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Birthday magic
Just a bit over twenty-four hours ago, Lego Lover’s fifteenth birthday ended. Like all his birthdays, it was magical. He was full of joy and happiness throughout the day and took pleasure in just about every part of it. This is one of the things I like best about Lego Lover. He hasn’t lost that pleasure in having a birthday. Or that pleasure in the Christmas season.
Every year December 1 is incredibly important for being the first day of advent. He gets to start opening his Lego City Advent calendar and it’s often the first thing he thinks about. It also is his dad’s birthday, which sometimes gets pushed behind the advent calendar in priority of the day. On the first Saturday of the month, it’s time to put up the Christmas tree. In the past, Lego Lover mostly assisted the Scientist in all the goings on. This year he took on quite a bit more of the workload and enjoyed every minute of it.
The next weeks always are the period of anticipation but there’s always the promise of an advent calendar treasure with each passing day. Finally, it reaches December 23rd and another birthday arrives. He makes every effort to be up early on the day and his face is filled with a smile from the time he wakes up. When he gets his gifts, usually around the middle of the day, the smile widens with the pleasure of whatever he’s been given. This year it was a rather massive Transformers Omega Supreme set that he’d expressed considerable interest in when it was put on special in the middle of the year. It had been purchased in July but when Lego Lover made his gift list, it wasn’t on it. Not to worry, though, as he’d not realised it was even possible to be considered for his list due to not being available in the shops recently. There were several other Transformer gifts, including some dvd sets and a couple of Lego Hero Factory sets.
In the evening, there were visits from a couple family members and then his favorite pizza from our local shop. Then it’s time for cake and to keep working on building the Lego sets and showing off everything else.
Finally it reaches the end of the day and he’s still as happy as he was when the day started with that lovely smile still working its magic. He was still up well past midnight last night and was rather keen to share his birthday with his grandma in the US. She hadn’t made an appearance on Skype yet and I turned it off, thinking it was time for bed. But because he was so keen, I turned it back on, and grandma did make an appearance so he was able to stretch his birthday out just a bit longer. At the end of the chat, he was tired but very much still happy.
His birthday magic is just the joy and happiness of his special day. It’s so infectious that it makes many of the people around him feel quite happy too and that’s why I think of it as magic even though magic doesn’t really exist.
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Arrival
It was a dark, wet and dreary day nineteen years ago as I stepped off the plane in Perth for the first time to start my new life in Australia. I don’t recall specifics but there was a whole line of family and friends to meet us at the airport. I remember it was a bit overwhelming to meet so many people at once and I didn’t think I’d remember names any time soon. There probably weren’t that many people but it seemed a lot at the time. I was four and a half months pregnant with Game Fanatic at the time and starting to feel a bit oversized already…I remember I had on a short-sleeved red top that I was fond of wearing. In fact, I probably didn’t wear it much after that time and I have no idea what became of it now. Funny the stuff you remember after so long. That first month seemed to be have rain just about every day but the sun would often pop out and we’d see a rainbow appear on many of those days too. After that life was a bit of a blur as I adjusted to my new home. That is, until October when life got very interesting after Game Fanatic was born.
I completely missed this anniversary last year. I might have also missed it this year had I not had to write out the date today. I was at the Red Cross doing a regular plasma donation and had to sign and date the forms and that’s what triggered the memory. As a side note, I have now reached the maximum plasma donation level of 18% which allows me to give 800 mls each donation. I think this is only slightly higher than the last one but it makes the last cycle of blood draw and red cell return a bit more worthwhile. As I’ve used my right arm for donation most of the time lately, I thought I’d give it a break and try my left arm. It seems my veins were not easily found by the lady doing my session today so the expert was called in and he found a good vein. Interesting part was the way the machine was not moved to my left side this time but the tubes were draped across me. I think this had a lot to do with my location at the end of the room as they usually do shift the machine to the same side as blood draw. My next appointment is in a month for a full blood draw, but I wonder now if they will again ask me for plasma instead since they still have a high need for it.
We had pizzas from our much-loved local shop for dinner and I went back out to the store afterwards in search of a brownie mix. Brownies are my go-to treat to celebrate special days. I will clarify that I would love to make home made brownies most of the time but my boys seem to prefer the store mixes. Our favorite brownie mix here is the Australian made White Wings brand which has a nice chunky brownie mix that works well with my non-fat oil replacement of Greek yoghurt. Sadly the store had no boxes of this type available. They did have the Betty Crocker type available which is acceptable. They also had the Duncan Hines type which wasn’t all that great when we tried it. I found another mix by another Australian brand which was cheaper than the others. I decided to give it a shot and bought it along with a muffin mix on a special offer. Unfortunately they didn’t come out well at all. Not inedible but definitely quite underwhelming. I now feel the need to fix this wrong by making more tomorrow that taste like they should. Of course the lesson in this situation is not to try something too unknown for anything special.
