Spoilt rotten!

We have had our W.A family members here for four days, as I had a birthday last week. They were not able to come over for the actual day, but that is of no consequence to me. The fact they were able to come at all is what matters.
It was a hectic four days, as there was so much we wanted to do, and see while they were here, and so much traveling to be able to do it.
They arrived on Saturday morning. It was a new experience for us to meet someone at the refurbished air terminal, and not a pleasant one. It is such a maze of roads and no signs to tell you where to go. I was not even sure if we were in the right place, as I wasn't sure if the international and domestic terminals were in the same building. They are. The flight was a little late, and I did not want to go through the metal detector in the arrivals area, as my knee would have set it off, and I do not relish being made to feel like a terrorist, which is how the security people make anyone feel who set off the alarms.
We drove over to the nursing home to visit my mother. Mark had not seen her for nearly two years. She knew who we all were, even recognising Mark with his full face beard, and was especially pleased to see Yu-Jin who is seven. Mum loves the little ones. My sister arrived and was surprised to see us, as she did not know we would be there.
On Sunday, we all traveled to Keith to have lunch to celebrate my belated birthday. My sister and her husband came from Adelaide, and my brother from here. Our daughter and her family live in Keith. We had a really nice meal and my daughter had made me a chocolate cake as I never have a birthday cake. She filled it with strawberries and cream and more of the same on the outside. For some unknown reason, I decided to make fruit salad and take it up for dessert. I had misunderstood my daughter, as I thought she said the did not serve dessert. I got myself in a bit of trouble about that! Not a big deal.The waitress asked who was the birthday person, and I told her it was me. When she brought my meal out, it had a sparkler in it. After dessert, Deb went into the kitchen and put the candles on the cake and lit them, and brought it out. Everybody sang Happy Birthday, and gave three cheers. Lovely! The children behaved beautifully, and ate all their lunch.
Mark and his family gave me a Gel wrist rest and mouse mat, a gorgeous oblong white china platter, and a foot spa. My sister gave me the most beautiful quilt that she had made. She belongs to a quilter's guild, and does exquisite work. I was absolutely blown away, as I never expected a gift, nor that I would one day own one of her lovely quilts. She also brought me her 'old' computer desk, as she has a new one. It is much bigger than the one I had, and much nicer to work on.
There is more to come, but I will finish it later.

Flowers from my family

These are the lovely flowers my son and his family sent me after my last operation.

Birthday Milestone.

Yesterday was my birthday. It was another 'milestone' birthday, which means, another decade has passed. They seem to zoom by faster as one gets older.
It was 'all systems go' and I had a fantastic day for once.
My husband wanted to get my breakfast for me, as I had done for him two weeks ago. But, as I am not a morning person and do not get going until after eight, it was not going to happen, as I do not know from day to day what I want for breakfast, or when I want it. I got it myself later.
I had received an arrangement of beautiful flowers from a dear friend the day before. I knew they were coming as I had rung her on Sunday evening, and she had told me. When I rang to thank her on Monday night, she thought it would probably been better if she had had them delivered on the day. I said it was fine as it was, as Tuesday is my morning out with another friend for coffee, and I would not be home to receive them. We were down town on Monday morning when I remembered they were coming and went into the florist shop to see if they had been delivered, as it was after 10.AM. The woman said the proprietor was away, and she would not be dong deliveries for about half to 3/4 of an hour. We had been home about two hours when they were finally delivered. Usually, Neville is at the farm, but he was here this week. He would have been able to take delivery of them. He went to the farm this morning.
Sue and I went out for coffee, and she said as it was my birthday she would shout me instead. At the cafe we regularly attend, they have little orange/red cards they stamp with each coffee. After the seventh, the eighth one is free. As luck would have it, we were both entitled to freebies yesterday! Due to that fact, I thought it prudent to purchase something to eat so we at least paid for something. As a treat I bought two pieces of Mud Cake from the adjoining bakery. It was still not Sue's shout! The cake was too rich and made us feel a bit queazy as we are not used to it anymore.
After coffee, which was two 'skinny' iced coffees, which were also sickly sweet, we did some other things. At the super market, I admired some Lillies on a flower stand. I was NOT hinting, but Sue bought me some others anyway. I discovered, they probably used coffee syrup instead of real coffee, hence the sickliness of the drinks.
We went to a church service at the age care home. They have one every Tuesday morning. As we entered, the lady sitting at the organ called out, "Hullo, Sue." I was not able to see her clearly, and was not sure if she was talking to me or my friend. As we sat down, I asked Sue who she was. Sue asked her, "Who dat?" The lady then realized her faux pas, and came over so I could see her. She was a friend and former neighbour I had not seen for some time. After the service, I went over to speak to her. She asked me how I was, and I whispered in her ear that I was 60 that day. She immediately shouted to everyone , "Hey, everybody, Sue's having a birthday today." I said "Keep it down. Don't advertise it." The minister asked if it was a 'special' one, and she said,"Yes, she is sixty today." Then all the lovely oldies started to sing Happy Birthday to me. I got all overcome and silly, and said, "No, no, don't do that.' I put my sunglasses on and said I was going to hide. Then I took them off, and waited for them to finish and said thank you very much. I turned to Margaret and said, "You can't keep a secret, can you?" She looked at me with a cheeky grin and said, "No."
After that, we went back to finish our shopping. I was thrilled to receive two more arrangements of flowers in the afternoon. One from my friend in Queensland, and the other from my son and his family in Perth. I had text messages and phone calls as well. All in all, it was a happy day.
I bought the makings for a card and made my daughter a card, as it is her birthday today. I will get to see her on the day, for once.

