Hello bloggers, it is a nice cool somewhat wet Thursday here I didn’t do a post yesterday because I just didn’t feel like it, I went with mum to Dawson’s school for a meeting about what Dawson will be doing next year, mum and I planned to go to see nan after the appointment at the school but didn’t get to see nan as by the time we were finished at the school we just didn’t feel like we had the time to do so.

Mum and Michelle had been told Dawson would have to go to a different school next year Jesmond High instead of Wakefield he can’t stay at Wakefield as that school isn’t able to have senior students as in years 11 and 12 so since Dawson will be in year 11 next year he has to go to a different school.

Mum thought that he would be going into mainstream schooling but that isn’t the case, he will be going into a class for students with emotional behavioural problems the class will only have 7 students in it and is in the seniors only part of the high school, so no younger children to annoy Dawson. Learning this made both mum and me as well as Michelle feel better about him going there.

Now mum and Michelle will have to sort out how Dawson will get there, hopefully he will still be able to get the “taxi” there and back, it is not really a taxi it is a school transport scheme, he gets picked up and dropped at the school and in the afternoon he get picked up and brought home this costs nothing and means that mum doesn’t have to drive him. The principal told mum that he may not be able to get it as they may say mum drives so she can drive him but this is not something mum wants to do, she does enough as it is and she will be 76 next year. Oh well we will see what happens.

Today we had wanted to go to the cemetery to visit pops grave as it is 5 years since he passed it was 5 years yesterday but it has been far too wet to go there and the ground would be so bloody wet and muddy so we gave it a miss.

Tasha had a phone call from the Department of Housing yesterday about the letter I wrote a week ago saying how she is fed up and leaving the house and moving back home with me and her dad. She told them that she is done she didn’t want to hear their lies any more she has heard it all before and she is just so fed up and will be out of the house as soon as she can arrange storage for her belongings and can sort out the spare room in this house. She said she wasn’t rude but was firm and yes she cut the woman off but she said she is so over it.

I really don’t know how it is going to work with her and Blain moving back here but we will see and there is no way we would tell her they couldn’t come home as that is not who we are we are always here for our daughters.

Hello Tuesday, well it is the first Tuesday in November and that means it is Melbourne Cup day also know as the race that stops a nation. This is of course a horse race, it is a 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds and over, it is the richest “two-mile” handicap race in the world and considered one of the richest turf races.

It is held by the Victoria Racing Club at Flemington, in Melbourne of course which for those who do not know is in the state of Victoria, the race runs at 3pm in the afternoon of course this is daylight savings time.

The race was first held in 1861 and it is pretty much a given that the race club committee could envisage that the cup would still be around over a century and half later and growing to be such a big part of our social and sporting culture.

Back in 1861 the race was held in front of about 4,000 people but by 1880 around 100,000 people would be at Flemington to see the race, the population of Melbourne was only around 290,000 at the time. People also travelled to Melbourne from all over the country for the race.

The first race was won by Archer in 3.52 minutes, the recorded for the fastest win is held by Kingston Rule in 3.16 minutes who won the race in 1990. The first race was 3,219 metres but has since been shortened to 1,868 metres.

Of course it costs to enter the Melbourne Cup the initial entry fee is $600 per horse around 300-400 horses are nominated each year but there is only 24 horses in the race. Following the allocation of weights the owner of each horse must on four occasions before the race delcare the horse as an acceptor and pay a fee. First acceptance is $960, second acceptance is $1,450 and third acceptance is $2,420 the final acceptance fee on the Saturday prior to the race is $45,375, should a horse be balloted out of the final field the final declaration fee is refunded.

Horses come from all over the world to enter the race and for many years it has been won by foreign horses for many years, the first horse bred in neither Australia or New Zealand to win a Melbourne Cup was the British horse Backwood in 1924. This year 18 of the 24 are from overseas.

The first winner received a gold watch, the first Melbourne Cup trophy was awarded in 1865 and was an elaborate silver bowl on a stand that had been manufactured in England. The first existing and un-altered Melbourne Cup is from 1866 is in the National Museum of Australia. The silver trophy presented in 1867 also in the National Museum of Australia was made in England but Victorian jewellers complained to the Victorian Racing Club that the trophy should have been made locally. No trophy was awarded for the next eight years.

It was in 1876 that an immigrant for Austria produced the first Australian-made trophy it was an Etruscan shape with two handle, one side depicted a horse race with the grandstand and hill of Flemington in the background. The opposite side had the words “Melbourne Cup, 1876” and the name of the winning horse. A silver plated base sporting three horses was added in 1888 but in 1891 the prize changed again to a Victory figure offering a olive wreath to a jockey. In 1899 the trophy was in the form of a sliver galloping horse embossed on a 3ft long plaque, although some thought it looked more like a greyhound then a horse.