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Catching up
I keep procrastinating about writing posts and never get around to them. Maybe I need to make a list of things I want to write and tick them off as I do it.
Life carries on as usual at the lorikeet household. Last week, the Scientist and I celebrated 20 years of marriage. We’d been together a few years before that but this was the official date. It was a very good day, starting with a gym visit and shower before going out to a mid-afternoon meal at Jamie Oliver’s new restaurant here in Perth. This is one of his Italian restaurants and it was absolutely lovely there. The complimentary bread was some of the best I’ve had. The olive oil and balsamic vinegar served with it were just wonderful. I had a pasta dish with prawns and linguine which was quite nice. I only ordered an entree plus a salad on the side…plenty of food for me. We did have a starter of baked mushrooms and the music bread with that was also rather addictive. For dessert I was brave and tried the pannacotta. I’ve tried it many times before and was always disappointed. But I had hope that Jamie’s recipe would work and I was right. Strong vanilla flavors and fresh fruit and sweet and creamy. It’s not part of the usual menu but I hope to have it again. The best part of the meal is that it didn’t cost a small fortune to eat there and was reasonably priced. Not bad for a celebrity chef restaurant in the city. Add to that the great dinner companion and I couldn’t ask for more. The Scientist and I enjoyed a stroll through King’s Park afterwards and probably worked off a few calories from the meal. We climbed the DNA tower, which is two spiral staircases designed to look like DNA. It has a good view at the top and it was sunset so we were both snapping away with our cameras. I made it up and down the stairs without much problem, which was a nice change…funnily enough I had more trouble on some other stairs and steep paths along the way…strange. It’s weird to think it’s been 20 years since our wedding day…sometimes it seems so recent and other times it’s a lifetime ago…
I’ve been out in the garden this week, cutting branches off a tree I want to get rid of. I don’t know how we will get the trunk removed ourselves as it’s very big but I plan to cut as much off as I can. It’s a shame since the tree has been there since we planted our first shrubs…but it was taking up a massive part of the garden and was too big for the yard. We have another one in the front yard but will leave that as it is for now. Aside from many piles of branches, there is a lot more space in the side/backyard than there’s been in years. Little Maromi won’t be able to hide as easily when this is cut down like he does now. I also noticed today it gets so much more sun in that area now. I’m thinking of trying to plant a hibiscus and see what happens…but we may think about a few other plants too.
We’d truly gotten into the chilliness of late autumn/winter this month but the last few days have been a bit warmer and even the nights haven’t been quite so cold. Last week I went outside to hang wet clothes and even with a warm robe and bed socks with shoes I was feeling chilled. A couple nights ago, it felt more like a summer night and the clothes didn’t even draw damp. We’re supposed to get some rain but I haven’t seen much evidence of it so far. I did, however, see a beautiful moonrise on the way back from tai chi. It was hidden behind clouds at first but came into full view by the time we were home. I noticed a little while ago it’s still quite bright although much higher in the sky…no clouds blocking it at the moment so I wonder when this rain is due to happen…
I had more games news to add but it turned out to be so long I will make it into a separate post.
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History repeats
It’s hard for me to believe it but it’s now been eight or nine years since Lego Lover was officially diagnosed with high-functioning autism. I suppose it is not so incredible when I consider he was only five at the time…But it doesn’t always seem so long ago. And yet it was the better part of his lifetime ago. I remember it was a reader of this blog who drew my attention to a condition called Asperger’s syndrome by forwarding a link to a news article. I’d never heard of it before although I was slightly aware of  (classic) autism. After reading the article I was half convinced Lego Lover had Asperger’s and half convinced that he didn’t. Recently I was reminded of something else that came to mind while reading the article. I remember thinking that half the traits seemed to fit Lego Lover and the other half seemed to fit Game Fanatic. If you put those two halves together you’d have a perfect Aspie. I didn’t give that too much more thought at the time, aside from it motivating me to eventually seek assessment for Lego Lover due to the difficulties that arose from some of his issues.
Strangely I hadn’t recalled that thought for many years but it came to mind recently while discussing Game Fanatic with the clinical psychologist who has worked with us for several years. Game Fanatic has long had a variety of issues like anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder causing considerable impact on his life. Every so often red flags would go up that put me in mind of Asperger’s syndrome but then I would think about the overall picture and it just didn’t fit. It’s been an occasional topic of discussion with the psychologist over the past few years but it never went much further than that. That’s all changed recently as we revisited this topic and it seems that perhaps Game Fanatic may very well have Asperger’s. We spent our last two sessions discussing this more in-depth and there’s enough evidence from our talks to now to support the possibility. We are currently looking for a psychiatrist who has experience with autism and Asperger’s syndrome in older teens and adults to seek further advice and assessment.
