08

Just think of the Millenium, we were all ready for the Crash, in case it came, even if, historically speaking, it was not really two thousand years after Christ's Birth, and now we are all het up about this, which really has happened and Microsoft couldn't pre-plan. It's just such a pity that people who programme these sorts of viruses can't think how to improve rather than destroy. Oh, well, enough comic book editorialising, now to the meat of the sandwich!

What a week! Saturday, Brian and Alice and I went down to beautiful Killarney Beach (when Windows is OK again, I will send (hopefully) some pictures for you), and did some fishing. In Victoria, unlike our sister state, New South Wales, an adult MUST have a licence in order to do any fishing bar that in privately own fisheries, like trout farms. I am pleased to report that I caught a small fish and a large one, both of the same species, whatever that was, and Brian caught the middling size one. Poor Alice trophied only some seaweed.

Naturally, when one is not sure of the species, it is wise to find out if they are edible or poisonous. Preferably before actual eating! I have absolutely no familiarity with anything beyond the really common, such as Red Schnapper, Garfish, Whiting and Leather Jackets. Brian is the expert. His opinion was Rock Cod, but there was a definite question in his voice. We consulted two experts - our Captain Dianne Main, who is passionate about piscatorial pastimes, and Les Sketcher, one of our Bandsmen at Warrnambool Corps. Neither were sure. So I bit the bullet and bit the fish. Yummo! Delicate and sweet. Brian would only prep. the biggest one, they were too slimy for him, and had, as we put it in our family, "Fangy bits"! Alice was asleep, and I wouldn't have risked her, in any case. Brian does not mind the chase but is as much a fish eater as Jewish people are into Porky Bits ( a Pub Snack here, like crisps or pretzels, but obviously having different parentage). So, despite the wind and the cold and the usual losing of hook, line and sinker to the voracious maw of sharp rocks, I had a whale of a time! Alice didn't chatter much, but her teeth did! Brian said he wasn't going to take me again, as I showed him up too much. First time I have caught fish in years! Usually I am the one who denudes the rocks of seaweed. Even that stuff, some of it can be poisonous. Botheration! It's a mongrel thing, as we say down here, when a man can't even take home a catch of seaweed to his Missus.

Oh, while I think of it - a tip for the frugal. Our Warrnambool greengrocer (Materia's, absolutely BRILLIANT family, very nice, very quick service, will carry purchases to the car, open all sorts of hours, good produce, great prices, beat the Supermarkets hands down, and they love my jokes and singing in store. Even the occasional tap dance, provided I do it on the floor, and not in the sink!) have tidy bins (you know the sort, flipping lids, largeish size), and I spotted some capsicum and some broccoli, and I thought - Brilliant! the pigs will really love this! So I asked, and because I was in the car, and they only would have tossed it anyway, I was able to grab the whole bin liner and all of the vegies as well! Boy, was I chuffed! And so were the animals. Some of the vegetables, I reckon I could have salvaged, but perhaps another time.

Well, I was all set for Tuesday, which is my lovely day for doing all of the housework, and perhaps even having a siesta. I had bought a really cheap vacuum cleaner (under $40, brand new!) from a discount place, and had planned to vacuum all of the soot from behind our wood-burning stove, as it worries me when it builds up, being a possible fire hazard, and I hadn't tackled it since we put the stove in a couple of years ago.

When I told Brian, he said to use the Wet/Dry Vac. from the garden shed, as it would take a lot of soot and be easy to empty having no bag. Logical, and he was rather insistent. Well, Head of the Family and all that, so I made it ready. Picture this: All doors shut as the two others in the family sleep on, my short, slightly rotund form with camping miner's style head light on to see the depths, atop a step ladder, leaning over the back of the stove, entirely focused on my job. Suddenly, the vac stops vaccing (is that a word?). I peer around to see what the problem is. The kitchen is ENCASED in soot. The vac has been industriously blowing out what I have been trying to get sucked in. My comfy kitchen armchair looks like black is its natural shade. The walls! Don't ask me about the walls! So, in revenge mode, I get my dear husband up, and only half-joking, show him the debacle. he says it's my fault for not keeping an eye on things. A few hours later he states I should have had a sheet over the vacuum cleaner. How the wretched thing is supposed to suck with a sheet over it defies the imagination.

The vac. was banished back to the Garden Shed. I used the new one. It worked perfectly. Then to the rest of the kitchen. I went down to my local small supermarket in Koroit and bought a squeegee mop and a refill mop head, in case I needed it. I have a wonderful mop bucket suitable for just such articles. It's divided in two, for washing and rinsing. I put in Brian's heavy duty cleaning liquid. It didn't work on the soot. I tried, as well, shampoo, dishwashing liquid, wool wash, tee tree oil. Nothing worked! Finally, I remembered a wonderful product, ages old in our part of the World, called "Gumption", a thick, non-toxic paste that smells lemony. Worked a treat. If you want to try this, you will have to ask parent company, Clorox. I contacted them through a 1800 number (love those!), and was informed that Gumption is only Australian, I suggested they send a case load to the Managing Director's wife. The stuff's brilliant! Won't scratch, good for enamel, I even used it on sooty wood.

Part way through the job, the mop head fell apart. Brian, who came in about half and hour later, fixed it for me. He had a spring left over, which worried me. Half an hour after that, it fell apart again. I spent half and hour fixing it. I figure, bar heavy duty machinery, what he can fix, I can fix. This time, I put the spring in. It fell apart in next to no time. I took it back and was given a replacement one, same firm, different model, same problem! Brian ended up giving me his old, but still incredibly usable window washing, lambswool coated squeegee. I hope I get it cleaned up properly afterwards, I'll be wanting to clean our windows soon! I haven't used it yet, I've been busy with other things, but most of the kitchen walls are done, and hardly any of the Gumption has been used, it's that economical! A little over $4 a tub.

So much for my Tuesday. And then, of course, my computer kept crashing. A good friend of mine sent me the fix'em. It took a while to download, but it's worked a treat.

The geese are nesting, as are the ducks and the chooks. Even our peacock, Beau, is displaying - my goodness, he's pretty.

We've had some wonderful rain recently. We will still, given what the Northern Hemisphere is going through, put pipes out for easy irrigation of the paddocks this Summer. Free water is, as I have commented before, such a blessing to us.

Brian and Aaron went to the Saleyards on Wednesday, and Brian bought two Jersey calves, a heifer and a bull, just a few days old. Only $20 each plus a 10% GST, the cheapest price paid that day! What a man my husband is!! We will keep the heifer for a house cow, putting Muppet over her, as one can still get Highlands from such matings. But apparently only with Jerseys. The bull we will feed up and sell. Jerseys are fetching depressed prices at the moment, with everyone going mad for Friesians. Only a matter of time and fashion, and they will sell better, hopefully just as he matures properly. Brian has given them the inelegant but apt names of Gutz (the bull) and Smiley (she has a prominent underbite).

Hurt

Depression like a cold, damp slug

sits heavy on his mind

and leaden skies his abode

with no escape for he is blind.

Too much he dwells within himself

and circles ceaselessly could-have-beens

There is no way out for him

by himself, there are no means.

A shoulder is offered, a ray of hope,

a gentle voice and caring

a trouble given to another, they say

is halved, and worth the sharing.

Eyes are opened, rainbows seen

no promise, though, of extinction

just the knowledge, lovingly learned

that friends can give redemption.