Tag Archives: All things family

Monday Memories….

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A few little photo memories just for Alien Resort

Burmese kittens are shorthaired and come in solid colours – Balinese (Longhaired Siamese)  are white with coloured ‘points’

Anna (Pennylane Bali Dancer) was a bluepoint Balinese, a lovely gentle soul.  Sitting here quietly surrounded  by some of her kittens and also some Burmese ones she seems to have a puzzled look on her face seemingly saying :-
Some of these are the wrong colour – wheres their Mother?

Belle (Brookwood Manet’s Delight) was a typical brown Burmese.  Soft and cuddly, devoted to me ( not interested in The Golfer) to the point of following me around even sitting outside the toilet door (or inside if she was fast enough).  Once she ‘got the hang of it’ she was a wonderful mother cat – although I think she was a bit overwhelmed by her first litter.

Her kittens only ever had two speeds – fast and hectic or zonked out and asleep.  They kept her (and me) on the go and as a protective ‘first time mum’ she often seemed to have a questioning look on her face as if asking me:-
Is it always like this?

Then there were other days with other litters when these fit and healthy, housetrained, fully vaccinated, fun loving pets would all sit together and pose like pros 😊

Boisterous – yes….. A handful- never!

Linking to Aww Mondays hosted by Sandee at Comedy Plus

The first of many

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These days the beginning of the new year often sees us thinking/discussing how to spend our time, will we try several mini breaks of a week here and there or stick to our couple of months away in the winter?  Yes I know, first world problems 😊

At the moment a week in Mildura later this month is on the cards and all being well we’ll once again do the four day drive up to Bowen to enjoy the winter sun.   Anyway all this ‘holiday chat’ brought back memories and had us laughing and reminiscing about a trip we made a long time ago – well over 25yrs in fact.

A little bit of background:-  Quite a few years ago I used to contribute  posts to a now defunct website – one of those ‘follow the prompts and tell us a tale’ sort of things.  My mind seems to have gone to pot these days and there are times when I find it hard to string two words together but it was fun while it lasted.

THE LONG DRIVE

It’ll be fun, they said.

‘They’ being friends who wanted to go but not on their own and now were suggesting a very long drive. Two couples together for a few weeks – it’ll be fun.

I’d grown accustomed to the idea and was planning likewise, we’d all use their car and they would do most of the driving.

Then they pulled out; we could all do it another time they said, but our leave was arranged and we needed a break.

We’ll do it ourselves he said, but we only have a six cylinder sedan not a 4wheel drive.  Don’t worry he said, most roads are sealed these days.

What about petrol and water, no worries he said, roadhouses and homesteads about every 200kms, fill up car and us there. Have cans boxes esky in the car and carry spare fuel, food and water.

So off we went, us who’d never been further than Adelaide or Sydney (and we thought they were a long drive away) we were going to be more than a month away from home by ourselves, heading north to the Territory.

Took the easy way to begin, a quick drive to Adelaide,  put the car and us on that fabulous train The Ghan to The Alice (which is as far as it went in those days)and then began The Long Drive – Up the Track – Alice Springs to Darwin (on a highway with no maximum speed limit at the time) and then lots of other points along the road on the way down again.

We tented, we on site caravaned, we moteled, we cabined, slept in rooms tunnelled into the ground and I even got one day and a night (my ‘big’ birthday) in a flash very expensive hotel at Uluru where I was able to lounge in a bath for the first time in four weeks.

We sat for long hours in the car between places, saw nobody on the road for hours, waved at passing motorists when we did see them, took turns at driving, listened to many books on tape, stretched and ran about when we stopped, saw wildlife galore, viewed paintings on rocks by people who were in those places so many years before us, climbed that big thing in the middle of the country (that’s what you did then), were wary of road trains,  watched beautiful sunrises and even more fabulous sunsets and experienced so many other things in a part of Australia I knew existed but never thought I’d see.

