Compostable Kate

I had to throw out my cute purple boom box recently, as it stopped working. Before consigning it to the rubbish bin, I took the batteries out of it. Six (six!) size C batteries are now sitting on my bookshelf, with nothing to do but fall over when Fred jumps on them. Strangely enough, and I can't think why, they make me think of my old Baby Alive doll (the original one from the 70s/80s, not the modern monstrosity). I had a Baby Alive, and Rach had a Baby Thataway (she crawled!). However, tragedy struck Baby Alive and Baby Thataway when Rach and I took them to the park and accidentally left them up in a tree.  By the time Mum took us back to the park to retrieve them, they were gone.  Gone!  Someone had stolen our babies. Rach and I were in-con-solable .  We wanted our dolls!  Boo hoo!  Waaaaah!!! Rach did get another Baby Thataway shortly afterwards (probably the next birthday), but I didn't get another Baby Alive.  I was nearly two years older than Rach, so getting a bit

Dexter, Assistance Dog Extraordinaire, spent the day at the vet, having an x-ray on his back and hips. This was more of a precaution than anything, as his sore back was most likely a result of too much rough play from Mack, but I was happy to have it done, just to be sure. Happily, other than a very small amount of wear on his hip joints (normal for his age), his hips and back are all fine. However, he has a couple of vertebrae in his neck that have a small overgrowth of bone. This is currently unrelated to his back injury, and is probably not causing him any discomfort, but I'm really glad I know about it. The vet thinks it might have been caused by repeated jerks on the neck, although he also said that it could also just be they way he's built. But just in case, I've decided to not put his lead on his collar anymore, just on his harness. So he's home again now, sleeping off the anaesthetic. I still have to rest him for a couple of weeks, and I have some paink

1. I don't call. This is true. Only part of the reason for this is that I am on a very restricted budget, and try not to call when a text or email will suffice, but this hasn't always been the case, and I still didn't call people. So the main reason is that I just don't like making phone calls. I don't exactly know why, but I have to say that at least some of it is because I don't want to intrude into the other person's day. They might have been doing something important , only to have been interrupted by me. This antipathy towards phone-calling runs in my family. Probably not genetic so much as cultural; I don't even remember having a phone when we were kids. We probably did, but it just didn't feature in our lives. The only people I won't hesitate in calling (other than checking what the time is in their time zone) are my Mum and my Dad. I've even called my sister once or twice, but it wouldn't be much more than that. Mind you,

I had some interesting and unexpected reactions (on facebook) to my previous post. A couple of them really upset me: I was called arrogant by a good friend, and negative by another. I do take their point that I only mentioned briefly the good things about the festive season, such as catching up with family and friends, and in my defence I wrote the post when I was sitting here alone, with my family on the other side of the world. With no family around (and we only have two children in our little bit of the family, and one of those we don't get to see), then the downside of it all looms that bit larger. However, my main point was to explain my own, personal , position on Christmas as it manifests itself these days. I was expressing my feelings on the commercialism that has taken over a time that we say is one for family and children, and how I was responding to something that I didn't like - that is, by not partaking in it. Perhaps some people took it as a judgement o

The Christmas season is over for another year, and I managed to get through it without sending any cards, and the only gift I bought was for the RSPCA's wishing tree. I was particularly penniless this year, saving any spare funds I may have for ongoing physio and pilates, but it's not the only reason I opted out of participating in the festive season. To me, Christmas is a Christian celebration, albeit overlaid/confused somewhat with the Pagan Winter Solstice festival. I am not a practicing Christian, although I do appreciate the nativity story, and the carols and all that stuff. It's also a great time of year for people to make time to get together and catch up with each other. Of course, in Australia, the Winter Solstice elements make no sense, so therefore neither do many of the “traditional” Christmas trappings. An Australian Christmas shows up the overlay between the two quite clearly. However that isn't why I don't always send cards or give presents.