It’s strange to be on this path again after so many years. It is familiar and yet it will be different because we are looking at this issue for an adult rather than a child. It’s also strange to think this hasn’t been obvious for all these years when I’d had such a thought so long ago. I think the reason for this is that Lego Lover has always been quite expressive of thoughts and feelings so we always knew a lot about how his mind works. On the other hand Game Fanatic has always kept most of his thoughts and feelings to himself. It’s only been in the last few years that he has shared enough of himself to allow us to understand him better. With this “new” information it’s easier to see how he might well fit into the Asperger’s category. Assuming that a diagnosis does happen, I wonder if I will feel the same relief and finding an explanation as I did all those years ago with Lego Lover.
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Childhood to adulthood
It seems appropriate to again recall the events of this day and night from eighteen years ago.
I reached the last week of my official forty weeks of pregnancy and I found myself being shifted from the relaxed atmosphere of the family birth center we’d been attending into the regular maternity clinic in the main hospital. What a difference it was to go into the big, noisy clinic and have to sit for an hour on uncomfortable seats when I was quite swollen and had elevated blood pressure. I don’t really recall much about the actual appointment. It was all a blur. The upshot was that I was to be induced the next day and was expected there by late morning.
On the morning of the 18th, we piled into the car and I recall stopping for a bit of breakfast at the drive through at McDonald’s of all places. Before I knew it was I checked into the hospital and put in a room. At some point some treatment to start the induction was given and even that I don’t really recall. I do recall sitting around there all afternoon with the Scientist, waiting for something to happen. At some point I was given further treatment and then we waited and waited. I remember drinking Milo (a powder chocolate drink) at some point. Nothing happened and then it was night and I think there must have been a third treatment. And then the Scientist went home as it was quite late and who knew how much longer it would be.
At some point in the next hour, around 11pm, I got up to go to the toilet and it was there my waters broke unexpectedly. To that point, nothing obvious had happened to me but now it was all happening at once. Contractions started and just didn’t stop, one after another. The Scientist was dragged from bed almost immediately after he’d reached it and returned to my side within a short time although it seemed like ages to me. I Â was offered an epidural and refused as I thought I would surely be able to handle a few hours of labor. After a few hours of constant contractions, I suddenly was desperate for the epidural but I was too far along so they offered pethidine instead. I don’t believe that made any dent into the pain but I did get some relief from the nitrous oxide for short bursts of time. Later on I did get the epidural after all as I’d tired so much from non-stop contractions for so many hours. I honestly don’t recall how long it took for the birth to happen once I started pushing but it eventually required some assistance. Possibly I wasn’t feeling enough sensation to push effectively. At 11am my future game fanatic finally made it into the world and was soon making a big noise.
The next couple of days are a blur in my memories now. They consisted of sleeping whenever I could and feeding and feeding and a crying baby. Game Fanatic and two other little boys were all born that day and all kept the midwives busy with cuddling crying babies in an effort to let us moms get a bit of sleep once in a while. And then it was time to go home and we dressed him up in his little green suit and the Scientist drove us back home. Â The next few months are a blur of sleepless days and nights, feeding and changing nappies (diapers). Feedings became quite painful and I was miserable enough that the Scientist suggested formula to give me a break. But I persisted through the pain and we eventually seem to work things out.
Before I knew it, I had a crawling baby who soon was standing and then he was walking. And while achieving these marvelous feats, he also started talking and shared his insights with us regularly. Then it was a first birthday and he had chicken pox! Over the next year he would speak in complete sentences and eat his first chili (by mistake) and develop a love for the hot and spicy foods he eats today. When he was three he started kindy and the next year pre-primary and before we knew it he was school age. Fast forward a few more years and he’d grown quite tall and his voice changed and he suddenly was a teenager. And here we are on the verge of eighteen. He’s a fascinating young adult now and I can’t wait to see what happens next for our baby.
Every year for his birthday, Game Fanatic makes a birthday list to give us so that he always gets what he wants for his birthday instead of something disappointing. This year his list consisted only of games, some which he will be receiving. But I have a special surprise for him. Well maybe not that much of a surprise as I jokingly mentioned it a while back to him. With the Scientist, I’ve chosen a handful of favorite books from his childhood and bought copies for him to keep as mementos.
