The last 5 or 6 weeks- who’s counting?- have been a THING. I’ve given my parents every last thing I can and now it’s time to pass it across to my sister. I’m going to Vietnam in the morning.
This may sound bad, but I’m very happy that I booked all these holidays for 2025 before all of these things happened with my parents. Without realising it, I booked in breaks.
It’s only been a few weeks, but I can see how looking after elderly parents can take over your life.
The photo was taken today- when Dad and I were sucked into an appointment which took us 4 hours, but which could have been done over the phone. You can see that he was thoroughly impressed…
Tomorrow I fly to Vietnam. I’m only taking my iPad, so I’m doing this post to reacquaint myself with how to post this way. When I travel, it becomes second nature, but as soon as I get back I revert to the laptop and I forget.
Scout misses Mum. I brought Mum back home a couple of days ago and Scout lost her mind.
Ok. I’m going to be honest here. Putting your parents into care is awful.
Honestly, I’m a hard-faced bitch, in that, if it’s the right decision, I’ll do it. But over the last few weeks, I’ve been crushing old people’s dreams. Understandably, they’d prefer to be in the house they’ve lived in for 65 YEARS. That’s a long fucking time.
But I’m the one saying no.
Anyway, tomorrow I fly off to Vietnam. Thank fucking Christ. I know everyone in the history of the world who goes on holidays claims they deserve a break , but fuck me. I deserve a break.
I read the itinerary when I booked, then I reread it two days ago. As I sit here after an annoying waste of time at the hospital with Dad, I think I’m going to let this holiday unfold. I remember thinking that it all sounded good, so I hope you follow with me to see what Vietnam is like.
It’ll be an unbiased view, because I’m going in with no expectations. However, having said that, apparently I booked a limousine drive to the airport. It was included in the tour.
WTF?
Clearly I spent too much on this holiday. Another funny thing is that I paid for this limo driver, but it’s only free if it’s 50 KMS from Tullamarine Airport. The suburb I live in would incur an extra fee of $180.
My parents’ place, however? In the sweet spot. I arranged to be picked up at fucking 7 AM tomorrow. When I arranged it, my parents were still living there. Now, it’ll be a bit weird. I’m sitting on the front verandah…
Who knew there’d be so many moving parts to having one parent in hospital and moving another one into care? It’s a real time-suck, that’s for sure.
The day before Mum moved into Bonbeach, we went to my hairdresser to get beautified for Tom33 and Sophie’s engagement party. Bonbeach has its own hair salon, but I thought it would be nicer to go into the place looking well-groomed. Mum was pleased. “This is $30 cheaper than my usual hairdresser and it looks exactly the same!”
I try and get Mum in to see Dad at the hospital every second day, and by and large, this has worked out well, though a visit that should only take a couple of hours turns into an all-day event, purely because Mum moves so slowly, needs frequent toilet stops and we usually end up getting lunch. I’m nervously aware that my Vietnam trip is rapidly approaching and I’ve done nothing to prepare for it, besides organise my visa (the travel company took care of the running around for this) and buying insect repellent and malaria tablets.
Coupled with this is the angst about doing all the paperwork for Mum and Dad’s care to move from respite to residential. I’m sure I would have blogged about the mountains of paper that I had to wade through when we were applying for Mum and Dad’s ‘My Aged Care’ home help assistance last year…??
Spoiler alert – IT WAS AWFUL. Mum and Dad have far too many bank accounts, managed funds, annuities, investment properties etc. The list goes on. It took me a very long time to document it all.
Now I have to do it all again, with even more detail about their PPR.
Aside from the lump sum you have to pay to get them into a decent place, which runs into the hundreds of thousands, but is returned to the estate when the room is no longer needed, there are daily fees payable. The least that anyone can pay is 80-something per cent of the Age Pension, but self-funded retirees like my parents have to put their hands in their pockets to contribute towards the cost of their care. This ranges from $25 – $155 a day.
