Hello Saturday, this morning I was up at 6.30am dressed and ready to go for my walk only to find it raining when I opened the back door, so I thought about going back to bed but decided against it and instead sat here are the computer and started reading blog post, only read about 40 different posts this morning, Kathy rang to see if it was ok for her and the girls to come over for a visit and of course I said it was.

So Kathy is here at the moment with Sydney-May and Summer who are busy playing with Leo, yes Leo was here last night as Blain was picked up from school by Kelli and is spending the weekend with his dad . He will, however, be back here Monday night and I may have him each night for the next 5 nights unless his other grandmother decides she wants to have him or if he decides he wants to go and stay at Jessica’s one night. Leo is staying again tonight as Jessica said she has plans.

It was the last day of the school term yesterday, children are off for two weeks then back for the last term of the year. Sometimes the school term seems to go past in a flash and other times it seems to drag on.

Tim said last night he would like us to go out for lunch today as it is our wedding anniversary on Tuesday we will have been married 31 years, so I had to ask Jessica if she would come and stay with Leo while we go out as we are not taking him, he is not a big eater and it would be a waste of money as Tim wants to go to the all you can eat place in Cardiff……aka…..the Eastern Tiger.

Yesterday afternoon I stopped at the day care to give my sister something and Leo wanted to go in and say hi to the staff, this is the day care he attended my niece Denni goes there along with Landon and my great niece Hayley, it is the same day care that Temika went to as well and Sydney-May went there for a year also. All the staff remembered him and thought it was amazing how much he has grown and how well he is talking now when he was at day care he didn’t say a lot and was not only shorter but a bit more chubbier, well the staff there thought he was I am not so sure about that.

At least Leo isn’t as much of a computer hog as Blain is he likes to watch telly, and play with toys more then Blain does, although when Blain has his Xbox here he will have times when he is in the bedroom playing his Xbox but there are other days when he doesn’t go near it.

Well I better post this and go and get changed to go to lunch, not going to wear what I have on as I am wearing house clothes.

Hello everyone it is now Thursday afternoon and it has been a cold wet day a real change from the last few day which have been very warm to bloody hot.

Kathy-Lee told me that little Summer is sick at the moment she has conjunctivitis in both eyes, a chesty cough, runny nose with a fever and is quite lethargic so a trip the doctors was in order, she has been prescribed antibiotics and will be home from day care tomorrow. Kathy said she just wants to either sleep or lay on the lounge and watch telly.

Anyway this morning I was reading a post by Diane who can be found here: http://ouiinfrance.com/

about doctors in France and this along with Kathy telling me about Summer being sick and the fact that I had to go to the doctors this morning myself I decided to write a post about seeing a doctor in Australia.

When one wants to see a doctor here, one would ring the doctors surgery speak to the receptionist and as long as you are not a new patient it is somewhat easy to find a time and day that suits, when mum rings the doctors she can usually get in to see someone either the same day or sometime in the week. I find it the same with the practice at Mount Hutton that I go to, the Charlestown practice I usually make my appointment online which means I can search for a time I like with a doctor I like without having to say no that doesn’t work I can’t do Wednesdays or Fridays.

I know of no doctor who runs on time all the time it is pretty common to have to wait between 10-45 minutes after your appointment time.

Of course seeing a specialist is different, first you have to see your GP to get a referral to the specialist, if you are seeing a someone through the public system the GP will fax the referral off to the hospital and you will get a letter through the mail telling you when the appointment is. If you are seeing someone privately you have to ring the specialist and make an appointment yourself. I do not see someone privately I always go through the hospital as I can’t afford to see someone privately.

Now you may have noticed that I said I go to two different doctor surgeries this is because the one at Mount Hutton is a bulk billing practice, this means that I don’t have to pay at all the cost is covered by the government, the Charlestown practice doesn’t bulk bill everyone and unless you have a pension card or the doctor decides to bulk bill you, you are expected to pay the cost is $75 for a 10 minute appointment and you get $37 from Medicare (the government) so that leaves you $33 out of pocket and I don’t always have the money so at times I will go and see the bulk billing doctor.