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar -He had a board book as a baby and toddler and he loved to hear this book read again and again. The copy I ended up with via mail order is a tiny version of the book so I’m not sure how he will like it. I suspect he will prefer to have a slightly bigger copy as this one fits a bit too neatly into his hand.
- Hairy MacLary from Donaldson’s Dairy– This book is the first in a series of books containing the lovable dog, Hairy MacLary. In truth the book we’d read first was about another character, Scattercat, or maybe it was Slinki Malinki. They are all gentle, rhythmic books and Game Fanatic loved all that we read. We never owned our own copy so I thought it was time he had his own to keep forever.
- There’s a Hippopotamus on our Roof Eating Cake– Another preschool favorite that is the first in a series of books about a little girl and her favorite imaginary friend, a hippopotamus, who gets up to some great silliness and fun.
- Greek Myths by Marcia Williams- I think this may have been the first book Game Fanatic read about Greek myths. It’s done in a sort of comic style with lots of illustration and he adored this book so much that he regularly checked it out of the library. I think this will be more of a surprise than some of the other books as he was so much older when he read it.
- The Three Billy Goats Gruff– This one was a bit hard as there are so many versions available and we’d have likely read more than one to Game Fanatic when we were not relating the story from memory. Eventually the Scientist spotted one that seemed familiar so we chose that one. We are still waiting for this one to arrive and hopefully will have it next week. Â Of all the stories from his childhood, this was Game Fanatic’s favorite and he asked for it to be told again and again whether we had a copy of the book or not. We would go to the park for little ones and he would insist on us acting it out using the bridge that connected the two pieces of equipment. The park still has that same equipment and I am often reminded of the repeated performances passing by there with the dogs. I think this one will also be a bit of a surprise but hopefully will keep that special memory alive for him.
It’s nearly midnight and I need to make some brownies before I go to bed. I’d had aspirations of making a lemon tart but never got the recipe started so it will have to wait a bit longer, I guess. Here’s to a very special day tomorrow  and many special days in the future for my baby, who is now an adult.
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Happy Canada Day!
It’s now just a decade ago that we returned from a nearly one year stay in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. We arrived the first week of July 2001 and left mid-June the next year. It was an interesting experience for all of us but it definitely left a lasting impression on our Lego Lover. He is obsessed with Canada and has been since we left. For him, it ranks up higher than all other countries aside from Australia. Not even the fact he is also American sways him towards the US. He was only three when we left so it’s a bit of an oddity. During our stay, we lived in a three story townhouse that overlooked Halifax Harbour. I remember the day we arrived as it was drizzly, damp and very foggy. It was so thick that it was a couple days later when we finally saw the view across the harbour. We were lucky to live on the Dartmouth side because there was a lot more to see in Halifax than in Dartmouth. We also had a balcony outside our bedroom upstairs. It was a neat thing when we arrived there in summer but it was mostly ignored once winter set in. From the balcony and the bedroom window, the view was pretty neat, especially for a 2-3 year old obsessed with vehicles. We could see the ships on the harbour, the buses and cars on the road, seaplanes, barges, and also the freight train that passed through several times a day. There was also a bridge connecting the two cities that was visible from our house. In winter, there was the added pleasure of the snow plows going up and down the streets. I think that might have been the clincher for Lego Lover since that was really the only place he got to see them.
We have always done something to celebrate the 4th of July since that’s part of my heritage. It’s not the outdoor event that was always part of my childhood because our winter weather usually isn’t that conducive to such doings. Lego Lover has always taken some interest but last year it reached his sphere of knowledge that Canada has it’s national day on the 1st of July. He was somewhat distressed upon finding this out just a few days after the event. He made it his goal that we would celebrate this year and he has made it his goal to mention Canada and/or something about it daily since then.
At the beginning of the year, he decided he wanted us to make Nanaimo bars for the day. A few weeks ago we started looking at recipes and we did a trial run last week using a recipe from the Canadian Living website. The result was a sickly sweet treat on a base that was overpowered by walnuts. The middle layer was tasted of the pure icing sugar instead of the custard powder. The top was a mess thanks to using the wrong chocolate…it was just a big gunky mess that was hard to spread. We tried the recipe from the website of the city of Nanaimo this time and had far better results. For both recipes we substituted Marie biscuits for graham crackers, which aren’t sold here. We used ground almonds instead of walnuts and shredded coconut instead of flakes for the base and it wasn’t baked this time. None of the ingredients overpowered it in flavor or texture and it came out nicer than the first try. Instead of pure icing sugar, I tried icing mixture for the middle layer and it was smooth and a bit creamy instead of powdery. Â I found a proper semisweet chocolate to use for the top layer and it spread properly this time. The result was a very yummy slice that we all enjoyed.
