ouch!

My question is does worker's compensation cover injuries inflicted by magpies?

This morning, Mal was at a men's breakfast and I was doing some reading and preparation to meet a family this afternoon to plan a funeral. After my reading was complete, I wanted to shift modes and do some reflection on the sermon text, Luke 16, Jesus seems to say choose God or money in a reality that in the West Christian have both (topic for some other blog entry).

I decided that it was a quiet cool morning and that I should go for a walk to be with God in his creation and set out to pass the railway dam thinking the destination should be McDonald's for a coffee (knowing Mal would be by that way shortly and would love to drive me home).

I knew there were magpies in the school yard near the McDonald's but was not overly concerned. I now know the great emotional and physical distress a small melodious creation of God can cause.....

After being swooped, I ran as hard as I could past the school yard with my jacket over my head. I looked back to see the magpie a half a block behind still on the corner. I had stepped out a block and a half and being only metres from McDonalds slowed to a walk and lowered my jacket. In a moment, I received a whack on the head that I knew had drawn blood. Greatly startled, I took cover while uttering a curse and wished evil on part of God's creation; yes, the very creation that I had just left my house to be close to. Close enough to draw blood had not been the idea and I insist is simply too close.

Very quickly, I realized that I am in a small town and people know that I am the Uniting Church minister so embarrassed I looked around to see who may have witnessed me audibly cursing one of God's creatures. I stopped; asked God to bless the bird and walk slowly with my hand on my head to my destination.

I ordered my sandwich and Mal arrived before the coffee came. He was sympathetic and promised to "kiss it better". I have now had a shower and am nursing the lump on head wondering if and how this was meant to enlighten my sermon....

the north wind doth blow and we shall have....

Hayfever! That is right. The north wind in Roma this time of year brings with it pollen from grass. I have never had hayfever before I moved to Roma. Now, I understand, the watery eyes, runny nose, and oh the sneezing, violent sneezing. There is something in the air that my immune library is totally unfamiliar with and it is reacting full on.

The locals when they hear me snuffle first ask if I have a cold and when I respond, "Hayfever." They say, "Oh yes, the north wind. Hayfever sufferers are often bothered by the north wind." Funny, I had never been a hayfever sufferer. But there ya go, now I am. I hope that I grow out of it.

Why God won't let me take myself too seriously - Part 5

Even in Roma, God does not let me take myself too seriously. The church is running the canteen (read concession stand in America) and I asked one of the ladies at church to pick me up and drive me. I told her Mal had the car which is true and that I would need a lift. She sounded a bit hesitant but I insisted and she agreed. So this morning, she comes by, picks me up, drives me the 2 blocks down our street to the field and parks. I laughed so hard. I had never seen the field used and presumed it sort of abandoned like the park across the street from me. But no, it was soon loaded with kids and parents from across the region. I had assumed all the fields were across town where I had seen activity when I asked for the lift. While I was laughing, she asked if she hadn't told me the name of the field. I assured her she had but the name meant nothing to me having only been here 8 months there is still a lot I don't know. There were more laughs during the day. But next week, I will walk to the rugby.

Novelty items

Yes, I admit I have purchased novelties in the past. In a cedar chest in South Dakota I have a Ronald Reagan drinking glass. There is a story behind this purchase. You see, I was in Washington D.C. the week before Mr. Reagan was inaugurated as president of the United States. I had the opportunity to attend the inauguration thanks to Rep. Clint Roberts; however, because I was on a school trip, the school would not let me stay even with my parents permission. I knew this was for me a once in a lifetime experience and since I live in Australia, I was probably right.

So I sulked and purchased Reagan memorabilia.

Today, in the grocery store in Roma, I found and interesting novelty item. Yes, indeed, Obama dolls, many of them stacked above a couple of Churchill dolls. I was very interested to see US presidential stuff in the grocery store in Roma. Churchill didn't surprise me because, the Queen of England is still a figure head of some sort here.

I may have expected to find Obama dolls in the city but out here? Well, and above Churchill well only 60 years or so will verify that.

So the photo, sorry for the quality, I am still learn to use the phone camera.

Happy New Year to you and whatever doll you play with!.

The things you see

Mal and I were driving down a residential street this week and suddenly we saw a weedeater or whippersnipper (you get the picture) fly onto the sidewalk with great force. There was a disgruntled man walking away. He happened to look up at us just as we passed. Mal and I kept straight faces until we were by but then lost it. Mal said, "I have wanted to do that on many occasion." I thought he must have been embarrassed a bit by being caught. It was really funny. I hope the bloke had a bit of a laugh over it too.

