All about April

If I asked you all the things you did and though about last month it’s unlikely you’d remember, so if you can’t recall them now, how will you remember all those little moments of life that make it so great, next year? Write it down, your memory bank will thank you for it in a decade.

Making: Great memories and wonderful friends on weekends away.

Drinking: Wine. Popped into a winery, Mt Avoca Wines to be exact, tasted what I thought I might enjoy the most, told myself I really would enjoy it, and bought it instantly. They also gave us a little tour of the winery, it’s actually an organically made wine, but certification is just so difficult to get!

Doing: Took Miss 10 to see Matilda at the theatre, it was brilliant. Clever songs, talented kids, a fun storyline and many laughs, highly recommend it.

Reading:  I’d like to tell you how I am reading A little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, but really I am just reading the first few pages over and over as I decide if I am ready to launch into this book that has so many people talking. It’s a big one and it’s going to take some time to get through.

Wanting:  a clean car, not that I am really sure I remember what that’s like.

Looking: At the ocean from the beach house we stayed in at Airey’s Inlet and wishing we made the trip to the beach more often.

Playing: Headbandz. This is a great game to play after dinner with friends and with kids. We went away for a weekend with friends and played a few rounds, the little kids can get some question ideas from the cards and the adults start getting worked up that they just can’t figure it out. Play it, your kids will love you for it. You will laugh, it’s good for you.

Deciding:  Having a holiday house would be so wonderful, but having friends with holiday houses all over the place is even more wonderful and taking friends to where you like to holiday is pretty good too!

Wishing: There is so much inequity around us. SO MUCH. But there is one that really shits me. The cost of medications. Once, when I had my very own Dad dying of a super rare blood cancer, he needed a drug that cost $7500 per injection, he needed that injection every week.  But, the people in the chair beside him who had a more common blood cancer, they just had to pay $6.50, for the very same drug. My Dad, he was lucky/unlucky to get a double diagnosis within a few days, telling him he had TWO types of blood cancer, the oncologist was so happy, this meant he could get the drug straight away and not have to hope to get on a clinical trial.  Of course, my Dad’s blood didn’t care about all this and had it’s own plans. But it’s happening all the time. There are people all over Australia who get hit with the unlucky stick so badly, first they get cancer, then they are told it’s a really rare cancer (so we probably don’t know how to beat it) then they get told ‘sorry, you got the wrong cancer, so you don’t get any medicine. It’s just awful. So in April, and always, I am wishing for fairness in medication for everyone.

Enjoying: the dancing concerts my kids are making up.

Wondering:  If newspapers will come back in fashion? Or decent magazines? If quality is produced, would consumers buy it?

Loving: Small country towns, their history and their opportunities.

Pondering: When twitter will be finished.

Considering: school uniforms, I love them, but I hate them. I want them, but not every day. They look so sweet, their purpose is so outdated, they make mornings so much easier, they are rarely weather appropriate.

Buying: presents, and nearly getting them to the recipients on time. Nearly.

Watching: the last of Call the Midwife. Possibly the best series of all time, but sadly that’s the end of it. I miss my friends at Nonatus House.

Noticing: the colours of Autumn. Not every country gets to experience the natural beauty of a Victorian Autumn.

Knowing: My ten year old can win a cross country race if the bribe is high enough.

Thinking: I love day light saving time, but it’s over for now and I just have to get through the dark times.

Admiring: People who just say yes and find a way to make everything happen.

Disliking: Clothes needing to be dried inside.

Opening:  very few books.

Feeling: So happy with all the travel and getaways for the month.

Snacking: dark chocolate with orange, I love you.

Questioning:  Have you ever watched Schindlers List? You know how you watch it and you think, why didn’t all the Germans act like this, why didn’t more good people just do what they could to stop the horrendous from happening? You watch it and you like to think that if you were there, you’d be the Oskar Schindler, you’d be the good person, you’d never just turn your eyes away while people were sent to camps where they were just forgotten about.  The movie ends and you’re glad that those days are no longer.

Except they aren’t really are they? It’s just different people in the camps. Camps run by our very own country.

And on that note, we leave April 2016 with the hope that during the coming election campaign there will be many Oskar Schindler type voices and compassion will finally win.