Ms Fifikins

I have very mixed feelings about ANZAC Day. Part of this is because I don’t think war solves things. Of course this is all through a 2008 lens from someone who has not lived through direct family members being sent to war. So bear with me as I do feel my thoughts are all over the place.

My maternal grandparents both served in WWII. Pa was in Africa and  Granny was a driver in Papua New Guinea. We never did Dawn Services or went to marches when I was a child. School never had any special services, but it was mentioned in Assembly. In one of my last years at school I remember trecking into the Shrine of Remembrance as a school representative. I think we laid a wreath.

As a young adult, I did the Dawn Service every year. And I cried at every service. I think these were tears of sadness that so many people died trying to defend our country.  I still find it bizarre that we commemorate a great British cock up on ANZAC Day where the troops landed in the wrong place. Yes, perhaps we are commemorating how Australia reacted, but I really do not believe this event was the ‘birth of the nation’ that so many people make out.

I am a history lover, but I am also a firm believer that unless we learn from the history, mere repeating of mistakes is stupid. Perhaps my views are also clouded by my views on the war in Iraq? Perhaps war is wrong now, but almost 100 years go things were different? I suppose I am a conflict avoider, although I am getting better at offering my opinion and not minding what others think.

So yes, we do need to remember those who died in service of their country, and those who returned. I suspect part of my views are generational and age related. I work with 19 and 20 year olds and cannot imagine them with guns fighting for their country. I wonder if my grandparents were more mature (yes they were slightly older) or what they actually thought about what they were doing? I’ll never know, but I do believe they thought they were doing the right thing. And I respect them for that.

I picked up this meme from Stilgherrian and Kate Curruthers. Looks like all the cool kids are doing it so of course I have to add!

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open it to page 161.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don’t search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Use what’s actually next to you.

And the sentence is:

“Always run Descriptive Statistics on each of your predictors, and consider collapsing or deleting categories if they have limited numbers.”

Of course we are looking at Logistical Regression in Julie Pollant’s SPSS Survival Manual: A step by step guide to data analysis using SPSS. This is my bible at the moment as I try and work out my quantitative data.

Now I will admit it wasn’t the first book I grabbed. I actually grabbed three other books, however all of them had pictures on page 161. In Nigella Express you will find a picture of ‘Chocolate Peanut-Butter Fudge Sundae.’ Yep looks damn good to me! In Neil Perry’s The Food I Love there is a gorgeous picture of some steamed mud crabs. Thinking I might have to go crabbing sometime… And in Nigella Lawson’s Feast there is a pic of Hot Cross Buns. Have made them! And mine look better

So yes. My reading habits at the moment are either cooking related or stats related. Wonder what some of my feminist poststructuralist reading would have provided? That can be for another day!

So what is the fifth sentence on page 161 of the book nearest you?

I hate toads. Try to get at least 3-4 in my freezer each week. This really tickled my fancy…

Twice a year Myer has a special Family and Friends Shopping Event. The savings are actually pretty good. To take advantage, download this flyer and take it to any Myer store to save, save save!

Savings only this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Shop early and often! Remember 20% off chocolates and 10% off fragrance. You all know my address… If you don’t just ask! And no, they don’t sell Bombay Sapphire. Sigh! Perhaps that’s an idea…

I was just glancing at the google terms people have used and then hit my site in the last month. I have always found googling extremely easy and have been dubbed the Google Queen. I can still marvel at other people’s google skills, especially as it gets them to this. Here are some random search terms that people have used to get this blog.

It appears lots of people are after the facts:

• 100 brilliant facts about France for kids
• 100 facts people don’t know
• 100 random things about me
• cool random facts
• random facts about teachers
• random facts I never really wanted to know
• 100 random facts about the world
• 100 random sex facts

I hope the souls hunting for ‘random things about me’ didn’t click on this blog thinking it was about them, because it is all about me, surely! I do have worries for school kids looking for assignment fodder who might be using this blog as a source and plagiarising my work. Do you need a lesson in referencing? If so, just ask! Oh and if you are looking for sex facts, um… not sure where you should be looking really

Then I have had other interesting search terms lead here:

• why doesn’t my child do well in exams
• regret losing nice guy
• may 2,3,and 4 2008 menopause the musical queensland may 2,3,4 2008
•  “remove my balls”
• nigella bagels
• gerbera urine

Now I don’t know why your child doesn’t do well in exams. Perhaps it is because they are not open book or open google exams. I regreted losing a nice guy once, but looking back he was too nice- get over it honey! It appears someone went to great pains to find information about a musical about menopause and still thought they might find it here. Removing balls may not be a specialty of mine, but hope you found what you were looking for. Yes, I baked Nigella’s bagels. Very yummy too.

Now the final term bamboozles me. But at least I will be able to tell people who can’t spell fifikins (it has 3 i’s you know!) that they just need to google gerbera urine and you will find me.

I find it hard to believe there are so many random facts about myself! I was white rabbited about a month ago, plus I have published 100 random facts about fifikins, but everyone’s favourite professional geek, Nick Hodge seems to think I can come up with 8 more! And I was told off for not tagging certain people, I can now get them!

