My Platform

I believe that education should be of primary concern to all citizens of our country.

As we approach the coming election all citizens should consider issues of education above all others when selecting their preferred candidate.

So…what did your kids do at school today?

In case you are unclear, that is a snowman that transforms into an aeroplane when you open your finger. I am so proud of my son. His creativity knows no bounds. (Please read this statement with the intended sarcasm!)

Self Talk

Last week I went to a workshop about social and emotional wellbeing. I often feel rather cynical about self-help type of programs. You know, those that purport to make you more effective, efficient or an all-round great person. I feel like they are saying that I need to be better in order to get along in this world, that stress is caused by not being good enough. My own view is that the world needs to slow down a little…then everyone would be less stressed. I don’t believe that it is possible to do it all and have it all without being driven to the point of obsession, and that is not healthy.

I did, however, find the session that I attended to be very worthwhile. It was about self-talk and how that leads to attitudes which affect behaviour. We were considering it in terms of the behaviour that you see in children, but I started to look a bit broader at people that I am dealing with, colleagues, friends, family etc. I found it to be applicable to all situations.

It was particularly applicable to me. I am a procrastinator. When I need to begin a project I take the longest time. About a quarter of the way through the project I pick up steam and I finish it really quickly. It is fairly rare for me to not finish something  I have begun, but oh so common for me to not start something that I want to do. This workshop pointed out the self-talk that leads to this attitude and how that is affecting my behaviour. That is enough for me. Awareness is nine-tenths of a cure in this case. I am procrastinating because I am actually thinking the project through, considering every possible problem and solution, making an immensely complex plan in my mind for how to handle what may happen. I am STILL attempting to be a perfectionist. I do not have any ability to be impulsive when I am like this, yet some of my most creative work has come when I allowed myself to work without thinking.

I am controlling of my environment. When something is suggested to me my initial response is always ‘no, I can’t do that’. This is because I have not yet had time to think it through, work out the problems and how I wil deal with them. I can’t even impulsively go driving on the weekend. NO, I can’t. I need to have notice and think it through. This can make me inert, but that’s ok because inertia is safe. I have a neon sign in my head that says ‘that is dangerous.’ I do not allow myself to be put in a risky situation. Any situation that I have not fully considered is assumed to be risky.

Most of the time these things are ok with me. We need all types of people in this world. The cautious among us balance out the risk takers. There has to be a voice of reason in every crowd. If everyone of us was impulsive our society would be out of control. I am generally happy to be a moderate person and happy to allow others to take risks. Sometimes though, like now, when big changes and uncertainties loom on the horizon for my family, it starts to be difficult. I would like to make a coccoon that my family will sit in, they can’t get out, you can’t get in, and we’ll just wait there until I have finished thinking and planning it all out in my head. It won’t change anything, but I’ll feel a little more in control.

Last night Sussanah rang me at 6:09pm to ask me to go to dinner and movies at 7pm. less that one hour’s notice. My self talk says “What!! I haven’t planned for this…” But I thought about how that is influencing me and making me inert. So I said, “I’ll call you back in half an hour.” (That is different to ‘no’) and I did…and I went to the movie. I enjoyed myself.

Yesterday I looked at a project that I have begun, all cut out, just waiting to be sewn and I decided to add some hand stitched details.

So I did. They are done, all of them finished.

A little bit of self-awareness seems to have gone a long way. These two anocdotes may not seem to be earth shattering to you, but I am very pleased with myself. Today I will do more. Maybe I’ll even drive somewhere without knowing where that will be!

What a risk taker!!!

Too, Too Tired.

I am…

 But it is totally self-inflicted. I need to go to bed earlier and I need to sleep all night. The following post is mostly an incoherent ramble, but I’m too tired to care.

I went to see this with the kids. It was very, very cool. My ears are still tingling, but in a very good way.

Now, you cold climate crazy people, I need your advice. Ashleigh will land in Paris in late January. When she leaves here it will likely be 32 degrees C. She’ll land to face around 5 degrees. She is going to need a coat. We do not have anything suitable in NQ. I think that 24 degrees is cool, 21 is cold. We just don’t have to deal with Paris-style temperatures. I need your good coat advice. I am happy to purchase online or through ebay, but what would you look for?

I’ll leave you with a riddle. It is irrelevant to everything else in this post, but I don’t care. I’m too tired to care.

How do you silence two thirteen year old boys?

Make them blow up forty balloons. 40 balloons + 2 boys = 60 minutes of silence (punctuated by the odd farty sound made by releasing air from the balloon – the height of humour!)

Basic Lives

These instructions came with a towel.

Wash it…then dry it.

When did we become so stupid????

On the Beach

Last weekend we spent a couple of nights at Balgal Beach. It is about 60km north of Townsville.

This photo was taken at 3pm on Sunday.

Hundred of metres of beautiful beach and not another soul to be seen. How lucky can you be? The sea was a little bit rough. It is rare to see so much white water. Our coastline is with the Great Barrier Reef. That means that the water is too shallow to generate waves. There are no surfers in North Queensland, despite our coastal lifestyle.

We walked as far as you can see in this direction.

At the end there is an outlet which has been cut off by a sandbank.

It’s alright to look at this water, but you should never get too close. It is a perfect habitat for saltwater crocodiles. I have never seen one, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t live here.

We have been coming to Balgal Beach since before the children were born. They have spent many, many hours beachcombing along this shore. We very rarely swim in the open water. It is too cold in winter and too dangerous in summer. In the summer box jellyfish are in these waters. They are deadly. True North Queenslanders call people who swim in the ocean ‘tourists’.

When the kids were little we would dig a hole in the sand at low tide and let it fill with water. They would call it a swimming hole and we would spend the whole time shoring up the dam wall to stop it from emptying back into the ocean.