I thought it was a woman's perogative to change her mind!

On Tuesday evening last, I asked the Man About the House, how early we would be leaving to travel to Naracoorte to pick up our wool and then transport it it Edenhope to sell it. As the forecast was not for very hot weather, he said we would take our time. I suggested several times and he said there was no need to get up all that early, as we did not need to beat the heat.
At 5.45 am, I was still asleep, and he asked me if I was going to come to Naracoorte and to sell the wool. I said I thought he had indicated the night before, we did not need to get up THAT early! His excuse, the sooner we get going the sooner we get home. Men! He did have a hidden agenda though. He wanted to catch his brother before he left for work, as he wanted to give him some parsnips he had grown here. We certainly achieved that objective. His brother and his wife were not even up, when he knocked on the door. They very kindly gave me some toast and a cup of coffee when they got their own breakfast. We chatted for about an hour, then Haydn had to go to work.
We got a good price for the wool, but it would have been nicer if we had more to sell. The farm is not big enough to carry very many sheep unfortunately.
When we got back to Naracoorte, we took the trailer back to the farm and went in to have lunch at our favourite 'watering hole'.
Neville had Schnitzel, and it overlapped the plate on both sides, by about two inches! He said it was very tender. I had fish and salad. I said , if we had known how big the Schnitzel was, we could have ordered one and an extra plate, as it really was very big. Nonetheless, he made short work of it, and ate the lot.
We then did the grocery shopping and some other errands and came home. Just outside of town, there was an RBT and licence check point. When the WPC asked him to 'breath in the bag', I said it was a waste of time as he does not drink. The male officer said, "Don't drink, eh, Sir?" Neville told him he has never had a drink in his life. I don't think they believed him though.

Good Manners. A thing of the past?

Call me old fashioned if you like, but, I think it is a crying shame parents of my children's generation and this one, are not teaching their children the basic protocols of etiquette and good manners.
I am a woman of mature years, I am nearly 60, and I find it very galling when I introduce myself, or am introduced by someone else, as Susan and that person presumes and assumes on our brief acquaintance, and calls me Sue. It is particularly annoying when the person is only 18 or so. Whatever happened to Mrs H...? I am well and truly old enough to be the mother of these young people. I know there are those of you out there that will say I need to 'get over myself,' or 'lighten up.'
I am a very relaxed and easy going sort of person, but If I say my name is Susan, then I would appreciate it if the other person, regardless of their age, would ask me if it is alright to call me by the shorter version of my name, or any other derivation of same. I have ALWAYS loathed being called Sue, but I am having very little success in getting the message across.
It may seem like a trivial issue to be making a fuss about, but I think it is indicative of the lack of courtesy in general, and the casualness of society today. I myself would never presume upon an acquaintance and start calling anyone by a shorter or longer version of their names. I would wait until we had gotten to know each other quite well, or ask them what they prefer to be called, and stick to that.
I suppose no-one means any affront by this attitude, but I would like to be asked, and my preference acceded to. Does anybody have any helpful hints?

Who Called the Cook a fool? Who called that fool a Cook?