So Frogdancer has to go through all of these damned accounts to get the current balances etc. I suppose the good side is that I have the accounts recorded now, so it should be slightly quicker. The bad side is that now I have to get details of their family home documented, which was exempt from the previous form.
I have 10 days to get all of this submitted before I jump on a plane.
My hot tip about all of this?
Don’t leave it too long to get your and your parents’ estates simplified.
I planned to bring it up at January 2025’s meeting with their accountant and get him to start merging bank accounts and other investments. I had no idea that Dad would be in a hospital bed for all of January, or that it would become plain that Mum needs to go into care. I thought we had heaps of time. Big mistake.
Even though I’m one of three children, I’m the one left to deal with all the paperwork. My brother isn’t capable of helping after his stroke and my sister refuses. I guess I have the oldest child syndrome – even though numbers are scary to me, I’m the one who has to get these things done.
A funny thing happened yesterday. The original plan was that my father was supposed to be moved into rehab for a couple of weeks, but when Mum and I went to visit Dad yesterday, we were told that the plan had changed. He’s staying at the hospital for a week or two and then going straight to Bonbeach. (This is actually better for him, as Bonbeach has physios on staff. He’ll have someone badgering him about moving every day.)
When we left, I called my sister while I was driving home to tell her about the new plan.
I’m not happy about that!” she said. “I’m sorry to put a spanner in the works, but I want him to go to a rehab hospital like Mum went to for 2 weeks.”
“That hospital closed,” I said.
“I’m sure there are other hospitals like it,” she said. “I want him moved to a private hospital AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.”
We had had this conversation a week ago, and I actually started making the arrangements to move him to a private hospital, only for the doctors to highly recommend against moving him, as it would probably put his recovery back. At the time, my sister agreed, saying, “We have to listen to the doctors.”
Also, keep in mind that I’d only found out the day before that I had to fill out a 39-page document about my parents’ finances, and it needed to be done asap so that we would have an accurate quote for the ongoing fees at the nursing home. I was feeling a tad overwhelmed.
So when I had the demand that I had to move him to another hospital, exasperation surged and I snapped, “Ok. YOU DO IT. I’m going to be busy filling in the paperwork for Centrelink.”
“Oh, let’s just see how he goes.” was her hasty reply…
I decided to bring Mum back to my place for lunch. Scout has been missing her. Mum didn’t quite believe me when I told her this, but you should have seen that ecstatic little snag when she clapped eyes on Mum! As soon as she sat down on her place on the couch, Scout was in her lap, leaning back against her with a face full of joy.
We watched a couple of episodes of Outlander and I took a call from the hospital, where I found out about a couple of appointments Dad has for his thyroid and his voice. One is at 8:45 AM at the Alfred and I WON’T BE HERE!!! Kate and Francis will have to work out the logistics of this one.
We asked the manager of Bonbeach how they arrange transport in cases like these.
“Good question,” she said. “If you want us to arrange it, he’ll have to have a staff member go with him at $40/hour, plus the taxi fares. It gets to be quite expensive, so if you can arrange for a family member to do it, it’s far more cost-effective.”
All these things that you never think about when you’re hale and hearty!
Mum has now been living at Bonbeach for just over a week. She’s had some low times when she mourns the passing of living independently, but on the whole, she’s enjoying the uptick in her social life and the good food they’re feeding her. Dad is progressing slowly and he can’t wait to join her.
I went in to see him on my own on Thursday and took in the fees and charges for the room and their ongoing care so that he was informed. I was worried sick that he’d arck up about the cost of the room, but he was terrific, with his main concern being to find out the annual cost of the care for them both. “I don’t want to be kicked out after 3 years because I’ve run out of money!” he said. That’s another reason why this paperwork has to be done asap – to put his mind at rest.
So all in all, it’s been a wonderful start to 2025. /s
This is the first day back at work after the summer holidays for Victorian teachers.
I woke up early in solidarity, but I can’t tell you how glad I am that I’m not having to trudge off to McKinnon to spend all day at work, particularly with what’s going on here with Mum and Dad.
