Judy, Jess and Jodie.

I woke with a start and looked at the time....it was 8.14 am. It was time to get up before the phone started ringing.I sighed loudly and was just about to get out of bed when Will said he would get up and I could have a lie in.Yes, it was very kind of him....I had actually done the same for him yesterday. He complained though that we made too much noise upstairs for him to actually sleep. It was pretty much the same for me. No sooner had he gone upstairs than I heard him talking to Dulcie....she was up and dressed before 8.30.I never slept but it was nice to just relax for a little longer.Just before 10.00 Judy arrived. She was small and round and, like everyone that comes to help with the showers, could talk the hind legs off a donkey. She looked almost as old as Dulcie...and I doubted she would be able to bend down and dry the the floor in the bathroom. It turned out she was 63.Will and I had breakfast while the showering was in progress then when it was over Judy set about putting Dulcie through her exercises.When they were all done Judy sat down in the armchair next to Dulcie and made herself comfortable. I thought she had decided to move in."You have a bit of an English accent" she said to me."I am English," I said, " I was born near Manchester."Will told her that we used to live near the Lake District."Oh, don't talk to me about that beautiful place!" She said.She told us she had met a Scottish man who had been over here for six weeks and when he went back they had stayed in touch and one day she decided to go and stay with him for four months......as you do. He lived in Kirkudbright. He took her to the Lake District."We stayed in one of those bed and breakfast places.....I loved it. It is a beautiful place."She had thought the food was lovely. She knew of a place in Wynnum that made lovely old fashioned cakes and pies."I think the owner is English," she said.It seems Judy goes there a lot and sometimes she phones up first to get them to put aside what she wants because,"..They can sell out quite quickly. I can't wait until I get home so I eat it there. I have to be careful not to wear dark clothes because it shows up all the crumbs. Someone stopped once and said to me..'oh I can see you are enjoying that!"We told her about our local pie shop.....she thought she might go when she left....it gave us hope that she was actually going to leave us....eventually.She did finally leave and went off in search of pies.Jess arrived just after 11.00. She is the dietician. She had hiccups.She weighed....hic..... Dulcie and was pleased that she had....hic..... put on a kilogramme....I think it as mostly down to the thick heavy socks Dulcie was wearing and the cardigan...but Jess thought it was down to the fortifying.......hic...... drinks we had been giving her.She was going to go away and try and......hic...... sneak another order in for us before Transition Care ran out on June 3oth.When she'd ........hic...... gone I decided to head off to the melting pot that is Centerlink at Inala to let them know that I am going back to the UK on the 1st July until the 18th. I was sure they would want to dock my carer's payment and allowance.I hoped that I could just inform them at reception and not have to hang around in the holding pens but no such luck. I was directed to the chairs."I'll just tell you that you will be waiting for more than an hour," said the girl with the Madonna headphone and only one hand....the other arm ended in a round stump."More than an hour?" I echoed, a little despairingly.She nodded.I wondered if that was how she had lost her hand....after telling an impatient Samurai the same thing.We'll never know.I found a chair and sat resigned to my fate. All life was here.....from all over the World....I think I was the only Caucasian.You had to really pay attention when they called out names because the room was so big and their voices were lost in it's vastness.I could sense that there were lots of unusual names called but I couldn't quite catch them...I was just holding out to hear 'Nicholas Allen?'I played the 'I wonder who will call me?' game....trying to guess who it would be.There were not many to choose from.....no wonder it was going to take over an hour....I had chosen a bad time at lunchtime because they kept on disappearing for awhile and then coming back......chewing the cud.One woman was sat at her desk alone......and she looked a bit mad as she was talking animatedly to herself.....only she wasn't really as she was wearing a Madonna headset which had an orange flashing light on it that made her look part Borg. I ruled her out as she was not calling any names and just chatting to friends on Skype.......I imagined.There was another girl with short blonde hair who was followed everywhere by another girl with long blonde hair and a dress too short for someone with legs as thick as hers.Big is beautiful.....but sometimes it is even more beautiful when it is covered up.They were seeing people but not very regularly and after each one seemed to spend ages tapping keyboards.....Candy Crush saga........I imagined.No, my best bet was the Arab guy who was dealing with people quickly and efficiently.....I was sure I would get him....only eventually he too disappeared.The hour passed and they started to call people who had arrived after me and I started to wonder if I had missed someone calling my name....heck!.....and I had been concentrating.I was just about to get up and ask if I had been overlooked when...."Nicholas Allen?".....I was wrong.....it was the girl with short blonde hair.She was called Jodie......well, I guessed she was called Jodie......I could only see 'Jod' on her name badge as the rest was hidden by her cardigan.'Jod' did not seem like it could be a real name....but the girl with the short dress and thick legs was called 'Shylie'.....so you can never really be sure.I think Shylie was mute. She never said a word....to be honest she hardly moved.....I was tempted to check if she was still breathing but that would have meant staring at her chest.....which would have been uncomfortable for the both of us.Jodie didn't say much either.....she just peered at her computer screen and tapped away at her keyboard."You'll be away from the first until the eighteenth?" She asked."Yes," I said.Tap, tap, tappity tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.........Tappity tap."I'm sorry this programme is just a bit slow....I've sent it off....I am just waiting for confirmation."I wondered from whom.......the Borg Queen perhaps." O.K. When you come back you will need to tell us you are back....if you don't do that before the 12th August your payments will stop," said Jodie.It seems they will keep paying me while I am away....I wasn't expecting that."Have a good holiday," she smiled.Shylie still didn't move.I left them to get back to Candy Crush Saga. 

