Recently in Life Happens Category

I have long been fascinated by the life of one woman, one I've never met and about whom I knew very little as I was growing up. Very little but for the fact she died to give my mother a chance. I've told the story before, if you want to know more read the boob-checking stories in my archives. Edna Marian, my grandmother and I were born in the same month (but we're not the same star sign if you follow that sort of thing) though some 19 years before I was born.

I had the opportunity in my last holiday back home to duck down to Wellington to spend some time with my Aunt and her cousin (and my mother's cousin too, of course) to delve a little into some of the family history, and to give me a bit of a picture of who Edna Marian was and by extension, who a little part of me is...

Actually we'll start with her mother, Clara Ellen - born in NZ in 1871, married my grandfather John Henry and had 5 children, my grandmother Edna Marian was their youngest.

Edna Marian Heron, my grandmother, born I'm not sure when but died in 1949 after a run in with breast cancer. Mother of 5, grandmother of 12, great-grandmother of 24, if I've counted correctly...

I'm sorry I don't have pictures of her as an adult, these ones were taken on the run. Next time I'm home I plan to get some from my mother. Actually i know I have Edna's wedding photo somewhere but for the life of me I can't lay my hands on it...

Edna was the first to carry the Marian middle name, my mother Wendy was the next. She too is born in April. She's pretty extraordinary, graduating with her Bachelor of Nursing in her early 50's and surviving a pretty massive car crash not much later. Mother of four, grandmother of [almost] seven!

Then there's me. Soon to be 40, not married, no kids and occasionally seriously pissed off about that.

I have great nieces and nephews and god-kids who I count as dearly as my own kin. But if I'm really honest, and as my eyes swim a little while I think about these things, I see this line of women from whom I come and I'm thrilled to be a part of it. Really thrilled.

But I'd really hate for it to end with me.

Wouldn't THAT be a treat... as it is I'm heading for the Mediterranean Kitchen in lieu of the real deal to catch up with friends who are in town briefly from America.

It as isn't unusual to see them as one may imagine with friends from so far away (Washington DC) but Nobill is a bit in demand as a speaker on the physics circuit (there's such a thing? Who knew!) so I see them every 18 months or so.

I love that we're eating somewhere other than the city, I get to do a bit of exploring, before it gets dark. I NEVER go over that side of town, so tonight's an adventure.

I'll post a restaurant review if it isn't too late when I get home!

Today I exercised my first ever vote in a federal election. This is one of the main reasons I became an Australian. I mean, I've lived here for the best part of 9 years, I need to be able to have my say and I've always figured I have no cause for complaint if I have no way of doing anything about the democratic process.

I walked out of the polling place feeling good. It's a weird thing to feel good about. There are many people who do it because they have to, in Australia voting is compulsory (I still feel funky about that... surely part of democracy is exercising your choice NOT to vote if you chose.)

Still, I walked out head high and shoulders back, proud to have done my part, proud to be an Australian (and for those Kiwis out there I'd be equally pleased to be doing the same back in NZ). And as a result of millions of us taking part in the democratic process Australia has a new Prime Minister and is in for an interesting ride as a new broom sweeps through after 11 years of the old guard.

I wish John Howard a peaceful and relaxing retirement and look on with interest as the new government takes shape.

If you were to ask me the following question,

"Hi Deeleea, how are you?"

I would have to say,

"Quite frankly, I'm a bit pissed off"

[I just have to add, that the voice I'm hearing say this in my head has a fairly thick NZ accent. So instead of imagining that I said "I'm a beet, peesed off", think of it more like "I'm a but, puhssed (as in uh) off... '"

as you were.]

And this is why.

For the 2nd day in a row I've come home from work and found the window I usually leave open pushed closed. This is the window through which the cat has exit and egress from the house.

Fortunately Chino has been found in the inside side of the window both days which actually leads me to suspect that he's been deliberately returned to the fold.

Now, I have no evidence for this; MAYbe the wind is blowing the window shut... (they don't call WINDow for nothing, right?)

BUT, as there is a bit of a feeling of antipathy towards the cat from the neighbours on my right who own the bunny, AND the neighbours on the left who have [bloody noisy] dogs AND the neighbours behind who feed the wild birds [even though they're not s'posed to], I can't help suspect that he IS being forced to spend his days inside.

So, I'm pissed off as much because the neighbours on the right have made no effort to restrict the rabbit from my garden, the neighbours on the left do NOTHING about the loudness of the dogs and the neighbours at the back are breaching council bylaws and getting pissy at me because the cat comes into their garden.

Am I allowed to be pissed off dear blogosphere?? Isn't it the nature of cats to roam, and isn't it my right to own one if I choose? Shouldn't my pet choice be as respected as any of theirs?

I walked into the laundry on the weekend to do my weekly launder and noticed 2 rather lovely new mountain bikes.

Very nice, I hear you say.

Yes, yes they are.

I noticed also that they're in the part of the laundry where my packing boxes used to be. The boxes that things like my DVD player came in, the sort that it's useful to keep because when you move it's safer that they move in their original packaging etc.

But the boxes are apparently no more. So I asked VB Man (in and admiring tone) whether the bikes were his and his brother's (who is sharing his place these days) and his reply was in the affirmative.

I also asked, "was it possible that my boxes were still around?" and his response was in the negative.

I grimaced (and swore a lot on the inside).

