Does it Work?

I was a bit cross, truthfully I was more than a bit cross.  Mel has a support worker; a paid worker who spends three hours per week with her.  Young and fit, independent and lazy.  How do I know this?
Ok, maybe not lazy but just like all her friends - addicted to texting and avoiding work as work is at every turn.
The young lady arrives late, returns Mel early and spends copious time texting.  Today she took Mel in her car and left her there while she jumped out and paid her rent.  I wondered if she writes down the mileage and whether she will claim for the journey to pay her rent!  I was peeved when I heard Mel recounting today's time with her.
It made me think about the many times Merv's support workers have waited for me to leave before ringing their friends or family and having very long chats.  I've walked in on numerous such incidents.  The worst scenarios are where the support worker sits at the dining table doing her homework or other activity while Merv sits in another room watching inappropriate TV programs.
We all know it's not just support workers who are eager to keep their phones close at hand, talking, texting and checking whatever app is the favourite of the week.
A recent study went as far to say full time workers are often doing two hours work and wasting the other six hours.  I think back to my employment days.
There are coffee machines, chats of variable length while pushing buttons and steaming milk, toilet breaks, friendly chats to other members of staff.  Nothing to do with the job, social chit chat.
We talk at length to clients to whom we provide a service or product.  We end the conversation with  chatter of our footy teams, the weather, oh please not politics!
We bond, we take sides, we question and make judgement while our workload increases and forgotten.
Our schools have sorted themselves out.  They collect the student's mobile phones before school  returning them after the last bell.  They are children and we treat them as such, as we should.
Adults?  What is a solution or compromise here?  No-one knows.

                                               

Australia Day Celebration

The garden is finished, the house is just fine and Australia Day was just perfect.  The sun was warm but not too hot, the sky blue and the locals and holiday makers were out enjoying the weather and themselves.
We live in a holiday city and the locals will tell you to stay away from the tourist hot spots during the public holidays.  I keep this in mind when we plan our morning.  Firstly the outing, secondly the Australian Open.  Merv is a tennis fanatic!
Just down the road is a fabulous lake just metres from the estuary,  The lake is full of ducks, swamp hens, coots and as many sea gulls.  There are park benches and cute wooden bridges with a winding concrete path, ideal for wheelchairs.  It's already after ten and the car park is full so we wind around the streets until we find suitable parking.  The wildlife are living it up and the locals are in the estuary crabbing.  The rellies are keeping us supplied with crabs.  In the shallow water are family groups with mum and bub sitting on the steps hoping for a feed of crab for lunch.  We walk for awhile until we find a shady picnic table.  It's on the grass area and it takes all my strength to push the chair on the wild green grass.  We sit and eat our morning tea and enjoy watching others in the water and those flying by on their cycles with lycra and helmets flashing.  They later past us on the path as we stroll along and over the bridge.  It will soon be midday, time to return for a lazy lunch and tennis not so long afterwards.
As I prepare lunch my mind wanders.  I remember the many Australia Day celebrations of the past.  The numerous outings to Perth whether on the foreshore or at Kings Park to view the spectacular fireworks displays.  Memories of countless barbecues and get togethers with friends or family.  Then the year we had friends over for lunch and I created a huge jelly map of Australia!  Yes, Aussie flags, balloons and paraphernalia.  There is none of that today just the outing and a toast of water glasses over a healthy lunch!