The last Melbourne Cup trophy made in England was made for the 1914 race, it was a chalice centred on a long bask which had a horse at each end, the trophy awarded in 1916 was the first gold trophy which was a three-legged, three-armed rose bowl. In 1919 the three-handled loving cup design was awarded.

It was also in 1919 that the Victorian Racing Club commissioned James Steeth to design a trophy that would be in keeping with the prestige of the race, little realising that it would become the iconic Melbourne Cup that is still presented today.

During the Second World War (1942, 43 & 44) the winning owner received war bonds to the value of 200 pounds.

A new trophy is stuck each year and becomes the property of the winning owner, in the event of a dead heat a second cup is on hand. The present trophy is made by Hardy Brothers from 34 pieces of gold metal hand beaten for over 200 hours, close inspection of the inside of the Cup will reveal small hammer imprints.

As of 2008, the trophy values were increased and the Cup now contains 1.65kg of 18 carat gold valuing the trophy at around $125,000. The winning trainer and jockey also receive a miniature replica of the cup and the strapper is awarded the Tommy Woodcock trophy named after the strapper of Phar Lap.

Now you may be wondering why it is called the race that stops a nation, well this is because on Melbourne Cup day many businesses will have a break between 2.45-3.15 while the race is run, often staff will meet in the meal room for a cuppa and cake and listen to the race. Many stores will broadcast the running of the race over the P A for customers and staff to listen too.

Melbourne Cup Day officially became a public holiday in 1877 for those living in Melbourne, however, while all of Melbourne’s 31 metropolitan councils celebrated the first Tuesday in November there was a gap where some regional councils did not so in 2008 the Victorian Parliament passed a new legislation that saw Melbourne Cup Day as a public holiday for all council areas in the state except those where other holidays had been designated. This means that Melbourne Cup Day is now officially a public holiday throughout the state.

I have never had a bet on the Melbourne Cup but I can remember my nan always having a flutter and listening to the race and yelling for her horse to win.

Hello Monday and what a lovely Monday it is, at the moment it is not too hot nor too cold so just so nice the type of weather I like.

This morning I was going to go for a walk but it was a bit wet outside so I decided not to bother, this would make my mum and daughters happy as they don’t like me to go for a walk, as they worry about me after that day when I was losing my balance and had difficulties walking.

I drove Leo to school this morning but really didn’t feel like doing so but Natasha didn’t want to do it and I had to take Leo’s school clothes and school bag over to her place as of course they didn’t bother to take his school stuff home with them yesterday.

Natasha has started to move some of her stuff in, she has brought over all of Blain’s clothes and Xbox games and a few of his toys, we will be setting a bed up for him in the next day or so or so she has said.

I hope she is happy living here, I am not sure how she will be as it is not easy in my opinion when adult children move home with their parents but it is what she wants to do, I wrote a letter off to the Department of Housing telling them that she is done and wants out of the house she is in so much that she is prepared to move home and share a room with her soon to be 10yr old son. She said he will have the bed and she will sleep on the lounge.

On Saturday night we had one little boy come to the door trick-or-treating and I gave him something although I don’t do Halloween I thought it was only one boy so why not.

I have been watching the tv show Banished set in the early days of New South Wales, convict days how hard life must have been for those early settlers I can’t imagine but they some how managed and survived and built this great country.

That is all I have for now, my brain isn’t working much so I will just post this and maybe tomorrow I will be able to write more

 

Here we are at another Friday and what do I have for you this week.

VHS

BETTA

DVR

MEDIA PLAYER

DVD RECORDER

Another easy lot this week

Hello everyone well since Friday is the 31^st and for some that means Halloween (not me) I thought I would write a tad about the history of Halloween.

Now most people probably know that Halloween comes from the words “All Hallows Eve” which means it is the evening before “All Hallows Day”, this is also known by some as All Saints Day. In the Catholic Church, All Saints Day celebrates those who have gone to heaven, screw those who have gone to hell, it is followed by All Souls Day which is on the 2^nd November which is for those who have died but not gone to heaven yet.

Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition, it is thought to have originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ware of roaming ghosts. It was in the eight century that Pope Gregory 111 designated the 1^st of November as a time to honour all saints and martyrs. The holiday of All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain and the night before became known as All Hallows Eve than Halloween.

