Morning all. I’m in Brisbane. Working. Hard. Yes, really J

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So the top ten will have to wait until Friday I’m afraid. 

I know...it will confuse me too!
Oh ok, just one...

from the right bank

Time to recap what I read in January. Not, I have to tell you, as many as I read this time last year! My aim to read 100 books in 2012 is already looking shaky...but I managed six. 

As always...in order of reading...

Please Look after Mother by Kyung-Sook Shin - fiction, translated from Korean

Choral Society by Prue Leith - fiction

The Stepmother's Diary by Fay Weldon - fiction

In Tasmania by Nicholas Shakespeare - history/memoir

Eve Green by Susan Fletcher - fiction (first novel)

Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George - crime fiction

So, how were they? I have to confess to being an Inspector Lynley groupie so Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George is my pick for the month. It's a big book but I read it in a little over a day. I love Tommy and Barbara. This was a little grittier than normal I thought. If you like crime and you haven't read Elizabeth George, please do. I think this is about the 17th in the series, and yes, I've read them all.

Please Look after my Mother was very sad especially given my parents' situation, Choral Society fun but forgettable, The Stepmother's Diary dark and interesting. I bought and started to read In Tasmania at Hobart airport on the way home. It's a very clever weaving of history and the author's own modern story of an expat's life in his new country, where amazingly he finds he is related to the man they call 'the father of Tasmania'. Eve Green was fabulous, and an absolute marvel of a first novel. I've ordered her second book I was so impressed.

I’ve also decided that from now on, in among all the other reading I do, I’m going to read a 'classic' a month. Do you have any recommendations for me? I've read a few of course but I'm open to suggestions and would love to know what you think. I've pretty well done the Austens though J

Morning all....just a quick one today.  Once upon a very long time ago, in a crocheting world far, far away, I started a ripple blanket for the first born. I am pleased to tell you that it was delivered at Christmas time, and here it is living in its new home...just between you, me and the gatepost, I quite like it!

I missed the whole rippling thing, so I started on a cushion. And here it is, still incomplete, but resting nicely in my new/old indian parat from Lived In Coogee. Vanessa was brilliant. I saw on Facebook that she had some new parats in stock but they weren't in the online store, so she took some photos of what she had, emailed me and hey presto a few days later it was here! So happy with it.

To see a multitude of creative types, head this way...and I'll see you next week. Thanks heaps for this one. I might do some more crochet...or perhaps I'll just read a book  J

Hiya.

Can I just say...

thank you so very much for your comments on my last post

I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate them

You are wise, compassionate and practical!

Much of what you've suggested has already been done...or is in the process of being done

but not everything, so your comments were really useful

But more than that, it's nice to know I'm not alone in this, and many of you understand exactly what the situation entails...

have dealt with or are struggling with the same issues.

It makes it easier somehow.

So a million thank yous. Really, truly... 

1 Feb: pinch and a punch and all that too J

images seen on: the aestate tumblr; a room for everyone; home and interiors tumblr; loving living small; my favourite and my best; not my beautiful home tumblr; room and service; the marion house book; stil inspiration; style files

I went to Newcastle on Friday to take my mum to her first appointment with the geriatrician. Some of you may know that dad has been diagnosed with dementia (in the mild category thankfully, at least so far) and my sister and I have had some concerns about our mum, especially since her surgery.

The good news is that mum only has “mild cognitive impairment” on the clinical dementia rating scale but there is a 50/50 chance of ‘crossing the line’ and joining dad within the next 12 months. Worrying, and she will be closely monitored by her doctor, but let’s take the glass half full view at this stage and hope for the best J

I suspect that in the next few years I am going to learn a lot about dementia. In a delightfully ironic twist, I have been doing some strategic planning work with people involved in dementia training for the health profession, so I have access to a mountain of information when I need it! 

