Home again.....

Mum is doing as well as she can at the moment, still in Kenepuru hospital, and likely to be there for some time to come. The nurses are lovely, and Mum is pretty much away with the fairies. Its a terrible way to be, but at the same time, I don't think she is terribly conscious of how she is either.

So my sister and I made the trip home yesterday. Due to boredom on the plane we made up some haiku, Japanese poems.

Traditional haiku consist of 17 on (also known as morae), in three phrases of 5, 7 and 5 on respectively.^[3] Any one of the three phrases may end with the kireji.^[4] Although haiku are often stated to have 17 syllables,^[5] this is inaccurate as syllables and on are not the same. (Wikipedia). But while Haiku are 'set in concrete', in fact, anything goes, and the 5,7,5 is not always required.

So we put together some haiku to reflect our last day or so there and the flight home which was not quite to plan.

We got a shuttle to the airport, making sure we got there in plenty of time.

Shuttle bus alighted
Check in chicks on duty
Plane three hours late.

Yes the plane from Aussie to NZ was delayed three hours, so instead of landing in Aussie at 6 pm, we took off about 6.30 pm, and got home at 10.45 pm. One thing was good though, they said they would make up time and they made the trip 30 minutes quicker than usual.

Pilots heavy foot
Hurtling through thin air
Time made up


Once we had checked in our bags we had heaps of time to spare, so had a meal and wandered around the shops. We bought a bottle of water each. I always get caught out with this one, as the attendant stands at the entrance to the customs/immigration area.

Water bottle madam?
Refusal through this gate!
Chuck it out!

There was a northerly gale blowing while we were waiting. Planes were coming in and bouncing all around as they landed .Wellington airport is renowned for its terrible weather and difficult landings.

One of the things I miss when I am away is my normal meals. nothing is quite the same, and with using public transport a lot to visit Mum we ended up snacking or eating at cafes often. Its just not the same as home made food.

Goodbye healthy diet
Stomach discontented
Not more bread!

We did not get expensive flights....and yes...one of the problems is that we don't get a meal. We can buy food, but it is not a decent meal.

No flexifares for us
Egg sandwich is our lot
Or hot meat pie.

There were lots of children on this flight. They weren't too bad, although a young one was in the seat in front of us.

Noisy children farting
Nostrils narrowed
Egg sandwiches to blame.

Of course you also have to deal with the necessary visits to the loos. On a plane these are generally not the highlights of the flights. Especially when you flush them.

Busting bladders badger
Get me to the bog
Noisy sucking monster.


And then, home was not too far off.

Gold Coast skyline rising
Terra firma nigh
Landing gear.


Heavens gate behind
Radar homes us in
Runway lights.

Then of course you have to get your bags and do the customs thing, declaring anything you should not have.

Arrival card filled out
Don't you dare tell lies
Jail is waiting.

Immigration eyes are cruising
Sifting through the crowd
Someone's busted.

And then you finally make it through the exit to the waiting hall.

Husband stands there smiling
Holds out welcome arms
Home again.

Jedi or Pastafarianism, which is for you?

The New Zealand census has brought a few unusual things to light.

'The Jedi still believe in the force, despite census snub', says a headline in the Wellington Dominion Post, dated Thursday December 19 2013.

 The force is not with us nor is the flying spaghetti monster. Census figures released last week have shone fresh light on Kiwi’s religious faith but tens of thousands of responses were rejected because they were not deemed legitimate. 

Among those considered “out of scope” were Jedi, and Pastafarianism, who profess to be worshipers of the flying spaghetti monster.

 After a public campaign in 2001, 53,714 people declared themselves as Jedi in the census, and 20,262 in 2006. Wellington Jedi Renee Lee, says ‘it sucked that Jedi were not recorded as followers of a legitimate religion, particularly given it had more devotees than some more accepted faiths’.

‘Jedi is definitely a valid thing’, she said. ‘The idea started from a story, but you can say a lot of religions started that way.’

 Miss lee has always been a star wars movie fan and converted to Jedi a few years ago. 'As a faith it was mostly about being peaceful and kind, and fighting the dark side,’ she said.  She and several friends all put Jedi as their religion on the census although most did not take it as seriously as she. ‘I just think they are cool principles to live by’.

Faith or fad.

Jedi and Pastafarians do not count as legitimate faiths but others with fewer followers do. What are they and how many people follow then?