Trick-or-treating partly comes from the English medieval practice of “souling” when poor people would go from door to door offering prayers for All Souls Day in exchange for food. Over time Halloween evolved into what it is now a community-based event characterised by child-friendly activities such as trick-or-treating.

Halloween is becoming more popular in Australia just not with me or my family but with many including schools and such and you do see children going trick-or-treating through local streets. Although for many years it was just an excuse to watch scary movies.

Many older Australians still do not get involved in Halloween including me this is because for me it has little relevance to Australian culture, it is also considered by some to be an unwanted American influence this is because despite the history of Halloween dating back to Celtic/European origins it is generally through American tv shows and movies that Halloween has become known here in Australia. There are those who say that Halloween is not entirely American but rather Celtic and there is no different than embracing other cultural traditions such as Saint Patrick’s Day and that may be the case but not for me.

I have nothing against Halloween but since it wasn’t an event in this country till the last 10-15 years I can’t help but thing of it as a way companies see to make more money, so I don’t do Halloween for me the 31^st is just my baby brothers birthday.

Good morning world as I think everyone knows I do very little blogging over the weekend this is my time to catch up on tv shows I have recorded or answer letters and you know other stuff other then blogging.

Anyway it is now Monday and this morning when I went for my walk I was not is a good shape, I was so very tired after about 30 minutes and had to stop 3 times for a rest and I was walking and stumbling around like I was drunk or something and it was such an effort to keep on walking but I made it. When I got home I went to the toilet and lost my balance and fell into the door, didn’t wake Tim though, in fact the last part of the walk my balance was pretty bad I kept walking to the left and closing my eyes it was that difficult but I made it home without falling or anything.

This morning we are getting our new fridge delivered, yesterday Tim took the freezer outside and hosed it out to defrost it and I have transferred the stuff out of the freezer in the fridge into the upright freezer. Tim also took the old deep freezer out behind the back gate and tipped it up to drain all the foul smelling crap out of it, it is still there, he will bring it inside sometime this afternoon. The fridge is arriving just in time as the one we have is not working now I have placed ice bricks in the fridge to help keep the food in it cool I hope it is delivered early but we will see.

Yesterday afternoon our next door neighbour (Bear) got up on the roof and cleaned out our gutters this he did without being asked, when I told Tim he said he will give Bear some money for doing it, Bear also does our backyard every few weeks which Tim gives him $30 for, in fact Bear does many of the yards in the complex it is something he like to do to keep busy and it earns him a few dollars he is a senior citizen so making do on the pension.

Over the weekend Tim removed the security screens from two windows and replace the mesh in them so now we will have to read the riot act to the boys about damaging the mesh, Leo cut the mesh which is why it had to be replace so no doing that this time. Tim in fact made the security screens for the windows they are called security screens as they are pop riveted to the windows so they can not be removed without making a lot of noise unlike normal window screens that can be simply removed.

Ok I am back the new fridge has just arrived had to unpack the old stuff and throw it all on the bench and sink but all now packed into the new fridge but of course we have to wait an hour before we can turn the new fridge on. Tim has the day off, he took a sick day which is ok with me he now wants to go and do a stock up shop also ok with me.

Good morning all, it is a nice warmish day here, started out cool and wet though so I didn’t go for a walk this morning as it was raining and I was so tired which I blamed on the dark and wet morning. I am now feeling more awake and have been out to take Jessica to Centrelink for an appointment, I dropped her off and she said she would ring me to get her when she was finished for all those who don’t know appointments at Centrelink can either go on time or you can be left waiting and waiting and waiting. So I dropped her off headed home stopped at the shops to get her bread rolls and came home I walked in the house and she rang she was out so her appointment which was at 10 was over and done with by 10.10, so back I go to get her she felt bad that I had only just got home and had to leave again but as I told her not her fault just the way it was.

So this morning while I was blogging I was reading Kate’s blog she can be found here:

http://www.canigetanotherbottleofwhine.com/ she had mentioned she did this social anxiety questionnaire and scored 40 out of 90 so I decided to go to the website and do it myself I scored 60 out of 90 which indicates I have a high amount of social anxiety this comes as no surprise to me, the questionnaire can be found here:https://socialanxietyinstitute.org/test-social-anxiety-disorder-find-out-if-you-suffer-social-phobia

Moving on this morning I found Tim wanting to toss out the last 5 slices of bread now the bread was still fresh I bought it on Tuesday so nothing wrong with it, it was just the last of it and I had a full new loaf that I bought yesterday. So I asked him what he was doing and he said we have a new loaf and I was like so,nothing wrong with this bread I will use it to make toasted sandwiches and I used two slices to make Blain’s school lunch. I get really annoyed when he wants to toss out bread that is still usable.

