Glasses help me to see, and appear to be directly linked with my brain function!

I can't find my glasses.

I can't think without them! I can use my iPad if up close,but I can't see a thing when walking around the house.

I feel lost, vague, confused and ..... Unable to think!

I am home sick with a rotten cold, but I would like to see well enough to watch some tv in my PJs. 

If anyone finds my glasses, please hand them to me. They were last seen on my bedside table, but not there now. I've fumbled around looking for them, but they aren't here. I'm wondering if a sneaky thief stole them so I couldn't identify the thief when they come back to pinch everything else. 

Or, perhaps they grew legs! 

And yes, I've looked in lots of places, but I can't see to find them. Do you see (hmmph, bad pun) my dilemma?!? What about my glasses?

I would judge me

I realised today that while I try to never say anything judgmental, and try to see everyone as individual, that as a human I make judgments.  I know, hardly rocket science, we all do this, but I hadn't realised the little ways I was doing so each day.

What prompted this? I was waiting for the lift in a car park. Waiting for the lift, with a great reason. Rather than taking the stairs as usual. And I watched others head to the stairwell to begin their climb, and felt a sudden need to justify my need for the lift. To explain that I am not lazy. That I'd take the stairs if I could, but that I can't just now.

Why did I feel this? I felt this need to justify my choice, my decision, because I have looked at others at times, as I walked towards the stairs. I have looked at them and wondered why they weren't taking the stairs. I know I do this, because I also try to work out a good reason for them to make this choice. A reason like they are pregnant, carrying lots of bags, older, frail, disabled. I do this as though I have a right to question this choice, as though I am superior, in a sense, than them if they take the lift when I take the stairs.

This bothers me. I would have judged me. I'm a relatively fit woman of mumble-mumble years (no embarrassment, just that I don't feel the need to share my age widely with people I may not know - there, I did it again!!) who is overweight, and I know if I had walked past someone like me I would have made a judgment. I would have wondered why they (I) didn't climb the stairs to add a little extra activity for the day, that they (me) looked like I could use the exercise and was probably being lazy.

Now at no point would I ever say this to someone, but I would have thought it. I'm not sure how I feel about this, except to say it embarrasses me. I take the stairs because, usually, I can. I see it as some activity to bookend a work day which can be too sedentary. I often walk at lunch for the same reason. These are my choices, and I'm glad I do this, but it isn't my place to judge anyone.

As an aside, my reason for not taking the stairs sucks. I won't share today because it would be like justifying my reason, explaining away to others, as though they have a right to question or judge me for my life choices. So I won't share this right now. I will however share this. I apologise to all whom I have judged harshly, even if only for a second. Even if I'm pretty sure they never knew about my judgment. And particularly if they did notice something about my glance. I'm sorry. I am going to work harder at focusing on my choices, being okay with my life, doing what feels good and right and fun and safe and worth it for me. I will do this so that I'm too busy working on myself to focus on judging others. Oh, and I'll try to not judge myself too harshly either.

When a $7 dollar "co-payment" is more than beer and skittles

So, there is this:
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/less-than-two-middies-joe-hockey-defends-7-gp-fee-20140515-zrdb6.html


My response to Mr Hockey is this:

$7 dollars isn't about cigarettes! It's 7 litres of supermarket milk; 2 loaves of bread; a sandwich for lunch; a 1kg block of supermarket cheese. It's food out of the mouths of children, pensioners, new mothers desperately trying to breastfeed their babies and needing those calories. 


Using a comparison to beer and cigarettes cheapens us all, as though that is the only measure we could understand. I can get a whole bottle of wine for $7, which would last me ages as I rarely drink. I could feed my family lunch for a fortnight in what my increased medical expenses may be for one visit (GP appointment, regular thyroid blood test, and prescription - possibly $20-30 extra). They wouldn't be exciting lunches either, just cheese sandwiches. That is what this government is taking away!


No parent is going to deny a sick child access to the doctor if they can actually afford to take them.  But what if that appointment is to help you address your own addiction to tobacco, seeking to cut down or quit. What if the help you need is to address your issue with alcohol. In the longer term, that appointment will be of benefit, but how do you afford it in the first place if your ADDICTION is the issue. Not a choice to buy cigarettes over taking your child to a doctor. Your addiction means that you need help to STOP spending $20-30 on a packet of cigarettes. And that help comes at a cost which may be prohibitive to those caught up in the addiction.