Nanaimo bar: second version Lego Lover has recently taken to enjoying the meat pies sold locally so thought tourtiére, which  is popular in Quebec at Christmas time, would be just right for us. Most of the recipes I found listed pork as the favorite meat to use so I stuck to that but did make some alterations to the recipe to suit our family. The Canadian version uses a lot of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg but I cut that down and increased the pepper. It was more like a pepper steak pie but still had some of the spiced flavor of the original recipe. Mashed potato is used as a thickener and I was able to cook down the mixture so it wouldn’t make a soggy pie. We used frozen pastry and made mini-pies in our pie maker and they came out quite nicely.
Tourtiere mini-pies Our third Canadian recipe was for poutine, which essentially french fries (chips) with cheese curds and gravy. Of the three foods we cooked, this was the only one I remember being sold in Nova Scotia while we were there. I remember it was on the menu at the pizza shop we used to like but we never tried it because it didn’t look very appetising. Now I think we should have tried it just to say we had  tasted it once. Our version didn’t have cheese curds since it’s another thing not easily found here. We used the suggested mozzarella and added pre-packaged chips gravy to a batch of chips from our local chip shop. The family consensus was the gravy was good but we probably won’t bother with the cheese again. If I ever happen to run across cheese curds here, I might buy some just so we can try a closer-to-authentic version of poutine. And if we ever happen to be in Canada again, I suppose we might make an effort to try the authentic version.
Our poutine with mozzarella cheese and pre-packaged chip gravy While the Scientist and Lego Lover put the pies together, we listened to the Canadian national anthem, once in English and one in a bilingual version. Game Fanatic was reminded of how he was forced to sing this daily while at school. It wasn’t a pleasant memory for him and he seems to still hold a grudge that he had to sing when he was not Canadian. Â Overall, Â Lego Lover seemed quite happy with the day so I imagine we will do something similar next year. Or at least make the nanaimo bars. :D
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Donating blood
Note: Totally unrelated to the current post but…the post I’m working on about Lego Lover turning thirteen will be password protected. If anyone that I know is reading and needs the password, please contact me,
Once upon a time, far away from here…specifically Greensboro, NC in the USA, I was once an undergraduate college student. Blood drives were organised, probably every two or three months, and held in the student center. I became a first time blood donor on my college campus and donated several times while I was a student. I remember getting some sort of recognition for reaching a gallon of blood on my eighth donation. There were a couple of times I was rejected due to low blood pressure. Ironically my brother, who is just a year younger, was rejected the same year due to high blood pressure. I think there might have been another rejection related to low iron once also.
The process to give blood amounted to standing in line and waiting my turn. It was a bit like a factory where you stopped at a table to do the admin part, moved to another table to have a small amount of blood checked, then on to portable beds where the actual donation took place. Afterwards there were drinks and cookies given out before you left. Depending on your place in line, you could be in and out in well under and hour, possibly as little as half an hour. Most of my memories are vague from those experiences, except for one. It must have been one of those really hot days outside where the air conditioner was running full blast and the room was quite cold. I remember it because I was freezing through the entire process. I finished and went to have my post-donation snack when I began to feel really lightheaded. I was taken back to a bed to lie down and a blanket was brought for me. I think I must have stayed there another half hour before I was released. I very specifically recall finally making it outside and enjoying the warmth for at least the first few minutes.
I think I made one donation once I finished my studies and then I came to Australia a few years later. I was pregnant and/or breastfeeding for much of the next ten years so I didn’t think to donate during that time. And since that time I have procrastinated. Over the holidays the Scientist and I heard an ad asking for blood donations as the supply was quite low. We both decided we would do something about it this time. It took a bit of time but I eventually was in contact with the blood donation centre and organised an appointment for today. I was given instructions to drink several glasses or water and/or juice and to eat a substantial meal before I went in.
I arrived exactly on time for my appointment and the receptionist was quite pleased to see I’d shown up. Apparently a lot of people oversleep on Mondays and miss their appointments. This morning, everyone had turned up on time. The first order of business was to fill out three sections of a multi-page form. The first part was for first time donors and I had to complete that since I was new to donating here. The other parts have to be completed each time and both involved numerous questions to screen for eligibility.
Once I finished, I waited for a few minutes and was taken to an assessment room. My height and weight were checked and my blood pressure and iron levels were also checked. Then came the business of going through the form. Most of the focus was on those eligibility questions. The status of my various health conditions had to be clarified. She hadn’t heard of Sjögren’s syndrome but it seems it was fine so long as I don’t require medication right now. I had to spend a fair bit of time explaining where I have lived and traveled since I moved to Australia. It’s not as though I’d traveled all that much either but details were requested for everything since I’ve been here. Apparently I passed through all the hoops so got to move on to the donation area.
