I was reminded today that I have this blog - its been a LONG time since I thought of it and wrote anything but I really should as I have always enjoyed writing - so I will try to do a bit more when I have the time. I have spent too much time on Facebook lately with all the groups I run. I must admit Im getting a bit bored with Facebook so I might actually do some writing here.
Anyway my whinge today is Kmart - I noticed the last time I passed my local store that they had totally rearranged the entire store - I couldnt find what I was looking for and left without buying anything. I had forgotten this experience today when I thought "I will just pop over to Kmart to see what they have" I needed a couple of things for the downstairs bathroom as we are renovating the upstairs one and needed to make the one downstairs a bit more usable.
So over I go and as I approached it I realised my mistake - but I took a deep breath and entered the store. What a mess! They had totally rearranged the layout with nothing in the same spot and it seemed half the size of the nice big open and airy store it used to be. It felt claustrophobic and cramped and there didnt seem to be any hanging signs to say where each department was, so you wander around with a dazed expression on your face and wonder if there are any staff in the store to even ask. Gone are the straight and wide open aisles and now there is a rabbit warren of curves and corners and tight squeeze walkways that make it impossible for 2 people to pass without coming in contact. There was no rhyme or reason to the set out - departments have no start or finish but just merge into another and you realise you are in another department when you start to think - where the hell am I? Just trying to find the cosmetic section was hard enough and then it was so tiny with nothing I wanted and then the bathroom section merged into another section and I gave up.
As for the registers - well where the hell had they gone? No they are not at the front of the store any more - I see a sign that says "Pay Here" in the centre of the store and look and cant see anything under it and then realise there is something behind a short wall - oh look, there is the self service ones and over another wall is about 3 registers - only one manned though (of course!) - so you have to pay here and then walk through half the store before getting to the door and what do you do when you get to the door? Have to show your docket and your bag and show the girl what you bought and check the docket - yeah that's going to work well when its busy - no way would I go there in school holidays and dont even talk about Christmas unless they have 20 people as door greeters to check people leaving.
So Kmart have ruined shopping for me (well actually I hate shopping but used to enjoy going to Kmart) Big W and Target will get my business instead... but then Target closed their local store and another Big W (well its a Medium W as its so small!) opened in its place. I have to go over to a larger shopping centre to find a Target these days.
So that is my whinge for the day.
My great great grandmother was born Keturah Patch in Somerset England 1835. In April 1855 when she was 20 she married my great great grandfather Richard Michael Hallett, he was 21. I dont know how they met or if it was a marriage of love or of convenience but only weeks after the wedding they left England for good on a ship to Australia, and looking at the date of the first child born - she would have been pregnant while on the 3 month ship journey.
You would have had to be tough to be pregnant, on a ship on the high seas and leaving your family and homeland for ever, knowing you would probably never see your parents, sister and friends again.
They arrived in Australia on the ship Cambodia in August 1855 disembarking in Brisbane - which at that time was still part of New South Wales (Queensland did not become a state till 1859). It was a pretty rough and new town with dirt roads and no bridges across the river that divided it - they settled in South Brisbane and Richard worked as a labourer and as a butcher (his family trade in England).
Keturah gave birth to their first child Henry (Harry) in Dec 1855 - Henry/Harry died before his 3rd birthday in 1858.
In 1857 their second son and my great grandfather George was born, 2 years later another son Harry was born in 1859 - named after his late brother. Harry lived to be 16 before death took him (there was an inquest into his death?)
In 1860 their first daughter was born - Mary.
In 1861 Frederick was born only to pass away a year later.
In 1863 another son was born and named after his late brother Frederick - this one survived to 19 before passing.
In 1864 Samuel was born but he died aged 7, Joseph was born in 1866 and Grace in 1868.
So after 13 years of marriage in a strange land - Keturah had given birth to 9 children. She then fell pregnant again in 1869... this time it did not end well - the child was born deceased or died soon after as the birth was not registered and Keturah died of "laceration of the womb" - she bled to death after the birth. In those days there was not much that could be done and as births were at home with no medical help other than a midwife if you were lucky, then it was risk every time. It would have been a painful death but she would have had her family around her.
