62!

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.

Dad

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.

I am clever

Ever have a period of negative and nasty thinking, when you started to feel like you couldn’t achieve anything, that you would forget to breathe if it wasn’t an automatic response….

I’ve been like that. Feeling so negative and down on myself that I couldn’t fight my way out of a wet paper bag. But thanks to the miracle of time, spending time with people who think I am ok, and some very lovely and supportive comments on my blog, I have been starting to feel better.

And this morning, I decided I wanted a stat counter on my blog. I’ve recently been surprised to learn that many more people than I expected actually read it. I just assumed that since I only get one or two comments a week, that I must be getting about 3 or 4 visitors a week, or maybe up to ten. But I suspect the number is higher than that. I love comments – it helps me know who is reading, and makes me feel that you care.

So I added a stat counter. I researched it, created an account, copied the code, edited my php, uploaded it, and checked that it was working, all before 9am.

Just because

A Kangroo at Dawn

There hasn’t been many pictures on the blog lately, and in an effort to show off my sunny personality, as well as my meagre talent with a camera, here is a gratuitous picture of a kangaroo, enjoying an early morning sniff of the ocean air, and a munch on the grass overlooking one of my favourite beaches in the world.

For the World of Warcraft Widows

M-H linked to this on her blog today – and it’s a must read for gamers, and the people that share their lives. I will admit that I play World of Warcraft, but nowhere near as much as most people I know that play it. And I will admit that the game has been blamed for a lack of dishes being washed, and vacuuming being done, and possibly a little bit of marital disharmony.

The writer says that playing a game where 39 other people depend on you is a real priority for those players of Level 60+, as are the demands of real life – but sometimes priorities aren’t always examined in the cold light of day.

In other news, congratulations to Womens Weekly and Womens Day, who agreed to run advertisements about the cruelty of the intensive factory farmed pork industry. And a big boo to Marie Claire, Delicious, and the Good Weekend, who didn’t want to upset the meat industry by running the ads.

I don’t want to come over all feral animal rights activist (I wash, so you can’t really call me feral), but if you’re going to eat it, you might as well know where it comes from. There is a big push towards organics, many of us don’t want to eat genetically modified organisms, there is an increasing awareness of the issues of battery hens – and yet the meat industry is powerful enough to stop an education campaign in some of Australias big glossy magazines.

I don’t like it.

Being a grown up.

Mijal threatened to drag me off to the produce markets at Flemington at 7am this morning. Apparently it wasn’t a threat – and she arrived before 7am, and I was still in the shower. Off to the markets (I can heartily recommend the coffee at the Flower Market Cafe), we got loads of veggies (a green bag FULL of fresh herbs for $5 – very happy bunnies!), and 2 bunches of tulips for $4.

After that my parents picked me up for a swim – swam not quite twice as far as last time, but I’m calling it double because they had the wave machine on for part of my swim, and it was hard work.

Now I’m home, and have started to bake some veggies, make a frittata and I have 2 kilos of swiss brown mushrooms to get creative with.

Hmm… I wonder if I can find a recipe for mushroom pate?

And that thing about being grown up ? Well I’ve decided not to let my brother shit me any more. He won’t change, he won’t bend, and he won’t empathise. That is just the way it is, and I have fuck all control over it. What I can control is my reactions to things, and I can be a grown up and take control of the things I do have a hold on.

And my great aunt Patsy (Patricia) died this morning. She had been sick for a long time, and we had been expecting this news for a few weeks. She lived a full life, was the matriach of a big catholic family (grandchildren and great grandchildren up the wazoo), and a much loved sister to my grandfather George.

The picture above is George and his two sisters, Patsy and Maree (Patsy is in the middle) at our wedding in April 2004. He died less than six months after this picture was taken, two years ago today. Patsy followed him two years later, to the day.

I still miss George every day.

Fait Accompli

Apple have awards for resellers that excel in different areas. This quarter, there are trips to San Francisco on offer for a handful of Australian resellers that sell the most iPods, or Mac Pros, etc. Last quarter, we sold the most AppleCare in our “class”, and the boss was given a trip to Macworld.

But the boss has a pregnant wife, who will be unable to fly, and nearly ready to give birth around the time of the trip. He tried to change the dates, but he couldn’t, and he has decided to give the trip to the service manager.

Which is all well and good, aside from two key issues.

1. I sold the most AppleCare. I encouraged other staff members to sell AppleCare. I speak to many customers every day about the benefits of AppleCare, and I add it to every quote I do, and for every quote that I revise for another staff member. I hassled Apple into giving us training in how to sell AppleCare, and since I started doing all this, our AppleCare “attach rate” has been geting higher and higher. I don’t consider myself to be gods gift to sales, but AppleCare is a product I believe in (I buy it myself on every mac that I own), and I don’t feel that I am being immodest by claiming ownership of that award. I truly belive that we sold the most AppleCare because of ME.

2. The boss made the decision to give the trip to “not me”, acted on the decision, and then called me to let me know his decision. It is irreversible, and I had no say in it.

So I am pissed off. Not pissed off that I didn’t get a trip I never expected to get in the first place, but pissed off that I had everything to do with earning the award, but no say in the distribution of the award.

I have been slowly driving myself nuts working towards getting my brothers business out of difficulty, not because I expected financial rewards, but because I believed in my brother and in his business. I belived in myself enough to think that I could make a difference, that I could help turn things around, and that I could (and should) help my brother.

But now I’m left feeling like I’ve been shat on from a great height. It’s not about some stinking bloody conference, it’s about respect. I earned that damn trip, and I deserved to be told about the decision before it was made, and I deserved to be given a chance to give my side of the story.

Mark and I probably couldn’t have gone anyway – it would have cost us more than we have saved, and the savings are for the house (that looks further away than ever now), but I deserved better than a phone call that started of with, “you’re probably not going to like what I have to say”, and ended with “we can talk about this later, but the decision has been made”.

Kickin’ nupp butt…

So I did the extra 5 repeats of the first chart, and the first two “rest” lines of the Lily of the Valley Chart #1- then put the shawl down for a few days for two reasons.

Firstly, I wasn’t looking forward to finding an odd number of stitches, and having to do maths to make the larger shawl work.

And secondly, my first experience with nupps wasn’t a happy one.

But I found a great tip on the Swallowtail Shawl Knitalong. I have finally found the joy of shared experience while working on the same project. Apparently you can slip the first two wraps, purl the last three together, then pass the slipped wraps over. It’s MUCH easier than trying to purl all five together at once, and it seems to look exactly the same. Also, I am knitting this on addi turbos, that are notorious for their blunt tips.

So, thanks very much for the tip, and if you’re considering a project with nupps, don’t be discouraged, there is an easier way – and you’ll still get that spectacular look.