In the brief 2 weeks that I had in Australia prior to the arrival of the rest of the family I was living in an apartment, all on my own and without any of the household goods and luxuries that one becomes used to having. Simple things like shampoo and toothpaste.
Not a large problem, simply a matter of stopping in at the supermarket and picking some up. It all sounds so simple.
What I realised as I stood there in the aisle was that normally I have a choice of one type, that being what ever has been procured by my lovely wife. I simply remove the shampoo from the rack and wash.
But standing in the aisle of the supermarket, the choice was significantly greater. It was bloody enormous in fact. All sorts of fruity and fantastic concoctions lined the shelves before my eyes, each professing to be the ant’s pants in their chosen line of hair care. Oily hair, dry hair, coloured hair, over exposed and under nourished slightly toxic hair. There only seemed to be two versions lacking as far as I could establish. Shampoo for those with no hair (possibly called soap) and shampoo that has been formulated to quite simply wash hair.
I remain grateful for the persistence of those hairs that continue to cling to my head and their efforts at covering the dome beneath and I don’t really stop to consider where it fits in the scale of dry to oily etc. I’m sure that that little bit of colour I had applied to the tips of my hair once about 20 years ago is no longer and issue. And that natural grey colouring that’s starting to creep in probably doesn’t need any chemical assistance or maintenance either. So really, when it comes to trying to identify a shampoo to suit my head, I’m really not looking for anything special.
Regardless of all the procrastination, a choice had to be made. I thought about spinning randomly in the aisle with eyes closed and arm extended (due to the lack of darts in my possession to assist with the random selection) but really, I’m strange enough without behaving like that in a supermarket. I might have been committed! I scanned one more time and decided that perhaps prevention would be a way to go. So I grabbed the head and shoulders anti-dandruff stuff and headed to the counter because apparently, its good for ALL sorts of hair!
Mar 28, 2011
Mar 23, 2011
eight part 4
This week marked the commencement of the little pink thing’s eighth year of influence over the planet upon which we live and more importantly over that little piece that she so graciously shares with the rest of the family.
The seventh year of her rule held some significant changes for the little mite that are worth reflecting on just very briefly. She finished her first year of school in Canada, travelled a little bit (tick off Skiing at a world class resort, Disneyworld, Cruising the Caribbean, scaling the Eiffel tower, a traipse through Venice, the Swiss Alps, the Dutch Windmills …) moved back to Australia, started her second year of school (and completed it at the end of the same term) and started her third year of school and finally, become a mother to a couple ofunderground chickens rabbits. *breathe now*
Needless to say that having managed to get through all that and cope with three other brothers besides, she’s a confident little thing. Spoilt? Most certainly. Opinionated? You’d better believe it. She has already mastered the eye-roll (predominantly I believe due to a father’s lame sense of humour). “Da-ad!” she’ll say as the eyeballs rotate and the cute little face flicks sideways to look at me.
She’s taken up softball and has managed to do quite well, connecting with the ball and managing to work her way around the bases. Winter will see her attempt netball, which should be interesting given the lack of exposure to the game in this part of the family.
She has already lost the Canadian twang with her immersion in our home culture, though just occasionally a word or two will slip out with that little bit extra in it. She’s fitted in like a pea in a pod at school, readily finding herself a collection of girl-friends and mixing well. I’m not sure if they let her be the boss or not, but just perhaps in amongst her peers she’s managed to find a way to be part of the group sometimes rather than being the one that orchestrates all that happens around her.
Despite the fact that there are three older brothers influencing her, Emily shows no signs of turning into a tomboy at this point in her life. With an almost overwhelmeing collection of ‘stuffies’ as she calls her stuffed animal menagerie she can often be found in front of the computer with a Taylor Swift song belting out as she dances away for her own amusement or hosting a tea-party for a couple of rabbits whilst the brothers are off shooting anything that moves on the PS3 in the background.
But for all that goes before, she’s still a precious little girl at heart with a big capacity to love and plenty of hugs to dish out (when she feels like it of course). Generally happy, with possibly one of the best little girl giggles when tickled, the little pink thing is certainly a wonderful part of our family.
Happy Birthday Emily.
The seventh year of her rule held some significant changes for the little mite that are worth reflecting on just very briefly. She finished her first year of school in Canada, travelled a little bit (tick off Skiing at a world class resort, Disneyworld, Cruising the Caribbean, scaling the Eiffel tower, a traipse through Venice, the Swiss Alps, the Dutch Windmills …) moved back to Australia, started her second year of school (and completed it at the end of the same term) and started her third year of school and finally, become a mother to a couple of
Needless to say that having managed to get through all that and cope with three other brothers besides, she’s a confident little thing. Spoilt? Most certainly. Opinionated? You’d better believe it. She has already mastered the eye-roll (predominantly I believe due to a father’s lame sense of humour). “Da-ad!” she’ll say as the eyeballs rotate and the cute little face flicks sideways to look at me.
