My Mosaic

I'm sorry to hear he has terminal cancer. That sounds so tough @Bow . I can imagine it may bring up a long for you for when you were battling cancer? (sorry if this is too close to home. I can remove it).

I hope it will be a fruitful trip. Please look after yourself when you are away.

No it’s ok @tyme thank you though.

yeah it is a bit close to home for me, but thankfully my brother doesn’t have to have his chemo treatment while we are there, so hopefully he will be well enough to get out a do some stuff. this is the second time he has had cancer. He had a brain tumour when we were kids…

Oh dear @Bow . I wonder if the brain tumour is what affected him so he ended up living the way he did? He sounded very lonely.

Does your family have a history of cancer?

It must be so tough.

He was actually born with many disabilities @tyme he was born with a hole in his heart which he had surgery for very young. He had facial palsy- they transferred muscle and nerves from his leg to help that. He was never diagnosed with anything like autism, but he certainly has some learning/ social/ developmental delays. And I’d probably agree that his radiotherapy would have had some kind of impact on his brain developmental too.

I think prior to this current sickness, he was generally happy doing his own thing, living his life. He has his hobbies, his deeply set in his ways and there is no way to try and change his mind. (I told him what my ex did… even showed him proof. I still don’t think he believes me.) his a complete dag 😂 and wears an akubra hat whenever he goes! I always walk a few meters ahead of him!

yeah there has been a fair bit cancer in my family unfortunately, particularly on my mums side. Both nan and pop died of cancer. Mum is one of 6 and she is the only one that hasn’t had cancer, only 3 are living.

I’ve got a referral sitting in my inbox to have a colonoscopy… I should get on to that.

That's so tough @Bow . And I'm sure school back then wasn't as inviting as it is nowadays. It would've been so hard for him.

Your other bro is alright - for now?

How long are you staying in Tas?

@tyme He managed with school… somehow. And he moved around a lot with dad too. He got picked on, but school was… is different in tassie. There were no exams in high school (7-10). You then went to college for years 11 and 12 and you picked whatever subjects you wanted. My brother did a lot of IT and computer subjects. I only ever had one exam and that was in year 12 for psychology.

my younger brother is alright. Although not the healthiest person by his own choice!

we are only in tassie for 5 night. Would have stayed longer but have to be back for a market for mum next weekend.

how are you @tyme ????

Oh! You are still going to the market for you mum. At least your D will be happy @Bow

I'm glad to hear that your bro managed school. I'm not sure if school was easier or harder back then. I guess the hardest part now is technology in classrooms. It's supposed to make life easier, but it can be misused and abused. That's the scary part - and kids are so quick. We need to be sharper than them!

Well... tonight I have rain rain rain here. It's leaking through the roof. We are in the process of getting a new roof. The guy that came and quoted did a boo boo and severely underquoted. But because that was the quote, the company have to honour it.... $40k though... It's a lot of money.

So yeah... leaky roof, but everyone is happy, fed and content. 🙂 Kids are nearly all asleep here.

Did I tell you I'm sleeping with my niece? My sister's in laws are here and they have borrowed my bed for a few months.

It's okay. I get frustrated with her sometimes because she sleeps diagonally across a big bed...

Oh well, just smile 🙂

Hey @Laura - not sure if you are around.

Do you mean me @tyme?

Yeah kinda feel obliged to help her @tyme she told me to stay longer in tassie and not worry about the market, but it’s the last one for the year and it’s usually really busy. She’d want to go. And we had the big 2 day market last week, but I only did one day. My SIL helped the other day.

yeah school would be heaps different now. Even 9… 10 yrs ago when I was working in OOHC, it was different. Just so different up here too. So much more pressure on kids in year 10.

your household sounds complicated and I often wonder about it! Are you literally like just next door? As in houses next door? Trying to imagine how it all works for you!
my daughter use to be like that. She slept in my bed nearly every night up until she was about 4. I slept terribly! My own fault! I nursed her to sleep from a newborn and she wouldn’t transfer. I nursed her until she was nearly 3 1/2-4. And then she just would not go to sleep on her own.

40k is a lot! But ya gotta have a roof!
It’s rainy here too. Has been the last couple of days. Showers on and off. I like it though. Hate the heat. Tassie will be nice. Just don’t know what to pack clothes wise!

I’ve just crawled into bed with a note pad and pen. Need to write down what I gotta do tomorrow and what I need to pack.

Your amazing @Bow ... 🙂 You do so much.

As for our house, we are literally next door. We have a shared office space. So the kids can go through the office and go to my house. It's lockable, but I don't lock it because they will keep banging and kicking until I open it.

So yeah, we are pretty much living together. I still retreat to my house at times - I need it. I sneak home so they kids don't see my car. lol. I'm only going to stay there until they grow up, then I'm out! I just want to help my sis as much as possible while the kids are young.

So at the moment, we have 3 kids and 6 adults here.

We are going on a trip all together to sydney first, then canberra in the Jan holidays. We will all be in canberra together. Including my parents, and my other sister and her family. So, it'll be 10 adults and 5 kids under the same roof. My BIL booked a mega expensive house by the waterside so there's canoeing, fishing and all water activities to do.

We have never been on a WHOLE extended family holiday before. This will be the first where the kids get to spent time together for a while. The kids are super excited. Everytime we go to sydney, my sister in sydney is away on holidays with the kids - they travel the world. So yeah, this will be the first time.