Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist)

Welcome to a miserable, cold and wet Saturday. The kind of day that all you want to do is curl up in front of a fire (if you had one) with a good book and a dog or two at your feet. That however is not my lot. Instead we have walked twice in the rain (once in the morning and again in the afternoon), driven to pick up my brother from the car hire he was returning then rushing to get to the Justice of the peace for signatures to be witnessed only to find we didn’t have all the paperwork she wanted so we had to rush home to collect that and return in less than 20minutes or she would have left her post until Tuesday. We managed it. I don’t understand beaurocracy. All we wanted was to have our signature witnessed and we took proof of who we were. What she required was proof that we had the right to sign the form we were signing. Surely that is the task of where the paperwork next travels. Anyway, I am not going to whinge as it is done. But come in and we’ll talk over coffee.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you that my brother, travelling with his kids, from Switzerland spent most of the week at Fraser Island. It is the largest sand island in the world and for many reasons that you can read about here is a fascinating place to visit. The kid’s had a wonderful time having their first experience of what was to them primitive camping and came up close to much our Australian animals including to their delight a Dingo. They got bogged on the sand roads, travelled the sand highway and generally had a great time. They would have been away longer as they were then going to a coral island in the Great Barrier Reef but the poor weather saw their boat transport cancelled so they came back here. Ghostbusters was a good way to spend the afternoon where they would otherwise have been snorkelling.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you that my heart is heavy over the truck massacre in Nice. Words cannot express the sadness I feel for those affected. My nine year old nephew was devastated. He had walked that street only recently and recognised the buildings shown on our news broadcasts recently. I don’t know whether this is the first time he has felt it but he realised that for timing this could have been him. This I think must be a hard lesson for little kids and so many of the world’s kids must be in this position. Gone is the childhood I had. We didn’t have TV and there wasn’t 24 hour news broadcasts. We were encouraged to read the papers as we got older but they didn’t have the impact that constant bombardment of these horrible events must have. Today it must take away what childhood remains. Innocence is lost for a whole generation and my heart goes out to them also and I pray for peace and acceptance of each other sooner rather than later.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you that I have been a poor blogger this week. As I said last coffee share we are on the move and there is much to be done. I have worked hard all week and have made big inroads. Being a hoarder is difficult at times like this and luckily, as we move often, the amount of stuff to discard cannot get too catastrophic.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you that I’m hoping to go with the entire family to see the New Zealand film  “Hunt for the Wilderpeople”. It is supposed to be a genre defying film but full of wit and lines open for deep thought. I’m looking forward to it.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you that I finished Germaine Greer’s “White Beech.” I don’t know that I would be game to recommend it as in parts it was very academic going into minute detail about botanical terms. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy it although I do admit to skimming through some of these sections. There is no doubt that she can write and I wonder though, whether this book is bringing together her field journal, and filling in with history and only a very small amount of personal information. If you like rainforests you’d probably like this.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you that is about all for me this week. No hold on. Muffin was attacked at training class. Again, my class joined the advanced class in a tunnel exercise where dogs and owners formed a tunnel on either side. The dog then stayed at one end and the owner went to the other end and called her dog. Muffin and I were invited to have a go. Muffin to my great delight did it perfectly. She sat watching whilst I went almost out of sight. I raised my hands above my head and called “Muffin come.” Like a rocket she came down that tunnel and when she had almost reached me three advanced dogs broke rank and pounced on her. The growling was ferocious. Muffin immediately lay on her back with all fours up in the air. “Don’t worry she won’t bite. It’s just a lot of noise.” said one owner. I hoped Muffin understood that and won’t be traumatised for life over this. Unlike Shiloh who had an altercation in the park she was unharmed.

Muffin’s friend Shiloh (7 months) after altercation in the park

If we were having coffee I’d tell you that it is your turn to tell me about your week. I’m looking forward to hearing what you’ve been up to, what books you’ve read and films you’ve seen. How is your weather? I certainly hope it is better than ours. Thanks to Diana for hosting our coffee mornings. To visit others for coffee