Mother’s Day has always been a funny day of the year for me.  My second Mother’s Day was spent, hugely pregnant with my son, walking around a car show in the hope that it would bring on labor.  He did manage to arrive 48 hours later.  Of course that means every Mother’s Day it is also the weekend of his birthday and every seven years I have to share the day with him.  OK, that shouldn’t be a problem, but I feel just a tiny bit cheated. A week earlier or later and I could have it all to myself.  And then of course I slap myself and remember that if it wasn’t for him and his sister, I couldn’t celebrate the day at all. 

When I was small and still living in Holland my birthday was two days after St Nicholas’ Feastday early in December and traditionally this was when the Dutch gave presents, not on Christmas Day.  I always got lovely presents, but only once a year.  A kid doens’t look a quality but quantity.  So no special birthday.  Arrival in Australia meant that I could actually have a birthday all to myself and have a party that was mine.  Bonus!

So this Mother’s Day I had had to share it with another mother.  Now she has one delightful toddler at two years and three months, and eight month old twins.  So sharing Mother’s Day took on a whole new meaning.  And so did the idea of sharing birthdays. 

OK, I admit that as an only child sharing was something I had to learn, sharing gracefully has taken me much, much longer to learn but I think I’ve finally got the hang of it.  Twins really don’t get a choice, and I suspect it really depends on their parents as to how special to make it for each child.  I suspect this Mum and her delightful husband will make a huge effort.  Even tired as they are they make each of their children feel special.

And gave this only child learn a lesson in selflessness. 

So I had a great Mother’s Day this year. I got a lovely chocolate rose from hubby along with breakfast in bed,  my son SMS’s me first thing in the morning, I had a delightful chat with daughter after lunch and I got to share it with a truly super Mum and Dad and their delightful kids. 

What more could anyone want!

I haven’t died, I’m not in an insane asylum (I think….).  But the world has gone crazy at work.  That means the thought of spending some quality time thinking about writing, the world, the universe and everything when I get home is the last thing on my mind.

I love IT in most of it’s forms but when it comes to infrastructure and loading stuff onto different systems it’s a nightmare (and I just can’t wake up right now). It is not anyone’s fault.  Tt’s more like each organisation’s infrastructure grows like a child, in fits and starts, finding new stuff to add into their systems from all over the place.  You end up with no idea how it will turn out, no instruction book and the people who are its parents (the IT guys), seem to run it by the seat of their pants.  Just like any parent really.

So my short rant and the few of you who do me the honour of reading my blog will have to wait a while until something interesting happens here.

By the way, in terms of writing stuff and cool horror stories etc, visit Ian McHugh.  It’s pretty neat.

Easter has come and gone for 2012.  In the past I used to find Easter a time for thought about life, death and resurrection.  It has been some years since I last joined in the religious festivities of this time of year.  My faith has been replaced by a more scientific view of the universe. 

I have friends who still have a solid faith.  Many celebrate Easter in the Catholic tradition and some in the Jewish tradition of Passover.  It is wonderful to hold with such deep traditions and maintain belief despite all that is in the world to argue against it.

I have been very lucky to have had a wonderful Easter.  Despite the fact that a migrane interrupted the Friday festivities, it was a brilliant weekend with my whole family around me.  Add to that perfect weather, warm enough for a swim each day, it couldn’t have been more pleasant. 

Unfortunately, way too short.  My health has made it time to really consider never ever going back to work again. 

Oh the money is nice, and my current job is fantastic as jobs go.  The people here are warm and sharing, how many places and jobs can you say that about.  The work itself it interesting and overall it’s a 9 out of 10 workplace.  The problem is the keyboard.  Yep, the very same instrument of torture I’m writing this on.

I’ve been a typist since 1967.  The old typewriters, the clunkers I used to call them, required quite a bit of pressure to get the key to hit the paper.  You sat on bad chairs with absolutely no ergonomic saving graces, you pounded the things, reached around for paper, thunked the return handle when you got to the end of a line, stood up and moved around.  You could only type so fast because it was a mechanical thing that had built-in limitations.

