FreeRice

Want to improve your vocabulary and do something to alleviate world hunger? Then check out FreeRice - a website that donates 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Prgram each time you give a correct answer to a vocabulary question. The words get harder each time you get the word right, so it can become quite challenging.

You can read more about the UN World Food Program by clicking this link. I know 20 grains of rice doesn't sound like a lot, but it certainly adds up: to date, over 21,000,000,000 grains of rice have been donated through this site. The cost of the rice is carried by site sponsors, so it doesn't cost you a cent to participate!

In the last hour, the four of us have donated several thousand grains of rice between us. Catherine's best vocab level is 11, and I peaked at level 48. As Catherine says, there are three good things about this program:

1. you help people who don't have enough food to eat
2. you improve your knowledge of words
3. it's fun

Let me know if you try it by leaving a comment - we'd love to hear how many people join us!

Railway Rumours

Rumours about the new railway are rife.

It's really starting to look as though the new railway will be either:

1. passing right through our house, or
2. running just below the edge of our block

This is bad and it is sad. None of us wishes to move - but we are also prevented from doing modifications (for Christopher) and from getting even more attached to this beautiful place, until we know whether we'll be able to stay.

We are considering the following options:

1. asking Australia Zoo to loan us some koalas for our gum trees, so we can claim we are a wildlife sanctuary;
2. asking Peter Jackson to film "The Hobbit" here, so we will be a tourist attraction; or
3. burying some dinosaur bones so we can claim to have a vital archeological site on our block.

Any further ideas will be gratefully accepted.

Alert

Christopher has added a new post to his blog site.

Clive

While on holidays last week, I picked up a treasure trove in the form of a book by Clive James, called "Cultural Amnesia". It is a series of essays which are just long enough to read in one sitting, but thought-provoking and meaty enough to provide food for thought for many days. Each essay focuses on a person who has made a contribution to culture in the 20th century - although not always in a positive way.

I have enjoyed James's sense of humour and cutting insights ever since Garry and I avidly watched his TV series, "Fame in the 20th Century" (in the hazy days early in our marriage, before kids). A dear friend (Connie) pointed us to his website last year: Clivejames.com click here if you're interested in taking a look.

Time Out

One of the hardest things about having a break from caring for Christopher, is the way it highlights anew how much it usually demands of you. When you're in the midst of it there's little time to consider the full effect it has on your life. But as soon as you're removed from it for more than a few hours, you have time to realise 'what might have been'. Too, it allows for a sudden upsurge of grief that still catches me unawares after all these years.

My parents have suggested several times that Garry and I should have a whole week away together. What scares me is how much time that would give us to explore who we are when we are not carers. What if all that does is make it harder to keep going? I'm not sure it's a good enough reason not to do it - but I am afraid to set myself free for one week, knowing that at the end of it there is no choice but to return.

Of course, it's possible that one week is long enough to allow me to bring new joy and energy to the role of carer. That is a good enough reason to try it at least once!