Balanced Life
http://www.webmd.com/fibromyalgia/features/fibromyalgia-living-balanced-life?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Radiation
http://www.medilexicon.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=198658

My Grandad is on the Internet

http://www.australiansatwar.gov.au/stories/stories_war=W1_id=11.html

When thousands of young men left their homes to take part in World War I, they went with the good wishes of their families for a safe return. Many a father would have taken his son to one side to offer words of advice.

Charles Greenwood of Parkville, Victoria, was moved to write to his son, John Hallily Greenwood, then only 18 years old, who had left to join up and was on board ship bound for the war.

Your Home
31-8-18

My Dear Son,

You will be far away on the waters when you read these lines, and no doubt getting your sea legs, and certainly with all your mates you will not be lonely.

I don't like to lose you My Boy but I am proud that you are going, and hope you will get a chance to punish a few of those barbarian Germans, and hope and trust that you will be spared to come back safe.

You are a boy now Jack, but when I take your hand again you will be a man. Never do anything that you would be ashamed to tell Mother or I.

If you keep that in mind it will be all you want. When you are fully trained in England, and go across to France no doubt you will get many temptations. Wine - Women - and gambling. Shun them all. You are going out to fight for Australia. So always strive to keep a fit man, and do your duty. If at any time you feel lonely and have a few minutes to spare, don't forget how pleased we will always be to get a few lines from you if only scribbled in lead pencil.

You know how the mail service is, sometimes letters do not come to hand. Charlie Jordan got five letters all at once. He wrote wanting to know if they had forgotten him. So if they go astray, don't you begin to think you are forgotten. You can rest assured Jack that we will be thinking of you pretty often.

You remember the shaft you helped me sink up at the Launch. I have great hopes of that gully and if we do have the luck to strike anything in it, you will have a small interest put on one side for you.

If you happen to call in at many ports and have a chance to post a letter I think Rilda will watch the box pretty often on the chance of getting one.

Wishing you My Boy a safe & pleasant voyage to the land of your forefathers and with love from us all,

Father

        Charles Greenwood

John Halliley Greenwood,

to whom this letter was written, survived the war and went on to live to the age of 99. He died on 25 February 1999.



Back to the Stories Index

John Greenwood as a young soldier in World War I.

John Greenwood celebrates his 99th birthday.

Letter written to John Greenwood by his father.

Page 2 of letter.

The Body Shop Activist

The Body Shop Activist

The Garage

My car has been able to fit into the garage for a couple of weeks until yesterday when I dumped everything from the floor of the bedroom in there.  I have no idea how I am going to find homes for those things or how long it will be before I can get the car back in.

I had to take the black glasses back yesterday because the lenses were not sitting in the frames properly and unlike what the receptionist said, they did not have to be sent back and the optometrist did it while I was there.  Computer distance is not worth worrying about because I am happier not to wear glasses while in front of the computer rather than be restricted to looking through less than 20% of the visual area and doing that is not going to damage my vision. Also, here are my other glasses without the transition lenses.

Web cam

BBQ's and Dentist

The mornings have been a case of making sure I'm empty before I can leave the toilet for the day.  I didn't eat yesterday except a few bites before Jan arrived.  She had said to be on standby for a BBQ with her and her son Graham but he was sick and I was not quite game to eat yet.  But I thought the worst was over and I took a chance especially since Jan had already prepared a salad and had marinated the steak and I was starting to get hungry.  We found it difficult to find a BBQ in Happy Valley so we kept on driving and found one up on the headland around Pt. Wickham.  By the time the steak was cooked, the couple had left the nearby table so we were lucky.

This morning and Saturday too was more of the same so that I headed out the door to drive to Noosaville with a dubious tum hoping I would not need a toilet and knowing that I had nothing in me except for a few mouthfuls of yoghurt to sustain me.  I stopped at my usual spot near T-Boat Hire where I don't have to back-in park and headed to the toilet block.  Good timing.  It started to mist rain but it soon stopped and I had time for a cuppa before driving to Simply Dental just around the corner.  I had a filling, my plates filed some more, a scale and clean, fluoride treatment and some sensitive tooth polish.  My teeth are still yellow but the tartar is gone.  Anyway it was the last trip to a private dentist for me for a while.  If those with the balance of power during this hung parliament allow the Allied Health Scheme to continue I guess I will apply for it again but not until next year since it is a two-year scheme for the dental.

