Meg is 33

Meg said that her boss reminded her that Jesus Christ only
lived to be 33 years old!

As a family we all went to the top pub in Morwell for tea.

For weeks I had been telling Cliff that it was at 6.30 p.m.
as Meg does not usually get home till nearly 6 p.m. and she
would want to have a shower and change before eating.

He wanted it to be 6 p.m. so we could still go to cards at
7 p.m. and I said that we would not have enough time to
order tea and eat it so that would not be happening.

I was right we ordered tea at 7.10 p.m. and it did not
arrive till 8 p.m. I had to go back home and get Meg's
and mine shop a docket. Hence the lateness of our ordering
but there was also a large party of elderly people about 20
in front of us and we had to wait 20 minutes before we
could order.

Ross went away for the week end and rang Sunday night to
say that he would be coming back on Monday night so I rang
him and said that as Cliff was going to tea in Morwell at
6.30 p.m. then he would have to be back in Traralgon by
6 p.m. in order for Ciff to pick him up so that Cliff would
not be late. I then told Cliff the same thing and said
that Ross said that the train gets in at 5.40 p.m. so
there should be no problem.

Yet when Meg, Kath and family and I all came in at 6.30 p.m.
there was Cliff sitting there saying "I've been here since
6 p.m. what happened to all of you?" He then went on to claim
that I had told him 6 p.m.!!!!Which of course just goes to
prove that he really doesn't listen to me. Or that he just
got it stuck in his mind that as that was the time he wanted
us to have dinner that it was therefore correct!

Stange but True

Today Beryl came around to talk about "Julie and Julia"
which we saw a couple of months ago as she needs to
write a report on it and can't remember it. I thought
we should have watched it again but gave her a run down
of the plot only to have her say "I'll have to get the
DVD and watch it again!"

When she arrived "Murder She Wrote" was coming on and I
told her I wanted to watch it. The plot was Jessica
Fletcher's English cousin Emma McGill(who was her twin
in looks as the part was also played by Angela Lansbury)
had a number of attempts made on her life and pretended
she died to 'flush' out the murderer.

Emma McGill was an old time musical singer. I said that
I had seen "The Portrait of Doran Gray" about a month ago
and Angela Lansbury had played the part of a young music
hall singer (she was about 20 in the movie) and the song
she sang that won the heart of Gray was "Little Yellow
Bird".

Well bugger me the next minute Emma McGill (Angela
Lansbury) comes on stage and sings "Little Yellow Bird".
Beryl said that it might be the only song she could sing
and I said no she sang others in Doran Gray.

We both though it a bit of coicidence that I should have
told her about the movie "Doran Gray" and then have her
sing the same song in this show! It was almost as good
as when she 20!

"The Memory Keeper's Daughter"

Just read this book by Kim Edwards, which she wrote in 2005.

The premise of the story is a doctor is forced because of an
unexpected snow storm to deliver his wife of their first baby
with only the help of his nurse. All goes well and a healthy
boy is born but then to his surprise there is another baby,
a girl born with Down Syndrome. It is set in America 1964.

All his life he has been haunted by the fact that his young
sister June was diagnosed at about two with an incurable
heart condition. From that time his mother poured all her
attention into the sick girl leaving him to fend for him
self. June died at twelve and his mother never recovered.
He elects to send his daughter to a home with his nurse and
not tell his wife the truth.

He believes he will be saving his family the coming grief.
But what does he do then? He tells his wife that there was
another baby. She had been under the gas and did not know.
But the second child was born dead!

For the next 25 years his wife grieves for this missing child!

I would not have mentioned a thing. What you don't know
does hurt you!

After that they both make some awful choices in their
marriage which eventually destroys it.

I couldn't put the book down but I wondered what the story
would have been if he had done the smarter thing and told
her nothing.

Paying the Rates

It always amazes me that no-one complaims about paying
water rates on vacant blocks of land just beacuse the
water pipes pass by your property. Next thing you know
the electric and gas people will say well our supplies
pass by your place so you should pay for those as well!

The last installment for our 2010 rates are due on Monday
31st May. As this is the day I usually get home about
2 p.m. and then have my nanny nap I really won't have time
to pay them on Monday so I went in today.

I have paid them on the date due and the lines are LONG.
Sometimes you have to wait as long as half and hour and
that is with the three girls working the registers. So I
do try to go in at least the day before.

I still thought there may have been a few sensible people
going in early and the wait may be about fifteen minutes
but no I was the only person being served so no wait at all.

I had asked Meg last night if she wanted me to pay the
rates for her as she was paying me her share of the water
bill this week ( over $100 and I did not want her to be
short of money for the week)and she said no she would
Bpay them on Monday. In fact she shouted at me that
she could "jolly well pay her own bill."

So imagine my surprise when I get a message on my mobile
asking me to pay the rates for her. Turns out that she had
to put money in the netball for a few of the other girls
going away to play this week end and she did not therefore
have enough to cover her rates!

