Mark and I are thinking of Vietnam for our holiday. Mum and Dad have been to an island resort on Whale Island, so we might have a week of adventuring, and a week of vegetating on the island. If you’ve been to Vietnam, please lob in with a comment and let me know what you liked and didn’t like about the country, the people, the availability of vegetarian food, whatever…
P.S. Have you noticed that the judge that passed sentence on Saddam Hussein looks a lot like Ben Kingsley?
A great idea for a postcard series. Write a novel on the back, and each card goes together with the next to tell the other 1000 words of the story.
How to make a postcard mosaic.
I had some bad news on the weekend. My fairy knitmother is moving to another state. I’m sure it’s not personal, and she’s going to have a wonderful time, it’s a great job, there are sheep, blah, blah, blah. But what if I fuck up my lace ? Or need to modify a pattern? Who’s going to hold my hand when everything goes wrong? Who’s going to put my eleventy three dropped stitches back on the needles ? Who is going to enable my stash enhancement? OK, I can handle that without her, but you get the idea.
Our little knitting group is going to be seriously compromised. There will definitely be more men than women now! (Men are great. Men that knit are wonderful – but they do attract unwanted attention when they knit in public).
Speaking of blokes, have you listened to David’s podcast yet ? It’s bloody good. Really. I’m not just saying that because he knows my mobile number. He’s smart, and warm, and witty, and Australian – so the content is local and fresh, but there’s no cultural cringe. I don’t want to be mean (that comes naturally), but there was another Aussie podcast (which seems to have gone under), which makes David look like Sir Lawrence Olivier.
Come to think of it, there may be a slight resemblance.
And the picture? Just a pretty sunset, taken from the verandah at Hamish & Heather’s place up north.
Blueberry and Monkey are now cohabiting, and we have our kitchen back ! Hooray!
And of course, they have a buddy to hang with. Life must be pretty boring for a solitary bun in a tiny backyard hutch. B&M aren’t exactly best friends yet, but there hasn’t been any nastyness (just a bit of humping), and I have high hopes for their future together.
Because he’s insane.
Apparently the court belived that his mental state was a trifle “hows your father” before he had a massive ice habit. And we won’t mention the pot. Apparently all you need for an insanity defence this week is to claim that your brother suffers from bi-polar disorder.
I wasn’t at the hearing, so I don’t know what evidence was tabled, but I have detailed notes from the original trial, and I wasn’t convinced that the psychotic state would have been triggered without drugs. We’re talking a big hairy dark grey legal issue here people, and at the root, it’s an issue that is open to interpretation.
I truly hope that McMahon keeps talking his meds, and that the pet shop bunnies of Sydney are safe from him forevermore. And ultimately, I can’t see that gaol is going to help much. He’ll either get better, or he won’t. And if he re-offends, hopefully his face is well known enough that he’ll be caught before he takes another life.
In the meantime, we need to make sure the law is updated (contact me if you want details), and that he’s on the mend.
And focus on this positive. At the NSW Local Government Association meeting last week, NSW Councils voted for mandatory desexing of cats. This is a huge step, and if adopted, could save thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of lives a year.
Mum and Dad are giving Mark and I a honeymoon. I’m in tears typing this. I feel like I should say no, that it’s too generous – but we need need need a holiday so much. I could barely speak when mum told me this afternoon, and am still having a hard time believing it’s true.
Tomorrow we’ll start talking when, and where, and how long, and how much spending money we’ll need, but for now, all I can thing is I’M GOING SOMEWHERE WITH MARK, ON A PROPER HOLIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!
(Celia – if you’re reading this, I need to know where your beach with internet access is)
And in other important news, David (one of the Courthouse knitters) has just started a knitting podcast. Download it here or subscribe through iTunes. And if you are an iTunes account holder – write him a review.
https://laranettle.wordpress.com/blog/wp-filez/Bunny%20letter%20opener.mp4
Now to find a use for the cat.
I suspect it’s German, there is no English, but this is a very visually appealing site, that seems to be all about repurposing common household objects for new and imaginative uses.
Check out number 18 – a photo frame made from a tealight candle.
Sixty two unique visitors in two days! I am amazed.
Do pop by any time, and I will endeavour to keep the content on the happier side of suicidal – and there may even be knitting content once I finish my mystery gift knitting. Swallowtail number two should be finished by the weekend, then I have another massive lace (mystery) project to finish before christmas.
Dad came out of surgery ok, though just as grumpy as before. Apparently his leg is hurting more, and he didn’t get any happy pills.
M-H pointed out that I haven’t mentioned Dad for a while. His foot is mending slowly, he was able to put some weight on the ankle for the first time last week. The wheelchair goes back to the hire company next week, and he should be dancing by Christmas. Apparently his dancing won’t be any better than it was before the fall.
Right now, he’s at the Mater Hospital, having a nodule cut out of his throat. They’ll send a tissue sample to be tested for cancer, but it’s most likely to be a cyst. This is his third general anaesthetic in about 2 months, which isn’t ideal, but it’s better that we know what it is sooner, rather than later. If it isn’t benign I’ll be devastated, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime he won’t be talking for at least a few days, and it will also be a little while before he can eat. Better make some soup.
Aunty Patsy’s funeral was this morning, one of her grandchildren Sean read a wonderful eulogy about her long and very full life. The ladies of Leichhardt Bowling Club gave her coffin a guard of honour as it was carried from the chapel, and there was much saying of “this is the word of the lord”, “peace be with you”, and “and also with you”. There was saying of Hail Marys, and Our Fathers, there was sprinkling of holy water, and the wafting of incence (to symbolise the soul rising to heaven according to the priest). There was also an awful lot of singing, and bible readings, but I’ll forgive that because they also had my favourite bit, where the congregation shake hands with each other and wish each other peace.
I’m glad I was brought up a little bit Catholic, because if I hadn’t, all that would have seemed a pretty strange way to say goodbye to a loved one.
A wish for peace is a lovely sentiment – peace is a state of being that is all about our attitude to externalities, rather than an objective examination of reality. To a very large extent we create our own sense of peace, something I am experimenting with at the moment.
If only we could take it a step further. In my fantasy utopian society, the phrase “how are you” would be replaced with either the Japanese “Genki desu ka?”, or it’s english equivalent, which would be something like “How is your peace?”. The word genki is a positive descriptor of the “wa” or life force. “Is your life force balanced and well, are you feeling positive and at peace with yourself and your surroundings” is probably a little too long for a daily greeting, but isn’t it much nicer than “how are you”? A wish from a caring stranger carries with it a little bit of peace, a little bit of happiness, and it can be contagious.
So if I ever ask you “how is your Wa?”, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Disco Knitter 