1. I have an aversion to mice and rats, but I am not sure why. I remember living in Meningie and having to feed the 50 odd birds that we were forced to look after. There were mice in the grain sacks and I often caught one in the jug I was using to feed the birds. I suspect it is a silly aversion and one I might be able to get over.
2. I really loved pregnancy and childbirth. I had large children (Jasper was 10lb 14 oz- 4.934kg) and pushed them out easily. Sometimes I think another baby would be nice, but not very often as I then remember the terrible 2s, the sleepless nights and the thought of another pending teenager. I think that I could easily be swayed either way if I were to meet someone who did or didn’t want kids.
3. I was 99% certain Imogen was going to be a girl. I never doubted she wouldn’t have been. We didn’t really have a name for a boy picked out even. With Jasper I had no feelings one way or the other.
4. I studied English Literature in Year 12. Our Shakespeare was Antony and Cleopatra. I hardly remember any of it, but I remember quite a few of the poems we had to analyse especially Lowell’s Memories of West Street and Lepke and Dickinson’s Because I could not stop for death. I don’t know if I understood any of the poems back then, but love going back to them now. Same cannot be said for the symphonies I had to analyse in Music B!
5. In Year 9 we did Dancing Classes on Wednesday nights with the year 10 boys from our brother school. There were always more girls than boys and I spent most of the evenings pretneding to be a boy and dancing with other girls. It made me hate my height for a very long time.
6. I collect cookbooks. I think I have over 200. Some I have never cooked from, but I like to pretend they inspire me. I would like to undertake a ‘cook a whole cookbook’ project and blog it, but still can’t choose which book to do.
7. I am the first person in my family to go to uni. This surprises me as I see so many of them being smart. Mum did a term or so at Kindergarten Teacher’s College but didn’t like it and Dad never thought about further education. My brother achieved his HSC but is not academically minded, even if he has other smarts (Cricket and Aussie Rules fact legend!)
8. I always thought I would be cremated, but now think the environmental impact of cremation is too great. I’d love to be buried deep in the rainforest, but also hope that it isn’t for many years yet.

Now to find 8 suckers friends who I know would love to take part in this!

So… Romper stomper bomper boo, tell me tell me tell me, do, magic mirror tell me today, have all my friends had fun at play? I can see:

Extremo

Lozzz

Mark

Spidy

Grace

monnie

Martin

Wibble

So you lucky 8, it’s up to you! If you don’t know the drill, you tell us 8 random facts about yourself and then tag 8 lucky people. Make sure you let them know they have been tagged too. In a month you will have enough facts to be erudite at dinner parties. Don’t break the chain or you will have ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ rickrolling through your memory for eternity. I have warned you!

(Oh and I don’t know if I can think of any more real facts so if this comes back to me in a month I’m just gonna write a load of tales- which may be what I have done already )

I started a blog post today and have just deleted it all.

Basically, today is 18 years since my Dad died. He went SCUBA diving on Easter (Holy) Saturday and drowned. I still don’t understand how it happened, but it did. I have now been alive longer without Dad than with him. We had an interesting relationship, but I know he loved me and deep down thought he was was doing the best job he could as a father. He probably was too.

I look at Mum who has been alone for most of these 18 years, well at least the last 15. I think I used to worry about loneliness and being alone, but really I just have to look at Mum and her full life and realise that as long as I have friends around me I’ll be fine.

RIP Patrick John Christian Henderson. 9th Jan 1939 – 14th April 1990. I do miss you Dad.

I have always said the best time to visit Cairns is between May and October. Looks like the season has changed early this year though.

Humidity has lessened and the temperature has dropped. And I can still sit out on the deck and type away in a strappy sun dress. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Winter and do miss certain aspects like blowing steam out of your mouth or snuggling up in front of a fire. Oh and I love being all rugged up in my cape with a scarf and a woolly hat with the cold air blowing against my face. Memories of walking dogs through fields in Jersey in the Channel Islands with my Aunt and Uncle in January where frosts hung around until well after lunch flood back as if it were yesterday and not 17 and then 12 years ago!

I don’t know if the wet is really over yet. I see showers forecast for the next couple of days. Don’t get me wrong, I do love the rain, but I also love the long stretches of milder days full of sunshine where you do need a doona at night, even if the ceiling fan is still on and sometimes you even get to wear long sleeves…

So if you are planning on visiting then any time from now til about Grand Final weekend (Last in September for non sporting people!) is a great time to come. Just give me some notice so I can prepare the guest quarters/dungeon/downstairs room etc!

I think I must be feeling better- I am thinking about food again!

Just home after 3 nights in hospital. First two days were horrible. Constant pain, prodding and felt like blah. Felt a little better yesterday and feel really quite good today.

Things to remember when in hospital though:

• Pack all chargers. Fortunately I had mine with me. Don’t know where I would have been without my phone charger.
• Get friendly with the nursing staff, especially nursing students! They keep you in on the gossip. They still couldn’t give me the passwords to the wireless networks in the hospital though
•  Don’t say no to pain relief! Worked out I didn’t need to be a hero wrt pain! Doh!
• Make sure you own plenty of pyjamas! My 2 pairs of pink ones really got a workout!

Oh and finally, get friendly with the nursing students, but don’t let them talk to your doctor! One of them told him my bed was empty yesterday when I was in the shower, which he took to mean I had gone home. I mean really! It wasn’t until I pulled another cannula out this morning that one of the nurses rang him to ask if I still needed it.

Supposedly back to work on Tuesday, but I am thinking of taking a few more days off to do some thesis work. Will ask my doc on Monday when we chat what sort of medical certificate he is willing to give me!

But it’s good to be home! I’m twittering again and on my IM channels! Talk to you all soon, I hope (And, yes that does mean I am talking again!)

Fifikins 0

Hospital 2

Well kinda. I’m heading back there. Turns out I have a post op infection and am dehydrated. Just pour the gin straight in I said, but no, they want it via a drip.

I will be booked in under Corker, not Henderson for those sending flowers, telegrams, chocolates etc! (joke peoples!) But I will have a phone next to my bed and a direct number which I don’t know what it will be, but if you ring the switch bitch receptionist, they will put you through if you ask for Fiona Corker. No doubt they will make some wise crack about it being a corker surname- just remembered they were doing that in theatre before they put me under and I never got to blast them!