Jedi.   Based on Star wars films, belief in the force, and unseen power surrounding and binding us. Jedi are sworn to fight the dark side.

Kiwi devotees:  20,262 in 2006.

 

Pastafarianism.

A tongue in cheek counter movement to intelligent design and creationism. Devotees worship the flying spaghetti monster and wear colanders on their heads.

Kiwi devotees:  unknown.

 

Food for thought?

No bucket list for this old granny.

 My mother is 93 years old. She is in hospital and  has improved since we arrived. She has dementia too which confuses her. She has always had a thing about being ‘old’. I remember one day when we were visiting some people, she came out to the car and was so indignant that they called her old. “Who do they think they are calling old?” she said, absolutely miffed at their attitude.  I laughed.  “Well” I said, “you are nearly 80”. “That’s not old,” she sniffed, highly offended.

Mum has been active and busy all her life. She has kept many a vitamin shop in business, eaten good food, lots of vegies, never smoked, had a glass of wine every five years or so, and not had a day in hospital since my sister was born, (the younger of us two), and that was a long long time ago.

We often read about how the mind controls the body, and in her case I think it is still in total control. For many years Mum has been one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, holding the firm belief that God will intervene in the rotten affairs of this system, and replace it with a heavenly government that will care for the people. This will be done with the endless power God has, and for those living at the time of this occurrence, continuing life will be the outcome, while God brings the earth back to the perfect conditions intended when Adam and Eve were created. It was always her hope to see this happen, and dying was never on her agenda. She never had a bucket list, she didn’t need one.

Some readers might think Mum’s beliefs very airy fairy, but I think most people realise that something has to happen to the earth before too long, either global warming will wipe us out, or a nuclear war will finish off the human race, or intervention by some higher power must take place.

So now we come to the point when her life is coming to an end, and she is not prepared to go yet. She is hanging on to life with both hands and all fingernails. The mind wanders, but the feet don’t want to wander much now. Dementia is a terrible thing, many of my friends parents have suffered from this, and there is no pill to cure it, no operation to take out the bad bits. It just has to run its course until the body gives up. But in Mums case, I think it will be until the mind gives up, and that might be a while, the will to live is still pretty strong. And if she was in full control of her faculties, she would be rather miffed at my suggesting she is old at 93. Just as well she can’t read this.

There is murder in the air

 

And the culprit is technology. (And a little bit of forgetfulness on my part.)

I am in New Zealand, visiting my mother, who is in hospital and not well. I brought my mobile phone knowing that I could use a NZ sim card in it. I planned to buy a 2 degrees sim card, a local company who has cheap charges. On my phone I can also access my emails and the internet, solving lots of problems with communication etc. Only I get here to find out my phone is locked. I can’t use the sim card or top up I bought.  The flaming phone is locked to Vodafone and I didn’t know it.

Of course nothing is easy. Vodafone NZ is a different company from Vodafone Australia, so they can’t help. Also, where we are staying, Donna has dial up connection but not wi-fi so I can’t back onto her connection with my computer. It’s terrible how dependant we have become on these little bits of technology. So a trip to the mall here was needed to work out the best way for us to get a phone.

My sister has brought her phone, but can’t use it on roaming, the costs are definitely in the favour of the phone company, charging exorbitant rates for a call or text.  In the end we decided to buy a small cheap phone to use here, and this could use the sim card and top up I had already bought.

We went to the 2 degrees shop and bought a little phone for $29.00.  It sends text messages and makes phone calls. You know…all the stuff that was exciting 10 years ago, now is obsolete. Well, you may know the frustration of working a new mobile phone, all the bells and whistles you have to work out etc. Ha…I dare you to go ten years backwards! It’s even worse. We couldn’t find out how to turn off the predictive text. I finally found a button for that. We still can’t work out how to make the thing make a noise when someone is calling us or when a text comes in, but we do know for a fact that it locks the screen after 5 seconds of no use.

 

The little phone.

We have had to add in any phone numbers we wanted, not lots but a few for Aussie and a few here. The problem comes when you enter them with one digit missing.  I was sending texts to some poor unknown person asking them to pick us up from the train station….they had no idea who we were or who they were supposed to pick up….I have no idea who was at the end of all those texts.

