Auckland, New Zealand heading towards SkyCity casino.

Love the fire escape staircase - quite unique. 

Thank goodness, we have had rain over the last few days and washed the haze from the Port Macquarie fires out to sea. I am still coughing and wheezing from this Asthma but not as bad as I was last week. 

A photo from our recent Central Coast (NSW) Chromefest 2019 

which was attended by huge crowds this year. 

Inside Diamond Princess

Tokyo, Japan

to

Sydney, Australia

 November 2017

Aboard the James Craig on Sydney Harbour

Putting my superannuation to work after my retirement this year. I have been making final preparations for my 26 day trip to America with my eldest son, this has been a long anticipated trip back to the States from the last time I was there in 1999. Got some quotes from several travel agencies and ended up going with the first agency I approached.  I will be leaving Sydney, Australia on the 21st September and arriving back home on the 16 October. 

First stop Los Angeles CA, then off to Las Vegas continuing to Orlando via Houston, then to Washington DC and finallyon the 6 October up to New York to attend NY Comic Con. Leaving NY to fly to Los Angeles for a 2 day stopover then the long haul down to Sydney. The trip first involved 7 plane flights but I have reduced it down to 5 with a bus trip from Anaheim to Las Vegas and a train journey from Washington DC to New York.

About a month ago, I was chatting with my elder sister, Cathy when she invited me to join her and her husband on a cruise. They have been on about 6-8 cruises and each time have invited me along. I last went on one 40 years ago : ).  So I, once again, am dipping into my superannuation. A little stressed to be spending so much money after being on a tight budget most of my life but you only live once and while my health is good. Party time.

I will be flying over to Perth, Western Australia on the 27 October to join a Northern Australia Sea Princess cruise leaving on the 29 October -and arriving in Brisbane, Queensland on the 13 November which just happens to be my birthday. Staying a couple of days with nephews family before flying down to Sydney, NSW then a 100km rail trip north to the coastal town where I live. The Sea Princess port of calls will be Perth, WA then Geraldton, we then head further north to Lombar in Indonsesia, down to Darwin, Northern territory and the top of Australia and down to Port Douglas, Queensland then onto Brisbane. 

I have been going on extra long walks with my dog, Barney to build up my stamina. When I return hope to have lots of photos and memories. 

Wow! Its been a while.

A couple of weeks ago I had to have some trees removed from my yard.

 Two Cocos palms and a dead gum tree.

Man up a Gum tree.

I was sad to see this tree cut down as it was outside my second bedroom,

 it was lovely to see it swaying in the breeze.

Down went the Cocos Palm.

Thank heavens, these palms are gone, they would drop orange fruit which when dried out to the nut inside, was like mowing over shrapnel.

I have been rather quiet of late because I have had to deal with some things that have given me a shake-up.

My brother, Bruce, was diagnosed with neck and head cancer 6 years ago which required a 10 hours operation to remove abscessed soft tissue from his neck and installation of a new voice box and removal of his bottom teeth. He had intensive radiography and also had to learn to speak again. Over the years he has had lumps removed from his head and neck. Last year in March he was told he would not be having any more operations done to remove any more lumps and no more radiography and was given a couple of months to live but they could give him palliative chemotheraphy to give him maybe an extra 12 months and now would be assigned to a palliative doctor.He finished his course of chemo last September, and was able to play golf again.

On 29 June my rescue cat, Darcy, went outside and hasn't been seen since. I had had him for 4 years. 

On 27 July Bruce had a stroke was hospitalized and entered rehab. Last week he returned home and is taking things slowly.  (My dad had a stroke when he was 54 which paralysed him down his left side and he died at 67 years.) For some reason the news my brother having a stroke knocked the stuffing out of me, up until then my travelling down to Sydney to take him to chemo and a palliative doctor appts I was able to cope. Grieving.

On 14 August I came home from work to find my 12yo dog, Bailey, laying down in the backyard, I knew as soon as I saw him he was gone.  I rang the Vet and he said to bring him down and they will look after him. More grieving.

I live on my own, (divorced empty nester), my pets are my little family. Now there is just my 12yo Maltese Terrier, Carly,  and I.  I had bought the two of them from a little old lady who had 7 dogs, council had told her she could only have 3 and to get rid of the others. My children were still living at home and my eldest son Nicholas and I fronted up to the house only expecting to take one home but the lady was worried if we took one it would be too lonely. So we ended up taking home Carly, and Bailey, a West Highland dog. She had brought them from two different dog breeders, they were 6 months old when they joined our family.

 Everyone keeps telling me to buy a new cat/dog but I think Carly is too old to have a young puppy/kitten running around her. We went on a 2km walk the other day which she loved but paid for it with being all achey the next day.

......................

More and more I have been trying to direct this blog into what it originally was supposed to be ... a life journal.

I got stuck into the garden after work on Thursday, mowing, clipping and pruning, two hours later called it a day, on Friday dragged myself off to work and spent the weekend recovering. lol

Spring has sprung.

Another thunder storm is on its way to the coast.

Cat and dogs have taken up residence inside the house.

Looks like the mowing won't be getting done today.

Last day of my week break from work and I haven't done half the things I had planned to do. I spent two days with my daughter and her family and realised when I got home I hadn't taken any photos. Natalie is wanting to return to work as she and her husband are paying off their house mortgage and her baby daughter wants to continue to breast-feed. Stalemate.

