(24) I CONCEDE DEFEAT - CAN ANYONE HELP????

IF YOU EVER WONDERED WHERE I GOT MY WACKY SENSE OF HUMOUR,

HERE'S MY MUM LAST SUNDAY, WITH ONE OF MY IMPROMPTU PHOTO SHOOTS - TO WHICH SHE RESPONDED ACCORDINGLY.

As you can see, mum is in good spirits and getting out. As much as I love it, I have to concede defeat that I can't look after mum and Mya for a full weekend on my own. They have different needs and interests , Mum's hearing impairment and Mya's impatience conflict, and sometimes it's incredibly difficult for all of us.

So I'm putting out a BBBBBBBBBBBBBIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGG help message. If anyone is interested in taking Mya on some child friendly activity, or Mum on some gardening, music, art, social activity, OR JUST COME TO VISIT so I can take Mya out, please put up your hands.

As you might know mum's 4th hip operation left her with a weakness in her hip. Due to muscle wastage through lack of use and weight loss since the diagnosis of cancer, her hip is now not being held in place by those muscles - which may well compromise her whole pelvic area and lead to considerable disability in the near future. That is why I'm keen to get her out and about in short bursts whilst we still can- before that becomes an impossibility. Becasue mum has been so active all her life, she still enjoys little outings and always loves visits.

I only need help two Sunday's a month. However if anyone is willing to help but only can during the week, please let me know too.

Mum thrives on social contact. When she was sick, we had to limit that as it was depleting both her and our energy, but now she is physically well, she can have visitors again and short outings.

Mum will be going into respite for a couple of weeks in September, and at some stage I'm going to try and get a quick trip back to Singapore to spend some time with George as a family.

In October, I may be looking after Mum solo whilst Loretta goes back to Pambula and in November or December I'll have to go back to choose new housing as our lease runs out, and Loretta will be looking after Mum on her own then. SO any support from family and friends over the next few months will be greatly appreciated.

Mum's too well physically and emotionally to go into a full time care arrangement, and we feel that would be her undoing if it happened. She needs pleasant positive interection and not a constant reminder of her inevitible end, that she although she accepted - it is not the focus of her life she needs constant reminding of.

Mum doesn't know I've put this particular blog up, (and would kill me for the photo!!) so if you would like to offer to take her out, or come visit, please arrange it directly with her. If you can help with Mya, please arrange directly with me. Remember I'm not asking for a regular commitment, just an expression of interest as a back up if needed.

A BBBBIIIIIGGGG THANKS.

(23) MULTICULTURAL DAY AT MYA'S SCHOOL & MUM's BIG DAY

Getting ready to go to school with Camelias from Mum's garden.

Mya's closest friends from her grade Prep/Grade1:

Omar (Iraq) Mya (Vietnamese in Singaporean outfit) Saatchi (Kenya of Indian decent) Sasha (Ukranian /Russian) Rachel (Canadian ) and Tamlyn (Austrian) and for our Australian contingent.......

MUM'S PERFECT DAY:

I left mum this morning, Wendy came, they took mum to pick up Joyce her friend and bring her home. Mum and Joyce had lunch together when Loretta and Great granddaughter Jessica arrived, then Helen the music Therapist arrived, Loretta and Chris returned. Georgia was here, then Mya and I arrived with Mya's friend and Saatchi, then Simran and Pria arrived.

A perfect day in mum's life - the house full of family and friends' comings and goings, laughter, chatter and music.

Roll on happy days like this.

(22) A WONDERFUL BREAK FOR US ALL & GOOD NEWS

George arrived on Monday last week. He worked till Friday morning, after which we hijacked him to the farm.

The farm belongs to Janice and Lindsay (see photo below) . They live just out of Bendigo which is a regional town about 2 hours from Melbourne. Except of course if one goes via every quilting and Japanese furniture shop in the entire region - then it takes 4 hours!! Janice is George's first cousin, and over the years she and her sister Margaret spent many happy hour picking on George as the "townie" who came to the farm. Now he's 6 foot 2 inches, and they don't pick on him so much.

