Tuesdays

I just watched this clip from Bananas in Pyjamas.



Some teddy bears don't like Tuesday because the bananas chase them on Tuesday. They decide to fix things by getting rid of Tuesday on the calender.

I thought it was funny because lately we've been LOVING Tuesday.

Why?

It's the day the Mr. Softee man comes to our neighborhood. 

Two Tuesdays ago, Jack and I were inside the house and heard eerie loud music.  We ran to the window and saw the truck. Unfortunately we weren't dressed (because we're lazy sometimes).  We rushed to put clothes and shoes on; then ran outside. We ran and ran and ran, but were unable to catch up with the truck.

We caught up with some people who had more luck, and they told us the Mr. Softee Man will be driving by every Tuesday.

So the next Tuesday the three of us got dressed and put money by the door so we'd be ready.  We were unsure of the time he'd be coming because we didn't pay enough attention the last time. So we had a lot of waiting, and Jack was ready to give up. But Mr. Softee did come, and we enjoyed our ice-cream.  

I was wondering about ice-cream trucks in Australia.   I vaguely remember one coming by when we were at a holiday park.  But maybe I just dreamed that.

Anyway, I found a website for a Mr. Whippy Van.   He has ice-cream plus other stuff. You can get fairy floss and jam donuts. Fun!

In an Aussie book I read recently, a bunch of children die by getting ice-cream from a vendor.   Then there's been other horror stories involving ice-cream trucks.  Charmed had one. Maybe Medium did as well? 

So although I was excited, I was also a little paranoid.  I came up with a code for Jack. I said if the truck doesn't look safe to me, I'm going to suggest he get a pre-wrapped treat.

I worried that perhaps it wasn't a Mr. Softee (which I think you can usually probably trust) and instead some random person who might be a demon or serial killer.  

But it ended up looking okay, and we survived our ice-cream experience.

In two more days, it's Tuesday again!


Does an ice-cream truck come to your neighborhood?   Do you ever buy anything?

Do you have any happy ice-cream truck childhood memories?   

Barry Humphries, Anorexia, Welfare, and Sharks

1. Felt a bit envious of one of my Facebook friends.  Her status update is about bonding with a kangaroo.  I shouldn't be jealous though.  I have my cats.  They are both adorable, and one of them is EXTREMELY cuddly.   

2. Decided that now I have even more respect for Barry Humphries.   It's not that easy to create an alternate identity.   I'm doing it all for the Harry Potter game; and  I'm getting really into it.  I hope it doesn't lead to me becoming insane.  Oh well.  In the meantime, I'm having a lot of fun.  

3. Read news about Yang Hengjun.   At first I thought it was good news, but now I don't know.  He called his friends, said he was sick, and explained that his phone wasn't working.   That's a plausible explanation, but people aren't buying it.  They feel there's something weird going on.   He sounds weird to people talking to him, and there's the possibility that he's in duress and trying to speak in code.

I hate when those things happen.  You're worried.  You get good news, yet you get the feeling that it's a lie, and there's really bad news.   I've never been involved in a kidnapping, or anything traumatic like that.  But maybe I can relate to it through fiction, such as it reminds me of the second to last episode of Medium.  Allison was kidnapped.  

From my own personal life, it reminds me of when relationships go bad.   Someone stops calling so you worry that's it's over.  You finally get up the nerve to call.  You ask the other person if something's wrong.  They insist everything's fine.  They try to act like their good old self.  They give you reassurance against all your insecurities.  You get off the phone feeling somewhat relieved, but deep inside you know it's all a lie.  You try to be happy despite feeling sick.

4. Read article about Anorexia in children. It makes me furious.  I'm angry that this happens to children so young. I'm also angry at the people with the nerve to say this is a purely genetic/biological mental illness.  What bullshit!  If it's purely genetic, why is the rate in children increasing?  Maybe someone out there can explain it to me.

Our society is so thin-obsessed.  I found this blog entry earlier today; Katie talks about the "fat talk" we use and has examples of the damaging language.  

There's the weight talk in the disguise of a compliment. You look great!  Have you lost weight?  I've gotten that even after telling my family multiple times that I had an eating disorder.  Sometimes they leave out the you look great, but the tone of voice definitely indicates that the weight loss is a positive thing.

There's the fat talk that's not aimed directly at us, but said about others AROUND us.  Katie has the example of “Maybe if she’d lay off the Cheetos just a little bit…”   

From my mom, I've heard the saying She let herself go referring to a beautiful movie character who no longer had a perfect concave abdomen.  It's funny that SHE let herself go.  But when I was obsessively counting calories, weighing every bit of my food (including fruit and veggies) and pacing my office almost constantly (to burn calories) no one said that about me.  

Once, when I was openly struggling with eating disorder issues, we watched home movies with my parents.  Almost every comment that came out of their mouth was about people's weight. This person was thin back then. This person was fat. Oh, too bad that one gained all her weight back.

I complain about my family, but sadly I'm just as bad sometimes. This thin-obsession is ingrained in some of us.  Once I scolded my brother-in-law for making some snide comment about losing weight.  Then on another occasion, I was stupid enough to make the same mistake.  I think I even said it in front of him. I was ashamed but didn't apologize.  I should have.  I can't remember exactly what I said.  Oh well.

5. Thankful that the anorexia article has a poster of a very ugly victim of Anorexia.  She kind of looks like Zelda from Pet Sematary.  Often eating disorder articles have photos of very thin, yet also very attractive women.  What happens when people like me look at these?  Well, I end up thinking.   Eating disorders are so evil.   Why do we value the malnourished look?   Oh....and I really wish I could look like her.  

6. Read article about Tony Abbott's proposed welfare reforms. What he wants is people, under the age of fifty, working for the dole if they've been under unemployment for over six months.  He doesn't want people getting a free ride.  I'm all for that.   I might even raise the age to sixty or seventy.  My parents are in their early sixties, and they'd likely be capable of doing the type of work that Abbott is seeking.  Abbott wants people to clean and pick fruit....stuff like that.    If there's a need in that area, people should be put to work.  What I disagree with is CREATING jobs just so people can have a job.  That doesn't make sense to me.  A person can be fulfilled and contribute to society without having an official job. They can take care of their family.   They can write novels that end up being a cultural phenomena.   They can make entertaining popular videos for YouTube.   They can do volunteer work. They can sing in the church choir.

I also disagree with making primary caregivers go out and work.  I'm not in favor of sending single mothers (or daddies) out to pick fruit while their kids hang out at a substandard daycare center.  I'd rather the mother get the dole and stay home with the kid.

7. Read article about great white shark being near the beach, where water is about knee deep. That's scary.  The article though makes it sound like this is unusual...alarming.   Well, it IS alarming.   But someone commented on my blog a year or so ago, saying that sharks can be found very close to the shore.  So, the news isn't too new to me.

8. Started watching a video with Dame Edna interviewing Barry Humphries. I guess this is my kind of comedy, because I'm less than a minute into it and I'm already laughing out loud.

Barry Humphries is brilliant. I think he's one of my favorite Australians.

9. Wondered if Oprah has ever met Dame Edna. I think she should have visited her in Australia.   Or maybe she did?  I didn't watch the last two episodes.

10. Had a great idea.  Dame Edna should guest star on Modern Family.  That would be AWESOME.

11. Loved Dame Edna's response at around 5:09, but the exchange has to be watched back from about a minute or two.   Let me rewind and see where it starts.  Well, it probably starts at around 4:05.    Humphries give this long rebuttal to Dame Edna.  He lectures her.  Then she just totally ignores all of it.  I'm not at all funny trying to explain it.  You'll have to watch the video for yourself....I mean if you want potential amusement.

12. Laughed very much out loud at 5:44.

13. Thought about how Humphries can be hilarious with facial expressions alone.   I think the same goes for Stephen Colbert.

14. Decided to play my Hobart vs. Adelaide Flickr game.    Let's see what pictures I get.

For Adelaide I got a photo from the Wollongong Hawks.   It's a sports thing.    The Hobart photo is going to have to be either very boring or very offensive in order for Adelaide to win. 

For Hobart I got a photo of a man and woman sitting next to a mural.   When it comes to art vs. sports, art is usually going to win with me.  So I give Hobart the point.  

John Noble

I'm betting that John Noble is an actor.

The other day I remembered adding all these actors to the list. I found them on some website, and I added them all on the evening of 21 August.

I can't remember which website it was.

My goodness. I am totally blown away in surprise again. John Noble is in Fringe. He's the scientist guy. I had no idea he was Australian too.

Noble has the same birthday as Jack....August 20th. And he was born in the same year as my mom; 1948. He's fourteen days older than her.

He was born in Port Pirie, South Australia. I've heard of that, but don't know exactly where it is. I'm going to look it up on Google Maps....

It's about four hours north of Adelaide.

I'm looking at Ellen Street, in Port Pirie, on Street View now. It looks pretty cool. There's a post office with cool architecture, and then a station to the left. I'm not sure if it's a fire station, police station, or some other kind of station.

