Lightening Online

We sponsor a number of children in poverty stricken countries and one of the things the groups that run these sponsorship programs do is ensure as many children as possible have access to education.

After all, a decent education can be a ticket to freedom from poverty for these children.

Education gives them a hope and a future.

Yet, here in one of the “luckiest countries in the world”, why do we not place a higher sense of importance on funding education?

Every time I turn around, it seems like the government have cut funding from this program or that program.

Cutting back funding for basics like electricity, even though the increased use of technology means we are using more electricity.

Cutting funding for teaching numbers and support staff hours even though research has shown the benefits of smaller class sizes and one to one support and instruction time.

Placing emphasis on “super schools” and ignoring the rest of the students in the state.

Can you tell I’m feeling frustrated at the moment?

The things is, I strongly believe that every single child in our country should have access to a decent quality education.

I’m not “anti” Private Schools but the fact is, not every family can afford to send their children to a private school.

And they shouldn’t HAVE to.

I can’t help but feel that the direction things are heading in will only continue to widen the divide between the “haves” and “have nots” in this country.

In a country that supposedly favours “equal distribution of wealth”, something about the state of affairs in our educational system just doesn’t seem right.

And for the most part, I feel so helpless to do anything about it.  *sigh*

Any ideas?

My apologies for the delay in getting more pics posted.  Our internet is playing up (again!).  Here are the photo’s of Cooper Creek:

Underneath all that water is the Birdsville Track!  As you can see, it’s not exactly passable by vehicle at the moment.  Farmboy didn’t really drive through it, he just backed up the car to the edge. 

If you wish to get further North, you have to take a detour track:

And as you can see, it’s pretty much a “track”.  I was amazed that some people brought caravans through here and others attempted it with 2WD vehicles (and then wished they hadn’t).

You can see the single-car ferry behind the kids.   The last time this ferry was running was 1990.  So 20 years ago.  There was just a phenomenal amount of water!  And when you realise how many lakes the creek has to fill on it’s way down it’s hard to even comprehend how much water it takes for the creek to flood over the Birdsville Track.

We took a boat ride on the Cooper.  Above you can see us looking back at the Ferry from the creek and also our silver Pajero’s (our friends also have a silver Pajero).  The silver building is a long drop toilet marked “women”.  I guess the men are expected to use a bush!!??  You need a peg for your nose and your own roll of paper to use it.

The boat cruise was very interesting.  We got a good look around and a bit of history of the place as well.  At one spot we were shown where a make shift bridge was built to get sheep across when the creek was wet.  It certainly would have taken a special breed of people to work the stations back in pioneering days!  Lots of hard yakka!

I’ve forgotten the name of it but the image above is one of the Lakes that gets filled as the water makes it way along, eventually ending up in Lake Eyre.  When there is water around, there is some good money to be made fishing in some of those lakes too.  And because they will dry up, there’s no real point in not fishing them “dry” (the fish are not going to survive once the water disappears).

It was a really interesting day and the kids seemed to enjoy it as much as we did (I wasn’t sure how boring they would find it).

On our way back to Marree, we stopped in at a little camping spot set up by one of the stations.  They had a little tub there that could be filled direct from a hot spring.  It was a bit warm for my liking but the kids enjoyed it:

Next Installment (hopefully in the not too distant future): Lake Eyre.

It’s been a while since we’ve used our camper trailer.  More than 2 years (that’s how long we’ve had the caravan) although I’m not exactly sure when the last time we used it was.

We kept it thinking we’d still use it for camping but hadn’t used it since we bought the caravan.

So in the school holidays we dragged it out of the shed, dusted it off and decided to take a trip.

Trailer Boy was particularly excited as he can’t even remember going camping in the Camper Trailer.

We decided to head north with some friends to see the Cooper Creek in flood and the ferry that has been reset up for the first time in 20 years to take traffic across the creek (the Birdsville track is cut off where the Cooper has run over the road).

To make it lots more fun, we went with another family.

To make it more challenging - we told the kids they had to go “electronics free” (okay, we did let them have their DS’s for a while in the car but then locked them in the glove box).

So the kids didn’t feel totally “abused”, we also went phone free and I went make up free (well, Farmboy went make up free also but that’s normal for him! LOL).

Stupid phones didn’t work out there anyway (yeah, we did try and send 1 text as a friend went into hospital just before we left and we thought we’d better check if he was still alive - he is by the way).

Our kids are used to caravan parks with lawn and jumping pillows etc etc.

This one just had dirt.

Yet another challenge.

But they were up to it.   It did take a little while but they soon figured out ways to turn dirt and stones into games:

This had disintegrated a bit by the time I got a photo of it but it was a hopscotch of sorts.  Half the fun was in the making!

While we were packing up, the kids invented some kind of game which had them exercising to become “strong men” or something like that:

It was a GREAT experience for them and I was tempted to come home and throw out all of their toys.  Kids don’t really need toys do they?