Parents get old (if we’re lucky) and time and age can dull their senses and lessen their mobility. That’s normal. I am beginning to see firsthand that old truism about the parent becoming the child, and vice versa. This doesn’t bother me. In many ways I see it as an opportunity to repay my parents, to look after them as they’ve looked after me. As best I can at least. For the problem is this: I left home at 17 and I’ve never lived in my home town since. I've never lived closer than I do now. My holidays haven’t been spent in Newcastle, or rarely, so extended periods of time with my parents have been few and far between. Filling out the questionnaire at the doctor’s surgery was difficult. The checklist about changes noticed over the last 10 years was much easier to answer than what’s the last week been like? The simple answer is I’m not sure. There is only so much that a phone call or reports from neighbours and family who live closer can tell you about what’s really happening. And with a five hour road trip each way, weekly visits are simply not possible...not without me ‘running on empty’ (which was playing on the CD as I made the last trip!)  My sister lives in Perth, much, much further away than Canberra. We are faced with the ‘tyranny of distance’ in a very big way.

We have done what we can to put all the possible services in place to assist. The geriatrician knows where to find me and I'll be copied in to all correspondence. Power of attorney and enduring guardianship papers are being filled in. They are still very capable of looking after themselves at home (mum especially) but this will obviously get worse over time.

Does anyone have any experience with looking after parents who don’t live close by? Can you give me some tips, some strategies to make it seem a little more manageable? I’m open to suggestions!  And surprise, surprise...no, they won’t move!

p.s. they'll turn 83 and 88 in a few months...they look good for their age don't they!

I have to confess that I don't have very much to say today. I'm on the highway to Newcastle again, and if the weather forecast is correct, the windscreen wipers will be on. I'll be listening to Radio National or singing along to something in the CD player. You can do that when you drive alone. You can even sing along to John Denver : )

But it occurred to me, while thinking what I might write about, that there are some of you who might be new to the townhouse who haven't had the dubious pleasure of 'meeting' Buffy...or as we ever so affectionately call her around here...the vampire slayer. I took a couple of snaps of her last night as she was enjoying a little breeze that had blown in to the courtyard garden. I have no idea how she gets up on top of that wall because it's all she can do to haul herself on to the sofa these days. But I thought she looked...well, tranquil : )

And I can assure you...that doesn't happen very often! She does need a new collar though. It's letting down the beautiful bling tag that Rachael bought her. I'd better get on to that.
It was Australia Day yesterday. I read a book. Perfect.
Have a lovely weekend won't you? 

Well, the holidays are done and dusted

And work’s back with a vengeance

it's crazy busy...the kind of busy I'm not fond of

I went to my first 'boot camp' session with the young 'uns at work yesterday

 I'll probably be regretting that by the time you're reading this

but I desperately need to do some exercise

and try to get this body into some sort of non-potato sack like shape

Another flying (as in driving to the speed limit of course) trip to Newcastle on friday, or maybe thursday

to take mum to the geriatrician on saturday

life's a barrel full of monkeys at the moment!

anyway, enough of that...how are you all going?

images seen on: decorology; an indian summer; from the right bank; gild and grace; heidi claire; iced vo vo's; not my beautiful home; the small garden; tiny white daisies; verandah house

You’ve been very patient with my holiday snaps, and kind with your comments...thank you.

This is the last Tassie post I promise...cross my heart J

They’ve come in no particular order...no-one who knows me would be surprised by that, so today we have Port Arthur and Battery Point.

Port Arthur is a place teeming with ghosts and ghastly stories. The tour guides try to downplay it, and that seems fair to me. After the awful events of April 1996 when Martin Bryant gunned down 35 people, both tourists and site workers, you can hardly blame people for wanting to emphasise the reformist aspects of this historic place. It was a penal colony, a place of incarceration for men and boys, designed to practice a new 'enlightened' view of imprisonment on the most difficult of the convicts from other parts of Australia.  Almost inescapable due to its geography, only a very small number actually made it out. Despite its history, or perhaps because of it, I was captivated by its physical beauty. I hadn’t expected that.

And  because I know you love a house shot or four J 

Who knew black coral was a popular decor item in the 1800s?

And the kitchen in the commandant's house....cosy and comfy don't you think. What must the prisoners have thought about a lovely home just metres away? Fabulous faded wall mural and embroidered curtain coming up...

I want to buy a house in Battery Point. Excuse me while I dash off to buy a lottery ticket!

Ok, that's probably a Tassie overload...I might post some more photos on my facebook page later in the week, just in case you're suffering from withdrawal. And as I'm unlikely to be holidaying again any time soon you're probably safe for a while J

memorial to the 1996 tragedy

all images: a tranquil townhouse