Well insured

Today I was once again reminded how much my health insurance means to me. My mum is in hospital. She doesn’t have private health insurance.

To be fair when I took her in to the emergency department on Friday I couldn’t have asked for more. They took her 81 years and her bad asthma symptoms very seriously. A Social Worker who sees everyone in emergency over the age of 61 had a chat with me and told me about more support services available to her. She was admitted and is being looked after.

But she shared her room with another elderly woman who is in hospital because her granddaughter threw a heavy book at her as she wouldn’t give her money for drugs. And the blow on her hip has caused repercussions to her health that I don’t think she could ever have anticipated. This woman is also raising her granddaughter’s child.

While recovering from this injury her son, who is an alcoholic, has been visiting her demanding money from her. He got some yesterday, came back for more last night and then more again today. This after the lady asked the medical staff to not let her son out of the psych ward knowing full well he’d turn up at her bedside demanding more money.

When I visited my mum the lady was being moved to a different room so her son couldn’t find her so easily and she could have some peace.

I started thinking – how did this family become so dysfunctional? And not just one child but generations, and what future does the great grandchild have?

I understand addiction and the hold it can have on a person. From my experience, aside from the trauma that can be involved, it robs that person and their family of choice. Choices that involve where you live, who you live with and so on.

Perhaps this family didn’t have a someone to make their life normal, to give them other options & choices and it would seem that through the generations their chances are getting thinner.

I hope the lady gets some rest and to be brutally selfish, I hope the son doesn’t return to look for her because I hate to think of my mum being in a place where she should be safe and feeling scared.

That’s why I’ll always have private health insurance – at least I’ll have choice.

Real Life Wednesday

Hypothetically speaking….

What might happen when a child gets an imitation brand birthday gift that’s not as good as the real thing?  Normally the mother might say nothing and encourage her kids to see the good in what they got (after all the kids get invited to so many parties and the mother understands that it can get expensive).

What happens then when the imitation brand gift is from someone who brags about their several investment properties, and clever tax accountants who ground her husband’s very substantial income down so low she gets the Child Care Benefit?

It’s just possible that when putting this gift together the mother remembers this and could be inclined to mutter about the rubbish instructions, the poor design, the fact that the pieces won’t stay together and in some instances fly off all by themselves.  She might even be heard to call it cheap.

What happens when the recipient of this gift is at another child’s birthday party and spots the very same present given to this birthday boy?

He might be heard to tell the giver of the present “You shouldn’t buy that stuff, it’s cheap and doesn’t stay together”.

His mother might be heard to say his name sharply and then shake her head at him and later on explain why he shouldn’t say those words and instead focus on the things he really like about that gift.

Hypothetically speaking of course.

I’m linking up with Kate from Picklebums for Real Life Wednesday.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Making a community

There was a horrid ad on the radio tonight.  Someone pretending to be an old woman, bemoaning ‘today’ and fondly remembering the past.  When you could leave your back door unlocked, when you knew your neighbours – blah blah.  

We moved to our suburb in the year Squidge turned two.  We didn’t really know anyone.  We nodded at our neighbours, said hello but had no real connections in the area.  While the suburb isn’t a new one, it’s taken a while for it to take off and it’s only in the last few years that we have a little shopping centre that we can walk to.  Before that, everyone drove out of the suburb to get what they needed, even just if it was milk or to post a letter.

I met a lovely lady at the park one day – both pregnant with our second child.  We chatted, found out we lived near to each other and later on that day dropped my phone number in to her house.  She’s moved out of the suburb but we’re still friends.  Our boys started kindy together, our second babies born 2 months apart.  Our children still go to the same school.

It’s been through school that we’ve made most of our connections.  First with Squidge’s class.  The connections we made in kindy are still strong now which is good – for us and the kids.  As Squidge progressed through school his friends often resulted in friends for us in their parents.  And now Bruce.  It didn’t really happen in kindy like it did with Squidge, but in pre-primary I’ve again found a lovely group of people to connect with and forge bonds that I think will last a long time.

We’ve grown close to some of our neighbours – again the bond being our children, their strong desire to play with their peers ensuring the parents connect (the occasional Friday evening drinks on the front lawn don’t hurt either!).

I love that I have friendships which mean I can call on them or they me to collect kids after school because something’s cropped up.  I love that our children can, to some degree, wander freely between houses on our street and we know they are safe, having fun and are well fed (always well fed).