Lord Wiki doesn't have much to say about Noble. One thing that looks important is that Noble is not just an actor. He's also a theater director.

From 1987-1987, he was the Artistic Director of the Stage Company of South Australia. And from 1997-2000, Noble was the head of drama at Brent Street School of Arts.

Now I shall move onto IMDb.

In 1988, Noble was in an Australian horror movie type thing called The Dreaming. It involves Aborigines, curses, and weird dreams....TOTALLY something that would interest me.

Noble plays a doctor.

The movie was filmed in various places in South Australia.

Unfortunately, I can't find much about the movie. An IMDb user provides a small amount of information. T-birkhead says it's about a curse that's unleashed when whalers attack Aborigines. It also involves archaeologists.

In 1989, Noble was in A Sting in the Tale. It was an Australian political movie. Noble played the Prime Minister's minder. What's a minder?

This website has some information about it. What I'm getting is that it's an adviser, one with the task of taking care of the Prime Minister, making sure he looks and does okay. It sounds like a personal servant in a way.

The tagline for A Sting in the Tale is, Australia's First Female Prime Minister? Though the person listed as Prime Minister in the credits is male. Maybe it's about an election?

The movie, like the last one, was filmed in South Australia. I guess Noble didn't get to travel a lot for his career in the beginning.

In 1990, there was another South Australian movie. This was Call Me Mr. Brown. Noble did not play Mr. Brown. He was Sergeant.

Actually, this movie was filmed in both South Australia, and Sydney. It's about a guy who steals money from Qantas. Here's an article about the guy the movie is based on.

I can't find any videos for the movie, but I did find a song Call Me Mr. Brown. It's a cute little country song.

In 1993, Noble was in The Nostradamus Kid. Noah Taylor was the star.

Lord Wiki says it's about a Seventh Day Adventist Boy who believes the world is about to end. Before it does, he wants to have sex with the Pastor's daughter.

I don't think John Noble has a big part in the movie.

In the 1990's, Noble did various one time guest appearances on TV shows. I'm not going to go into those.

In 1999, he was in an Australian science fiction TV movie; Airtight. The movie is about the earth running out of air. Uh oh.

Marshall Napier is in it, and there's also an American actor from Another World.

In 2000, Noble did another Australian science fiction TV movie. This was Virtual Nightmare. I can't find much about it. The title sounds interesting.

Also in 2000, Noble did a lesbian thriller called The Monkey's Mask. Abbie Cornish, Kelly McGillis, and Deborah Mailman are in it. Those are the names I recognize.

Here's a video about the film. I guess it's a trailer. I don't think I saw John Noble. I may have missed him, or failed to recognize him.

In 2002, Noble was in another TV movie; Superfire. I think this one was American.

It was co-written by Douglas Preston. He wrote one of my favorite books; Jennie. It's a beautiful books, but incredibly sad. Now I'm seeing there was a Jennie TV movie. How did I miss that? YouTube has the movie. I'm afraid to watch it. What if it's really bad, and ruins the book for me?

I'm watching just the end. I want to see if it's the same as the book. It turns out this is a Disney movie, so I'm doubting it.

Yeah. They've totally Disneytized it. I'm sure the book is much better.

Anyway, back to Superfire. It's about fire.

Here's a scene. John Noble isn't in it, but that girl is from Dead Like Me.

Next we have another American TV movie; The Outsider. This one also starred Naomi Watts. It's a western-romance. Oh. And it was filmed in Queensland.

Here's some scenes from the movie. I'm not sure if we'll see Noble.

The movie is based on a romance novel written by Penelope Williamson. The plot deals with very religious people, and sheep.

I'm seeing blood in the snow. That's kind of gross.

I should probably search for a part with John Noble.

I'm too lazy. I'm going to move on.

Noble was in Lord of The Rings. He played Denethor. But I guess he was only in the extended version?

Here's a clip. That other guy is David Wenham, isn't it?

Lord Wiki says that the movie version of Denethor is much different then the book version. The movie turned him into a much more tragic figure. Yeah. He looked pretty tragic in that clip. It's sad.

Okay. I'm getting it now. Wenham plays Denethor's son. In the book AND movie, Wenham's character is the brother that is not Denethor's favorite. His favorite son had died. So that's what I was seeing in the scene. Denethor was having visions of his dead son.

I'm unsure whether or not that scene came from the first movie. I'm confused.

Oh! Noble was in four episodes of Young Lions. I knew I had written about that show recently, but forgot which actor was in it. It's Anna Torv, Noble's co-star of Fringe. So they've worked together before....probably. I mean there' s a chance they never had scenes together. But if not, maybe they mingled at the catering table or something.

Here are some scenes. I see Anna Torv.

Ah! There's John Noble. He appears at 7:10. He's talking about a guy named Bill Martin. Supposedly, Martin is a killer. I wonder if that's true or not.

In 2003, Noble was in the sequel to Lord of the Rings. It looks like this time, he made it into the regular movie, and was not just in the extended version.

In 2004, Noble did an Australian-American TV movie called The Mystery of Natalie Wood. Noble played a director. He's very low in the credits, so his part might have been small. He played an American actor-director named Irving Pichel. Lord Wiki says Pichel was one of those Hollywood people blacklisted by Hollywood.

Wait. Crap. We have to majorly back up. Like usual, I missed a TV show. I gotta get better about these things.

Starting in 1998, Noble was on All Saints. He played Dr. John Madsen. IMDb says he was in 32 episodes between 1998 and 2004. TV.com classifies Noble's role as being recurring.

Let's get back to our place in the timeline. In 2004, we also have Fracture. It's a New Zealand movie. Lord Wiki says the movie is about a young mother who has to deal with the fact that her brother broke a woman's neck in a burglary. That would be such a sad situation. I don't think it's often dealt with in books and movie. Or maybe it's just something I don't encounter. I don't read a whole lot of crime stuff. But how would it feel if someone you love was convicted of a horrible crime?

In 2006, Noble was in the horror movie Voodoo Lagoon. This film website says it's about college students who get lured into holidaying on a remote island. It ends up the guy who lured them is some wicked voodoo practitioner. I wonder if Noble plays the evil guy.

Here's the trailer. I see Noble at :39.

Even though the movie was made by a British film company, and was filmed in Australia, I hear a lot of American accents. Although it's not like the trailer has a ton of talking.

The guy at 1:28 sounds a little Australian...maybe.

I'm not sure what Noble's accent is supposed to be. It's like a horror movie character accent.

Noble was in Running Scared. His character's name was Ivan Yugorsky. Is that Russian?

Well, Lord Wiki says there's a Yugorsky Peninsula in Russia.

The plot of the movie involves dirty cops, guns, abusive stepparents, and the Russian mob.

Here's the trailer. I think that's noble at about 1:15.

One of the actors (Cameron Bright) is from the Twilight movies. He plays Alec. I'm not sure who that is. From Google, I'm getting that he's part of the...what do you call it? Those Italian vampires.

Ah! The Volturi. Here we go. Lord Wiki's cousin provides more information. Alec is Jane's twin. Jane is the one played by Dakota Fanning.

In Running Scared, Cameron Bright plays a kid who kills his stepfather. I think John Noble plays his step-uncle.

Noble was on Home and Away in 2006. He played Dr. Helpman. From what I see on this Home and Away forum, he was not exactly a good guy. He got in trouble for sexual harrasment.

Also in 2006, Noble did a Jewish-related movie called One Night with the King. It's about Esther, the Purim hero. Purim is the holiday where a story is read, and everyone makes loud noisemaker noises when the villian (Haman) is mentioned. It's also the holiday where Jews eat Hamentashen. Those are pretty yummy.

Noble plays Prince Admantha. I tried to google him, and just got information about the movie. Maybe he was added to the story? Or maybe I'm not digging deep enough.

Here's the trailer. I think it's cool they made a movie out of the story. I wonder if it's any good.

Lord Wiki says the movie generally got bad reviews. But the American Biblical Society liked it. I wonder how it was perceived by Jewish groups.

In 2007, Noble was in the series Pirate Islands: The Lost Treasure of Fiji. He had one of the main parts, it looks like. There were only thirteen episodes. I can't tell if it was a miniseries, or if it was an unsuccessful show that was pulled off the air. The plot sounds a bit like Jumanji, but instead of a board game you have a video game. Or maybe I should say it's like Pleasantville, but instead of getting sucked up in a TV Show, the kids get sucked up into a pirate video game.

I think it would be awesome to get sucked up into a fiction world....as long as I knew I could get out in a week or so.

Lord Wiki says the show was a sequel to a past show, just called Pirate Islands.

Noble was in two episodes of 24...day 6. Does that mean it's season 6? Has that show really been on that long?

Noble appeared in the hours between 5-7 pm; dinner time.

He played Anatoly Markov. IMDb says he's a shady, corrupt Russian consulate operating with terrorists via L.A. Lord Wiki's cousin says that Markov gets his finger cut off by Jack Bauer. I guess the show supports torture. I wonder if it's favored by right-wing people.

