Christmas past

Now that it is all over for another year - here are some highlights.

Lion taking seriously the job of decorating the Dragonlady Grotto tree.  He held his arms way back for a big throw and follow through with the tinsel.  And here is the result. . .

Not bad, was he?

Of course everyone wants to see how much Monkey has grown.  With so many rellies to fight over him, his feet didn't touch the ground all day.  Since he is a long way from walking that doesn't seem right, but you get the picture.  Grandad got in plenty of cuddles.

Big cousin, Cheetah, is always special but since he got a cool iPod from Santa he got extra attention.

Cheetah also did a great job as the official gift distributor.  The tree is to his left around the corner.

It looks like Monkey approves of Grannysaurus' gift from Romeo and Juliet.

The McTavish boys looked cool in their Christmas shirts made by their creative mum.

Dragon couldn't believe his eyes when he unwrapped his gift from Cheetah, Aunty Chimera, Uncle DH and Little Bear.  He had drooled over this in the shop and never thought he would own it.  It was serendipity.  His smile says it all and he didn't forget to say thank you.

After waking up with a fever (yet again) Little Bear was given her new medicine that worked like magic.  Christmas day was saved for her.  Later Christmas night she practised her feminine wiles on Uncle Romeo while Monkey, very discreetly, had his Christmas tea.

By half way through the day, Monkey looked like he was sooo over smiling for the camera, but he didn't mind Uncle Romeo getting in lots of baby minding practice.

Merry Christmas

As usual I had a bit of fun with photoshop creating this year's Christmas card for our business.  That's Mr Sunshine on the top left.  Romeo on the top right and Grannysaurus on the bottom right.  The other 3 are who we had left of our staff due to the global financial meltdown.  In fact the young woman bottom left has now found other employment also and I have had to learn to handle all of the clerical side of the business.  It has been a steep learning curve.  Office work and I go together like oil and water.  So now there are just five of us where there used to be eight workers - not counting myself as initially I had no role to play and I was still working for the church.

Fortunately the last couple of months have seen a turn around in demand for our work and things are starting to look more hopeful.  We are not entirely out of the woods yet and we have a huge amount of catching up to do to repay our debts (mostly to the bank, the tax man and ourselves - especially ourselves), but we can see a light at the end of the tunnel and we are hoping that it is not the headlight of an oncoming train.
The truth is that in spite of the dificulties, we have many, many blessings to count.  Five lively, lovely, healthy grandchildren and three great kids who have great spouses and are happily married and all of us healthy and only a five minute drive from each other is more than many families have and we are grateful for all of it.

Christmas is a little more austere than we have had for a while, but the good news is that we are not beaten yet.  And we are certainly not starving - too many friends and relatives for that :)

2010 is looking okay so far.

I hope the coming year is a good one for all of you and that 2009 will be looked back on as a just a nightmare, bad dream, an interesting learning experience. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Mango high

My house seems to be cocooned in a bubble of very sweet and delicious mango aroma.  Why?
Well, I'm glad you asked.  In the last week I have peeled and sliced more than three dozen mangos.  Where have they all gone?  I'm glad you asked that too :)
They have all gone into my food dehydrator.   All of those mangos have been reduced to a few (too few) tupperware containers of very yummy dried mango.  As you may know, mangos are a very sweet fruit.  Drying them intensifies the natural sugar.  That is, by removing the water content, the natural sugar concentration is greatly increased, producing one of the sweetest dried fruits you will ever taste.

If I can bear to part with any of it, I'll be sending some down to the mexicans (southern relatives).  That is a big IF at this stage.

I have become an expert mango peeler, slicer and drier.  I can tell you that about 5 mm slices work best; that the best way to peel them is with a knife and a large spoon; that you have to be very careful with the knife because peeled mangos are extremely slippery to handle; that drying them for several hours on medium and then turning the dryer down to low for another 12 hours creates the best colour and softest texture.
What esle would you like to know?
They are very more-ish.  My information says that they will keep for at least a year in the refrigerator.  Will I have any left in my refrigerator by this time next year?  I'll be surprised if I have any left this time next month week.
In the mean time I love the fact that as you approach my front door you are enveloped in intoxicating mango perfume.  Inside the house, you could have a sugar high from just breathing.
Sorry - no photos because I forgot to charge the camera betteries, but maybe I'll throw a "finished product" photo in a future post.

Those eyes.

I know I'm biased, but who could resist those gorgeous Lion eyes.
Photo by Mummy McT by the way.

Before I married, I belonged to a family where blue eyes were totally non-existant. We didn't just have brown eyes, we had quite dark brown eys - without exception. Then I married a blue-eyed Mr. Sunshine and we had brown-eyed children.
[Brown eyes are a dominant gene]
But our daughters married non-brown-eyed men and our grandchilren get a lucky dip in the gene pool of eye colour. I suppose it has something to do with double recessive genes, but genetics can get quite complex, so I won't make any pronouncements.
Bottom line - the mix so far has been serendipitous for the grandchildren. They all have gorgeous eyes.

Heaven or . . .

One of our major local shopping centres underwent a huge renovation that culminated in a grand opening a few weeks ago. We didn't go. It was a madhouse on the BIG DAY. I guess everybody thought they would get a bargain.


When I finally was talked into going by Mummy McT and the boys, I took Lion and Dragon in my car. Part of the reno involved the construction of a new roof-top car park accessed by a pretty impressive ramp. We followed MMcT onto the ramp.

As we drove up the ramp we could see nothing but blue sky and Lion said (with AWE),

"Grandma, it looks like we are going up to Heaven!"

Well yes, it really does Lion.

When we got to the top, there were plenty of cars and, in the area we had chosen to park, someone had cleaned out their car and dumped a heap of litter that must have taken weeks to collect. As we got out of the car, I asked Lion, "Does this look like Heaven?"

In a very sad and disappointed voice he answered, "Nooooooo"

Confession: I added "TO HEAVEN" to the top photo. It may have been omitted from the original sign.

DON'T DON'T DON'T Feed the trolls!

The ABC posted this news item today. (click to read) It is the best advice I've heard for all of those people who have been hounded by offensive, abusive, insulting, judgemental and usually anonymous commentors on their blogs.  They are like the schoolyard bullies who get their thrill from the response of their victim.  No response - no thrill and they go and bug someone else. 
People who do this are cowards hiding behind their anonymity.  They complain of censorship if they are ignored or deleted, but this is a manipulation because they do not respect other folks' rights to disagree with them. Freedom of speech is valuable, but it is not a licence to be offensive.
Trolling is obviously a growing problem if the some online news media are turning off their comments section.
The writer gives this advice:
"The good old motto is 'don't feed the troll'. Don't acknowledge them, don't give them attention, don't react because that's what they want."

Summertime

Officially it's still Spring, but we don't really have Spring here - just dry season and wet season. In the dry season it can get cool, never cold. In the wet season it gets hot. Not blistering dry heat but, but steamy, sauna-like, sticky heat. It's starting to get like that, but we've had some gentle breezes to make it much more bearable - very pleasant. It will get worse. Much worse. February is usually the most unbearable month.
There is some recompense to the heat. One of them is the Frangipani. About 200 years ago a botanist described them as a set of antlers bedecked with posies. They have been the subject of many artworks, but there is one thing art cannot show you. The fragrance. Every time I step outside the air is filled with their gorgeous scent. Frangipani-scented perfumes never do it justice.
The grandchildren love to pick up a fallen flower with brown edges around the petals (they seem to accept imperfections in flowers and people) and make a special presentation of it to me.
That makes them smell even sweeter.