The Man about the House and I went to the pub for lunch today. Yesterday was his birthday, and, as I had won a voucher from said pub before Christmas, , and today is seniors day, I thought it would be nice to treat him for once. The food was not very nice when I was there for the Christmas do, so I was not expecting it to have improved, unless they had sacked the 'cook' in the interim. Sadly, they had not.
I had my hair permed this morning and we went straight to the pub from the salon. We ordered our meals and I bought a Cappuccino and a diet Coke for the man. Our meals were brought to us very quickly, but no sign of my coffee. Just then, a bus load of senior citizens from the Activity Centre arrived for lunch. They were given preferential treatment, and served equally quickly. They go every alternate week, and we had struck the wrong week to go out. Still no sign of my coffee, and this was about 45 mins later. After I finished my main meal, I went to the ladies. On the way, I asked the younger waitress if i could have my coffee. She said, "Oh, you would like a coffee, would you?" I said, "No, I just want the one I have paid for, please."
I was back at the table about 5 mins before the older waitress brought it over.
The meal was less than appertising, and was NOT asthetically pleasing to the eye, either.
We were told when we ordered it that there would be, cauliflower in white sauce, roast potatoes, beans, and carrots. The miniscule bit of cauliflower on our plates, had no discernable white sauce. If it had been there, it had dissolved while it was being kept
'warm.' It had been cooked to death! The carrots had been kept warm for so long they were separating, and the beans were mushy. The roast spuds were JUST cooked.
There was a little house fly buzzing around in the window, and I managed to kill it with a paper napkin. I dropped the fly on the floor and, after I had finished my coffee I put the napkin in the cup. The younger waitress came and asked me, "Have you finished with that?" I said something sarcastic along the lines of, 'I would not want to use it with that stuff it it, would I?' She took the cup, and I said, "Excuse me." She turned around to see what I wanted and I said, "What about the glass?" It was empty and right next to the cup. She gave me a filthy look and took them both. We eventually got our dessert, after the seniors had been served. I said we would go somewhere else next year. Neville said he would stay home and cook his own lunch.

Family times

We had fun with two of our grandsons again today. Our daughter came down to do some shopping, and we took the boys to the park again. They played for a short time, and then seemed to be bored. (?) It was quite pleasant outside this morning, so I did not mind being out doors. I went across the road to the newsagent's and bought myself a puzzle book, and went back to the boys. Neville was minding them in my absence. I suggested we go to the cafe for a drink, and they thought that was A OK. I went to the car to put my camera and the puzzle book inside, and was just about to unlock the car, when Neville 'zapped' it from where he was sitting. I told him he was a smartie, and why could he not have done that when I was on my side of the car, to save my knee. He said he didn't think of it. You can only unlock the car on the driver's side.
We were heading towards the cafe, when their mother hailed me and asked me to mind the baby while she 'powdered her nose'. I said to the boys it might be nice if mum came with us to have a drink. They thought that was a great idea, so we all mosied on down to the cafe. They all had milk shakes and I had an iced coffee.
I asked Deb if Willow, who is nine months old, liked icecream. She said she sure did, and that when she has some, Willow eats half of it. I gave her some of the icecream out of my iced coffee, and she slurped it down, so I gave her a couple more. Deb said to her, "Your Nanna wants you be be awake all afternoon, it seems." I said that much coffee would not keep her awake.
We came back home after I had bought a couple of things at the super market. I bought some sausage mince and a packet of frozen pastry, so I can make some sausage rolls. I bought one for Riley at the bakery, and he had it out of the bag in the cafe next door. It is fifty cents cheaper to do it that way than ask for it with a drink. It cost $2.00, out of a bag, which I think is a bit steep.
The boys played Go Fish on my computer for a while, then Riley asked if he could watch a movie. He chose Bob the Builder. They seemed to have a good time, though Riley was a bit downcast when his mum returned, as he wanted another game on the computer. I have obviously over done it, as my knee is giving me gyp again. Have to watch that.

Avoiding the heat.

Once again we arose early, to avoid the heat, and drove to Naracoorte to do the fortnightly grocery shopping. As it turned out, it did not get very hot, but I still needed the air con on for a while in the late afternoon.
I have been having some trouble with my knee, and I decided to visit the chiropractor and see if he could spare me five minutes so we could discuss the situation, and see if there was anything he could do to relieve my discomfort. It was an awful cheek my walking in with no appointment and banking on his good will and/or availability. He very kindly said he would see me, and I was shown in to a treatment room to wait for him. When he came in, he did not look at all like I had imagined he would from descriptions I have had of him. He is much younger and taller than I expected. I apologized for not having an appointment, and explained I had not known what day I would have been able to come, as I am from Bordertown, and had to choose the coolest day possible. He said he quite understood my reasoning. We discussed my problem, and he said he had another patient to see and he would see me afterwards. He gave me a semi treatment, just working on my hips. It seems to have relieved some of the pain. He also said he wanted me to walk on it more and I said I had been walking round the clothes line, and would that be OK with him. He said it would and he agreed that I should try using the exercise bike a bit. He also wants me to do knee flexes with a rolled up towel or a cushion under my knee.
I have done the first two exercises as it is cool this morning.
He agrees with me, that it is more than likely the main ham string tendon that is causing the problem. I guess it needs to be stretched a bit. He also said it could be up to two years before my knee is properly rehabilitated. That could be a daunting prospect for some, but not me. I was quite horrified to see that he charges $75.00 for an initial consult. That however is without health fund cover. I only had to pay the gap of $32.40. It will cost me much less next time as I have a pension card.
I thanked him profusely for seeing me without an appointment.