Debra McLaren – the saga continues

Freda fish has passed on to the other side. Freda was surly, aggressive and had a violent temper. In many ways she reminded me of my students. She passed away after a short illness. A latin mass was said at 7am followed by interrment in the compost heap. Donations in lieu of flowers to the R.S.P.C.A.

From 20070130 Freda

I’d forgotten how miserable you feel with a cold. My brain feel like it’s been stuffed with some form of insulation. I’m trying not to sleep too much during the day so that I don’t go nocturnal, but it’s not easy. Sympathy please.

Another fabulous book by one of my favourite authors Pauline McLynn. This is a story of love, loss, homelessness and healing. It made me cry and think, sometimes simultaneously.

I now (accidentally) own 2 copies of this book. I ordered a copy from my local Angus & Robertson bookstore and then found the book in the Discount Book Warehouse. Oh well.

To those of us who share the pain of knowing we will never be mothers.

To the best mum in the world.

Following on from the last post…

If you see something and it’s there it’s real,

If you see something and it’s not there it’s imaginary,

If you can’t see something and it’s there it’s invisible

and

If you can’t see something and it’s not there then it’s GONE.

I’m not the first to say this, but I am one of the few that find it hysterically funny.

This has been bugging me for some time.

If you see something it’s there.

If you don’t see something there are several possiblilities:

• It’s gone.
• You can’t see it. (Possibly because you are an old biddy with failing eyesight.)
• It’s invisible/transparent.
• You just didn’t look hard enough because you don’t want to see it.

Lisa and I went to Coffs Harbour for the weekend to have a break from our family and to let our family have a break from us. The mantra for the weekend was “nobody knows us here”. We stayed at the Country Comfort in a family Suite. It was a bit shabby but it was only for two nights.

Friday night we hit SSS. SSS is about to open in Port so this was a reconnaissance visit. The meals were huge and really tasty. I had ribs which was messy but delicious.

We hit the shops on Saturday, particularly Voluptuous, a size friendly store with great service and fabulous clothes. Port Macquarie doesn’t have a big selection of clothes for the amply blessed (Big W and Target really) so it was great to have to make a which? decision rather than no decision. I ended up with an orange crumpled skirt, a striped crushed top and a pair of slinky olive trousers. I don’t usually go for those colours but I felt like a change. It was also a lot hotter than I’d packed for so I was glad to buy some cotton. I also picked up a new denim jacket at Big W.

I found a great store called Puzzles Downunder which was a geek’s paradise. The first thing I saw when I walked in was a set of dice with integers. I couldn’t get the smile off my face for the rest of the day. I invested in the dice, a Rubik’s Cube and a book of lateral thinking puzzles. However, the item that I’m going back for is a puzzle ring. I would have bought it before I knew it was a puzzle just based on looks alone. So I’m saving my pennies.

The rest of the night was spent solving the cube (using the world’s smallest instruction sheet) and playing with our new purchases. We ordered in room service (chicken satay skewers) which were OK but neither of us were really hungry.

On Sunday we headed off to the Pet Porpoise Pool which was really fun. I kissed all the mammals that were up for it (a sea lion and a dolphin) and we watched the show. I got some great photographs particularly of the fairy penguins and turtles. I’m really cross that I didn’t take my 300mm zoom.

The trip to and from Coffs was occupied by top-of-the-lungs singing from musicals.

I’d forgotten how much I loved the musical Chess.