MSN Games

I love playing Backgammon and it’s very convenient to play on-line with MSN Games but has anyone else noticed how “loaded” the games are?  You can almost predict, with a great deal of accuracy, what the roll will be.

And, without being a grumble bum, I have written down today how many doubles my opponent received in our games.

Game one they received 8 doubles to my two!  How can you play, and win, against odds like that?  Every time this happens I say I wont play on-line again but as I don’t have the opportunity every day to play someone in person I always end up going back to MSN.

Can’t seem to find any way of contacting MSN but it’s certainly not a level playing field!!

MIDGE

We both lay in the grey pre-dawn light.  Neither of us spoke but we both knew what sadness this day would bring.  Both reluctant to move and put the day into gear. Safer to lie still and remain in neutral. 

My arm dangled off the side of the bed and I gently twined her thick fur between my fingers, knowing this would be the last morning wake up call I would ever get from her.

This has hit us like a bolt from the blue.  Yes, she has had a bit of arthritis and had been coping well on medication.  She was 10 years old after all !  But yesterday she had a funny turn – probably a small stroke the vet tells us – and she fell down and couldn’t stand properly.  Staggering and not spacially aware of where she was.  “Lets see how she is in the morning” said the vet and so a new day dawns.

Quality trumps quantity and the decision was made.

Rather that trying to get her into the car, then out of the car and into the surgery, we opted for asking the vet to come to us. 

She managed a small breakfast and lay comfortably in her beany bag.  I snipped a piece of her beautiful coat and put it into an envelope before the vet arrived.  I lay down next to her and cuddled her in my arms.  Her heart was racing and her breathing was heavy but I talked gently to her as the vet shaved her leg and inserted the needle.

She gently slipped away as I held her.

Its been a sad day 

.                                                         

Child Poverty

A quarter of New Zealand children are growing up in poverty and that’s around 270,000 underprivileged kids!

Child abuse, neglect and thousands of children going to school without even having had a breakfast. It makes me so angry!!  There are now almost 34,000 more children dependent on beneficiary parents than when National came to power in 2008.

Inequality is growing faster – when are we going to break this cycle?

We hear so much about lifting these children out of poverty and yet no-one talks about stopping them getting into this situation in the first place.  Talk about the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff!  We are not a third world country and contraception is freely available yet the words “family planning” are seldom heard these days. We need to STOP our children having children is what I’m saying.

As I see it there are many options available.  1) Not getting pregnant in the first place is a good one.  2) Abortion is available for those who choose that path.  3) Babies can be put up for adoption – there are many, many couples (and I stress couples) who would love and care for a child or 4) Each baby has two parents (although making males pay for their fun seems difficult these days even though they have an IRD number where deductions could be made at source) plus each child usually comes with two sets of fairly young grandparents.  Someone has to step up to the mark here and take responsibility for their own actions.  

The growth of our underclass will not stop until we change this social experiment that is obviously not working.

What was once a safety net is now given to any pregnant female as a right, but far from doing these children any favours we are condemming them to a life of increased poverty, deprivation and neglect.

Not a good move !

Now thats sensible packaging !

Does anyone else have problems with the new soap powder boxes ? I hate them !  Whatever happened to the good old DAZ and OMO style boxes ? A quick push of the thumb into the top left side and bingo….instant access to the product. Keep it facing “full frontal” and it’s all ready to grab, right handed and ready for use.  Not so today !

We have these infuriating pull tabs that stretch around three sides of the box (except they don’t always, do they?) and when they don’t, you’re left picking at the perferation trying to pickup where the damned thing broke. Once removed, the pull tab reveals a yawning, toothless grin…..a wide mouth in the box that can, on occassion, vomit its contents to my laundry floor without anything but the gentlest of handling !

And, when shaking these boxes, at the very end, to get that last bit of powder out, how many of you, like me, have ended up with a snow storm of powder in the wrong direction when the trapped bits under the bottom flaps make their frantic flight for freedom ?  It didn’t matter with the old boxes, you could bang or shake all the remaining powder together before tipping it out.  Thats not an option with the new boxes and I haven’t even mentioned that dreaded plastic scoop !!!

Grrrr…..too much plastic in my life already.  Whatever possessed the industry to move to this stupid packaging is beyond me !

Rainshowers

Don’t you just love it?  I know I do!  You’ve just finished mowing the lawns and tidying the garden and the soft rain starts to fall.  Perfect timing!  I sit inside with the doors open, listening to the rain on the iron roof thinking how fortunate we are to live in a rainforest area that actually does have rain and one of the lucky areas of the country not to be in drought condition at the moment.  The frogs have begun their excited communications around the garden, they too love the sudden pleasure of the rain. 

Its tucked away for a few minutes after the mainstream news each night – the weather – and yet our whole wellbeing revolves around it.   There doesn’t seem to be a day goes past without reports of some severe weather related incident somewhere in the world.  Its scary to watch the loss of life, the loss of infrastructure and the loss of all important food crops.  To watch and know we are directly contributing to these violent weather incidents.

Forget global warming  – its chaotic climate change – and its coming to a theatre near you !!!!

The waxeyes are hopping from branch to branch on the tree outside my window sipping the raindrops from the leaves.

Its 23C outside, the day’s work is done. Everthing is green and washed.  The air smells devine!

Ginger Nuts

The picture was homely enough.  Four ginger nut biscuits tied together with a thin burgundy coloured ribbon. Reading through the easy sounding recipe, I hunted in the back of the pantry for the necessary ingredients.  Did I have baking soda?  (Not something I use very often)  Yep.  I even have the golden syrup and cinnamon. 

So, all geared up and ready to go.  Oven preheating to 190 degrees and measuring and mixing going well.  I have high hopes for these little beauties……the ground ginger smells devine.  I’m actually a bit of a sneaky ginger freak on the quiet!

