The Old Order

The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery. ~Harold WilsonThe more things change the more they stay the same. Iss watched the piles of washing come in last night with a jaundiced eye. Were they going into rooms to be tucked into drawers or were they being put away in bags? When he saw it was bags he was not impressed. He wrapped himself around my arm, rabbit kicked & bit like a little savage then collapsed in my arms to be taken up to bed purring like a steam engine. Mad cat. Ditz is avoiding him. He is looking for someone to vent his spleen on & Ditz has always been at the bottom of the pecking order. Worse, we always come home smelling of someone else's cat [mum's Pixi] so obviously we're loving on someone else besides him while we're gone! The cat is jealous, pure & simple.

Liddy has finished her last shift. Today is for rest & relaxation, packing bags & doing those innumerable chores necessary before going away even though Dearest remains to hold the fort.

Mum rang last night double checking when we were arriving. That's years of my children saying they are doing one thing & then doing something completely different. She has learnt to expect the unexpected. She sounds like she is looking forward to our visit despite the musical Ditz. She should be grateful she wasn't sharing a tent with the Ditzy one. Sian & I could hear her going in operatic mode all the way up at the loos, up & down scales & arpeggios. Goodness alone knows what the German tourists thought!

More driving hours for Liddy tomorrow! And it is raining. I just love getting a wet season. At least Liddy just rolled her eyes & laughed instead of having a major spac attack about something we can do nothing about & which, quite frankly, is inevitable at this time of the year.

And then there are my sons. Theo has become a casualty of the recession & is now job hunting. Luckily he can get interim work with the landscaper who originally apprenticed him but it won't be anything like the money he has been earning so ouch!

And Dino! Oh my! I've been revelling in the fact my middle son has been safely earth bound for the past several years ~ well mostly. He rang & informed me the other day he is heading north to the prawn trawlers in the Gulf of Carpentaria.[ up between the sun & the croc ~ that's the Gulf country. ]

Not what I wanted to hear. Up north they have crocs...& sharks...& box jellyfish...cyclones...huge tidal surges...huge currents & cross currents. Besides it's at sea & that is dangerous enough all on its own. If I let it my imagination can really go to town on this one.

It's good money though & nowhere to spend it. He really wants to put a house on the block of land he bought & this is the way to go about it. A good couple of seasons will pay for the house with no mortgage. Dino needs to think this way. He is the one of mine who fell fastest through the gaps in the public school system. He was, & is, a very kinesthetic, hands on learner, very practical, & all the sitting around trying to learn stuff he saw no relevance in was never for him. Even in kindergarten his teacher was telling him he needed to exercise his mind as well as his body but some things you just can't change. Dino isn't stupid. He's actually quite smart but he thinks in a certain way. You teach to that & he excels. Miss it & you are just wasting time. School was a waste of his time. [Not, I must point out, education, just school.]

Liddy too is looking at buying her own block of land & putting a house on it. She has a good business head on her, my girl, which she has not inherited from me! She has found a block she likes & a pre~fab design she likes so I guess that will be another of my chicks flying the coop at some point this year. Not too far though. Liddy loves being home & chatting & Ditz will be bereft without Liddy to squabble with & chat to in the way that only sisters who are close do.

So round & round we go. Nothing much changes. We've been here before. Constant motion but same old, same old. Breath in, breath out. Feet firmly on the ground; ok, that one's just temporary but it's a start.