I just googled and there are a lot of blogs/articles about the subject. Here's one of them. It seems it IS often well-liked by right-wing people. And Lord Wiki says the same thing. It's popular with the conservatives, and the creator of the show is a Republican.

Still....not all fans of the show are right-wing. Tim's very left-wing, and he used to love the show. Although he did get tired of it. Maybe all the right-wing stuff started to bother him.

In 2008, Noble started working on Fringe. He plays Dr. Walter Bishop, a fringe scientist. I'm going to read the character description that Lord Wiki provides. I'm curious about what's been going on with this guy. Some of it I saw in the episode or two we saw. I'm getting some memory twinges.

Bishop worked for the government as a fringe scientist. Then an accident happened in the lab. He was convicted of manslaughter, and put in an institution. Well, he was supposedly using students as lab guinea pigs.

Here's something fun. Bishop had parts of his brain removed, and implanted into other people. This was to remove information about a dimension gateway. Maybe that's the alternate universe thing? The people with the brain transplant go insane, but they're okay again once the brain tissue is removed. I am LOVING this.

I guess Bishop is a bit nuts, but when he gets back his brain tissue, he's sane. Well, Lord Wiki says he's temporarily sane. I guess they don't put the stuff back in permanently.

I gotta start watching this show. I'm intrigued by the alternate universe stuff. Lost, which has one or two of the same creators as Fringe, also deals with alternate universes.

I've been thinking of alternate universes lately, and I think it's the one science fiction/supernatural thing that would totally explain my life. I can't say I like the idea though. I prefer reincarnation, spirits, and all that kind of fun stuff. I guess there could be both. Maybe?

Anyway, alternate universes could explain:

A) Why I feel an instant bond or connection with certain people....or why I feel an aversion to other certain people. Maybe in another life, I have a huge relationship with them.

B) It could totally explain my Australian obsession. Maybe in an alternate universe, I AM Australian. Or maybe those I'm close to, in another universe, ended up in Australia. So this obsession is my way of finding them again. My Australian obsession has also brought me some American friends. I'm not sure how that would fit in, but it could.

C) I get really bad feelings about various things....like I'll see a word or an image....something on TV. I'll feel a horrible sense of dread. Fortunately, these things rarely play out to be something scary. But maybe they're thoughts seeping in through experiences in an alternate universe.

D) My meaningless psychic dreams. I sometimes have psychic dreams, but they're usually incredibly trivial. I can't imagine they're there for some deep purpose, like Allison Dubois' dreams on Medium. Maybe random memories are just leaking through.

I've seen or read stuff that says every time we make a decision, an alternate universe is created. Maybe it was an episode of Outer Limits. That's mind boggling. I feel it could be true.

I still prefer reincarnation. I like imagining that I feel a connection to people because in a past life we were best friends or something.

Anyway, I should really start watching Fringe. It sounds like something I'd like.

I just went to pee, and while I was on the toilet....I didn't sing this time. But I did do some thinking. I think the Jane Roberts' Seth books deal with the alternate universe idea.

Yeah. Lord Wiki says I'm right. He says the books deal with a concept called the Many-worlds interpretation. He's now reminding me of various fiction things that use the concept.

There's Stephen King's Darktower series. I think Lost was heavily inspired by that. The whole series of Sliders was about Parallel universes. Charmed had a few episodes. I remember those. Well actually, I think they used the alternate world/time travel theme several times.

There are tons on the list. I'm not going to name them all.

Here's a scene from Fringe.

Wow. This is full of suspense. So far I don't see Noble, but I'm enjoying Anna Torv.

Here's Noble. He appears at 3:10.

The man that appears at 4:38 is also on Lost.

I'm looking at the official site of the show. It looks like season two just ended. Maybe I'll catch up via YouTube, and Lord Wiki. Then I can watch season three. Maybe it will replace Lost for me, although I already have Flashforward as a replacement. I was considering V, but I don't much like that show.

Fox has the full episodes, but I'm doubting it will work on my computer. My computer is a bit outdated.

Wait. It's working! Cool.

Although I just remembered I also have True Blood to watch soon. I get stressed out if I have too many shows to watch. I feel way overwhelmed. Well, I'll just watch a little here and there to get caught up. If I like it, I'll watch season 3. When does that start?

Lord Wiki says it will begin in Autumn (Northern Hemisphere version) 2010. So that's good. True Blood's season three should be gone by then. I'll just have FlashForward, Fringe, and Medium. I can handle that.

Enough about my TV schedule. I'm asking Lord Wiki about fringe science. I thought it was the same as pseudoscience, but he says it's different. Both sciences are controversial and often rejected by the mainstream. But fringe scientists adhere more strictly to the scientific method. I think it's open to interpretation, though. There's that book I read....The Conscious Universe. It talks about how parapsychologists will use the scientific method, statistics, etc....all that stuff that is needed for science to be science. Yet it's still rejected by the scientific community, and/or it's held to much more rigorous standards and expectations.

Let me get back to Noble's filmography.

In 2009, he did a voice in the video game The Saboteur. Lord Wiki says it's a World War II thing.

In 2010, Noble is going to be in the movie Risen. I thought it was a horror-thing, but it's not. It's a sport biography.

Here's John Noble's official site. They list some of the plays he's been in. And it might have other stuff that people might want to look at.

I'm going to watch a couple of interviews and then quit. I have Sims 3 now! Tim got a new computer.

Here's something from the Los Angeles Fox network. The news guy says Americans love Australian actors. Okay. Then why don't we let them keep their Australian accents? What's the point? I mean I do understand that actors like to fake accents. It's part of acting....playing someone that you're not. But I think it should be a once-in-awhile thing. I think Australian actors should bless us with their Australian accents. It should be, Cool. Did you hear Rachel Griffith's American accent? I'm impressed. She imitates us perfectly....rather than Rachel Griffiths is Australian? What? I had no idea!

Noble says that in America, actors get more attention from fans. I wonder if that's true. I wonder if we're a bit more crazed here. To my credit though, I saw actors when we lived in New York. I never bothered them. I just looked, enjoyed, and then went about my way. Tim saw Jorge Garcia at the grocery store in Hawaii. I was very proud of him, because he didn't approach him. He said the reason he didn't was because he couldn't remember the actor's name. But I said it's good he didn't. The guy was grocery shopping. I don't think people should be pestered in their real life day-to-day business. I mean maybe if you're on an elevator with someone, you can say something brief....or if they buy something at your store. I love your show, by the way. But I don't think it's nice to attack someone with gushing or ask for their autograph. That's just my personal opinion. If an actor is at a work related thing, then I think it's totally fine to approach them....like a convention or something. For example, if we saw Jorge Garcia on the set of Lost, and he was taking a break....then I think it would be okay to go up to him. We could act like crazed fans, and I wouldn't feel guilty. I think that's different from bothering someone as they're shopping.

This is nice. In the interview, Noble says that Dr. Bishop is his dream character. That's great. I like his character too. And I'm glad he likes his character.

A YouTube user says this about the interview: It's interviewers like this that result in the rest of the world concluding that Americans are as dumb as dog shit. I might agree with him. The interview grates on my nerves. Although I think I've seen Australian morning shows that are just as bad. It's just this certain style of interviewing. I find it hard to tolerate.

Anyway, I'm going to quit here and see what Jack's up to. He says he's learning Japanese. I've been pushing him to do this since he likes Nintendo so much. Maybe I've finally gotten through to him. Although I think our Hawaii friends probably deserve most of the credit. Alex (who Jack adored) is fluent in Japanese.

So...that's cool. If Jack actually learns Japanese, maybe I'll learn too.

OR....you know what would be an awesome language to learn. Hawaiian! And I still really want to learn an Aboriginal language. I'll probably never learn any language, because I can't stick to one thing. Maybe I should just learn a little of each language. That's probably what's best for me.

Andrew O'Keefe

I'm not a happy camper right now. We're leaving for Disney World in three days, and I'm feeling slightly ill. It seems to be just a small cold, and hopefully that's all it is. But I've been nervous about getting sick. Rhonda Byrne would probably say I got sick BECAUSE I've been nervous about it. She might be right. Or I could have caught a bug. Or maybe my worrying made me more susceptible to catching a bug. I do have a strong mind/body connection.

Jack seems to have a small cold. It hasn't resulted in a fever or lack of energy. So hopefully that's all I caught.

I can deal with a cold.

Anyway, on with Andrew O'Keefe.

I'm guessing he's a a performer of some sort, because the names behind him on my list were performers, and the names ahead of him are performers. I'm guessing I added a bunch of actor-type people all at once.

Lord Wiki says O'Keefe is a game show host...Deal or No Deal.

I'm not sure why I added him to the list.

I don't really watch game shows.

What would our world be like if we

knew for sure there 

was life after death, and 

we could easily talk to our 

dearly-departed on the Internet?