I really enjoy our little community that we’ve found ourselves in and have built around us and I appreciate that my boys, through making friends, have in turn made friends for us too.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It’s been HOW long?

There are so many weeks when I get to the end of them and think, it can’t be Monday already?

The same can be said for the past 21 years since I left high school.  On the weekend, some of the class of ’91 crashed a reunion that the class of ’92 were having.  Fortunately one of the ’91 guys had the good sense to marry a lovely and very organised ’92 girl and it turns out that ’92 crew are entirely more able to organise a piss up in a brewery (or a  pub as the case might be) than we are.

I regularly keep in touch with 2 of the people from my year that were there and via the wonders of Facebook have a fair idea of what some of the others had been up to.

In the end, the slightly awkward, so what have you been doing preamble could be summarised as – kids? work? what do you do?  Of course today, the day after the reunion, I have my answer.  Married to a lovely man for 12 years, 2 kids, a dog and 2 chooks, work part-time. Yesterday though it was hard to summarise the last 21 years.

Just where has it gone?  Uni –> job 1 as a receptionist for a small oil & gas company –> job 2 for a uni –> job 3 for a different uni.  Been there ever since in different capacities.  Been with the same lovely fella since 1994.  Built a home & life with him.  2 beautiful babies.  Time just FLIES.

I guess the people who I’ve really kept in touch with are the ones I was most connected with, I still count several of my high school girl friends as my closest friends who can pick-up where we left off, regardless of whether it has been a week or 12 months since we last saw each other, but it was great seeing the others.  Our school was a small one in a small country town and it’s wonderful to know that they’ve built their lives in their ways and we can still re-connect after all these years.  But damn it’s hard trying to condense 21 years into a few words!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Things I Know about Boys – Chalk and Cheese

I have two boys, Squidge and Bruce.  I read Mrs Woog’s recent post – Genetically Non-Gifted which got me thinking about my own two boys and how different they are in personality.

By coincidence they were playing a ‘board’ game that day.  It was an A3 piece of paper with a game about recycling that Squidge brought home from school following an ‘incursion’*  by some people from the Henderson Waste Recovery Park.  Re-enforcing their message of re-use, they didn’t provide counters or a die with which to play the game – we recycled the bits from our Wiggles Snakes and Ladders game.

So Anthony and Murray were being pushed around the board.  At a stage in the game the boys had a choice.  Take the short – but risky – cut, or go the long – but safe – way round.

Bruce took the short cut.  It paid off for him first time and he won so he persisted.  Squidge, each and every time went the safe path.  Squidge won more than Bruce but that didn’t stop Bruce.

And that folks, in essence you have it – their personalities personified by a board game.

Are your kids chalk and cheese?

 

* one of my most HATED words is incursion.  Had the people who chose to use this word in this way bothered to look it up in a dictionary?  A hostile entrance into a territory.  I feel uneasy every time I’m asked for permission for a child to participate in an incursion.  Just what am I signing them up for?

Things I Know About Boys – Illnesses

This post should really be called Things I Know now that I’m a Parent as I’m sure that these equally apply to girls as to boys.

I have been surprised in lots of ways since becoming a parent.  Who knew that little baby boys could wee so much, so often and with such force as you change their nappy?

However, it would have to be ‘conditions’ that kids end up with that have been most surprising.  I remember as a child having mumps (should have listened when my Mum told me not to go and talk to my friend waiting in the car who had them), measles and chicken pox (that was a bad one – I went in to hospital with chicken pox).

Sure, my boys have had colds, flu, gastro (where DB has shown his true colours – didn’t ever have him pegged as a vomit catcher but he’s very good at it – doesn’t dry reach at all).  But it’s the other stuff that people don’t tell you about.

Squidge has been on the receiving end of a general anaesthetic 3 times, Bruce once. I’ve sat with them as they went under, struggling, jerking as if in a bad dream, and coming out of it crying or just hungry and grumpy.

It wasn’t until Bruce was born that I understood why when a baby, even only slightly premmie, has trouble breathing it’s not so much that they could die from a lack of oxygen. Instead the chances are greater that they’ll die of exhaustion as their little bodies work so hard to get sufficient oxygen.

Via Squidge I’ve come to learn not to trust asthma.  Sleeping in a chair next to his bed in the observation ward at our children’s hospital, he was ok and then suddenly he wasn’t and was being rushed to a resuscitation bay as a precaution.  I’ve learnt that a cocktail of ventolin, adrenaline, oxygen and steroids can pick them right up again and just about have them climbing the walls when all you want to do is cry and sleep.