Now, it isn't so much that the boxes are gone, it's that I wasn't given the opportunity to rehouse them somewhere. Or offer any kind of consultation. Or wasn't asked if they were mine or ANYTHING

So VB man says VB Bro had figured that the boxes belonged to Mary and Boaz the old guys who used to live upstairs.

And he didn't even apologize for throwing away my stuff.

Mr Upstairs brough home another girl on Saturday evening (or the same one, I've never clapped eyes on either).

He brought her home at the same time (3am).

And he woke me up (again).

However, rather than listen to their nocturnal shenanigans I put my earplugs in.

Seriously, once (or more precisely 3x) was enough.

Actually not sure if I am yet. Going to see 'As it is in Heaven' tonight... apparently one of the longest running movies in Oz. This is a bit if a placeholder in case I don't get a chance to post after I get home later...

Watch this space!

[This Space]

Well, I have to say I've been building this movie up for months... it's been that long I've been wanting to see it... and truth is I knew the basic premise of the movie without really knowing anything much and even with such great expectations I was not disappointed.

Actually I felt there was almost an element of the 'Footloose' for grown-ups (though most of us affected by 'Footloose' in its first showings are certainly grown-ups now...), the stranger comes to town, turns the place on its head in not the least of places but the church.

As a regular churchgoer myself some of the prejudices are no less real in suburban Australia than in rural Sweden, to a lesser degree I'm sure, particularly given the branch of the faith I adhere to...

There were some interesting nods to Christianity, the scene where the 3 women minister to Daniel after he was taken out of the river injured was reminiscent of the women ministering to Jesus' body in the tomb after his crucifixion and I think deliberately so. It was definitely a redemption story, albeit with a flawed redeemer.

I consider the end to be predictable, though everything in me wished it wasn't so, but much like 'Life is Beautiful the movie was all the richer for its bittersweetness.

For me it was the fabulous characters that made the movie; believable, recognizable and warm. Daniel, in finding love not just with Lena but with his whole choir, in turn found his heart made whole, even in its weakness.

Definitely one for the collection.

It feels to me as though it's a peculiar thing to be thinking about the end of the year. It was a bit of a rude awakening to me when people started talking about 2008, I mean, it's only November. But then I realised, ooh, it's only November, but that means it's nearly December which really is the end of the year... Wow... that happened a bit quickly for my liking...

For a Southern Hemispherian the whole end of year thing means EVERYTHING slows down. I know up t'north Halloween has been the big news and they're gearing up for Thanksgiving... the ChrisKwanHan blah blah holiday and then New Years and off you go... The whole school year carries on etc... but down here the end of the year marks the end of school, businesses shutting doors for the summer break, summer holidays in January, TV crap season, New Year's parties but more than that, the new year here really is a 'new start' kind of season.

For me it will be a new year of no studying, a new year of getting my singing groove back on, a new year in the office with hopefully some new skills development and a whole lot of new web development on my site.

I've been thinking about it already because for some of my colleagues it's going to be a new year and a new job. There's a bit of it going around... I found out today that another girl is leaving the confines of our little work enclave and going on to pastures new. That's about number 5 or 6 who's making changes for next year. I applaud them, I've had thoughts of doing the same but opted instead to plump for a wage rise and a pleb to do some of my crap jobs. (Yeah, good luck with that I hear some of my 'in the know' readers say... meh, I'm a faith girl... watch it happen.)

I'm getting to be one of the long in the tooth ones round here. I've been on the payroll for 6 years and for the 3 years before that was a full time student on this same campus; I'm getting to be part of the furniture!!! It still surprises me. 6 years? Who does that any more??

The thing is I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about doing the new thing; taking my skills somewhere else, even to the point I applied for a new job about a month ago. But the fact is, when it's the right place to be there's no arguing with the universe (or God) over the issue, you just get on with it. I'm not ruling change out of the future, and I think it's a good thing to think about at any time, not just the end of the year.

But for the record, I'm still here, still (basically) loving it and still growing.

And I'm happy about that.

I asked him when he handed me the disc... is this legit? I was assured that it was.

More Fool Me.

Here I am 2 and a half years later having purchased the upgrade software gone to install it and found that it isn't going to be so easy as I don't have the one serial number I need. The reason I don't have it is because the person who gave it to me neglected to mention that while it was a legit copy of the software it was actually registered to him.

That being the case were I to be using it legitimately I should in fact be using it on a computer he owns in his employ.

So I contacted the vendor who sold me my upgrade and asked if there was any way it could be returned for the full version.

Apparently not.

Now, if this was a simple case of a $40 or $50 unit I'd be ok with that... but this is MYOB Accounting, the upgrade was $225... The full version is $285. So now I'm stuck with both. And I'm really unhappy about it.

Can Anyone Say Ebay?

I function best when all the plates are spinning. There are many plates at any given time in my world, and it's all cool so long as there's enough time to get to each one every so often and give it that little tap that keeps it rotating.

But sometimes the world tilts and there happens a teeter that threatens to bring the whole shebang down in a clatter of breaking ceramic.

I think I'm there at the moment...

Consequently I've arranged to be out of the office for a couple of days to attend to the spinning of the degree. Hopefully when Monday rolls around I'll be able to say the biggest of my last two assignments are done. Then there are 3 weeks I'll have in which to complete the next one.

Here's hoping that taking my hands off the other plates for that long doesn't bring them crashing down around my ears.