Ignored Information, Abused Children, Spelling, and Amy

1. Saw from Mim's blog that yesterday was Father's Day in Australia.

I might have said nice things to Aussie fathers in my blog yesterday if I had known.

Well, at least I didn't know on a conscious level. When I saw Mim's post, I vaguely remembered a dream last night about Mothers and Father's Day, and it was something about Australians celebrating it on a different day.

My conscious self does know that Australians and Americans don't have the same Father's Day.  The only thing I didn't remember is the date. But I guess maybe I sort of did in my dreams. Or maybe it was just a coincidence.

2. Went to Tallygarunga.  Today I'm going to read the continuation of Silence is Golden.  This is the scene between Artemesia Bellerose and Reade Ainsworth. The two lovers are hanging out at Reade's house.

Then we skip forward to the middle of the night.  Reade sneaks out of his own bedroom and goes to Arti in the guest room.  They had planned this meeting earlier in the afternoon.

3. Saw that while cuddling (in a PG way), Reade noticed that Arti has a bruise on her arm. He's starting to get the idea his girlfriend has a difficult home life.

4. Continued to read.  There was another time jump.

In the morning, Reade's mom finds Reade in his girlfriend's bed. She doesn't yell at them; just raises an eyebrow. The woman seems pretty compassionate.

Maybe compassionate is the wrong word. It's probably better to say she's understanding...and patient.

5. Skipped ahead in time again. Now Reade is having his doctor's appointment.   It's about his vocal chord issue.  He doesn't like these appointments and is grateful to have Arti with him.

Well....

He's grateful to have her in the waiting room.  He doesn't want her there for the actual tests.

Reade's Muggle dad has a bit of fatherly Muggle magic in him.  He understands his son doesn't want Arti there, so he suggests he'll go in with Reade.  Arti and Reade's mom can go get coffee.

It's nice when people know us well enough, and have enough intuition, to know how to help without us even asking.

6. Felt sad for Arti because when she was sent away on the coffee excursion, she seemed to feel somewhat embarrassed and rejected. This line is very sad.  She'd forgotten that most people tended to gain comfort from their parents, and that she was possibly being a bit intrusive on something Reade didn't really want her involved in. It was completely understandable, she was only his girlfriend after all.

There was a line earlier about Arti feeling like trash, because she's abused. And how does a piece of trash fit into a happy family?

How does a chronically abused child get enough self-worth to believe they're worthy of happiness and love?

7. Read more sad stuff.

For a moment as she watched the family unit, the young brunette felt a little like an outsider, but she managed to push it aside and follow along as the parents helped their son out of the clinic and hospital. Being around the Ainsworths just seemed to remind her of all the things she didn't and probably wouldn't ever have and while part of her was a little jealous, another just felt glad and a little lucky to even be included on the edge of things.

See? There's the self-doubt.

Will Arti ever be able to truly feels she belongs in the family?

8. Saw that I have another Dr. Andrews as my Australian of the day.  This one is named Arthur Andrews.

Arthur was born in England in 1848.

He did his medical education in London and then traveled a bit. Then he returned to England.

In his mid-twenties, Arthur sailed to Australia for health reasons.

He ended up working in the Albury area of New South Wales as a government medical officer and visiting gaol surgeon. 

9. Learned Arthur fought against smallpox and typhoid fever.

10. Learned Arthur had a life outside his medical job. He did taxidermy stuff with animals.   He was the deputy sheriff for 15 years. He was a Freemason.  And he was very much into coin-collecting,

11. Started to look at Peter Lindenburg's last Australian photo set.  It's called Wildlife of south-eastern Australia.  

12. Loved the colors on this Crimson Rosella.

13. Wondered if this koala was in the wild or in an animal park.    

14.  Googled Tower Hill.  That was the label on the koala photo.  It's a nature reserve in Victoria, and there's also a Tower Hill town nearby

15. Found Tower Hill on Google Maps. It's about ten minutes west of Warrnambool

It sounds like a nice place.

16. Thought this koala was very cute. 

17. Realized I may have seen some of these photos in Peter's other sets.  

18. Decided to revisit BloodyDag's YouTube Channel.  

I learned from the video below that she has moved to a new channel.   She's actually NOT BloodyDag anymore.




Now she's JessiieShembri.  

Here she's singing a cover of a song called "Someone Like You".  



She has a lot of talent.

It's amazing what you can find on YouTube.