This was a long room with maybe six to eight spaces for people to use. There were two people who must have been donating plasma or platelets as they were hooked up to machines that weren’t being used on the side of the room where I was placed. Instead of a bed, we had lounge chairs that could be shifted into different positions depending on the needs. I sat for a little while before anyone attended to me. I had a blood pressure cuff placed on my arm and my pressure was checked a couple times during the process. A small machine was moved next to my chair and the blood bags were connected up to the machine. Eventually the needle was placed and my blood started to flow. The machine controlled everything though. It showed the target amount (470mls) and the amount collected so far. It also kept track of the flow rate. It must have taken 10-15 minutes to reach the target. Once the needle was removed and the wound taken care of, I had to sit for another 10-15 minutes. Once finished, I was advised to do no heavy lifting the rest of the day, drink lots of water, etc.
I was then sent to the canteen where I was given tea and snacks. I found out later I was supposed to have chosen a substantial food and a snack food. I also found out that milk shakes were one of the drinks on offer. Next time I will know better.
I must admit I found it kind of funny that I was referred to as a first time donor at every turn. Kind of amusing at first but then a bit tiresome after a while. I kept having to explain that I have done this before, just not in Australia. The first time status was, of course, forgotten at the canteen.
I made the mistake of popping across the road to the mall, and soon regretted it as it was packed with families on school holidays. Worse, I didn’t get out immediately but did a bit of shopping before moving on. I made two more stops along the way home for food stuffs and somehow managed to be carrying a rather heavy bag in the end. It was quite a relief to finally arrive home and relax for a while before I had to go out in the evening for a couple hours.
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During my trip back home last year, we went to Pennsylvania to visit my grandma and to see that area of the state that was my home for the first year or two of my life. At that time grandma was living independently in an apartment so we stayed with her for our five day visit. After spending our first week of visiting in the oven that is Texas, it was nice to be in Pennsylvania with its milder temperatures.
During our visit, we spent a lot of time driving around to family landmarks and visiting some extended family. I saw the location where the hospital where I was born once stood. More interesting was going down the back streets of the town to see the first house where I lived. It doesn’t really look that different to when we lived there. Just a bit older and maybe overgrown a little. I remember we used to make a traditional visit to these places each summer when we made the trip from Georgia to Pennsylvania. Except that the hospital was still standing until I was probably in my teens. I have a vague memory of it, looking a bit like a dilapidated old house.
We drove over to Grandma’s old house, where we stayed most summers. It now belongs to my aunt who lives there with her husband. Unfortunately my aunt wasn’t home at the time so I never got to see what it looks like now. It’s a small house with just two bedrooms but somehow we used to manage to fit my grandparents, my two aunts along with the five of us in for a week at a time. Most summers there was a family picnic at the house on the 4th of July. There was the picnic during the day and at night most of the men would play poker down in the basement. The women would play cars up in the kitchen. Cigarette smoke was everywhere because just about everyone in the family smoked. Big chests of ice filled with beer bottles soon became empty beer bottles filling the bins. Kids would run around inside and out playing and sometimes watching the adults. This was often the time I’d see most of my cousins…or should I say second cousins who just happened to be closer to my age than my mom. I also remember seeing the amazing game Pong, for the first time at this house. I’m going to assume it was for the benefit of my aunts still living at home. Later there was the Atari console with the many cartridges. I remember one year when my aunt spent hours playing a single game of Pacman and collecting some crazy high score. When my grandparents first lived there, there was nothing behind the house, just a hill filled with wild strawberries that grandma would turn into jam each year.
I think it must have been our second last day there where Grandma took us out to eat at a little diner called Deb’s Place. I think the place has been there forever but I don’t recall ever being there. The food was pretty typical diner food that wasn’t bad but not great either. It did provide a break from cooking that night and it was kind of neat to go to what apparently was a popular hangout for the locals. Once dinner was over, we had dessert at the ice cream place that is part of the diner. Ice cream is served at a window and eaten at tables out by the parking lot. After making our decisions, Lego Lover and I placed our orders and we waited. What I didn’t notice very well was the anticipation of both my mom and grandma. When the ice cream cones came out, we nearly fell down in shock as they were enormous. I think I ordered a double scoop and it honestly looked like three or four scoops. Lego Lover was similarly amazed and impressed. Both Mom and Grandma were rolling with laughter. It was quite a sight to see. As there was no place to sit at this point, we got back into the car and started to leave. But I had the misfortune to lose the top scoop from my cone which fell off and went rolling down my blouse and leaving streaks of some chocolatey ice cream in its place. This was a brand new top that I don’t think I’d ever worn before. And it was a bit stained after that although it eventually did come out. Despite my mishap, this was my fondest memory of my stay last year.
