Love, Friends and Companionship

We don’t have thanksgiving here in Australia and I always thought it was such a shame that we didn’t, because there’s such value in stopping what you’re doing and spending time with family and loved ones.

How easy is it to get caught up in the business of your life?
We’ve all been guilty of taking someone or others for granted. How nice to be able to come together and just appreciate each other and be truly thankful for the good things in your life.

As I write this, it’s thanksgiving night in America and I imagine that my fellow blogger and her country people are all enjoying good company, love and lots of good food! It makes me wish I could scoot off over there and join them for some turkey! And I don’t even eat meat!
I’m not so naïve to think that tempers, jealousies and insecurities won’t raise their ugly heads on this day… I’m sure they do!

But that’s life isn’t it?
That’s what makes us human.

It’s what we do with the temper, jealousy and insecurity that matters
So while we don’t have thanksgiving, I am lucky enough to belong to a family that lies to be together and a few of us gathered at my parents’ house tonight.

Mum made pizza (Good Italian pizza!!) and coupled with good company, a good night ensued!
It wasn’t thanksgiving but it was a reminder of how much I value and am thankful for the most important things in life.

Love, friends and companionship.

Wellies

It is definitely the weather to be wearing wellies in. All this week we have had massive storms bringing in lots of wind and rain. There has even been some hail and snow. And all of this has resulted in power outages, downed trees, and conspicuous flooding. Even where it doesn’t look like there is over saturation, there is – which makes the wellies so glorious.

Today wellies became part of the daily uniform. I went out to snap some photographs of what the storm did to the area, and it would not have been possible to get to some of the areas I needed to get to without my glorious wellies. I even dragged my sister along with me and, of course, she wore her own glorious wellies. The only thing I didn’t like was the attention her pink and black flower wellies and my blue and green polka-dot wellies was getting from everyone who saw us. People were pointing and whispering, while others even inquired about where we got our wellies. And when I took some family photographs of friends and their kids – the kids became focused on counting the dots on my wellies and demanding their parents take them to buy wellies of their own.

I ended the day happily dry. My wellies sit by the door, beckoning me to put them on and go outside to explore once again, but it will have to wait until another day. Another storm is due to hit the area.

And the earth cooled....

You could almost hear the land breathing a sigh of relief as the cool change came through overnight.

As I walked outside this morning, to experience the cool breeze, I imagined feeling the steam rising up from the still hot ground. So nice to feel comfortable again.

I looked at my plants and felt a tinge of guilt. Those poor things are so neglected. I gave them a little drink, hoping they'd forgive me and keep growing despite my neglect. Were they also shouting out in glee, not having to combat the sun's hot rays?

Yesterday I'd commented that it felt like I was in a fan forced oven! Not only was it HOT (43 degrees celsius) but the heat was accompanied by a gushing, hot, notherly wind.It was not pleasant at all!

But that was yesterday.

Today it's milder. Almost makes yesterday seem a dream.

These roses are my favourite and I thought they looked so pretty this morning, especially against a cloud filled sky.

It's still hard to believe that we're experiencing such extremes when Summer hasn't even started yet!

Opreating System Relief

Today I received Windows 7. The moment the box arrived at my front door, a sense of relief fell upon my shoulders. See, I have been working on the Vista operating system for the past 7 to 8 months and it has been nothing more than one frustration after another. My experience with this system has been a series of continuous problems that result in me regularly being kicked off the internet by my own system, error messages, clogged operations, and stunted productivity. This is particularly frustrating for me because what I do for a living is heavily dependent on my laptop... I not only do consulting work but I am also adjunct for several online universities. And nothing gets a person more angry then when they are in the middle of a virtual conversation with a student, explaining a specific concept that will help them with their major research project, and the screen suddenly goes pale and a little window pops up stating the program is no longer responding and has to shut down.

Microsoft should be ashamed they produced and released such a half-assed product. People should not have to pay for the Windows 7 upgrade. Microsoft should be handing out Windows 7 for free as an apology to all their customers. I was actually holding off having to buy Windows 7, but Vista made getting tasks done in an effective and efficient manner so completely impossible that I had no choice but to pony-up the money to buy the upgrade. Ironically, when I bought my laptop last year I had heard grumblings about Vista and attempted to buy my laptop with the XP operating system only, but the manufacturer wouldn't allow it at the time. Bastards!

So tomorrow will be spent installing this upgrade and hoping it will ease the problems I have suffered through with this blasted system. And while I wanted to shut everything down and start installing Windows 7 immediately, I am going to wait until tomorrow morning… Vista’s death by Win 7 warrants an all-day celebration. Wa-hooo!

Sweltering, Sweating and Swearing

It seems we've reached the "three S" stage already...

Without doubt, there is a lot of Sweltering, Sweating and Swearing going on around here.

Adelaide is experiencing an unseasonal heatwave. In fact, this is the first time that we have had five or more days above 35 degrees in November (the technical definition of a heatwave is five or more days above 35 degrees).

Before this time, our longest hot streak for November was four days in 1894!!

It's not even Summer yet!

The temperature has been

Sat 07th Nov - 34.4 degrees Celsius

Sun 08th Nov - 36.7 degrees Celsius

Mon 09th Nov - 37.0 degrees Celsius

Tue 10th Nov - 38.9 degrees Celsius

Wed 11th Nov - 39.2 degrees Celsius

Thu 12th Nov - 39 degrees Celsius

And the forecast for the next few days is...