Add to that the fact that I also wanted internet connection so we shopped around for a usb for mobile connection. We got Vodafone for this, cheapest for the gigs we wanted. Then I had to work out how to install the thing and work out how much I was using. I wanted to access my Hotmail account, but of course my computer could tell that I was accessing it from a different country and thought someone was hacking in. So it locked up until I could prove who I was, and the only way was to get a code it would send to my mobile…you know ….the one that I can’t use here.

 It’s easy when you have done this before, but frustrating the first time, especially when the reception is really poor and we are trying to Skype back home. Oh dear!!

And then to top it off, I knew I wanted to add some posts here so I took some photos.  Ah yes, of course I have left the connecting cord at home. We go down to Noel Leeming and buy another one, $10.00 which is fine. But the thing won’t work! I tried it in every usb port on my computer but it just looked at me and grinned saying…no pics from me today!

Noel Leeming...a great shop with good prices, and people who know what they are doing.

After several attempts I confused my computer so much that it forgot it didn’t like the new cord and gave me the pics. Yay!

So, murder is definitely in the air, and for any other overseas trips I will be sorting out this matter with Vodafone so I can use my real phone overseas.  And just a wee footnote here, I realised, well I think I realised that I had not really used my good phone on my last NZ trip, but a different phone that was not locked to a network. Nothing is easy!!!!

Hurried trip to the Shaky Isles.......

Well it’s been a rather hairy few days.  We have moved into  our next house sit, a nice house, spacious, with a good pool, and in a secluded area in a cul-de-sac, so no traffic noise really.

We have a black cat to care for, a fluffy black moggie who is, as cats, are, the owner of the house and land, and thinks we are at his beck and call. But he is well behaved and doesn’t cause any trouble. We have to bring him in at night and keep him inside. Many people here keep their cats inside at night to protect any wildlife around.

My mum has been admitted to hospital. She is 93 years old and has been frail for sometime, with dementia quite a problem now. But it seems she may not have long left, so my sister and I are off to New Zealand tomorrow to see her, and probably arrange a funeral for her.

 

We are going to a small town called Paraparaumu, an hour north of Wellington. You can see it on this map.

You know, when you want an air fare at the last minute, and especially at this time of the year with school holidays here, it can be a problem getting a flight. I have to say, that I find the Flight Centre to be really good. They have people online most of the time. I rang the local number, got a girl called Lana, who was so helpful and found flights for my sister and I at prices we could afford. She made the bookings and sorted out some passport issues we had and did everything with a minimum of fuss. At stressful times like this, such help is priceless.

The other thing we found out is that Air New Zealand offers compassionate fares. I rang them at  1800 737 747, and spoke to someone there. So this might be useful information for my family, some of whom will try and come over for the funeral. The costs vary, but as long as the passenger can give official documentation that their relative is sick or having a funeral they will do the best they can to give a reduced fare.  You can also apply retrospectively. I thought that was pretty good.

So tomorrow we head off for the shaky isles, and I sure hope there are no big earthquakes to greet us!

Modern living....the good and the bad.....

We have our next house sit lined up for Friday. In the meantime we are having a few days with our son and daughter in law. They live in the Wynnum/Manly area, in a fairly new subdivision.  Their house is only about 3 or 4 years old. My son is a builder, and although he didn’t build this home himself, they have changed the interior design a little and it is a very practical home.

They have a large open plan living area, three bedrooms, a study that could be another bedroom, a media room that could be another bedroom, two bathrooms, and good sized deck for outdoor entertaining. The one thing that is most noticeable these days with modern homes is the size of the land that comes with the house. (In New Zealand we call it the section, in Australia it is called the block.)

This photo brings back some memories. It was taken in 1984. Here our son is 16 years old, and it is his first day at work. He had his bike and backpack full of food. He is off to his first day at his apprenticeship. He worked on the Pizza Hutt in Napier, New Zealand, a building now demolished I think. He helped dig the footings for the foundation, and was in serious pain for a few weeks, blisters on his hands and  aching back and legs. He completed his apprenticeship and set up his own building company after he got married.

But you can see the back yard we had. This was a single garage, and Matt had his bedroom in the back of this shed. At the very back is a large vegetable garden that provided us with lots of food, fruit trees, and plenty of grass.

 We also had a fort at the back of our house, a huge thing Peter built. The kids spent hours and hours playing here, along with numerous neighbour kids. This is a picture of Matt taking a picture of the sunset. There was a beautiful sunset that night, and Matt was into photography at the time.

