Barkley Blah!

Monday, January 24, 2011

"If You Believe.."

Decided today it was time to get the last of curtains back up. The other 2 bedrooms already done. I've been putting it off, I'm not really that strong yet. So I just get on with it; reassembling eyes onto the hooks, up onto the ladder, start connecting.. all good until I get to the very last one. It is the one that goes over the end, and will look silly (and not perfect) if I cannot get it on.

I am getting angry by now, and hot, and my arms and neck hurt and my feet are tired from hanging on to the ladder. I wont give up though, continuing to jam that b#$%^& hook towards the little hole it has to go into. Suddenly, out of the blue, I look up towards the ceiling and shake my fist, shouting out loudly "For expletive-deleted's sake, couldn't one of you at least get down here and give me a hand?"

I swear I hear a sort of 'stunned silence', and the next thing, believe it or not the hook slips into its little ring the curtain drops to the floor, perfect fit, job done!

Oh, and in case you are wondering, I WAS alone in the house at the time

posted at: 5:20 AM posted by: DellaB
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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

funny story - communication

I don't suppose our family is different to many others. Except we do seem to have more than our share of people who have trouble 'listening'. Many of the women would qualify to 'talk for Australia' and I am sure could talk without stopping for hours, even underwater. But listen? hmm. We are aware of this and we are actively working on it. It came to the fore at the family gatherings that happened after Roberta's funeral, like a lot of families we've been neglecting the family gatherings. We are working on that too!

For myself I like the ideas in the book 'Don't Sweat The Small Stuff' on this subject. I have a cutout of 'Think before you speak' stuck on my message board. And it works.
Practice Patience
Richard Carlson shares specific techniques on how to slow down, develop compassion and practice patience. This includes simple advice such as learning not to correct others, criticize or interrupt them.

It’s easier to listen effectively once the focus is on the other person rather than the response, correction or judgment

I also like the idea of 'writing' and the social network programs are great for this. We are slowly getting everybody connected to make sharing among us easier.

[Facebook] The idea that when/if you write it down, send a message to somebody, that message gots HEARD without interruption, and and when the reply comes back, then it will be READ without interruption. Bliss! Of course it wont stop the arguments.. cos that another trait of this family.. all chiefs no indians.

AND so to the point of the Post..

It was last night I think, no, Monday night. One of my sisters rang to say she was free to come and have dinner with me, she would bring the food, she says, the ingredients to make us a curry. Fine, I've got the cucumber for raita and lots of different chutneys.

First things first, and we go into the kitchen (both talking nonstop) and empty the bags onto the bench.

"What are we going to cook this in?"
We study the pots..
"I usually cook curry in the slow-cooker; 2 hours on high is enough for this amount of diced meat and you dont have to watch it.."

"What about this one, I like this one.."
"It's an electric Wok.."

Pulls another pot out of the cupboard:
"Don't you have one bigger than this?"
I get her the biggest saucepan I have..

And so we continue on for the next little while, me taking orders for herbs and spices and vegies (and my knives arent sharp enough but we make do..)

We are finally ready to start cooking:
"Can you turn this thing on for me..?
"What thing..?"
She means the slow-cooker of course, could have been on half-an-hour ago if she'd listened to me, never mind we arent in any hurry..

We sit and talk, about life and love, all that important stuff women talk about, until enough time has passed that we start to wonder if our food is cooked.
"Let's have a look.."
"Hmm looks okay to me.."

She puts out 2 small plates, and I say, "They wont be big enough, we have the curry and rice and raita and chutney and pappadums, all that.."

And so, given all of the above, and the time we worked together side by side,preparing the food; can you imagine my surprise when she lifts the lid on the cooker, and it is full of CHICKEN PIECES, nicely cooked sure, but I was expecting BEEF CURRY!!!

How crazy, that two people can cook two different meals in the same pot at the same time..
SOMEBODY wan't paying attention..

Labels: this is funny

posted at: 11:00 AM posted by: DellaB
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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

girl's gotta do something..

to keep herself amused...

World of Warcraft

Labels: just for fun

posted at: 1:56 PM posted by: DellaB
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Tuesday, January 11, 2011

All The King's Horses.. January 2011

Working out some time frames with my sister yesterday. I should at least do that I guess to put things into perspective, put into some sort of order. It feels like months and months, but when I take note of the date this morning I realise that we are not even half-way into January. It's been a rough couple of months I must admit, and I was beginning to despair that nothing seemed to be improving. I began to worry that these changes, these downgrades to my 'facilites' might even turn out to be permanent.

Found this page/link yesterday, it's going to be very informative.

An Introduction
To Cancer Treatments

I woke up thinking right, I'll jump straight in this morning and do a 'January' Post to the blog. I am projecting again, I like to like to see things finished, so in my mind I am at the end of this month and can see where I'll be in my recovery by then. But it's not a time warp, and in reality I still have to get there from here.