The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts 

Lord Wiki says baby Andrew was born on 1 October 1971. His birthday is one day before my sister's birthday. Although we didn't celebrate my sister's birthday this year. Nor did we celebrate my mom's. We're going to celebrate their birthday along with my birthday over the Thanksgiving holidays. It's getting too hard to celebrate every single birthday. People are busy. People go out town. So, some of us want to combine birthdays. It just makes things easier. Someone suggested celebrating all the male birthdays on one day, and all the female birthdays on another day. But to me, that just replicates mother's day and father's day. The four kids get their own birthday celebration. We wouldn't rob them of that. Then all of us adults are mothers and fathers.

I know I'm going off in major tangents. But how much is there to say about a game show host? Watch I say this, and O'Keefe turns out to have a super interesting life.

But come on. Tell me. Could it ever be more exciting than my family's birthday celebration plans?

Little baby Andrew was born and raised in Mosman, Sydney. That's where the zoo is! I wonder if he went to the zoo a lot when he was a child. We live pretty close to our zoo. We don't go very often now....maybe 4-5 times a year. But there have been years where we've gone much more often.

O'Keefe's daddy was a judge in the New South Wales supreme court. I guess Andrew initially followed in his father's law footsteps. Lord Wiki says that he was once a property lawyer.

Before all that though, O'Keefe attended Saint Ignatius College. This is the same school that Robert Hughes went to, although I'm sure Hughes went there YEARS before O'Keefe went.

During his school years, O'Keefe did some debating. In 1989, he was on the winning New South Wales Team at the National Schools Debating Championships. That reminds me of Looking for Alibrandi. Or was the debate team stuff in Melina Marchetta's other book? I can't remember now. I'm pretty sure it was Looking For Alibrandi.

O'Keefe went to The University of Sydney. But he also studied at something called Marylands TAFE. I've heard of TAFE before, but now I've forgotten what it is. Oh. It's South Western Sydney Insitute. That doesn't sound very familar to me. Maybe I haven't read about it before. Maybe I'm just confused. Maybe this cold is going to my brain.

While in school, O'Keefe was interested in something called Theatressports. Lord Wiki says this is improvisational stuff. That's funny, because about a minute ago, Jack came into here talking to me about improvisation.

I should read into this. It has all kinds of games. There might be something we can play with the family during Thanksgiving.

There's one game called genre replay. You do the same scene, but with different genre styles. You could make it a comedy, than drama, then horror, etc. I think that would be fun.

Oh! I love this one. It's called Alphabet. Each line has to start with the next letter of the alphabet. One person starts with the letter A. The next person has to start their line with the letter B. And so on.....

There's Emotional Roller Coaster. The players act out a scene. Then someone yells out emotions. The player has to incorporate these emotions into the scene.

I'm just going to print out the list and take it with me on Thanksgiving.

Oh. If I'm reading this right, O'Keefe liked this Theatresport stuff, but he didn't participate. I guess he was more of an audience member?

O'Keefe is married. He has two sons.

What else?

In November 2008, someone filmed O'Keefe while heavily intoxicated. He was on the ground. Someone helped him up. Then O'Keefe asked for a shoulder to cry on. Poor guy. I hope he found that shoulder.

Oh. Andrew was not always Andrew. He was originally Mark. So earlier, when I said baby Andrew, I was being very inaccurate.

I'm going to read about Deal or No Deal. I think I've seen part of one episode of the American version. Here it's hosted by....

Shit. I forgot.

Howie Mandel. There we go.

Lord Wiki says the show was originally a dutch thing. Then like a virus, it spread around the world. It looks like almost every country in the world has a version of the show.

I feel I should read about how the game is played, but I'm too tired. Right now it's equivalent to me trying to understand Cricket.

Maybe I'll just watch a clip from the show.

Oh! You know. I don't think I ever saw a real episode of this. You know what I saw? I think they had a dream sequence on Medium involving the game. I think it was the episode with Nev Campbell. I could be wrong though.

Here is a video with what is supposed to be the unluckiest contestant.

I don't understand it at all, but I guess something quite bad is happening.

I am SO lost.

I'm going to quit early.

I'm not in the mood for thinking....especially about binge drinking and invasion-of-privacy controversies.

I feel a bit drunk myself right now. Although all I've drunk is herbal tea and vitamin C stuff.

I guess the best thing to do when feeling drunk is to tell people you love them.

So...

I love you guys. Okay? There you go.

Lindsay McDougall (thanks Nurse Myra)

Well, we're back from Chicago. We had a nice time. I saw my first cousins. Our kids played together. It was cute to see.

I have no idea who Lindsay McDougall is.

I guess I shall go and find out.

It's a radio person. Male? Female? I'm not sure. I think of Lindsay as a girl's name. But in Australia, there's Norman Lindsay. That's a LAST name, though.....

Lord Wiki doesn't have a full entry on Mr. (or Mrs.) McDougall. He just has an entry on the duo itself. They call themselves Jay and the Doctor. The other part of the duo is named Jason Whalley. So I guess he'd be the Jay. McDougall must be the doctor.

The two of them were (or still are?) part of a punk band called Frenzel Rhomb. They started doing their thing in 1993 in Sydney.

McDougal plays the guitar. I still don't know if this person is a boy or girl. I am feeling it's a boy, but I could be wrong.

Lord Wiki says McDougall also organized the creation of a compilation album called Rock Against Howard. That's regarding John Howard. It was inspired by America's Rock Against Bush albums.

I found songs on YouTube from the American album, but not the Australian one.

I'm not a fan of Bush or Howard. But I'm not sure I applaud making anti-albums like that. It seems so...negative and hateful. I'm not saying Bush and Howard don't deserve hatred. It just seems to me that it would be better to make a positive album.

For example, instead of making an album against Bush, how about making an album that's FOR someone who is not like Bush.

I think sometimes we put so much energy into being AGAINST something. We don't direct enough energy towards being FOR things.

You know, it's kind of also like one of the rules from Charmed. The witches are supposed to protect the innocent; NOT punish the guilty. So, I think we should spend our time and energy helping the victims of Bush and Howard rather than spending our energy on hating Bush and Howard.

Well, there IS some good news here though. The proceeds to McDougall's project went to refugee charities. So he did use some of that energy to help victims of Howard.

Still, if it was up to me, I'd probably label the album Rock for Asylum Seekers. I'm sure there could still be some anti-Howard lyrics in there.

I guess in a way, it's a matter of semantics.

I'm probably just rambling here so I can avoid reading about McDougal's music career. This stuff really does bore me. I hate reading and writing about which album came out when.

I'll do a little bit of it anyway.

Their first album album (not just EP thing) was called Coughing up a Storm. I like that name. In America, the same album was called Once a Jolly Swagman Always a Jolly Swagman. That's very cute. I like the whole "Waltzing Matilda" reference. I wonder why they used that for Americans rather than the coughing thing.

They did an album in 2003 called Sans Souci. That's what my mom named their lake house. It hasn't quite caught on, though. I think she was hoping we'd all say things like Let's go to San Souci this weekend! We don't do that. We all call it simply the lake house.

Ah! There's another album with an Aussie cultural reference. For the Terms of Their Unnatural Lives. That's a cute play on the novel title For the Term of His Natural Life.

The album title makes me think of True Blood. I'm totally loving that show. I watched part of it last night. My other new favorite (Drop Dead Diva) was also on, so I was flipping back and forth between the two. Then Drop Dead Diva ended, so I could put my full concentration on the last half of True Blood. There was some very suspenseful scenes involving Anna Paquin and a horrible church. Just when I got to the good part, Jack came downstairs and I had to turn it off. I'll need to try to catch it again this week.

I probably should just TAPE the shows and watch them religiously. But I'm getting bad at all that. I got so behind on Medium. Our DVR ended up erasing them before I watched them. Now I have the last Eli Stone episodes taped. I need to watch those.

See? I'm rambling again. It's avoidance.....

Anyway, I'll be a good girl and get back on track.

Maybe I'll listen to some of their music on YouTube.

Here's a song called "Mum Changed the Locks".

Well, THAT video is one of the most disturbing things I have ever watched on YouTube. Lovely. Uh...well, the dog is cute, I suppose.

Here's a song called "Russel Crowe's Band".

Well, the animation is cute. I like the Monopoly Money bit.

I probably don't like the song much...neither the lyrics nor the music.

I'm reading now about how these punk band people started hosting a radio show.

In 2004, they temporarily replaced some of the Chasers who did a morning show. The Chasers were busy doing election type stuff.

The funny thing is...prior to this, the band's music was actually banned from the station. Why? Frenzal Rhomb had criticized the station for always playing the same forty songs.

I think all radio stations do that. You turn on the station for the first time and think I LOVE this. They play awesome songs. I haven't heard this song in SO long. Then a few weeks later, you get sick of that awesome song and realize they play it way too much.

We listen to Sirius music at the lake house. My parents put on this instrumental station when we eat lunch. It seems almost every lunch we've had there, the past few weeks, features the theme song from The Mission.

The Jay of Jay and the Doctor left the radio show in 2007. McDougal still works for the station. He now co-hosts with people named Robbie Buck and Marieke Hardy.