So Mr Hockey, you aren't being real. Comparing the $7 co-payment as you call it, to the cost of 2 middies (which makes no sense in much of the country, by the way - I have NO idea what sized drink that is, but then, I'm a Victorian so maybe I don't count!) is like comparing the cost of education to a holiday. They are chalk and cheese. It is elitist to do so, and suggests that you feel that all of Australia needs to compare costs to Pub beer prices to understand! Heavens, how very 1950s, when the thought was that men earned, women stayed at home, and a drop in to the pub for a beer was what a working man did on the way home. He held the cost, was in control of the "purse strings" and the "little woman" couldn't even enter the bar for fear of something clearly awful.

 It is 2014. Women work. Men work. Many families budget together. Cigarette smoking leads to nicotine addiction for many, and becomes an illness for which people self medicate by buying more smokes rather than a choice. Get with the program. Your cuts, your "co-payment" is a cost shifting exercise designed to reduce access to primary health services, and will hit the sick, the elderly, the very young, and the poor the hardest. That is your aim, and that will be the result. 

Oh, and it will work. I just hope that, as a nurse and a midwife, that you don't expect me to pick up the pieces for the next 30 years for your poor choice in government - but I fear that is exactly what you expect. And that you won't fund this either. 

Back to my own very special Advent Soundtrack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Day One

Here begins my 2013 season of quite kitsch Christmas Music!

Week One - Groups of Men!!

Today, listening to Straight No Chaser, their Christmas Cheer album from 2009.

I do love the sound of men singing in harmony. I am also enjoying the tongue in cheek approach to Christmas and to a cappella performance. If only these boys could have joined me back in my days singing for beer at The Nott! Or perhaps their peers were there, and I married one!!

The first song - Christmas Can-Can is very much hurried, busy, definitely of the season in my experience.

The harmonies are lovely, the male voices simply lovely.

They sing about spiking the Egg Nog. Do ANY Australians get the whole Egg Nog thing? I'm more likely to be Jonesing for a jug or two of Sangria, personally!

I preferred their more traditional carols, rather than the more secular Christmas songs, but have had fun listening today!

One last note though --- you just HAVE to listen to their Twelve Days of Christmas. Sure, it is derivative, and it seems it was done by someone before them, but it is super cute AND super 80s!!!


http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Cheers-Straight-No-Chaser/dp/B001TRDPB4/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_3

The evening after the day before

So, i've slept on it. I've slept on the result of last night's election results, and on the impact that the change of government (or not, neither option really ticked many of the boxes on my list) will have on those I hold dear. The approach of many parties towards me as a woman is bad enough. The approach of so many parties towards my gay, lesbian and queer (I'm using this to encompass as many people as I can, but I don't want to disrespect anyone who doesn't like this term) friends is incredibly frustrating, aggravating and concerning. 

The approach towards refugees, asylum seekers and those with adverse ASIO findings is terrible. The approach towards those who need financial support via Youth Allowance, Newstart or Parenting Payments/allowance is so diametrically opposite the approach towards working women needing maternity leave that I want to scream.

Instead, I am preparing to take many slow deep breaths, to contemplate how I can ensure that my voice is heard. I am preparing to start writing more letters, to start knocking on doors, to bending the ears of local political representatives and to joining protest marches and events which align with my concerns. I am also considering joining a political party to try and influence the machine from inside. I may not, but I am prepared to do so if it feels right. I haven't ever felt such a strong pull to make change politically.

Whatever I do, maybe this is the time for people like me, people with strong social justice principals, to stand up and try to influence policy and politicians. Oh, and again, time to pray for guidance and direction. 

Election 2013 frustration

Today, as I prepared to vote, I read information about all of the parties on the Senate ticket in Victoria.  I have looked online, I have read The Age and I have used the research done by my amazing husband.
I was preparing to vote below the line, to enter a figure in all 97 boxes and I realized something.

There aren't enough numbers.  I can't give enough people my last preference!  I worked up to the number 65 with some degree of certainty and then I felt I was left with the nutters! 

I particularly struggled with allocating numbers to Family First, Australian Christian Party and Rise Up Australia.  All say they are guided by Christian Principles, that Jesus is their guide. However,  based on their policies and their own preference allocations, I wonder whether they know another Jesus? Whether they have a different Bible?

