So, the holiday logs are over, and back to real life real time fast breaking blogging - yeah right. But at least with references to yesterday and tomorrow and stuff, you know that I actually mean those days. Back in Brisbane, and the big thing of this week has been my sister moving down to Melbourne.
For her final weekend - last weekend I am meaning - she had made the choice to go to Currumbin Sanctuary. The rest of my family still have not been to Australia Zoo, in all the time we have been in Oz, but eh, it was the sister's choice. We hadn't been there as a family since about 1987 or 88 - I had gone on a school camp there in 89, but still, it is pretty much a generation since we have been. Wow, it is scary to say that it has been a generational change like that...
Anyways, saw some birds, snakes, kangaroos, koalas and other animals - kept us entertained for most of the day, and only $30. Overcharged for the burgers for lunch, but that always happens - the only disappointment was not seeing a Tassie devil, I guess they were sleeping or something. No camel rides either, like the last time we were there, but yes, it was just a nice family day out - and with my sister in the driving seat of where to go and what to see, it was a bit of a change from me always seeming to organise everything on tourist days out.
Then yesterday it was fly out of Queensland day, and, even though it was a mid morning flight, and therefore an early morning wake up call, on a weekend and everything, I decided to head down to see her off. I thought about it, and whenever I have visited or come to Brisbane, she has usually come out to see me in as well - hardly ever talked to me, it is fair to say, but she was usually present.
I realised as we were parking that my parents have never been on a domestic flight in Oz, and therefore have not needed to go to the domestic terminal - even when we went to Sydney in 1990, we took the train instead of flying. And I had to remind them that they could go through security to see my sis off at the actual gate, they were initially thinking they would say goodbye before the security checks. And my sister asked if there were going to be any hugs and that there better not be, she got one from Mum but no one else - geez our parents are so lucky to have three such non huggable children LOL.
As Dad said later as we hit the shopping centre, one down and one to go. Well, whatever happens this year I will not be living with the parents at the end of it, unless things go stupendously pear shaped with my life. And then this place would feel almost empty I am sure.
Other news from the past couple of weeks - the weather has been fucking weird the last few weeks. Not only was there that huge iceberg in the Canadian Arctic that broke off in the middle of their freaking winter, but the (European) Alps didn't get any snow until after Christmas, and even then there isn't too much of the stuff.
The eastern seaboard of the USA over Xmas and New Year was positively balmy - the cherry blossoms are out in DC about three or four months early, and parts of Victoria, in this part of the world, had a white Christmas - this partially in the same areas which have had the worst bushfires down there. Nuts.
But still the skeptics, including my parents, still aren't convinced on a possible massive climate change - oh, but it's global warming, why are some places getting colder? Is it man made or is it just a natural pattern? I tried to explain the severity of it all to V the other day, if we get less snow there will be less water - or put another way, can Australia imagine the consequences if this drought sticks around another five to ten years? And then I had to stop because I was starting to feel dizzy, stress related or something perhaps.
Wally Lewis, former rugby league player who works for Nine News and had a seizure on air a couple of days after I had my last one in fact, is back at work. Well, he is working as a sports reporter rather than a live presenter for the time being, reduced duties I guess, but I heard on the radio some comments that he and his wife gave the night that he 'returned'. The wife was saying that he wasn't the man she married anymore, and he was saying himself that looking back into the past there are times where he has forgotten entire days. Makes it sound like epilepsy is a hell of a lot worse than I have experienced it - maybe it is the seizures that are making me grumpy lately LOL.
Although I do still prefer to say I have seizures rather than the E for epilepsy word.
Now that I have my MP3 player which is also an FM radio, I can actually listen to the news on the way home on the bus or train. Which is nice - apart from when you hear about murder suicides. A father killed his two kids and himself while the mother was out shopping in Perth - they had emigrated from Afghanistan back in the 90s - and a real estate receptionist got shot at work in Logan, just south of Brisbane, after arguing with a tenant who was looking likely to be evicted. The tenant she had been arguing with then topped himself.
Why those stories should come to the top of my mind in amongst all the mayhem of crime in Australia, I don't know, but I think Andy Warhol would need to amend his saying about fifteen minutes - nowadays it seems to be that everyone is known for only fifteen seconds before being forgotten. Though don't even think of getting me started on the inanity that is Paris Hilton.
