joke, but I'll refrain and let you make your own:

More skin next week!

Photo Friday

First up, I've been having connectivity problems... again. It never ends. My modem got fried a few days ago in a recent storm, and then the Hermit broke the wireless access port trying to get all the equipment to play nice with each other. I'm back after my third trip to the store to find the right combination of ADSL modem/router/blah-blah-blah. I think we have it fixed. At least for now.

Second, it's my 2 year blog anniversary! Wow. I wonder what the average life-span of a blog is? I think 2 years is pretty cool. Template changes have abounded and so has the focus, but I'm still enjoying it. I hope you are, too. Cake is on me! Woot woot!!!

Now onto our regular feature, Photo Friday. I've been doing a lot of pictures lately, what with the trip, so finding just one to feature was tricky. This lorikeet came to visit us in Emerald, when Her Majesty was feeding the seagulls. After landing on Her Majesty's head and scaring the beejeebers out of her, he landed on the pad right next to our feet to wait for his handout:

Tales From the Trip - Clive

Saturday 29 September
Day 8
12:45 PM

Still on the road to Emerald. It’s murder trying to write on the bumpy roads, but it seems it’s the only time I get to myself. So to speak, as I’m in a car with 4 other people. The main reason for this lack of time is Clive.

He’s always been a Mamma’s Boy – anyone who knows me will attest to that. But now we’ve got separation anxiety to deal with. There are many moments where I literally cannot put him down at my feet without him screaming like he’s been scalded and try to climb back up my leg. It doesn’t matter what toys he has to play with, or if I’ve fed him and changed his nappy. 95 times of out 100 he wants to be on my hip and carried about like he’s the King of bloody England. At this rate I’ll be carrying him to his first day of high school.

I’ve also taken him out of his familiar environment and had him sleep (or attempt to sleep) in an unfamiliar bed. This hasn’t helped at all. It’s the All Mummy Show all the time.

And did I mention he’s teething again? His top front teeth are bulging, ready to break through his gums any day. (Note - they finally broke through a day or two after I wrote this - and it was 3 teeth, with the fourth breaking through just after we returned home) It’s a fun combination, these 3 things.

Sparky and the Hermit have been helping. Sparky will push Clive around in his umbrella stroller – best $5 investment I ever made, purchased 3 days before we left from the local Lifeline shop – when I need to help with the set-up/break down of the camper trailer. The Hermit has cooked dinner every night – I have managed to do the occasional breakfast and lunch – and cleaned up after most meals. Mind you I do this on a regular basis at home, and whilst on this trip he can go to bed whenever he wants, or have a shower without worrying about coming back to a screaming baby. Or even a shower by himself!

But back to Clive. If he had been my first child he’d be an only child. Outside of the first day when he did pretty well in the car, he has not been a joy to ride with. Which is surprising because he does pretty well in the car at home. I keep having to contort my body into all kinds of shapes so he can grab my hands, as he’s not interested in the toys we have for him. He wants to be sitting with me and that’s that! All in all he’s not a happy chappy.

When we get back to Brisbane I may need a holiday from my holiday.

Day 8
10:40 PM

I’ve just spent the last 2 hours or so typing up all my entries to date. The Hermit hit the sack just after 8 PM as I was taking Clive for a long walk around the park to try and get him to sleep, which miraculously worked! Sparky was grouchy as he wanted to play a game with both of us, so after settling for a few rounds of blackjack with just Mum he headed off to bed as well. Clive has only stirred once or twice but has thankfully stayed asleep.

I can feel sleep pressing against the backs of my eyes, and the park (we’re now in Emerald) is very quiet. It’s mostly me and the bugs flittering around the computer screen and the outside light… and now our neighbours who just came home, so to speak. I’m off to bed soon as we’ll be going to the gemfields tomorrow. It’s been a tiring trip, especially trying to share my time with all the kids as there’s none of their usual entertainments to distract them, but I’m having a blast. Don’t want you to think the above whinge means otherwise.

Ok, I’m going off to bed now. TTFN…

Tales From the Trip - Cosmos Centre, Charleville

As always, double click the photos for a really good look at what I'm talking about. None of the photos are mine, but rather are the best of what I could find of what I discuss. You'll see...