When we weren’t driving around the area, we were hanging out at Grandma’s apartment and talking and watching tv. Â Eventually we got to what had always been my favorite part of visits: photo albums. I particularly liked the older photos and the stories about the people in them. Mostly the people were family from before my time along with some close friends and even a couple old boyfriends of my grandmother. Grandma would sleep in her recliner chair as she didn’t sleep well in her bed. It was a big, fancy chair that quite possibly was as comfortable or more so than many beds. Most nights she fell asleep while watching tv. Most of the time this happened while watching four episodes of Golden Girls late each night.
There was a lot more to that short visit but I won’t go into that now except to say that much of it was quite memorable for many different reasons. At the end of the visit, it was with a heavy heart that we parted to travel back to Texas. The only regret is that despite taking heaps of photos there, I didn’t get one of me with my grandma.
Earlier this year, my grandmother’s health began to decline rapidly and she had to be moved into a nursing home a few months ago. At the end of last month, she celebrated her 90th birthday with a small family gathering at the nursing home. Mom managed to scrape enough money to be there for the special occasion. Soon after the doctor discovered a severe foot infection which couldn’t be cured with medication. The only option was amputation but Grandma wouldn’t have made it through surgery. So the last few weeks have been a waiting game. This afternoon, I got a message from my mom that the wait was over.
Grandma’s life wasn’t any kind of life to live at the end, with others having to meet most of her basic needs. So I am relieved the end has finally come. Obviously that doesn’t take away the sadness of the loss and there is still a bit of the shock of it really being the end. And there’s also the unreality of it for me, being so removed from family. I think I might spend part of tomorrow getting back to work on all the photos I took during last years visit and finally finish that off.
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Interesting coincidences and a bit of a walk down memory lane
Back in the early 1970s, probably around 1973, I saw Gone With the Wind at the cinema. I remember the cinema well as it was the only one in our city and it was part of the Jerry Lewis cinema chain. I don’t know of any others in the chain but there must have been. I think that was the last year it was shown in the cinema and before I knew it, the movie was screening on network tv every once in a while. It is quite possible that most cinemas had stopped screening it years earlier. But I lived in Forest Park, Georgia, which was very close to the approximate location of the fictional Tara Plantation just south of Atlanta. It was probably more like a cult favorite in the area well past the time when it was shown in other parts of the country.
My family had a copy of the book on our bookshelves but I never though to read it. I was a bit young for it when I saw the film and it never really occurred to me to attempt to read that thick volume when I got older. Besides, in my mind, many of those older books were quite boring. This was ignoring the fact the book is one of the most read in the English-speaking world. It was a bit like my preconceived notion of Pride and Prejudice as one of those old stuffy books of old…only to discover in the past ten years that it’s an amazingly funny book.
I recently acquired an iPad 2 which I’ve found even better for reading ebooks than the iPod Touch I got a couple years ago. I was browsing through the books available there and discovered Gone with the Wind was one of their collection. They had a sample of the book available for download and and tried it out and really enjoyed it. Now I’ve gotten the full book so I can continue the saga without lugging a bit book around. What I’ve found incredibly interesting are the references to towns located near Forest Park. Towns like Jonesboro were part of my growing up years.
Forest Park won’t rate a mention in the book because it didn’t exist at that time. While reading the book, I wondered what the origins of my childhood home were. I must admit I didn’t find much information but apparently it was originally a stop on the railway line to and from Atlanta and called Forest Station. What particularly attracted my attention was the fact it had once had the nickname of Stumptown.
In December 1976 we moved from Forest Park in Georgia to Matthews, North Carolina, just outside Charlotte. The city has an annual festival called Stumptown Festival, which celebrates the original name of Matthews, NC. So last night I discovered that the two places I lived during my childhood both had been called Stumptown, either officially or unofficially, at one time. I think it’s a pretty cool coincidence.
And while doing my online searches on this topic, I came across a blog called Stumptown, which relates to Forest Park, and relates some details of the area over the years. I have known for many years that the demographic of our old neighorhood is totally different to the white, middle class one where I grew up. I think there was a drastic shift that occurred within fifteen to twenty years or so and now it’s mostly low-income “minority” groups in the area. Family and friends have told me it’s very run down in the area now. The blog I mention often blames the encroachment of the Atlanta airport and with it so near, I suppose that could be a significant factor.
