January
was stinking bloody hot, the hottest on record, but of course there is no
climate change and the Abbott of the Abyss has taught us that “Coal is good for
humanity.” Peter and I have finally
embraced that message, joined the masses who couldn't give an airborne act of
copulation about sustainability and thrashed the shit out of our ducted air
conditioning. Bugger the planet, we’ll
be outa here in 20 years so let somebody else's grandchildren pay the price! Yes?
Kevin
celebrated his 18th birthday in February and now he's headed towards 19 albeit
rather slowly and with long sleeps between meals and toilet breaks. The birds that regularly visit our garden no
longer take Kev seriously and he shows little interest in them anyway. He does, however, enjoy a morning ramble
which usually includes a graze on fresh grass which he never throws up again
until he comes back inside. We do
treasure our very special Old Boy and don't take a single day with him for
granted. In fact we don't take any day
for granted.
That
goes especially for family and friends.
Jan is managing fairly well but Tony has had a rough year with his back
and the sudden passing of his younger brother, Noel. Since he's now 78 we've been trying to avoid
spinal surgery for a raft of reasons and have finally had success with a nerve
block on his lower back. Let's all touch
wood and cross our fingers! That came
after their long awaited trip to Japan which they enjoyed but felt a bit
compromised because their general decline in mobility and corresponding
increase in pain. Ageing is a bitch!
We said
sad goodbyes to two of our Significant Woman this year. Our most gentle girl, Sylvia, simply stopped
walking and eating one day in early April although she seemed otherwise well
and happy. I tube fed her three times a
day for a month and administered a series of pills and injections but on our
third trip to the avian vet it was clear what must happen. She went without fuss and is now helping to
push up a couple of camellias.
Miss
Margaret, who was a small chook with a big personality, joined her in
November. Marg suffered a prolapsed
cloaca mid-year but once that was fixed and she had a remarkable recovery. But as it happened, her hormones were
extremely determined. They fought the
implant she was given to stop her from laying and it was on again. All Kathy the avian vet could do for the
second prolapse was to help her gently along.
Hazel
has also had an implant to stop ovulation and give her a chance to recover some
condition. Like Sylvia, she's an ISA
Brown and if you're considering chooks I urge you to stay well away from them,
personable creatures though they are.
ISA Browns are an engineered breed, designed to lay an obscene number of
eggs in a very short time. There’s no well-earned
retirement, just chooky “women’s problems”.
Hazel, Sylvia and Margaret racked up some seriously impressive medical
bills between them but Truganini and Oodgeroo, both Australorps, go from
absolute strength to strength and lay almost as many eggs. If you're getting chooks get purebreds!
Which
brings me to Lottie, Molly and Ethel, our new Chooklettes who arrived in
mid-November after quite a search.
Point-of-lay purebreds are scarce as hens’ teeth so we got Lottie and
Ethel at 6 weeks and Molly at 8. Lottie
is a Light Sussex named for Jan and Tony’s gracious neighbor; Molly is a Lilac
Sussex named for Tony’s very special Auntie Molly; and Ethel the Plymouth Rock
is named for my dear irreplaceable Auntie Eth.
The Significant Women tradition continues.
When
Peter first sustained his Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) I fought long and hard to
get some kind of rehabilitation and while every facility I approached was
sympathetic they were also quite blunt about the fact that rehab was only
available if the ABI was the result of a road accident which attracted third
party insurance. There was very little
for anybody else. I won't labour the
details but the first few years were extremely difficult, especially after
Peter’s wonderful dad died and his formerly supportive cousins moved in to
hijack what was left.
After
months of dead ends and floundering we had the extreme good fortune to be taken
under the wing of St Joseph’s Hospital at Auburn which was not too far from
where we lived at that time. They
provided us with several months of in-home occupational therapy and when that
came to an end we were picked up by their amazing speech pathology team and
here I must acknowledge both Belinda McDonald and Linda Clarke, especially
Linda who stood by us both for a full eight years and found slot after slot for
Peter long after any other organisation would have dropped him off their
books. Linda, Belinda and the dozens of
students they organised to work with Peter over those eight years made a huge
difference to both of our lives.
