Catholic Emporium left in Turmoil!!!

Yes! It was me!
I walked into the Catholic Emporium today and all was well until I looked at the lady behind the counter and said, "Hello".
She stared at me for a moment ( I must have "witch" written on my forehead ) and she literally recoiled from the front counter as her eyes came to rest on the green man necklace that was hanging around my neck.
"How can I (possibly) help you?" she asked faintly from the back corner of the shop.
"Oh I'm just after some immaculate medals - you know the ones with the virgin Mary on them" said I.
"Just the one?" she said her eyes widening in disbelief.
"No. I'll have 10 please - and three of the bigger ones".
Well, at this point she had to scoot out the back for a moment ( no doubt to sprinkle herself with holy water and quote a paragragh from the bible ) and upon returning she hesitantly reached into the cabinet and withdrew the medallions.
"Are you sure these are what you want?" she asked.
"Oh yes, they will do just nicely" said I.
I could see her mind ticking over...maybe I was going to use them for a satanic ritual or a seance.....
I asked her,"Do you have any in sterling silver?"
"Oh we usually have plenty...but at the moment we have none (for you)".
I told her I would try again another day, thanked her politely and left.
Funny lot those catholics eh?

POLE DANCING QUEEN

I was gob smacked today with a photo sent to me by another blogger friend of mine. She is into pole dancing and I must say that she is VERY GOOD!Mind you,she is tall, THIN as a bean pole(hate you!) and has been doing gymnastics since forever!
Am I jealous - oh...yes!!!I wish I was a 20 something again....
but that was a long time ago and if I tried to do pole dancing with my body now I would end up in casualty after the first lesson.
Never mind..
I will just continue with my walking ( half an hour at a time, only when its not too hot or not too cold and on the flat ) PATHETIC....

International Angel Day

Today is International Angel Day and I was part of a Fair held here in Newcastle to celebrate this event.
It had poured all night long with rain and it did not stop for most of the day ......so, let's say it was quite slow....
But on the other hand I spent the day with my wonderful friends and got back in touch with some people that I had not seen for a while.
Thanks to all that supported us on this day. Even though we did not organise this event, I kind of felt that if the people who support "Rose Cottage" had not turned up during the day...it would have been a disaster!
Again - thank you!
I sold some Goji and Lisa did a few readings, as did Shann ( congrats on your efforts today!)
Lisa fed me with fab food from the Honeysuckle Markets next door (forever grateful) and we spent some time with Michelle, our spiritual artist extraordinaire, convincing her that an exhibition of her artwork is a "MUST DO" for next year.
The Cottage made some valuable connections , especialy with a woman from Sydney who would like to run a programme for teaching parents and carers about the special needs of children in this day and age ( on a spiritual level and well as physical and emotional)and so she will be using the Cottage to host workshops.
This week coming is one of the calmest left this year and I want to enjoy it.
From mid September my life turns into chaos with some seasonal work looming which sees me commited to a "real job" until mid January. I am dreading it..Too much effort for not enough gain - but it must be done ( unless I win lotto).
Also there is a bit of a health crisis within the family and it is a real worry.
Everything pales into insignificance when someone you love is not well.
I wish I had a magic wand - well I do....I might just go and wave it about and see what happens...
See you later...

Wet,wet,wet!

It is absolutely pouring down outside today...nothing more to do than sit at the computer I guess and do some of the things that I have been putting off for ages.
Sometimes I find it really hard to write.
I feel second rate today - second best, due to some situations that have come up over the last few days. The constant headache has not helped, but I know that it has come with the change in the weather and that I "ran away" just for a little while on my holiday and now I am back in the real world - my world - and it is what it is.
Must get on with it......

Back to reality

How I hate travelling in aeroplanes in the middle of the night!
My trip home to Oz was quite a effort....I performed gymnastics all night long to try and find one, comfortable, peaceful spot to rest my tired body and get at least five minutes of sleep.
There were many vacant seats on the trip home but none were near us.
Some passengers were stretched out over three seats ( bastards ) and were fast asleep.
I was stuck between my 12 year old who lay all over me and my mother in law who had inflated this little plastic pillow device around her neck and looked like she was being strangled by a very short python.
I twisted to the right, I twisted to the left, I slide low in my seat, I put my legs up over the top. I lost feeling in my arms, I put the tray table down and put my head on that, but I lost feeling in my arms again.I put my legs out, I put my legs on the seat...I was tired...I could not sleep..please just a few minutes.... and the movie had finished hours ago.
No food either...we ate within an hour of boarding.
Oh, yeah...they did turn all the lights on at 5 am and gave us breakfast.
Why is airline coffee so horrid?
Why are the vegetables rubbery?