I didn’t know about croup.  The first time Squidge barked when he coughed scared us to death and we rushed him to hospital.  We were taught croup first aid (sitting in a bathroom made steamy by the shower on hot and full) and as he kept getting it we were prescribed a steroid to give him at home.  I didn’t hesitate when I had to call 000 because he was just so much worse one time even after the steroid and I didn’t hesitate two more times after that.

I didn’t know about hand, foot and mouth.  When DB rang to tell me daycare had sent Squidge home with it I was speechless.  He’s not a sheep I thought.  And by then I was at the end of my tether having taken more sick leave in a few months back at work than I ever had in a few years of employment (and I only worked part-time).

Then there were school sores (impetigo) and streptococcal infections in places I didn’t even know you could get them (until I’d watched Everybody Loves Raymond I’d never heard of strep throat let alone strep other bits).

Throw in constant ear infections for Bruce in his first 18 months of life, debates with a GP about how many doses of antibiotics is too many for a baby not yet 12 months old (I still say 8 is too many) and the feeling that we alone are subsidising our pharmacist’s end of year Christmas function and this parenting lark has been a steep learning curve.

I’m sure there’s more to come.

Images courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It’s all about moi

Recently I got an email from our local shopping centre inviting me to enter a competition to win some time with a personal stylist.

So I did and I did.  Last Monday saw me head off for the appointment.  I was very nervous.  What do you wear to an appointment with a personal stylist?  Trackies and ugh-boots so they have a ‘blank canvas’ to work with?  The green cardigan I bought from Colarado 12 years ago that I still wear today?

Hmmm – what to wear?

Perhaps not.  I went for the layer cake look.  Leggings, top, tunic and cardigan over the tunic.  Essentially I was black, beige and various shades of grey.

The first 30 – 40 minutes were spent on a bit of a sales pitch – the other services they provide and then down to what kind of style personality was I?  I wasn’t aware my style had a personality but it turns out I’m Classic with a sub-style of Natural.  So there.

We also discussed which parts of my body I liked and dis-liked.  The dis-like column was fairly long but Ashleigh (my personal stylist – cue nervous laugh from me) didn’t seem phased.

Ashleigh then took me through what fashion basics I should have in my wardrobe.  Am I stuck in a black and white rut?  Am I ever.  I defended this by saying it was economical.  All my stuff would always go together.  Ashleigh suggested I branch out and try some other colours with black.  Hmmm.  That seemed rather radical.

We put together a shopping list.  DB would have had a whole litter of kittens had he seen THAT list.  A suit, the classic white shirt, a couple of different coloured shirts, black skirt – that was just the ‘for work’ list.  On the recreational list were 2 long cardigans, plain tops, a trench coat and a dress.

Armed with the shopping list we hit the shops.  We don’t have many boutiques at our local.  We don’t have any big ones like Myer or DJs.  That was probably a good thing.  The boutiques we do have are, hmmm, for the budget conscious.

In the first shop, Crossroads, I found a long cardigan that fit nicely (not black, not frumpy – instantly a winner), a bright coloured top to go with it and a black skirt for work.  Even better they had a great deal where the cardigan was full price but the other two items were 50% off.

It was in Crossroads that another customer in the store asked Ashleigh if they had an item in her size.  ”Oh, I don’t work here, I’m this lady’s personal stylist”.  I giggled like a little girl.

Then we hit Rockmans and I walked out with a suit for work, a couple of tops (not black!) and a chunky necklace that Ashleigh had used to demonstrate how it drew the eye away from the bits we don’t want people to notice (the jiggly bits in the middle).

Crossroads and Rockmans are two shops that I normally walk in to and then out of fairly quickly, I struggle to sort the wheat from the chaff.  I was pleasantly surprised to find more than one thing in them both that I liked and the time with Ashleigh has helped me to narrow down what to look for.

At the end of the 2 hours, I’d had fun.  That shopping adventure was about no-one else but me.  DB almost had one or two kittens about what I bought home but I can justify it.  I won’t need to buy winter clothes for work for years (because I’m a Classic and the basics just don’t go out of fashion); I’ve learnt how to use some of the stuff I already have in my wardrobe more efficiently – putting together colours I wouldn’t have tried before; and it’s my birthday in a couple of months and I’ve simply saved him of going to the trouble of finding me something I’d like.

