Category: Thoughts

Bad luck comes in threes

They say these things come in threes.

Well today they sure did!

I was diagnosed with Eustachian tube dysfunction by my GP today – that is causing my right ear to feel full and blocked and why I have a sore ear and neck and even the sore throat that I thought was the start of Covid earlier this week.

Being a mouth breather and wearing a mask is one of the things that cause it to become an issue apparently.

The solution is a new nightly regime of Nasonex, for up to three months.

Lucky me!

Anyway, number two was hearing that my Mum has Covid.

She’s doing OK, but as a ‘lonely only’ child I’m on call for any help she needs over the next week or so.

And number three? Officially a tie.

I received a call from a work colleague who is recovering from a brain aneurysm this afternoon.

He’s been told he’s lucky to be alive after having a seizure and collapsing at home, being put in an induced coma, suffering from constant headaches and apart from being very very tired he’s come out the other side relatively unscathed.

Then a call from my son, on his birthday, about his cat that needs emergency surgery for an abcess.

Distressing, and expensive.

What a day!

That’s it, I’m done.

#perm A lesson learnt

So I hear that perms are back.

All I can say is, don’t go there.

I made that mistake at the end of Year 12 when mum let me go wild at Maurice Meade. I spent hours in a chair getting a spiral perm, and years growing it out.

My hair went from long, luscious healthy shiny and smooth, to frizzy short and ridiculously curly in one fell swoop.

Shirley Temple style curls, not what I was aiming for, obviously.

I cried for hours when the curls wouldn’t wash out, and scraped my hair back into a tight plait until the perm started to ‘drop’, about a year later, I kid you not.

Thank goodness for the lack of social media to document my epic mistake. One of many I made over the years in the name of ‘fashion’.

Big hair was all the rage in my day, the bigger the better eg this messy ‘do at the ball. No idea what I was thinking with that dress either though. And this photo was taken BEFORE the perm.

In my defence, it was the 80’s.

I now know that heated curlers are a much better way to experiment with curls and the results can be easily washed out.

All this 80’s nostalgia has me wondering what’s next though.

Wonderful and Wild women

So I hear that all the ‘Stranger Things’ fans are just discovering Kate Bush. ‘Running up that Hill’ is trending and maybe they’re starting to explore her other songs.

‘Wuthering Heights’ is an all time classic for me, as is ‘Babooshka’. I mean, the video of her interpretive dance with the double bass? Damn sexy in my humble opinion. But also a bit … scary.

I have a memory of watching a documentary about her in a hotel room in Swindon of all places. It revealed that she was in her early teens when she penned ‘The man with the child in his eyes’, another favourite of mine.

And taught herself to play the piano. What an amazingly talented musician!

A wonderful and wild woman who I’d love to have seen perform live back in the day.

On reflection I’ve always been drawn to the music of wonderful and wild women. Like Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Bjerk, and Tori Amos.

All such talented musicians in different ways.

No chance of me watching the latest series of ‘Stranger Things’ though sorry.

That stuff is very scary!

Cheers to Covid.

Just like that it’s 2022!

Seriously, how fast did the last year fly by? Well it certainly seemed to for me.

Maybe that’s a middle-aged thing.

I’ve got a monster headache but it’s not from celebrating new year’s eve. The side effects of the Pfizer booster have hit and I’m feeling like an old car that has been left out in the paddock to rust.

In the words of the late great Leonard Cohen ‘I ache in the places where I used to play’ but it’s a small price to pay at the end of the day.

Right now I am so thankful and grateful for the silver linings that covid has brought for me.

I can hardly believe it’s been nearly two years since my milestone birthday celebration at the Cottesloe hotel!

Way back at the start of 2020 when covid was something I was only starting to hear about and didn’t think would impact my big birthday holiday.

In the past year I’ve gone from cruising to camping and can honestly say it’s been exactly what I needed to do.

Joining a car club and making new friends while heading off exploring amazing WA.

I’ve survived the heat, dust, dingoes, donkeys and flies, and days without running water and lived out of my car all with my best friend by my side.