Tuesday 25 September
Day 4
11:00 PM

I really should be in bed as we leave Charleville for Longreach tomorrow, and it’s a long drive. But I need to tell you about this first.

My main motivation for coming to Charleville was for some star gazing… and not of the Hollywood type. Charleville has some of the best night-time viewing in Queensland, possibly Australia. There’s even an asteroid named after the place. I’ve been fascinated with astronomy since I was a kid…

Ok, I’ve just spent the last hour with Clive getting him back to sleep, with accompaniment by Her Majesty. Oish. I’ll tell you about the one of the coolest things that I’ve ever done after a few hours sleep…

Saturday 29 September
Day 8
9:33 AM

Ok, so it’s been more than a few hours. More like a few days. Not that you’d know this – I could pretend that I wrote this the next day and you’d never know. But I try to be honest. We’ve just spent 3 days in Longreach (more on that in another entry) and I haven’t had a spare minute to myself. But let’s go to the Wayback Machine and talk about Charleville.

When I was 12 years old or so, I remember making a list of things I wanted to see/do before I was “old” – the exact age I considered old escapes me, as does all but one thing on that list. I wanted to see the Andromeda Galaxy. I even had a poster of it in my room, until my Duran Duran posters squeezed it out. But that’s another story for another post. Even now, APOD is one of my favourite sites (I blogged about it here if you’re interested) and my screensaver and wallpaper is composed of APOD images.

So what does this have to do with Charleville? Charleville is the home of the Cosmos Centre, where you can book in for some night-time viewing through their $28,000 telescopes. Since it really wasn’t the Hermit’s thing – or more to the point he knew how much I wanted to go and his interest wasn’t so great – he stayed back at camp after I got Clive and Her Majesty to sleep while Sparky and I went to the 9 PM viewing.

After being led out onto the roof of the observatory, the first object we saw through the lens was the Butterfly Cluster, located near the tail of the constellation Scorpious. I was always pretty good with connect-the-dots as a kid, so I could pick out the ‘V’ of the antennae and follow the shape of the wings. I’d never seen a star through a telescope before, or at least not a quality one, so I was blown away by the clarity of the image. These weren’t pinpoints of light – it really was like looking at diamonds in the sky. It was only going to get better.

After a brief talk about why stars are different colours, we turned out gaze to the Albireo double star. Located in the constellation Cygnus the swan, it was originally thought not to be a true binary star system but merely an optical illusion. This is not the case and may even be a triple star system. To the naked eye, it's just another pinprick of light. As you can see in the picture (which is nothing like we saw through our telescope - go to the Wikipedia site for that), one star is a large orange/red and the other is a smaller blue. This is why this star is more romantically known as ‘the sapphire and the topaz’. Awwwww…..

Now it was time to see something a little closer to home. Closer, that is, if you consider 2,870 million kilometres close. Uranus was next, which when said aloud got a good giggle from the kids in the crowd, including my own son. Given how far away it is and that it makes no light of its own, only reflects the light from the Sun, it was amazing we could see it at all. It wasn’t very big through the telescope, but the blue colouring was outstanding. Anyone out there remember the excitement when Voyager passed by (and if anyone thinks I’m talking about Star Trek I’ll kill ‘em) all those years ago?

Our fourth viewing of the night was the planet Jupiter. Jupiter is easily visible in the night sky, appearing as a very bright star. The Giant Red Spot wasn’t visible, but only because it was on the other side of the planet, not because of the telescope. We were able to see other, darker bands of clouds around the planet as well as the 4 Galilean moons alongside. Once your eye focused a bit better, more moons were visible along the bottom of the eyepiece. The planet has at least 63 moons, so you’re bound to see quite a few if you know where to look. Jupiter left me pretty speechless.

Finally we turned our eyes to the brightest object in the sky – our own Moon. Why is it that moons of other planets get cool names and we couldn’t come up with something better for our own lone satellite than to capitalise it? Anyway, it was 2 nights until the full moon, so it was almost painfully bright, even with moon filters in the eyepiece of the telescope. The downside to such a bright object is that is washed out a lot of the night sky. We weren’t able to make out much of the Milky Way and smaller stars were nearly invisible. Still, it allowed for a great view of the surface of the Moon, including Tycho, the giant impact crater at the top (if you're in the Southern Hemisphere anyway) and the Sea of Tranquillity where the several of the Apollo missions set down. And no, you cannot see the lunar rovers.