Once you have checked in with the receptionist you take a seat in the waiting room and the doctor will call you in when they are ready for you, the doctor doesn’t wear a white coat or anything they are just dressed in normal clothes. There is no paper work to fill in unless you are first time patient many doctors surgeries may have closed their books meaning they are not taking on new patients. I however, have been going to the Charlestown practice for 48 years and yes I am only 52.

My mum has to pay when she takes Dawson to see his specialist and it costs her $600 a visit and she gets about half of that back from Medicare, so seeing a specialist can be bloody expensive.

Most surgery here is either carried out through the public system costing the patient nothing but there can be a long wait for that to happen, if you have private health insurance you can have your surgery done in a private hospital but even though you have health insurance you still usually have some out of pocket expenses.

Private health insurance isn’t cheap either, fees can start at $15 per week for a single person and increases the older you get the more cover you have and if you have a family it is more for me and Tim it would cost more then we can afford I don’t exactly how much as I have not checked in a long time.

Ok here we are at Tuesday and of course that means it’s History Tuesday and today I am just going to talk a little about the history of politics in Australia why you wonder well because we now have our 5^th Prime Minister in only 5 years what the hell is with that.

The head of state in Australia is split between two people, the Queen and the Governor-General of Australia. The Queen of course really has nothing to do with the running of the country and her representative aka the Governor-General is responsible for appointing ambassadors, ministers and judges and giving Royal Assent to legislation, issuing writs for elections and of course bestowing honours on people.

The Governor-General is also the President of the Federal Executive Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Defence Force. Now I have no idea what the Federal Executive Council is just so you know, so don’t ask me. I have learnt that these posts are held under the authority of the Australian Constitution, generally speaking barring exceptional circumstances the Governor-General exercises these powers only on the advice of the Prime-Minister, so really the role of Governor-General is often thought of as a largely ceremonial position.

The Prime Minister is the highest government minister, leader of the cabinet and head of the government they hold office on commission from the Governor-General. The office of the Prime Minister is the most powerful political office in the country. Although the office is not mentioned in the constitution and exists through an unwritten political convention.

Unless there are exceptional circumstances the Prime Minister is always the leader of the political party or coalition with majority support in the House of Representatives.

National elections are held at least once every three years the last one was is 2013, at this time we elected Tony Abbott when I say we I mean the country in general although no one you ask will admit to voting for him.

Last night there was yet another leadership challenge and Malcolm Turnbull is now our Prime Minister the which means we have had five Prime Ministers in the last five years. These are as follows, Kevin Rudd who was challenged and kicked out by Julia Gillard, who was then kicked out and Kevin Rudd was back in but was voted out at the election by Tony Abbott who was challenged and outed by Malcolm Turnbull. This is a joke if you ask me why do we bother having elections if the party can just vote out the leader and over night we can have a new leader of the party and new Prime Minister

The has been one case where a senator was appointed Prime Minister that was when John Gorton was appointed this happened after Harold Holt disappeared, he had to resign his senate position and was elected as a member of the House of Representatives.

Senator George Pearce was acting prime-minister for seven months in 1916 while Billy Hughes was overseas as well.

Malcolm Turnbull is our 29^th Prime Minister……………….

Last Thursday my eldest daughter…….aka……….our precious daughter……….aka………..Kathy-Lee turned 30, what the hell how did that happen, how did I become the mother of a 30 year old.

Anyway I had a party for Kathy-Lee yesterday, there was about 16 people here from both sides of her family, as in her side and her partner Michael’s side, as I invited his parents and brother and sister in-law, his brother couldn’t attend as he is away working.

Michael had gone away camping but it was only 45 minutes away and after Natasha told him off and his parents said something to him he decided he would come back from camping to attend and the whole thing was a surprise for Kathy.

