Avuncular

 I'm not sure why, but on my way to the Saturday morning market yesterday a word came into my head. I resolved to ask the first three stall holders if they knew its meaning. I didn't have recall.

Kate my chocolate lady had no idea and used her phone to google it, but it was not working. Sarah my egg lady didn't know. I asked Peter at my fruit and veg stall and he looked at me strangely and asked me to spell it. By the time his wife Sophie had finished serving me he came up with an answer from google - "kind and friendly towards a younger or less experienced person."

eg- He was avuncular, reassuring and trustworthy.

I checked the Oxford pocket dictionary when I got home - "Like or of an uncle esp in manner" Latin avunculus - uncle

In the afternoon we went up the road for a barbie and to watch the AFL Grand Final with our good friends Geoff and Di. A friend of theirs was also present, Al from Strathalbyn. We had a great day. As we were leaving it occurred to me to ask each of them in turn if they knew the meaning of the word avuncular. Di first, a retired nurse shook her head in the negative. Al, a retired toolmaker also didn't know. Then I turned to Geoff, a retired schoolteacher and principal, thinking he would know. He didn't either. But they all do now.

I was pleased that the Ashcroft lad won the Norm Smith medal. His mother is the daughter of John Townsend who played in the Melbourne 1964 premiership team. When I was at Gatton College in 1974 a teammate in the Aussie rules football team, along with me one of the few who'd played it much previously, Jason Payne (Paine?) his name, told me his sister was married to John Townsend. Jason was an excellent player. Will Ashcroft certainly has a lot of footy genes. His father Marcus played 300 games including 3 premierships for Brisbane.

 

A Trip to the Riverland

Late morning of Monday 26 August Lib and I headed off for a change of scenery for a week. With the Skoda loaded with stocked esky and pantry box and a bag of clothes each our first destination was the Berri Caravan Park where I'd booked a cabin for two nights. It's always nice to hit the open road starting a road trip. 

We stopped for lunch at Strathalbyn which is a town about half an hour's drive from home. Pasties at the local bakery was the fare. I had a Ploughman's, Lib a standard. Mine was so big I struggled to finish it, despite it being the best pasty I'd ever had. Lib agreed with that assessment. We resolved to stop there on our way home and buy some for the freezer.

Between Strathalbyn and Murray Bridge we picked up the freeway heading north. I drove peacefully, not really knowing where I should turn off. I couldn't find my road map of SA before we left but was unconcerned thinking there'd be plenty of signage to take me to the Riverland. Mistake. At Tailem Bend the Murray was on the right (how come?) and I was wondering where the turnoff was. I kept going.  By the time we reached Coonalpyn I knew I'd gone wrong. At an intersection I saw a number of cars parked in front of a school/library, so I did a leftie and thought I'd ask at the school. I could find no people, despite entering several buildings, until after about 10 minutes I found a group of four ladies in an office way out the back. They explained it was a student free day which is why the school was almost deserted. 

They explained I should have turned off into Murray Bridge, the road to the Riverland was from there. There was a quicker back way along gravel roads to pick up the road I should have been on at Karoona. The youngest of the quartet, a delight, offered to come back to our car to help me how to work the GPS. She couldn't get it to work then I remember there wasn't one installed even though the facility by way of a screen was built in the dash. So, she tried my mobile phone into which Gord has installed some sort of Google map GPS thing that I don't know how to operate. We gave up on that and she gave me verbal instructions to follow the road I had turned into until it hit a bitumen crossroad then turn left and drive some 40k's to Karoona, then turn right and we'd get to Loxton/Berri. I have to admit I was totally disorientated, maybe that's a symptom of advancing age. I apologized to the girl for being a nuisance and thanked her for her effort. She said, "Not trouble at all, thank you for giving me reason to get out of that boring meeting."

By the time we got to Loxton, a three-hour trip had turned into five hours. Lib said she felt like a steak for tea so as we looked for a butcher, we saw a sign T-Bone Steak $24.99kg outside an IGA. They were in two packs and huge. Berri was 15 minutes or so away and we pulled into the caravan park at 5.28pm just before the office closed, which would have again tested my technology to manipulate the afterhours procedure. Cabin 24 was OK but standard ordinary, comfortable enough for us. The steak was magnificent. Lib cut meat off both, they were so big, we kept it for stir-fries for another meal.

