A fresh start.

Finally. I updated the header photo and now you can see my Seven Little Australians (doesn't that sound like a wonderful title for a book?) as they are, or at least as they were in July. They grow up and change so quickly that in the intervening three months since the photo was taken they have already changed, grown out of some things, had hair cuts -- you know how it goes. Since their names are no longer in the title I will introduce you to them by their blog names from left to right: Monkey, Little Bear, Butterfly (on my lap), Lion, Cheetah, Dragon and Ladybug. Mummy McTavish took the photo when we were all together in July to celebrate Great Nanna's birthday.

I really must try to be a more regular blogger again. I began blogging in 2008 because I was a bit of a frustrated writer and I wanted to write, but I wanted to test the waters to find out if other people would read what I wrote. As it turned out, other people did read what I wrote and they even left nice comments. (Thank you commenters if you are still out there.) It gave me the confidence to take what for me was a drastic step -- the step of enrolling at university to learn more about writing. Mr Sunshine has been very patient as I have obsessed over various assignments and assessment tasks while chaos reigned in the home. It has paid off and I am now the happy recipient of 2 credits, 2 distinctions and 1 high distinction. I can say with honesty that I haven't received a single pass. My course is a Bachelor of Arts at University of New England and since I am plodding away, one subject at a time, it is going take me until early 2019 to finish. That is okay because I am in no hurry and I don't want it to interfere with my grandparenting duties. The children will grow up and not need me soon enough, but I'm sure the university will still be there.

That's it for now folks. I'm hoping that I can be a bit more regular with my posts from now on, but I make no promises.

Grandchild number 7 - missing in action.

It has been so long since I have even looked at my blog. What a shock! Our youngest grandchild is 13 months old and she is not even on here yet. That will soon be corrected plus an update of what we have been up to in recent years will be posted. Watch this space...

I'm a Little Doll

Living back in a small community has its hazards. One of the them is getting roped into things you would never do under normal circumstances. This video demonstrates my point exactly. Those are my friends E and B and I am in the middle.

It was done for a good cause. The Balgal Beach Seniors group (of which I am NOT a member) decided to take part in Australia's Biggest Morning Tea to raise funds for Cancer Council Australia. We were a hit, mainly because Balgal Beach people are very easily pleased such lovely encouraging people. We had already performed our little number at last year's Seniors Behaving Badly concert and we were requested to do it again because they like to see us embarrassing ourselves enjoyed it so much.

I think twice is more than enough, don't you?

Down by the banks...

A couple of days ago we went back to the river, armed with my camera, to see if we could catch another glimpse of our crocodile. We saw him therefore we have a proprietorial interest him. But we didn't see him or any of his relatives this time. The photo below is near where we saw him the other day. He was about two metres out from the bank. It just looks like it would be good for lurking crocodiles, doesn't it?

In spite of a serious lack of crocodiles in the river, we did see abundant wildlife like this beautiful fellow. I never know whether to call them egrets or herons, so feel free to teach me.

 Next photo, not exactly wildlife - just a little enigmatic. Deliberate or accidental? Funny things happen in cyclones, so you never know.

At least three groups of mamma ducks and ducklings were out and about. I think this little lady had the largest brood. Poor mamma duck.

I saved my favourite until last. It is not a great photo and it is not even cute. Can you see what they are? No, not E.T. and friend, but close. These two turtles were so in love they kept popping up and kissing each other.  At one point they were about to take their relationship a bit further when someone cycled over the footbridge above their heads and it put them off.

Life's like that.

Wild life.

 Soon we will be going back to beach-side living.  Our choice. We missed the natural environment - wild life and beach walks in particular. Now we we have less than two weeks left before we move, and what happens? Wild life. Last night and today it was this fellow - a tawny frogmouth owl - who didn't seem the least bit phased by Mr Sunshine walking up to his fence with the bins or me getting up close with my camera.

 The second picture is a sleepy-eyed daytime photo. I think he was being hassled by some feral mynah birds. I hope he makes them pay when he is out hunting tonight. He is gorgeous, but today while we were out for a walk along the riverbank (not something that we have had many opportunities to do unfortunately) we saw something even more exciting.

