Moving on

There were times that this house drove us nuts.

Like when the roof used to leak before we got it replaced.

And when the rain used to come flowing through the back door before we sorted out how to stop it.

And... and... and...

But it is also filled with wonderful memories of grandchildren at play

And doing some serious jiving.

And learning to drive a compact model.

Sleepovers at Grandma's house.

Cooking up a storm in Grandma's kitchen.

Making a splash in the "swimming pool" on the footpath.

And helping Grandad in the garden.



It has been a great 18 years, but it is time to move on and make some new memories.

Soon...

Less than two weeks to go. . .

then our house will belong to someone else
"Grandma's park" will no longer be "Grandma's park"
the bank will be repaid and off our backs
the threat of having our house repossessed will be over
the packing will be completed
the giving away of everything we cannot store or keep will be completed
most of our financial debts will be fulfilled
the most stressful time of our lives will be over
most of the tears will be over
the photos will be all we have to remember our home of 18 years
But (staying positive) we will be living at the beach. Thank God for MIL's with beach huts.

'Tis a Puzzlement

Nothing to do with the King and I from where I stole the quote, but a jigsaw puzzlement. 

The jigsaw has 1000 pieces and took many hours to complete.  I had no guiding picture to work from.  Just a bag of 1000 pieces.  It was meant to be a mystery puzzle with a twist.  Completing the jigsaw was supposed to provide the final clue to 'Murder on the Hindenburg'. 

Unfortunately I don't have a clue because the book with the story relating to the picture was not in the box. The picture on the box had absolutely nothing relating to the picture in the puzzle.  At least I completed the puzzle and there were no missing pieces.  I will never know who was murdered and who was murderer. 'Ttis a puzzlement.

We lost the battle

I'm back.  For us personally, 2010 was a terrible year in some ways although having a new granddaughter and seeing all of the grandchildren thriving is definitely a redeeming feature of our "annus horriblis".  More on that at a later date.
The photo is of a sign that appeared in our park early last year.  Can you believe that a children's park that is home to a children's football team and is next to a primary school (ages 4-12) and a toy library is going to have a licenced clubhouse?  We signed the petition.  We wrote a letter.  We went to two public meetings.  Many of our neighbours did the same.  And we lost. 
In a city were public drunkenness is a problem.  In a country that spends millions of dollars dealing with the illness, violence, crime and every other negative outcome of unrestrained alcohol consumption. . .  we lost.  Our petitions fell on deaf ears.
The real losers are the kids who will grow up thinking that sport and alcohol are inseparable because their football club says they are by their actions.  To have a good time you have to have alcohol.  To raise funds for your club you have to sell alcohol.  That is the message to kids.
I could say a lot more, but you get my drift.

Tap . . .Tap . . . Tappity . . . Tappity . . .

Child-minding for the McTavish grandkids again and never a dull moment with these boys.  Lion looked in my shoe cupboard and "found" some "tap" shoes.  Hard plastic soles are the closest thing we have to tap shoes around here.  I can remember when I was a little girl that the cobbler (we had real cobblers back then) put little metal bits on the sides of the heels of my shoes because I kept wearing them down.  They really did tap after that.  So many of life's little pleasures have been lost.
Anyway, Lion and Dragon started to improvise a little dance.  By the time I found my camera and some dancing music (karaoke Christmas was the best I could find at short notice) they were starting to lose interest, but with the promise of some chocolate biscuits for morning tea, their enthusiasm returned.  For a little while at least.
I prefer not hear my own voice recorded, but it can't be helped.  I reckon I should be offered a job doing voice-over for cartoon and computer animations because I can do a great wicked witch impersonation.
If you listen really carefully you will hear a little squeak from Monkey in the background.

That time of year again

It's rosella time. 

Not the parrots, the bushes, which means. . . the jam (or jelly if you want the American translation).

Often, we in the tropics bemoan the fact that we don't have many of the beautiful flowers and fruits that our temperate climate cousins enjoy.  I know I do.  But sometimes there are little compensations.  Rosella jam is one of them.  It is actually made from the colourful bract that contains the seed.  The seed is used for providing the pectin in the jam making process, but they are then discarded after the jam is made and not left in the jam.

What does it taste like?  That is difficult to describe.  It has a tang - a bit like raspberry or marmalade, but it has a flavour like nothing else.  The perfect balance of sweet and sour really.  Maybe a bit like rose hips with zing.  No, that doesn't describe it.  You'll have to get some and try it.

Another wonderful thing about rosellas is they are good for you.  Really good!  Research has (apparently) proven that rosella juice can lower blood pressure and has cancer fighting properties.  I'm always a bit sceptical of these types of claims until I know who did the research and who paid for it and how it was done.  But since rosella jam tastes so great, I'll gobble it down and if it does me some good that is a double bonus.