Then along came the electronic keyboard.  I have nible fingers, play (or used to) a guitar and so I took to the thing like a duck to water.  Flying along I can get about 90 to 100 words a minute.   I do numbers and don’t have to think about all the extra’s like & and * and ) etc.  Have them down pat . But after all these years hunched over the dratted thing my neck is complaining….. loudly.  Ouch! it says whenever I spend more than 20 minutes typing away.

Now when you think that as an IT project manager I spend a lot of time doing up documents, playing with programs and doing budgets, then I am a writer and love to make up stories, I do these posts and, when bored, I play casual computer games, I am in a bit of a quandry. 

Keyboard, keyboard and, you guessed it, keyboard.  Even now my poor right arm is suggesting it’s time to give up.  But no, I have something to say so on I go.  OK, I will get up and stretch here for a minute……..

I’m back.  I have been thinking about obtaining and training some dictation software.  But I have a writing aquaintance who has been going down that track.  Her input has been useful.   Donna suggests the it is important to get some professional training as well as a good program.  Then it takes quite a while to get used to using it.  She says it’s OK for emails and SMS but for actual writing it is a whole new ballpark.  You should read her posts if you are interested in this type of software.  It is eye-opening.

Even Terry Pratchett uses dictation software now.  I bet though, ten fingers on the keyboard is still a better way until computers are more advanced.

So I guess I am going to have to slow down typing (as if..) or put up with a bad neck, sore arm and migranes over Easter/other holidays/weekends. *sigh*.  Just as well I have a great husband, loving kids, their delightful partners and great in-laws who totally understand and then party on without me.

I will keep an eye on Donna Maree Hanson’s posts and rest my poor neck and arms when I can and keep my chiropracter in business for a few more years.

I hope you had a good Easter too, enjoyed enough of the chocolate as you needed/wanted and spent time with your nearest and dearest.

Isn’t it amazing how days can just slip away.  Here it is heading toward the end of March and it was only mid-January yesterday.  I made myself a promise that I would blog at least one a week and it’s been three weeks. 

It’s been a fun three weeks.  Work has been exciting as we are implementing a new learning management system and, to my delight, a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) product that lives up to its hype – LearnFlex.  Produced by a Canadian company and sold through B Online  I have to say I’m impressed that it is a fully fledged system that manages an organisations whole learning process from eLearning through face-to-face internal and external, blended learning and can even provide event management.  The vendor has been easy to work with and after five months I’m still a happy camper.

While all this has been going on I’ve been writing a new short story which was critiqued by members of the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild and now I have a much improved story.  A few more iterations and I will send the baby out to see if anyone wants to publish it.

Then there is the number of babies that have arrived in the world with friend and relatives becoming parents and grandparents. 

None of this is an excuse for not blogging.  I’ve thought of a dozen topics but then lost track of them, wanted to blog about politics but just became bored with the whole idea.  So today I though I would just write something about what I’ve been up to and leave it at that.

I will say that I’ve really gotten used to my eReader.  I have a Sony and currently have twenty-eight books in my bag – something which would have taken a suitcase in the past.  Most of those are marked ‘to read’.

Also I’ve just finished reading The Hunger Games and am into the second in the series.  It’s well written and one of those page turners that keep you up well after bedtime.  I checked out Suzanne Collins and found she has a great deal of experience writing for young adults in television so it’s no surprise this is a good series.

Also a writing acquaintance Alan Baxter  has just released his novelette “The Darkest Shade of Grey”.  It’s a dark but very interesting piece and can be bought at Smashwords for $1.99.  Well worth a read.

So that’s about it for me.  Won’t be so long in future *see Cat cross her fingers*.

Yesterday evening members of the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild (CSfG) gathered at the Wig and Pen to bid a fond farewell to Jimmy Goodrum who passed away before his time. We raised a glass and remembered him.

His lovely lady was there to join us.  She brought with her one of his pieces that was read out.  It detailed Jimmy’s view of why he was proud to be a ‘geek’. The piece was thoughtful and funny.  He outlined how he had come to speculative fiction at the tender age of eleven when he read Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune’ – how it had lead him to further readings in science, the environment, culture and beliefs.  He talked of his love of Douglas Adams’ ‘Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’ series and the places that took him – cosmology, space travel and related science. 