Tuesday was windy, we took the opportunity to rest up in the cabin reading, and in my case doing crosswords and sudokus. We did a quick shop and took a walk on the river in the evening when the wind stilled. Lib made delicious tuna mornay for dinner. Wednesday, we drove to Renmark for a salad roll picnic lunch in a park by the river, then Lib stocked up on clothing from an Opp shop. Back in our cabin, after booking in for two more nights, we had the rest of the T-Bone steak with stir fry veg. Again delicious. Thursday, we explored around Loxton and booked into the caravan park there for two nights, but only stayed one as it turned out. Lamb loin chops for dinner back at Berri. Lib cooked on the nearest communal barbecue as she likes to do. Each night we the only ones using it. I cleaned it up afterwards, as I did also the dishes in the cabin where we ate.

The cabin at Loxton was newer, spacious and upmarket at $180 per night! Right on the river, with great walking tracks along and up steps to a grand lookout. Friday, we toured the historical town/museum for $10 a head, seniors price. A cooked chook from Woollies with salad for dinner, again delicious and with plenty of meat left on the chook for lunch sandwiches the next two days.

Using our phones we booked the Saturday night at 'Balcony on Six', an old hotel lodgings at Murray Bridge. An hour or so was spent in the gaming venue next door where Lib indulged a flutter on the pokies. I played too, on a one cent machine one line at a time, I lost $2 but had an hour's entertainment, if you can call it that.

Last night on our trip, so we got a family sized Italian pizza from 'The Oven' in the main St around the corner and it didn't disappoint. Leftovers to go. Sunday morning we were out to Monarto Safari Park early to pay entry and catch the first tour bus at 9.30am. We also booked a close encounter with the lions for 12.40pm, which was a fantastic experience. just enough time between tours for lunch from the esky of chicken sandwich and pizza.

Sunday it was nice to get home after stopping at Strathalbyn to get pasties to take home. That's about it. Gord did a good job looking after Pip and the maggies and the house in our absence. Roast lamb for our customary Sunday roast dinner. Magnificent.

If you think I seem to be preoccupied with food, you are right. It seems the older I get the more I enjoy my tucker, and a week on a leisurely holiday is the perfect chance to focus on simple joy. Also, by recalling meals helps me recall places where we were and what we did, the general sequence of events. 

  

And So it Goes

 I was walking in Victor Harbor crossing the road at the pedestrian crossing on Hindmarsh Road, from the Central Mall to my favourite shop 'Raw' to get some goodies. Someone had written in chalk some words from which I could barely make any sense. There was reference to AMBOS with an arrow pointing towards the ambulance station some distance up the road, as well as mention of Bible verses and some profanity amongst other things that were unintelligible. "They will go to Hell" was the conclusion.

While I was reading this and trying to decipher it a lady and her husband walked by and stopped to read.

"Somebody is a bit disturbed," I said. She agreed and said it was probably the same person she saw earlier that morning dancing around in front of the ambulance station wearing nothing but a pair of underwear. 

They walk among us, as I've heard said many times. The big worry is that in other places there are those now getting around wielding knives and attacking unsuspecting bystanders. Horrific!

August has been busy for me. The first week was good weather, so I got busy tonging the watsonia in the riverside we didn't do last year. Did heaps. Weather has turned now, rainy and showery, good for our plantings.

I got blood tests done last Tuesday in preparation for my consult back at Flinders Hospital on Sep 3. I don't have the results yet. I was booked to get an ultrasound on my carotid artery last Wednesday. A lady from Flinders University rang me on Monday asking me would I enter a research program on carotid artery blockage as I was a suitable candidate with the high-risk history. It entails going to Royal Adelaide Hospital next Wednesday and having a CT scan done which apparently shows far more detail than an ultrasound. It's about surveillance follow up to see if the carotid is blocking again as can happen. They'll take blood from me also which will be examined and stored for future research on me should it be done after my lifespan. This is in conjunction with my consult at Flinders Sep 3. I agreed as it seemed win/win for me. Only trouble is I have to get to R A Hospital at 11am next Wednesday, rather than the ultrasound here in Victor which I was told was not necessary if I was doing the CT scan.