Tomorrow the glasses appointment and Wednesday the  3rd Hearing Aid appointment.  Let's hope things get sorted happily with those unlike my still painful plates.

The Web is Dead Already

Use of the Internet with apps instead of browsing the WWW is the newest trend with only 40% of Internet traffic being HTML-based web-browsing.  Wired Magazine goes on to say "This was all inevitable. It is the cycle of capitalism. The story of industrial revolutions, after all, is a story of battles over control. A technology is invented, it spreads, a thousand flowers bloom, and then someone finds a way to own it, locking out others. It happens every time."

We are letting this happen despite our recent battles for Internet freedom because it seems we consumers prefer speed over flexibility and we love having things delivered to us rather than us having to seek them out.  Many of the newer Internet applications "are closed, often proprietary, networks" but we are becoming more likely to pay for instant delivery of the kind of content we want - be it news, movies or games - rather than seeking it out for ourselves.  I guess we will soon be paying for applications to do our research for us while we continue to collect our academic degrees.

Saved from a Blowout (see end paragraph)

I got new glasses last weekend.  In fact I got two pair.  The other ones are not as "out there" as these ones but these ones have transition lenses for the sun but the other red metal ones do not.  During the week I noticed that one of the lenses in this pair was popping out and I took them back but I also complained that the computer distance was pretty useless to me even though the reading area is much improved over the old glasses.  I have been in the habit of wearing separate computer glasses anyway which allow me to see the whole screen and the bifocal part below them (the purple unfashionable hospital glasses with top-up) is great for the keyboard but the receptionist insisted I should be able to do better than half to 3/4 of a line being in focus so I have another appointment next Tuesday and will deal with both problems then.  No glasses can beat good eyes and I don't think I will ever be 100% comfortable with multi-focal lenses despite the fact of the convenience of not having to change into another pair of glasses.

I have to go back to the dentist again on Monday in Noosaville and use up the last of the Government allied health subsidy on a filling and a scale and clean and I cannot imagine Dianne being able to get the bottom plate adjusted enough to not cause me any pain.  Last week's filing down has not fixed the pain from chewing and that is what I need the darn things for.  My gums are often sore and even raw in spots even without false teeth and it is not infrequent me pushing away the healthy food on my plate.  It is also hard to eat the nuts and seeds in the flat-belly diet.

On Wednesday I picked up the uDirect that streams sound from any audio output directly into my hearing aids but it has been very disappointing and I phoned up the same day complaining about the quality of sound.  It sounds like a tinny old transistor radio which is fine for voice calls on the mobile phone but totally unacceptable even to my deaf ears for music and what they neglect to tell you is that the lipsync is useless for the television because there is a delay if only small.  The truth of the matter is that in-the-ear buds provide a much better quality of sound.  Nevertheless William really wanted to try and make some adjustments including cutting out the background sound which can still enter because my hearing aids are open to the world and I agreed to give him an appointment to try to improve things which is next Wednesday.  I do not have much faith in his software being able to change the quality of the speakers in my hearing aids and I will guess that I will be returning these as "unsuitable".  Even the device which MUST be worn around the neck to provide the antenna is heavy enough to aggravate the arthritis in my neck.  I can sit it in my bra to relieve some weight but right now I am sore from wearing bras.  Yes, they are still literally a pain to wear especially repeatedly compressing the same areas. 

I just have problems with any pressure and my ears have also been sore because of the hearing aids and glasses have always been a problem.  Add both of them together and it is just a bigger source of aggravation.  I know I sound like a "touchy" person but it seems my body is over-reactive to many things which I put up with until I cannot bear it any more. The thing to remember is that the pain is still real.  My back has been hard to bear all week so I finally have got stuck into some iboprufen (Advil) which is the worst thing I can do for my gut but it is the lesser of two evils that I must decide for what has to be called "quality of life".

