That is a harsh title but that is how I am feeling at the moment …….. stressed by some-one’s uncaring attitude. We have lived in our present home (rented) for two years, we are good tenants, the place is kept looking well and we will often get things repaired ourselves as we don’t want to wait on the landlord. There has been a storage of rental places in the whole of Australia and things are very competitive, our landlord believes that she can get an extra $120 to $150 per week. Because our laws do not allow landlords to put rents up an unreasonable amount they could not do that to us. We have been told that our lease will not be renewed, so we have to leave. That allows them to charge the new tenants the higher amount. We have offered to pay a lot extra just to stay until the end of the year, Jess is doing her final year of school and we are desperately trying to keep the world calm and stress-free for her and Graham is in the middle of a large contract that will continue to the end of October so he has very little time to himself. It is strange but at the same time that this is happening to us, Graham’s brother is going through the same thing. Their rent is going up by $60 per week and then they will be on a two month’s lease so that the ownercan put the rent again in two months time.
This was an easy one to do, I think to a certain degree every mother, parent or person does it. When things become too stressful you try very hard to detach yourself. One of these times in a parent’s case it is saying ‘goodbye’ to your children as they go off on their adventures or saying ‘goodbye’ to grandchildren or aged parents. I think to keep your sanity you have to have those moments of detachment , of turning off. In my case it is often daydreaming or watching people.
I hope that this works. I sat here smiling watching this, it is just wonderful.
No drawing this week, I have been watching the Olympics, this time I have made a conscience decision to watch as much as I can. Why? First they are enjoyable to watch, some sports I like more than others but I watched for the first time beach volleyball, it was great, the tactics were amazing. Although I don’t agree with the lack of human rights in China and what has happened and is still happening in Tibet, I remember how we were so incredibly proud when we had the Olympics in Sydney and how much we wanted everything to go well. So I feel for the Chinese people I am sure that they feel the same way that we did, they would be proud of the good job that has been done in the setting up the facilities and how smoothly things are running. Besides it is a great time to catch up on my embroidery.
This involved a lot of thought. Then I had a great idea, my baby is turning eighteen next Wednesday. The years have gone by so quickly; to me, one moment she was a sweet little baby and now she is a mature, intellegent young lady. So therefore ‘POOF’ has gone the time. I really wish that the time had not passed so quickly.
I have been reading lots of articles about blogging over the past few days. Trying to find out ways to improve my blog. And to find what people consider makes a good blog.
I had to question why I have a blog and why it is important to me. I think mostly for me it is reflection on life, a place to share my creative pursuits, a place to meet and share with like minded people, to develop friendships and to help my wandering children to keep in touch (now if only they would start their blogs)
What did I find in my research? There is a wonderful article by Skelliewag on finding good photos for your blog, I now understand the different types of creative commons licenses on Flickr. There are also some very good articles on Blissfully Domestic on blogging that I am still working my way through. This site is written by group of women and they have a large amount of well-written articles on many different topics that are worth reading.
I will continue to research as blogging is very important to me and it is funny but the school that I work at is know as the ‘blogging’ school.
‘Canned’, this was a hard one. Tried two /three different things but eventually went with canned sardines. I saw chocolate sardines in the local deli the other day and thought that would be an interesting thing to buy, but didn’t. We have many cans of real sardines in our pantry as we mix half a can in the dog’s dried food each day, as the vet said that it was good for her coat. I know she is one very spoilt dog; who is the ‘dog house’ tonight as she stole the sausages.
‘Today I sit here a little melancholy and homesick for my family. Distance between people that love each other, always feels like a waste. It’s like having a million dollars, but not being able to access it’.
I just read the most beautiful post in the Shutter Sisters blog and she described exactly how I feel. I know as you get older and your children make their own way you are to be happy for them and their independence. But you know it is hard, you just miss them, you don’t really know what is going on in the lives….. the day to day things. There is much excitement when we receive an email from the girls and we talk about it for days. I got a message from Penny on my blog this morning and I am so curious to know why it took 10 hours for a round trip to the markets.
My older girls have promised when they stop travelling the world that Canberra will be their home, Adam and his beautiful wife Suzy talk about going back to Canberra and my beloved is in Canberra today and he rang me to describe the frost on the ground, the crisp air and the snow on the mountain. I felt ‘homesick’ but am I hankering for a life that does not exist anymore, our three older children grew up there and we did not leave until they went to high school. I know that the city has changed but I think that it is still bascially ‘Canberra’, where people talk about politics, where there are things to do every weekend, where wonderful old friends live, where you have the four seasons of the year and where you don’t have to worry if you to the shop in your ‘ugg’ boots. Do you think that I am kidding myself?
When we first moved to Queensland i could hear a ‘banging’ in the room just off the kitchen in the middle of the night. I crept down to the kitchen to have a look, my heart was pounding and I was shaking. I didn’t turn any lights on. It took a while for my eyes to get use to the dark. I then could work out a shape sitting on the bench. A possum. The culprit was a possum eating a apple out of the fruit bowl, he had come through the open window.
We had a really busy weekend,the highlight was my nephew’s engagement party held in a bush park need their house. It was lovely, we saw people that we had not seen for a long time and I got to cuddle the new babies. Our two little grand-daughters played very happily with their cousins and they were very busy. Liv (my grand-daughter) is showing a strong interest in digital scrap-booking and has done some very lovely layouts. She now wants to learn how to use the camera and to take her own photos. Both Suzy’s and my cameras had flat batteries, so she took photos with my iPhone, they weren’t too bad.
Back to school this week and I have been flat out. The beginning of term is always a really busy time working on units of work for each of the classes. The Olympics is a big topic this term; a industrious librarian from our area has spent a lot of time over the holidays tracking down links to both China and the Olympics so that part of the job is so much easier this time around.
I have always love looking at the photos of what is on people’s desk. So I took a photo of my messy desk at school with my iPhone, I am not leaving school tomorrow until it is cleaned up. The photo is blurry, sorry.