When I told Cliff he said "So I guess you told her, No as
'she can jolly well pay her own bills.'" I said no I paid
them for her.

Isn't she lucky to have such an understanding Mum?

I also went to pay Donald's rates as he has not be in
steady work for about six months now but it turned out that
he had already paid them. He must have done it with the
last of his pay out money.

Isn't he a good Boy?

Friday 21st May Visitors Day

It was Visitor's day at Stockdale RD school. This
year it was from 12.30 pm. till 3.30 pm. From 12.30
till 1.30 it was open class rooms, I watched Maddy
for half an hour as her class had a visit from a local
policeman. Then I went to Connor's class for 15 minutes
and watched the teacher tell the kids it was WRONG to
say 1.45 p.m. that the CORRECT way was to say a quarter
to 2. That if the clock was at 3.40 it was not 3.40 but
twenty to four!

I disagreed with her! I said it was not wrong that
either way was correct and that some people found the
1.45 option easier than the quarter to option!

Then there was snack time on the oval and Lacy was
hanging with the twins Corey and Jackson. I took a
photo of them and then all the kids together.

Corey was very cosy and wanted me to see his paintings.
He said that mum couldn't come as Nathan had only come
home fom the hospital yesterday from breaking his arm.
I think it was just an excuse not to bother. Why would
a broken arm stop a mum from bring him to school to
visit his two brothers on visitors day?

So all the kids dragged me around the display room
showing oof their paintings.

Karen came and stayed during the snack break.

After the break there was another hour of open
class and I went into Lacey's room and she
introduced me as her nan Gloria. I was there 45
minutes as she wanted me to help her with her
English sheet.

I rushed over to Jackson's room and he was sitting
on the floor in an exercise and the teacher was not
allowing the visitors to take the kids aside so I
just went up to him to let him know that I had come
in and said that I had to go.

Then into Corey's room where the teacher said that
he had been waiting for me. I watched him play a
computer game where he had to create a monster
and take it through a series of obstacles to cross
a finishing line before dying three times. He
succeeded but took 4.45 minutes and the computer
said he was 'sluggish' I said that was slow and
he would have to keep playing and doing it quicker
even if he lost a life along the way. Said goodbye
and rushed into Sam's room.

Sam had been good all day and therefore was allowed
to draw the winners of the raffle for the day. Two
names were drawn out and they could choose a prize
from a box.

Sam also got to chose a prize and he picked some
hair pins for Maddy. The teacher said "What a good
brother" and he really swelled out with pride!

I offered him a lift home but he said no he wanted
to play for awhile. Karen later told me that she
had to drive up and get him!!

Rang Angela and she said that Lacey was all about
Nan Gloria being there. She said that Sarah had
said that she would come with Amelia but it never
happened. She had meant to come up but had lain
down on the couch with a headache and fallen asleep.

So it was lucky taht I turned up to make so many
little people happy!

Weather

I know that it is not offically winter but I have
had the winter blues now for a month! and yet it
is not even that cold yet. Though a lot of people
including my daughter Meg say that in the last week
the weather has been freezing! I know that in the
last week I have had to heat the bed,at night, but
only on the lowest setting. I am not up to the stage
of heating the room itself.

In fact it has been very wet over the last month and
I think that being restricted to the house beacause
of the rain has more to do with my being depressed
than the cold!

Yesterday was a lovely fine sunny day. So I went out
late in the afternoon to cut the lawn which has not
been done for about six weeks so it is getting like
a jungle out there, but hopefully not enough to kill
me! Ha! Ha! ("Monk" is a show that I have always liked!)
But where the sun doesn't reach anymore the grass was
still very wet and it was a real chore cutting it as
it would not slide to the back of the catcher but just
kept sticking to the lip!

As it was, I only did half as the green recycling bin
filled up too fast! I did say it was like a jungle.
So hopefully I will be able to finish it in the next
fortnight.

Film Credits

I have been watching a lot of Turner classic movies
lately. The credits at the end of these 'old' movies
are very short. The main actors, peolpe who provided
the make up and dresses and any specialised help,
e.g animal trainers, any stand-ins required then the
directors,and producers.

Today's film credits go on and on, there are sometimes
up to five minutes worth of credits, especially when
there are special effects in the movie.

I am sure that most people walk out of the room as
soon as the credits start. I know I do unless I am
looking for the name of a actor in a a role.

A couple of weeks ago I was changing channels to
watch a movie and the station was still running the
credits from the previous movie, so I was a captive
audience so to speak.

So I was actually watching the unending credits,there
was best boy grip ...... .....and then
worse boy grip Adolf Hitler.

Well I just cracked up! I have no idea which movie
this was, and I have never heard of any one saying
that they have seen this before, (as stated how many
people really watch the credits!) so I just had to
officially record this somewhere.