What else has happened this week?  Well there is that person who is still pruning the hibiscus out the front until he gets rid of the diseased bits and the other day I caught him pulling the buds off the lemon tree because they were full of minute grubs.  I think that will mean "no lemons" rather than having the option of "sprayed" lemons.  He also called in some housing maintenance without telling me which is actually a good thing except for the fact that he did not tell me.  So far we have had a repaired power-point, the front door-jamming problem corrected and the guttering measured up for replacement should the department accept the quote (and have any surplus funds).  Not having a sheet of water pouring down in front of the door during moderate rainfall would be great.

I found navy rubber backed unhemmed curtain material at the op shop which had the curtain tape on it ready for rings.  It is too short but widthways is fine (without hemming) and since it is brand new it looks OK as an added layer to the window at the front of the house with the string curtains behind it and the lacey ones removed.  The curtain is easy to open and shut like the kitchen window so it will be much better for cutting out the Summer heat too.  Only enough for that one window though.

Today my car got serviced with an oil change and check and the only extra thing I needed to pay for was a new air filter.  That should be it now for another 10,000km so I got off quite lightly.  I found a new auto place that was out to impress so there was a discount and pick-up and delivery which made it all too easy. 

The most interesting part of the report was the tyre pressure.  Three tyres were so overinflated at 45psi that a trip to Hervey Bay could have heated them up enough to blow-out with the three of us in the car.  It seems none of us are meant to die yet.  We know who overinflated the tyres but I should have checked them and I was reminded of the fact today after he ordered "never come and talk to me again after one of 'your' people and you have consulted".  No wonder the road was so bumpy and the fuel consumption so good!

Lest We Forget the Oil

Excerpts Taken from http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/09/bp-ocean-cover-up?page=1


JUST ABOUT THE TIME WE drop anchor off Oahu, and unbeknownst to us, a catastrophe is being unleashed 4,400 miles and five time zones away, in the Gulf of Mexico. A mile below sea level, methane is shooting up the experimental well drilled by the Deepwater Horizon rig, exploding at the well's head, killing 11 workers, and igniting a firestorm. After 36 hours of a raging inferno—and still unknown to any of us—the rig will sink and open a valve to the gargantuan reservoir of the Macondo oil field, estimated to contain perhaps as much as 1 billion barrels, or 42 billion gallons, of crude.
Though it won't be understood for weeks, the Deepwater Horizon is different from any other spill in human history. The extreme technology used to drill at unprecedented depths lacks the extreme safety equipment and protocols needed to stave off disaster. BP, gambling at the border of controllable engineering, has lost spectacularly in its bid to be the deepest and cheapest driller of them all.
And no one is ready for it. Not the Minerals Management Service, catering submissively to BP's laughable Gulf oil-spill "plan," a document featuring wildly inaccurate wildlife assessments (including walruses and other species nonexistent in the Gulf) and an on-call expert who's been dead for years. Not the scientists whose research is paid for by the oil cowboys. Not the environmental groups, who did not foresee the stupendous potential for cataclysm on oil's farthest frontier. Not the media, who almost entirely ignored the sneak preview offered last year by the blowout of the West Atlas rig drilling in the Timor Sea off Australia—a disaster that required five attempts at a relief well and 74 days to stanch. Far offshore, far from sight, far beyond the typical royalty-paying boundaries, BP and its partners have transformed themselves into modern-day pirates, operating beyond law or conscience. Their reckless quest has endangered and perhaps condemned not just the Gulf Coast, but the largest, richest, most pristine, most biologically important, and last completely unprotected ecosystem left on Earth: the deep ocean.
Despite an ever-expanding estimate of the volume of the spill, relatively little oil washes ashore at first, and only a small portion ever will. Instead, trapped in the deep, the oil fouls the ocean's twilight and dark zones: the mesopelagic and the bathypelagic (bathos: deep). After April 20, the dumbwaiter rising through the waters of the Gulf of Mexico will be ascending an ocean fouled with a toxic broth of oil, methane, chemical dispersants, and drilling mud. The relatively small amounts of oil washing ashore, and the relief felt when the surface oil began to dissipate, hardly account for the devastation being wrought in the dark world beyond our sight.