Although she did say at one point she had wondered why I had made so much food and why dad (Tim) had cleaned the lounge room, and by clean I mean he took everything and dumped it in either the spare room or his room/office.

Everyone seemed to have a good time and of course there was plenty of food, as I was up at 6.30am I went for a walk and bought bread and shredded ham they didn’t have diced bacon and after returning home I made a potato bake and a chicken and bacon pasta bake along with home made fried rice, snags and of course bacon.

There of course was cake this cake in fact and it tasted pretty good I bought it from a local supermarket that does cakes so it was both nice and affordable.

I also managed to do 3 loads of washing and change the sheets on the bed, vacuum the house twice, watched 2 children and go for my morning walk. After everyone had left and I was getting sheets to remake the bed, time says you look as bugga as I feel, I look at him and asked him what have you done all day, he said he cleaned the lounge-room and I asked him what have I done all day, he smiles and said everything else.

By then end of the day I was exhausted and I did manage to drink ¾ of a bottle of wine.

Good morning, are you a morning person?

Do you need an alarm to wake up?

If so when it goes off do you hit snooze a few times before getting up or do you turn it off and get straight out of bed?

I am although I didn’t always realise that I was but this morning while on my walk I was thinking about it and composing this post in my head.

This is what I came up with, I have always been a morning person, as a teenager I would get up before anyone else and unpack the dishwasher and have breakfast so when everyone else got up I could retreat to my room to get ready for school, ok that isn’t right I have always been a get up and get dressed type of person so when I say get ready for school I mean pack my bag with the days books. Please note that at my school only the seniors got lockers the rest of us had to carry all our books around with us, although thinking about it there was a few months that I had a locker but it didn’t last long as the school decided we didn’t need lockers.

Anyway back to being a morning person, after I left school I would often and by often I mean 2 or 3 times a week walk to the local shopping centre just because I could and while there mum would have a list of things for me to get and if the list ended up being heavy items or a lot I would get a cab home but other wise I would walk home again.

When my girls were little I would get up get us all ready and go to the shops nice and early, this was how I was able to practice reversing my car into parking spots, there were very few people around and I could do it without worry of holding up other cars, now I can reverse park anywhere I do it better then if I try to drive into a parking spot but that isn’t what this post is about.

When my girls started school I would get up before them and pack lunches and get myself ready before getting the girls out of bed, I would also often walk them to school because I either didn’t have a car or I just felt like walking often it was I just felt like walking it was my daily exercise walking the girls to school.

I am not one of those people who needs an alarm unless I am getting up at a different time then normal, like in winter I don’t get up till between 7-7.30am but in the summer months I like to get up around 6.30am and that at the moment is the time my alarm is set for, but most days I don’t need it I wake up just before the alarm goes off.

My mum gets up between 5.45-6am Monday to Friday and on the weekend she likes to sleep in till 9am I rarely sleep in and now that I am back to going for a morning walk I prefer not to sleep in unless it is raining then sleeping in is a good thing.

If I have appointments I prefer them to be morning appointments can’t always get a morning appointment but I do try, I don’t like having to go out and do stuff in the afternoon.

So yes I am a morning person

Well today is Friday so that means five things Friday.

A day off school not because he was sick but because he was missing his mummy and wanted to spend time with her

A school show resulting in a late night for me

Staying with great-grandparents because you think the show will be boring

Thinking nanna forgot about you because she was so late picking you up after the show

Being able to stay home alone while nanna went shopping, and having her ring you to make sure you were ok and still in the house

Good afternoon, I am going to share with you some of my thoughts that I have had today, thoughts like why do we say corner of the world when the world is round and has no corners.

I am also wondering why is it after we vacuum the floor it looks like it hasn’t been done in less then half an hour or is that just my floor, the same thing happens when we wash the floor someone will walk on it and it will look like it hasn’t been done in not time.