The trouble with my biscuits is that they never seem to turn out right !  You never really know before hand how they’re going to behave once they’re in the oven do you? This recipe calls the mixture sticky, yet here I am with a bowlful of crumbs……!   Add more melted butter?  Yep, I think so, just a bit.  Oh well, at least its holding together now. 

Make small balls and flatten slightly………leave enough space between for expansion.

What expansion?    My small balls are still small balls and look absolutely nothing like the four perfect little specimens in the picture.  One out of ten for texture, one out of ten for shape but 8 out of 10 for flavour…..oh well I’ll keep trying.

Goodbye cigarettes

Wow !  Labour Weekend holidays.

Its nineteen years ago this weekend that I said goodbye to my forty a day habit.  I remember picking up my supply of patches from the chemists which were very expensive back then.  I think they have to be to make them work myself, if you get them on prescription or something you’ve got no incentive really do you ?

Anyway, I got back to my car (this was in my lunch break on the Friday)  and lit a ciggy while I read the instructions (typical eh?) and that night I made sure I smoked every cigarette I had before slapping on a patch and going to bed.

I can remember the very vivid dreams I used to have while using the patches but they sure worked for me.  This was my third attempt at stopping and something I really really wanted to do.  So here I am.   228,000 is a very conservative estimate at the number of smokes I HAVEN’T had  which equates to nearly eleven and a half thousand packets of cigarettes.  Gross !

Best thing I ever did……good luck if you’re trying to quit.

Knees, T sticks and Mobile Phones

So what do all these have in common ?  Mobility of course ! 

Like it or not I’m being dragged along, hanging on by my fingernails, in a valiant attempt at keeping up with technology.  My newest toy (inflicted upon me “but its free, why wouldn’t you” when I updated my broadband speed)  is now (in my mind) in full combat mode with my newly acquired T-stick. 

Today I’ve tried to create an on-line account so I can prepay my T stick.  Sounds easy enough……OK I’ve filled in all the details required on screen………push the button…..yep……..ahhhhh…..they’re sending me a code to type in and confirm everything…..OK I’ve got my mobile in my hand…….waiting…..come on…..the screen is telling me if I haven’t received a code in 2 minutes, give them a ring.    Yep….ringing, ringing…….call waiting time of between 10 and 20 minutes.  Grrrrr!    I knew this wouldn’t be easy, it never is.   

Wonder of wonders…..within a minute, a charming (and patient, thank you Lord) young man had answered my call.  My knight in shining armour ! No, the code is sent to the sim card madam, not your mobile phone.   Ahhhhhh…penny dropping !  I hurriedly unpack my laptop to insert the T stick to receive the code.   Now I get it………!      🙂

As for the knee department……look after yer knees folks…..you’ll sure miss ’em when they don’t work!  Four weeks post op and looking forward to the all clear to start planing my next 4 day walking trip. There are a couple of tracks that I’m itching to get started on as soon as the weather begins to clear.

Another day

…… a blue and white day…..cold, even though we’re half way into spring (snow’s been forecast in the passes again)  but with full sun and blue skies, in patches,  between heavy showers – a blue and white day ! 

Managed to dodge the showers for an hour or so (but with brollie firmly in hand) and take the puppies up the hill behind us and felt my spirits lifted somewhat from being outdoors.  Too much going on in my head………too much family crap going down…….a very fragile state would be how I would describe the rickety ol’ family circle just now !  

Not many of us, you’d think it would be easy……yeh right !

There’s only mum and me (we’re in direct communication, usually by telephone – she’s resisted all attempts at technological upgrade’s – even SKYPE)

Son No: 2   (No communication whatsoever, but HE is in communication with my mum)

Son No: 1  (Communicating via email – not communicating very well at all really  (he’s just spent six weeks under our roof then after he’s gone he EMAILS’s a pregnancy scan and says he never found the right time to tell us……..he’s 40 years old and its his first baby for god’s sake….see what I mean about communication….the words “a two way street” spring to mind !   HE and my mum don’t communicate at all….but mum does have regular telephone communication with Son No:2

Three grandchildren ( not sighted since last year, children of son No:2)

Intergenerational ?    Geographical ?   Differing standards  and lifestyles ?   Personalities ?   I suppose you could tick all of the above and a few more besides.

More life

• The pain of bearing a child doesn’t stop at childbirth.
• It doesn’t matter how old your child is—they are always your children.
• You love them but you don’t always like them

 

My daughter was prematurely stillborn at 7 months.  I had just turned fifteen and had been sent to a mother and baby home in Manchester to give birth.  When they discovered how prem the baby would be they sent me to hospital and there I laboured alone for 18 hours before bringing a two and a half pound stillborn daughter into the world. 

This was the nineteen sixties remember….none of the little niceties that are on offer today……foot and hand prints……photographs…..washing and dressing the baby………..just to hold the baby…….

I didn’t even get the chance to see my daughter……she was whisked away out of the room as soon as she was born…..they have a memorial in a Christchurch cemetery for stillborn children and its nice to visit now and then and remember her.  Another anniversary silently kept. 

That was 45 years ago and now you know you are reading the thoughts of a sixty year old woman, reflecting back on her life.

My sons, when they came along, were very well wanted children as you can imagine and I have happy memories of their childhood.  For reasons that I shall not bore you with, I seem to be at odds with both my adult sons at the moment.

We only have our own perception of life I guess, and what was to me,  happy childhood memories, appears to have been a shit childhood to our youngest son.  Discipline was violence he tells me and yet I cannot for the life in me remember ever laying a hand on either of them.  Strict ?  By god yes !  Violent ?  No. 

This revelation from my son has really knocked me for a six.  Its like he’s taken a very big and precious part of my life and just………trashed it.