For the first time, after nearly 30 years in Townsville, I spotted a crocodile in the river. To be honest, I thought at first that I had spotted a log looking very like a croc. I had just said to Mr Sunshine that it would make my day to see a croc, when, almost immediately I spotted the eyes and nostrils protruding from the water. I couldn't believe my luck - really couldn't believe it. So I walked closer to the riverbank to be sure, thinking Mr Sunshine's skepticism will be correct as usual. We got within a few metres when the croc smoothly and quickly submerged and took off. It was one of those jaw-dropping, stop-breathing, pupil-dilating moments. It did make my day!

If you are wondering about the state of my survival instinct because I walked to the riverbank near a crocodile, I have to confess, he was a freshwater crocodile. They are much smaller and more timid than their big saltwater cousins. The distance between his nostril and his eyes was about 30 cm if you want Mr Sunshine's estimate, or 40 cm if you trust me. He was probably less than 2 m long from nose to tail tip.

 I hope I get to blog about a saltwater croc one of these days, but I won't be standing on the edge of the riverbank to get a close-up photo for anyone.

Eccentric Old Lady

I might be the eccentric old lady. You can be the judge.

A couple of years ago one of the wings broke off my favourite old reading glasses. I haven't replaced them because they still work and they still stay in place, sort of - just like in the first photo. Some of my friends thought that that was a little eccentric. But now things have become a little more weird. I am wearing an eye patch around at home. Eye patches are not exactly comfortable, so I 'wear' a handkerchief under the eye patch to stop it rubbing or pressing on the sensitive eye area. I still need to wear my reading glasses for reading and computer work, thus I invented the new sophisticated style in the second photo. The really amazing thing is that Mr Sunshine has refrained from putting a bag over my head making any jokes about my new look.




Why am I wearing an eye patch? Well might you ask...

The eye surgery I had a couple of weeks ago to reroute my left eye's tear duct had a rare complication (fat where there shouldn't have been any fat). Consequently the operation took an extra hour and I have had a lot of swelling and continual double vision. The swelling is going down slowly, but the double vision (if it is going away at all) is much slower. How rare was my fat eye? My ophthalmologist is at least ten years older than me and he had never seen anything like it in his life. That seems pretty rare.

The photos below show my progress at two days post op, four days post op, thirteen days post op and what I (now) normally look like with my eye patch. I cannot not wear an eye patch because the double vision makes me feel very sea sick in about thirty seconds flat. When I go out, I wear my sunglasses with a piece of card covering up the inside of the left lens so that I'm not mistaken for a pirate. I'm not that eccentric yet.

I now have even more admiration for anyone coping with a vision defect than I had previously. How people with only one good eye drive without having accidents, I am mystified if I know. I am not getting behind the wheel of a car until I (hopefully) have two good eyes again.

Another positive is that my ophthalmologist doesn't charge for post op visits and so far I have had two, and have another booked for next week, and there will be more.

Don't read the next bit if you are squeamish.For those who are wondering what the surgery entailed - it involved an incision of about 3 cm between my left eye and nose and cutting a passage through the bony bits into my left nostril. If you look up external dacrycryorhinostomy (or DCR) on Youtube you will be even more edified.

For now, I try not to scare the grandchildren too much (or any children for that matter). 

Tornado or not tornado...

Not prize-winning photos I'm afraid folks, but they do convey the damage. They were taken with my iPhone through the window as we were advised that it wasn't safe to enter the building. It doesn't look too bad from the front - apart from the wires hanging down, the sign in pieces and the tiles balancing precariously.

Now you can see the Real Estate's sign also crumpled on the ground. The Real Estate is the bright orange front of the building which stood out in some of the news footage of the destruction. At the top of the building, you can see the roof has peeled back. That  is the bit that didn't blow away. Most of the roof is lying on the ground on the other side of the building.

The next photo is inside, looking towards the rear of the store. It could look worse, but it probably doesn't matter because most of the books and CD's that you can see will have water damage to some extent. The carpet is totally drenched as you can tell from the water marks on the floor. The glarey bit at the top of the photo is the sky where part of the ceiling used to be. It is now a water feature dripping down on the stock below. No doubt, at the height of the storm, it would have been like a washing machine inside the store. The absent bit of ceiling can be seen leaning against the CD rack on the left.

This one is inside towards the front. Another large gaping hole can be seen and again rain is dripping down on the display below. More debris litters the floor. Sadly they were all geared up for a big sale that was to start today.

Out on the footpath was a power pole snapped off at ground level with wires all over the place. Townsville's (possible) first tornado ever.