Lord Wiki lists features of the Jay and the Doctor program. Some of it seems somewhat funny. I guess I'd have to listen and see.

I'm done with Lord Wiki now, and he pointed me towards the ABC website for the show.

The show provided wake-up calls. You leave your name and number in their guestbook. And then I guess you hope for a phone call from Jay and the Doctor.

I like this: They ask people to send them tourist photos from around Australia. The catch is they want you to look totally depressed in the photos. That's pretty funny.

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The site has some excerpts from the show. I guess I'll listen to some. This one features Borat. According to him, the Jews are not just responsible for every war. We're responsible for the end of the dinosaurs. If that's the case....I apologize for that. I mean I really don't feel that guilty about the Jesus thing. I'd definitely feel guilt for the dinosaurs.

Borat makes reference to Home and Away which once featured his alter-ego's fiance. He mentions a character named Colleen. Was that Fisher's character?

Okay. No. Fisher played Shannon, not Colleen.

Well, that was pretty long. I don't think I'm going to listen to a second one...at least not right now.

This article has a photo of McDougall.

Oh. This makes me like McDougall. The article says he's angry because he was used in a video that preaches anti-downloading. When he lent himself to the video, he thought it was simply about surviving as an Australian musician. It turns out it was a video directed at high school students--teaching them how evil it is to download music illegally.

McDougall says, I have never come out against internet piracy and illegal downloading and I wouldn't do that - I would never put my name to something that is against downloading and is against piracy and stuff, it's something that I believe is a personal thing from artist to artist.

He also says, I'm from a punk rock band, it's all about getting your music out any way you can - you don't make money from the record, the record companies make the money from the record. If they can't make money these days because they haven't come onside with the way the world is going, it's their own problem.

My feeling is the Internet has changed everything. There's so much you can get for free. People are DOING so much without any payment. People are writing. People are making videos. People are making websites.....

I think the illegal downloading thing is pretty silly. I can go to the library and get books for free. Why can't I go to a website and get music for free? I can also get music free from the library. We can check out CDs there.

This website has the video that angered McDougall. I'll watch it.

So far, it seems to be a woe-is-me kind of video. It's not easy being a rock star. It's not all parties, big houses, and hotel-room-crashing.

Yeah. I thought being an asylum seeker in a detention camp might be tough. But being a rock star?  That's where the REAL hardship occurs.

The video talks about the Internet....the good and the bad. One of the Veronicas twins talks about how it allows your music to get an international audience. But then if people listen to your music for free, how do you make money? Are rock stars becoming poor?

Just for the record, I DON'T download illegal music anymore. I used to...via Napster and some other site. Now I take the legal route. I download from I-Tunes. But I usually just listen to stuff for free on YouTube. Is that illegal? I don't know. Maybe it's illegal for some of these videos to be posted on YouTube. I can't see how I can go to jail for watching....

These rock stars make it sound like they're on the verge of poverty.

One guy says if we don't support the artists, they won't exist anymore. Hey! That's kind of like Tinker Bell.

Maybe when we listen to music for free, we should clap our hands. Maybe that will help the artist continue to exist.

Seriously, though. I can imagine it might be quite damaging if rock star people stop making any money. They'll have to find day jobs, and will have less time to do music stuff. But I don't think that will happen. They can make money via concerts. They can sell t-shirts. And there will always be people out there who are willing to buy the CD. There are people out there who like to have a tangible object in their hand. They like to OWN things.

I like I-Tunes. I think paying a dollar for a song is pretty reasonable. I much prefer that to buying a CD. I used to hate liking ONE song and having to buy a whole CD just so I can listen to it.

McDougall is on Twitter. He seems fairly active. He's done about thirteen post in the last twenty-four hours. For the most part, he seems to respond to other people. He's interactive about the whole thing.

Here's an article about McDougall on an animal liberation website. Is he vegetarian?

Ah! He's a vegan. And he makes me feel a bit guilty. He says, I always knew the problems with dairy, but used the 'at least I'm doing something' defence to justify my cheese and egg lovin' diet. Then, about a year and a half ago, I realised that it wasn't any defence at all, in fact acknowledging the problems but not doing anything about it was almost as bad, if not worse, so I cut out all dairy products, too.

I agree with him. I hate that I agree. But I do.

I'm such a horrible hypocrite for eating dairy and eggs. I'm NOT going to become vegan. But I do want to be better; eat less dairy and eggs. I did make a good choice the other day for breakfast. We ordered room service for breakfast. I wanted the French toast, but I figured that probably had a lot of eggs. Instead I got rye toast. I'm not sure if that has eggs, but I'm pretty sure it has less eggs then French toast. Maybe? The recipes I'm seeing for rye bread do include eggs. I guess it would depend then on what kind of bread you used for your French toast. If you used bread without eggs, you'd just have the egg batter. But if you used a bread like Challah (which has eggs) and then added an egg batter, that's a hefty contribution to chicken cruelty.

I'm thinking I DON'T want to become anal enough to check the ingredients of everything I eat; avoiding all dairy and egg. But I'd like to avoid things that are heavy in dairy and eggs...especially if it's made by companies that don't try to use organic free range type stuff. So it's probably bad that I ate cheese pizza the other night. And it's probably bad that I recently bought a can of processed cheese.

I REALLY need to put more thoughts and ethics into my eating.

McDougall says some honest upfront type things here. No, seriously, it does feel good to be in a group of people doing the right thing, when the majority of people aren't, it 's probably how people brainwashed by a cult think. But I realise that's just a superficial feeling of superiority, and I would feel a lot better if everyone in the world was vegan, and I was no different to them at all.

I sometimes feel all superior to those around me eating their huge sausages and steaks. But then I remember dairy cows are often treated like shit too. And here I am eating nachos with tons of cheese....

My feeling is we don't need to strive to be on the top of the ethical chain. Instead, I'd rather us ALL be a little more ethical. I think meat-lovers should eat a little less meat, and try to get it from ethical sources. Vegetarians should eat a little less eggs and dairy. Vegans...well, I guess they're ethical enough, at least food-wise. Although it would be hypocritical of them to eat any chocolate or coffee that is not fair trade. I think it would be wrong to care about the mistreatment of animals but support the mistreatment of humans. Hey, humans are animals too. Right?

McDougall is a very strict vegan. He avoids ALL the animal stuff. He's an ingredient reader.

McDougall says, But there were times in my life when I realised things were a little off kilter. Like when friends would say how they could never hurt their pet, or how much they loved their horse, and I'd think, 'but you still eat meat, isn't that the same.

I think about things like that. People get sad when they see a lonely-looking puppy in the pet store. Then those same people will go to the food court and get a hamburger.

How do they do that?

They might be like me...forgetting ethics when they order lunch.

They might believe that farms animals live a Charlotte's Web life.

I don't know.

McDougall is asked about which countries are most vegetarian tolerant. He comes down hard on America. I was about to debate him on that. America has a lot of vegetarian restaurants...just like Australia does. But I think there is a difference. In America, you can get good eating in the big cities. The thing we noticed about Australia is that even the smaller cities have vegetarian stuff. Well, we've been to only a few small cities. I'm really making a leap here. I'll just say that in my limited experience, I've noticed Australia's small cities are more vegetarian friendly than America's.

McDougall is VERY strict in the vegan thing. He's like a PETA person. No animal products in the house. No circus. No zoo.

I'm not sure how I feel about that.

I feel when you're so militant, and advertise the fact, you kind of scare people away. Although some people think I'm scary and militant. I guess scary/militant is in the eyes of the beholder.

No, but when I first became vegetarian I bought a PETA type book. It pushed me to being vegan. I felt it was something I HAD to do. I drove my family nuts. I think Tim wanted to strangle me. I probably kind of wanted to strangle myself. It was hard to find food. I'd find something and think it was okay. I'd buy it, eat it and then learn it had some wrong ingredient.

I gave the whole thing up after about a month. I did stick to being a vegetarian. That's never been too hard for me. I've never loved meat all that much. But the whole vegan thing backfired. I mean maybe that's why I'm so unethical when it comes to dairy and eggs. Maybe things would have been better if these books didn't make me feel like a nasty human being if I ate one lousy little Lucky Charms marshmallow. Maybe I would have stuck to a more ethical diet if I read a book that pushed the idea of REDUCING rather than fully eliminating.

I have trouble with these extreme organizations. They make it very hard to get to the truth. They make it very hard to be ethical. In their eyes, the only RIGHT thing to do is eat NO animal product whatsoever. I don't think that's helpful. Because let's face it. The whole world is not going to become vegan anytime soon. What would be more helpful is if they distinguished between practices that are horribly cruel and practices that treat the animals fairly okay.

Let's take zoos. Is it helpful to say, all zoos are horrible. Stop going to them! Or is it better to say Some zoos are good. Some zoos are bad. Avoid zoos where you see these things going on.....
There's that saying. Choose your battles....

