Nothing Good to Say

I've always thought I have a lot of things to smile about. Today, however, I don't want to smile. I wonder whether the joy I feel is just my perspective of a situation on the day.

I'm so angry that my jaw hurts. I'd love to not think at all and just blame the world for deceiving me but in truth I know the only one I have to blame is myself for shutting out what I didn't want to see.

Why is that so clear now? Because I've been here before. And obviously haven't learned a thing.

Flat Out like a Lizard Drinking

Life continues to move ‘like a frog in a sock’ - I think this is the expression that Son of HN is fond of these days. He also uses ‘fish out of water’ but that expression means something else to me. Has the meaning changed? Personally, if he wants to refer to pre-seafood, I’d be inclined to say, ‘frenzied like a flapping fish’.

It’s been another eventful week for contact with wild beasts. Could someone please remove the spider welcome mat from my home - the very large visitor we encountered on Thursday morning, swore blind she’d been given a twenty percent discount for booking on the web (sorry, couldn’t help myself). My neighbour bravely escorted her from my bathroom and Charlotte’s Rainforest Retreat is now official closed.

Yesterday, Mip and I went to a five year old girl’s birthday – no clowns or fairies at this one.

Being the ‘just bring it on’ kind of child she is, Mip wore the snakes like costume jewellery. Then she handed a huge snake to me – a jaffa snake which would normally kill you if not for an operation it had to make it venomoid. Now this is something I never would have expected to do in my life but kids challenge you in the most interesting of ways.

The other parents were so blasé about draping three at a time across their bodies – ‘oh, snakes, pfft - we do this all the time you know - on weekends’. Once I’d regained my composure, I found they weren’t so scary. In fact they were quite fascinating. So I sent the photos to our relatives overseas – oh snakes, ha – us Aussies don’t bother with cats and dogs…

The other photo I sent them was of Australian Car Washes. Well, we are considered the lucky country:

Time's Ticking Past Fast

If someone holding a stop watch monotored the pace of our lives lately, I'll bet we could have qualified for the Commonwealth Games.

I was at a Valentine's Day do last night. Mip dressed as Cinderella because she can. My friend and I noticed a little boy in a corner next to a wishing fountain. He had his hands in the water playing with the coins which at that moment we thought was cute until we noticed he had his back to us and looked as though he was going to pee onto the wall. My friend said, 'Do you think... he's...???' But it was all right. We soon realized the lad had found the perfect smuggling spot and his bigger brother had also cottoned on to his stroke of genius and joined in. I'd forgotten all about it until I read the paper today. We couldn't blame the boys, it's clearly the world they're growing up in.

Sun Shines on Death Row

You write about the cutsie things and then there's the 'other side'...

Mip was collecting catapillars from her Dad's vegie garden yesterday. She put them in a little bucket and said, 'There you go. Have a little chat with your friends for a little while before we feed you to the chickens and kill you.'

Cutsie Isn't-My-Child-Great Post

This morning Mip snuggled into my arms and said, 'ah, I'm falling into heaven!'

This is her painting (created twelve months ago) of the Madonna and Child.

When Life is just One Big Silly Email

Scenario One:
A lady at work was seen putting a credit card into her floppy drive and pulling it out very quickly.

When I inquired as to what she was doing, she said she was shopping on the Internet and they kept asking for a credit card number, so she was using the ATM "thingy."

Scenario Two:
A number of department staff were shocked to find out the snazzy 'coffee holders' on their new PC's were indeed CD drives.

One of these stories was sent to me in an email about silly things that people do. The sad, sad thing here is the other scenario actually happened.

Love Tattered but Loved

Love Tattered
Originally uploaded by Husky Nutmeg.

One of the times when I could see how much my son loves me.


It was a long time ago. We were moving house (again) . I was being ruthless with my belongings and my son watched me crying as I threw some things away. This scarf was one. I love it because it was a very fine silk scarf once. It's worn and imperfect now, damaged property. Somehow I love it more because of that.

Unpacking was a lot easier than packing. My son stood in the doorway with a bashful smile, proudly holding my scarf. He handed it to me - his big heart filling the room when he put his arms around his weeping mother.

So now it means even more.

Let's Get Physical

I was in Footscray the other day. A great place for a bargain and whenever I pass through the place I can pick up a dozen or two energy drinks for under $10.00.

And there they were - a slab of them for $5.00. Different packaging but I saw the word ‘excite’ and thought, ‘yey, these will do nicely!’ And lovely blue bottles – very reusable.

Mip and I got on the bus and I rested the slab on my lap. The gentleman across from me, said, ‘Where’d ye get those?’

‘Just up the road,’ said I, quite proud of my purchase, ‘Five dollars!’

‘Party on tonight!’ he says, smiling.

I remember a word from one of those Washington Post Redefinition things – something like: ‘Pupplexed’ – the look your dog gives you when you pretend to throw the ball. Enough said.

Sitting on the bus for a while with no book and Mip happily looking out of the window, I thought I read the side of one of the bottles. I didn’t notice the little rabbits until later. It could have been the ‘Love from Sweden bit’ or perhaps the word ‘Aphrodisiac’ that allowed me to change colour five times on the trip home.

Here I was thinking how many other people on this bloody bus have noticed that – ‘There’s another one of those single mothers, Mildred. Spending all our taxpayers money on love herbs and having hundreds of babies.’