My Journal:

March 2009

A quarter of the year gone already. I’ve just read “The Family Tree” by Ilsa Evans and can relate to the central character, who has become accustomed to losing large slabs of time. I don’t actually lose them, but they do slip away more quickly now, those slabs of time wherein I used to fit so much. Or is it that I have more to do, now that I’ve ‘retired’!

Speaking of reading – our book club book for March was “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson. A good read; such a shame the man died so soon after writing this and the subsequent two millenium books.

My travel plans have re-arranged themselves, with my trip to Perth moving up to August. However, one of my sisters is finishing her job soon and while she will be looking for another, she has asked if she can come with me on my drive ‘up north’. So, I’ll leave for that trip a little earlier than planned, probably mid June.

This month, I managed to catch up with a niece I haven’t seen for 6 years or so – and I met her youngest two, whom I’d not met before. Another niece and her husband and 2 boys are coming to visit over Easter, and the week after Easter I’m thinking of joining some family at Bruswick Heads, which is on the Northern Coast of NSW.

On the writing front, I’ve managed to plod away at MY story and have written a couple of smaller pieces and a poem. I’ve also promised to read and report on a writer’s work during April, and have taken on some work researching and entering data for a Brisbane company.

On the downside, I recently had my application for the age pension approved. Why ‘downside’ you ask? The money is good, and the benefits/concessions are excellent, but when I think of how short a time ago it was when I was in my mid-twenties, I shudder. Where did that time go? One of my niece’s daughters is a mother twice over, making me a great-great aunt! How can I be a ‘great-great’ when my sister, her mother is only one great?

Last week I had my annual flu shot. That night, and for the next few days, I could barely walk. I’m not sure if I can blame the vaccine, or if it was unrelated, but my muscles and joints ached; even my toes were sore. I’m much improved now, although not back to normal yet. Here’s hoping it was just a reaction to the vaccine and not the dreaded arthritis.

I’m still teaching English once a week in Toowoomba and it’s amazing how much I am learning about my own language. I wish I could say the same about my continuing attempts to learn Italian. I can struggle with the reading and writing side of that language, and can even understand a fair bit if the speaker speaks slowly and clearly, but I still struggle to speak it. However, this makes me more understanding of my own English language pupils – I can relate utterly to their hesitation.

When they first came out, many years ago, I bought myself a rubic’s cube. I use it as a paperweight and every now and again, try to solve it. Unsuccessfuly. I mentioned this to my family on chat and was told that there are whole web sites devoted to the cube, and which will tell me how to solve it. (One sibling suggested that I prise off the pieces and rearrange them. What a cheat!) I immediately got onto one of these sites and set about it. Unfortunately, one of the colours on my cube is not adjacent to the face it’s supposed to be, according to this site. It should still be easy though – intellectually I know that all I have to do is substitute the colour I have for the one mentioned in the instructions. However, try as I might I just cannot do it and confuse myself utterly.

A lot of my time this month was devoted to the local community centre, where we recently held a fund-raising event. It was worth the effort financially, but what a lot of work, and by so few of us. The participants enjoyed themselves and they are already asking for another Country Music Day. I want to say ‘no way’ but know that the centre can use the funds, and that there are too few members to spread the work any thinner. Oh well; the iniquitious ‘they’ do say that keeping busy is the way to keep young. At this rate, I’ll be back in the cradle any day now.

Tonight is the night Queenslanders do their bit for man and the environment, turning off their lights for half an hour, so I’d best get out the candles. See you next month.