10 posts tagged “family”
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It's my birthday today. I have survived another trip around the sun and hope to go a good many more rotations.
When
I was growing up it was always exciting when anyone in our house had a
birthday. That was the only time that we were allowed to have soft drinks
and sweets. This extended to parents birthdays as well so 6 times a
year we kids flew high on sugar!
The birthday person got to choose what the family would eat for dinner that night. I always, always chose roast lamb (baked dinner). My mother cooked the best baked dinner and gravy. I've never found anyone to rival her. Even now, when I go home, I request a baked dinner even though my poor mother is in her 70's and has to use a walker to get around!!
So in the absence of a baked dinner what will I have for dinner tonight? Pizza from great El Salvadorian place.
Feeling quite a bit better today - happy on the inside; but still a bit crappy around the edges.
`
Cat's son came back - again... it's a bit like that rhyme about the Cat coming back no matter what you do to it.
Lloyd and his friend were going to the opening game of the Wizards (basketball) tonight so an early dinner was needed and he decided to get fish and chips from our local fish shop. Based on his previous visits here he was expecting to be accosted by the homeless or drug dealers but instead he was approached by a transvestite in the fish shop.
"She" asked him "has anyone ever told you that you are very handsome"... being ever polite he responded "uh, no, but thank you" as he thought about the incongruity of where his aunt lives!
The manservant is waiting up for them to get home from the game. The same poor manservant will also be up before 5am tomorrow to let them out of the house for the Super Shuttle pick up to the airport.
Thank goodness my foot is not well enough!
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Recently I saw a QoTD asking people what their favourite board games were.
I didn't answer it because I have never had a favourite board game due to a number of "unpleasant" childhood experiences! As a child (ok, AND as a young teenager) I was mostly banned from playing board games because I was a very poor loser.
I assumed that because I was the eldest of four, I should be better than my siblings and so if I started to lose I would change the rules or cheat until I was sent to my room. Hence, although I started many games I probably finished very few.
Sad to say this "habit" did not stop at board games.... we had a table tennis table and I was really bad at it but I was very inventive with the rules .... they changed minute by minute. I just kept telling my younger siblings that THEY just weren't getting it. LOL...
My father was the President of the golf club and I used to play Juniors Golf on Saturday - ... one day there was an invitational day and my best friend came with me. She had never played before but was pretty certain that air swings DID count. I didn't invite her again!
At University friends invited me to play 500 (like Euchre) but apparently one of the skills required to do well is a good memory.... playing 500 was a short phase.
The motto of my life when it comes to games has mostly been if I don't think I can win it I don't want to play it! LOL.
PS: I was a really good Canasta player in my 20's - maybe because I drank slightly less than those I played with!
Have you ever broken a bone? If so, how?
I have broken two bones ..... my little finger and my tailbone - though not both at the same time.
When I was about 11 or 12 I was playing "junior" darts with one of my sisters and my brother. Apparently someone had not hung the board on the nail properly so that when I pulled a dart out of the board the board came off the wall.... one of those metal "pie piece" dividers skewered my finger and the board was left hanging off my pinkie! It never reset properly so I have a funky little finger which can be twisted around as though it is made of gristle instead of bone! It was a great teenage party trick but I try to restrain myself now.
Then, when I was 13 years old, I was sashaying across my grandmother's freshly waxed kitchen floor in a pair of her high heels ...... need I say more? The result was a humiliating trip to the doctor, a funky shaped cushion and a lifetime of discomfort on hard seats!
Oh! And I recently discovered that I had broken a bone in my foot at some time - same foot which has now resided in a cast for 3 months. It was found on the x-ray and MRI when they were looking for the cause of my foot falling apart. In hindsight I'm pretty sure that this break was done sometime in my 20's during a week's vacation to the beach which seemed to involve a lot of drinking!
`
My dad was born in 1931 in St Peter Port on the island of
Guernsey. His real name is Max but he was so small and sickly when he
was born that there was some doubt as to whether he would survive, so
the nurses nicknamed him Mickey after little Mickey Mouse. He was an
only child. He was evacuated to Cornwall, England, during WW2 when the
Germans occupied the islands. At the end of the war he returned to Guernsey.
As a young man with adventure in his heart and only a few pounds in his pocket he ran away from home ... by boarding a ship headed for Canada via the Indian Ocean. He was sidetracked when he met an Aussie on board and got off the boat in Sydney, Australia. He never has been to Canada.
He had a massive stroke when he was about 54 years old and only that same sheer will to survive he had as a baby got him through and to the present day. At the time of his stroke doctors told us it was highly unlikely he would survive - the same as his parents were told all those years ago.
He is a cranky old man but he is filled with an incredible determination to beat the odds.
Today is his birthday:
Ideally my body needs 10 hrs sleep... realistically this is not going to happen if one has to leave for work before 7am; return after 6pm and expects to have anything else in life other than work and commuting.
Having arrived back from Oz late on Saturday night there was some serious jetlag happening this morning when my alarm went off after less than 8 hours restless sleep last night.
I could not believe I had only been at work for one hour when I got an email from my mother saying that my father was in hospital. And, at that stage, he had been in hospital for a day!
I immediately sent an email to my sister, because my mother had gone to bed as soon as she hit "send", asking what she knew - though of course by then she was also in bed. When sister woke this morning she also had an email from my mother and by then my father had been in hospital for another 8 hours!
I think my family lives inside the CIA!
My father will have some tests tomorrow to see why he continues to get stomach "bugs" (vomits) which his frail body can not handle.
My mother is driving a couple of hour's north today to keep an appointment with an eye specialist. She is a tough old thing my mother - I hope I have a lot of her genes - my father has proven to have a very strong mind but some pathetic physical genes.
My sister has just sent me a phone number for my father's bedside - I must ring him and tell him that I am really way too tired to fly all the way back, so he just better get well!
Today my son turns 21 years old in Australia. He was a bouncing 7lb 15oz when born - I was always grateful that it wasn't 8lbs :-). He had masses & masses of thick black hair and looked huge compared to the others in the nursery.
He was incredibly placid - never cried & actually had to be woken to be fed - the total opposite of the first son.
He will graduate at the end of this year with a Bachelor of Property Economics - Sub Major in Construction Finance and Economics. He is putting himself through uni, first with long shifts at McDonald's and now with a large real estate services & money management firm who give him time off to attend classes. I am very proud of him!
These are the earliest photos I have of him - his baby photos are still in Australia.
He threw himself a 21st BBQ party in the backyard on Saturday night - we are told there were "no incidents" that I should know about! :-)
`
Today I am posting old photos of my childhood - my sister scanned these for me - both because she has my grandfather's slides and she has a scanner!
Swimming with my handsome father:
Over the past 2 days I have posted old photos of three cute little kids. During the Princess SJ's visit I posted current photos of her - so today I thought I would show you how those cute little boys turned out........
The Locksmith is now 23 years old.
Miss A is his wonderful girlfriend
The Economist is about to turn 21 years old.
I am at work, things are busy and I have no time for self pity today. But I do have time to look at photos so please indulge me for one more day ......
This was taken about 17 years ago! Thank goodness the boys' heads grew into their ears! And, it is sad to think I paid someone to cut their hair like this!!
This is Princess SJ with my grandmother, Nan, a grand old lady who lived to be 99 years old.
Although Australia does not celebrate Halloween a friend of ours had a Halloween party. I'm pretty sure my three won the best costume - I actually sewed these myself! (circa 13/14 years ago)
Posing .. family holiday at Noosa Head, Queensland.
(circa 14 years ago)
Circa 14/15 years ago. I obviously kept a bleach company in business!!
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