All of us there nodded throughout the reading because he touched on the reasons we all love what we do whether we are published authors or just apprentices.  And we were touched by him one last time.

He detailed how speculative fiction takes us away from the drabness of reality and takes us to a colourful place full of wonder and possibilities. 

To paraphrase the title of Adams’ fourth book in the series:  ‘So long, and thanks for the stories.’

Oh but I am so tired of politics and I bet I’m not the only one.  I work in the Australian Public Service and have done so for many years.  I understand the differences between the political parties and they way they are organised and I have quite a few friends and acquaintances who had regular contact or worked closely with those in the Prime Minister’s offices. So I feel I have a bit of an insight as to what goes on.  And I will say up front I’m a Labor supporter because I like their overarching social policies.

That said, like many I’m sick and tired of watching the media circus that politics has become.  The five second sound grabs that are then mulled over ad nauseam by the media, interpreted by other politicians and used as footballs to curry favour with the Australian voters. It overrides all the hard work that goes on by the often denigrated ‘bureaucrats’ to do things right and provide advice and policy implementations that are good for Australia as a whole – those policies the elected government want implemented – whatever political flavour they are.

Politics is a difficult profession.  It seems to me many start out their careers with worthy ideals and the notion of doing something good for Australia. But to do so they have to be in positions of power.  To get there they have to make deals with other politicians who want different things – they make deals and compromises that eventually start to erode their fine ideals.  A perfect example is the last election – Ms Gillard, whom I respect, had to make quite a few concessions to the independents to gain Labor its win.

So a party and its leader get into power, and they start to implement the policies that the Australian public voted them in for.  At that stage they have to get their legislation through two houses of Parliament.  This is supposed to be the system that makes sure that any legislation is vetted, commented on, etc for the benefit of the Australian public.  But is it really?  Is it instead in these days of instant news and sound grabs the media that has more of an influence than the Parliament?

We voted for the members of Parliament but we the Australian public have absolutely no say in who says or does what in the media.  Yet we are confronted on all sides with loud shoutings from radio jocks who have their own agendas as do newspapers, news broadcasts and various internet and electronic media outlets.  Overall we need many sources of information if we, the public are to make up our minds, but these days it has become so vitriolic and nasty it is hard to see the forest for the trees.

So it goes with the current so-called political ‘crisis’ of leadership in the Labor party.  From what I can garner from friends and acquaintances, there is only a slight chance of a leadership change.  But the whole incident is fanned into being by the media which has little interest in what any political party might have as good news and only reports on the sensationalism of the bad news.  And I suspect the media is used by those who want power to cause the crisis – and may I say from both sides of the political arena.

I just wish our politicians would focus on running the country and not on power struggles and infighting – and believe me when I say that also goes for both sides of politics.  They all say they want to get on with running the country but are side-tracked by all this brouhaha.

I bet if there was a poll that actually sought the opinions of more than 1000 targeted people, enough people to be statistically significant (I believe most polls use about 1000 to 2000 out of 22.5 million which doesn’t seem that significant to me) we might find there is a total apathy toward all this ruckus.

Of course we, the public, are the architects of our own frustrations because we watch, listen and browse the media and they make money providing us with the five second sound grabs, the ongoing commentary and then, like me, we complain.

Do I have an answer?  Unfortunately not.  But it still makes me wish there was one.

Of late I have pondered the strange world of banks, and the world economy in general.  You see, I simply do not ‘get’ a CEO of a major bank saying they must hike up their interest rates to maintain their Standards & Poor rating and then, a mere week later firing close to 1,000 staff.  This, in light of their $6.5 billion dollar profit which rose by 5% in the past year.  To me it smacks of greed, pure greed.

Oh yes, I know that they need to borrow money internationally to lend it to business and households.  And I also know that the cost of that money to the bank has gone up.  But with the huge profits they make, and the continuing increase in profit over the past years including during the global crises, makes me wonder about their motives.

Further to that, I wonder how long we can survive with a financial system that demands continuous growth. Nothing on this Earth can continue to grow forever.  Considering that quite a few of what were termed 3rd world and now ‘emerging’ economies are scooting ahead, at what stage do we hit a snag and no more growth is possible?  I mean, at some stage we are going to have a population because that we cannot feed , there isn’t enough land for or under cultivation for food at present as it is.  In fact, I understand that quite an alarming proportion of grain production is going to ethanol crops for fuel.