I'd love to support a party which truly followed Jesus, one which eats with the poor, the meek, the outcast and the lost. One which seeks to serve as Jesus did, rather than being self serving and judgemental.  One which left judgement of others to God and sought to instead give of itself. 

At times like today, crowded in the booth, trying to ensure that refugees and children aren't last, trying to care for our world and the less fortunate, I stumbled in my faith for a moment.  I felt overwhelmed with the enormity of the task and my heart skipped a beat.

I voted.  I numbered every box below the line on the Senate ballot.  I numbed every box on the House of Representative ballot.  I drew on my faith and some of the Wesleyan teaching which encourages me to question how my vote will protect those whom Jesus would ask us to protect. 

I wondered today where Jesus would go if he returned to Earth tomorrow.  I don't believe he would walk into many churches.  I suspect he might go to a mental health facility or a Mandatory detention Centre if he came to Australia. 

So with that in mind, my vote is cast.  I suspect that, in the end, my vote might not influence the result, but today my vote confirmed my faith.  I will hold on to this memory as I prepare for the travesties which I suspect will result if the Liberal National Coalition win as resoundingly as the early counts suggest. Oh, and I will pray.  I think it might be needed.

Fundraising for the Australian Breastfeeding Association in Bendigo by eating???

Okay Bendigonians, I need your help.

The Australian Breastfeeding Association Bendigo Group have been chosen as one of the charities of the month for Local Matters by Grill'd in Bendigo. As a long term member of the group, I know how much amazing work are done by the volunteers and members, and have experienced personally the amazing support mums receive with both breastfeeding help, but also that peer-to-peer support around other parenting issues.

HOW IT WORKS (from Grill'd website)
It’s a pretty high-tech system involving bottle tops, jars & counting… The $500 will be split amongst 3 local groups. Each group will be represented on a different jar. Every time a customer buys a burger we’ll give them a token (ok, it’s a bottle top from our friends at Little Creatures). Our customers decide who they’d like us to support by choosing which jar to put their token in. At the end of the month, we’ll count up the tokens to figure out who gets what. We’ll split the money $300 / $100 / $100, so everyone gets something. Pretty simple really.

WHAT I'D LIKE YOU TO DO
Obviously, I'd like you to place your cap in the jar for the Australian Breastfeeding Association Bendigo Group! I'd also like you to spread the word, so that the group can get as many bottle caps as possible. This promotion is running for ALL of May. The winning group gets $300, and the others get $100, so either way, we should get something, but the $300 would really help  with the costs of training the lovely trainee Breastfeeding Counsellors and Community Educators so that the Australian Breastfeeding Association Bendigo group can keep providing support to families in and around Bendigo!

Celebrating history

Today, our beautiful children had the opportunity to try a class room experience from the late 1800s.
Their school, Strathfieldsaye Primary, celebrates 140 years of operation this year.
I spotted the deputy principal in appropriate garb, and the kids had a photo taken in front of "an olden days" car, apparently from 1908.
It was lovely, seeing all the different costumes that families had cobbled together, and the pride children had in attending the "olden days classroom".
More celebrations will occur this year, for which I am glad.  Definitely looking forward to seeing the Bush Dancing later this week! Miss 7 has been practising the Heel and Toe Polka, and was surprised that Mummy was old enough to remember it!

Fighting the Cherry slugs!

It all seemed so simple.
The lovely people at Diggers (http://www.diggers.com.au/) suggested that for Cherry & Pear slug dousing the cherry tree with flour was a great organic alternative.
So tonight, I grabbed the big container of plain flour (apparently any type will do) and headed outside. I pulled my hair up into a clip so it wouldn't be in my face. I ducked under the netting, which protects the fruit trees from marauding birds, and got to work.
 I tossed a handful of flour over a branch. Right! So, a couple of handfuls wasn't going to do it! I couldn't see any difference. I grabbed another handful,  and tried again. Now I could see where I'd been. A couple of handfuls per branch was going to take a while.