The photo is one I quickly snapped when Mum got up a couple of days ago. Scout was very eager to greet her buddy on a fresh new day.
Dad is not progressing from his hip operation as well as we’d like. He’s not eating much at all, and people are shocked when they visit and see how thin and frail he looks. The new plan is for him to spend two weeks at a rehab facility starting from Friday, which I’m very pleased about. I’m sure they’ll get the cattle prod out in a smaller facility and get him moving, while it also gives Mum a chance to settle into Bonbeach, get the lay of the land, and start making some friends before Dad turns up (and starts arguing debating with people.)
Where I’m going: To Mum’s podiatrist.
Old people have a LOT of appointments, I’m discovering. After we leave there, we’ll visit Dad and then head home.
Mum goes into the aged care home after lunch tomorrow (Wednesday.) That’s why I’m posting today – I think I’ll be dealing with some emotions with Mum tomorrow…
Where I’ve been: to Costco.
I’m hosting Tom33’s engagement party on Saturday. After all this kerfuffle, I’m catering via Costco platters and a mud cake. The only thing I’m baking is some scones.
Meh. The descriptions of taxidermy are really good, but I’m still waiting for anything much to happen and I’m nearly halfway through.
What I’m watching: the news.
Mum is a news junky, so I’ve watched more news programs in the last 3 weeks than I have in the last 3 weeks. I’m looking forward to going back to a far more positive existence.
What I’m listening to: Morning TV.
Oof. See above.
What I’m eating: home-grown rhubarb and apple.
Part of my revised eating plan is stewed fruit and home-made yoghurt for breakfast, avoiding carbs for one meal at least. Yum! I’ve lost over 6KGs since Christmas Day.
What I’m planning: how to spend the 2 full days I have to prepare for the party.
My plans to use the whole month of January to prepare have obviously been thrown out the window. Instead of lovingly preparing the veggie garden beds with layers of fertiliser, mulch, compost etc, I think I’ll be throwing pea straw over everything. Hopefully, it’ll hide a multitude of sins.
Who deserves a ‘thumbs-up’: People who work in aged care.
It’s good to know that Mum will get the care she needs. Dad’s just not up to it and hasn’t really been able to provide it for a while.
What has made me smile:Scout.
She’s a funny little scrap. I’m so glad we have her.
Well, the shit has pretty much hit the fan, as far as independent living for my mother is concerned. This is Mum on Sunday night, putting on a brave face.
While going to bed, she went to sit down on the foot of her bed and only half made it. She fell onto the floor and dragged her left hand across the wooden floorboards. Her skin is paper thin, so she tore a very large gash along the back of her hand.
Fortunately, Georgia and I were talking in Georgia’s room, so we were right next door when we heard the thump and the cry as she hit the ground. We raced in, helped her to sit up, but when I staunched the blood and saw the wound, I said, “Mum, this is going to need stitches.”
We spent all night at Frankston Emergency, getting home at 5 AM. We all had a long nap that afternoon, including the dog!
I’ll spare you all the photo I took of the cut on her hand.
Anyway, living with Mum for two and a half weeks has brought home just how unsteady she is on her feet. She said it herself when Evan28 rang and said to her, “Oh Gran, what have you done?”
She said, “I’m always on the brink of falling and sometimes I don’t get away with it.”
After talking with my sister Kate, I rang Mum’s case manager for her care package and asked her what the next step would be.
Long story short, I talked with a woman who finds places for people in aged care places. I knew Mum would want a shared room for when Dad comes out of the rehab hospital, and we were lucky enough for a place literally 5 minutes drive from me to have a suitable room. Shared rooms are as rare as hens’ teeth.
So Kate and I had to have ‘the talk’ with Mum about going into respite care. We were very careful not to allude to permanent care, but really, that’s what she needs. We’re crossing our fingers that the penny will drop for them once they’re there, and it will become their own idea to stay there. This apparently happes quite a lot, but I’m not holding out much hope for Dad. He’s extremely attached to his possessions.