My next-door neighbours Mark and Deb left for Brisbane last Thursday week. I rang Mark yesterday to see how they were because of all the rain in Brisbane. They never got there. Second night from here was in Parkes NSW in a motel. Deb took dog Lucy for a walk as she does twice every day and Lucy was attacked by a pitbull. Deb went to assist and the bloody thing latched onto her arm tearing it badly. Lucy was seriously injured and on 24 hour care at a vet's, just coming of drips today. Deb was hospitalized and had surgery and may need plastic surgery later. They never made it to Brissy to visit one of their sons and will head back here in the next day or two, expecting to get home on Wednesday. 

Just shows you, you never know what the next day brings.

Eye Drops and Other Things

I copied this below from my regular posts from Daphne Gray-Grant, a brilliant lady, a 'Publications Coach' who offers hints to both novice and serious writers.

Because my eyes remained dry for months after the trip, I eventually went to see my optometrist. He prescribed eye drops but instructed me to get the single-dose variety, which contains just enough fluid to moisturize both eyes, once (you break open a tiny plastic ampule to get liquid for one treatment).

These single-dose varieties, he told me, don’t require the same number of chemicals needed by entire bottles of eye drops, which guard against contamination over time. (If the tip of the bottle touches your face or eye, you are contaminating it.) The optometrist put me in that category of people who get irritated eyes simply from the chemicals in the treatment to fix eye irritation. Ironic, no?

It sparked my interest because at different times, having suffered from dry eyes, I've purchased and used these eye drops. Without going too much into this history, I say that yes, they give me comfort after application. My optometrist at one point suggested I should use them four times a day but if I couldn't do that then at least twice, morning on rising and night before retiring. I bought the type he recommended at his reception desk, these being more expensive than the others I'd brought at the chemist or supermarket previously, but he said they used recent innovations and were far mor effective. 

I used them for a while and bought another bottle at the high price, but after a while I decided to give it a go without them. Now I still get dry eyes, some days worse than others, but generally speaking, with blinking repeatedly they're OK. Daphne went on to talk about eye exercises such as blinking, rolling eyes, and side to side exercise. I'm happy in that I'm not spending money on eye drops that might get contaminated and I'm not putting chemicals in my eyes.

Daphne said, Ironic, no? Irritation from the very treatment to fix irritation. This led me to think of other things people do, that I have basically dispensed with, believing it to be unnecessary, and so saving money and reducing application of chemicals. I speak of hair shampoo, dandruff and other, and anti-perspirant deodorant. 

Yes, I sometimes still have a small amount of dandruff. For many years, even decades, I washed my hair every time I bathed, most days, with anti-dandruff shampoo. I had no dandruff. But if I stopped using the shampoo, a big incidence of dandruff surely followed, which is why I kept using it. Like an addiction, my scalp reacted if it didn't get its fix. I read somewhere that washing the hair everyday was not beneficial, it removed the natural oils that would keep things in balance. This guy only occasionally used soap and rinsed his hair now again with water. So, I tried that, it works - I have slight dandruff now and again, but I have no issue with it, it diminishes naturally. Another saving.

Same with the deodorant. I don't use it. When I did use it every day, for decades, if I didn't put it on one day, for sure I'd stink with BO. But by stopping using it and the body adjusting, I found that most times I don't need it. I bathe every day, with a minimum of soap, clean water is good. The body adjusts to what you do to it. If I work hard in hot weather and perspire profusely, I sometimes will use underarm if I'm going to be close with people, but in the main I don't use it and don't need it.

Like alcohol and nicotine, our bodies get addicted to things. Without them there's strong reaction. We go on a treadmill, back to the well, spending money. Most of it is unnecessary. Sugar's a big one, take a look at the supermarket shelves and aisles. Junk food too. 