From http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/09/bp-ocean-cover-up?page=2


FROM THE OUTSET, BP has fought to control every aspect of its uncontrollable catastrophe other than the spill itself. It has wildly spun the numbers on the quantity of hemorrhaging oil. It has continued to dispense Corexit—above and below water—when ordered to stop. It has restricted press access with Kafkaesque flair. Unable or unwilling to skim much oil, BP has poured its energies into skimming up all available resources: renting virtually every hotel room on the Louisiana shores, helping to keep the press at bay; buying the silence of scientists with lucrative pay and confidentiality clauses; chartering nearly every boat on the coast and employing virtually every fisherman and captain made jobless by the spill. I find clusters of these men in the marshes and out in the Gulf, their boats tethered together so they can watch movies on the biggest boat's DVD player.
"They have to pay these guys to work or else they'll riot," says Carl Safina, marine conservationist and cofounder of the Blue Ocean Institute. "As it is, they're angry, drinking, griping in the bars. By paying them, BP is deflecting their anger. Plus some of them feel like they're really helping, even though BP's two prime cleanup methods—setting out boom and using dispersant—completely undermine each other."
The containment and absorbent boom that BP is deploying around beaches and marshes—largely ineffectively—is designed to do just that: contain and absorb oil. But the Corexit dispersant BP has flooded onto the leaking wellhead 5,000 feet down, and sprayed from the air onto the surface—some 2 million gallons in total—is designed to break up the oil. "Which one is it?" asks Safina. "Do you want to contain it or disperse it? It makes absolutely no sense to be doing both. Let's face it, with pollution, you count your lucky stars if you have what's called point-source pollution, that is, a single identifiable localized source of pollution, like the Deepwater Horizon. So what's BP doing with that? They're turning it into the worst pollution nightmare of them all: non-point-source pollution."

That's because untreated oil quickly rises to the surface, where it can be skimmed with relative ease. But treated with dispersant, it becomes a submerged plume, unlikely to ever float to the surface, and destined to migrate through underwater currents to the entire Gulf basin and eventually the North Atlantic. "Oil is toxic to most life," says Steiner. "And Corexit is toxic to most life. But the most toxic of all is oil that's been treated with Corexit. Plus, dispersants may well kill the ocean's first line of defense against oil: the natural microbes that break oil down for other microbes to eat." The EPA has never seriously examined Corexit's effects on marine life (see "Bad Breakup"). Now it'll get the biggest and baddest field experiment of all time, as the flora and fauna of the shallows and the deep scattering layer collide with the dispersed plumes.

BP's schizophrenic approach to the cleanup becomes more insidious in light of the company's legal liabilities: The Clean Water Act stipulates that BP must pay $1,100 for every barrel of oil proven to have been spilled—$4,300 per barrel if gross negligence is determined. But the use of dispersants clouds estimates of the spill's size, guaranteeing that the true number will never be known—since relatively little oil will ever wash ashore—and guaranteeing that BP's liability will be vastly underestimated.

Weather and Welfare

From fine to 24 hours of the biggest August deluge in 123 years. We had 80mm mostly yesterday.  Anyway the rain stopped an hour or so before my hearing aid assessment at 11am.  Tomorrow, strong winds hit but the weekend is looking fine.

He of the Him post, now denies he did not pay me. The extra 10 for this and 10 for that he has blown out to include the $150.  In his mind he has paid.