Pauly
For her final weekend - last weekend I am meaning - she had made the choice to go to Currumbin Sanctuary. The rest of my family still have not been to Australia Zoo, in all the time we have been in Oz, but eh, it was the sister's choice. We hadn't been there as a family since about 1987 or 88 - I had gone on a school camp there in 89, but still, it is pretty much a generation since we have been. Wow, it is scary to say that it has been a generational change like that...
Anyways, saw some birds, snakes, kangaroos, koalas and other animals - kept us entertained for most of the day, and only $30. Overcharged for the burgers for lunch, but that always happens - the only disappointment was not seeing a Tassie devil, I guess they were sleeping or something. No camel rides either, like the last time we were there, but yes, it was just a nice family day out - and with my sister in the driving seat of where to go and what to see, it was a bit of a change from me always seeming to organise everything on tourist days out.
Then yesterday it was fly out of Queensland day, and, even though it was a mid morning flight, and therefore an early morning wake up call, on a weekend and everything, I decided to head down to see her off. I thought about it, and whenever I have visited or come to Brisbane, she has usually come out to see me in as well - hardly ever talked to me, it is fair to say, but she was usually present.
I realised as we were parking that my parents have never been on a domestic flight in Oz, and therefore have not needed to go to the domestic terminal - even when we went to Sydney in 1990, we took the train instead of flying. And I had to remind them that they could go through security to see my sis off at the actual gate, they were initially thinking they would say goodbye before the security checks. And my sister asked if there were going to be any hugs and that there better not be, she got one from Mum but no one else - geez our parents are so lucky to have three such non huggable children LOL.
As Dad said later as we hit the shopping centre, one down and one to go. Well, whatever happens this year I will not be living with the parents at the end of it, unless things go stupendously pear shaped with my life. And then this place would feel almost empty I am sure.
Other news from the past couple of weeks - the weather has been fucking weird the last few weeks. Not only was there that huge iceberg in the Canadian Arctic that broke off in the middle of their freaking winter, but the (European) Alps didn't get any snow until after Christmas, and even then there isn't too much of the stuff.
The eastern seaboard of the USA over Xmas and New Year was positively balmy - the cherry blossoms are out in DC about three or four months early, and parts of Victoria, in this part of the world, had a white Christmas - this partially in the same areas which have had the worst bushfires down there. Nuts.
But still the skeptics, including my parents, still aren't convinced on a possible massive climate change - oh, but it's global warming, why are some places getting colder? Is it man made or is it just a natural pattern? I tried to explain the severity of it all to V the other day, if we get less snow there will be less water - or put another way, can Australia imagine the consequences if this drought sticks around another five to ten years? And then I had to stop because I was starting to feel dizzy, stress related or something perhaps.
Wally Lewis, former rugby league player who works for Nine News and had a seizure on air a couple of days after I had my last one in fact, is back at work. Well, he is working as a sports reporter rather than a live presenter for the time being, reduced duties I guess, but I heard on the radio some comments that he and his wife gave the night that he 'returned'. The wife was saying that he wasn't the man she married anymore, and he was saying himself that looking back into the past there are times where he has forgotten entire days. Makes it sound like epilepsy is a hell of a lot worse than I have experienced it - maybe it is the seizures that are making me grumpy lately LOL.
Although I do still prefer to say I have seizures rather than the E for epilepsy word.
Now that I have my MP3 player which is also an FM radio, I can actually listen to the news on the way home on the bus or train. Which is nice - apart from when you hear about murder suicides. A father killed his two kids and himself while the mother was out shopping in Perth - they had emigrated from Afghanistan back in the 90s - and a real estate receptionist got shot at work in Logan, just south of Brisbane, after arguing with a tenant who was looking likely to be evicted. The tenant she had been arguing with then topped himself.
Why those stories should come to the top of my mind in amongst all the mayhem of crime in Australia, I don't know, but I think Andy Warhol would need to amend his saying about fifteen minutes - nowadays it seems to be that everyone is known for only fifteen seconds before being forgotten. Though don't even think of getting me started on the inanity that is Paris Hilton.
Pauly
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