I became more vigorous. I tossed handfuls and handfuls over the tree. Up high, down low, left and right. There was flour dust all around the tree, but suddenly, I was trapped.
My hair clip had become snagged in the netting. I was under the cloud of flour, encased in white dust. I couldn't free my hair, one arm holding the flour barrel, the other covered in flour, holding another handful. I tossed it anyway, and tugged at the netting. I eventually freed my hair, and finished the job, only wrestling with the netting a few more times!!
The tree looks, at best, a "bit" floury, though every branch and leaf was showered. I, on the other hand, had apparently aged 30 years! (You can always count on loved ones to tell it like it is!) I was simply covered in fine white flour. My clothes, under my clothes, my shoes, my glasses, my legs and arms. And my hair! Completely covered. It created a clag like effect on my scalp!
I was able to dust or shake off much of the flour, but definitely needed to wash my hair.  

So, my tips to other gardeners considering flour for Cherry & Pear Slug.
Wear old clothes.
Plan your dust off before you start.
Wear a mask!
And a shower cap!

Oh, and as an alternative, don't show you partner this post, and kindly ask them to do it. Apparently it is a very funny sight!

New Supermarket in Strathfieldsaye

I have been interested to see the recent articles in the Bendigo Advertiser regarding the plan to use some land in Strathfieldsaye to build a new supermarket.  The article earlier this week which focused on the IGA supermarket was quite simply one-sided. I am sure that this business will suffer, but it is likely that so will many others.

Edwards Greengrocery just celebrated their first birthday, and there has been a rejuvenation of this part of Strathfieldsaye during the past few years with Strathfieldsaye Bakery and the Butchers being opened (again in the case of the Butchery). Strathfieldsaye's commercial area is more than the IGA and it's attached shopping complex. What of the Pharmacy? The Hardware store?  Where was the balance?

Indeed, what of the traffic issues inherent in building a shopping centre on the corner of Club Court. This intersection of Club Court, Tannery Lane, and what is locally known as Strathfieldsaye Road (though it has MANY names) is quite dangerous. Leaving Club Court, particularly turning right towards town, is fraught with danger.  This turn is made daily by local residents; the parents from the local primary school, the preschool, the maternal and child health nurse; as well as those leaving the soccer club or Strathfieldsaye Recreation Reserve.  I fear for my life when I need to leave Club Court on my bike, and feel just as fearful when I am taking the kids home from soccer practice.

Also, this new supermarket is planned to be built directly next to the Strathfieldsaye Primary School.  The fence which separates the two properties has class rooms only metres from it. The students in Grades 3 and 4 currently use these rooms, and the current plans suggest that their airy, bush view outside their south facing windows will be replaced with a loading dock. Imagine the noise! Imagine yourself a teacher, trying to keep students focused and on task while trucks load on and off all day, right outside your class room.

My children attend this school, so I have an interest in maintaining the amenity of their space. I am also very aware that the school has no more room to expand, for all that the expansion in population is the very reason that Woolworths (or the developer at least) intend to build next to the school. Have we lost sight of the importance of play, of space to explore? What of space to learn?  The school already has around 500 students, and only a few rooms are portables, placed along this fence line.  There doesn't appear to be anywhere else they could be placed in the yard than along this property boundary.

I am not sure if an alternative can be found. I am not sure whether the Education Department would or could buy this land for future expansion, but I doubt they could offer the price a developer can offer.

When we develop in the Bendigo region, we need to be clever about it. We need to understand the issues, and make sure that while developing land, we don't cut off our nose to spite our face. If the land is lost to a developer now, if the school is tied to the current land, then families may not buy in Strathfieldsaye, knowing they may have to travel to access education for their children.

Day 5 of Advent - a stressful day, Faith helped a little

Today, I needed music to get through a personally challenging day.
I stuck to the weekly theme, though I am sure that other choices might have been more friendly.
I listened to Faith Hill's Joy To The World



The title track was appropriately anthemic, with a sense of pomp which suits it.  The backing to the Little Drummer Boy was lovely, I could picture all those singers working together with their Pum Pum Pums.
Holly Jolly Christmas was quite up beat, again fairly pop-y rather than Country.  However this was balanced by the Carols dotted throughout the album, and the lovely A Baby Changes Everything - true in every case, but certainly true when you consider the baby whose arrival we celebrate at Christmas time. It builds and builds, and had me crying towards the end. Just lovely.

Today's Earworm: A Baby Changes Everything

Day 4 of Advent music binge - Disappointed by the Lady

Today, I chose a group with whom I am less familiar - Lady Antebellum.
Their album On This Winter Night was interestingly particularly pop-like for an apparent Country group.  I did some research after hearing the album - they are considered to be a pop Country group ... I didn't realise that this was even a style of Country!!!

