best intentions and some of the activities

despite my best intentions almost a month has passed, work continues to pick up - this week I continue to leave home at 5:45am, but I'm now having breakfast at work while I check my day and my e-mails - it stops the gnawing hunger by lunch time, Monday I saw three clients as booked and one who just arrived as life was tough right now, I then headed off to Goodna (just this side of Ipswich) where I did the last session of a six week program at the Goodna Special School. I've loved working round self-protective behaviours with these young women. It's meant I've had to be very adaptive and very basic in concept development so I devised a game - rather like musical chairs - to explain their "Magic Bubble" of personal space and taught the "from my head to my toes I say what goes" routine. These girls are taught compliance all their lives so this is hard for them to get. We also did lots of activities around different types of relationships - when they struggle to differentiate between an acquaintance ( someone I just know) and family, you can imagine how hard it was to make progress with the difference between a boy who's a friend and a boyfriend and what it's ok to say or do with each. I was so proud of them for gaining some understanding between a hug and a cuddle and a kiss on the cheek and one on the mouth.
My work varies so much: the week before I did a school visit to Cleveland District State School to do a workshop with the about to turn 18 and have to leave the safety of the school system, Special Edu students. We again covered the boy as a friend and boyfriend concepts but also looked at the difference between sex and sexuality! These concepts are difficult for your average kid. But they got it - we made a collage and it clearly showed they understood the differences even though they couldn't be verbalised.
Tuesday was client work, again some unplanned crisis intervention. These women have such strengths to deal with all the difficulties in their lives and sometimes they fall down and make the best choices they can to deal with the pain - at least they reach out to us. So my work day was 7:30am to 5:45pm. Then I drove home. The Tuesday before my home journey took over 5 hours
with road works on the East-West arterial, a car ran into the back of a truck and the tray went into the windscreen on the Gateway and everything just gridlocked and then another accident at Logan had only two lanes (feeding from 4) and then again at Helensvale! I wondered if I was ever going to get home or running out of fuel was an option.
Thursday I was at the Family Law Court with a client then went back to Wooloowin for a 5pm meeting with management - another long day. Yesterday was also long but more fun, we had a Christmas card making workshop that had been requested by the women, one in particular, who really struggles with schizophrenia as well as a mental disability and all the health problems that seem to go with that- did most of the shopping for bits and pieces and helped encourage the others to partisipate. You can't imagine what a huge step that is for her. Then at 4pm I was at QUT at Kelvin Grove to support the Nutrition students who came and did a six week cooking program at the house. Another long day- then throw in calling in to see Mum to just see how she is going, medication is taken and that she knows what she needs to do the next day and what that might involve and then I sleep!

I uploaded these photos ages ago - they are from our Murray trip - we visited a museum that is privately run by a woman who lives well out of Mannum , is 86 years old and now lives alone and opens her collection for the tour- there was the most amazing and facinating examples of just about everything you can imagine. Including a cast iron cot the same as the one I had for Dan - cost me $10 at a second hand shop probably close to 40 years ago. I loved the wooden high chairs.




We also spent a morning at the Ngaut Ngaut Aboriginal conservation site. This is run by the women, the men don't want to be involved, except for one and he comes with his mother, his wife, his sister and his aunt, I doubt the man has much choice but he was very knowledgeable and happy to share his information. There is lots of graffiti in the soft sandstone cliffs along with the traditional carvings - I liked that they accecpt this and incorporate it into their lives. For example the dots represent days to travel and they say that the white fella got it right- it is about 6 days walk to the nearest MacDonalds. Sadly there are chunks of cliff face missing where they have been stolen. I bought a pair of ear-rings made of Ecidna quills - and a necklace of juniper berries - they were asking $10 each but as this is their only income from the tours I paid a whole lot more.

Mum loved these wonderful bright bottle brushes which we first noticed in Glenelg. Here they were planted as a hedge on the Yabbie and almond farm.

This is the Mypolonga State School, the most amazing little school. We were there during school holidays but there were kids and teachers to greet us as we arrived - volunteers. When we first arrived on the boat there was a gift in our cabin from the students at this school of chocolate dipped dried apricots. This is a big apricot growing area and the kids mostly live on the orchards so know about and help with the air drying of the fruit. Then their school has a registered business to sell the dried fruit and other local produce and crafts. Mostly these are done by the children, and their whole curriculum is based round running this business. The kids are confident and knowledgable, they were happy and proud to show us around and encourage us to spend.

We did so much but the most amazing for me was the wombat hunt. On the Tuesday night we went on a wombat hunt in a full size bus with a spot light on the top - I was sceptical - no self respecting wombat was going to get surprised by that. The driver told us that they usually see one or two and that his recond was 22 in one night. We were to be out for about an hour and a half.

We saw 51! Yay - wombats wandering down the road, ducking under fences, and just waddleing along. it seems so long ago now.

the journey continues

On our first night on the boat we moored at Sunnyside. Early the next morning I got up and went for a walk.

This photo was taken from the bank looking back down the river. In these reeds were many tiny bright blue headed wrens and their mates - it never seems fair that the males get all the good looks. I struggled to get a photo but there are wrens in those reeds.

Birds were a feature right along the Murray River, the captain told us there are over 90 species- we saw many during the trip.

And of course there were Pelicans!

Amazingly there were Sulphur Crested Cockatoos nesting in holes in the cliffs. Not just a few but many many cockatoos.

The river passes along huge sandstone cliffs that somehow manage to change from one side of the river to the other. The other bank is often lined with Weeping Willows that were planted in the 1920's ( not sure of my facts here) to define the levy banks as the river was often wide mud flats.

The ecology of the river has altered drastically with the introduction of European Carp. These fish have no natural preditors. The carp are sucking fish so suck up the river reeds pulling them out of the mud, this decreases the oxygen in the water and removes feed and shelter for other fish. Our native fish apparently are biters and chew off the reeds but leave the roots intact in the soil.

This carp was about 2ft6 inches long - no idea what that might be in metres but a bit under one I think. When carp are caught they can't be returned to the river even if they are killed and this one survived over night in the crate with no water. The cook put it on the bbq in case we wanted to taste it - but it smelt awful and looked pulpy and I'll usually try anything different. When it was cut open they discovered about1,4000 eggs so the crew was very happy to dispose of it. Several passengers tried their hand at fishing but these fish are hard to catch, again because they suck, and it's hard to get them to take a hook.