Then today we had a coffee at a nice coffee shop. For those who don't know you leave a door or window open when using an evaporative cooler. This coffee shop had the door open and in flies a willy wagtail. This bird fly directly in lit in front of the counter momentarily. Hopped around tables, flew to the window where the food comes from the kitchen. Flew past the women at the register barely clearing her head, which made all the staff and us laugh. He checked things out very thoroughly. Then left out the door again. He clearly knew his way around. The staff then told us, through their laughter and ours that they had named the bird Hoover and he comes in two or three times a day making a circuit. We were clearly in his territory.

I wonder

The other day, while traveling home on the bus, I saw a sign that had a name followed by "Legal Lawyers".  I immediately began to wonder would the "illegal" lawyers put that fact on their sign and if not why would it be necessary to put "legal" on the sign.  

Or is it that we cannot assume that lawyers deal with matters of law so therefore must describe them by another word, "legal", that we may or may not understand as having to do with law.

Most likely it is bad marketing and reminds me of being in places where English is the second language. 

 "Why Can't the English learn to speak?"  Henry Higgins where are you? 

cold

This is sunny Queensland, Australia.  Today is indeed sunny.  But it is cold.  This morning we woke up and it was 2 C; that is 35.5 F.  Because this is sunny Queensland, we have no heating but the little oil heater that lives in the bathroom.  So basically, the temperature outside is what we wake up to inside.  It was cold.  

The current temp is 18C which is about 65F.  It is lovely.  I have all the doors and windows open in order to absorb as much heat as possible to keep us warm in the predicted overnight low of 9C, a heat wave!

Defined by 3 M's

So, I had a bit of leftover lite cream and I wanted to see if it would whip. For cream to whip well there needs to be a certain amount of fat.   I need this information for the future so I won't buy this brand for whipping.   Mal found the bowl with sort of whipped cream and asked what is this.  I explained.  To which, my friend Erin replied, wow, you are everything.

Minister

Mom 

and Mad Scientist.

I thought that about sums it up.

Why God won't let me take myself too seriously - Part 4

I rushed out of the house today.  There had been a tradesman there replacing  screens damaged by the storm, so I was late. I sprinted to the bus stop and 2 meters from the door of the bus, the driver closed the door and drove away.  I couldn't believe it.  So I hiked quickly to The Gap village about 10 mins to catch the express bus, grabbed a sushi on the way because it was soon to be lunch time and the exercise had made me hungry.  Got to Milton for the eye exam that I was rushing to only to find out that the exam is next Tuesday.  So I walked across the tracks to the college where the Triune God lecture is and sat for an hour waiting for the lecture to start.  I would have time to get a sandwich and sit in comfort to eat which was the original plan but my hunger had driven me to wolf down a sushi on the run.  Today is hot and humid and my blouse was soaking wet by the time I got to Milton not only because of the sprint but also because the express bus does not stop as close to my destination and there was a hike at the other end as well.

I tried to tell Mal that he needs to take better care of me but he insists I read the calendar all by myself.

Somehow dignity seems to be so elusive for me. I thought I was being smart booking the exam before the lecture because they are in the same area.  Maybe next week it will seem to have been a smart thing.  Next week, I will be early to the bus

Travel is bad for my blog

When I travel, I don't take time to blog.  It is low on the priority list and catching up with people is high.  I was recently in Guam and had a few interesting experiences that I thought I would log here.  When I checked into the hotel, I was given a letter that explained that the cable TV would be experiencing outages while the company moved stuff.  I thought that is okay, I don't watch much TV.  Later that day, I finally paid the $10 US for one day (24 hours) of internet access to let Mal know I was there safe.  Then the next morning when I tried to connect to internet nothing happened.  I stopped at the front desk to say I didn't get 24 hours of access and the receptionist ask if I got the letter.  I asked what letter, she said the letter that explained that the cable was out.  I said, "Yes, I did and the internet runs through the cable, huh?" She affirmed that.  The letter did not mention internet.  Oh well, I should have known.

The next day, I got a letter from the hotel informing me that the next evening the city was shutting off the water overnight to repair a broken main down the street.  The letter also said the hotel would continue to operate on reserve water supply.  How many hotels have reserve water?  The outage was to be from 22pm to 4am.  Is 22pm a time?  2200 hours or 10 pm maybe?  

