The Nine Month Dip

Been a quiet few weeks here without much news to report. Tim is now home after almost two weeks away. He was very anxious to come home because he had a new bike being built for himself. It is a new type of mountain bike - the 29 inch wheel or some such. I believe he has been taking pictures of the bike and even created his own mini blog on some bike geek web site. I will have to check with him to link for you, or get him to help me with the photos. So he has been consumed by this for the past week or so - very exciting!

Elliott is back to school. His class went to some Indy Car race day on the Gold Coast yesterday. Not much information came back with him, except there were lots of ladies wearing skimpy shorts and very revealing tops. I presume they were there to decorate the cars. He has a day off next Monday. I'm pretty sure this term will be a total write off as it only has about 5 weeks left till they break at Christmas.

I have been feeling pretty sorry for myself here - even though my life can't get much easier. With all my tennis playing, I've had to get some physio on my shoulder and now my back seems to have gone. Hit 40 this year, and it all seems to be crashing in on me!

One of my very good friends here has decided they probably won't be staying in Australia too much longer. For many reasons, they may move within 6-9 months. This news really sent me down in the dumps, even though it may never happen and is in the future anyway. But all their reasons for moving are all reasons I am struggling to really settle here and it all comes to the surface. So I think this is my 9 month dip - I hope it passes. Tim seems quite happy here and Elliott just doesn't want to move again. I am looking forward to our trip to the US in December. I can't remember feeling this much in need of homeleave in a very long time. I am now reading a book called "A Fair Go For All" about American - Australian relations. I am hoping to pick up a few tips on how to relate to these Aussies. Will post next blog about the book and all the things I hope to learn!

Pet Sitting

Well, after our bird watching weekend, we felt ready to take in a bird for a pet. Some friends of ours have an Eclectus Parrot and they were going out of town for a few days and they needed a pet-sitter. As Tim was going to be in Los Angeles all week, Elliott and I thought how fun it would be to have a little friend to liven up our school holiday week.

Our friends came towing a trialer with an enormous cage. It took several trips to bring in all the accoutrements: toys, food, seeds. As we were deciding where to put the cage, the woman comments "You should be sure to wipe off the wall if you see anything on it. Elmo tends to clean his beak and he flings a bit of food now and then." Then she mutters quietly under her breath, "....in a 2 metre radius." Yikes! 2 metre radius!

In the morning, the bird receives Passion fruit, grapes, strawberries, kiwi, and baby corn, snow pea pods and some exotic fruit I've never seen before. In the evening, it's more of the same, but add a bit of sweet corn and some peas. Imagine that food being flung in 2 metre radius. Quickly, Elliott and I moved the sofa to the corner of the room. Elliott then decided his comics wouldn't be safe and we had to move the coffee table over too. So we were left with a giant bird cage in the center of the living room - surrounded by 2 metres of newspapers in each direction. The rest of the furniture crowded to one side.

The mess and food flinging was one thing - the "chirping" quite another. At 5 am, the bird started talking to keep the neighborhood birds company. At times, the little chirp was cute. He can even say hello ever so sweetly. Othertimes, it was like a shriek that pierces the ear drum.

After 3 days and 2 nights, our friends returned to pick up Elmo. If they were surprized how neurotic I was to move the sofa, they were nice enough not to comment. There was a slight moment of panic as we tried to transfer him to his travel cage - he flew off in the house and smashed himself into a window. Luckily, he was not harmed. We loaded the car all up and waved good bye to Elmo with a big sigh of relief. But after a little while, Elliott and I looked at each other and said it seemed too quiet with him gone.