Something has got to give and unfortunately, my little worry meter that lives in my gut is beginning to send warnings.  Several countries in Europe are in depression although they don’t call it that.  For example Greece, Spain and even Italy.  The United Kingdom isn’t the best place to be right now because of high prices and growing unemployment.  There is civil unrest in the Arab world and in some South East Asia countries (Thailand and Burma for example).  The USA is still trying to get itself out of trouble.

Luckily, here in Australia we have missed the big bullet for the time being.  But with our dollar high I wonder for how long.  It will eventually lead to more manufacturing becoming unprofitable (note car manufacturers are being held up by government) and more job losses.

So, start growing your own vegetables, learn how to preserve them.  We have had rain but I’m sure drought is not far off so we need to find better ways to conserve water and energy for our homes.  And of course there is climate change as well.

So there is my pessimistic view of the economic outlook.  I’m no economist but I’ve lived long enough to see cycles and worry.  On the bright side, we are still living in a nice country that is holding it’s own.  We are still the ‘lucky’ country.  Let’s hope it stays that way and the greedy banks will have their customers turning away from them in droves (I know, not likely but…).  Fingers crossed.

I left school in 1967 and since that time went to two reunions.  One in the early 1970′s at the old Trocadero in Sydney and one in 1988 when our school closed.  The school was initially a Marist Brothers school and when they moved to Darlinghurst the Sisters of Mercy came and made it a girls school.  It was situated in the Rocks in Sydney.  It’s footprint is now occupied by a high rise office building, the land to valuable for an ageing school.

After 45 years it has been very interesting to catch up with school mates via the group on Facebook.  I remember my high school years fondly and yes, I know hindsight blurs the bad memories and highlights the good.  But truthfully, I don’t really remember anything bad with the exception of my grades and the annual comment “Cathy needs to try harder and do her homework.”  But I was bored with everything except English and History.  Oh and I did love choir and elocution.  And yes, I loved to write even then.  The other comments from school reports were “Cathy has a vivid imagination” but it was normally meant in a derogatory sense.  I think it was because I was always ready with an excuse *chuckle*.

There are often stories and movies about the terrible things that happen at reunions.  But I think this one will be different.  I was never popular at school and, with the exception of a few close friends, I suspect not too many people remember me.  I do however, remember many of them, especially now that a few delightful photo’s are turning up online.  I think this reunion will be about joint memories of school and meeting the people we all turned into.  I am so excited about that.

And then of course there is the catch-up with those few close friends.  My closest pal in those days will be there.  We lost contact nearly 30 years ago as I had moved away from Sydney.  And I am going with another friend who is now my closest and dearest friend and has been for 48 years.  She was matron of honour at my wedding.  And then there is the story of another school  mate who ended up living in the same city as I did fifteen years on.  We met the day our eldest children began pre-school and it was then we became good friends.  We again lost contact some ten years ago when she left to warmer climes. Now we are in touch again.

What really impresses me is the perseverance and dedication of one person to get this thing off the ground.  She has worked untiringly to find our class mates.  It’s an impressive task as many of us have moved around this big country of ours.  A vision brought to life that will benefit so many.  She deserves a medal even before it occurs for all the work she has done.

The closer it get’s the more excited I get.  We will meet in part as strangers.  We have all changed and life has most likely given us all kicks and rewards that have left a mark. I think this reunion is likely to leave big smiles on our faces and new friends from old school mates.

Trees shrouded in the morning mountain mist

That wafts mysteriously, elegantly to pick out

Straight, mottled trunks that turn elevated, dew laden leaves

Into a translucent, miasmic, dreamlike whole. 

Fantasy fetches petite fae, mystic creatures living there unseen.

Opaque lacy wings flitting silently ‘neath low lying ferns.

Until the sunlight, softly employed to dismiss the mist,

Must discharge creatures of imagination from mind’s eye. 

A human soul, speeding by enwrapped in sturdy steel,

Sends out an unheard, mournful cry

Amidst this tranquil, elegant, majestic scene.

A wish for peace, a soul at rest. Pure magic. Calm.