Fri 13th (today) 39
Sat 14th Nov - 39 degrees Celsius

Sun 15th Nov - 40 degrees Celsius

Mon 16th Nov - 28 degrees Celsius (yay! Relief!)

Tue 17th Nov - 30 degrees Celsius

Wed 18th Nov - 36 degrees Celsius (Oh no, it's back!!!)

Thu 19th Nov - 38 degrees Celsius

It's a little daunting to think about. My way of coping is actually to not think about it. Stressing over the weather isn't going to change things one bit!

We did have to make a change to our plans though. On Sunday, we had planned a big family bbq. There were going to be over twenty people at our place but as soon as we saw that weather forecast, we knew it would be best to cancel.

I'm sure our guests felt a measure of relief too.

There's nothing much else to do except hang out at air conditioned places like shopping malls and cinemas and they end up getting over crowded at times like this.

The streets tend to get completely deserted, as depicted by the photo I took today of a usually very busy city street!

And just so the non metric can appreciate these temperatures, here's a little conversion chart..
35 degree Celsius = 95 degree Fahrenheit

36 degree Celsius = 96.8 degree Fahrenheit

37 degree Celsius = 98.6 degree Fahrenheit

38 degree Celsius = 100.4 degree Fahrenheit

39 degree Celsius = 102.2 degree Fahrenheit

40 degree Celsius = 104 degree Fahrenheit

I just hope this means all the extreme weather is over with and Summer will be relatively moderate... well I can dream can't I?

Time for another glass of water!

Baby, You've Come a Long Way...

I hate my mobile phone. I hate having a mobile phone. I rarely have it turned on – which annoys not only my family and friends, but clients – simply because I don’t really like the idea of being reachable when I’m away from the office or home. Because I detest my phone – any phone, for that matter – I wanted to get the most basic model. However, I did want a camera on the phone in case of emergency. What I ended up with was a mobile phone that has camera and video, a music player, internet, etc. The reason why I ended up with a higher-end mobile phone was because my boyfriend had talked me into it… he got the same mobile but just in a different color.

As I said, I don’t turn on my mobile phone often; however, today I turned it on and decided to go through it – cleaning out obsolete contacts, deleting old voice mails, etc. What I found was something totally unexpected. While looking through my saved photos, I found a video I had made when I first received the mobile phone. It was a video of my little sister when she was still recovering from neurosurgery.

The video was only 2-3 minutes long, but it spoke to me. The profoundness of just how far my sister has come in her recovery was shockingly evident in those 2-3 minutes of her. It captured how she was and where she’s gone, a stark difference dulled by time. I watched that video over and over… at least 7 times. I’m truly impressed by my sister. Her fight to regain who she was before the surgery has been long and difficult. Though she isn’t fully there yet, she is close and continues to move closer every day. And that short, yet impactful video makes me grateful I bought the higher end mobile phone, though I doubt I’ll be turning it on any more than usual.

A time to remember

Fourteen years ago, this was a very interesting time of year.

I had just celebrated my daughter Sarah's first birthday while being heavily pregnant with baby number two!

A few days later, Josh was born.

My babies were 12 months and one week apart.

Over the years, I was often asked if they were twins as they looked similar in stature and I haven't been a mum of twins but I'd say I lived a similar experience!

Both in nappies, both needing attention, both needing afternoon naps... it was a challenging time!

But it was such a nice time too. Lots of giggles and silliness. Not having a car during the day meant we often took long walks to the shops and learnt little things along the way. We stopped to look at numbers on the letterboxes, we took notice of the different coloured flowers, we ran to get out of the rain!

I even remember one time when they were about 2 and 14 months, running down the street to get home quickly with my double pram because they were both crying!

Challenging indeed.

And through the years it's just been easier to have a combined birthday celebration. While you may think this takes away from their birthday, I think it actually gives them more time. Their birthday celebration tends to last the week starting from Sarah's birthday, our combined celebration bbq (now a tradition) and ending with Josh's birthday. It's a festive week!

I'm so proud of what they are and are still becoming. Smart, sensitive and very loving.

So indulge me as I gush over my children a little at this time of year. I think I'm entitled.

Thoughts of Goblins, Ghouls, and Ghosts

Tomorrow is Halloween, but this year the holiday seems to have an eve-type celebration. I am not sure if it is because Halloween falls on a Saturday or people cannot wait to start celebrating, but today everyone seemed to be celebrating the holiday early. Little kids were running around with their costumes on, while adults wore their own costumes to the office.

When visiting clients, I noticed clients had shopping bags tucked in the corner with last-minute purchases of candy, costume pieces, and decorations. Potlucks of all sorts – primarily cookies and sugary goodies – filled corner tables in break rooms and cafeterias, while laughter filled the hallways with employees lavishing praise on their co-workers’ costumes. The good vibes were felt by all – including me, who was not wearing a costume.

However, when I came home I went into my closet and pulled out my favorite costume. It is a costume I will never get rid of because I love it so much. It is a costume that could be for a witch, queen, or sorceress. It could be for a Renaissance woman or a lady straight out of Lord of the Rings. Made of velvet and silk with orange, gold, and black colors, the costume laces up at the bodice and sleeves with black ribbons. It is beautiful, comfortable, and flexible. Even better, it is long enough for my 5-foot-11 height. When wearing it, it makes me feel young, beautiful, and feminine.

And while I did not put the costume on, the rest of the day my mind kept drifting back to the costume sitting in my closet and I grew even more anxious for the holiday to arrive. After all, the world is so much more fun and adventurous with an evil queen in dressed in black velvet and orange and gold silk.