I heard about another man today who says he has sent a payment when he hasn't.  You see, this man from the child support agency rang.  Kieren has given up on trying to get any money out of that man because even though that man is so pleasant to deal with and seemingly so genuine in wanting to honor his debt and because the man says "yes" he will pay them back no money ever turns up.  Kieren has had enough since it has been going on since February. They were prepared to forgive him his fines and penalties which are actually worth considerably more than what this man owes apparently but the whole lot will go against him again and be shelved for a while - 10 years is about what I would expect.  The poor person who is owed the child support has to wait again too.  There would have been a distinct advantage to this man paying now with about $10,000 worth of savings for him and also avoiding his pension being garnished in the future.  But this man sounds like the one I spoke to last week on the phone who said "I will never go on the old-age pension because I will always be either working or dead".  Kieren wonders why this man is always working but all his earnings are not evident.  There is nothing for the Government to access anyway.  So another person gets away with not paying.

Like I said - 2 men in one day - like father like son

Found at the base of Mt Ninderry near Yandina

Mt Ninderry from the Maroochy River taken at Maroochy River (the suburb that should have been entered into the GPS instead of Bli Bli)

Him

Last week, apart from Windows, he also bought an exercise tension gadget that you hang from the door.  I saw it for the first time today and I had a turn.  I asked him if we could put it up where we could both use it but he will not share it.  I can't believe he is worried I will sweat all over the handles.  I have to buy my own yet he can use both phones despite the fact that they harbor heaps of germs so I heard on TV - especially those that come from faecal matter.  It is time to buy alcohol wipes or simply not fear the germs on phones any more than the germs on keyboards or money.  I think it is just another point for washing your hands.

But getting back to him, I was really disappointed by his double standard.  Beg, borrow and even steal my stuff without asking and feeling like he has some sort of right to fulfill his needs and stomach with my property but he says no to things that I cannot understand as being worthy of causing distance between us.  I mean, I say "no" to some things and "yes" to others because I care about him.  He says "no" through self-indulgence and a lack of trust of me - well that is how I take it on-board. 

He removed the second heater (the one I use if I want) from the bathroom and took it to his room today, in addition to the halegen bar heater.  I let him have the latter because I asked him to only run it on one bar - 500 watts whick is economical.  Today it was 19 C when he decided to warm up his room with the fan heater instead (2400 watts).  It is not even cold with a blanket of cloud today while the rain falls.  It looks like it could be cold outside but it isn't.  There is hardly any wind either. 

He says no and I say yes with qualifications - the limits and rules I expect applied as conditions for the yes.  A business agreement if you will.  His agreement is a lie and that is what I cannot tolerate.  He breaks the agreement and expects to continue breaking it.  I get so angry but Scott will not hear me when I am angry.  I should remember that he will forget but for him to demand respect and calm negotiating tones to things that have already been negotiated repeatedly for up to 12 months, feels like some form of emotional abuse.  He has successfully turned it around in his mind to it being my fault that he does not comply with my rules.

  Usually, I then give up discussing it and I ask him to leave this house and find somewhere else to live.  It seems we cannot tolerate each other unless I quit reacting to his repeated episodes of changing the rules in my house.  I am not likely to do that except when I am crook when I think Scott enjoys the lack of attention.  Several days after I have once again asked him to look for another place to live, he simply announces (after some research when the feeling is mutual) that he cannot afford to leave and he promises to abide by my rules.  Now I have to write them down I'm told.  Just who is calling the shots here?  Help me be free from manipulators or learn how to deal with them.  I have often wondered if I am supposed to bring in reinforcements.  I think Rob tried but the way he wanted things was just going to put me into a situation where someone else would take the role of disrespect while wanting to become the self appointed leader wanting adoration who was not self-restrained enough to put a halt to taking advantage of me when I was too ill to care about the rules of my house.

I would have to say that chronic ill-health is a major deterrent to parental consistency.

I agreed to take a look at the major accounting assignment this morning.  I started correcting obvious grammatical and spelling errors but soon came to realize that his assignment was not being expressed in any way that made sense with the assignment requirements.  He was writing to a client after some financial analysis had taken place which I cannot tell you if it was right or not - the method was beyond me but the correspondence with the client gave me the impression that he was offering them a loan rather than discussing the outcome of a decision about whether or not the client make a loan application to fund an equipment purchase.  I could not make sense of it but he told me I was not helping.  And I told him that I could not help him if he would not explain his goal in the written part of the assignment. 

