Rainbow Lorikeets and the Cruel Winds of Debt
It's been a while since I last updated, it seems. I wish I had better news to report. Unfortunately, I do not.
First we shall address yesterday lunchtime and The Case of the Baby Rainbow Lorikeet.
So, we had a baby rainbow lorikeet on our front lawn yesterday. It was eating the bread we threw out with a desperation that suggested it needed help. Mum mentioned that she would bring it in if she could, but she couldn't bend down to pick it up (with her two bad knees). Seconds later, she turns around to find that Lyn had brought the baby bird in. (Remember Lyn? The lady who moved in with us temporarily last November and was supposed to be gone in 6-8 weeks? Yeah, she's still here.)
Anyway, so there's this baby bird in the house. Mum doesn't have a towel or a box or anything on hand to hold it, so she sends me upstairs to grab an old towel - and then one of our cats saunters into the room. And of course it had to be Miko. Now, Miko LOVES birds the same way Sylvester LOVES Tweety. She watches them out on the front lawn like a hawk, and goes nuts if they dare come anywhere near the front door. So when she saw the bird inside, she clearly thought all her birthdays and Christmases had come at once. And thus the chase was on.
After a short but hectic chase, Miko was shooed upstairs and the bird was wrapped in a towel and placed in a box when we took it down to a friend of ours who knows a lot about birds and runs a cafe. She confirmed that it was indeed a baby, then promptly prevailed upon us to stay for a free cuppa and lunch.
Now, I'm not normally the sort of person to turn down a free coffee, but I was dressed in my shabbiest, hang-around-the-house clothes and no bra, and I felt really uncomfortable eating out anywhere under those circumstances. It had been my understanding that we'd just drop the bird off and return home. But I managed a coffee and (under persuasion) a couple of slices of gluten-free fruit loaf. I couldn't eat it all, and I didn't quite understand why - I just knew that I felt off and wanted to go home.
The explanation for why I felt off came later that night at an informal women's meeting at church - I threw up. Twice. It seemed I'd finally fallen prey to the bug which had plagued Mum so much earlier in the week. Luckily though, that seemed to clear it al out, because after that I was okay and was even able to eat a late dinner (albeit a light one).
And then there was today, and the cruel wind of fate bit me in the arse again...
It was Street Min, as usual, and after packing up, we placed our things in the car. Lyn gave me the keys and told me to wait in the car while she went to the bathroom. I did so, and waited, but the sun was beating down fiercely and I opened the door a touch to get some cooler air circulating.
Big BIG mistake. Apparently the wind had picked up quite a lot while I had been sitting in the car, and it tore the door out of my hand and swung out towards the car parked next to us. I grabbed for it, but to no avail. One nice big dent with red marks from Lyn's car onto a silvery-white car, served on my head.
So I wrote a note with my name and number on it, and we went home. What else could I do? Mum said that she and Dad would pay it out of the home loan and I'd have to pay them back. I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard that, because I'm a disabled pensioner, and rustling up the amount of cash that dent is probably going to cost isn't something I could do in less than a month (and probably closer to two). But paying my parents back in installments, that is something I can do. One thing that I have to be very thankful for is that I have wonderful parents. Still, I really really wish it hadn't happened. I had planned out the use of my money to next February, so I'd be able to pay for my classes without a problem. This, however, throws a gigantic spanner in the works and will be somewhat problematic to deal with. Oh well.
So, yeah. I really hope everyone else has had a better time in the past 24 hours than I have.
First we shall address yesterday lunchtime and The Case of the Baby Rainbow Lorikeet.
So, we had a baby rainbow lorikeet on our front lawn yesterday. It was eating the bread we threw out with a desperation that suggested it needed help. Mum mentioned that she would bring it in if she could, but she couldn't bend down to pick it up (with her two bad knees). Seconds later, she turns around to find that Lyn had brought the baby bird in. (Remember Lyn? The lady who moved in with us temporarily last November and was supposed to be gone in 6-8 weeks? Yeah, she's still here.)
Anyway, so there's this baby bird in the house. Mum doesn't have a towel or a box or anything on hand to hold it, so she sends me upstairs to grab an old towel - and then one of our cats saunters into the room. And of course it had to be Miko. Now, Miko LOVES birds the same way Sylvester LOVES Tweety. She watches them out on the front lawn like a hawk, and goes nuts if they dare come anywhere near the front door. So when she saw the bird inside, she clearly thought all her birthdays and Christmases had come at once. And thus the chase was on.
After a short but hectic chase, Miko was shooed upstairs and the bird was wrapped in a towel and placed in a box when we took it down to a friend of ours who knows a lot about birds and runs a cafe. She confirmed that it was indeed a baby, then promptly prevailed upon us to stay for a free cuppa and lunch.
Now, I'm not normally the sort of person to turn down a free coffee, but I was dressed in my shabbiest, hang-around-the-house clothes and no bra, and I felt really uncomfortable eating out anywhere under those circumstances. It had been my understanding that we'd just drop the bird off and return home. But I managed a coffee and (under persuasion) a couple of slices of gluten-free fruit loaf. I couldn't eat it all, and I didn't quite understand why - I just knew that I felt off and wanted to go home.
The explanation for why I felt off came later that night at an informal women's meeting at church - I threw up. Twice. It seemed I'd finally fallen prey to the bug which had plagued Mum so much earlier in the week. Luckily though, that seemed to clear it al out, because after that I was okay and was even able to eat a late dinner (albeit a light one).
And then there was today, and the cruel wind of fate bit me in the arse again...
It was Street Min, as usual, and after packing up, we placed our things in the car. Lyn gave me the keys and told me to wait in the car while she went to the bathroom. I did so, and waited, but the sun was beating down fiercely and I opened the door a touch to get some cooler air circulating.
Big BIG mistake. Apparently the wind had picked up quite a lot while I had been sitting in the car, and it tore the door out of my hand and swung out towards the car parked next to us. I grabbed for it, but to no avail. One nice big dent with red marks from Lyn's car onto a silvery-white car, served on my head.
So I wrote a note with my name and number on it, and we went home. What else could I do? Mum said that she and Dad would pay it out of the home loan and I'd have to pay them back. I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard that, because I'm a disabled pensioner, and rustling up the amount of cash that dent is probably going to cost isn't something I could do in less than a month (and probably closer to two). But paying my parents back in installments, that is something I can do. One thing that I have to be very thankful for is that I have wonderful parents. Still, I really really wish it hadn't happened. I had planned out the use of my money to next February, so I'd be able to pay for my classes without a problem. This, however, throws a gigantic spanner in the works and will be somewhat problematic to deal with. Oh well.
So, yeah. I really hope everyone else has had a better time in the past 24 hours than I have.