So no. I'm not impressed with organizations like Animal Liberation and PETA. I'm sure they do SOME good. But I think sometimes they do more harm than good. It's the same way that the preacher yelling on the street, that we're all sinners, totally turns me off from Christianity; and how Richard Dawkins and Robert T. Caroll make me want to hate science sometimes.

It's hard to find that balance. I don't think we should shut up. I think we should be able to share our beliefs. There is a chance that someone will listen and make a change because of us, and what we've said. I think we just have to guard against going too far and alienating people. Well, we're always going to alienate SOMEONE. I think I might offend some people by simply BEING a vegetarian. But if you can promote your message without offending too many people than you're probably doing an okay job.

And if you can live a highly righteous vegan life without acting snarky and oh-so-superior to others....then you're doing a REALLY awesome job. I'd surely fail at it. I already failed at becoming vegan. If I ever succeeded, I MIGHT become a little snarky about it. I most definitely would have a superiority complex. That might be okay, though, because I have such low self-esteem in other areas. It would all probably balance itself out.

Well, enough of that. I'm going to watch Jack play his video game. Then I'm going to watch more McDougall videos on YouTube.

Here's something called "Ben Lee vs. The Doctor". I think it's a Triple J thing. They're doing some kind of busking contest. I watched about half and then I got bored.

Here's McDougall doing a vegan video. It's about the food pyramid. It features McDougall chewing on a bike tire. Yum. The video is actually more comical than didactic. It's cute.

Here's another Triple J thing. It's called "Priceless Pleasures, Looking" I like that. It promotes people watching and looking at nature. The whole idea is that we can entertain ourselves without spending money. That's a valuable message. And it's cute and funny. I laughed out loud at least once.

Here's McDougall trying to set the world record for hot dog eating.  That's vegan hot dogs. He doesn't get too far.

Here's a Jay and The Doctor thing. I guess that was a promo for their show. It's interesting. It involves bees. Bees make almost anything interesting. At least I think so.

Now I'm going to listen to some more Frenzal Rhomb stuff.

Here's "Forever Malcom Young".

It's cute. Tim might appreciate the red balloon scene.

Who is Malcolm Young? Is he a random fictional type character, or someone famous I should know about?

Well, Lord Wiki says he's a guitarist with AC/DC. So he is real. I'm guessing that's probably who Frenzal Rhomb was talking about in the song.

I'm looking at the lyrics. Angus is mentioned and he's part of AC/DC too. So I guess that confirms that the song is about AC/DC Malcolm Young.

Here's a video called My City of Sydney. I'm going to watch it, and then I'm going to end this post and go to something else.

Okay...interesting. It kind of moved too fast for my brain to follow.

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Day 35....in which we eat fairy bread

In the morning, we did the last minute packing. Then Tim left to go rent a car. 

He had come up with an idea. We didn't need to leave for the airport until 3 pm, and the check out time at our apartment was 10 am. Tim decided, since we had a coupon for the car rental company, we could get a car for a good price. We could use the car for both transportation and luggage storage.

We took all our luggage down to the lobby and loaded up the car. We also had a bag of junk to give my friend Michelle. I had asked her if she'd be willing to take the stuff we couldn't (or didn't want to) take home with us. This included the Seven Mile Beach scooter, an instant noodle meal, and some children's books that we had already finished reading. 

Last year it had been my cousin who was blessed with our rejected stuff. Who will win the prize next time? Any volunteers? Ah! Maybe there will be lots of volunteers. We can have a big auction and everything!

Anyway, we went in the car and Tim drove us to Croyden.




We met Gina at the Cafe On Strand. We all ate breakfast together outside.

Jack sat next to Gina. I could tell he really adored her.



The food was great. Jack had a fruit and yogurt thing. I was mean and said he couldn't have anything huge and sugary like pancakes. We were heading to a birthday party next, and I knew he'd get a full dose of processed sugar there. Plus then we had the plane ride with the make-us-forget-we're-on-a-nine-hour-flight candy. I promised him that once we were in Hawaii, he could get pancakes.

Jack was fine with my restrictions. I think partly because I warned him way ahead of time. And he liked his fruit.

The rest of us had fruit toast. I actually had said Jack could get something like that. Yeah, it has processed sugar. But it's usually a smaller meal. I just didn't want him to get a huge pancake/waffle/French toast thing.

While we ate, Jack showed Gina some of his geography skills. This proved to me that he loves her. Jack doesn't like being asked geography questions. I mean he's usually fine with me and Tim asking. But he has told me privately that he gets annoyed when people bombard him with questions. I think he feels shy about it. But now he answered questions happily. And I think he even told us to ask him more questions.

After breakfast we went to a nearby convenience store. Tim wanted to buy a lottery ticket. I think he bought some from the regular big jackpot lottery. Then he bought a scratch off ticket. We all watched eagerly as he did the scratching. We had won!




Okay. All we won was enough money to buy another lottery ticket. But still. It gave us some hope.

If this had been a movie, we would have scratched the new card and screamed happily about winning thousands of dollars. But that didn't happen. It was all very anti-climatic. We won. Then we lost.

While Tim had been getting the new card, Gina asked me what would I do if we won. Would I stay in Sydney?

I thought about it and then said no. I really truly did want to go home. I was exhausted from being a tourist. I wanted to go back to regular life. And most importantly, I wanted to see my new nephew. Gina has a very special relationship with her nephew, so she was very empathetic. I told her if we won, I'd want to go home and then come back again soon.

Such grand plans we have while scratching lottery tickets.

Oh! I forgot about this, but just saw it in my notes. We asked Jack what he'd buy if he won the lottery. His answer? A conveyor belt....like the ones your luggage goes on at the airport. I had no idea he loved these that much.

We said our sad good-byes to Gina. Then we headed to Stanmore for Hugo's Birthday party.

It was hard getting there so we were late. I guess TomTom decided he was mad at us for some reason. Maybe he was sad about going back to America. 

He kept telling us to take right turns on one way streets. And then he wanted us to drive through this really squishy thin alley. Tim cursed and said no way. He and TomTom had it out with each other. But they eventually found peace together, and we got to the birthday party.

We all had a great time. Well, not TomTom. We made him stay in the car. That was his punishment for misbehaving.

Jack, Tim, and I got to eat fairy bread for the first time. This is white bread with butter/margarine and sprinkles. But in Australia they call sprinkles, "hundreds and thousands".



There was all kinds of yummy food at the party.

Michelle's parents, aunts, and cousins were at the party. She also had a friend there who had been her fellow expat in America. It was great to meet all of them. They were all very nice and welcoming.



I think Michelle felt all worldly having foreigners at her child's birthday party. I'm thinking I'd like to feel that way during one of Jack's birthday parties. Any volunteers? His birthday is in August. I prefer Australians, of course. But I'd settle for others. Swedish? British? Italian? Thai? Malaysian? I'll even accept a Canadian! My sister always has Israeli's at her daughter's party. So, that probably wouldn't impress anyone enough. It's been done too many times before.

Well, back to Hugo's party. The grown-ups chatted. The children played. We all stuffed our faces.

At one point, Michelle became all concerned about Tim. She said he looked lost; kind of not fitting in. 

I thought...Tim? No! Impossible. He's such a people-person. But then I looked over at him and he DID look lost. He was walking around looking so....I don't know? Rejected? Left out? Bored. Alienated.....

I felt bad for my little husband. I rarely see him like this. Did no one want to talk to him? I think I went out to see how he was doing. It ended up he had been looking for one of Jack's shoes! The socially-rejected look was really a where-are-those-damn-shoes-we-can't-take-him-on-the-plane-with-just-one-Croc look.

We soon found the shoes, and Tim went back to being his good old social self.

Another thing that happened at the party was Tim saw Jack do some awful belly flop thing on the trampoline. I didn't see it, but I did see Tim asking Jack if he was okay. This was after Jack was up and walking. Tim was still concerned about what he had seen. I guess Jack's legs had gone way up in some weird way. Seeing Tim concerned like that made me concerned. But then Jack acted fine so I forgot about it.

We sang happy birthday and ate cake. All that fun birthday stuff.



Around 3:00, we said our good-byes and headed to the airport. I think TomTom behaved himself at this point. I think he knew we'd get enough grief from the car rental company. When Tim had picked up the car in the morning, the person told him to return the car near the domestic terminal. But once we got there, they told us we should have gone to the International terminal. Domestic was too far away. Fortunately, they were SUPER nice there and offered to drive us.

The other problem was the guy in the morning hadn't done anything about the coupon. We were paying full price for the car. Tim politely spoke out against that. Again, they were SUPER nice and fixed the mistake.

The guy who drove us to the terminal was very friendly. He talked about wanting to come to America one day.

At the airport, we bought even more candy. At the duty-free shop, they had a good deal on the Cadbury Favorites box. I think it was three boxes for twenty dollars. We bought that. Tim wanted some Jaffas. They didn't have them at the duty-free shop. I suggested that we go to the regular airport convenience store. They'd have all the Aussie candy there.

