My head in the lion's mouth
It’s been a fairly exhausting week. Glad it’s Friday.
On Monday night I went to Domain library to do some Editing homework. I like it there – there’s things like leopard-skin furnishings and stuff! It’s open til 8pm so it’s a nice place to hang out at night time. On Tuesday night I went to the Uni Library – that one’s even better – open til 11pm! It’s also a very peaceful place – even more so than the Domain. I can hide in a corner and forget about the world while I study.
Tuesday was Anzac Day. G came over to stay so we could get an early start in the morning. We downloaded Lemmings from the net and played it on my laptop! So cute!
Woke up about 7am Anzac morning due to the noisy cat. I spent a couple of hours doing homework, and also browsing MySpace. Found a couple of people I knew from NSW – but it seems a lot of people set up a MySpace account and then forget about it! Mum rang at quarter to 10 saying T had already arrived, even though I had said I wasn’t planning to get there til 10:30! Super-eager J So I cruised up and G said he’d meet me after he’d finished his Iced Coffee. On the way there I was shaking with nervousness as well as anger. I was listening to Rage Against the Machine and trying to fire myself up with some positive energy.
I started to pack my stuff, but then Mum said Dad wanted to talk to me. I really didn’t want to, as I really just wanted to grab my stuff and go. He didn’t so much talk with me, as he talked at me. He did apologise, but I still don’t think he understood what he did wrong. Of course he blamed everything on my brother, even though he hasn’t seen him in years! He doesn’t want to take responsibility for his own actions. I said he should stop drinking – and he didn’t say anything. He doesn’t want to admit he’s an alcoholic (he doesn’t drink in front of people – he does it by himself in the garage!). I said he should see a psychologist, and he said he didn’t want to because they’ll make him join a church group! I said he should go to the Dr and he said no because he didn’t want to go on drugs (hello…alcohol’s a drug!). And he said he was depressed because he had no friends. I said he should go and make some new social circles, but the problem is, he doesn’t know how to be friendly, and also hates spending money and has no interests.
I said that in order to have people respect him, he has to respect people including his family, so his behaviour has to change. He said he was 60, so he can’t change. He kept going on about the past (mainly to do with my brother) so I kept reminding him it had nothing to do with my brother. My brother was not there when my Dad started abusing me, Mum and G, and smashing up the house! Then he said he wanted people to forget about the past. How can we when he keeps bringing it up?! Until he takes responsibility for his actions and changes his behaviour and attitude of course he’s going to keep pushing people out of his life. He refuses to believe he has a problem. He knows something is wrong but is unwilling to face it or solve it. I kept reminding him that he’s been doing the same thing for over 30 years – this is not just a ‘once-off’ and he really should learn his lesson that this is not the way to behave to one’s family.
So, all that talking slowed me down. Luckily G and my friends T, M & L had pretty much nearly packed up everything in my room by this stage. Having more cars definitely makes moving easier. It would’ve been even quicker without Dad taking up all my time with his ranting and raving. Mum tried to get us to move the fridge, but we really didn’t feel like it – it was a fairly hot day and we didn’t have the right equipment.
Once we’d moved everything to my brother’s house, T had to go home, but G and I went to lunch at Pizza Hut with M & L. It was nice to catch up with them. Pizza Hut were a bit skimpy with the pizzas and the garlic bread was devoured within the first few seconds it hit the table because people had been waiting so long for it! But I really enjoyed the jelly and ice cream – that’s my favourite part!
Later that afternoon G and I took a bunch of stuff to his Nanna’s for storage. She’s kindly letting me use her shed (a MUCH cheaper option than National Storage who charge over $100 per month). Mainly my kitchenware and folders and books.
That night I had a dream that my Mum was encouraging me to place my head in a lion's mouth. I think it must have represented my conversation with my Dad.
On Thursday I went back to work and on Friday (today) I had half a day off, so I decided to go through some of my stuff in G’s Nanna’s shed. We also had a Barney Burger at Barnacle Bill’s, which was lovely. It’s been raining all day today. Been a bit scarey on the roads. Flooding here and there as well. But, our gardens and reservoirs need it. Apparently in Queensland there’s Level 5 Water Restrictions, which mean the only parts of a car you can wash are the windows, mirrors, lights and licence plates. A workmate of mine moved up there a couple of weeks ago. I wonder if she’s regretting it now?
I learned something new the other day. People think the reason Americans spell words like ‘harbour’ without the ‘u’ is because they’re lazy. But it’s actually because when America was settled, the English spelt it as ‘harbor’. However, a little while later, everything French came into vogue in England, so they added a ‘u’ to words like ‘harbour’ and ‘labour’. But America kept the old spelling. So the American English is more English than the UK English!!
I learned something new tonight as well. When you are wine tasting, you spit, however, when beer-tasting, you don’t spit. This is because the bitterness can only be tasted as you swallow it.
I read in the paper the other day that in about 5 years some car companies in China will be producing 1 million cars per year, per factory! That’s going to eclipse Mitsubishi and Holden and Australian industry is just going to be left behind in the competitive stakes. So, we better start making something else that the Chinese aren’t good at, and fast!!
Last week there was a mass-shooting in a US university. If it had happened in Australia, we would’ve done something similar to what we did with the Port Arthur massace – buy back people’s guns to prevent it happening again. What do American politicians suggest – they say that the ban on carrying guns into universities be lifted, so if a gunman enters the campus, the students there can shoot back at him. All I can say is, Americans watch far too much television! That’s the craziest thing I have ever heard.