Good things about him are numerable and he did look good in his Coastguard uniform last night.  I am however allergic to his choices of body spray or deoderant spray which he uses with a heavy hand so looking good goes hand in hand with sneezing when it comes to that person I am talking about.  The other good thing is that the "opposing forces" negative talk  of a week ago has been replaced with how good everything is - his white teeth, his healthy body and his healthy diet (at my expense I try to point out).  It seems that if I wasn't here this son of mine would be completely happy right now (and probably broke while eating noodles in a tent somewhere).

Dentist and Dunethin
From ears and eyes to teeth, I seem to be plagued with having to wear "devices".  My plates needed adjusting and I had some of my own teeth to be taken care of so I once again trundled off to Diane at Simply Dental in Noosaville yesterday.  She has already found an additional hole I did not know about for an appointment to come but if I get any more after that it is too bad because I have run out of money.  I can't believe she managed to charge up $4200 to me in less than 2 years but it has included top and bottom plates,a small front crown and fillings and teeth cleaning.  She keeps telling me my teeth are on their last legs but she managed to keep them hanging in there but not without some aggravating gum problems that I have to put up with because of the food caught in overhangs at the gum level. I have taken to flossing but it seems since starting eating all these MUFAs (nuts in particular) everything has flared up again. The gum was inflamed enough for her to use some special injectable disinfectant yesterday but I will not be getting any more of these "treatments" unless I am able to apply for the allied health dental scheme again next year for another 2 years.  Anyway, I had another filling repaired which was just about to fall out (already - less than 12 months) and then I browsed some shops in Noosaville before heading to Dunethin Rock and the Maroochy River.

I just wanted to see this place because I had no idea it existed until this year.  I wondered if it would be a nice retreat or a place to go car camping if I felt like it but I would not wish those toilets up on a tower on anyone.  They looked neglected and filthy despite the fact that there was some upgrade going on in the area yesterday which eventually resulted in the Boat Ramp being cut off from access but not before I got to spend some time there taking photos.  I think they are putting in more power lines across the Maroochy River.

Anyway, Dunethin Rock is just a rock that you can drive to via dirt road - Dunethin Rock Road - a flattish expanse of rock on a hill with commanding views toward Bli Bli and  Mt Coolum.  I actually came in from the Bruce Highway along the Yandina-Bli Bli Road and turned in at Pearce Av. but I should have come down the Sunshine Motorway.  I will blame the GPS for the roundabout way of getting there from Noosaville.

Dunethin Rock

Mt Coolum from Dunethin Rock

Back down at water level less than a kilometre away Dunethin Lake is part of the Maroochy River and named after the rock I assume.

Mt Ninderry from Dunethin Rock Boat Ramp, Maroochy River

If you want to get away from traffic noises, this is not the place because although muted you can still hear the traffic on the Yandina-Coolum Road coming from the other side of the Maroochy River beyond the farms.  There is a long truck travelling past behind the farmhouse.

Picnic tables and a rough shelter are found along the River Front and there are plenty of water birds, raptors and those machine-gun noise-making birds Mum talks about.  What are they again? The one I saw had a white or yellow cheek.

Boat Ramp on Maroochy River at Dunethin Rock

Let's Make Hay While the Sun Shines because tomorrow it will rain

I had a thermos cuppa at the shelter shed and a couple of soft ginger kisses from Aldi (yummy) before leaving.  I went home via the Motorway and Bli Bli but I did not go past the Castle but along the Bli Bli-Mudjimba Road on to the Highway.  On command from the GPS the wrong exit landed me in Pacific Paradise for a u-turn before accessing the Sunshine Motorway.  But I do not seem to mind finding myself in an unplanned place these days.  It adds to the excitement of life which is often so lacking when ill-health takes over.  Mum would prefer I had a map.

And today - today it is raining so I am blogging. Tomorrow should bring my hearing aid assessment/adjustment.