One thing I have noticed every time I back home is that it is JUST SO BRIGHT here!!!
My eyes always need about two days to adjust back to the intensity of the colours and the brightness..the sky is so blue...truely beautiful.I love Australia!!!

CROCS RULE!!!

A great Aussie Icon passed today....Steve Irwin.
Such a shame - he was in his prime - a true environmentalist who made a mark on this world in a positive way. He will be missed.
RIP - Crocs Rule!

Last Post from Bangkok

Tonight is our last night here in Bangkok.
We seem to be located in the arab quarter ( nothing against them!!!) but there are soooo many - and the women are dressed totally in black from head to foot with only their eyes showing.Some women are more modern and will only have their heads covered and their other clothes will be "normal looking". The men all gather at night and smoke hashis in the bars and it can be quite overwhelming to be the only white woman walking down the street amongst all of them.
We walked into a red light district last night, while looking for food to eat at two oclock in the morning - some stall owners were just starting to set up for their night's work!!
There were lots of western men with Thai women already on their arms. Even though prostitution is officially illegal, it is rife everywhere. There can be rows of ten, twenty women waiting for someone to offer them some money.
Also I saw little children either begging, sleeping and begging or working at two and three in the morning. These kids are from five to eight years old. A little seven or eight year old was selling flowers in the red light district...another five year old was fast asleep with people walking around him...His cup had only a few pennies in it.
It is sad.Very few westerners drop a coin in the beggers cups.
The traffic is madness...We waited over twenty minutes at one intersection today until the taxi driver gave up and tried to turn into another street only to be blocked off by another car. The trip that took us 20 minutes in the morning took almost 1 1/2 at about midday.
The only piece of silence I experienced was a few moments at the reclining buddah and I also had my palm read!
We are all tired and grumpy...time to come home.
See you all soon!!!

Crazy Bangkok

Here we are in the wonderfully crazy city of Bangkok!Almost had my wallet stolen out of my bag last night...we were walking back to our hotel and in a crowd when I felt one of the zips on my bag trying to be opened. I squeezed the bag in tighter and the grip released and I turned to find a young guy trying to look innocent...I told him that I knew what he was trying to do and he took off..minutes later we heard a woman screaming that her bag had been stolen.I was VERY LUCKY.
ALSO I FED MY FIRST ELEPHANT!!!!!
Just up from where we are staying we found our first elephant last night.
A litle baby girl called Bo Pong - she is 4 and was adorable!!!!We purchased sugar cane from her owner and fed her - that's how they look after them, they take them into the city to make money on the tourists buy letting them feed their elephants. The shopping here is crazy....huge departments stores all discounted...you could go mad!!!But the noise is overwhelming and the crowds even more so..

Extendo - stomach recovery

Good news - I am back in full force!
Had the hottest green curry last night ever - could not feel my lips.
I think that the lining of my stomach had to rebuild itself, but in the process it killed off any bugs. Nothing could survive in that environment!!!!
Today is our last full day in Phuket and it has been raining. We have not been able to do as much as we would have liked this week as the weather has not been kind.
But we did manage to have a swim in the Hotel Pool this morning even though it was raining - hey! we were wet anyway.
We are going to have a last swim in the Andaman sea this afternoon after another curry battle as the water is so warm it's crazy. I want to try it one more time and hold the memory with me.
Went for a walk along the beach last night and could feel the souls of those that were lost brushing past me.
I think that they are now on permanent patrol and they will be forever watchful.

Extendo - stomach Disaster

Yes....we all knew it would happen. The extendo - stomach has finally burst and sent a gurgling mess of destruction blocking many a Thai toilet in the process.The poor people of Phuket did not see this one coming...beware!!!!!It could be coming to a place near you!!!!
I have just about recovered from a bout of "whatever-the -hell-that-was" and am feeling that I can tackle my next plate of green curry at any moment.
We are not really doing much except for a horrendous amount of shopping for complete crap.It's so much fun!!
You can buy vodka cruisers here at the local 7/11 (every few metres)for two dollars. Each shop has a complete alchohol supply that would blow your mind....right next to the 50 cent chocolates and danish pastries that cost 50 cents each!!!!HEAVEN.
I am sure that we will do something cultural soon...maybe in Bangkok.
We are in an internet cafe where the lady who owns the place lost everything. Then she had to wait to have her little hole in the wall rebuilt by someone from overseas (lots of Indians and Pakistanis came in and brought out the places as the Thais could not afford to rebuild)and she moved back in, paying rent to her new landlords at a most exhorbitant fee not to mention the loan that she has to also pay off to afford two computers and an airconditioner to cool the place down.For this she must work 12 hour days and has had to put her 10 year old daughter into care as she has no time left to spend with her.
Next time you feel like complaining....don't!!!These people are doing it tough.
I could not work 12 days, seven days a week and not see my kids...and for what???They are not getting rich...they are just surviving.God bless them all.