Another bonus - they self-seed and thrive on neglect.

My rosellas are living proof of that.

The Wheels Fell Off

That could be the story of my life.

The wheels fell off.

I'm not depressed- just being realistic about some aspects of my life.

Mr Sunshine and Romeo have been working very hard. They average 15 hour days some days and 7 days a week most weeks. This is all mostly thanks to the global financial meltdown. More on that later.

Today I thought I would do my bit. Mr Sunshine is rarely home until after dark so that makes mowing the yard a bit difficult. I used to do all of the gardening and mowing.  Eventually Mr Sunshine took over most of the mowing when I got old and weak, too lazy, the grass became really thick and difficult to mow.

Today I did get all of the front yard and most of the footpath mowed before disaster struck.  Somewhere in the long grass on the footpath is a little bit of metal like a tiny metal hub cap.  Without it I can go no further.

Actually only one wheel fell off this time, but it is not the first time that this has happened to this mower.

Now to some other metaphorical wheels that have fallen off.  Last weekend our whole family went to the beautiful tropical paradise known as Magnetic Island for the wedding of Mr Sunshine's niece.  We had a wonderful time.  The grandchildren had a great time.

Here we are - a very rare pic that has the children, their spouses and the grandchildren all in one photo.  We are a handsome lot and I'm not being biased ;)  I love the way we are mostly colour coordinated - entirely by accident.

Then we came home. . . to the sound of running water and the gently swoosh of waves. . .  under my bedroom floor boards where no waves were ever meant to be.  The floor boards are bamboo and they are supposed to be a lovely light creamy colour.  They are not supposed to have grey and brown discolouration.

The sound of running water seemed to be coming from everywhere. On Monday the plumber took a bit of a punt an educated guess and cut a hole in the wall of our shower recess.  It was a good guess because he was within a hand span of where the pipe was busted and spraying out water (as it had been all weekend while we were away).  He was relieved because it usually took longer and more holes in walls and floors to find a leak.   On Tuesday morning the insurance assessor arrived and checked out the damage and sent his report away.  Now we wait.  We have been through this before. Two years ago it was the drainage pipe that leaked and wrecked the floor boards.  The insurance company replaced them. The floor was only installed three and a half years ago.  We are starting to wonder if the house is cursed. 

We have lived here for 17 years and had up to 7 leaks in the roof which wrecked part of the ceiling.  During one severe downpour we had 9 or 10 buckets and pans throughout the house catching the water as it came through the ceiling. It was a nightmare. We replaced the roof.  We have had water rushing in our back door and through our laundry and rumpus room in heavy rain.  I had to call the SES for sand bags, but they couldn't get here because the roads were too flooded.  We have had to replace wall panels and timber beams in walls that were affected by wood rot and termites.  When the wall panels were removed we found the skeletons of about 24 rats (they probably ate the termites before dying of starvation or rat bait) in the walls.  Apparently they jump down from the palm fronds which overhang the house and get in under the edges of the roof. We have had a swarm of bees temporarily set up home inside our back wall.  We still have paint peeling from our ceiling throughout most of the house although it was completely repainted only three years ago.  The new paint is not peeling.  It is the original paint coming off under the newer paint and leaving the bare ceiling panels exposed. I have miles of sticky tape holding the ceiling paint together.  Really!  We have had bikes stolen from the yard on about 4 occasions and an attempted break-in that shattered a front window.  On another occasion someone broke in while we were all asleep and went through all of the desk and file drawers in Mr Sunshine's study and damaged a laptop which they left lying on the living room floor.  They only stole one can of coke.  Probably kids.  That is the major things that I can remember.  Along the way there have been numerous minor irritations.

Then there was the GFC.  With our usual great sense of timing we had just gone heavily into debt to buy a business that caters to the top end of the market. We do glass splashbacks and two-pack spray painting for cabinetmakers, builders and private customers.  These are luxury items and luxury items got crossed off most folks' lists when the economy wobbled.  Two major builders went bankrupt owing us thousands.  Thousands of locals lost heavily when Storm Financial went under and spending came to a standstill.  Two of our tradesmen left us and set up a competing business and poached our customers.  Then we had to deal with equipment breakdowns that never happen one at a time, but arrive en mass.

The wheels always fall off.  Not always.  We are still fighting to stay in business and, God-willing, we will survive. We have great kids and the most lovable grandchildren.  We have wonderful friends who have helped us and prayed for us.  We live in a beautiful, free country.  For at least 90% of the world's people, life is much harder than ours. 

We count our blessings and our greatest blessings are in the group photo above.