Mum and I went to look at the place yesterday and to my relief, Mum was very impressed. She is very happy to entertain the idea of moving in for a while, but she’s worried about Dad’s reaction. She’s also scared of rushing into a decision and possibly making a mistake.
My feeling is that we were incredibly lucky to find a shared room so close to me. It’s been a week and no other shared rooms in the area have turned up, so we need to grab it. We have until tomorrow to accept or decline.
When Dad and Mum were ill a year or two ago, I started educating myself on how the Aged Care system works. I had a real ‘heads up’ from a friend who has the affectionate nickname of ‘the mayor’ who has been through this learning curve when his mother went into care a few years ago. At least I understand talk of RADs and such. I hate to think of how bamboozled I’d feel if I was coming in cold.
The facility manager recommended we hire an accountant who specialises in the ins and outs of going into care, which I thought was good advice. My parents don’t have a straightforward estate. I rang their accountant and he’s getting someone for us to talk to.
Despite Mum reading all the material and being there when the manager was showing us around, she still worries about things that aren’t issues at all, and gets things wrong. I find that I’m gently correcting her, in the hopes that the correct information goes in and she’s not needlessly fretting about the incorrect stuff.
The idea is that she’ll move in next week under respite care and Dad will join her. They’ll stay while I’m in Vietnam and hopefully by then they’ll be able to make sensible decisions about their futures. (I know… I’m an optimist.)
A lot depends on how well Dad recovers from this broken hip. It’s not a pleasant stage for them to be going through.
Dad has now been moved to Caulfield Rehab Hospital and he said that he was told that he’d be there for 2 weeks. I take what Dad says at the moment with a grain of salt – he’s on pretty intensive pain meds – but seeing as he can’t yet stand by himself and it’s been a week since the operation, I think he’ll be there for a fair amount of time. This, of course, means that Mum will be staying here until he’s steady enough to look after her. And himself.
Where I’m going: For more travel vaccinations.
Today is 4 weeks since I had the Yellow Fever vaccine, so now I’m free to load up on everything else I’ll need. I need quite a few different shots, seeing as I’m travelling to Africa, China, Vietnam and Borneo, so no doubt I’ll be feeling like a pincushion a couple of hours from now.
Where I’ve been: on very slow walks.
Mum goes for a walk every day, and Scout and I go with her. She uses a walker to keep herself steady, so we trot along beside her until she’s had enough and we turn and head for home. This generally doesn’t take too long.
Then Scout and I head out again for a longer walk to stretch Scout’s legs. She can’t believe it – 2 walks every day????
This novel is terrific! It’s only 200 pages long and I enjoyed every minute of it.
What would living in a world that has legalised cannibalism be like?
This is a thumping good read.
What I’m watching: The Sopranos.
I’m up to the end of season 4. Mum has started watching it with me. She jumped right in, but she’s enjoying settling back after dinner and watching people get whacked.
What I’m listening to: Nothing much.
I can’t really listen to podcasts with Mum around, so they’re gently piling up on my iPad again. My sister came and took Mum out yesterday “to give Frogdancer a break.” I had a whole 2 hours to myself. I knocked over a couple of phone calls with Blogless Sandy and Evan28, and an episode of ‘Casefile’ before they came through the gate again.
What I’m eating: things from the garden.
Finally, the tomatoes, beans and zucchinis are producing enough for me to take them seriously. This morning I harvested rhubarb from both the red and green plants and stewed them with apple. 5 ice cube trays are now waiting to be cool enough for me to put them in the fridge.
What I’m planning: two new quilts for the lounge room.
On my second Little Adventure, I went across town to a quilting shop called Cutting Cloth and bought fabric for a quilt, coordinating with a painting I bought. The design is to use hexagons.
I hated cutting out the hexies so much that I soon put it all away in a drawer, but now I’ve roused myself to action. I’ve finished cutting out all the fabric and I’ve marked each piece with 6 dots to guide where the seams go.