She’s taken up softball and has managed to do quite well, connecting with the ball and managing to work her way around the bases. Winter will see her attempt netball, which should be interesting given the lack of exposure to the game in this part of the family.
She has already lost the Canadian twang with her immersion in our home culture, though just occasionally a word or two will slip out with that little bit extra in it. She’s fitted in like a pea in a pod at school, readily finding herself a collection of girl-friends and mixing well. I’m not sure if they let her be the boss or not, but just perhaps in amongst her peers she’s managed to find a way to be part of the group sometimes rather than being the one that orchestrates all that happens around her.
Despite the fact that there are three older brothers influencing her, Emily shows no signs of turning into a tomboy at this point in her life. With an almost overwhelmeing collection of ‘stuffies’ as she calls her stuffed animal menagerie she can often be found in front of the computer with a Taylor Swift song belting out as she dances away for her own amusement or hosting a tea-party for a couple of rabbits whilst the brothers are off shooting anything that moves on the PS3 in the background.
But for all that goes before, she’s still a precious little girl at heart with a big capacity to love and plenty of hugs to dish out (when she feels like it of course). Generally happy, with possibly one of the best little girl giggles when tickled, the little pink thing is certainly a wonderful part of our family.
Happy Birthday Emily.
Mar 22, 2011
Price Check on Bunny Love
You may recall that a couple of weeks ago Emily adopted a new member into the family by way of a small ginger-colour rabbit appropriately called “Ginger”.
Well it was always intended that the little mite not be left to the sole attention of Emily, but that it would at some point in time receive a little rabbit companion to help it while away the hours (you know, those ones it spends in blissful peace whilst Emily is at school).
On the weekend, that companionship became a reality with a brand new ball of fluff coming home. It’s a tiny little grey haired girly rabbit, placid as the day is long. We spoke at some length to the people that we bought the rabbit off, considering amongst other things, the best way to introduce the two of them to each other without there being much in the way of territorial issues. It is Emily’s hope and desire that the two be very very good friends and in fact produce more little bunnies. Caroline seems to think that a litter or two would be ok. I have reservations, but will go along for the ride.
One of the surprising things that I learned was that a rabbit can have a new litter every 31 days. Ye gods! Talk about getting back on the horse … no wonder they call it rooting like rabbits (for the Canadians that read this, rooting is a whole different ball game over here … you just keep cheering). We also of course asked about when we could expect the young male thing (Ginger) who was already in the house to first start having amorous feelings. We were told that this would be at about 12 weeks. We figured Ginger to be at about 10. That should provide a small buffer whilst they got to know each other.
Anyway, we decided that we’d introduce them to each under the front verandah, on neutral territory as had been suggested. So tiny little Grace (the new addition) was allowed to explore whilst Emily went inside to get Ginger. Well, it wasn’t really until she brought him out that we realised just how much he’d grown. The size difference was rather pronounced, but we ploughed on regardless, really having no choice.
Ginger was set free to go and nosed his way around the verandah, completely missing the little bit of fluff that was cautiously nosing past him in the other direction. Then there was that moment where a scent must have drifted across the young boy’s nose and his attention was suddenly diverted elsewhere. Suddenly there was a bit of sniffing going on as Ginger investigated this interesting phenomenon. The next bit was like watching pheromones to hormones in seconds or less as Ginger, just a young little rabbit himself was overtaken by hundreds of years of instinct as he jumped the poor little Grace from behind and did what rabbits do best. Given that Ginger is currently about 2-3 times the size of his new playmate, it looked like it just may have been a little scary for the new girl on the block. They were quickly separated and Emily needed some reassuring that Ginger wasn’t hurting Grace.
Several more attempts at introduction made it very clear that there really was space for one thing in Ginger’s head and he was going to do what ever he could to get it. At one point, after Grace had been hopping about and exploring in the living room (sans Ginger of course) Ginger found the cushion that she’s spent some time sitting on and decided that if he couldn’t have her, then he’d at least have some good old fashioned cushion loving fun. Must have smelt good, that’s all I can say.
Needless to say, the single little rabbit hutch that we bought clearly wasn’t going to cut it until we’d determined that young Grace was up to the trials and tribulations of mother hood and so a hasty ‘insta-hutch’™ was produced from one of our left over moving boxes so that the boy could be separated from the girl.