I was right. They did. We bought those. Tim also bought Minties and Fantales. I forgot whether he bought them at the convenience store or the duty-free shop. I guess it doesn't matter.

We eventually got on the plane.

Jack and I sat in a two-seater. Tim sat in the middle of the plane with a whole row almost to himself. There was a woman who was there part of the time and then later went to sit with her daughter.

She was very talkative. Tim seemed very friendly towards her. But I had a feeling he wasn't happy with the situation. I think he wanted to rest and watch his movie. I felt bad for him.

I think talking to strangers on an airplane can be a great thing. It's possible you can meet a new friend. It can diminish loneliness. BUT I think there are limits to it. I think you have to know how to take a hint, and I think you have to know when to take a break from the conversation.

Tim gave this woman a lot of his time. I think they talked for at least thirty minutes. Then he started getting his video player ready. The woman didn't take the hint. I saw my poor husband watching his movie and then having to keep pausing it so he could be polite and listen to the woman.

I talked to the woman a bit too.

She told us she was psychic. She said she could see dead people.

I'm a believer, but I'm a skeptical believer.

She might have been telling the truth. There's no way I can know for sure. But something about it.....

I don't know. It might have been that she told us she was heading to Las Vegas. Las Vegas + psychic brings up a certain image for me. I think I might have had a different opinion if she had been heading towards somewhere like upstate New York, Arizona, or Wisconsin.

I'm not saying there can't be real psychics in Las Vegas. I'm sure some of them live there. But if you're traveling all the way from Australia, and the place you're most excited about going is Las Vegas, I'm going to form a certain opinion.

I did try to give her the benefit of the doubt at first. I WANTED to believe. I asked her some questions I had about mediums. I asked how she could distinguish dead people from living people. She avoided my question. But she did tell a dramatic tale of seeing a dead man. She told me he looked as clear and there as a living man. So yeah. If that's so, how did she know I wasn't a ghost? Maybe Tim was a ghost. For any of you who watch Medium....some of my questions had been aroused by a certain recent episode.

The other thing....

I feel a real medium wouldn't boast to strangers that he/she could see dead people. I just don't think it's something you brag about. Maybe I'm wrong. I just feel if you're going to boast about something when first meeting someone, then you have to back it up with proof. It's not that I expect a free reading or something....although that would have been pretty awesome. But she could have given us a tiny sample. She could have given us something to make us think. Wow! This one might be for real!

She became melodramatic at one point. She looked me in the eye and told me I didn't need to worry. Those who I've loved and lost are with me—they're ALWAYS with me. 

I think she wanted me to get all teary and say Grandpa! Grandma! I'm so relieved to know that. I love you. 

What I wanted to say was something sarcastic like if my grandpa is following me all the time, where does that leave my two sisters? Why is he neglecting them? And can't the guy EVER give me some privacy. I mean I LOVE my Grandpa. And I do believe his spirit is with me SOMETIMES. But that guy better not be with me ALL the time.

But who knows....

Maybe she Susan Boyled me. Maybe she's some fabulous medium, and I failed to realize that. Maybe one day she'll have her own TV series on Lifetime, and I'll feel foolish for doubting her.

Anyway.....

Besides being a little too talkative, she was actually very nice. Friendly. She was very sweet. If Tim and I were more social on planes, we'd probably appreciate her more. But we're not. We'll talk a little bit but mostly we like to read, watch movies, and sleep (or try to at least!).

The woman eventually left to sit with her sister, and Tim watched his movie. Jack watched a cartoon about sheep. I watched Twilight! I was excited to see it. 

I've wanted to read the books but haven't gotten around to it. I had actually said to Tim weeks earlier that to make the plane ride not-so-horrible for myself, I might splurge and buy all the books. I figured sexy vampires would keep me happily busy. I never got around to buying the books. But now I had the movie.

I started watching it.

I took one look at Edward Cullen and quickly understood what all the fuss was about. I learned later that the actor who plays him is the same guy from Harry Potter. He's Cedric Diggory! I never realized that while watching the movie.

The movie kept my attention.

Jack kept himself busy for several minutes by repeatedly blowing up his airplane pillow. I didn't pay much attention to it. I had a vague worry that blowing things up repeatedly might make him sick. But mostly I was happy to have him occupied, so I could stare at Edward Cullen.

Then when the movie was about halfway over, Jack told me he felt sick.

Oh shit!

My fear of airplane vomit was going to happen.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I tried to stay calm.

I had actually already looked in our seat pockets for vomit bags. I usually don't do this. But Jack had eaten so much junk at the birthday party. I felt I needed to be prepared for the worse. When I looked then, I hadn't found any bags. So now, I poked Tim and said I needed him to give me his bag.

Jack immediately said that he wasn't going to throw up. I wanted to believe him, but I feared he was just trying to be optimistic.

I took the bags anyway. I said we'd keep them just in case.

Jack talked about wanting dinner. I figured maybe this meant he wasn't feeling nauseated.

I asked him what was wrong. He told me his stomach hurt when he breathed.

Then I remembered what had happened at the birthday party. Suddenly, airplane vomit seemed the least of my problems. I looked at Jack and he looked awful to me. I can't describe it. I'll just say he looked very scary. He looked lethargic and just....well....sick.

I thought maybe he had some type of internal injuries.

I was terrified.

And then Tim asked for the camera and took Jack's photo. I don't know why he did that. But it scared me even more. It's like he was building up evidence of some sort. I pictured us in an emergency room; doctors prepping Jack for life saving surgery and asking us millions of frantic questions. I pictured Tim taking out the photo and saying This is when he first told us something was wrong.

I don't know if Tim was as scared as I was. Or if he was just thinking why is my wife freaking out so much.

I didn't know what we'd do if something was truly wrong. What happens in airplane emergencies like that?

All we did then was wait. Wait, pray, and hope.

I turned off my movie. I had absolutely no interest in it anymore.

I asked Jack if he wanted me to read him a book. He said yes. I started reading him Flat Stanley. He listened calmly. I was too nervous to pay attention to anything that I was reading. I kept glancing at Jack hoping he'd start looking better and praying that he wouldn't start looking worse.

I'm sure most of you know how the story turns out. Jack's alive and well.

Nothing serious was wrong with him. I think he just gave himself a stomachache from all the air blowing. And he might also have been sore from the belly flop. Once he ate, he was in better spirits. I realized later that he DOES get that horribly lethargic look sometime. It happens every time we go to bed too late. My boisterous son becomes my very quiet and exhausted son.

All the little things added up, though, and my imagination had run off in very scary directions.

When we ate our dinner, I started crying. At that time, I thought it was for sentimental reasons. What sparked the tears was seeing the little Cadbury Bar that came with the meal. It made me think of all the trivial things about Australia I'd miss. Now I'm thinking though that the crying might have been a release from the previous drama. I look back and can see some humor in the situation, but at the time, it truly was scary for me. Once I knew he was okay, I relaxed, and the tears flowed.

After dinner, Jack and Tim fell asleep. I tried to as well, but didn't have much luck. I decided I might as well finish watching Twilight. I did that. Then Tim pointed out that the video player music section had the soundtrack to Mamma Mia. 

I listened to it and had my second airplane cry. This time it was for the song When All is Said And Done. The song brought up so many emotions for me. It reminded me of my relationship with Tim. It reminded me of my beautiful friendship with Tracey and how at one time we almost lost each other. It reminded me of all the people in my life who have forgiven me and all who I have forgiven.

The song makes me feel there's always hope. Love may be replaced with anger and resentment. But eventually love might return.

Sometimes we lose our friends.
But sometimes we find them again.

And that ends our trip to Australia.

I've cried many times since returning. I can't begin to count how many tears have been shed while writing these posts.

I think I've cried more after returning from this trip than I did from the last trip. But there's a big difference. Last year, my tears were ones of depression. They came from a black cloud hanging over my head. They were tears of despair, loneliness, and hopelessness.

These new tears are different. They're lovely ones. Sometimes, they have tiny drops of melancholy. But mostly, they're happy sentimental tears. It's like the tears we shed when we see a beautiful sunset....

when we see a bride walking down the aisle.....

Or,

when we find out our sister is going to have a baby.

They're THOSE kinds of tears.

Day 20....in which we meet an Aussie homeschooling family and a friendly cockatoo

I had a hard time sleeping. Why? Another problem with the apartment. The curtains were so damn transparent.

Tim defended the room saying we had curtains like this at the holiday parks as well. The difference there was it was dark outside at night. In the morning, there was barely any sun, and if it did appear we had been waking up fairly early, anyway. 

In Sydney, there were lights outside. The room never really got dark.

It was also loud. I'd hear people talking, and it would sound like they were right outside our bedroom. At first, I thought they were coming from six stories below on the street. But later I began to think they were people closer to us...perhaps people on their balconies.

In the morning, I had Nutella on toast. I've really grown to love that stuff.