The Bank Teller and The Barber

I was in the bank Monday, withdrawing my weekly cash allowance (self-imposed). The teller, a young lady named Megan, asked me how my weekend was. I told her a little story explaining a highlight as there were no customers behind me and it was nearing 12.30 when the branch closes for an hour. I asked her whether she had a good weekend and what was a highlight. She replied she went to Adelaide to help her partner buy a suit. He'd never owned one before and needed one for his wedding, they were getting married soon. I asked her when and she said the day after the King's Birthday weekend coming up soon. The registry office is only open on Tuesdays, they are getting married there.

I have a nice rapport with Megan, since I first met her a year ago when she started work at the bank. I told her of my very good friendship with Megan Kelly in the 1970's. We have drifted but I have much fondness for Megan K, now O'Brien. Sister of my friend Mark in Wangaratta she was fun loving with a sense of humour that would brighten anybody. I told bank teller Megan that my Megan back then was the only person who could have me enjoy dancing. I was not a dancer and frankly loathed it at the many functions of the day. But with Megan I was OK with it and grooved along with no reluctance. Megan K's youthful joy and laughter often appears in my memories fondly.

Megan today explained they weren't having a wedding celebration. They'd have the long weekend off to prepare, the Tuesday off to tie the knot at the registry, then back to work Wednesday. Other than her partner's father coming from Cairns to be a witness, there'd be no family to share the occasion, something they were both happy with. I gave her early congratulation and wished her well. I'll drop in a box of chocolates for her the week before the wedding. Her partner is named Nicco she told me in answer to my question. He's Dutch South African by origin.

The barber who cut my hair a couple of weeks ago had an amazing story. As I waited while he did the bloke before me, I overheard him say he'd been on cortisone for many years and it wrecked his bones. When my turn came, I asked him "Why the cortisone, if you don't mind me asking?"

He was a sickly kid during childhood after his family migrated from England when he was three. Doctors couldn't find what was wrong him until eventually he was diagnosed with acute Chrone's disease, which was not supposed to happen to one so young. I'm not sure how old he was at this point and my recall of his story may not be 100% accurate. Somewhere along the way whatever was going on with him caused him to have rheumatoid arthritis and a lot more cortisone. After some time, he was nearly buggered, in hospital for a long time. they were going to cut his leg off, he was all set, they'd painted orange on his leg so there could be no accident like cutting off the wrong leg. I knew what he was talking about as before my recent carotid clean out they'd coloured the side of my neck to make sure they did the right one. There was a Canadian doctor present (on some exchange arrangement) at the last prep session who suggested if this patient could be given to him to treat with a new bio injection treatment, he reckoned he could save the leg. It worked, but over time the weekly and now self-administered injection had adverse side effect.

He lived on Hindmarsh Island. His wife was at work. He was home alone and didn't feel well. He went to the toilet to vomit and collapsed over the bowl. Heart attack. This was last November. He said he would have died were it not for freakish lucky breaks. His wife would have come home to find him dead in the toilet. His son was coming from Morphetvale in his car to go to the schoolies function in Victor Harbor, an annual sheebang attended by thousands. He had been looking forward to it and planning for it. He was driving to VH and something made him change his mind. He inexplicably decided to forego the schoolies and go and see his dad instead. When he got there, he found him unconscious in the toilet. He bundled him in his car with great difficulty and drove him the half hour or so to VH emergency. 

The barber remembers little of this, but he recalls a lady in the waiting room letting out a blood curdling scream when his son brought him in and laid him on the floor. Staff came running. He remembers a nurse leaping over him and rushing outside, that's all. She was running to catch an ambulance crew who were around the corner at the ambulance ramp driving away. By a miracle they were a highly trained crew of paramedics who had transferred a patient, a job not normally done by these cardiac guys but fortuitously they were there. She literally banged on the back of the ambulance as it was driving off.

The barber learned these details later. The paramedics rushed him to Flinders Hospital some 50 minutes away, all the time doing CPR or whatever it's called, pumping the chest to keep him alive, breaking ribs in the process. He was operated on and survived. Apparently, the position of his blocked artery meant the normal outcome is an explosion causing death, but by a third miracle it didn't happen and he's a rare survivor of that particular event.

I asked him how old he was. 48. I thanked him for sharing his story and gave him a healthy tip. I wished him well and said I hoped he made it to 72, like me walking around healthy. I left the shop, thinking I'm so lucky.