Now all I need is to actually fire up the sewing machine and get started…
Who deserves a ‘thumbs-up’: Scout.
Scout has adopted Mum as one of the pack, and she sits beside her constantly. It helps that Mum likes to sneak her titbits of food. Mum has missed having a dog around, so she loves that Scout comes up for cuddles and greets her every morning when she walks into my end of the house.
What has made me smile:Mum enjoying the remote control.
I don’t watch TV during the day, so Mum has been able to watch any movie or TV show she wants. She reads as well, but so far she’s watched all 3 seasons of ‘Afterlife’, the last season of ‘Bridgerton’, ‘Where The Crawdads Sing’, ‘Memoires of a Geisha’, just to name a few.
Dad controls the remote at home, so she rarely gets to see shows that she’d like to see, particularly if they have a female protagonist.
Last Sunday, Dad was rushing to the back door to get out to the garage when he tripped over Mum’s walker (which was where she always leaves it) and broke his hip.
He’s currently in hospital with a matching pair of hips, as he broke the other one a few years ago. He’s like the bionic man. Mum’s too unsteady on her feet to be left in the house alone, so she’s up here with me. Thank goodness for that guest bedroom!
It’s been an eye-opener how many people are required to keep 2 old people living at home. We’ve had to cancel food deliveries, food shopping, physio, doctors’ appointments and postpone a meeting with their accountant. Their frozen food deliveries for this week have been piling up in the council’s freezer, so a taxi will arrive with it all sometime today. Thank goodness for the huge freezer I have in the laundry!
Mum has turned out to be an easy guest. She absolutely loves having total control of the remote control for the tv during the day and she’s catching up on all the movies that she hasn’t seen because Dad didn’t want to watch them. I’ve been watching ‘The Sopranos’ in the evenings and she happily watches people getting whacked by the New Jersey mafia.
I’m living in fear today that the hospital will want to send him home. He doesn’t sound ready, so I’m hoping that they’ll at least give us the weekend. He’ll be coming here with Mum until he’s steady on his pins. Thank goodness my crazy year of travel doesn’t start until February!
Scout has been an absolute trouper. Mum has missed having a dog around, but since her last dog, Murphy, died, it hasn’t been safe for her to have a tripping hazard running around. Scout is old enough to keep out of the way. She’s been spending most of her days next to Mum on the couch, getting cuddles and food snacks. I think it’s been good for both of them.
At the moment, there’s a shower girl who’s here to give Mum her first shower in nearly a week. She’s from an agency up here near me, so instead of giving Mum her shower and then leaving like her normal shower girls do, we have her for a minimum of 1.5 hours. So she took Mum for a walk around the block and now she’s doing the vacuuming. For some reason, I hate doing the vacuuming, so this makes me happy.
I don’t know how long Mum and Dad will be here, but it doesn’t really matter. The Best House in Melbourne’s floorplan means that we won’t be tripping over each other, so it should be reasonably trouble-free. Dad won’t be nearly as easy a houseguest as Mum, but the extra lounge room will provide a bit of a buffer if I need it. Haha!
Of course, the best thing about this is that, because of early retirement, I’m able to be here for them. My brother isn’t well enough to take them in and my sister works, so we would have been up the proverbial creek without a paddle if I was still heading off to McKinnon every weekday. As it is, the family, especially Dad, can relax knowing Mum is being looked after.
As this is supposedly, a FIRE blog, even though it’s now a ‘watch how Frogdancer Jones does retirement’ blog, I thought I’d tot up the travel costs for the road trip I made with my friends from Latvia and then when I was on my own.
When Liga first contacted me with the news that she was coming to Australia and we decided to spend some time together, going to Uluru was not on my mind. After all, I’d just booked a trip to Uluru with the Ghan for September 2024, two months before Liga would be there. Why on earth would I go back there again so soon? Obviously, I’d do a road trip with them along the Great Ocean Road, drop them off at Adelaide and they’d either fly or drive to Uluru.