Came home exhausted but so fulfilled and wanting to do it again.

Can’t remember the exact length of the drive – it was a Very Very Long Drive.

As well as the enlightening moments there were the lighthearted moments – I’d do it all again in a flash – Just to see a petrol/service station like this

Or drive on roads like this.  

.or be scared s………..less by things like this roaring up the highway behind you

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We’ve done many ‘long drives’ since then but this one was special

One for some reason we’ve never repeated.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Highway

How about you? Have you ever repeated ‘special’ events?  How did it go?

It’s been a week…

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Yes it’s been a week of doing very little except wait for the year proper to begin.

Seeing more traffic on the roads as workers return from their summer break, seeing grabs on the news about littlies starting their educational journey and hearing the high school bus go by at 8am signalling the return of those on a later part of their journey.

Watching a bit of tennis, and cricket on tv in the evenings. With, of course with my knitting close to hand   Wondering how Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are feeling after their ‘shock departures’. And wondering how Nick Kyrious managed to keep his temper in check for so long.   The Australian Open – The Big Bash League

Wearing cool cotton clothing.  Melbourne finally had  pleasant summery days…..culminating in one not too pleasant one yesterday with a top temperature of 44c/111f .  I often wonder how we coped before air conditioning – with the humidity so high the whole of house ducted evaporated system we have is no good (pumps cool moist air) so we resorted to our very old, very expensive to run, hole in the lounge room wall, electric refrigerated system.

Realising it’s little things that make us happy – seeing the smiles on elderly residents when offered an icy pole on a very hot day and watching them enjoy the treat.

And wondering how my children (who I love dearly) became so old😊

This little one – my first born son had a birthday at the beginning of the week.  58yrs old!  He’ll be getting a seniors card soon!  I realised time was passing quickly when he finished serving in the RAAF after 20yrs. How am I going to feel when that happens!

 Today is February 1st 2020 – our Big Girl’s birthday. Born (at home) during one of the worst winters England had experienced. Known as The Big Freeze of 1963 all I can say is central heating was still a luxury – we had poky little coal fires in the big old house we lived in and it was cold!

Shh..don’t tell her but she is now 57!

And when our Little Girl has her next birthday in September she will be will be….well I know how old she’ll be but I don’t know how she’ll feel…..let’s just say that at times I wish I was 56 again 😊

Yes….3 under 3!  All good fun!  Helped in a way by living in Singapore where life was more free and easy…..and I had a live in amah.

After a hot and humid night the rain has finally arrived and cooled the air – a quiet day is forecast for my house – lack of sleep doesn’t agree with me so my warning to The Golfer was – be very wary of what you say or do near this tired Grumpy Old Woman!

What to say….

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It was  difficult no it was  bl***** hard to stay cool calm and collected – and quiet –  when the driver sitting beside you reverses into a stationery vehicle.   Hard not to yell (read that as scream) “I told you to watch out, I told you there was something behind you”.  Hard not to wonder why ……even though we had begun to move backwards……he was  ‘still getting comfortable’  instead of checking the reversing camera.

What do you say when there is a ding in the back of his car, when he stands there shaking his head, when there’s not a scratch on the other vehicle.  Well, there wouldn’t be would there – it was a ute with a shiny metal tray back with pointy edges which wasn’t even moving.

What do you say when you hear the words “thank goodness for insurance” when you really wanted to hear “are you ok?”  When you’re racking your brain wondering where you’re going to find ‘what doesn’t look like a large amount on paper’ excess but in reality $650 is a fair whack of cash to part with at short notice.

What do you say when he is carless while it is being repaired and you catch the look on his face after you tell him “no he can’t use yours to go to the golf course, that you have your own life to live and you had something planned for the next two days”.   Childish, I know but I wasn’t in the mood to be the little woman who gave into her man – and I did have things planned (and written on the calendar) for the next couple of days.