Before the Rain

 It's been a while since I posted. I've been busy with one thing or other. Footy season too. Good to see the Suns touch up the Cats last night.

I had a haircut yesterday. The bloke cutting my hair was a ripper. Told me amazing stories of his health battles since he was a toddler. I'll write it up before long while it's fresh in my mind, but not now, it will take some application. Definitely worth recording.

For now, below l copy and paste from an Email I received this morning which explains some of why I've been busy. Added to it I've had a program treating weed trees in a section of river I had not previously been on the other side, olives, boxthorns, pittosporums, tobacco plants. Good to get in there now while it dry, the river low, and the reeds and died off for easier access. Also snakes not active.

Hi Members, A big thank you to those folks who up potted the last of our seedlings for the season.  

These plants will be our starting stock for 2025 planting season and already our team is discussing where to place this wonderful selection. 

🌿🌾Acacia Pycnontha 160 (Golden Wattle) - Dodonaea Viscosa 25 (Sticky Hop bush) - Acacia Acinacea 40 (Gold Dust Wattle)

We wish to thank all our members in meeting outside of our normal hours to advance our planting season before the rain.

This adjustment has been working but only with the assistance of our team volunteering to water the new plants.

Many thanks to  the following folks:

Tony and Di for taking on the watering of Wattle Res up-stream end group of several gums: To Di and hubby Jeff for taking the job of watering Cootamundra Res new plants: To Carey who wanders all over the place watering those in need: And also to the friends of FoHRE along Wattle Drive who have offered access to their water so our members do not have to cart water to the sites: and of course to CVH for watering the bulk of the plants in the reserves during this dry season.

                                  💥 Get ready for a WOW!  👀💥

83 kangaroo thorn, 87 christmas bush , 102 drooping sheoaks, 80 pigface 23 cup gums, 10 pink gums, 10 sideroxylon

to name only a few but add up to 440 so far of our very own plants (seeds collected, propagating to seedlings and then planted)

All of the above plants have been planted to build on the existing tree communities, to enhance the biodiversity of the reserves, to improve the entrances / exits of each reserve and to fill in some bare areas.

Again, a big thank you to all.

Co Coordinators 

Marching On

 Nearly we are at the end of March, and what a busy month it has been for me. The Ides bought me no foul. I was concerned, as on the 15th I was to make a trip to Flinders Hospital to have the vascular team examine the ultrasound pictures of my carotid arteries, which were taken a week earlier at the Sir Mark Oliphant building on the other side of the Expressway to Flinders Hospital.

At my consultation a lady doctor, not Thaven, the man who did my surgery, told me the pictures were all good. I could henceforth drop the Clopidogrel blood thinning medication but I should continue the 100mg aspirin for life. Also the Atorvastin. I asked her could that dose be reduced from the very strong 80mg with time. She said she wouldn't if she were me, but I could if I wish, reduce to 40 mg when I'd finished the 80mg stock that I have. I have a few repeat prescriptions so as of the15th I have been cutting them to have half a tablet each day.

Interestingly, on my way out of the hospital, when I was wrestling with the pay machine in the car park to gain exit ticket, my phone rang. It was the lady doctor. She said they'd had a close look at the images and there was some residual narrowing in the artery they cleaned out and she was going to organize a surveillance ultrasound for six months' time. I have since had a letter telling me I'm booked in at the Victor Harbor Medical Centre for ultrasound on the 11th of September (another significant date). I reckon Thaven had come in and asked how I went and took a look at the images and overruled her which caused the phone call so soon after I left the vascular clinic. Anyway, I don't mind. A future check is a good safeguard. And because it's 6 months away, the Victor Harbour place where they come to do them once a week is not booked out, as it was when I had to go to Flinders on the 8th.