Aqua Buddies

It's holiday time, many of the locals are on holidays and those already retired are free of appointments.  Give them a few more weeks and they'll be off to the dentist, doctor, physio and the podiatrist.  Another week and card in hand they will be lining up at the specialist rooms awaiting their turn, frustrated they have already waited two hours for an appointment they know will be over and done within ten minutes.  Still they wait to have their numerous ailments discussed and mulled over!
We are in the resort indoor pool at 10am and a great herd of locals have turned up for the water aerobics.  The regulars know each other well and catch up with family and local news.
I've only been a few times in our almost ten months of living here.  Most of the faces are unfamiliar.  The lady one door up I recognise and I ask about the health of our mutual neighbour.  It appears his health scare has resulted in a second operation but he is going to be just fine.  I am relieved to hear this.
Thelma calls us to attention.  I don't know how long she has been running this class three times a week but she knows every move by heart.  Her voice is soft and I strain to hear her instruction.  We warm up with those crucial arm stretches above our heads but after that I'm stuck and I copy the person in front circling my right foot under the water and changing over on Thelma's  command.  There is no loud bopping music, there is no music at all.  Just Thelma's instructions and a few wayward people both male and female chatting away and not really being attentive.  I watch as Alan and Bob make up their own moves until the foam noodles are handed out from the stash on the side of the pool.  Then the pool is filled with grey haired ladies and gents with a noodle between their legs (yes it's the Rocking Horse) striding up and down the pool.  We must look a sight!
I check out the time on the clock on the far wall.  Twenty minutes down and and forty more to go.
The next time I check the time there is only five minutes to go.  I have been miraculously following the moves (and making a few of my own up) while merrily chatting away.
I see it how it is and not how I would like it to be.  It's an exercise class and a reunion of local residents.  Everyone is comfortable and looking forward to their next class.  Why change it?

Add caption

My Holiday House

Another Christmas already gone.  Someone somewhere is counting the days to the next one.  It's certainly not me!  I just want to sleep and hide all the chocolates and drink all the wine.  The Christmas cake already devoured and enjoyed.
The weather is delightful.  So hot in Perth but it's so much cooler here by the coast. I'm loving it.  I have my 'Crimsafe' security on all my windows and doors and at every opportunity I slide open the windows with great vigour!  The sea breeze is refreshing and fills every nook and cranny of my home.
It is warmer outside today than usual and I balk at turning on the reverse cycle air conditioner.  Dollar signs and overpriced electricity bills besiege my mind.  I leave the windows open and the air conditioner off.  I turn on the fans instead.
Why is it that the sweat that trickles down my neck and finds the small of my back so comforting? What is the memory here?  I rack my brain to no avail but eventually it surfaces and I laugh.
My house which I own with Merv is not like any holiday home we have stayed in, the clue is the setting.  We are only two kilometres from the beach.  The beach I walked to this morning to enjoy my morning cuppa and a slice of fruit cake I found hiding in my fridge.  It is the proximity to the beach which is the clue and the joy of fresh breezes.
I conjure up memories of beach shacks, units, old houses and even caravans we have hired for past holidays at various beach locations.  Busselton, Albany, Mandurah and others. I don't think any of them had an air conditioner and most didn't have a fan.  They were holidays with the sea breeze dancing through our windows.  Days of sitting outside for meals or on the beach.  The trickle of sweat on our necks considered a necessity never a nuisance.
So here I am in my permanent 'holiday' home enjoying the trickle of sweat as the breeze dances through my windows and doors.  Precious memories of holidays visited.
With the pressures of everyday life as this year comes to a close, I choose to enjoy these memories.

Distance Apart

I heard that Addie wasn't well.  I was alarmed and chose to ring her at home but I woke her from her healing sleep.  I apologised.  Maybe it won't be enough.  Maybe it's time to let go.
I used to work with Addie.  Addie was the Admin Officer. One of my fellow colleagues when she began working with us was terrified of her.  All she could see was a scary person at the reception desk ensuring all was running to clockwork and sorting staff and clients out as necessary.  I remember I would work efficiently and quietly so not to be noticed.
Addie had already retired from a previous job due to her reaching retirement age but after a short time she was aching to get back to work so she did just that.
I don't remember how long it took but every now and then we would chat, Addie and I.  Always in control and when she was finished I would slink back to my desk and remember (most of the time!) to answer the phone if she was busy or away from her desk.  I have a bleak history of pressing the wrong connection buttons and cutting clients (and colleagues) off.  I could only get better!
I never quite made it to her elite group and I new I never would.
After four years I left work to care for Merv full time.  I had been employed as a full timer but asked for three days per week once Merv became ill in 2010.  I had made good friends with some of the staff but I still felt on the outer.
After leaving work Addie was the only person I kept in contact with.  We emailed and sent the occasional message including numerous photos.  In hindsight I think I sent all the photos!
I mentioned I needed a little adult conversation and just like that we began meeting at the local coffee shop once a fortnight after she finished work.  Jackie came along as well.  It was really very nice to share a meal and chat for hours.  Merv spent the time with a Support Worker and had his tea with her.
Addie knew I was going to sell my house but no one would have expected it to sell in two hours and eight weeks later I had moved an hours drive away.
Addie said she would come to my big birthday bash but she didn't.  I hadn't expected her to.
I keep her in my prayers and I think of her.  I want her to get better and go back to work.  Maybe she'll ring once she is well enough to and maybe she won't.  Maybe distance is severing the ties.  It can and often  does,
I will always rejoice in her friendship and thoughtfulness.  She opened a closed door for me.  I will be  forever grateful. Bless her.