Migaloo!

Apart from 3 new deaths and a load of waffle about football and rugby on Channel 9 News there was also news of Migaloo today.Have you heard of Migaloo?Migaloo is an albino humpback whale. 1 in 27000 whales apparently are white. I was shocked....I didn't know that there were that many whales left...I thought they were endangered.....but then again perhaps in the great scheme of things 27000 is not a lot...after all there is quite a lot of sea about...but I am very pleased there are at least 27000.Migaloo was spotted swimming north off the coast near Sydney today, to winter in the waters around the Great Barrier Reef.He best enjoy it while he can.Australia was recently warned by UNESCO that it has another 12 months to fix perceived problems on the reef before it adds it to the List of World Heritage in Danger.It seems the Government here is allowing the dumping of sludge into the waters near the reef as part of a dredging project for the expansion of a coal port.A recent advert here, probably paid for by the Coal Mining Corporation, stated that damage to the reef was not due to dredging or shipping but due to cyclones and Crown of Thorns Starfish.Yeah, right! Well, UNESCO are not convinced. Even Leonardo DiCaprio is miffed!It all comes down to money and wealth and reaping as much of both as you can by 'the few' and to heck with 'the many'.Anyway here is Migaloo today....which looks better, a pile of coal or this?:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r52sj7YEbG0

The Advertisements of Doom.

There is a new advert on the TV for Woolies.It depicts an array of parents saying how proud they are that their offspring have jobs at Woolies and finishes with the statement:"Everyday 87 young people start jobs with Woolies."How very dare they?! I reckon I should sue!No wonder I didn't get a job. This company is blatantly ageist!Every other advert seems to be urging you to take out funeral cover to save your loved ones having to pay for your funeral.I kid you not....... there are so many of them.  I don't remember ever seeing one in the UK.I suppose I shouldn't be surprised with the number of deadly creatures lurking all around us....the chances of death must be higher with them close by......and if they don't then there is always skin cancer!It seems to be dangerous to got to school in America. I was shocked to hear that the recent school shooting was the 75th since the Sandy Hook killings! That is appalling.The news here scares you to death...no wonder Dulcie says to us every night...."You will lock all the doors won't you?"I reckon there are far more violent deaths here than I ever remember there being in the UK but maybe I am wrong....perhaps it is just sensationalised more here.There is a trial going on at the moment......no not the Rolf Harris one....where some chap is accused of killing his wife.It is the top story every night on Channel 9."He killed her!" Says Dulcie. It is perhaps a good thing that she is now too old for Jury Service.I suppose I should breathe a sigh of relief....another top story yesterday was that they finally had their first frost in the Granite Belt.Some farmer was delighted because it was good for his apple trees and helped them to produce new buds.For me it means that all the snakes and creepy crawlies are well underground for the next few months.I can leave off getting Funeral Cover until at least October.

Wallet update.

Dave could not find the wallet at Frogknot where I had told him it was. He even hunted around outside.I went downstairs to check through the bags we brought back, one more time, and found it in our toiletries bag!I must be going mad.I must have rooted around in it last night to get my toothbrush and toothpaste out and never even noticed it.Mind you.....Will must have too!We must have too much on our minds!I am relieved I found it but slightly disappointed that we now won't need to pop back up to Frogknot at the weekend.

Of Wildlife and Wallets.

Last night we had baths on the rock.It was fairly cloudy after a pretty rainy day but every now and again the near full moon came out like a heavenly torch and lit everywhere up.I saw a possum climbing about in the branches of a gum tree silhouetted against the moonlit clouds.This morning as we were coming back from a trip to the dump a large stag leapt out in front of us halfway up the track to the farm. It was strange as we had just been talking about the fact that Dave our neighbour had said he had seen deer about and we had noticed some small trees had been damaged in a deer-like way. The stag leapt onto the road in front of of Roxy and then leapt again away to our left. It's antlers got caught on some wire in the old kiwi orchard and it almost somersaulted completely before landing unceremoniously on the ground facing back the way it had come. I feared it was hurt but it leapt up, turned and headed away and seemed fine." We shall name that part of the track "Stag's Leap" said Will.Just as we had the car packed up and were about to leave a small flock of Eastern Spinebills descended on the lemon tree in the garden, looking for nectar in the new flowers that have blossomed. Then I spotted another brightly coloured bird in the tree where we last saw the Tawny Frogmouth.Will didn't know what it was. He had never seen on before. We looked in a book and discovered it was a Golden Whistler.

An Eastern Spinebill.

A Golden Whistler.

We headed home and made good time with it taking us just short of 2 and a half hours.

I had remembered to pack the tablets I had collected from Stanthorpe on Saturday but when it came to looking for my wallet...that was another matter.

I hunted through all the bags we had brought back and searched the car before a vision popped into my head of the last time I had seen it....it was by the fruit bowl on the bench by the cooker back at Frogknot.

I am such an idiot! I really don't know how I do it.

Dulcie just shook her head in despair.

We will have to go back for it.....somehow.

I texted Dave and asked him to pop next door and see if it was there and keep it safe until we get there, probably at the weekend.

We are thinking we all might head up on Saturday and come back on Sunday. Dulcie is up for it!

"You'll need me to remind him to bring his wallet back," she said.