four weeks and four days...

later and I finally write something on my poor neglected blog.

This does not mean that I am in any way boring or giving up on this whole venture. On the contrary. Things in my world have been on hyper drive.

I flew to NZ at the end of last month to visit my family. My mother has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimers and this was quite a shock to finally confront face to face. She is not the same woman who was at my wedding last year, almost a year ago. She wasn't the same woman then as she was when I was five years younger either. The rapid decline in her personality and demeanor is incredible. You think that the very rock and root of your foundation would never waver or crumble or change. When the change is so rapid and noticeable it is scary.

I won't go on, it is a pretty heavy topic. The last thing I will say on this topic is about something one of my rellies said to me. The wife of and uncle who is the brother of my mother said that Alzheimers is often called the long goodbye. Terrible! This was certainly a trigger for me to break down and let some tears flow. I just couldn't help it. I'm a sensitive thing at the best of times and I think the whole pressure of trying to maintain composure with all the relatives around at the same time, people whom I haven't seen in a few years, it was too much.

So back to Oz and my reality. I've started a night course, which is running for two nights until the end of the year. It is a graphic design course which will have me hopefully ready for the workforce next year. Needless to say I am loving the challenge as it is certainly not easy to come up with creative results in an hour or two. My mind likes to incubate ideas which isn't really how this course works.

Amid all this D and I want to start a family, I was proposing to him that we start seriously trying in June or July as this would give me time to finish the course even if I did fall as soon as we started trying. Well you can scrap that idea. It seems that before I left for NZ the deed was done. Yes I'm expecting. I am of course quite excited about all this change and am looking forward to this new part of my life. The part where it becomes mine no longer. Ok not so pessimistic Ness. The bad timing of it all is the due date is mid November. Yes the course, I know. They are happy for me to keep studying and will give me an extension on the submission of my portfolio etc and will give me a certificate when I am able to with consideration to my status.

Of course there are all those underlying factors such as the fact that I may not end up with a baby due to unforseen complications etc in this very volatile first trimester but I'm not going to worry about that right now. Also to hang with the whole waiting for those three months to be up before I tell the world. I'm telling you now.

Amongst all these goings on I have had work related issues, changing shifts for three weeks and then back again to my normal routine. Rosie is of course over the moon with this as she gets her daily walks again. Poppy is doing well and has a cleaner home, I even managed to make her a cover for her cage that fits properly, well kind of. I had to be creative with it and it kind of looks like a coffin lining, you know where there are all those gathers. Except that it is made out of an old 1980's type sheet. I need to redo it sometime but right now it is doing the job just fine.

Poppy is also finding out about her new found freedom. Her ability to fly. Over the past two weeks she has gone from flying from her perch a few meters to getting lift off and flying the length of the house landing in the netting curtains on the front door. It is rather amusing watching this thing fly past the bedroom door mid height in a desperate fashion, then a minute later flying back the other way again. I may end up trimming her wing again as she is more prone to injury flying around all helter skelter landing on net curtains and squawking for assistance. She still loves to run around on the floor as what I imagine to be like an American football line backer. Most of her feathers have finished their moult. I'm still waiting for some more of her clipped wing feathers to come out and be replaced and then I will really see how well she can fly.

Rosie has taken a liking to playing swingball or totem tennis with B. B gets a bit mad with her when she does get the ball but Rosie just loves the challenge. It really does keep her entertained for a long time. I'll post some pics next month, being only a couple of days away I don't expect I will do it before then.

Take care and stay tuned...