Update from Phuket

Am now in Phuket - Patong beach.
All is well and yes....I survived the boat trips although I took so many tablets that all I could do for the next eight hours was sleep.
I cannot eat so much any more although my eyes say yes....my stomach is saying no!
The cakes and pastries here are to die for!!!
Our hotel is massive and is across the road from the main beach where the wave came in when it hit Phuket.
Everything is different.
Many shops have photos showing the devastation that the wave caused to them and stories abound.
It is very modern looking now down the main street - almost unrecognisable.
We did manage to eat at one of the restaurants we went to the last time we were here last night.The owner showed us photos of cars imbeded in the front of the shops next door and all the shit that got brought in by the waves just EVERYWHERE.How they cleaned this place up is a miracle.We went down to look at the beach this morning and I tried to picture the wave comming in.....needless to say I couldn't imagine it.
It is raining but humid...not that that will stop us shopping.

24th August 2006

I have developed the extend-o-stomach which can easily fit five times the normal amount of food and drink in it.
There are plenty of beautiful people around maling me feel quite inferior and lots of baking red raw flesh.
Food is excellent - we are eating down the road a bit where the food is 1/3 the price of the hotel stuff.
We have all learnt to snorkel and are going on a long boat trip tomorrow around to the island where they filmed "The Beach". Should be spectacular.
It is truely glorious, wish you were all here to see it for yourselves.

Adventures in Paradise

23rd August 2006
Well what can I say...we are in paradise all right.
We have spent our first full day on Phi Phi island and I am truly at a loss for words when it comes to describing the beauty of this place. We awoke to the lapping of the waves about four metres from our front door. We scored the best bungalow in the whole complex. It was the last one in the row that fronts on to the beach. All the others are behind us or slightly up the hill.
Can you believe it??!! We can open our front door to see the ocean.
We have a hammock tied up to a tree and lounge chairs out the front.
We went for breakfast at he hotel restaurant – as usual too much to choose from including the usual eggs, bacon, toast, yoghurts, fruits and pancakes and waffles.
Then there was the thai food and the sweets – danishes, banana cake, chocolate donuts…
We then went for a swim, just outside our bungalow ( did I mention that?) in the warmest water I have ever swum in. Aleks and I both learnt how to snorkel and we spent hours in the water.
The trip was a long one and it was nice to have a rest today. We had a eleven hour flight to bank, then a three hour wait a the airport to board a domestic flight to Phuket. That was another hour. Then we got picked up at the airport by a local touring company that took us to the ferry. I swear that they had time to kill so they took us on the scenic route of the back streets of Phuket. I remember getting there somewhat quicker the last time we were here. Anyway, we made it in plenty of time to get the ferry which was my personal nightmare as I know I get very seasick.
But the water was as flat as a pancake and the gods were smiling on me as that’s how it stayed for the rest of the trip.
Thank goodness as it took us three hours to get from Phuket to Phi Pi as there were a number of drop offs along the way.
We were taken very close to the location and then the boat stopped…ok, what was going on here?
At low tide the boat cannot go in close so a long boat came to pick us up. We loaded on with all our gear and rode in the final 1/3 km where we stopped again just metres from the shore. Time to get off and walk through the water for the final few metres.
Never done that before…..
After 24 hours of traveling we were quite tired. I slept like a rock that night.
One thing I must say, Everyone should do this once in their life time.
This is what it’s all about. This place is so stunningly beautiful that you cannot take it all in. No matter how many photos you take it will not be enough.
I need to take hundreds to sustain me through the rest of the year, so I can sit down when things are not going too well and remember that I was there with the beach just outside my front door ( did I mention that?).

One day to go!!!!

This time tomorrow I will be on a plane having my first white wine on my way to Thailand..yippe!!!!
Sometimes I wonder if I could ever manage to go on a trip without needing to clean every visible surface in my house before I walk out the door.
I am always so tired by the time I leave that half the thrill of finally getting to the airport is gone.
Washing, ironing, cleaning, dusting, on and on...
This time we are having someone staying in our house while we are away specifically to look after our lazy dog.
I don't know how I feel about that.I am unsure whether I like the idea, but that's the way it has to be - we have no other alternative.
I just want to get my house back in the same condition that I left it.
Say a litle prayer for me on Tuesday at about 1 oclock. That's the time I will be on a ferry going to Phi Phi island and I DO NOT want to get sea sick. Anyone that knows me will know that I get violently ill just looking at a boat so heaven help me!