If you’re interested, the stylist was from shopnfriends and the shopping centre with the reasonably priced stores was Gateways which is south of the river in Perth.

Disclosure:  I wasn’t paid or in anyway provided with incentives to write this post.  All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.

Free images from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Complete Disneyland Experience – the Theme Park

Days 1 and 2 in Hong Kong were, to paraphrase Jan Brady, “Disney, Disney, Disney!”.

I’ve already written about the journey there, and our accommodation in which the Disney brand was constantly re-inforced.  The theme park was no different.

The theme park itself contains different themes.  It certainly needs at least a 2 day pass and even then we didn’t conquer it all.  Fantasyland for example.  Apart from a great 4D show (think 3D with water, smells of food, and wind wooshing around) – Mickey’s Philharmagic and a turn on the Cinderella Carousel the rest of it passed us by.  While I enjoyed the Carousel I’m not sure that it was worth people elbowing us out of the way to get on.  Firstly, the park designers have designed a queue system that will only let the right number of people who can fit on the carousel through, therefore you’re not going to miss out.  Secondly – they are pretend horses held on by poles to a piece of metal that goes around in a circle.  It’s not something from Mary Poppins – these horses aren’t about to come to life and prance around the theme park.  Perspective people!

Toy Story Land was brilliant.  The attention to detail was exquisite.  Like the fences made out of K-Nex.  At last an opportunity to be around K-Nex and not stand on it!

Rex and K-Nex

Both days we did the Slinky Dog Spin ride.  Great ride, long queue – but hey – if you’re going to a theme park, expect to line up and build up your repertoire of games because I Spy wears thin after the 8th queue.

Slinky Dog Spin

DB, who is much braver than me, went on the RC Racer ride.  Squidge and Bruce met some ‘toy soldiers’.  For a family who is as big a fan as us of Toy Story it was a blast but in all honesty there could have been a couple more rides or attractions.

Toy Soldiers

Toy Story Land is the newest section of the park.  However, in what looks like one of the original parts, is Tomorrowland.  It’s in this part that we found Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters – a great fun ride that is tucked away.  We did it a few times over the course of our visit and never had to wait.  It was a lot of fun – you get to blast Zurg!.  Also here was Space Mountain which DB tried out on his own.  But we all joined a huge queue to watch the very clever Stitch Encounter – an interactive show which re-ignited our interest in this Disney character.  And finally in Tomorrowland we went on the Orbitron and made the mistake of letting the kids control how fast our ‘ship’ went up and down while the ride spun around.  Their personalities shined through as Squidge was super cautious and Bruce didn’t hesitate to make us all feel ill.

Adventureland included a fantastic boat ride with wonderfully realistic animatronic jungle animals and real fire and water – so watch out!

Adventureland

We didn’t see the Lion King show  but did get to see some of the characters in the Main Street USA Flights of Fantasy Parade.  I’m not usually one for parades but this was pretty cool and left us with the Mickey Mouse ear worm for the rest of the day.

For all that we did we didn’t do it all.  I would go back again, for sure.

The complete Disney experience – Hollywood Hotel

Around this time last year, DB headed to the US with some mates to celebrate one of the group’s 40th birthday.  In one day they conquered Disneyland and California Adventure.

DB wanted to share this experience with his boys.  Late last year one of the newspaper travel supplements reviewed the new Toy Story Land at Disneyland Hong Kong.  In an act of spontaneity rarely seen in our house, we decided we would go as early as possible this year.  And started saving.

We wanted to go to Disneyland Park for 2 days.  Where should we stay?

Someone suggested Breakfast with the Stars where Disney characters visit while you’re eating at one of the Disney hotels.  The airport is on Lantau Island – the same island as Disneyland.  The hotels were in close proximity to Disneyland.  It was decided.  We’d stay for at least 3 nights at Disneyland.

In the end we decided to stay the whole 6 nights there.  In part because it was cheaper than elsewhere.  In part because I could think of nothing worse than packing everything up after 3 nights to move to another island for 3 nights to then turn around and get back to Lantau Island for our departure.

We stayed at the Hollywood Hotel.  It’s the cheaper, more family friendly option of the two Disney hotels.  From the moment we walked in to the hotel we were immersed in Disney.  As DB describes in his blog post “..it was a magical place of unreality”.

Hollywood Hotel, Hong Kong

Staying there really did make the experience feel special.  The iconic (as Squidge became very fond of saying) image of Disney – Mickey’s head – was everywhere.