Again, I went into this with an expectation of a more Country feel. I enjoyed A Holly Jolly Christmas for it's upbeat nature, and the singing was lovely. This album did, however, fit with today's weather (less than 20 degrees Celsius) rather than the usual hot weather we have at this time of year. I actually felt like a hot chocolate, and could imagine trying egg nog.

There were more Seasonal songs than Christmas carols on this one, and it was telling that my favourite was the lilting title track, On This Winter's Night. It fitted beautifully with my mood on the day, and the harmonies were just lovely. Not particularly Christmas focused though.

Today's Earworm: A Holly Jolly Christmas

Day 3 - Kenny Kenny Kenny

Well, I dipped into Kenny Rogers today!  Definitely worth it!
While I sampled a couple of albums, my album for today was his most recent, Christmas Live!

This is a shorter album, only 9 songs, so it got plenty of listens through.  It started with My Favourite Things - thanks to Rodgers and Hammerstein - which was not what I was expecting.

This album is part of the Gaither Gospel Series, and had a definite Christian bent rather than a Country one. It wasn't what I was expecting, but I enjoyed this focus.  Mary Did You Know was a new one for me, and simply reminded me so much of why we celebrate this season.  However, the reference to his saving the nation (I am assuming this means the USA here, though it may not) smacks of the self-aggrandisement which is common in representations from the United States.
I also loved the Choral backing on O Holy Night. An upbeat version, but enjoyable. Got me singing along!!

I enjoyed Kenny's voice, and the arrangements.  I am glad that I purchased this one this year to add to my collection.

Today's Earworm - Mary Did You Know.

Day 2 of Advent - The Christmas Binge Continues

To continue with the theme, today I listened to Christmas with Tammy (Wynette).

This album is very much of it's time (apparently 1970). I keep waiting for Tammy to sing Stand By Your Man, but that isn't likely to happen. I have enjoyed the use of organ,something which seems to be wholly missing from more recent albums by popular artists. The timing of the music is quite traditional, and the first six tracks were Christmas Carols, for sure.
However, there was a little touch of the commercial and winter nature of a US Christmas towards the end of the album.  A must for fans of Tammy, and for the rest of us, perhaps just nostalgic, with a twist of the Country Christmas I was seeking initially!

My Earworm for today: Silent Night

Advent of Christmas Music

It has taken me some time to get around to blogging this, but so many people are puzzled by my choice to travel with an Advent soundtrack, that I thought I'd share my experience of Advent 2012.
For the past several years, I have collected Christmas Albums. Some are vinyl (though not many), some as CDs, and many are digital copies.  I started this when I recalled the compilation album we had when I was a child. The nostalgic moment was shared with at least one brother (I have three), but neither of us have been able to find our own copies. 

Centre fold-out Manger

of our Family Christmas Album in the 70's (photo found online)

This album had Johnny Mathis, Perry Como and many other artists of the time singing a mix of both Christmas Carols and Christmas Songs.  I wanted the eclectic nature of that album to infuse my Christmas, and also my preparation during Advent.  

I am familiar with Christmas music, having spent much of my university years as a choral singer. Our choir would arrange groups to sing in shopping centres, at corporate events and hospitals and nursing homes to raise funds during November and December to fund our concerts and exploits for the rest of the year.  I should have been as thoroughly sick of Christmas music as many of my choral friends, or as those who work in retail, particularly the Santa-copiae. However, I am not. I enjoy the different versions, laughing at the terrible ones and blissing out on the lovely ones.

So, to this Advent. I have over 60 albums, and have decided to listen to at least one album per day. It started well, with a decision to focus on Country artists during the first week. Generally, I don't purchase the compilation albums, preferring to sample all of the song choices made by an artist or their Label. I carry the music with me, and when unable to have my earbuds in place (they always get tangled with my work lanyard for a start) I have the speakers on low, and walk along to my own personal soundtrack!

Today, I have listened to Reba McIntyre's Christmas Collection. 

I enjoyed the somewhat hokey nature of the music, her 'real down home charm' is present throughout, and I keep picturing that she is actually singing to her TV Family, though I am sure that they had nothing to do with it. Still, I hope she was slapping some one along side the head at some point, just to keep it real!

My ear worm for today - Happy Birthday Jesus!