Yes we’ve bickered and ranted and played the blame game, but ending a day by the side of a fire after watching the sun set has helped heal most wounds.

Covid is coming but we’re as prepared as we can be, both double dosed and boosted and trying to get used to accessorising with masks every time we leave home.

The bubble is set to burst at the start of February, but in the meantime another birthday is on the horizon and we’ve got one more car trip to complete.

Who’s with me?

Life on the road

It’s Saturday today which means we’ve been living out of our car for more than a week.

A milestone for me especially, and also our relationship.

Lessons I’ve learnt already include that a self inflating mattress, a dual battery and a good fridge are worth the money. Invest in a good tent, trust me that’s not something you want to scrimp on, and a collapsible bucket from Kmart has multiple uses.

That red dirt is a bugger to wash off so a good thick flannel is essential, and also a nail brush to get it out from under any nails you have left after rolling up that mattress.

Nothing beats the feeling of watching the sun set on the horizon in a bush camp, and the stars are better than anything you can watch on the idiot box.

Karijini is a magic place so if you have the time to get there it’s a must, and the people you meet on the way there are worth the long drive.

Yep there’s been more than a couple of arguments along the way, but navigating our way through the biggest road trip we’ve ever done is bringing us together in more ways than anything else we’ve ever done until now.

And right now I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be.

#flashbackfriday Thirteen

I’ve just watched a movie on Disney Star, Thirteen.

I’ve seen it before, about ten years ago when my own daughter was in high school, and it scared the crap out of me how realistic and relatable it was.

Watching it made me flash back to the early 80s when I was thirteen years old and started pushing the boundaries and experimenting.

One particularly memorable night my ‘bestie’ and I snuck out of her house after her parents went to bed. She lived near a main road so we thought it’d be fun to stick our thumbs out and ‘pretend’ to hitch.

Two young girls, out alone at night … Wasn’t long before two guys pulled over and offered us a ride.

We thought it was a laugh, and lucky for us the guys didn’t take advantage of us in any way, and we were proud of ourselves for being so ‘naughty’.

I’ve been writing in a journal as long as I can remember, and it was reading my journal that Mum found out what we’d been up to and my friendship with my bestie was banned.

At the time I was angry at her for violating my privacy under the pretense of checking when my music lesson was scheduled. And of course devastated that my friendship with my bestie had to end.

What the movie shows is just how quickly things can go awry, and the games and lies teenagers play to manipulate and get their way.

Highly recommended viewing for anyone with pre-teens, even if only to get an insight into how peer pressure can potentially play out.

Two years after my naughty night out a friend of mine also hitched a ride and ended up being a victim of David and Catherine Birnie. For those not familiar with the story you can find out more online … Every Mother’s nightmare.

Who knows what other risks I may have taken if my friendship wasn’t banned and my boundary pushing and experimentation had been allowed to escalate.

Thankfully my own children didn’t end up pushing and experimenting too much and they’re still here and love to share their stories of what they got away with in their teens now they’re adults.

I can only imagine what the parents of my friend who wasn’t so lucky go through every time they think of her.

So in a way I guess I’m saying thanks Mum.

But I’ll still never forgive you for reading my journal.

30,000 kms in three years

Today is a public holiday in Western Australia, and right now there’s a lot of people heading home after a long weekend away.

We opted out of a road trip this weekend for a few reasons, but it feels appropriate to reflect on how far we have travelled since purchasing my ‘G.I. Jane’ Subaru Outback at the end of June in 2018.

Having just returned from an overseas holiday and with plans in place to celebrate a milestone birthday in 2020, the EOFY purchase was more about the trade-in value of my previous car and the fact I fell in love with the colour than anything else.

30,000 kms later we’ve hit the road more often and seen more of our state than we would ever have intended if Covid hadn’t put paid to our original plans.

The money we would have spent overseas has instead been invested in ‘pimping’ my car, purchasing camping supplies and sampling local bakeries from Coolgardie to the Porongorups.

Driving G.I. Jane on and off-road, along with seeing more of our state, we’ve had the opportunity to expand our circle of friends and realise how the small things mean so much along the way.

