Shut Up!

Now I know what the Storm Bird sounds like...I hear it all the time. It was particularly noisy this morning with its “Cooooeeee” call...and did a storm come or a sprinkling of rain?...No!A new name for it would be the ‘Liar’ bird, not to be confused with the Lyre bird...which actually exists. The Lyre bird is also renowned for its call in that it is a great mimic and copies the calls of other birds and has even been known to mimic the sound of a chainsaw. I dream of getting a ’Liar‘ bird and a Lyre bird together so that when one goes “Cooooeeee” I can teach the other to shout “Shut up!”It would also come in useful when flippin’ dogs bark. Last night there was one barking well past midnight. Sometimes one barks and they set off all the others in the houses all around. There are all manner of yelpings, yippings and howlings until all hours of the night or early morning. It is very annoying and most un-neighbourly.Then there are the helicopters and planes from nearby Archerfield airport. I remember the noise of these planes from previous visits here in the last four years but the helicopters are new. They are very noisy...even the small ones...with their  'whop whop whop' 'wuppa wuppa' 'whumpa-whumpa-whumpa-whumpa' 'whup-whup-whup' 'flac-flac-flac' 'chakk-chackk-chak-chak, chak-a-chak-akk-chk-chk-chk' 'DUBDUBDUBDUBDUBDUBDUB' 'THITH-THITH-THITH' 'batabatabatabata' 'tocotocotocotoco'SHUT UP!They are flying late into the evening and early in the morning too. One of the flight paths to Brisbane International is over the house here too. They are landing all through the night and as they approach their deceleration sounds very much like they are falling out of the sky until they pass over.The other night there was noise, after midnight, of youths and their motorbikes. I think they were riding around on the school playing field just over the road. You could hear the shouts and laughter of friends egging them on. I waited in vain for the sound of an approaching police car but must have dropped off finally.All this is noise is apart from that made by the crickets, the geckos, the bats, the masked lapwings and stone curlews. The only thing I want to make a noise is the flippin’ mosquitoes that continue to sneak up on me unawares.It is no wonder that I have not been sleeping well with this noise, the heat and the itching of mosquito bites. I fell asleep in the middle of the day today for two hours. I was just tired out.A 90 year old that I know reminded me, as if I needed it, that she never sleeps during the day. We may differ in that aspect but we agree on despairing at the noise.She actually shouts “Shut up!”... but embellishes it in her own inimitable way with a few other choice words.

See how our Brisbane garden grows!

The Carrot (Ipad) and the Donkey (Will).

Today we went over to Wendi and Geoff's.Danny had given us a wireless router that she wanted us to set up for her so she could use her Ipad at home.In return she had another Ipad which she was going to give to him for his trouble.As with all things technical...nothing ever goes smoothly. When the router was plugged in and all the lights were flashing as they should it all looked good... except Will could not get online. We took a step closer to the prize when he reset the router by pressing the reset button with a pencil and the pop up window we needed appeared. The next hurdle was putting in the ISP username and password. Wendi had looked everywhere for them but could not find her record of them. We sought help from India. India confirmed the username but wanted to send the password by text. We had to give Will's mobile number and then waited and waited for the text to come through. I suppose it is quite a long way from India but it still took its time.Inputting the username and password did not appear to be working at first and we were baffled until suddenly the welcome words "success" appeared on the screen and the prize was ours.Wendi and Geoff had taken Shirley back home at the beginning of the week and brought back an unusual orchid. It is almost ready to flower.

Hmmm, I'm saying nothing.

After some lunch with Wendi and Geoff we went to Garden City Shopping Mall. Will wanted a present for Phoebe's 6th birthday later this month.

He didn't get this...

He got a box set about a grumpy bear.

We treated ourselves to an apple custard bun from Breadtop, an Asian bakery.

I was disappointed with it. There was very little custard or apple in the filling and it was mostly hollow.

Trying to update the Ipad is proving troublesome this evening...we should have known.

As with all things technical...nothing ever goes smoothly.

Aussie Jingle Bells

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnJ8jsw4BSoYou can skip the ad after 5 seconds.

Smash!

We have been plagued with flies upstairs for the last two days. Everything is shut up at night so they must be coming from somewhere inside the house. It can only mean something, perhaps a gecko, has died unseen and hidden somewhere.I have been swatting them with Dulcie's fly swat and Will got some with the spray yesterday.There were a couple more flying around today so I went for the fly swat again. While pulling back a curtain to get a clearer shot, there was a loud clatter and then the awful sound of pottery breaking.On the old radiogram by the window Dulcie had a picture plate, on a plate stand, depicting a panda . It was a present from Danny. I had smashed it to pieces.No hole opened up to swallow me again.She was very gracious and understanding. "Accidents happen." She is right but they happened to me....again!Later Will took her off to have her hair permed down the road."Mind my plates." She chuckled and pointed at me as she went out of the door."I won't move off this sofa." I said.