Of course, the outage began on time when did water return?  I don't know I left for work at 6:20am that is 0620 hours and there was no water then.  I was thankful, I had showered at a friends house the night before. 

Unlike other hotels in Guam, this hotel had a note that it cost $.75 to make a local phone call.  I thought no problem there are two pay phones next to the elevator in the lobby for $.25 .  I stopped on the way to make a local call, dialed the number then when instructed to insert a quarter, put a quarter into the slot.  The first phone would not take a quarter or any other currency for that matter.  The second phone just let the money go through the phone into the change slot.  So, I paid $.75 for local calls.  

I think there was a little earth quake on Saturday night at 7 pm. It had to be little but I was on the 11th floor.  

On Sunday morning there was a drunk in the parking lot, sitting on the ground with his head in the drivers seat of his car.  His windshield wipers were running but the car was not.  I tried to inform hotel security but they were suddenly no where to be found.  Most days, there were two or three of them hanging around.  

There were more Guam stories but I have forgotten.

On the flip side. The weather was wonderful.  I enjoy catching up with people and overall the work was good.  

I will not blog again for about 3 weeks as I am taking my Dad to the red center of Australia.  Will bring you photos. 

We change

As time passes we change.  My tastes have changed in food and in fashion as I have aged.  But also my sporting interests have changed.  After I moved to Australia, I found it difficult to watch Sunday football (Grid iron to Australians) because it comes on Monday mornings and I am at college on Monday mornings.  So I thought it prudent to begin to learn about some of the sports my husband enjoys.  Out of the many choices of sport, my husband follows AFL and the Brisbane Lions a bit and he follows Australian Cricket.  

As Mal is a patient man, he was able to answer my plethora of questions until now I can understand both games, but, I really enjoy cricket the most.  

I had the privilege of attending the Boxing day test at the MCG which was an extremely cool experience.  And now that the test series is over between Australia and South Africa, they play one day matches and a variation called 20/20.  This is a much different strategy to the same game and is very exciting to watch.

So why to I enjoy cricket. First I think I learned to enjoy sport because my brothers are extremely athletic and I have the hand eye coordination of a sheep.  I learned by watching to appreciate what they could do so easily and I could not.  

Cricket is a game of amazing thought and athleticism.  Last night, I watched a young man, J. P. Duminy, hit this amazing shot.  Unlike baseball you hit the ball hard, in cricket there is a bit of finesse and you can hit the ball in any direction.  Cricketers also hit the ball off a bounce unlike baseball.  Young Duminy stepped to the side of the crease as a bounced and got his bat under the ball and launched it over his head to the boundary behind him.  It was amazing.  Australia won the game but both teams are very good (S. Africa won the test series).

Have changed interests or have I just redirected an admiration? Am I just getting a bigger view of the talents that God created in man?  Adding breadth to my contextual library? Or is cricket just a reeeallly great game?

Post Marks

Why does so much of the mail that I receive from the US have postmarks from Europe?  This recently received letter was stamped in Zurich, Switzerland.  Previous letters marked in Munich.  I wonder....

Why God won't let me take myself too seriously - Part 3

Well, Mal and I walked to church on Sunday.  It was a glorious morning.  After worship, we walked home.  We are maybe a kilometer from the church, following a bike/pedestrian walk that follows the creek.  

On the walk home, Mal and I are chatting and enjoying the time together, when suddenly, there was a sound a few feet behind me.  This noise I can best describe as a crunch of dry leaves.  At the sound of this unidentified, possibly life threatening noise, I instantly grabbed Mal's wrist, death grip, might be an appropriate description and I moved with lightening speed to a place in front of him where in the next instant, I would be able to thrust him between me and danger as some sort of human shield.  In that same instant, in my hyper awareness, I spotted the source of the unexpected noise.  You guessed it.  A bike.

Why, you ask is a cyclist not expected on a bike path?  Well, I can only imagine that I was so enthralled with the beauty of the day and time with my husband that I had no realization that the rest of the world was there.  Maybe not.  Anyway,  I started to howl with laughter.  Mal, then, asked if I would release his hand, he said something about blood needing to circulate.   I complied and continued to laugh.  

Later, when relating the story to my daughter and her husband, John asked, what kind of training have I had that would elicit such an immediate and perhaps, unthinkably, an important response.  Was it the military?  I don't think so.  I blame living on the ranch with my brothers who had nothing better to do than to scare (frighten silly, actually)  their sister at any opportunity.   I think now it is a response that would buy the precious time needed to decide, "Fly or Fight".