We had another trip to Adelaide on the 23/24th. Gord had bought a ticket to go to a music festival at Seppeltsfield in the Barossa Valley. One of his favourite all-time bands was performing there, Cheap Trick. Gord organized and paid for hotel accommodation at the Rose and Crown in Elizabeth. It had a sportsbar so Lib and I could watch Melbourne and Hawthorn playing while Gord was at his concert. After checking in at the hotel we took Gord to Sepplesfield about 30 minutes away. It took us 50 as we took backroads by mistake. Then Lib and I got lost on the way coming back through Elizabeth, wrong turn again, and it was over an hour. Still, we caught the last half of the game on the bigscreen. No sound, as music was playing, and a table with a bogan family next to us, grandparents down to feral children made increasing noise as the pots went down, making them more pissed and louder. Footy finished, I went off to buy pizzas up the road, while Lib had a crack at the pokies. I gave her $20 and she came back with $50 so that about paid for the pizza, as Gord reimbursed me for his. He ate his back in our room after we picked him up at the festival in darkness at the arranged time and place.  The hotel accomm was like an apartment with 2 bedrooms and a fridge and microwave in a kitchenette. All good, a nice weekend and a break from normal routine. *

Another trip to Adelaide was this Wednesday gone, to have our Skoda serviced at the dealer where we bought it. Lib stayed home and cooked a casserole and had a bit of quiet time by herself, while Gord and I enjoyed our day out in the city, lunching in the Rundle mall and shopping at the central market.

 

We had two lots of visitors from Victoria during March. Old friends John and Nicky Bridges from Moyhu stayed a couple of nights at the Port Elliot Caravan Park in their A-Van and Annie Hiskins and her friend Margot stayed a few nights in an Air B&B, also in Port Elliot. These friends go back to the 1970's so it was wonderful to see them and have them for dinner and see our environment.

On March 5 I had a crown fitted to a screw that was implanted in a gap in my lower jaw late last year. It works well, I can chew easily and confidently on both sides now. When I got in the chair I asked dentist Ah Ling, a delightful young lady, how she was. She said she had a bad start to the day. She left home in her VW Golf at 7am to pick up two other dentists, they drive share rotate, but not a couple of hundred metres from her home she somehow clipped a car parked in the street and her car tipped almost to rolling over and came to rest badly damaged all up one side, probably totalling it. But here she was fitting my crown that she'd measured up the previous week. All computerized, the measuring and the machine that makes the crown.

Between all this happening when I can I walk down the river late afternoons, I water some of the river group's young plantings by water bottle, and I've made good inroad into 2 large boxthorn thickets, cutting my way in and sawing off the stems near ground level and painting the cut with roundup. I also cut my way into the base of a big olive tree and drilled holes around and filled with the herbicide. It may take another go or two, it's multi trunked from the base and I therefore couldn't get the drill to a few places on the inside of the meeting trunks. These tree weeds are on the council's and the Friends' group list to be removed, and on my list to do this autumn, so it's satisfying to get it done. As I get about, I also pull out any persistent African daisies I see, and cape ivy and boneseeds. They keep appearing. Most of these weeds are Sth African in origin. I'm led to believe the first came here as ballast in sailing ships that was unloaded in ports to make way for wheat etc for the trip back.

February and March have been bone dry, bar for a light shower at night a few weeks ago that barely wet the ground. We badly need a good rain now. One of our Friends' group members was killed on 21 Mar, hit by a truck while riding on the Nullabor in the Fremantle to Sydney race. He was 62, an ex Kiwi, a lovely bloke I had enjoyed working with at a working bee. It was his 6th time in that race, and he had ridden his pushbike completely around Australia.

An event of significance for me in March was my sister Meredith's 70th birthday. I could not participate in person, but it was nice reflecting that my little sister had reached 70. I'm soon to be 72 and Jod turns 75 later this year so we are fortunate. April Fool's Day Monday. I'll try to avoid putting my foot or mouth in it.

* When we stayed at the Rose and Crown hotel we were given two complimentary drink cards to the value of $10 each. After we returned from taking Gord to his festival we made use of these, a pot of beer for Lib (Hahn super dry) and for me I meant to order a soda lime and bitters, but in a slip of the tongue I said brandy lime and soda, at least that's what came. I explained to the bar lady I'm off alcohol and had made a mistake. I asked her to get me the AF drink saying I was happy to pay for it. She made my drink no charge and commended me for going alcohol free. I was most impressed. Later I ordered another pot for Lib, it cost $10. I wondered at the bogans who were making all the noise, sitting there knocking pots down. At $10 each pot, they must have plenty of money.

I