What do you do at that point – but look at each other and laugh

No words were really needed to say sorry.  But we did  – quietly – to each other 😊

Who’s that girl, what’s her name….

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She was named in the semi traditional Irish way which varied from family to family,  that of first daughter being after both her grandmothers.  So Catherine Mary is on her birth certificate as well as other ‘important’  documentation.

Catherine aged 2

Her mother’s name was Alice Mary but she was always known as Al – her father’s name was James, known as Jim…….Jimmie to his family

Her paternal grandmother was Mary Elizabeth after both of  ‘her’ grandmothers – we have no idea what her family called her……to us she was just Granny S.  Granny’s oldest daughter was also named Mary, we knew her as Aunty May.  The next daughter was Margaret Anne known to us as Aunty Maggie.

Our little girl’s mother’s mother, the grandma she never got to meet was Catherine Jane Mary. 

On Irish census records she was called Kathleen and then it was discovered she was registered at birth as Katheline – possibly the result of her father’s accent.  John Joseph Patrick Doyle was from Waterford – Kathleen’s birth was registered in Tralee, Kerry.  A name spoken in an out of town accent possibly being misheard by someone not used to that accent then transcribed as heard …..if you get what I mean 🙂

Before she married she was known as Kitty to her family, after her father’s death she married Isaac John Joseph T (known to everybody as IJJ)  and became Catherine.  IJJ was from the north of Ireland, at that time Kathleen was a ‘southern’ name – say no more!

The Jane was after ‘her’ grandmother (the little girl’s gtgt grandmother) Jane Gatherer who was known as Jean!  Oh that would be the Scottish influence coming into play 😊

So back to Catherine Mary…..she has been known as various names over her lifetime.  Her mother and sisters always called her Cath – at high school it was Katy which then morphed into Cathy.  As she gets older Catherine has come back into play….sounds more mature she often says.  

Trouble is it gets tricky at times when she’s introducing herself as Catherine to someone new and an old acquaintance at the same event comes along and refers to her as Cathy….there can be confused looks or laughter all round.  Then making an appt the other day she offered Catherine as her name,  long pause and the receptionist could be heard muttering away in the background, then came back to ask if she had family with a similar name because all she could find was a Cathy.  She’s going to need a little black book soon to make a note of who knows her as what😎

So here I am on a Monday morning wondering if I’ll ever be known by any more names in my lifetime –  more and more frequently we are identified by a number/letter combination, (user/screen names, pins, passwords etc) in person eye and finger recognition is becoming more common (not sure if it’s more acceptable though). 

As far as names are concerned you could all do me a favour, I have many visitors who pop in to read  Still Waters (the blog) and leave without saying a word…….I would like/love to know your names.  I’d be really pleased If you’d leave me a comment telling me just that and where you live.  How you feel about family names and how we will be identified in the future.

Bye for now.  Hope to hear from you soon.  Cathy

(Sometimes known as Catherine, fondly referred to as Cath,  previously known as Katy.  Oh and often as Mum, Ma, And Grandma!  And yes that’s me at 2yrs old complete with Glengarry hat – a link to the distant Scottish line that came together with an Irish one to form my maternal line and help make me who I am)

Linking to Senior Salon 

What do you know Wednesday…

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It’s not ‘what’ you know – but ‘who’ you know

We hear that a lot in life

But there are also times when it of no use to me

For instance…..

If you look at this 8 generation direct line chart…….of the 510 ‘people,’ noted I know the name and other details of 49 plus me.  I know who they are.

That doesn’t sound a lot does it?

 Tracing who’s who when dealing with those elusive Irish records is not easy.

So for me at times it often turns out to be

It’s not ‘who‘ you know – but ‘what‘ you know that helps me along the way.

Also knowing where to find it 😊

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Of course there are many other ‘indirect’ names recorded

If I look sideways…..then up and down lol

How about you?  What or who do you know?

How many can you name?