I went looking at our old house on Google maps and it looked rather different to how I remembered it. Some of the trees block the view of the house and it’s been painted a different color. But when I shifted the view to the other houses around it, they didn’t look so different to me. Lots of memories flooded back of the people who once lived on the street with us. In some ways, it didn’t look so different to the way I remember it. There were still lots of beautiful trees in bloom in front of many of the homes. I’ve been told it’s quite run down in that area now but I wonder if maybe this little area might be in better shape than some if these images are anything to go by. I found out the house hasn’t been sold since 1998, which I also found interesting.
Still I don’t know if I’d want to go back and see it now as I’ve wished to do for so long. I think it might just make me sad to see the area in such bad shape. And it’s likely that I’d have pretty limited recognition of any landmarks at this point. One of the main reasons I had wanted to revisit was to see the old woods near our house. It was full of trails created by local kids and there were some large boulders that many of us have climbed over the years. I have some really fond memories of riding my bicycle there and meeting up with friends. And I also have a memory of being sent to buy something for my mom and getting lost in there once. I was last there when I was eleven and it seemed such a massive maze of trails but I wanted to see if it was really as big as I remember. A few years ago I discovered the woods were finally knocked down and now there are residential streets in its place. It wasn’t that surprising but still weird to think that was gone now.
I did see that the library there still stands and found photos showing it’s much as I remember it. Funnily enough, it’s not a place we had been that many times but I had some distinct memories of it for being a two story building which I thought was kind of neat. Seems it was only opened in 1969, so it must have been fairly shiny and new at the time we visited.
All sorts of memories have emerged from the closed vaults of my brain. I really must start writing this down as it’s getting harder and harder to recall things over time and I like the idea of creating a personal history for my records…maybe even have something to share with my kids should they ever show any interest.
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Waffles
I don’t think I ever posted about the road trip we took while in the US last year. My mom, Lego Lover and I went from Fort Worth, TX to Western Pennsylvania over the course of two days. Originally the plan was to drive straight through, taking a day and a half. It became clear by the time we reached Tennessee that this plan wasn’t feasible and we needed to stay overnight somewhere. We stopped at what I think might have been a Super 8 or something of that ilk. The desk clerk’s English left something to be desired and the facilities weren’t great. But it was a place to sleep and that’s what we did for about six or seven hours. We even took time to have quick showers before heading out again later in the morning. On our return trip, we did a bit more planning and found more suitable accommodation at a place that I think was called Country Suites. We found a coupon in a travel booklet and for less than the price of the previous room, we had a room and breakfast. And it was a much nicer facility.
The highlight of that stay was the lovely breakfast offered the next morning. Available was cereal, toast, eggs, country biscuits with gravy and I can’t remember what else. And then there were the waffles. They had a couple Belgian waffle irons set up with cups of batter so we could make our own. Lego Lover absolutely loved this and Mom and I liked it too.
When we got back from our trip, a waffle iron was something that was highly desired. We particularly wanted a Belgian waffle maker. At that time, however, nobody seemed to have any in stock. I did eventually find a waffle maker in Myer, one of the more upmarket department stores. But it wasn’t the right type and was kind of expensive. Plus the reviews I read weren’t particularly favorable. Online research turned up some alternatives but they didn’t seem to be available in the usual stores. A couple months down the road, I was looking at the frequent flyer points catalog online and discovered a Sunbeam Belgian waffle maker just like we wanted. I ordered it right away and a week or so later it arrived at our house.
I’ve made waffles several times since then and it’s always a treat. Only one batch came out badly and that was due to my alterations of some ingredients. On the weekend, Lego Lover told me he was craving waffles, which was his round about way of asking me to make them. I said I’d see what i could do. Meanwhile, Game Fanatic asked if I could make some chocolate chip ones too. We had some chocolate left over from a cooking venture of some sort so I also told him I’d see what I could do. I’ve never made anything but plain waffles before so wasn’t sure how this would work out. On Sunday, I made one batch of plain and for the second batch added in chocolate chips and Milo malted milk powder. They turned out rather well although it left a lot of mess to clean up in an appliance that can’t be immersed. The boys and the Scientist seemed to enjoy all they had. I was lucky to get one of the last chocolate chip ones and it was pretty good.
Lego Lover ate the most, which was pretty amazing considering he’s the smallest of the family. It’s obvious he’s well into puberty and adolescence because he’s now eating very much like a typical teenager. I don’t know where he keeps all that food because he’s become tall and lanky over the better part of the past year. He hasn’t surpassed me in height just yet but it surely won’t be long when he’s growing as fast as he is.
