Sad news

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I just heard such sad news, that I can't think of anything else. A work colleague passed away suddenly after having been told that her condition was benign for 18 months. She leaves behind a husband and two young children aged 3 and 5.

It's a strange thing, being a flight attendant you may know someone for decades, and share the most intimate details of your lives with each other whilst away on duty. But often the friendships don't carry on whilst at home. So the loss of this lovely woman is at once very close to home, yet also a little removed.

When I think of her husband and children I cry for them. My first thought was of all the milestones they will celebrate without her and how much they will miss her. Christmas and Birthdays are the obvious ones, but also school recitals, grazed knees, first kisses etc.

I wish her family all the love and strength and support.

Rest in Peace Anna

An uninspiring day

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I haven't been able to post anything for a couple of days now. When I tried to access my blog only the name and colours appeared, but nothing else. I tried to access The Miracle Mile and the same thing there. Anyway, whatever happened all seems to have been resolved as today I didn't have any problems.

I must say that I'm not particularly inspired. The weather doesn't help and being locked inside the house with a teething baby doesn't either.

A random thought perhaps but I've been wondering if I'm the only one who finds it strange that there seems to be a market for insect sprays that spray your home at set intervals with a fine mist of chemicals. And then people wonder why their kids get allergies. I don't get it, but perhaps I'm missing a point?

What language does your dog bark in?

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I read a funny article in a dutch magazine that looked at why a dog in dutch says 'waf'-waf' while in for example english it's bow-wow. Personally I think that neither sounds particularly dog-like. Apparently in Spain they say 'guau-guau', in France it's 'ouah-ouah' and in Japan 'wan-wan'.

Of course it's got to do with the different sounds the various languages give to different letters and also how different peoples hear the different sounds. But isn't that interesting really, that a dog barks the same the whole world over, but humans hear it differently.

My brave little girl

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As Miss M has turned 1 recently, it was time for her 12 month shots. I always dread it. She was is the best mood, in spite of not having her proper morning sleep. She played happily with the slinky the nurse gave her, and was on her most charming behaviour smiling to everyone who even glanced at her. I felt like a bit of a traitor knowing what was about to happen. But it's for the best.

I must say that she was great. A bit of a cry, but nothing too lingering. So great relief on mummy's part. She's sound asleep now. It's great how quickly they forget at this age! Time for mummy to have a rest and a glass of red!

It's time to listen.

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Everybody is so busy with their lives. No one seems to make sacrifices for another anymore. I was always taught that sometimes you have to do things that you don't particularly want to do or like, for someone else. Because it makes them happy, or because then the outcome for a group would be better.


I think it's a large part of the problems we see in the world today. The fact that there's no sense of family or community anymore. That everyone is in it for their own gain. So much emphasis is placed on what we possess. Our lives are filled with noise and things. Everything seems rushed.

There's no time to reflect, to get to know another. Most people don't even take the time to get to know themselves. And what we don't know we fear. What we fear, we want to destroy, even if it is ourselves. So this fear creates violence, addiction, destruction etc.

Isn't it about time we start to listen? Listen to our inner voices, listen to others? And to stop living in fear?

A Woman's Work is Never Done!

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To be fair, I probably should have titled this blog; A Home-Owner's Work is Never Done! After all Mr Kiwi is pulling his weight as well. He actually suggested writing about the staggering amount of jobs-around-the-house we always seem to be lagging behind with.

On todays agenda was getting the boat ready for launch tomorrow, fertilising and then watering the lawn (should have done that BEFORE it started to rain), two loads of laundry, changing the sheets of Miss M cot, vacuuming, making the guest-bed for my sister and her fiance (he finally popped the question to her last week YAY!), sweeping the driveway, wrapping some presents, baking a quiche, baking banana-bread and fixing a loose door-handle.

That still leaves a massively over-grown backyard that needs mowing, weeding, pruning, mulching and fertilising, a badly peeling ceiling that needs scraping and painting, a balcony deck that needs at least some tlc, if not replacing, windows that need washing badly, a vegie-patch that needs building, gutters that need a clean-out in anticipation of the fire season.

And I won't even mention all those small and big things we need or would love to get that require loads of cash we don't have.

Oh well, Rome wasn't build in a day either! So I take some time out for some blogging, interrupt my day frequently for cuddles and laughs with my daughter and husband, and stop and smell the bush after the recent rain (we haven't got any roses to smell). Heaven!