I could’ve stayed up on that rooftop all night, happily pointing the telescope this way and that to see different stars, nebulae and maybe even a galaxy or two. How can anyone look upon the stars and really believe that our rinky-dink planet, which orbits a fairly average star, is the one and only place in the universe where life exists? I’m not saying aliens are popping by for tea on a regular basis or anything like that, but when you consider that there are billions of galaxies, each with billions of stars, then surely we are not alone.

Tales From the Trip - A Thought

Mon 24 September
Day 3
11:21 AM

A THOUGHT:

I’ve seen more roadkill than cars on the road today… That can’t be right.

Tales From the Trip - On the Road

While this post only covers one drive from Roma to Charleville, you can see all the pictures I took from the car here. Apologies right off the bat for the blurriness of some of the pictures. My camera wasn't out of focus or anything, but the windshield was filthy from bugkill. Sorry 'bout that...

Mon 24 September
Day 3
9:23 AM

As we travel west down the Warrego highway, I’m reminded of the differences between US highways and Australian highways. I think I may have to get some fillings replaced when this is over. I’m recalling the A1 highway we took to Cairns last year – which I despairingly called a goat track at the time – a lot more fondly now. I know Australia doesn’t have the tax base to support a highway system like we have back in the States, but this is ridiculous!

You should see my writing. I hope I can transcribe it later (Note – so far, so good! Double click the photo to see the larger version of my actual notepad.). Looks like I have Parkinson’s. Please don’t send me nasty messages about that, for God’s sake. If you know me you know I’m not being cruel. I’ve never been so shaken in all my life! But I’m torturing myself so I can get a few thoughts out, before they’re shaken loose:

- why did we have such a steep climb up the Great Dividing Range in Toowoomba (day 1) but no real descent? Odd…
- lots of 'roo roadkill in various states of decay. We avoided a fairly fresh one not 5 minutes ago. Have yet to see a live one on this trip.
- between Toowoomba and Chinchilla it was fairly green scenery with lots of farming. That has dropped off considerably since then. Now, just west of Mitchell the grass is more brown than green, the dirt is becoming more red and the creek beds are dry. It’s still very pretty in a stark sort of way.
- Road Trains! You start to see them after Toowoomba, huge rigs pulling 2-3 trailers barrelling down the road at 100 kph. I’d heard of road trains before (not just B-doubles, which are pretty common just outside of Brisbane), but had never seen one for myself until today. I’ve seen a few double-decker trailers, usually two of them, for carrying livestock. I’ve also discovered that the triple trailers, especially the plain box trailers, tend to sway dramatically as they make their way down the road. Very scary as it goes past you, as the roads are narrow to begin with.
- the flies are TERRIBLE!!! We just had to make a stop to change Clive and let the others out to do their business in the scrub and flies instantly surrounded us. Not fun at all.
- there's no running to the corner store for milk and bread. You’d go to town and best be prepared for what you need. Forget it and it waits until next time.

That’s it for now. It’s taken me 50 minutes to write down this little bit. I’m getting paper cuts on my pinky from my hand bouncing against the notepad. The things I do for my blog…

Tales From the Trip - Roma

As a way to kill time during the rides, as well as keep up with my blog, I did a lot of my early writing in the car. This was more challenging than it sounds given the state of roads - they suck. Occasionally I wrote after everyone else had gone to bed. One night, I can't remember where, I managed to transcribe some of my scribblings. I'm going to post them as is - I'm not going to edit them to reflect the here and now, but post them as I wrote them. This way you can see how I was feeling at that moment, as well as saving me a little time and a lot of pressure to get some new posts up.

Enjoy our first instalment:

Sunday 23 September
Day 2
9:05 PM

Clive and Her Majesty are asleep. The Hermit is snoring and Sparky is trying to get used to the aforementioned snoring. “How do you live with that?” he asks me from his bed. I tell him you get used to it.