Enter
Prime Minister Julia Gillard who recognised that an extraordinary number of
people like Peter far worse had fallen through the cracks of a highly flawed
system. She set about building the
National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) which, along with The Royal
Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, is a lasting
legacy of her prime ministership and for that I acknowledge and thank her as
well. The conservatives fought to stifle
Julia's plan but it limped to fruition under their reluctant watch when they
took government. It had become a force
that simply could not be stopped. Peter
has been approved for support and the plan I presented was accepted without
amendment. We were treated with curtesy
and respect every step of the way which I might tell you has been our same
experience with Centrelink over the years.
We
headed northward in DeDe to visit our lovely Aunty Joan in May. She moved from her home on the Gold Coast to
a facility on Bribie Island just north of Brisbane where she's enjoying the
company and is also much closer to her son Peter and his wife Mandy who live
quite close by.
No
northern sojourn would be complete without a few nights in Armidale and a
wander around my alma mater. I like to
remember and catch up with friends. This
time it was my old mate Sheree and it’s been a full 40 years since we both
lived on Top D at Drummond College but it was as if no time had passed. We always spend time with Shara and Tom as
well. They're not from the day but it's
been almost as long. There’s comfort in
being with old friends who’ve shared your history.
Next was the town of Esk in south-eastern Queensland, the ancestral
home of the Kransky Sisters who we discovered aren't quite as famous in Esk as
they are in other places.
That
aside, a very friendly woman in the deli section of the Esk IGA kindly offered
us each a free cheese kransky. I don't
eat anything even vaguely mammalian so politely declined the offer but Peter
assured both Mavis and myself that it was rather moreish.
We
motored on to Warwick wondering why there is no Trevor, Brian or Pamela and
that's where DeDe’s windscreen was struck and cracked by a stone on the town
bypass which, like much of Queensland, was under reconstruction. When we were hit by a second stone at the
back of the unrecognisable Sunshine Coast development orgy that was once
Mooloolaba we just laughed. I'd neither
cracked nor broken a windscreen in 46 years of driving but you know they say
about Queensland: Beautiful one day, two cracks in your windscreen the next!
We had
5 nights at the Gemini Resort at Golden Beach just south of Caloundra which is
where Kim, Annette and I used to stay when we had our Queensland spring
holidays back in the mid-1980s. I
worried it might have changed but wasn't disappointed and nor was Peter. We had views up the Pumicestone Passage, over
the northern tip of Bribie Island and out to sea. It was perfect for day trips and driving down
to the southern end of Bribie to visit Aunty Joan.
Next
came the Anstees; Annie and husband John; another flash apartment; and a very
nice Thai dinner at Coolangatta on the way south. Now anybody who knows Mrs Anstee should sit
down immediately, OK? She baked us an
excellent banana loaf for afternoon tea and even made passionfruit butter to go
with it! I remained gob smacked next day
as we continued on down the ever lengthening and still somewhat newish Pacific
Motorway for a couple of nights at Port Macquarie. We like to catch up with Noelene Bailey who
is the mother of my late great university mate, Dave. It's been about 35 years since David left the
building and I can't drive past Port without stopping by to visit Noelene. It's that shared history thing again.
My
annual political observations in two words: Donald Trump - twat; Scott Morrison
- joke.
And
speaking of jokes, I was joking when I said we had joined the masses who
couldn't give an airborne act of copulation about sustainability although we
did give the air conditioning a hiding last summer. That said, we do have solar power and unlike
many, we close all the windows when the air is on. We have planted about six extra trees this
year and just when I'm certain there's no more space another one presents
itself and we suddenly find a spot that's perfect.
So, my
friends, our message is the same as every year.
Tread lightly upon this fragile planet of ours. It took it 4.5 billion years to develop its
extraordinary diversity so let's not bugger it up.
Peace, love & happiness
Glenn, Peter (Lyle), Kevin, Fluffy, Uranus, Baby
Blue, Little One, Peggy
& the Significant Women
& the Significant Women