When our children were small, we lived in homes with much larger sections, with enough area for the children to play, ride bikes, have a fort or play area, trees to climb etc. These days, this is missing from many modern homes. There is not room really to even throw a ball. There is a great deal of concern about our young children becoming obese, not running around enough, and spending too much time of computer games or watching tv. But when you only get a small section, what else is there for them to do? Of course you can take them to a park, enrol them in swimming lessons, or take them running, but then the parent needs to be away from home for these activities, so maybe can be done several times a week, but not every day, and certainly if there are babies or toddlers in the household, well that creates another set of problems.

New homes have a good entertaining area and Matts house has a good sized
deck out the back.

This was taken soon after they moved in. The trampoline has now gone and the
garden is well established. They do have nice trees over the back fence.

This is the other end of the section. Not much room for throwing balls,
not much room for running around etc.

 

This picture was taken a couple of years ago. On the back fence of Matts place they now have a bird feeding station. You can see the trees that are over the fence. There are many native birds around here, and lorikeets and sulphur crested cockatoos came in daily to fill up on the seeds they put out for them.

The rainbow lorikeets are very bossy birds, and rule the roost. Even a large bird like the sulphur crested cockatoos are scared of them. It was unusual to see one put up a fight against a lorikeet. Even, so, the cockatoo is ready to take off if necessary.

Of course, the reason the sections are small is due to the cost of land, so it is understandable that most families can’t afford a large area around the homes, but it is one of the downfalls of modern living.

Bond Univesity.....Gold Coast.

I mentioned about attending a seminar at Bond University. I hadn’t been onto this campus before, and I must say, it is a beautiful campus.

 

Sandstone exterior.

 There is plenty of room, it has a very spacious feel about it, with lovely gardens and a central lake. Many of the buildings have what appears to be a sandstone construction….one of the building materials used by the early settlers long ago.

 

It was exam time so not many students were on campus.

There are some wonderful buildings made of sandstone in Melbourne and Adelaide.

The Railway station in Adelaide.

 

 

My sister works in the domestic violence field as an educator for social workers. Sometimes if she is really busy I will give her a hand. She writes under the name of Ricky Hunter.

There was a seminar held on the Gold Coast so she asked me to go with her. It was held at Bond University, but as it had an early start she thought it would be nice to have some sisterly time together and stay at a hotel down there for one night.

Looking due east over the beach from the 19th floor of the Meriton.

This hotel on the left is called Peppers.

Peppers is built to look like two sails, very impressive from a distance.

Looking north towards Surfers Paradise. There are hotels everywhere here.
The Gold Coast is one of the worlds top holiday destinations.

She booked a room at the Meriton, a nice block of serviced apartments. It is direcltly opposite Jupiters Casino and Pacific Fair.  Like most of the Gold Coast, it is being torn up and mended, but with light rail tracks and stations being planted all along the coast.  One of the problems of the Gold Coast is its transport system. Nothing links up, and you can't get to Surfers Paradise by train. I'm sure the long suffering businesses will be thrilled to see this project completed, it seems like it has been going on for years.

 The Meriton was lovely, and we were on the 19th floor with a fabulous view of the beach.

 

Jupiters Casino was directly opposite. You can also see some of the
waterways that thread their way right through the area. Canals and boat ramps go for miles.
They are all interconnected to the open sea north of the city.

You can see the light rail being built in the centre of the road. A stop
is being finished right outside the new convention centre at the top
left of the picture.

 

A very comfy bed.

One of the things the Gold Coast has done properly is leave the coast fringed with parks and open areas.  The Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane is so built up along the beaches that you can’t see the sea for all the buildings.

 

 



We had a heavy shower go over and not long after a beautiful rainbow.

The apartment had two bedrooms, each with the most comforatbel king size bed. We were in bed at 8 pm, we were both so tired. I woke up and 4 am…yes…daylight again, but my room was facing west so not open to the sunlight.

I sat outside in the cool for a few minutes having a drink of water then back to bed for a total of eleven hours sleep. What bliss!

 

3.50 am. The sun was waking up.

Back to bed again, about 4.10 am.

Some one was fishing in the canal by Jupiter's Casino.

 

Daylight saving

 I thought I might have a little rant about daylight saving.