It has to be mentioned that her husband Richard does not come across as the loving father you would want with this many children. In searches of the newspapers of the time - Richard Hallett is mentioned many times - usually in the police reports for being arrested for drunkeness and vagrancy (having no means of support - so probably no money on him and perhaps no job at the time). His eldest son George had to bail out his father a number of times and had to start his working life young to try and support his mother and siblings as his father couldnt or wouldnt. When Keturah went into labour the last time in 1869, Richard was once again out on the town getting drunk and had been arrested - George had to plead his case and tell them his mother was dying so that they dismissed the charges and released Richard so he could go home to his wife.
So in 1869 - Keturah died aged 34 after leaving her family and home in England, living in a strange and hot land, having babies almost constantly and seeing them get sick and die, having a husband who was never home and if he was, he probably wasnt the nicest person. I think she must have been a very strong woman to go through all that - I wish I could have known her - I dont even have a photo of her, but I imagine a strong and proud woman who loved her children and did her best for them.
I feel this as her eldest son George (my great grandfather) was nothing like his father and I think he got his strength and commitment from his mother. He started work when he was young to help out his family as a clerk and ended up working for Baynes Brothers Butchers for 56 years. George was for many years Honorary Secretary for the Labor organisation in South Brisbane and secretary to the committee of the South Brisbane State School. He was also honorary secretary for the Light Gear Club (a fishing club) and a keen member. (Now I know why I was drawn to be secretary of the African Violet Society! Its in the blood!)
George married a Sheffield girl Louisa Bowler in Brisbane -1883 and their youngest surviving son was my grandfather Eric. My grandfather didnt know about all the extra siblings his father had as the only ones that survived to adulthood and married were Mary, Joseph and Grace. He would have been surprised to know about the other 6. I certainly was when I found them in the records when researching at the State Library. I almost yelled out every time I found another child of Richard and Keturah Hallett in the records!
We dont realise how good we have it these days - they bred them tough in the old days - I tip my hat to you Keturah - you are my heroine!
Yes an anklet was the cause of me breaking both my wrists - not now but this was in 2004 - it was January and getting towards the end of the school holidays - my boys would be in grade 4 and 2 this year (Primary school) so only young still. They had been to a few birthday parties held at the local Skate Arena and wanted to go back for a day of skating. So as a treat I said I would take them - I used to do roller skating when I was in primary school and thought I would have a go too, just to see if I could remember. There was a choice of inline or normal skates I chose the normal ones I knew how to work them - was doing well going round and getting more speed and confidence up but my anklet was driving me mad. It was caught between my ankle and the boot and very uncomfortable so I thought I would go off and take it off and put it in my pocket, I went towards the nearest exit - not realising there was a drop of a few centimetres between the rink floor and the carpet - the roller skates went from under me and I put my hands back to save my bum! I landed very heavily on both hands and it hurt a bit (but I saved my bum from a bruise!)
The person in the announcement booth saw me fall and asked one of the supervisors to help me up - they did and I got over to a bench to sit down. When I sat for a while though, the pain started and I felt sick, I wasnt sure if I was going to be sick or faint so I lay down - the announcer sent the manager round to check on me - she said I was as white as a ghost by then and helped me to get my skates off so I could walk over to where our bags and stuff were. I was given ice to put on my wrists - there was a bit of bruising and a little swelling but it wasnt too bad but the pain was pretty intense. I thought I must have badly sprained one but may have broken the other.
I rang my husband at work but he couldnt get away for an hour or so - we waited around for him to arrive and by the time he did the pain had dulled a little and I was able to drive home - though by the time I got home I was in tears and couldnt get my seat belt off at all.
The next day I got a friend to drive me to the doctors and they sent me for an xray - it showed a crack on the radius - in exactly the same place on both - the guy taking the xray was quite impressed I had done the same thing to both. I guess I fell with the same weight on both hands - I was starting to wonder if a cracked tailbone would have been better at this stage.
Anyway the doctor put my wrists in back slabs as a temporary measure - problem was - I think it was the first time she had ever done plastering as I discovered when I got home that I could not bend my arms enough to feed myself or even touch my face as she had the plaster going so far down my arm it blocked movement completely. I had to get my son to feed me a sandwich (after making it for me!) Photo shows me very much in pain and upset.
Long story short - eventually got 2 proper fibreglass casts in black (of course) and had them on for over 6 weeks. Couldnt drive for over 3 weeks and it was not a good time for me.