Then Liga told me that the rental car companies would charge them an extra $900 if they left the car at Uluru, because they’d have to hire someone to drive it back to Adelaide. Ouch! There’d be no way to avoid that because after Uluru they were flying over to Cairns.
Coupled with the fact that there are no direct flights from Adelaide to Uluru, which meant that they’d have to fly from Adelaide back to Melbourne or Brisbane before flying over to Uluru, meant that it made much more sense for me to keep driving after Adelaide.
Liga also said she wanted “to drive the car with the desert stretching away on either side.” That sounded pretty good to me too, so despite my qualms about Outback driving, we arranged for the Crazy Road Trip to happen.
I decided to put aside 4K for the whole 3.5 weeks. It was an arbitrary number that wasn’t calculated with any real thought. It seemed like an amount of money that should be adequate, but wasn’t too extravagant. I had a few things organised with the girls that affected my outgoings for this trip.
I was paying for all the petrol, as a “congratulations on your 7th continent” present for Liga.
We were sharing accommodation, which cut down individual costs for each of us.
I’d already paid for my week’s holiday in the Snowy Mountains, as it was part of my timeshare.
I’d just been to Uluru, so I wasn’t anticipating buying many souvenirs at all.
I was intending to take my Vita-Weats and Vegemite for Frogdancer’s sad breakfasts to cut down on costs, as well as taking wine and some groceries/snacks. I also packed the toastie-maker for when I was in the apartment at Lake Crackenvack. We had the car, so I had the space.
As it happened, I bought a couple of souvenirs as well as some Christmas presents. I didn’t include the presents in my final total, as they were things I would have bought anyway.
The girls paid for 3 restaurant/winery meals for me as a thank-you, which was lovely of them.
Petrol in the Outback isn’t cheap. The most I paid was $3/litre, which is far more than we pay in Melbourne.
So how did I go?
I couldn’t believe it!
I actually came home with change from the 4K! Three and a half weeks of holidays and I spent $3,988.
Yep, just squeaked by with $12 to spare! How funny is that? I wasn’t totting the costs up as I went. I only worked out the total after I got back.
The toastie-maker saved me a lot of money because all I had to buy for dinners was a couple of loaves of bread and some fillings. Baked beans, ham and cheese – nothing gourmet. I’d eaten at restaurants with the Ligas and along the way on my own, so I was happy to slum it at Lake Crackenback. It helped that the celebratory lunch I bought at the resort restaurant wasn’t that impressive.
My sad breakfasts cost me around a dollar each time. The Ligas were spending anywhere from $10 – $20 for breakfast each morning, so that saved me a ton. I like vegemite for breakfast, so it wasn’t a hardship, though I couldn’t look a Vita-Weat in the face for a few weeks after I got back home.
I booked the first 3 nights of accommodation on my solo trip when I was still at home, looking for the cheapest motel rooms. After that, I’d search for a room when I entered the town I wanted to stop in for the night. The only time this didn’t work well was a Winton, where I paid $160 for a room for the night. The cheapest was Bourke, where I paid $75/night for 2 nights. It was very basic, with a shared bathroom, but I figured I could suck it up for 2 nights.
I was very happy that I’d inadvertently stayed within budget!
I’m ererging from that foggy week between Christmas and New Years, where everything blurs together and it’s like you’re in suspended animation. Not going to lie – I’ve been enjoying it.
Where I’m going:Absolutely nowhere.
Considering the crazy year of travel I have lined up in front of me, I’m enjoying keeping close to home and doing very little. I have around 10 library books stacked beside me bed, an overgrown veggie garden that needs cleaning up and a sewing room with lots of fabric.
I won’t be bored. 🙂
Where I’ve been:Megan’s place to help eat leftovers.
Remember Megan from the Canada/Alaska trip? She sent out an SOS after hosting her family for Boxing Day and so a group of us gathered for a barbeque and salad. It was nice.
