A day in the life of ....

Day in the life of....

·         6 a.m. cup of tea and honey on toast. It’s 5 degrees.

·         Feed guinea pigs vegetables then put Ginger Meggs and Ratu Vulavual inside a carton to bring into the lounge room near the gas heater for a couple of hours.  They huddle together,a but anxious to be away from the freedom of the large puppy pen in the verandah.

·          Andy makes porridge for three, Take four pills.

·         Watch TV news – death, mayhem, chasing Corby unsuccessfully.

·         Check emails, facebook, Addie, Age, Fiji media. Not much going on.

·         10 a.m. to the medical clinic, read the paper Addie in 4 minutes, meet the new Diabetes Educator Georgia. (Every six months have a checkup.) A long session – of nearly an hour - with a new girl learning the computer options, slowing it all down. Bit of joking to mask my mismanagement of diet, etc. BP is 150/70, way too high.

·         Back home decide to try out Andy’s swing, high, low, high, low, then when I get down I spew up into the garden.

·         Grandson calls in on the way to work and we make arrangements for one of the cars to be serviced. We are grateful that the grandsons are working full-time.

·         Make tomato soup for lunch and pick grass in the garden for the guinea pigs.

·         2 p.m.  Instead of going to the library for our Book Club we go to the cafe in James Street where they have spectacular cakes for $8 a piece. There are six of us, a wake to remember our delightful member Maria whose funeral some of us attended a few days ago. Last meeting a month ago she was with us, animated, intelligent, sparkling with wit -  but alas two weeks ago after surgery there was a setback. Her body in now back in Portugal with kin. So we mainly buy coffee and little Portuguese cakes – like French madeleines. We talk about the book of the month – The Vegetarian – by a South Korean writer. Very dark, sad, scary. It’s now a movie – art-house kind.

·         I walk a block (with a walking stick) to catch the Newcomb/Whittington bus – haven’t used the buses for two months. It’s a run to catch it  - the buses pull up about four at a time – for less than a minute -and my BP is way up as I scurry. We pass the High School and the Shenton manse where we lived for nine years. No garden left. Cars parked in the front of the house where shrubs and grass used to grow.

·         Back at home, the TV ‘Heartbeat’ is starting – small rural setting in England and the lives of the police and others. I’m a sucker for this program at present. And other English detective/forensic kind of programs.

·         Andrew has made flatbread wraps with chicken and greens so that’s my late afternoon snack. And one for his daughter who has arrived home from high school. I remember when our boys were young and they went to Geelong High they would bring friends over to the Shenton manse for a snack at lunch time and practically clean out the fridge.

·         On the computer I do half-an-hour of the church bulletin for next week – including a contribution by one of the women and a prayer by St Francis of Assisi which sounds quite contemporary for our modern world. There’s  lots of comments that started with Margaret Court’s letter re definition of marriage – that really got the possums out of their hidey holes, their bushy tails shaking with anger. Plenty of bias and prejudice on both sides of the argument.  Even in the local paper there are arguments about flying rainbow flags. I watch a video I posted on facebook of guinea pigs talking about Trump. Two of them look like Ginger Meggs and Ratu Vulavula.

·         Our angel from Christ Church Anglican has dropped in with a box of vegetables and all sorts of goodies. We are so blessed by these gifts.

·         Tea is bacon and eggs and greens.  I have now a plan for six months which includes care with diet, twice a week at the heated swimming pool, etc. And after the periscope examination in a couple of weeks, then I can find out if I have a serious illness or not – to know why I have anaemia and low iron stores, etc.

·         Tidy up the kitchen, do the dishes.  Nothing much on TV tonight.

·         Aching despite the Panadol Osteo so find the Deep Heat.

·         That’s about it for the day so it’s time for bed and listening to the ABC talkback and quiz after midnight. But before that, I make a latte and a peanut butter sandwich!

Fiji Times or Fiji Sun

We know that the Fiji Sun grovel to the current government so are favoured by them. The Fiji Times is far superior.
Here's a letter to the Editor of the Fiji Times:

PEOPLE'S NEWSPAPER

Vijay Maharaj, Sydney Australia | Wednesday, May 17, 2017

INSHARE

This Sawakasa II village road sign is tilting on its side in Tailevu North. Picture: JONA KONATACI.

I wish to thank the Attorney-General and Economy Minister, Aiyaz Saiyed-Khaiyum, for moving around the country trying to educate the people on the system of budget preparation. He is also inviting suggestions and ideas that could be incorporated in the next budget.

While I appreciate the motives behind such campaigns, I am at a loss to understand why our A-G keeps on attacking The Fiji Times. I am a keen reader of newspapers and I closely follow the news section of radio stations and TV channels.

I believe The Fiji Times has given enough coverage and publicity to his meetings. Whatever transpires in such meetings are reported by well trained and experienced reporters. In fact, I believe I have seen more of Honourable Sayed-Khaiyum's pictures in The Fiji Times than any other current politician, for which he should be really thankful.

Some time ago in one of his meetings in Vanua Levu, I believe Hon. Sayed-Khaiyum even asked the people not to buy The Fiji Times, and now he is telling people not to believe what is reported in The Fiji Times. Such comments and actions I believe will do more damage for our A-G politically.

Finally I strongly believe that The Fiji Times is still the "people's" newspaper.

Look at the volume of its circulation and one can easily gauge its popularity. Whatever we read in this open column is entirely the views of the writers and the newspaper should never be blamed if it hurts any politician or a member of Parliament.

I believe in true democracy and according to our Constitution we have the freedom of expression and therefore any politician should always be prepared to face a bit of criticism and also accept praise if offered for good work.

Mothers' Day and a Barbecue

The boys suggested we go to the You Yangs for a barbecue for Mother's Day so nine of us prepared and drove out past Lara but there were over a thousand people with the same idea! Anyway I did some sketches near a rock and the others climbed up Flinders Peak and took some photos which I will sort out later. Then it was time to cook - BUT all the gas had gone out in the public barbecues near us! So we drove back to Geelong to Eastern Park and hoorah - there was a spare barbecue at the shelter up top of the hill. Salads, sausages, chops, hamburgers, eggs cooked heart shape in bread, etc. etc. Now we are enjoying mudcake and coffee. (Have to drink my coffee at least two hours after eating red meat for the iron to work!) So we had a mountain and the sea today for our fresh air outing. 16 degrees, sunny at first so it was okay. Also, I received some lovely flowers and chocolates - the latter to share of course.