Of course, camping wouldn’t be camping if you didn’t have to share the facilities with a few Australian natives:

This little lady had taken up residence in the Female Toilet Block.  She didn’t really bother us though (at least she wasn’t on the toilet seat!).

The facilities in Marree were basic but at least the water was hot and the toilets flushed.  I’m not a huge fan of the whole “bush camping”. 

More photo’s of Cooper Creek and Lake Eyre to come.

Farmboy and I were lamenting with one another the fact that we could both do with losing 10kg.  I could probably do with losing a few more but 10kg would be a good start.

We have these conversations on a semi regular basis and then share some cheesecake or chocolate.  LOL.

This time around, we’ve decided to get a little more serious.

We tossed around the idea of having our own little “biggest loser” type competition.

That had a couple of problems:

1.  He tends to lose weight much easier than I do (he just tries to a little less often).

2.  Competing against each other is more likely to create an environment of sabotage rather than support as the spirit of competitiveness takes over.

SO, instead we decided to run a challenge TOGETHER.

Our goal is 20kg COMBINED weight loss (hopefully that’ll equate out to around 10kg each but any weight loss is better than none so we’ll just see what happens).

Rewards are based on 5kg increments of COMBINED weight loss.

This is what we’ve come up with:

Goal 1 - lose 5kg combined.  Reward: Go Out For a Meal

Goal 2 - lose 10kg combined.  Reward: Undecided - need some ideas

Goal 3 - lose 15kg combined.  Reward: Day Out (including shopping for new clothes)

Goal 4 - lose 20kg combined.  Reward: Night Away somewhere nice.

Sundays are our “weigh in day”.

I prefer to live in denial so was reluctant to face the truth.  Turns out I was lighter than expected.  Yah!  If I can succeed in losing 1okg I’ll be back to pre-baby weight (which still isn’t my ideal weight but a good milestone to achieve).

We haven’t set any time frame for our weight loss.  We’re just trying to encourage each other when it comes to daily exercise and not overdoing it with junk food.

I hope it helps!

A couple of things happened while we were in Adelaide recently that are quite significant in terms of indicators of my recovery.

It’s been a slow and drawn out process over the past 4 and a half years, trying to claw my way back from total darkness and brain fog to the me that had to be in there somewhere.

On Sunday Singstar Princess went to stay with a friend.  No big deal given she’s almost 10, right?

Well, I felt sick the whole time she was gone.

A feeling I haven’t experienced since our youngest was born.

Not that I’m necessarily glad it’s returned.  I did enjoy being able to let go of my children that little bit easier (at least without feeling physically ill).  But I am happy for what it symbolises.

The “old me” returning.

The other thing was a little more exciting and a lot more fun.

I started salivating as soon as we got near shops.

Now, before you think I’m a complete weirdo, I’ll give you some background.

I’m a shopaholic.

Self confessed and darn proud of the fact.

I know that doesn’t really fit with my “simple living” ideals but still….

(everything in moderation right?).

As a teenager I used to shop as a way to destress.

Not necessarily buy anything though.

Often times just wander around browsing, picking up the odd bargain or 2.

When I married Farmboy, the biggest thing I seemed to struggle with was the lack of shopping (these days with online shopping, the farm isn’t quite so isolated from shops but back then…).

On the few occasions we went to Adelaide, I’d start almost hyperventilating with excitement as soon as shops came in sight.

I could shop for days!

Once kids came along, Farmboy and I fell into a rhythm of him taking them to the movies while I had a couple of hours of uninterrupted bliss at Tea Tree Plaza (and shopping centre in Adelaide).

After the breakdown, I couldn’t cope with shopping centres.  The bright lights, loud noises, crowded spaces and general clutter all grated on my nerves and I had to get out of there as quickly as possible. 

To be honest, I’d kind of resigned myself to online and local shopping, figuring perhaps I’d never get excited by the larger shopping centres again.

Until last weekend.

I could feel the old feelings returning at the thought of getting to go shopping.

With only 4 things on my list, I was optimistic that I’d actually have time just to browse.  And I WANTED to have time to browse.

Sadly, I didn’t count on taking 2 and a half hours looking for tennis shoes for Lleyton, only to come away empty handed.

BUT, I did have approximately 1 hour to “power shop”.

And power shop I did.

Not really my preferred method of wandering around browsing but still satisfying.

In that hour I managed to buy myself a new handbag (marked down from $70 to $30) as well as 2 tops (both less than half price).

I also got a couple of Christmas presents, some stocking fillers and some pyrex ramekins so I can cook myself some wheat free stuff for the freezer (and got a pleasant surprise when I got to the counter to discover they were also 30% off).

The high I got from that hour lasted me for days (probably helped along by my bargains).

It’s probably scary in a way how much of a high I got from shopping.

But my point is, I feel like the old me is returning.

The ability to experience highs and have joy that lasts beyond the actual moment is something that has eluded me for many years now.

It feels good to think that might be returning.