Fingers crossed Covid won’t impact our plan to see Karijini and Exmouth in a couple of months, and I’m envious of friends who recently sold everything and headed for the horizon with no set plan; one Powerball and we’ll meet them somewhere on the road.

In the meantime I’m so grateful to be able to see more of amazing WA as well as to appreciate how lucky we are to be here right now.

Who knows where the next 30,000 and three kms will take us?

No news day

If you’ve come to rely on your social media feed for news and updates, then you’ve probably noticed it’s looking very different today in Australia.

Australians are being blocked from accessing news in their Facebook feeds thanks to a stand-off with the federal government.

It’s an interesting situation and I don’t really understand it completely, but heard an analogy on the ABC that I thought I’d share.

It’s like me recommending coffee shops to a friend, who then enjoys samples of coffee from all the shops but doesn’t commit to buying anything.

As consumers we’re happy with a sample of the news more often than not so no-one is getting paid for their time.

I’ll admit I’m guilty of news sampling online in general, but I do regularly purchase The West Australian and benefit from a corporate subscription to The Australian.

I sort of understand the implications for journalists and others involved with production and publishing news, but in the age of social media maybe there is a way we can all meet in the middle?

A good start is to not rely on social media and Google feeds as your source of news, and to purchase if you have the means to, but is there anything else we can could or should do to help?

When the power of social media to share news in an emergency situation is compromised, could paying to use social media as a consumer be a solution?

Or maybe the point is that we all need to remember that’s it’s social media, not news … And source news elsewhere?

The bubble has burst

I’m wearing a mask handmade by a family member that felt like overkill when it arrived, but now that I’m wearing it my anxiety has hit overdrive.

It’s here, the virus we’ve been reading and hearing about from the sanctuary of our ‘bubble’ has finally found a way in and I am quietly terrified.

It wasn’t until I left home this morning that reality hit.

Driving through the back streets on my way into work, the majority of the dog walkers and tradies I passed were wearing masks.

There were very few cars on the road, and a bus I passed was eerily empty.

I’ve already had a conversation with a work colleague who, after complaining that the mask made her feel dizzy, proceeded to tell me that it’s all a conspiracy and she’s very angry.

I’m angry too, because it’s people like her not taking it seriously that will be most likely to cause the virus to spread even more.

Beyond the current epicentre in Maylands, where my daughter lives. She and her housemates have been queueing since the crack of dawn for testing, because it’s the right thing to do.

Wearing a mask of course, and preparing to wait as long as it takes to get to the front of the line.

Because if you choose not to wear a mask because it feels uncomfortable, or fogs your glasses, or makes you feel dizzy or you think it looks silly then please stay home.

But please don’t go to the shopping centre and vent at the service assistant because you had to queue outside in the heat for hours and there’s no toilet paper left on the shelves.

Because that’s just wrong and you will look silly.

Waiting for a Wave

News just in from the WA Premier, the hard border that has been closed since April will finally be opened for travellers from NSW and Victoria from midnight tonight!

Good news, right?

I certainly hope so.

Because from what I’ve seen recently, the coronvirus crisis isn’t being taken seriously, and there is a frightening sense of complacency that has settled into the WA community.

It’s certainly felt like one of the safest places in the world to be, and yes I know that for those who have been ‘stuck outside’ it has been a long wait.

The Premier turned us into an island within an island, and we’ve had months to get ourselves ready for the opening but are we really ready?

Just in time for Christmas shopping queues, and the silly season when after a few drinks everyone is a friend.

Is it just me or do we all need to stop and think and remind ourselves that yes we have been lucky to not have had any community transmission in this state, yet.

And do whatever we can to prevent a second wave.

It may not impact you personally but think about the implications of you passing the virus onto someone else, who has an elderly friend or relative, or whose immunity is compromised, and the impact on our health workers and health system.

Maybe I am a glass half empty ‘negative Nancy’, but I’m feeling a lot of anxiety while waiting for the wave.

So download the SafeWA app, avoid close contact with others, avoid shaking hands, stay home if you are not well, cover your mouth/nose when you cough/sneeze and wash your hands.

Please 🥺🙏