Where have they gone?

As anyone anywhere near Brisbane can tell you we seem to have skipped spring and gone straight on to summer. Last week we had 35 degrees celcius here one day. I had to check the calendar to remind myself that it was still late winter after all. I need to digress here to mention the blogpoll. Unknown to me my blog template disappeared so I had to get a new one but the blogpoll disappeared also. I seem to think though that most agreed with me that spring was the best season closely followed by autumn with just one person voting for winter.



Along with the summer temperatures have come the common house flies. Maybe it's because some of our fly screens need checking for holes. With having the windows open some of the little blighters got in. The problem is that we don't have a fly swat. At the end of autumn I threw our last one out because it was so disgusting to look at - it was beyond the 'put gloves on and wash thoroughly outside' stage even. I figured I'd get a new one ready for spring.



Fly swats are pretty cheap. I remember when we first lived in the country town we had Anika in a little push stroller and were searching the local cheap shop for something. Anika was rather quiet so we didn't pay much attention to her until it came time to leave. She had picked up a fly swat on our travels and was waving it around the air and having a wonderful time. We bought it as we needed one at the time (it was summer). It cost all of 34c and entertained Anika for most of the afternoon until we needed to put it to use.



So why is it that I can't find one in the shops even though I seem to have searched everywhere? The pest control section, the general household section, everywhere! Please don't tell me about those fly catcher containers with the stuff inside. I tried them one year and the stuff inside reeked with a smell of rotten potatoes. *Very* rotten potatoes. I ended up putting it outside and it soon became choked with dead flies. They attract flies all right but they attract *all* the flies in the suburb so you end up with more flies than ever.



At dinner last night we mused about why there are no fly swats. I suggested that perhaps the RSPCA had outlawed them. Anika suggested Amnesty International had something to do with it. Hubby just spent his time trying the hit the flies with a rolled up towel.



Maybe we need to get inventive and make our own somehow? I found this device in Google Images:



The handle looks rather interesting. Maybe it's a fly swat shoe phone?

A Happy Perfect-Square-Plus-One Day

My little spies* tell me that in blogdom someone is celebrating a rather special day today so here's greetings from Aus to TobyBo:



When making this card a little monkey insisted on being included and the flower plant was turned into a banana plant.

No marks for guessing the monkey's name.

I had to wait until it was tomorrow today in the US before posting. I think I've got it right.

*the 'little' spies are bigger than me and are 17 and 19 years old.

A feeling of deja vu

This afternoon I took the boys out to a park not too far from here. Hubby is starting to feel miserable with a flu-type thing so he decided to stay home. Matt was sick for a week with a swine flu-like illness but is now better and is on antibiotics and asthma medication just to be sure of no further complications. The doctors are not testing anymore as there's no difference to the treatment.

But back to the park. I was walking along behind Mike on his bike and noticed a man lying flat out on the grass. After checking that he seemed to be breathing I kept walking. When I told this to Hubby later he started laughing at an old joke of our pre-Q children days.

When we were first married we lived in a little unit. When I mean little, I mean little. It may have just been us two but there were also 1500 books and numerous wedding presents plus some furniture we were using whilst my sister-in-law was touring the danger spots of the world. It's true. Every time she landed in a particular country some sort of civil war seemed to break out. In our unit we almost had to take turns breathing to fit it. But I digress again.

One day Hubby told me in a very concerned voice that he'd noticed our rather elderly looking neighbour lying on the grass. Hubby could see him through the fence palings and was worried that he had taken ill. I had a look too but neither of us could see whether he was breathing or not. I'm usually someone who likes to be sure so encouraged Hubby to see if he could get into the back yard. Hubby got in no trouble but still had a problem seeing if he was breathing. He touched the 'body' and the man jumped a mile. He was very much alive. Apparently he had come outside and, enjoying the morning sun, decided he'd stretch out for a nap on the grass. Hubby was very apologetic and the man thanked us for our concern.

Now if I'd stretched out on the grass like that I'm sure some nice big meat ant would come up and have a munch. I do my sunning in a chair instead.