Aunt Joan who was Margaret's and Janice's mum, was our favourite aunt. She was a really special person and we always loved going to Bendigo to visit her and her lovely family. The highlight during one trip was when we took Aunt Joan out in the 7 series, and we drove at 180 kilometres an hour along her road. She had a blast.


Back to our getaway this weekend...We went through Maldon where George's father was born. I found some interesting shops there - well they were great or me, if no one else.

We arrived to a warm welcome at the farm. Mya was at first reticent of Ned the dog, but soon warmed to him. When she saw her bedroom (the Scoble's grandchildren's) she was in seventh heaven. After rearranging all of the talbes and chairs to make a play area, Mya eventually got to bed.






These are very life-like concrete sheep. Lindsay and Janice take them for a walk daily. Well not really, they just use then for weight practice instead of going to the gym.





George, Mya and Ned had so much fun on the quad - a four wheel bike. Mya and George had the most fantastic time on the bike, they rode for about 2 hours (or so it felt) and they crossed creeks, pastures, went all the way down to the church and across roads and just had a ball. Mya had to open and close the farm gates as they went from property to property.




Mya even taught herself how to rev the quad! Lucky her dad is very safe and had it out of gear or we might have had a second trip to the radiographer in as many weeks.

Here's Ned eating one of the eggs from the chickens - there's nothing quite like farm fresh egss, except well farm fresh vegetables, eclairs, caramel and lemon slices, hedgehog and hazelnut slices, pavlovas, roast lamb, sausages, chops and mash and even Greek Pastichio. Now Janice, that's (past - stitch - ee - o ). Gosh, the food AS ALWAYS at our cousins, was fantastic.....

We had 12 for dinner on Saturday night and 8 for lunch on Sunday - and that was the eclairs, not guests. Actually, Janice and Lindsay had invited all George's relatives to come and visit and it was a very pleasant night with lots of laughter wine, food and good company.

Here's Janice, Lindsay and their family inluding grandchildren Jessica and Jordan. Note in this little extended family of ours there is George, Janice, Georgia, Jason, Joanne, Jordan and Jessica and Jodie. What a mouthful , lucky they weren't de Giorgios.

The three dogs who barked so hard as we left, Mya Dolittle assured me they wanted to come home with us.

As we drove off, Mya said she didn't want to leave the farm, she wanted to stay there for ever. She asked if she could live on her own on a farm when she was 12?? When I explained the hard work involved in a farm, she just changed the subject to tell her dad she was going to miss him.

The most fantastic rainbow I've ever seen escorted us to the airport, where we left George to fly to Singapore for work tomorrow and business travel from Tuesday on. Luckily he'll be back here in 3 weeks. All being well after a week, we plan to join him in Singapore for Mya's school holidays.

We enjoyed our break immensely and if you've never experienced Australian country life, I doesn't get better than good company, good country cooking, blistering fireplaces, cute animals, birds singing (not me Janice), lambs bleating for their drinks, dogs barking as they recognise the family's car arriving from 1/2 a kilometre away. Despite all that activity,the stillness and quiet most of the time is indescribable.

Thanks everyone - especially our fantastic hosts, for our first good break together as a family for months. Lovely to see everyone and be part of our family again.

THE GOOD NEWS.

MUM PUT ON A KILO!!!!! The scales went in the right direction for the first time in 4 months. She had gone down from 53 to 38. Today she weighed in at 39.

Mum continues to be pain free and illness free, though the disease is working away in the background.

On Tuesday I was attending a "Teaching Children Phonics" course and although I had arranged for Mum to be covered for the whole day, she cancelled everything and spent her first day totally alone in her house since her diagnosis. She made her own breakfast, slowly did all her household chores by herself and prepared dinner for us. I think she was missing her domesticity, having her own house to herself, and doing everything at her pace instead of ours. Mum was reknowned for her busy-ness and racing around multi-tasking (even before the word was invented). Now we rush about at the same pace, and she feels she's living in our whirlwind. That's part of the aging process and her slowing down accentuates our hyperactivity. Oh well, she was our life long model. She promised that she had a long rest in the afternoon as soon as she felt tired. I must admit it would have been an enourmous shot in the arm for her self-confidence.