Message to the Sun above Sydney, Australia.

Can you please take the shades off your face

and burn away those clouds.

Thanks.

St Marys Cathedral, Sydney.

I haven't been posting much lately due to an increase in work hours.

Too tired when I get home to do much but I thought I would include this photo

of my car at Kilcare Heights, north of Sydney.

Across the water from Byles Lookout is Palm Beach which is where the exterior shots for the Australian soapie, Home and Away are filmed. I don't think I have ever watched one full episode of this soapie only see it while changing channels.

I have such a boring and drab countryside to motor around on my daily travels. :-)

Two weeks ago I lent my neighbour from over the back fence my little Ryobi chainsaw to help prune some of his trees. We discussed thinning out the tree in my yard as he wanted to put in a vegetable garden on his side of the fence and my tree gave too much shade.

Last evening just before dark, my neighbour decided to prune the tree. Well, the first I heard was my dog Bailey having hysterics and barking his head off. Now, who in their right mind starts hacking at a tree in the dim light, I was absolutely flabbergasted, he couldn't wait till the weekend. There was no way I was going to let him anywhere near my Ryobi , so I had to pretend not to hear Bailey's yapping but after 15 minutes I had had enough and bellowed - "Shut up, Bailey". I don't know who got the bigger shock the neighbour(s), my dog or myself at the volume I was able to achieve. LOL.

I was thinking about this (out of character) reaction today, and realised it may have been the result of what had happen earlier in the day.

I had gone into a clients house and the first thing she showed me was the fencing guy repairing her back fence which her neighbour had back into and damaged, so she had a whinge about that and then mentioned her washing machine had been playing up and she would have to get her son to look at it.

Okay, so I head off to do some work in the house when I hear the machine running a little rough so I wander out to the laundry and find the client pulling some wet clothes out of the machine because it had stopped running.

Water is dripping on the floor and running under the machine and just as I arrive at the doorway the machine starts to spark, I try to get the client to come away from it but she is getting cranky with me because her machine is broken, wft. How I am to blame I have no idea.

Water is seeping towards the client so I check the floor and then reached over and grabbed the electricity cord and yanked it out of the wall socket. Honestly, you would think she would be thankful I stopped her from getting electrocuted but no, all I got was abuse. Later, after settling the client down I rang my supervisor and she is going to contact the client's sons and have the client tested for dementia. Personally, I think she is just stressed and grieving as her husband passed away earlier this year.

I am glad this work week is finish as on top of my own hours, I picked up an extra 10 hours work.

On the way to work, today,

I came across this old wooden boat that had seen better days.

Broken branches in yard from strong winds.

I loaned a neighbour my little chain saw and he has hopped the fence and did the same for the branches in my yard plus a dead tree fern was cut down. Yay He then dragged the debris over to his front yard and it will be picked up by council.

We discussed a large tree which is hanging over our adjoining fence he has offered to come in and lop the branches that are pushing against the fence.

CRAZY WEATHER


The temperature dropped drastically overnight

it is now 4.02pm with a temp of 19C. Weird.

 HOT  HOT   HOT
I just checked my Weather Pixie

and was stunned to see that it is now 38Celsius.

The time is 5.45pm DST in Sydney. WOW.

Rural Wedding 

Last Saturday my nephew Eric married his sweetheart, Sally.

Witnessed by family

 and friends

And then next door to the

Chapel Hall/Marquee

The Hall's picturesque letterbox. Cute as...

Time on our hands while the wedding couple and attendants were having photos taking we mixed and mingled and caught up with family goss.

My eldest sister Tricia was in hospital and was unable to attend but her husband and son looked like they were enjoying the family get-together. lol.

Some more than others...



To be continued when Photobkt is less busy

Here we go...
First the Nervous Groom

with his parents Mary and Don looking on.

The Happy Couple -  Eric and Sally

The Bride's Maids

Later in the Hall 

The Bride's Mother and Grandmother

My daughter Natalie and her husband Daniel

My son Nicholas and his cousin, Ryan

Next morning - nobody was feeling very energetic

Funny Photo

Illegal alien invades Sydney under cover of dust storm.

Two days ago I braved the dust storm that took over the eastern coast of Australia, as a field worker in Aged Care, I spend most of my time outdoors driving from client to client. I deferred one of my clients until the next day (Thursday) and thought I had come thru the storm unscathed until this morning (Friday) I awoke with a splitting headache and now on this lovely sunny,cloudless spring day I am home with a migraine .lol

A wall of dust stretched from northern Queensland to the southern tip of eastern Australia on the morning of September 23, 2009, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image. The dust is thick enough that the land beneath it is not visible. The storm, the worst in 70 years. The concentration of particles in the air reached 15,000 micrograms per cubic meter in New South Wales during the storm, A normal day sees a particle concentration 10-20 micrograms per cubic meter. Strong winds blew the dust from the interior to more populated regions along the coast. Australia has suffered from a multiple-year drought.

The straight-line distance between the far northern edge of the plume on September 24 and the southern edge is about 3,450 kilometers (2,700 miles), roughly equivalent to the distance between New York City and Los Angeles.
---------------------------------
Late Friday night weather report: A dust storm headed for Sydney is likely to blow in early on Saturday morning but it's unlikely there will be a repeat of the dramatic scenes witnessed in Sydney on Wednesday morning, when the city was bathed in red, orange and yellow hues.