I had to go and get Blain from school as he is feeling sick and of course tonight it is Leo’s school show and I am expected to go because Jessica can’t go alone, but she did only buy 2 tickets as she forgot that I would have Blain so don’t know what is going to happen with that, and if he is unwell should I take him out oh well we will see how he is later on.

On Monday I went to a funeral, an old family friend passed away on the 31^st in fact Tim and I were still at the airport when my eldest daughter rang to tell me the news. We knew it was coming but it was still a shock to hear that she had passed away. It was a big funeral in fact it was the biggest funeral I have ever attended, they had to go and find more seats as there was so many there they ran out of room.

In other news yesterday a man was shot outside the local post office this is only a 2 minute drive from my place, the man was waving a machete or large knife around was threatening the police they told him to drop the knife or they would shoot but of course he didn’t and they shot and killed him. The man was a staff member, in fact he was well known to me as he served me often while I was in the store and I am shocked to hear that he lost it and was killed.

Ok that is all from me for this post as I don’t what else to say.

Not a good photo of me but still is there ever.

This Tuesday I have decided to write a bit about the history of Christchurch, why well because Christchurch is the town we flew into and out of on our recent holiday to New Zealand.

Maori history suggests that people first inhabited the area about a thousand years ago, those first people were moa-hunters who most likely arrived there as early as AD 1000, by around 1450 the Moa had been killed off. These hunters cleared large areas of the Matai and Totara forest by fire.

After the moa-hunters came the Waitaha people who are thought to have migrated from the east coast of the North Island in the 16^th century.

The first European settlements

The first Europeans came around 1815 when Governor Bligh landed on what was called Banks Peninsula, the name I think came from Captain James Cook when his ship the Endeavour first sighted the area in 1770 and he named the are Banks Island after the ship’s botanist, Joseph Banks.

In 1827 Captain William Wiseman, a flax trader, named the harbour (now known as (Lyttlelton Harbour) Port Cooper, after one of the owners of the Sydney trading firm, Cooper & Levy.

During the 1820s and 1830s the local Māori population fell. The reasons included fighting between different groups of Ngāi Tahu, raids by the Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha from 1830 to 1832, and the impact of European diseases, especially measles and influenza, from which hundreds of Māori died.

More and more whaling and sealing ships visited the peninsula and harbour, and in 1837 Captain George Hempelman set up a whaling station on-shore at Peraki on Banks Peninsula.

Captain William Rhodes first visited in 1836. He came back in 1839 and landed a herd of 50 cattle near Akaroa.

The first attempt at settling on the plains was made by James Herriot of Sydney. He arrived with two small groups of farmers in April 1840. Their first crop was successful, but a plague of rats made them decide to leave.

In August 1840 Captain Owen Stanley of the Britomart raised the British flag at Akaroa, just before the arrival of sixty-three French colonists on the Comte de Paris

In May 1840 Major Thomas Bunbury arrived on the HMS Herald to collect the signatures of the Ngāi Tahu chiefs for the Treaty of Waitangi. The Treaty had been signed by many North Island chiefs in the Bay of Islands earlier in the year on 6 February. During Bunbury’s visit only two of the Ngāi Tahu chiefs signed it.

During 1850-1851 the first organised groups of English settlers, the founders of Christchurch, arrived on the ‘first four ships’ into Lyttelton Harbour.

Christchurch became a city by Royal Charter on July 31, 1856, making it officially the oldest established city in New Zealand.

Canterbury’s economy was built on primary products and Canterbury has long been recognised as living “off the sheep’s back”. Although its economic beginnings were in refrigerated sheep and dairy meats and in other dairy products, Canterbury now has a diversified regional economy with growth across a range of “new economy” sectors.

In 1893 New Zealand women achieved a first in the world when they won the right to vote. This significant event was honoured in 1993 when the Kate Sheppard memorial, a commemoration to Women’s Suffrage was unveiled on 19th September 1993.