Still on the topic of things Tim do that’s annoying, I had recorded some episodes of NCIS and had put the “K” for keep next to it so Tim would not delete it well you guessed it he deleted the episodes as soon as he watched them. Now I said to him last night when I realised what he had done why did he delete them he said he didn’t know what the “K” meant well I said common sense would have said it is something Jo has done I should not do anything to I ask her about it, but of course not Tim he doesn’t think he just does these annoying things. When I complained he said just go online and download it and watch it on the laptop,NO, Tim that is not what I want to do. I am not one to watch stuff on the laptop I prefer to watch tv shows on the tv sorry but you should know that Tim.

Yesterday I bought tickets via Groupon for the Dinosaur Museum in Canberra saved over $30 on the price of the tickets and I told Tim last night that I had done it and thought we could go with Jessica and Leo over the Christmas school holidays as Leo loves dinosaurs. He was annoyed that I didn’t ask him first but when I explained that he was at work and I had to buy the tickets while the deal was active and that it was over a 50% saving on the tickets he was ok. He doesn’t get at times that the deals are often on for only a few hours if I had a end time for the deal I would have spoken to him first but since it just said ending soon I wanted to get them before it ended. I did ask Jessica if she thought it would be a good idea and she did she agreed with me that Leo would love it.

So I asked mum if we could borrow the motor-home over the Christmas holidays for the trip and she said she would ask dad but it should be ok but first I am going to check out the cost and places to stay before we go better to make arrangements now and not leave it too late.

Yesterday I started this but then got distracted and never got around to finishing it, I had to got to the doctors to have a medical form filled in for the RTA which is now called Service NSW for those not in the know that the mob who issue you your drivers licence along with a lot of other crap. I needed the form filled in because I have sleep apnoea and diabetes all good I will hand it in sometime today.

This morning Blain woke me at 6am to tell me he had vomited in the loungeroom, beside my arm chair, I of course got up and cleaned it up then went back to bed for half an hour, when I was getting ready to leave for my morning walk I could hear him in the bathroom throwing up again, so he is not going to school today, he has gone home with his mum for a while she will bring him back before she goes to work.

Thank you for all who had kind words about my condition with my right arm, I kept it a secret from many people for many months, I didn’t want anyone to worry and it was only when it became so noticeable that it was hard to hide that family members became aware of it, and yes the are all worried about it.

I got a letter on Friday from the Royal outpatients department over at the John Hunter Hospital complex to tell me I had an appointment over with the diabetic doctor on Friday morning, what the hell I hate Friday appointments as Friday is my super busy day, so I rang them to see if it could be changed till a different day, but no it can’t be bugga that. The appointment is at 9.40am and I know some people will thing that is ok it is nice and early but no its not, the first appointment would be around 7.45am in the day so about two hours after the first appointment which means I may or may not be in on time. So I don’t think I will get much if any shopping done on Friday I know I will not get the food shopping done as I will not have time.

Mum and I are the earlier the better when it comes to appointments type of people, so you can imagine when mum got a phone call saying that she has an appointment at Wakefield school on the first Wednesday of November. The stupid woman at the school was like it will be early around 9.30am so you should be home by 11am so you can go to the nursing home then, no we will not be going to the nursing home that late in the day we like to be there around 9am to see nan and the same goes for when we go to see Aunty Pat 11.30am which would be the time we would be getting to the nursing home is just too late, mum has to be home to get my brother’s lunch between 11.30-12 each day and dad like his lunch at midday each day so it really doesn’t work.

I told Natasha this morning that I have decided to continue my morning walk even if Tim isn’t hear in the morning for Blain as Blain is now nearly 10 and he should be ok on his own while I am gone as I am only gone for between 30-40minutes and he knows my phone number so if he wakes up and is worried he can just ring me but 9 times out of 10 he will still be asleep when I get home from my walk.

I am the type of person who likes to go for an early morning walk if I don’t go first thing in the morning I won’t go as by 8.20 when Tasha leaves to take the boys to school I am no longer interested in going for a walk also in Summer it is getting pretty hot by that time most days and I would prefer to go before it gets hot.

I have a dentist appointment this morning in about an hours time, Tim was great with giving me the money for the appointment as last week he had to go to the dentist himself although when he went he was surprised how much it cost to see a dentist it ended up costing him $285 which was not a surprise to me but it was for him.