At last!! I’ve been making my way through the Slough House series, which inspired the excellent series ‘Slow Horses’ on AppleTV. I had all the books except this one. Some selfish person had borrowed it before me. On Monday I raced down to the library because they’d finally handed it in.
I’ll be finished with this series lickety-split now. I’m loving the way Herron wries. His use of metaphor and his wry British humour is very enjoyable.
What I’m watching:The Sopranos.
Georgia put me onto this one. I know I’m very late to the party – and I also know about the very last scene in the whole series – but for some reason or another I’ve never seen it. When Georgia told me that she was watching it and thought it was good, I knew I had to see. She put me onto ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Better Call Saul’, so I take notice of her recommendations.
Thank goodness Binge has it.
What I’m listening to:the blackbird in the front garden moving through the leaves on the ground.
I’d swear that there was a huge animal living under the fruit trees, if I didn’t know better. The avocado trees have huge leaves and they seem to keep dropping them all year round. As I’m sitting here on the couch, I can hear it moving around and making the leaves rustle. It’s pretty loud, but it’s only the blackbird.
What I’m eating: The Christmas Ham.
I love a good Christmas ham. Every year I buy one and then slowly savour the hammy goodness on the days after Christmas. This year is no exception. With only two of us in the house nowadays, the ham lasts a long, long time.
When I get sick of it, I’ll chop and freeze the rest. But so far, we’re loving the cauliflower cheese, pizzas, ham and salad lunches, zucchini slices etc. Long may it last!
What I’m planning:an engagement party.
Tom32 and Sophie are planning a big year. They want to buy a house, buy a dog and get married all in 2025. To save money, they’re planning a very small wedding and they’re having their engagement party at my place.
I have a month to make my place look sparkling. An added impetus to this is that my ex-husband and his wife will more than likely be coming. I haven’t clapped eyes on them for a happy decade, so it will be interesting for us all to see how time has treated us.
Who deserves a ‘thumbs-up’: Mum and Dad.
Remember when I bought them each a ‘Storyworth’ gift for their birthdays last year? Basically, each week they get a question sent to them about their life/memories/attitudes and they write a response. At the end of a year their 52 essays get put into a book.
Because I’ve been travelling so much, this has turned into a series of binge sessions. They refuse to type out their answers, so I’ve been recording their answers on my phone and then typing them up.
They came over for lunch (christmas ham and salad, of course!) and we got through 10 questions. They only have 3 more questions each to finish the project. We’ll knock them over next week and then it’ll all be completed before I start my crazy travelling schedule.
I’ve learned a lot more about their lives as they’ve made their ways through. It’s been interesting.
What has made me smile:Scout.
I’ve been thinking for a while that she was 9 years old, but Facebook memories tells me that she’s only 8.
I’m a lucky person. I love travelling and I love being home. I have the best of both worlds.
Where I’m going: Christmas Shopping.
I only have Mum and Dad yet to buy for.
Georgia is turning 30 a few days after Christmas, and I want to take her shopping for some women’s shoes to fit her. It’s time.
Where I’ve been:to the mechanic.
I’m still salty about the bingle I had, just 4 days after coming back from the Crazy Road Trip. I was happily driving along Nepean Highway, went into the service road to turn left and saw that there were no cars in front of the car before me, so OF COURSE they’d be turning.
I glanced to the right to check if there’d be any cars on the road when I got there, looked back and the silly cow in front of me hadn’t gone… even though there was nothing in front of her. So I ran into her.
It was my fault by the letter of the law, but why wouldn’t you make the turn if there was nothing preventing you from doing so? My poor little car. She drove 8,000 km with no problems, and then this happens.
I will have to leave her at the mechanics for 7 business days at the end of January. They’ll be stripping her right back and replacing lots of panels etc. Thank god for car insurance!
What I’m reading:LOTS of books.
I’m thinking I’ll do a whole post on this, as I read about 12 books on my holiday. There were some cracking good reads among them.