Mal and I grinned the rest of the day, as we recalled, how I was so willing to sacrifice him to protect me.  Funny, huh?

Why Mal can't take himself too seriously either

Mal writes - Prior to leaving Bris there were some issues. 

• I forgot my belt – okay with these trousers but not sure about others – can buy a belt if I need it.
• I printed my boarding pass last night as you know.  It would not read this morning when I checked my bags in – so the lady said I will print you another in case this doesn’t read at the gate.
• She did, put it in a folder with the baggage check and off I went to Q club.
• At Qantas club I was greeted with “Oh would you prefer to go to the Captain’s lounge opposite gate 23 sir?”.  I looked at the time thinking, what entitles me to those lounges, “Oh maybe Silver status” but didn’t think any more of it.  Went into the Bus lounge (new and part of the original Q club lounge now but separated).
• Went off down to gate when called, was first in line.  Hostie greeted me with “Oh this is the Gladstone flight sir, not Darwin”.  She handed back the pass and it was for Mr (Another) Hamill in seat 23A going to Darwin..  When I said I was on the Gladstone flight she asked me to go to the other counter.
• I did, they explained the new computer system had some bugs and they were running the old and the new side-by-side.  Got my original 3A seat allocation back and went back to the line. Then thought, “I bet my port is on the way to Darwin!!”.  Got the folder with baggage tag attached and yup – Darwin bound.
• Pulled out of line and back to counter.  They called baggage to see if they could get my bag pulled and onto the Gladstone.  Line for Gladstone flight was now empty – they asked me to board and that if the bag didn’t arrive then they would get it on the 8.30am flight and deliver it to me in Gladstone.
• So got to Gladstone and my bag arrived – about the third one off.

Linda writes - the lesson.... look at the name on the boarding pass and take the offer to Captains club. :-) 

 

Why God won't let me take myself too seriously Part 2

Okay, today, I got to college early so I stopped by the coffee shop for a coffee and a ticket for the lunch meal.  The cost was of course was not even dollars and I told the clerk that I had the change.  So he held out his hand for my coins.  I took them out of my coin purse, reached my hand directly over his and open my fingers for the coins to drop into his hand.  But no.  One coin stuck to my finger and flung itself into a cup of coffee with a splash.  No, not my coffee. The clerk stood there and kept giggling.  I could not have hit the coffee if I had tried.  I offered another coin the the clerk now in hardy laughter said "no worries" he would get it out later.  

The person standing behind me in line comments on how much coffee splash out and asked if I could do that again.  

Yes, this is the lifestyle of the not so rich or famous.

Don't look back

I was commuting home from university the other day.  I take the train from uni then transfer to a bus when I get into the city.  This particular day, I got off the train in rush hour and had made my way off the platform and through the terminal.  During rush hour there are young people handing out a news magazine.  They are at every platform and at the entrance to the station.  I had managed to get past the people at the platform, quite pleased with myself for not contributing to my recycle bin at home when halfway thru the terminal I spotted the young people at the front.  They were facing the street and handing out magazines to the people entering the station.  I was relieved.  Just then the young woman turned around and opening her mouth in a big yawn.  She was turning away from the throng entering but of course, without realizing it turned to face the throng leaving.  She blushed and looked down as I grinned. 

The moral of the story - don't look back.  Up, down, sideways are slightly more acceptable but never look back. 

Enough said

HEY, DON'T PEEK, I'M ON THE POT!

Yes, an original photo from my yard yesterday.

Why I can't take myself too seriously 1

Today, I received a lovely email from a friend (female). The email had a poem with pictures and at the bottom said, I just didn't want to miss the opportunity to tell you I love you. So I happily replied to the email, "I love you too" and a short update about my travel plans. Then I clicked send and to my horror (humor really) realized that I was sending my reply to the original sender of this forwarded poem (male). For some reason many of the emails I receive from this friend are forwarded as attachments which when I open seem to open the original email that she got. I am usually clever enough to close this email and reply directly to her. Not today.

So in heaps of giggles, I email her and explain and asked her to let the original sender know. She replied, "Oh, you make me laugh..." Which made me giggle more. Of course, in giggles had to call my husband at work and let him know how funny I thought this was.

Then received an email from the originator saying, "I am curious, I can't think of who you are...."

Which made me laugh more. I am such a goof. At any rate, there is not much chance that I will suffer from taking myself too seriously any time soon.

PS: It is not so bad as it sounds. I know the guy.