Sue must be a happy lady

I heard on the news this morning that a woman is suing Monash after one of the staff accidently dropped her nine embryos on the floor. Seven of them died and the remaining two were implanted but didn't survive.

What is the world coming to when we are no longer able to allow any margin for human error? Sure, it would undoubtedly have been devastating for the woman concerned, but is suing going to make it better for her? Is money going to fix the emptiness in her heart?

Thirty years ago IVF would not have even been an option for her. We are incredibly lucky to live in a time and a country where this sort of medical technology is available. This expectation that humans have to pay every time a mistake occurs is just unreasonable. It's not going to heal her hurt.

I wish people understood that. People don't understand other people, all we understand is money. This is a mad society.

We all know no-one really looks like Barbie

And here's why:

The 'design flaw' - Barbie's legs are 50% longer than her arms, whereas the average woman's legs are only 20% longer than her arms meaning that if Barbie were real, the length of her legs in proportion to her torso would make her unable to walk and she'd be constantly falling on her face. Consequently, It has been estimated that only way a real Barbie could walk upright would be to walk on all fours, as her feet are so proportionately small that her chest would pull her continually forward onto her toes.

Second, if she were human, while crawling around, Barbie would need help looking around as her neck is twice as long as the average human's which would make it impossible to hold up her head.

Thirdly, Barbie weighs about 45.8 kg and is 213cm in height, meaning she would have a Body Mass Index of 10 and would lack the 17 to 22 percent body fat required for a woman to menstruate or have children, if she wanted them.

Lastly, Barbie's body would have room for only half of a liver and only a few centimetres of intestines, as opposed to the usual 7.9 metres. The result: chronic diarrhoea and death from malabsorption & malnutrition. In case anyone wants to look like a Barbie, a healthy woman would need to add 61 cm to her height, subtract 15 cm from her waist, add 13 cm to her chest, and 8 to her neck length. As the recently deceased Body Shop founder, Anita Roddick once told us - there are 3 billion women on the planet who don't look like Barbie; only 8 women come close.

Some pictures for perusal

The very loud but very smooth Cessna. Quinn wanted a green one and was a little miffed that we got blue.
We watched the whales about 3 or 4 km's out from that sand bar. To the right of the sand bar is where we stayed, literally a hop, skip and jump to the water and fantastic views. The water in the forefront of the picture is Merimbula Lake and a great spot for children - but if it's a more wavey, beachy feel you're after, simply walk around behind that sand and there you are!


On Tathra wharf. Tathra is a nice spot, lovely views. About 20 km north of Merimbula.

All aboard the Sea Eagle, on the search for whales...

And we found them. Here are two humpback whales feeding. They only feed in two places during their annual migration, this spot in Merimbula and the Antarctic. Even though they were not interested in playing we were treated to see them feeding.

Holiday

Well we're back :(

I don't want to be home. We had a semi-serious conversation about moving to Merimbula, or thereabouts. I would absolutely do it tomorrow, but for two reasons. a) Matt having to relocate the shop, or even worse, look for a job, and b) losing our network of babysitters and general helper-outerers. I have friends who are away from their family and have heard how hard it can be. How tempting it would be though to get away from this relentless 'have to' life, and I'd do any job. I'm sick of social work. I'm sick of spending more time than I would like in front of a computer screen and less with the kids I work with. I'm sick of court. Court is a joke, it's a circus. I'm sick of DHS making ridiculous, nonsense decisions about childrens "best interests". I'm sick of the entire staff turnover at DHS every 3.5 days. I'm sick of new graduates being employed by Child Protection, barely out of uni and managing the complexities of damaged, hurting and abusive families. I'm sick of bringing my work issues home and thinking about them into the wee hours when I should be recharging my batteries to look after my own children.

I want to be a florist. Or work in a toy shop.

Good things about going away:

• You're not at work, you're not at home
• Excellent uninterrupted, pure family time
• No cooking
  
• It makes you appreciate home and the things that are yours

Bad things about going away:

• You have to come home and face it all again.

What we did:
-beach
-whale watching off a boat called Sea Eagle
-pool (I'm sure it was sub zero temperature but you'll do anything for kids won't you?)
-beach
-spa
-Magic Mountain (should have its name changed to Dodgy Mountain, but the children loved it and we spent a whole day there)
-beach
-spa
-scenic flight up to Tathra
-beach
-beach
-spa
-beach
-Mieke made friends with identical twins, "Freya and Steve" (actually Freya and Neve, but Mieke couldn't get her head around that).

I'll put up some photos when I get them off the camera.

Kate, who still hasn't completely let go of the idea that we could just move away and do something different...

Happy birthday Quinn

Happy number two, my beautiful little fellow. xxx

When I found out we were having a boy I was overjoyed but a little panicked at the same time. I mean, what do I know about boys?

Well now I understand of course that he's more than a boy, he's a person. And such an interesting person too. He's assertive, lively, affectionate, mischievous, so so funny... he's wonderful. And I love him more than I could have ever imagined.

I can't believe he's two already.

Stuff

We're off to Merimbula on Sunday for six (count 'em, six) glorious nights.

Matt has been told by the physio that he is not to walk on sand at all, as it is too unstable for his Stupid Foot. This grim news makes the above statement rather bitter sweet for Matthew.

Mieke completed a one hundred piece puzzle today. Three times. She's a freaky speed puzzler, I'm going to enter her into championships. And then we're going to retire on the fortune she makes for us.

I love that you guys are all loving the blog. And I know that you are because you send emails, discussing the blog. But you can actually comment here if you like. Go on, don't be shy.

Anyhoo, probably won't post again before our road trip to warmer, sandier places, so see you in a week or so!

Ciao, Xin Chao, Au revoir, Gute Nacht, See ya :)

Home ownership

Is it really all its cracked up to be?
We've put the idea of purchasing a home on hold. To save more money. More money.
More.
Money.
We're always going to need more money, we're never going to have enough for this to be comfortable. I feel like it will always be just out of reach for us.
Renting isn't so bad, we get our dishwasher fixed for free and the water leak, and roof tiles. But we can't paint. And we can't put a big pergola up out the back to shade the children while they play. And we can't strip the Yuk floor in the living area and re-finish it. And it'll never be our Yuk floor, we'll never own it.
I suppose, at the end of the day, the upside to this is that there won't be anything for Mieke and Quinn to fight about when we're gone.

Okay, enough. Complaining over.