Poison or Amputate?

A question not to be taken lightly.  Should I use a bottle of poison or should I use my quick acting power saw for a messy amputation? It wasn't something I spent time thinking about, the answer was clear from the start.
Poison.
My memory clouded with images of me digging, sawing, prizing and eventually that damn tree stump lost its battle!  It was just a few weeks ago and those images pop up mercilessly.  It took over four hours over two days to finally wrench it from its hold.  I power sawed the endless roots which jutted from its colossal stump (well not really so big).  There is always one hidden anchor root.  I twisted the stump, I turned it, I swore at it and finally I put it in a headlock and severed it lose.
Triumph at last.
Then I remembered its opposing cousin hiding in my vegetable garden.  The sawn stump remains hidden under the compost and soil but on further evaluation it's sprouting new growth.  I began the haphazard task of digging around the stump only to give in and swear to a humane poisoning!  So it will be.  Another trip to the hardware stop for Blackberry poison.
It's been a busy month in the back garden.  Firstly digging up all the grass and reticulation followed by my friendly landscaper completing his work at hand.   From six quotes I felt he was the only one who understood my plan for a walk path for Merv to use in his wheelchair.
Merv loves his new place to spend time either enjoying afternoon tea or having a stroll along his own 'catwalk.'
Dustin and Grace visited last weekend digging and planting the array of native and flowering shrubs and plants I had chosen from a local nursery.  I hummed and ha-ha-ed where they should go and the final colour combinations.  Yes I read about that in a well intended garden book.  I had nightmares for a week.
Yesterday I bought a 30m retractable hose to water the garden in case the reticulation proved difficult and I need to put it off for a year or two.  Now I need someone to mount the hose reel to the wall.  The list is endless.
My garden plan is like a jig saw slowly coming together.  Next week we will have a Ocean Blue Shade Sail floating above our outdoor dining area and hopefully we can acquire an outdoor dining setting as well!  My much 'loved' pink and purple pergola will be repainted Classic Cream
Then there is the mulch, the stepping stones (many of which are needed) and God knows what else.  A garden is never completed, it is just a work in progress.
I like the idea of it never being completed, just a labour of love.  I can run with that.  While some gardens maybe a masterpiece mine might just be a 'paint by numbers' version but I will love it just the same because its mine.

Sleepless Nights

After digging in the garden most of the today I decided we would watch a 'nice movie' on Netflix.  Merv delights in his action packed movies but they're not for me.
"Oh, this looks good."  I remarked as I clicked on, 'Our Souls at Night'.  Starring the fabulous Jane Fonda who looks good at any age and Robert Redford who continues to have the cute boy look even his rather weathered features!
I was taken aback when Addie (Jane) knocks on Louis' (Robert) door and makes him an unusual  proposal.  She merely says she is lonely and presumes he is also.  Both their partners have died.  She proposes they sleep together for company not sex.  She says it is difficult to sleep by herself.
The story progresses with them giving it a try and continues with a healthy relationship growing between them.
I suddenly remembered a good friend of mine stating many times she is often awake most of the night.  She lives alone.  My thoughts then centred on the times I am alone in my own house.  I have security and my phone lies next to my bed but I find it difficult to sleep in an empty house.  Logic doesn't come into it.  If an intruder entered our house at night what could Merv do to protect himself or me?  Absolutely nothing.  What would Mel do? Maybe send me a text message?  She often texts me in the morning to see if I'm awake.  I sleep alone in my room I just know the presence of my loved ones in the same settles me into sleep.
So if my housemates are no good with a baseball bat, why does their presence give me a sense of security?  I gave this much thought.  Is it the presence of trusted loved ones?  Is it a spiritual sense?  I don't know.
Then a rather weird thought.  Maybe all the sleepless singles could pair up and have sleep overs ensuring a good night's sleep?  It's worth a thought!