 If you have ever lived in a place that has daylight saving you will know it has its pros and cons. For me, the pros have it. We had daylight saving in New Zealand, and the lighter evenings were our favourite part of the day. Here in Queensland, it is a taboo subject by most.

I can only speak from personal experience here, but in my view, and this may be somewhat blinkered, Queenslanders hate change. There is just something in their psyche that does not accept change readily. And you have to admit that daylight saving is a change of mammoth proportions.

They have had referendums about this in the past, and from time to time the subject rears its ugly head, but is squashed quick-smart.  Queensland did try it for one year, and they hated the fact that the curtains faded too quickly with the extra hour sunlight and apparently the cows hated being milked an hour earlier.

I have to admit that Queensland is a bit different in that the top of the state is totally tropical, with monsoon weather during the summer, while the southern area of Queensland, where I live, is slightly south of the tropic of Capricorn. 

One of the huge challenges of living around the southern border with New South Wales, is that NSW does have daylight saving. So you can have one street in the same city of Coolangatta in NSW having daylight saving and the next street in Queensland not having it, but being one hour behind. This is also a problem for so many workers who cross from one time zone to another. To get to work at 8 am, they must leave their home a street away at 7am.

 

Straddling the border. One foot in Queensland one foot in New South  Wales.
businesses in different time zones.

It also means that when you want to phone a business in NSW you have to call an hour earlier than your own time. So if you call at 4.01 pm you  won’t make it. They have all gone home. Of course lots of call centres are open 24/7, but then, many of them have been shipped over to India or the Philippines.

Okay back to the problem of daylight saving. You see it gets daylight here at the moment just before 4 am. And by the time we get to the shortest day, it will be around 3.30 am when daylight starts to blush the sky.  And just before that the dawn chorus starts. No one has trained the birds to sleep in, and we don’t have little birds that twitter in the trees, we have whopping great parrots that scream around, yelling at the top of their voice that it is time for breakfast.

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo...with a pair of lungs good
enough for Pavarotti.

 

Now you might say that solving this problem is a piece of cake, just put up some decent drapes. But people here in Queensland don’t have heavy drapes at their windows normally. Heavy drapes keep a house warm, and we want to keep our homes cool. So the norm is to have very light coloured lightweight folding blinds that have chinks in them to let the sunlight through and you can bet your boots that the chinks are right in the spot where your eyes are resting on the pillow.

There is no solution to this problem for me at the moment. House sitting means changing bedrooms and window shadings often.  At the moment my bedroom faces due East and catches the dawn in all its glory much too early for my liking. When we finally settle down in our own little nest, I am going to have solid blinds at my bedroom windows.

Perhaps we could say we have lost one of the worlds real gentlemen.

A coffee at Manly

This house sit is coming to an end. In a few days the home owners will be back and we will move on to our next home sit only a few suburbs away.

The other day we went down to the little shopping area of Manly. It is a lovely little area with a terrific café open to the air. It used to be called DaVincis, but I think it might have changed its name. We used to come here often for a coffee when we lived in this area. We find the coffee and food to be good. We don’t eat out very often, so usually it was for a drink and maybe a snack. But the whole place is open to the street, but far enough away from the traffic. It is a quiet little area anyway, no big trucks going through.

 

The marina. There is an excellent walkway right along the beach front.
It goes for miles and has a walking area and a biking lane. hundreds of
people come down here every day to walk beside the sea.

Part of the marina and some of the hundreds of boats.

Putting in our order. Everything open air. A really nice place to sit and
watch the world go by, even tho it is at snails pace.

Sitting in the café, the road beside us. Shops and galleries over the road.

We treated ourselves to some wedges, one plate between us is enough.



The view from the parking lot beside the café.

 Manly shops are right beside the Manly Marina and Manly Yatch Club. This is a really busy spot during the weekends, and the bay is busy with yatchs, and lots of local boaties out for a free feed of fresh fish.

 There are so many boats here, the total value must be many millions of dollars. But it is lovely to wander along here with the sheltered water.

Watch your head!

 There is a bridge in Wynnum that takes you by surprise the first few times you go there. It is a bridge for the train tracks but the bridge is so low!! Cars can get underneath but no trucks. You can see how low it is.

 

You can see two people walking underneath, there is not a lot
of head space above them.

 When you do underneath the first few times, you duck your head down even when you are in the car.