So beware of jewellery! It can cause broken bones! ( I havent worn an anklet since!)
I know no one reads these but I thought I would have a look at my blog and make a new entry. I have signed up for a new market this year - as you may know I make soap! I love making soaping - if you want to see my soaps you can go to my facebook page at www.facebook.com/VivianneK.Soaps and my webpage that Im not sure anyone has found yet at http://viviannekhandmadesoaps.weebly.com/
So go and check them out and tell me what you think - anyway as I was saying - I have signed up for a new market and will do this one fortnightly to sell my soaps, as well as the one I was doing last year which is once a month on the first Saturday of the month - this will give me a minimum of 3 markets a month - so hopefully get my name out there a bit more - I have a number of regular customers at St Paschals market including one lady who buys my goats milk soaps to give to her hairdresser in return for haircuts etc. Its funny how many people stop and look carefully at my soaps when I mention that I make them all - I guess people dont realise that they can be made at home? At some markets there are soap sellers who only buy the soaps they sell from commercial sellers to resell as "handmade" soap - at least mine really are handmade and home made. Nothing beats a good handmade soap - you can use it all over - face, body, hair. The ingredients are simple with no added nasties to make lather or hardness - just vegetable or seed oils, with water and lye makes soap - some of my soaps I leave unscented and uncoloured so they are fine for sensitive skin and young skin - others I add fragrance and colours to - all my colours and fragrances are soap and skin safe - I also test my soaps on myself and all recipes (yes recipes like you are cooking) are run through an online lye calculator to make sure they are safe - all ingredients are weighed in grams to get the correct amount so no mistakes are made.
I have been making soaps for about 3 years now and Im always learning and discovering new ways of doing things, better ways and what not to do. I now do cold process, hot process and liquid soaps - I want to try making a transparent soap this year too - I have the ingredients - just have to find the time as its a longer process than normal hot process soap
Anyway Im ranting on now but its a blog so I guess that is ok! Im hoping this gets linked to my Facebook page so a few people can see it but who knows. Im still working out some things and how to link them up together!
Ok will sign off and try and rant and rave a bit more this year - should write myself a note to update this more and get on here to see if any of my posts have been noticed!
Off to the shops as its hot today!
A month or so ago I was driving my boys to school (they usually walk or ride bikes but if one has cooking I occasionally drive them) - the high school is on a major road - 2 lanes each way, transit lane, buses, trucks and a very busy main road. So what do we see as we are driving a long in peak hour traffic - this d*ckhead father with his very young daughter (probably no more than 8 years old) riding on the road to the primary school. The kid was obviously not very good on the bike as she was wobbling around like crazy - Dad was riding next to her on the road (taking up a whole car space wide!!) - as we passed we all looked in amazement at this sight - around here - NONE of the kids ride to school on the road - I MEAN NONE! Even the high school kids ride on the footpaths (which are all paved and safe) and they are up to 17-18 years old. So what the hell was this dad thinking to get his very small primary school child to ride her bike on a major road in peak hour? I wonder if mum knows he does this? I would have an absolute fit if I found my kids that age riding on the road. When mine went to primary school they rode their bikes to school - which was close and no really busy roads to worry about - but they rode on the footpath and knew to give way to people walking and to get off the bike to cross at the school crossing. What is this dad thinking to instil in this young girl that riding on the road is ok for someone her age. What if she decides to visit a friend one weekend by herself on her bike and rides on the road? What if she hits a hole in the road and falls under a car driving past?
Anyway this day as we passed this kid on the bike with mr d*ckhead father of the year we commented that she didnt look too good on the bike and as we were waiting for the lights at the intersection down the road a bit the bikes caught up to us - I watched as wobbly and d*ckhead dad approached - they went to go on to the footpath (yay at last) at the service station and what does wobbly daughter do? Yes she overbalances and falls over on the driveway of the service station.
Months later and we are waiting to pull out of our street onto the main road this morning (cooking at school and exams too) and who comes past - older primary school girl (maybe 11 or 12) and wobbly and d*ckhead dad again! Wobbly is a bit better but dad is still a d*ckhead - riding next to not quite wobbly again and taking up a whole car space again! All these cars are held up by the d*ckhead and everytime a parked car is in the way - does he look? does he tell daughter to check if its safe to go into the middle of the road and go around the car? NO of course not cause he is a d*ckhead and he just pulls out and goes around the parked car - causing cars to swerve around him over the middle line - luckily no buses or trucks coming the opposite way but if there was, the cars had to stop and wait for dd to go past with wobbly.