Which brings me to the topic of this post, and I am afraid it's a bit of a vent. A quick recap on the circumstances. On 17th November 2010 I was admitted to JFH, emergency CT scan and immediate radio-therapy commenced on some malign spots they found inside my head.

Now, to go even further back, 23 years to be exact, I had had radiotherapy for a breast cancer that we'd fought off successfully, with no sign of any return until December 2009. It turned out it wasn't a return at all, but some new bothersome strain of cancer for us to fight. The first stage of chemotherapy took place in the early months of this year, and had appeared to be successful. Until now.. when the radiotherapy has been needed.

We should learn from our mistakes, and I really thought I had. I lost my breast to the last brush with radiotherapy and had vowed and declared 'never-again'. But I went like a lamb to let them do what they liked on that night. I was in a lot of pain and confusion and would have agreed to anything. I still would, this is not about permissions or the right or wrong thing. God help me I still have faith in the experts and professionals.

But what I didn't do, and it's taken me this long since, is to try and get a picture of exactly what HAS been done, and where I stand right now - and moving forward of course.
Well, the good news is that it seems the effects should start to lessen 4 to 6 weeks after the final treatment. And since that was up around about now, I can expect the sensations of dizziness and brain impairment to fade? Let's Hope So!

posted at: 10:13 AM posted by: DellaB
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Sunday, December 12, 2010

VALE To All The Beloved Sisters!

I missed the funeral in Sydney of my very loved sister

Dr. Roberta Barkley Sykes last month.

Funeral coverage of Dr. Roberta Sykes in Sydney on November 14th.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2020/11/23/3074544.htm

Every bit of my heart was there, and thankfully so was quite a bit of my flesh and blood and tears; I am told I was cried and prayed for. thank you..

My big son Craig was helping to carry Roberta's coffin with his cousins, Dr. Russel Sykes and two of my other sister Leonie's big beautiful boys, David and Greg. I was sorry Chris couldn't be there, or we'd have had the lot!

All of our big beautiful daughters were there, gathered together with the boys, standing around, looking, you know, big and beautiful. So was Leonie, she's not big like the young ones, but she is very definitely still the most beautiful! She always was...

Bobbi Sykes [1943-2010]
Photo taken in Auckland, New Zealand in 1970.

My big sister Bobby was what they call 'fiesty'. Prickly. Alienating. Divisive. Bossy. I was stubborn, and wouldn't do what said. We fought a bit. But she did treat me very kindly in her awarded and best-selling autobiography trilogy: Snake Dreaming.

I learned that there were things about our childhood and growing up that she saw and believe happened differently. I am sure they did.. She was the oldest and took her responsibilites seriously indeed. We only truly realise that as we get older. Our real realities differ, we can only speak for ourselves..

Russel was right when he said on the ABC interview they did at the beginning of the funeral. "You would not want to be in that cage ..", when she had her dander up. She was BORN with her dander up! And used her anger appropriately, and showed THEM! Boy, did she show them.

Muriel Rachael Patterson [1905 - 1997]

We had our moments; as she did with mother, who was NOT happy and did not want her to go kicking policemen in what she called those ridiculous big boots. At her very young age. But she did it anyway, and when she did get arrested who was there dragging her out of the arms and cells of the 'stormtroopers', well, our mother of course.

(much more about her to come later!)

And the family? What can I say.. goodonya boys and girls.
I know this is very well deserved praise.. cos, of course, not only the girls and boys were there!

Uncle Gerry, Aunties Pat and Colleen - all the children but one from the Dunne side (our mother's sister Aunty Glad), were able to travel to Sydney. (we are Queenslanders and most still live in and around Brisbane, and the Gold Coast.)

And OMG, Roberta will be up there now in the cage with OUR mother..
I will stay here for a little while just yet, I think..

Labels: family

posted at: 1:57 PM posted by: DellaB
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Friday, December 10, 2010

Random Ramblings From December 2010

Images From December 2010 isn't finished yet. It should be called 'Ramdom' too :) There is work to be done, but I am still finding my feet to get everything looking the way I want it to. And I still haven't done any travel and blog reading. I want to know what's going on, but I think of that as play.. can't play till the work is done.

The two pictures I am about to post, one of them, the first one, I will eventually move to Images/December, but for now it can be on it's own space - because it deserves it!

More of those coincidences.. they are working out very well for me. Just so happens my new best friend when it comes to Relaxtion Music was born blind. Every morning I watched a most beautiful sunrise out the window while I listened to Gurrumul, who, of course had never seen a sunrise. It just suddenly occurred and I simply had to lose the sunrise.

So, this is my 'new' window to look at while I listen to the man and his beautiful voice.

The picture, yes it's Pro Hart. I am a fan. This one has been given to me a long term friend and he knows me well enough to know that I will treasure it always.

If you haven't heard him yet.. do yourself a favour.. There are lotsalinks, easy to find..

this one links a video

this one is for listening
http://istn.to/gurrumul

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu

posted at: 9:37 PM posted by: DellaB
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Sunday, February 6, 2011

Today’s Cartoon