From another planet

Went to a friend's birthday party tonight.
It was in the back yard, as they always have them, but as it is still August it was freezing cold the moment the sun said goodbye for the day.
Two drums were lit for a bon fire to keep us warm and we all huddled around pushing each other for warm space.
An elderly lady wearing a delightful tracksuit told me off for hogging the space in front of the fire and told me to move as she was getting cold, all this while lighting her 16th cigarette in the past hour.
I asked a friend of a friend who she was to be told that she lived next door with her daughter, her husband, who spent the night downing beer and burping as loudly as he possibly could and her daughter's son who lived in the caravan at the back of the house.
They all kept on looking at me as if I had dropped from another planet - especially the son from the caravan.
A hangi had been made and every half hour we were told that it would be another half hour before the food was ready.
We were cold and starving.
When the cue came that the food was ready, we made our way round the back of the house to see the hangi pit.The guys started to dig the dirt off the top, then remove the tin that had been insulating the food. Unfortunately whoever had prepared this feast decided in their wisdom to then put a piece of rubber backed carpet over the wire rack that held the food ( all securely covered in foil) as extra insulation to keep he heat in.
So therefore, all this food, which included beef, pork, chicken, potatoes, pumpkin etc had an amazing aroma of rubber and synthetic carpet impregnated through it.
It was enough to make you gag.
But we were all starving and frozen, so what the hell! The food was layed out, carved up in 5cm slices and everyone pretended not to notice the slight waft of rubber that was comming from the tables.
Pity I don't drink, cause at that point I needed one.
I had one small piece of beef and it felt like I was eating a piece of tyre, so I headed for the potato salad - it was cold, yet had garlic in it?? Not good at 10 pm at night.
I gave up.
I asked my husband if we could politely and quietly leave, which we did and I came home to have a hot cup of peppermint tea.
Heaven help my husband's bowels tomorrow!!!!
It was not a good night.

Goodbye Dear Friend

I visited a good friend of mine today to say goodbye, as she is leaving to return to her place of birth - Indonesia.
I met Dotty a few years ago when I was doing readings in a coffee shop in a local suburb and she hadi just brought the place from the current owner.
We hit it off straight away.She would always supply me with free coffees while ever I was at her shop and I would always supply her with free tarot readings.
I told her many things over the years which turned out to come true, like the break in she would have at the shop, her daughter getting married, her father becomming ill and finally the fact that she would sell up within a year and move back home even before she had even entertained the idea.
Dotty has always opened her heart and her friendship to me and I will miss her greatly.
I will hopefully keep in touch via the internet and she has already invited me to come and visit her in Jakarta next year.
Goodbye and good luck my friend!

Help needed!

A very good friend of my husband's needs help fast.
She has always been there for other people, giving her time, her money and her energy to help others.
Now her son has become very ill in just a matter of days and lies in a medically induced coma at "John Hunter" hospital with a potentially life threatening illness.
This is....as we can all imagine....heartbreaking.
I ask that all that read this blog please spend a few minutes sending MATT loving and healing energy and distance reiki healing.
I know that we can affect change for this young man. He has the rest of his life to live.
Please....just a few minutes.
Love and healing to you MATT - as we will so mote it be!

It's been one year...

This time last year my father was in hospital after breaking his hip.It was the beginning of the end. It has been a year since his passing. Dad died on the 21st August 2005.
I have been thinking about it this week, especially since his grave has just been finished and I have not been out to see it yet.
Do I feel my father around me? No. No signs, no messages.
I have dreamt about him, once or twice.
In the most recent dream he was very angry at me for not telling him that I knew that he was dying (cause I did'nt).I did't think that it was going to improve his last days if I told him that was going to cark it at any moment.
It has been a hard first year. My mother decided to stay in the family home - alone -something that she vowed that she would never do.
Life goes on.

Fear

The Bene-Gesserit Littainy against Fear.

"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain. "

Since I read this in a recent blog elsewhere I have seen it many times over.
It is from the book "Dune".
I really like it and thought I would share.
Makes sense when you think of it in a psychic attack perspective.

One week to Thailand!

This time next week I will be counting down the hours to take off - I am leaving on Monday night.
The biggest challenge I face is the ferry trip from Phuket to Phi Phi Island as I suffer from terrible sea sickness. But I am going to take all the pills that the doctor has supplied me with and hopefully I will be so out of it that I will not go into the horrible contorted mess that I become when I even look at a boat. Here's hoping!
I will be spending four nights on Phi Phi island, then seven nights at Phuket and four nights in Bangkok. I have been to Thailand before and am looking forward to going back. I love the mix of cultures and religion. The locals are all so generous and honest, it is lovely to spend time talking to them. They all work so hard that I feel positively lazy around them. It is always a wake up call about the issues that I complain about in my life when I see how these people work. The people of Bali are the same in this respect.For the vast majority, their lives are so hard and yet they are satisfied with their lot and just get on with it.
We have a lot to learn from their grace and dignity about life.