Connor was the main focus on Wednesday 4th August because it was the last chance for Mum and Debbie to see him before they left on their Virgin flight the next day.  We had to wait until after school but we managed to fit in Kawana Shoppingworld and Muffin Break before that.  Mum found 2 for the price-of-one T-shirts at Katies while we were shopping and I hunted around for a bluetooth transmitter with a view to syncing sound with my new hearing aids via an add-on accessory which I might buy.  No-one had heard of such a thing but I have ordered one from China for $30 including postage.

We took Connor to Military Jetty for a walk first. 

Next came the tree climbing.

Then it was sundown at Diamond Head

Connor took this photo

Followed by burgers and the Military Jetty store.  Connor had never seen such a huge cheeseburger and he ate the lot.

Let's pick on Witchy Butt GrandNan was the before meal game.  Mum asked for it with her Witch antics - and the false teeth gag.  He and his adopted friends were jumping up and down behind the glass screen calling out names and laughing their heads off.  Just pretend I am not in the photo - it is horrible.

I don't think those pale glasses suit me and soon I will be transformed because I am getting new ones.  Thanks to Mum I have upgraded to 2 pair on a special $100 deal and that is very good for multi-focal lenses.  I have been assured that my current "comfort" lenses are the lowest quality multi-focal lenses you can buy and the curvature of sight generated by them can be disorienting.  Fibromyalgia has enough disorientation problems on its own without adding 2nd rate glasses to the mix so I hope these top-quality lenses make all the difference when I get them in 2 weeks.  I am getting stainless steel frames because whatever I am wearing is being eaten away by the acid in my skin so I am told.  Mind you, Budget Eyewear sold these Linea Roma glasses for around $600 and they haven't even got spring loaded arms but they were an insurance claim so I didn't have to pay for them 2 years ago or so.

I had a life, getting out and about while Mum and Deb were in Queensland.  There was plenty of eating out whether it was so, so scones in Eudlo, scrumptious rice paper wraps in Buderim, egg and lettuce sandwiches in Witta or Tempura Battered Nori Rolls at the Rustic Tavern on Steve Irwin Way.

New top

And shopping - 2 shirts from Rivers, a scarf from a shop in the Cinema Centre and a batwing top from ICE stores at Torquay in Hervey Bay, a hair clip and a new house phone from Home Central - Kawana.

New bra

Mum was happy to buy me a new bra at BigW instead of the non-existent Target store rather than see my boobs hanging down to my waist - but I can make that happen just by slouching.  Do you like my new bra?

We also managed to fit in another car trip after the Hervey Bay trip.
We went to Crystal Waters Permaculture Village aka Commune which is between Maleny and Conondale but I had some idea that there was a short cut through Peachester and that did not work out to be a short cut but provided us with the closest views of the glass house mountains and then later I took the wrong turn on the way home so we did not get a new scenery.

I was not particularly impressed with our reception at the "information centre" because it was closed despite office hours being advertised as a Tuesday and despite me leaving a phone message several hours earlier.  The man from the bakery (which only sells organic breads on weekends or some such) shunted us off to the visitors area and away from this hippie looking village of 4 makeshift buildings.

I would have liked to check out the cafe but I think it is mainly for the inhabitants to congregate except perhaps on market day when the place comes alive with visitors.  This Tuesday was dead quiet except after school pickup time when we saw people about socializing.

The visitors area was also a camping ground and it contained a bunkhouse for the people who are visiting farm workers - the Woofers.  A managers residence, toilet block with stained glass windows, a veggie garden, a bamboo stand and a gazebo style camp kitchen - all looking very rustic were in this area.

There was also a pleasant walk along the side of a lagoon which Debbie and I investigated.

It was all very pretty nestled in a valley surrounded by mountains which meant that we escaped the blustery wind that was spoiling the day elsewhere.

One day, we went to Foote Sanctuary in Buderim which was really pretty even on the showery day that it turned out to be. There were plenty of birds.  The photo below was taken in Manawee Plant Nursery gift shop which we visited after loosing Debbie's brand new sunglasses. Mum bought me another butterfly as a farewell gift and Debbie decided she wanted this one to take back to Melbourne but NOT for use as a hair ornament.