The Room

We stayed in one room that had double beds.  They were clean, comfortable and spacious enough given we were always out and about and only really in the room when it was time to sleep (you can see good photos via TripAdvisor).  We got complimentary Disney slippers that we’ve brought home, Mickey themed shampoo & shower gel, and Disney cartoon cups for our toiletries with, you guessed it, Mickey tops.  Oddly we had to request sheets.  Who in their right mind would sleep in Hong Kong under a doona?

The main criticism we have of the room is that the tv, while playing kids (Disney) shows around the clock didn’t have a dedicated movie channel for the adults (not THAT kind of adult movie).  Given that our kids were in bed and asleep by 8:00pm there wasn’t a whole lot for us to watch, nor did the tv include a DVD player – so take your own.

The Facilities

Free wireless internet access was available in the lobby and restaurants.  It was great – we used it to Skype phone home (we went with credit of $9.00 and came home having only spent around $2.00 for 10 minutes of calls to Australia).

The grounds are beautiful.  Lots of room for the kids to run, adults to stroll.  There’s a playground – our 8-year-old was probably getting too big for it (but that didn’t stop him!).  The pool was lovely.  People on TripAdvisor had complained about the lifeguards, I didn’t find them rude – just cautious.  The kids made really good use of the slide.

Pool at the Hollywood Hotel, Hong Kong

There was, no surprise, a toy shop.  I think normally there are two, the larger one used for kids activities.  At the time we were there it had been closed for refurbishment.

There is a free shuttle bus that runs at very very regular intervals throughout the day.  It does a circuit route between the two hotels and the theme park.  I don’t think we ever waited more than a couple of minutes for a bus.  It was an extremely good service.

Shuttle Bus, Hollywood Hotel, Hong Kong

Food

At the time we were there one of the restaurants, The Sunset Terrace, was closed.  However there remained 3 options for food in the Hollywood Hotel.  Chef Mickey was the buffet style restaurant (open all day); Studio Lounge was a bar – come informal cafe and The Hollywood Diner was available in lieu of room service.

We ate at Chef Mickey twice – once for breakfast and once for dinner.  The food was great (highly recommend the Bircher muesli, while the kids no doubt would recommend the Mickey shaped waffles).  For breakfast it was around $80 for the 4 of us, dinner set us back $130.

The Studio Lounge was great for a casual dinner and apart from the one meal at Chef Mickey we ate here every night.  At 6:30pm a screen would descend behind the bar and a Disney movie would play for the kids to watch.  There is a dedicated kids menu – good value for around $11 for a 3 course meal but the choices are limited after one or two visits. Our kids had that one night, pizza another, and then moved on to the adult options.  Depending on our choices (and if they included a glass of wine or not!) dinner there set us back around $70 – $80 for the 4 of us.

Most mornings we had breakfast at The Hollywood Diner.  We could choose from a cooked Western or Asian breakfast but didn’t bother.  Each morning it was the same.  A bowl of fruit to share, yoghurt, corn flakes, milk and a couple of croissants.  $32 for breakfast for the 4 of us was pretty good value.  Had we bought supplies at Tung Chung which was a short train ride away, breakfast could have been a bit cheaper.

There was nothing however, stopping us as guests of the Hollywood Hotel, from eating at the Disneyland Hotel.  Our second morning we walked to the other hotel for Breakfast with the Stars in The Enchanted Garden.  It was great fun.  The food was similar to that of  Chef Mickey but it was a bit more expensive – $120 – but we did get to have photos with Mickey, Pluto, Goofy & Daisy – woot!  It did feel enchanted – even for the adults.

Breakfast with Mickey

In terms of accessing other attractions in Hong Kong from Lantau Island, it was a bit protracted – requiring at least 1 bus and 2 or 3 trains.  Having said that, the transport system is amazing and we made very good use of the Octopus Cards to tag on and off the MTR (thanks to my friend Anne who had been recently and gave them to us).

The Disneyland Train Station is at the entrance to the theme park and once again, the brand Disney is constantly, but rather delightfully, reinforced.

Interior of the Disneyland Train

We didn’t end up getting to see some Hong Kong attractions such as Victoria Peak and the famous Ladies’ Market – there was a limit to how much walking and sightseeing we could fit in given our distance from some of it.  But in the end that wasn’t why we went to Hong Kong.  It was to do Disney – and that we did.

Wordless Wednesday – 28 March 2012