I am sitting here with a big smile on my face reminiscing about a time so many years ago.

It was around 1982, I was quite pregnant and preparing for the birth of my first child.

We had been in the neighbourhood (Sunshine, Melb) some twelve months, but because up till then I had been working full time we hadn't really had much of a chance to get to know any of our neighbours.



We were aware of a couple of families nearby, one of which was across the road from us. The chappy had waved to us a few times and we had waved back, as you do. My husband Murray and I had commented on him being a swarthy looking fellow with a mop of dark curly hair and a big moustache and consequently presumed he was of Mediterranean descent.



I fondly recall the doorbell ringing one day, with a familiar looking lady standing at the door, a big grin on her face plus a bag full of baby clothes, not to mention a car-seat. This happened to be the wife of the friendly gentleman across the road as it turned out and before too long we became firm friends primarily because of an instantaneous liking for one another not to mention our proximity to each other's residence.



As it turned out, we were wrong regarding this wonderful lady's husband's nationality. He was quite the Australian gentle man. He was a brilliant neighbour and friend and throughout the years has remained so.



As for his wife, she has been there for me through many trials and tribulations. She is my daughter's god-mother and is none other than the delightful Lizzie you read about in http://nanalizzie.blogspot.com/



How lucky was I eh!





While I was in Goroka, PNG recently, my primary purpose was to work as a volunteer midwife in their hospital labour ward.

One of the amazing facts is that they do not have identity bracelets for their babies just born. All the mothers have to bring in a baby blanket which is how they identify their newborns, which are placed under a radiant heater shortly after the birth.



This is the photo to which Lizzie was referring to.

Once upon a time

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful vibrant boy in my life.


His name was Chris and he was my son for 20 years, 10 months and two weeks.


Chris had a disorder known as Progeria, an insidious premature killer of youth, also known as Accelerating Aging Disorder.


When Chris died, our lives were devastated for a long time and even now, some 6 years after I still find it difficult to comprehend why this should happen to such a 'bright spark' in the world in which we live.


My boy was a fortunate one in the world of Progeria. He went to school and did well. He was in his second year of uni when he died, studying interior architecture. He drove a car, he drank beer. He gave motivation talks to secondary school students. Chris had many, many friends, and like all those taken way too soon, he was well loved by many.


Many of those afflicted with this disease die before they can experience what my boy did. The average age expectancy of Progeria is around 13 to 15 with some dying well before that age.


Incidence of this disease: 1 in 8 million.

My boy, despite his disabilities, was able to teach himself to play the piano in the last two years of his life.
When commencing secondary school he desperately wanted to play the saxophone but unfortunately his fingers could not reach all the keys so he settled for a clarinet instead.
When he experimented with the piano and was able to pick out chords and basic tunes he then regretted his initial music choices at school, but as we all say from time to time..."If only I knew in hindsight"!
I purchased a second-hand piano from a work colleague around 2001 and he and I would pick out different pieces and play them together gradually improving our skills as time went on. I eventually bought a few comprehensive books on basic piano education, one of them aptly entitled "Piano Playing For Dummies" and we would have a great time developing our own sense of rhythm as we went.
'Super Trouper' by ABBA was one such piece he taught himself to play, and I can still now hear his interpretation.......

The piano lies silent
No one plays it now
The echo of my children
Are a mere breath away.
I can hear their laughter
Like the piano,
A chord in my mind
That plays on forever.
The keys lie silent
Longing for someone
To caress them with their fingers
No more the tandem
No more the playing
How strange if a child were to play it now
For it would not be the same.
My 'Super Trouper' no longer here
To delight me with his sounds
And make me laugh with his dexterity.
Rich in memory and want,
the lid remains closed
Forever.

Apinun

Just a brief one.

April just gone saw me in Papua New Guinea for three weeks as a volunteer midwife in the Highlands region of Goroka.

Look at my slideshow to your right and you'll see some pictures I found online of the area.

I know it all!

I miss the place dreadfully and I wish I was there still.

I plan to post photos of my time there on here so look out for them!

Good evening as Alfred Hitcock once said to all and sundry.

It's the end of a busy day.

We, as in my husband and I have just been out to dinner at a lovely Thai restaurant in Laverton (Narathai) and eaten to our hearts content...mind our stomachs are groaning at the added encumberance we have hoisted upon them!

Following our partakings, we then called into an electrical store and purchased for our one and only existing child, an electric blanket as where she is currently residing (Edithvale), her mattress is on the floor which are floorboards, and consequently she is often very bloody cold at night. We figure, an EB will stave off the winter freezings a bit and make her all warm and toast. The objective here is to ensure she has a better nights sleep and wakes up as fresh as a daisy instead of being cold all night. Hope it works!

I've worked two shifts since I was last on here and its been reasonably busy at work. I tend to run hither and thither about there in my position (in charge) and have 50 things on my mind at any one time.

When the crunch comes, its my responsibility to ensure all has been appropriate for my shift and I have to rely on the people with whom I am working to make sure their allocation is not too taxing for them.

I like to think that they will have to courage to speak out to me if they find it too difficult but often or sometimes they don't and its at the end of the shift when I am extracting a handover from them that I find they haven't been able to accomplish what they presumed they could, at the beginning.

Alas, what can you do eh... but be on your guard with certain staff in the future.

I am not going to gripe about the cold tonight for yes it is winter after all and bloody freezing.

C'est la vie!

Here are three snapshot photos of when we travelled to Thailand a few years ago. Just looking back now, it seems a lifetime ago but actually occured only three years ago. What an adventure we had travelling to Kanchanaburi where we met elephants, tigers, monks and boat people. We walked the trail our POW's did so many years ago during the second world war along Hellfire Pass and even though we did it in the comfortable time of 2006 it was still a most memorable experience.

Just a short one this morning as I am off to work this afternoon.
Have to call into my mothers beforehand though and deliver unto her a loaf of bread, which, I don't mind doing in the least.
In this weather though, I just hope she hasn't got it into her head to go down the street herself as she is 85 now and becoming frailer each day I see her (which is often).
Another cold day outside...so cold I am not even bothering to hang clothes on the line and instead have reverted to the tumble dryer and heater.
Hang the global warming issues related to such misconduct. Hang the electricity bill...I pay enough as it is!
Work this afternoon. I wonder what that will bring with its myriad of convoluted anxieties, both fellow midwives, doctors and patients. We won't even enter the realm of visitors who think its all about ME!
There are some days we are relatively sane, and other days, especially Thursday afternoons where its chaos and fraught with "What the hell am I doing here on a Thursday afternoon!"
Ahhh well, another day, another dollar or two as they say.
Must away as I have not the time to be frivolous before I go.

I have made dinner for the other half tonight which is an accomplishment for me.

Till next time....

How easy it is to procrastinate and not go do the washing and ironing and instead sit here and learn more about blogging whilst writing some more of myself.

Recently my other (some would say better) half and I purchased a holiday cabin up at Porepunkah, near to where my profile photo is from. Porepunkah is in the Victorian Eastern Highlands and is at the foot of the snow fields.

We've been up there a few times already and my life is currently centred around when I can get back there again. It is cold yes indeedy when you're outside, but lovely and warm inside thanks to modern day heating. I love the ambience in the local towns up there and also the view from our 'backyard'!

As is demonstrated, the view from the back of our place changes like the weather. So lovely to have this to look forward to whenever we are able to get up there. Unfortunately, the drive is approx. three and a half hours from home so there's no point going there for just one night. The plan is to try and get at least two nights sleep there at a time and we're even contemplating retirement whenever that happens.