This weekend we were looking for a sand dollar skeleton. These are just amazing, but elusive. It is difficult to find them whole as the waves frequently break them up before you find them. I love them and wanted to take a macro shot. It took us about 45 minutes of beachcombing before my daughter’s eagle eyes spotted this beauty.

Fancy a skeleton being that pretty.

I have been quilting feathers and thinking that I am so clever…

but I can’t compete with nature. Nature has done it all before, without even trying!

Birthday!

Today is my daughter’s seventeenth birthday.

This was taken last night at her birthday party with a friend. We bought her the little black dress that she wore to stunning effect and the digital camera to take to France next year.

She is an adult. She is capable and responsible, she is intelligent and sensible, she is caring and social, she is beautiful in every way. She is a completed project. One that my Pete and I have worked on very hard, with our entire beings, since 1990. We have invested so much energy, thought, belief and philosophy into her, but it isn’t really necessary any more. You are looking at the finished model of a tiny baby that we met so long ago. From now on we are just proud onlookers as she takes her life and shapes it.

I am incredibly proud of her, incredibly proud of the family that has supported and nurtured her for so long, but it still makes me want to cry.

An Update to a Newsflash

Remember way back in April we found out that my daughter will spend all of 2008 in France? Today we found out exactly where she will be. In a tiny village called Pithon, which is just outside the town of Ham. (Is it just me or did this make you think ‘python’ and ‘spam’?)

We google-earthed it. (that’s a verb, isn’t it?) She will be 150km out of Paris, 2 hours from England, half an hour from Belgium and Luxemburg and the Netherlands. The area looks quite rural. Ham has only five and half thousand people and Pithon is much smaller.

Tomorrow she has to meet with her sponsoring rotary club. There should have been a clue for me in the name of the club. It is called ‘daybreak’. Guess what time they meet? We need to be dressed and happy at a meeting that begins at 6:30am. That is in the morning…in the school holidays…!!

This weekend she will attend a camp to meet lots of incoming and outgoing students. One of the girls living in  Townsville at the moment is on exchange from Pithon. My daughter is looking forward to meeting her and has lots of questions. There are other students going to France who have been in email contact with her, so she is looking forward to meeting them in person too.

Next year my parents were hoping to go to Villers-Bretonneux; a site of military significance to Australian soldiers in World War One. My father is a returned soldier (from a different conflict), so he wanted to go there and pay his respects. Unbelievably Villers-Bretonneux is 52km from Pithon. So they will visit my daughter and Villers-Bretonneux at the same time.

It is starting to feel like a reality. Soon she will be gone, living a fabulous life and having a ball!

Kite Fest

Today we went down to the Strand (one of our local beaches) to see the kite fest.

The Strand is always a popular place. It has fabulous public spaces. Most weekends there are lots of weddings held along the shore.

Today it was particularly busy.

Lots of people wanted to watch the kites in action.

This one looks like a patchwork kite.

Some disasters occurred.

But they were quickly remedied.

We even watched a tandem parachute jump that looked like it would land right in the middle of the kites, but managed to navigate safely to the beach front.

My children were in fine foolish form.

Notice that my daughter had a fringe (bangs for you guys who don’t know what I mean) cut yesterday. She hasn’t had one since she was quite young. It has afflicted her with a mysterious hair flicking and constant adjusting disease.

Don’t tell her that I said this, but man!. It makes her look a lot like her brother! Look at these green eyes.

Life is good. Wish it would stay like this.

Forever Day

In May last year my sister was given the news that she had been allocated a child for adoption. We received this photo of a smiley boy from an orphanage in Taipei. My sister and her husband gave him our grandfather’s name and his paternal grandfather’s name.

It was a very strange few months, knowing that a boy was waiting for all of us in a place so very far away. We were unable to see him or hear him. We sent him some gifts. We received photos. We thought about him every single day until one day in Spetember when a call came. My sister, her husband and their daughter were told to make arrangements immediately and be in Taipei within a week to collect him.

Today is the anniversay of very day that they first met him. The very day that he first returned with them to their hotel room in a foreign city. The very day that he realised that he had a mummy and a daddy and a big sister. (He didn’t know about the rest of us for another week.)

Today we will have cake and balloons. It is only appropriate. Cake is mandatory at any celebration! We have a lot to celebrate.

How very fortunate we are! A song for today.

Paler Shade of Green

We consider ourselves to be environmentally aware. We try to conserve power, we recycle, we use a sprinkler system that is more water-wise. We planted our yard with native plants because they are hardy. We have very little grass in our front yard because it just sucks up water. We enjoy watching the parrots partying in our trees when they are in flower.

Can we still be considered green if this morning I awoke with murderous intent toward a bird? Can I pick and choose which parts of nature I will accept?

If that makes me a hypocrite, then it is a badge that I wear with pride!

It is obviously spring because the storm birds have arrived.  (Go down that page and click on the link to listen to their call.) My mother-in-law calls them storm birds. My Pete and I have another name for them that would curl my mother-in-law’s hair. These little charmers awake with the sun and begin screaming ‘boo-oop’, over and over and over again. They are so loud that they cannot be ignored. My Pete and I do not like to wake with the sun, it makes us cranky. I have been out roaming the yard with a tennis ball in my hand. The dogs can see the wild look in my eyes and won’t even get out of bed to greet me. I have thrown the tennis ball into every branch of every tree, but I can’t find the little mongrel that continues to taunt me with its ‘boo-oop’ cry.

I will find it. I will scare it with a tennis ball.

sigh…then I will probably just have to close all my windows so I can’t hear it any more.

Stupid nature!