We’re in Roma and it’s FREEZING! Ok, not middle of winter freezing but colder that Brisbane at night at this time of year. I didn’t bring extra blankets and I’m regretting it. Shops aren’t open out here on Sundays for me to go buy some more, so everyone is rugged up. Her Majesty and Clive are in their winter flannels with layers and socks. This is especially important for Clive, as he doesn’t stay under covers well. Sparky has zippered up his sleeping bag and has a blanket on top of that. The Hermit and I only have one doona, but there are two of us to share body heat. The camper trailer isn’t the best in the terms of insulation, and I wish I had brought our small portable heater.

Ah well, never mind. I’ll think warm thoughts…

So Roma, the “Gateway to the Outback”. Not so big and I’m pretty sure you could drive across town within 10 minutes… maybe 15. If you didn’t go too fast. Still, it’s not too bad. It’s got two fast food franchises – a McDonalds and a KFC, a hospital, a Target (although it’s labelled “Target Country”, which I think means it’s very basic), several banks, one large grocery store (Woolworths), a winery which happens to be right next to the caravan park, a few service stations and convenience stores as well as several hotels and 3 caravan parks. Between the tourists, the truckies and cattle buyer and sellers they must do a brisk business.

Take where we’re staying, for example. This place cleared out by 9 AM, with less than 6 vans left behind! By 3 PM, it was filling up again. Admittedly it’s not a large park, but it has a quick turnover.

Speaking of our park… it’s okay. Nothing flash. The playground is very basic, but new and well maintained, the pool is small (and still too cold to swim in despite a claim of solar heating) and our ensuite has seen better days. And did I mention it’s small? It takes the Hermit only 5 minutes to take Clive for a stroll around. Still, the water is hot (once the Hermit figured out the shower knobs were backwards… after he was finished!!!), the owner is friendly and the place is tidy. And quiet. Sparky and I were sitting outside at our table at 8:30 finishing a game of Scrabble and most of the caravans were dark. Cars were there, so people were home. Just in bed. At 8:30.

Course I shouldn’t talk. The Hermit is still snoring and Sparky is also asleep and it’s only 9:30. We’ve been up since 5 AM courtesy of Clive, but still… I guess this is what people do without TV.

We saw a few cool things today. The Largest Bottle Tree (Ever? Didn’t say…) which measured 8.9 metres (that's over 29 feet) around, along with the 138 bottle trees planted along Heroes Avenue to commemorate the soldiers from the district killed during WWI. Each tree had a plaque giving a name, date and place of death. 138 KIA is a huge number when you consider how small the population of the area was back in the early 1900s. We saw the cattle yards on the way into town, which I think are some of the biggest sale yards in Queensland, but luckily there was nothing going on else we may have ended up with a cow. The Hermit just loves cows.

Since Roma was the first place in Oz where oil was struck, it seems fitting that we stopped at the Big Rig Museum. I can’t say I learned a great deal more than I learned in basic geology class, but we did see from cool machinery. And BIG machinery. Holy Dooley some of that stuff is enormous. We then had a nice 15 minute ride on a miniature train set, which Her Majesty just loved! See all the pictures of Roma here.

Tomorrow we’re off to Charleville. I think I’ll go borrow some of the Hermit’s body heat now, since I can’t feel my toes. TTFN…

Guess Who's Back?

No, not Slim Shady! Me! Mooselet! I'm back! With lots of exclamation points! And a typo every sentence so far!

We got in yesterday, late morning. By the time we unloaded the camper trailer, started the laundry, attempted to get the internet working, did more laundry, had a catch-up with Patsy next door, did a brief shopping trip to the grocery store with Miss Thing, did more laundry, unpacked some more, got dinner, did dishes, bathed Clive, did more laundry... can you see why I didn't update right away?

Seriously, we had a great time. Lots of stories and pictures to share with all of you. Thanks to Miss WTF for providing a couple of updates on where I was when I bothered to text people (my phone coverage was spotty at best). I'm really tired, but only in a physical sense. Mentally I'm refreshed and ready to take on the world again.

I'll pop online later today - after I chase Miss Thing and Sparky off, no doubt - to begin the fun. It's good to be home.