19. Started to watch one of Jessiie's vlog things.  She's with her friend and they say the word "tattoo".  They pronounce it totally different than the way I pronounce it.  I'm guessing Australians pronounce it differently?



20. Liked Jessiie's pink nail polish.

21. Wondered why Jessie has that extra i in her name. Were her parents trying to make the name look more original?

22. Saw that there was an earthquake in South Australia.  It sounds like it was pretty minor, fortunately.   

23. Decided to look at AmyCox000's Australia Flickr   

24. Wondered if maybe I HAD read that it was Father's Day yesterday. Maybe it was mentioned in the paternal leave article. It would make sense to announce a paternal leave program on Father's Day.

Maybe I failed to notice it, but my subconscious paid attention.

25. Checked the article from yesterday. The first line says The Federal Government has used Father's Day to announce their paid parental leave scheme for new dads.

I guess I missed that paragraph.

Anyway...if there are any Australian fathers out there reading this, I hope you had a nice father's day.

26. Saw Amy's first photo.  It says Waiting at Atl airport.   I'm guessing that's Atlanta.

I lived there as a teenager.  

27. Liked what Amy chose as her first photo from Australia. It's a Hungry Jacks logo that she saw at the airport.  She says, First sign at airport that things are a little different.

It's fun seeing the differences.   


28. Saw a photo of Amy's hotel.  It's called By The Sea, and it's in Port Douglas.

Here's their website.  It plays music. I love it. It sounds like the type of thing that would play during a silent movie.

29. Looked at what's included in By The Sea's apartments.  It's awesome!  They have free internet.   That's great in itself. But they also give you laptops to use.

Oh!  There's more!

This place is amazing!    There's so much included stuff...boogie boards, beach chairs, eskies, DVD's......

The price is reasonable too.  It's about $140-200 a night in September, depending on whether or not you want a beach view.

I'd like a beach view, but I could live without it.

30. Saw that Amy saw a crocodile on her Daintree tour. I get nervous just seeing the photo.  

31. Wondered why Amy's traveling mate (maybe husband?) isn't scared of the crocodile.   I guess he didn't see Rogue



32. Saw people swimming on the Daintree Tour.   I'm pretty sure they're not swimming in the same area that had the crocodiles.   But still.   I don't think I'd want to swim right after seeing crocodiles.

The other night I went for a swim; and I suddenly thought of the little crocodile in the Darwin pool.   I started thinking, what if some crazy person puts a scary animal in our pool?

Don't worry.  I felt a little paranoid but not paranoid enough to stop swimming. 

33. Liked that Amy looks so happy. I think she's like me.  She loves Australia. 

34. Loved this picture.   It looks very peaceful there.

35. Wondered what this kangaroo was thinking.

36. Saw that Amy and/or her partner ate kangaroo.

Jack and Tim ate kangaroo jerky, but they haven't yet tried kangaroo steak.

Lord Wiki says kangaroo meat is high in protein and low in fat.  It also is high in something called conjugated lioleic acid.  It's believed that CLA might have benefits related to fighting obesity. How?  I don't know.  Lord Wiki tried to explain it to me, but I didn't understand.

37. Saw that there's a place in America where you can order kangaroo meat

38. Saw that Amy and her traveling partner went to the Great Barrier Reef.

Then they went to Sydney.....

Here's the view outside their hotel.  I wonder where they stayed.  Maybe near the Rocks?

Well, at the very least I know they're near water, and that they can see a cruise ship from their view.

39. Thought this was a unique view of the Sydney Opera House.  I don't think I've seen it from that vantage point before. 

40. Saw an Australian candy I've never seen before.  Fizzy Chicken Feet.  

41. Thought this was a great photo of The Blue Mountains. 

42. Wondered if Amy went to Australia because of Oprah.  I have a feeling that she did, but I could be wrong.

I think I'm guessing that because Amy went to places featured on Oprah. Although that's not really good evidence, since Oprah went to places that are popular with tourists.

43. Remembered this albino peacock from when we were at Featherdale. 

44. Thought this picture was interesting, and wondered why Amy took it.  Maybe she liked the reflection of the gate.

45. Saw a photo of Amy's hotel in Sydney.  It's called Lord Nelson Brewery and Hotel.  I wonder if it's nice.  

Here's their website.  And I was right. It is in the Rocks.

It looks nice, but I don't like that there's a $50 surcharge for the third person.