Here's the thing - cyclists (ok maybe not ALL but most) are selfish stupid d*ckheads. "Oh look at me, I ride a bike to help the environment and to exercise my mind and body! Im healthy and doing my bit for the planet" Well mr d*ckhead - if I was to drive an unregistered car on the road at 20kph and hold up all the cars and make people overtake dangerously because they were sick of being held up - then the police would be called and I would get numerous fines. If I was to ride my skateboard (yeah -just pretend ok?) on the major road and pull out around parked cars causing cars on the road to stop to give way to me - well yeah the police would be called and fines would be handed out. If I got an electric scooter (of any type) and rode that down the major road - do you think the cops would like that either? No - but cyclists get away with exactly the same sh*t and no one complains?
How about at night? "I have my red 2 LED light on the back and my white lamp on my helmet - I can see well because of the streetlights" Well mr cyclist I CANT SEE YOU - wearing black clothes and having a red light the size of a coin on the back of your bike is not visible in the dark when I am doing 60kph and you are doing 20kph - Unless you are wearing a reflective vest or backpack and have a red light the size of my car lights then you are NOT visible and I cannot avoid someone if I cant see them, Dont assume you can be seen because you can see the cars.
If you want to be healthy then fine - but dont ride on the road so I have to do a dangerous manoeuvre to overtake, dont hold up buses who also have to use the transit lane, go on the footpath when there is no one walking on it, wear reflective clothing or dont travel at night and if you cant afford to drive take the bus!
Rant over
Its true - Im not a hippy, I dont buy organic food or let my underarm hair grow long (though in winter...) but I am becoming more conscious of the amount of chemicals in the the things I use on my body.
It all started when I first made some melt and pour soap just to save money. Then when my hubby wanted a more lathery soap I made some cold process soap from scratch. Lovely soap - just oils that I chose to put in it and no nasty additives, chemicals or preservatives.
Then I made a shampoo bar and used a cider vinegar rinse instead of commercial conditioner and my headaches disappeared. I checked the ingredients of my "natural vit E face cream" and was shocked a the amount of additives in that and so sourced a proper natural cream with only items I could understand on the label. Next was soap nuts for the laundry to save money and again no chemicals in them and they wash the clothes just as well.
Toothpaste is the latest conversion - have you checked the label on your toothpaste at all? Mmmm quite a few nasties in there too including SLS and some other unpronounceable items. You can use just baking soda or bi carb but it doesnt have a nice taste (I used salt once when I was a child as we had run out of toothpaste and it made me vomit so that is not an option).
I looked online and found a few recipes for natural toothpaste and the first one I tried (as I had the ingredients already) was bicarb soda, vegetable glycerine and a few drops of spearmint essential oil. I mixed a small amount of bicarb with some glycerine to make a paste and a tiny bit of the spearmint oil to get rid of the salty taste of the soda and dipped the toothbrush in it and cleaned my teeth. No foam but it cleaned my teeth great and they felt clean and smooth for a very long time. Next I got some bentonite clay and mixed that with some bicarb soda, a bit of cinnamon and some glycerine to make a paste and a few drops of spearmint for flavour. Ok so its a bit off putting putting mud on your toothbrush and you look like you have been eating dirt when you are brushing with it but once rinsed away you are left with clean smooth feeling teeth and they look shiny and white. I will continue to try these and make sure the grittiness doesnt make my teeth sensitive to hot and cold - when I used a baking soda toothpaste years ago my teeth became so sensitive I had to stop using it (but it could have been other things in the toothpaste and not just the soda causing that).
As with anything I make - I test it on myself first - then convince the family (a husband and 2 teenage sons - not an easy conversion!) to try the item and then once they sort of get used to it I stop buying the commercial item and they dont miss it. My youngest son just rolled his eyes when he heard I had made toothpaste and said "no way!!!"
So that is hair, body, face, teeth and clothes all pretty much chemical free - I guess food is the next thing? But Im not a hippy - really!
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