We had our first social plans for Sydney. We were meeting a homeschooling family at the Powerhouse Museum. I had met them through this blog, and we had tried getting our kids to be email-pals for awhile. In Seven Mile Beach, we had gotten a text from them saying they might not make it. They lived in the North Coast and were trapped by the floods.

I had been really confused about where they lived. 

At one point, I though they lived far from Sydney. Another time, they said they were just an hour or so away. Once we met them in person, I figured out the story. They lived in the North Coast which is fairly far from Sydney; but at the time they were going to meet us, they were staying with their parents in Gosford. That's not too far.

We walked to the Powerhouse Museum from our apartment. We had our beloved Time Out Sydney book to help guide our way. Jack loved looking a the map!

When we got there, I received a text from Kristi saying they were going to be late...train related reasons.

I guess we could have left the museum and come back. But for some reason, I thought it was best if we stayed and just began our time in the museum. I guess maybe I wanted Jack to have some time alone. If he had a child with him, he might be busy playing and miss some stuff. I remember worrying, though, that we'd be bored and done with the museum by the time they got there.

We had to decide whether or not to get tickets to the Star Wars exhibit. I hoped Jack wouldn't be interested, because it upped the price quite a bit. Without the exhibit, the cost for our family was $25. With the exhibit, it would be $60. 

Jack really hasn't been into Star Wars lately, and we had seen the exact same exhibit in Fort Worth a few years ago.

Fortunately, he chose not to go. He wasn't interested.

Plus, Kristi hadn't mentioned anything about The Stars Wars exhibit, so I didn't think they planned to go.

We walked around the rest of the museum. I think we were there for about an hour before they showed up. We moved Jack-pace (very fast) through almost everything.

Then, when we got there, they told us they were heading into The Star Wars museum.

Oh no!

I worried that maybe I had misunderstood, and this is why they wanted to come to the museum in the first place.

I worried they'd be in there for a really long time.

Jack and Tim were having a grand time at the museum, but I was already getting a bit tired of it.

I worried we'd be there for hours waiting for them to get out of Star Wars. Then of course we'd all have to spend time together in the rest of the museum. Would we ever leave this place?

I lucked out. It turns out little Torren is like Jack in museums. He rushed through Star Wars. They were out of there probably within twenty or so minutes.

Despite not wanting to spend the whole day at the Powerhouse Museum, I did like the place. It's extremely charming. It has a great mixture of science and history. Jack and I had actually been there for a short time in 2007, but we really hadn't seen much.

Now we had more than enough time.

We walked around together and saw a lot of stuff.



Jack's favorite exhibit was this one that teaches you about chocolate. You watch a video and then at certain parts, chocolate chips come out of a tube. How cool is that? I don't think I've ever seen an edible museum exhibit.

Once Torren was there watching from behind. Jack got his chocolate chips. Without being asked, he handed some to Torren. I was so proud. Jack has never been that talented about sharing food with other kids....especially without being asked or forced. And it's not like the machine gave you bunch of chocolate chips.

Tim was enchanted by this exhibit which was supposed to make you feel like you were in space. No gravity. We tried it. I didn't feel like I was lacking gravity. I felt like I was in a room that was spinning. I didn't like it. Jack says he also didn't feel like he was in space. But he did like it. He says it made him feel like he was in a hamster's wheel.

There's an exhibit where you build your own fireworks. It sounds great in theory, but I didn't quite get it.

At one point, I lost the others. I had to use the toilet and when I came out, they were gone. I hadn't told them to wait for me or anything. Also, I may have gone out the wrong way. I looked for them while having some solo time to look around the museum. I remember looking at the big AIDS quilt.

I sent Tim a text, but he didn't respond.

Finally, I found them. Tim said he hadn't gotten any text from me. I think, though, as soon as he said that, it appeared.

We all went outside to the playground. Jack likes the Powerhouse Museum playground because it has a real seesaw. As far as I know, we don't have those in America anymore.

Why? I don't know. Maybe someone decided they were too dangerous?



Kristi and I sat on the bench and had a nice chat. Later the kids joined us for a photo op.



We then left the Powerhouse Museum and went to find a place to eat for lunch. At some point, we passed Paddy's Market. I knew Tracey said she wanted to go there. We peaked in. It looked cool.

For lunch, we found a food court in Chinatown. I had some very yummy vegetarian soup.

We then walked towards the train station, so we could bid them farewell.

I think Kristi was a bit concerned about keeping Torren busy and happy on the train ride. It cracked me up, because we had recently endured the long flight from Hawaii to Sydney. At this point, an hour or two would seem like nothing for us.

It's all about perspective! 

I bet, though, in a few months time, when we go on a domestic flight, it will seem long to us again.

On the way to the station, someone grabbed Kristi's wallet out of her backpack. I guess they weren't pleased with it because then they threw it down on the floor. She picked it up angrily. I kept saying we should go and yell at this thief, but the others weren't with me on that one. You know, something about her maybe having a gun or something. 

I don't know. I guess I can be a little reactive at times...at least when it comes to confronting people. Sometimes I speak before thinking.

After we said good-bye to Kristi, Brett, and Torren, we walked back towards our apartment. We decided to stop at World Square for a snack. Yesterday, Jack had eyed a bakery in there. He wanted to go back.

We found yummy Asian snacks at Breadtop.

At one time, I had no love for Asian pastries. I thought they were crap. Tim claimed to like them, and I figured he was just trying to honor his ethnicity or something. My feeling was they should just stick to fortune cookies and orange slices.

Then I discovered red bean buns. I love red bean stuff! Now I'm a fan of Asian bakeries.

Breadtop is awesome. There's so many choices. Sadly, though, I didn't love what I chose. It was okay, but it didn't have enough red bean for me.

It was a bit of a struggle finding a place to sit, but we finally managed to.



After we ate, we walked around the shops a bit.

I bought an Australian calendar. Jack says this is when he bought his multi-colored pen. I had told him about these amazing things before we went to Australia. I had talked about how in my days there were these pens that could write in different colors. Jack was totally enchanted by my tale and then so excited to find a real specimen. He used his allowance to buy one.

We went back to our apartment. I gave my family a few minutes to rest, and then I pushed them to go back out again. Why? We had a weekly travel pass, and we hadn't used it yet today. I felt it was our duty to use it everyday.

We took the train to Circular Quay.

We walked past the Opera House and into the Royal Botanical Gardens.



I love the RBG. It's one of my favorite places in Sydney. I love seeing all the trees. I love the bats. I love the variety of birds; especially the parrots. My mom loves birds too. They're going to Australia next year. I told them they MUST go to the RBG. I think she'll love it there.

There was a place where some cockatoos were hanging out.

I took a photograph and one of the birds started flying up towards me.



Then he landed right on top of my head!



It was quite funny.

I have to say I like that feeling of having a bird on top of my head. Although I did worry he'd poop on me.

Jack tried shaking me to encourage the cockatoo to get off. He wouldn't budge.

There were tourists watching. I think they were a bit jealous. This young woman had been working to get a cockatoo to land on her arm and had no luck. Here I was not even trying, and a bird was having a lovefest with my scalp.

It's not the first time parrots have been attracted to my head. At the Fort Worth zoo once, the parrots at the parrot exhibit seemed extremely interested in me. I don't know what the deal is. Maybe my hair looks like a nest?

Each time I've felt blessed, though. I love birds. I like to think that maybe some birds actually like me back.

We walked around more. Tim saw something going on in the park...some event happening. He was curious and wanted to see what it was.

We found out (either then or later) that it was a film festival.

The song "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" kept playing. It drove me a bit nuts. I think I was being a bit bitchy to Tim. I hadn't wanted to walk all the way towards the festival to see what it was. I think I was tired but more than that, I thought Jack was getting tired as well. We had planned to walk all the way back to our apartment. I didn't want to go out of our way. Now I'm thinking that was pretty awful of me. Here, Tim goes all the way to Australia with me, and I complain about him wanting to check out a festival. Although I didn't stop us from going over. We did it. I just bitched along the way. Or maybe I didn't? Maybe I kept my bitching to myself. Maybe I didn't complain until the next time we passed the festival, and Tim wanted to check it out a second time. I know I complained then. I figured we already knew what it was. Why did we have to take a second look?

All through the park, I kept singing "Sunday Bloody Sunday". I couldn't get it out of my head. I don't know how it got into my head in the first place. I feared maybe it was some kind of awful omen.

At the park near our apartment, we saw a man being arrested. Exciting.

Jack and I hung out inside while Tim went to Jaipur Sweets. He wanted to use their free Internet. Unfortunately it wasn't working. But he did bring back dinner and some treats! He had bought these things that were like Gulab Jamal but without the syrup.

We watched Medium, but Tim had to leave in the middle to find a place to use the Internet. Too bad for him, because I thought it was a good one. It had a tricky little twist to it.

At night in bed, I started to worry a little bit about leaving Australia. I was becoming quite attached again. As I have a said a million trillion times before, I had great difficulty the last time. I worried I'd be sad again.

But I tried not to dwell on all of that too much. We still had two weeks and one day left.

Read my novel: The Dead are Online