Kiwi Inspiration

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My Kiwi-man was told about this cartoon by his boss at work and hesitantly told me it was quite funny (he gets a little sensitive about kiwi-accent jokes). So I checked it out and thought it worthy of a link.

Which got me thinking about Kiwis and associated inspiring Things.

Number One had to be my man, of course! He's hard-working, honest, enthusiastic, loving and funny. He's salt-of-the-earth and completely unpretentious.

He's the one that got me onto my Number Two favourite thing of NZ; Salmonella Dub. This being the band, not the bacteria causing severe stomach cramps and diarrhea. They play a reggae/ska/drum'n'base blend (apologies to music-lovers as I am notoriously bad describing music). We saw them live in Sydney a couple of years ago and were blown away!

My Third favourite New Zealand thing would have to be Akoroa, the picturesque little french whaling town on the South Island were we got engaged. It is just so pretty and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone!

And after today's heat I absolutely crave for the cooler New Zealand temperatures!

Out of control!

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I was feeding Miss M in a parents' room a couple of days ago, quite enjoying the escape from the hustle and bustle of the shopping mall when a blood curdling scream, followed by some choice expletives made my heart skip a beat. A mother in the children's toilet was going off her nut at one of her children.

When they came out the little girl was dragged by her arm and had such a look of terror on her face. Mr Kiwi (who was with us at the time) and I looked at eachother in horror and hesitated. We wanted to tell the woman to chill out but at the same time felt like we couldn't. It seems such a social taboo, to interfere. I guess I wouldn't like it either if some stranger told me how to discipline my child. But this woman was out of control!

I wonder if she even realised how she sounded, and how scared her little girl was of her. It is my guess that if she loses it like that in public, she wouldn't control her feelings much better when in the privacy of her own home.

I am by no means a perfect mother, and totally understand that on some days children can make your blood boil. But us being the adults, and therefor presumably the wiser ones, we should be in control of our feelings. I think much more is achieved if you can discipline your child in a calm and resolute manner. I don't believe screaming like an out of control Banshee teaches a child to respect you and your authority.

Finger and Telephone Manners

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I guess it's a bit of an odd title for my blog today, but that's the first thing that came to mind. The finger is obvious; it's still throbbing away a little, though it is healing and I get reminded with everything I do as I've got this massive bandage restricting me.

The telephone manners bit is perhaps less obvious but it definitely is something that gets on my nerves.

For example; the phone rings yesterday and I answer. I hear; "who's this?". Well, you called me, so who's this? I say. That seemed to confuse the caller somewhat. Isn't it plain good manners to introduce yourself?

I know I'm probably nit-picking but whilst we are on good manners; am I the only one that gets irritated when the person behind the counter doesn't interrupt their personal conversation while they serve you? And that goes both ways, I think it is equally rude to be on the mobile while you order your coffee for example. What is that important that it can't wait those 30 seconds?

I know these are all little annoyances in the greater scheme of things, but it signifies a breakdown in human contact and interaction. And if we can't even communicate properly with eachother over these small instances, then what hope do we have of solving major differences in our world?

Learn something new every day

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After our race out the door, we had a very enjoyable and educational time with Tomdiggleharry, Dontmesswithmum and young Brad (nice to meet you).

Tomdiggleharry definitely gave us some good tips on different aspects of YouTube so I look forward to spending some time making my channel my own.

He also floored me by fixing my memory stick which showed 'no images' as well as 'memory stick full'. I had no idea you could format the stick on the camera! I seriously thought I'd stuffed it up and was prepared to go out and buy a new one. Goes to show that it definitely pays to ask!

It was also very enjoyable to watch Miss M and Mr T have a bit of a play together. They are still a bit to little to really play games of course but you could see they were quite fascinated by each other.

After our city-visit I raced to Engadine where I fed Miss M her dinner at McDonald's and then had a play with her in the playground. They are actually real fun, no wonder these kids always want to go to Maccas. As soon as Mr Kiwi arrived we swapped cars and he set of home while I drove to Cronulla to do my other job.

I tell you by the time I got home I was thoroughly over it!

So today I got an easy day planned. Will try and get back into the jungle at the back of our house where I've been pulling weeds for days already. It's actually quite gratifying work as you see results straight away. Shame they keep growing back!