He pines for her, it must be said. He’s been found sleeping outside of his hutch, right alongside that box and if you look carefully inside, she’s not far away. Being the adventurous rabbit that he is, its going to take some planning to keep these two bunnies apart for a couple of weeks until she’s ready. He’d previously been found lazing about on the arm of the couch, having hopped his way up there progressively and then last night he managed to find his way up onto the top of the A-framed hutch. Given that it’s a piece of wood about an inch wide, he did well to last as long as he did before falling back down again.
This morning he managed to find his way onto the top of the box that has become the ‘insta-hutch’™. Of course, there’s a rather large flap been cut into the top for the purposes of extracting and inserting litter trays. He didn’t know this. He found out rather quickly though as the floor of the world dropped away from beneath him and deposited him inside the hutch. Fortunately Grace wasn’t in there at the time.
So, watch this space, because it’s not likely to be long before nature takes it course and Bunny Love becomes more bunnies than this one man might be able to handle!
Well it was always intended that the little mite not be left to the sole attention of Emily, but that it would at some point in time receive a little rabbit companion to help it while away the hours (you know, those ones it spends in blissful peace whilst Emily is at school).
On the weekend, that companionship became a reality with a brand new ball of fluff coming home. It’s a tiny little grey haired girly rabbit, placid as the day is long. We spoke at some length to the people that we bought the rabbit off, considering amongst other things, the best way to introduce the two of them to each other without there being much in the way of territorial issues. It is Emily’s hope and desire that the two be very very good friends and in fact produce more little bunnies. Caroline seems to think that a litter or two would be ok. I have reservations, but will go along for the ride.
One of the surprising things that I learned was that a rabbit can have a new litter every 31 days. Ye gods! Talk about getting back on the horse … no wonder they call it rooting like rabbits (for the Canadians that read this, rooting is a whole different ball game over here … you just keep cheering). We also of course asked about when we could expect the young male thing (Ginger) who was already in the house to first start having amorous feelings. We were told that this would be at about 12 weeks. We figured Ginger to be at about 10. That should provide a small buffer whilst they got to know each other.
Anyway, we decided that we’d introduce them to each under the front verandah, on neutral territory as had been suggested. So tiny little Grace (the new addition) was allowed to explore whilst Emily went inside to get Ginger. Well, it wasn’t really until she brought him out that we realised just how much he’d grown. The size difference was rather pronounced, but we ploughed on regardless, really having no choice.
Ginger was set free to go and nosed his way around the verandah, completely missing the little bit of fluff that was cautiously nosing past him in the other direction. Then there was that moment where a scent must have drifted across the young boy’s nose and his attention was suddenly diverted elsewhere. Suddenly there was a bit of sniffing going on as Ginger investigated this interesting phenomenon. The next bit was like watching pheromones to hormones in seconds or less as Ginger, just a young little rabbit himself was overtaken by hundreds of years of instinct as he jumped the poor little Grace from behind and did what rabbits do best. Given that Ginger is currently about 2-3 times the size of his new playmate, it looked like it just may have been a little scary for the new girl on the block. They were quickly separated and Emily needed some reassuring that Ginger wasn’t hurting Grace.
Several more attempts at introduction made it very clear that there really was space for one thing in Ginger’s head and he was going to do what ever he could to get it. At one point, after Grace had been hopping about and exploring in the living room (sans Ginger of course) Ginger found the cushion that she’s spent some time sitting on and decided that if he couldn’t have her, then he’d at least have some good old fashioned cushion loving fun. Must have smelt good, that’s all I can say.
Needless to say, the single little rabbit hutch that we bought clearly wasn’t going to cut it until we’d determined that young Grace was up to the trials and tribulations of mother hood and so a hasty ‘insta-hutch’™ was produced from one of our left over moving boxes so that the boy could be separated from the girl.
He pines for her, it must be said. He’s been found sleeping outside of his hutch, right alongside that box and if you look carefully inside, she’s not far away. Being the adventurous rabbit that he is, its going to take some planning to keep these two bunnies apart for a couple of weeks until she’s ready. He’d previously been found lazing about on the arm of the couch, having hopped his way up there progressively and then last night he managed to find his way up onto the top of the A-framed hutch. Given that it’s a piece of wood about an inch wide, he did well to last as long as he did before falling back down again.
This morning he managed to find his way onto the top of the box that has become the ‘insta-hutch’™. Of course, there’s a rather large flap been cut into the top for the purposes of extracting and inserting litter trays. He didn’t know this. He found out rather quickly though as the floor of the world dropped away from beneath him and deposited him inside the hutch. Fortunately Grace wasn’t in there at the time.
So, watch this space, because it’s not likely to be long before nature takes it course and Bunny Love becomes more bunnies than this one man might be able to handle!
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