Tag Archives: life observations

round the Aussie block

21 Apr

Well here we are home again after travelling 2600 km around the country block and my mind is overflowing with meaningless trivia ….I love an educational adventure so in the interest of sharing, I’m happy to summarise some of my more useless observations:

  • the smaller the country town ~ the larger the skate park.
  • the number of stars on a hotel/motel sign does not indicate the comfort of the mattress (nor the water pressure in the shower).
  • every country town seems to have a High Street, a Queen Street… and a Commercial Hotel.
  • coastal cows definitely look happier than their inland cousins.
  • Black Rd leads to Green Lake and Green Rd leads to Black Creek.
  • there really is a ‘potato protection’ zone (I’m still not sure what they are scared of)
  • honey bees flat their wings up to 11,000 per second
  • liquorice is made from the root of the liquorice plant  (I’m sure some of you knew that …but I had no idea).

Finally …. we could have travelled across 3 or 4 European countries in the equivalent ‘drive round the Aussie bock’ but would we have had the same open space, country hospitality and endless skies?…..doubtful.

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closing the shutters…

9 Apr

First of all I THINK my keyboard has restored itself back to normal (god I hate these computer glitches that come and go…leaving you thinking that you’re mad) … Anyway it makes typing a lot easier than last night’s effort..

Tonight  I’m looking for some advice…I need your opinions. I HATE to think I come across as rude, so I need to check something out.

I was at the hairdresser this evening…it’s a kind of forced relaxation in that you sit (sometimes for hours) with nothing to do other than look at yourself in the mirror, read a magazine or play with your phone. Now given my vocal challenges, it is even more complicated becauseI am unable to chat and make small talk with the hairdresser or clients beside me. The TV in the background, buzz of the clippers and the  roar of the hairdryer are enough to test even the most capable vocal cords. hairsalon

So… rather than be drawn into an impossible conversation…I closed my eyes. That’s right,  while the stylist fluffed, flounced trimmed and blew my hair I pretended to be dozing. In fact after a short while I was no longer pretending… I was seriously snoozing.

BUT is this rude ???

At one stage I wondered if she thought I was  praying, and would she feel uncomfortable nudging me to go to the basin for a wash?  Or did she think I was unwell? Or did she think anything at all (perhaps she was secretly pleased because SHE didn’t need to make small talk… I just don’t know.

All I DO know is that I was buggered and it felt good to zone out for a while … just wonder what you all reckon?

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regional living …

21 Mar

We headed up the coast today to visit the ‘92yro Birthday Girl’, and despite having visited the area many many times over the years (as holiday-makers) a couple of things struck me today as we approached town in the off season.

First of all the quality of regional radio, quirky and ‘oh-so-local’ it was hilarious to hear who was having a birthday celebration and what was going on at the local school…interspersed with music that took me back to my youth (guess in some ways, that’s gotta be a good thing).

Next I spied the  local paper. We (and anyone who has visited the area) fondly refer to it as “gods waiting room”… full of retirees and their parents,  the place is certainly a haven for the ‘quiet time of life’ if that’s what you are after…. BUT it’s gotta be disturbing to pick up the local paper and see it full of articles and adverts for disability services, aged care services, pharmaceutical services and FUNERAL services (seems like there is a natural progression going on there).

Let’s face it, while they may all be relevant…. do people really want to read about them in their local paper? Just when I was thinking it couldn’t get any more depressing,  I flicked over and saw the cheery two page colour spread called “The BIG C”… wow can’t get more positive than that.

However, I did manage a huge smile when we walked into the ‘facility’ that is home to Birthday Girl, and we were greeted to the sound of her voice (high soprano) above others, belting out a few tunes in ‘Happy Hour’.  There they were… about 10 of them, with  average age in the vicinity of high 80’s all sitting with scotch or wine in hand, having their Friday afternoon sing-a-long accompanied by a Hawaiian shirt wearing guitarist. P1130052

Who said that growing old needs to be boring ? … and  close to my own heart in the lead up to World Voice Day ….it proved that “Voice Matters”.

Oh ….and P.S… there is little or no internet either so posting this was a nightmare !

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some days it sucks to be a frog…

17 Feb

Driving to work minding my own business this morning and something very odd caught my eye. As the car in the next lane passed, I saw what looked like a leaf poking out the crease of the back side door; so after deciding it was no big deal, I continued to daydream and drive on.

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That is…UNTIL the traffic slowed a little, and I found myself alongside the car. I looked closer and the leaf started to wriggle. Trying not to run up the back of the car in front, I was soon close enough to identify the suspicious site as a small tree frog that was trapped by his (or her… I’m not real good a sexing frogs on the move) left foot.

WHAT SHOULD I DO ??  

Feeling compelled to do SOMETHING I try to get the driver’s attention. I wound the window down and tried to yell across to him…a big ask for anyone at 40kph …but without a voice it was just NEVER gonna work.

Next, I thought I would jump out and run to his window when the traffic was held up. But I began to imagine how he might react to a ‘crazy voiceless woman’ running between the traffic and up to his window to say there is a frog hanging out of his door.

Clearly I thought about it a minute too long and the traffic began to flow.

So…I just headed to work, feeling a little sad but amused by the thought of the little guy hanging on for the ride of his life. Wherever he is tonight, I’d reckon he has one very sore foot. … It’s days like this I’m glad I’m not a frog.

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the sky’s the limit

1 Feb

Yesterday  I was driving between offices  when I noticed some graffiti going on … Not on a fence or a wall but on the clear blue sky.  The perfect background became the canvas for a touching and personal message to D.K, who is clearly no longer with us… BUT it immediately struck me that sign-P1120591writing with a jet, is a rather extravagant and inexact  way to get your sentiment across.

The more I watched it unfold (while driving carefully of course) my mind began to boggle.

How DO they do it ? I mean it’s hard enough to write straight on a piece of paper without any lines ….so imagine being in a plane and trying to get your letters to line up, and be legible.

Then there is the timing …if the message is long, the  start is almost ‘on its way out’  before the sentence is finished…and what about the wind ??  It would really give you the shits if you got half way and the wind picked up and blew it all away.

What fascinated me even more with this particular message was that while it was being created  it looked like group of horizontal lines one above the other …THEN 5 minutes later  when I arrived at my stop and looked up it was clearly visible across the sky as “I’ll be missing U”.

HOW ? did the wind blow it into position? or did the earth rotate in that 5minutes? or did I just move to look at it from a different angle?                                                     

I have NO idea how it works … but I guess the dear departed D.K is lucky to have someone creative, clever and wealthy enough to make such a grand… but temporary statement on the sky.

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