What I’m watching:Alaskan Bush People.
This is a show on Netflix. I didn’t feel like watching anything challenging and this show fits the bill. It’s about a family of 7 kids who are totally under the thumb of their incompetent parents, particularly the father. They live far away from civilisation and exist like settlers in the 1700’s.
Their father is so STUPID. His decisions are questionable most of the time and he thinks he’s the head of “the wolf pack.” Ugh.
I got excited though, when I saw two towns that we went to in Alaska. Ketchikan and Hoonah. They filmed a segment in the very café I went to in Hoonah, where I saw the bald eagle fly to the pier and eat a salmon it had clutched in its claws.
What I’m listening to:Georgia’s music.
It’s drifting down from her room at the end of the house to where Scout and I are in the lounge room.
What I’m eating:Low carb stuff.
*sigh*
What I’m planning:my Vietnamese visa.
I have to get things together. I’ve heard they can be tricky to get right and I know quite a few people who have had to get one at the airport – at a cost of $500 or so. Yikes!
Who deserves a ‘thumbs-up’:Everyone who has commented on the blog this year.
Anyone who has been blogging as long as I have would know that people used to comment a lot more on blogs back in the day. Nowadays it seems that people just consume the posts and move right along.
I appreciate every comment and they make my day. So thanks, commenters!
What has made me smile:Avocadoes!
I planted a couple of avocado trees 3 years ago. I was watering the front yard a couple of days ago when I noticed something.
Yes, one of the trees is finally sprouting avocadoes. I was so thrilled!
Surprisingly, I didn’t wake up too stiff and sore from my mountaineering adventure the day before, but I decided to forego any more arduous activities on my last day here. I read my 11th or 12th book on the holiday, and then I took a gentle walk beside the creek in the afternoon.
On the map, it’s called the Thredbo River, but it was just creek-sized here.
It was nice, though the flies were a little annoying. I walked all the way to the Bushman’s Hut, which sounded a lot more interesting than it ended up being.
The sound of the water was lovely. I also heard kookaburras from the bushland on the other side of the creek.
I bumped into these characters on the way back.
“Be careful – there’s a snake to the right,” their owner said. “That’s why these two are on leads,”
I kept an eye out but didn’t see a thing.
This was a nice little “goodbye” from the Snowy Mountains.
The next day I was on the road by 8:30. I had a 7.5-hour drive ahead of me, but I was stopping in Lakes Entrance for lunch with my cousin Lynette. Apart from her Mum’s funeral, I haven’t seen her for years, so I was looking forward to the catch-up.
The country on the NSW side of the border was cattle grazing country.
Farms, farms everywhere.
Then woo hoo! Victoria! My nose was firmly pointed towards home now.
The drive between the border and Lakes Entrance was beautiful, but the closer I got towards home, the less inclined I was to stop the car for photos.
I spent a couple of hours wth my cousin and we didn’t stop talking the whole time. She grows fruit and veggies, like me, and she also travels!! When I told her about the Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar trip, she said, “I’ve done that!”
It was so interesting to hear about what I was going to see, particularly in Zanzibar.
When I got home, Scout MOANED at me for ages. Her tail was wagging, but she was letting me know the anguish she’d suffered in giving me up for dead. After a while, I looked over her head to Georgia and said, “I’m going away again in February…”
I gave her a squeaky toy I’d bought in Barkly Homestead. It lasted 5 minutes before she started pulling the stuffing out.
Screenshot
Here is the final map of the trip. My trusty Golf and I travelled 8,000 km and I had a fantastic time. The Golf didn’t miss a beat and I saw so much. I’ve definitely pencilled in the Nullabor Plain for a future adventure.
On Saturday I spent time with Tom31 and Sophie, and then on Sunday I saw these two for lunch. David31 and Izzy are living in a caravan, preparing to build their first house – can you believe that were married over 18 months ago? Time flies.
On Monday, I got the Yellow Fever vaccination for my Africa trip in April.
And then four days after I got back, this happened:
