Some things in life are taken as a given...like going to the supermarket and seeing apples on the shelf. Beautiful, glossy, perfect apples and not one variety, but many, and not just from Australia but now from different countries too.
What we have forgotten is that fruit and vegetables are seasonal - they are not available all year long.
We are so removed from the process ( farms and farmers are somwhere out in the never never ) that most people just are not aware that there are planting times, growing times and picking times and that different fruits and veges grow at different times of the year.
We just go in to the shops and freak out when we can no longer give our child an apple in their lunch box for school - so we demand them, this makes supermarkets want to supply them, so they buy in bulk and store them, often for many months so that these precious fruits can be available well after their normal time.
So then it becomes a vicious circle. You want - the supermarkets get. And you also demand perfect apples...no spots, no bumps and all the same perfect colour.
The worst thing is that the apples that most supermarkets are now selling are months old - so why are we paying over inflated prices under the pretence that it is "all because of the flood?".
If you dont like to price of apples, go buy bananas or oranges.
Personally I think that we have it way to easy in Australia ( compared to many other countries in the world ). We have isles in supermarkets that are obnoxiously long, and getting longer just to give us even more "choices" with shopping trolleys large enough to be able to house a small third world family.
We have umpteen different types of bread and milk and a bzillion types of frozen foods of every shape, style and colour. What for God's sake are we complaining about?
That this week you couldn't buy an apple?
Sunday 30 January 2011
Sunday 23 January 2011
sOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO DO SOMETHING THAT MAKES YOU SHIT SCARED...
I was listening to an interview on tv this morning and Rob Schnieder ( comedian ) made the above statement.
It made me stop and think about what he had said.
Indeed sometimes you do have to do something that makes you shit scared. You sometimes have to test yourself, your skills and your personal boundaries.
As scary as it might be, it may also make you feel very alive.
A life not experienced fully is a downright shame....
Also some days you just have to do something totally outrageous - especially when you face your own mortality and know that, sooner or later...you may be standing at the doorway of your own passing wondering what in the hell was my life all about anyway.
The fact that we will all die, often makes us find a way to joke it off, laugh about it because the thought of it can be quite terrifying - that all of this will actually STOP.
Not like you can change your mind and go..oh dying was not what I thought it would be can I come back now?
Well no you cant.....not so you can remember anyway...
but watching my mum be in "suspended animation" in limbo and between the worlds has been an introspective process for me...helping me to realise that I have nothing to lose by working out what it is that I want for myself and by just doing it now!!!!!
People who know me would regard me as kind of well.....conservative....often in a very boring way. But I do have my moments. Today I had one of those moments.
I talked my hubby into something totally outrageous yet terribly wonderful and its was such fun. Somewhat of a legacy I can leave to my children and a moment in time that will help me remember my mum when she has long gone to a better place.
Life is full of little opportunities.. use them well.
It made me stop and think about what he had said.
Indeed sometimes you do have to do something that makes you shit scared. You sometimes have to test yourself, your skills and your personal boundaries.
As scary as it might be, it may also make you feel very alive.
A life not experienced fully is a downright shame....
Also some days you just have to do something totally outrageous - especially when you face your own mortality and know that, sooner or later...you may be standing at the doorway of your own passing wondering what in the hell was my life all about anyway.
The fact that we will all die, often makes us find a way to joke it off, laugh about it because the thought of it can be quite terrifying - that all of this will actually STOP.
Not like you can change your mind and go..oh dying was not what I thought it would be can I come back now?
Well no you cant.....not so you can remember anyway...
but watching my mum be in "suspended animation" in limbo and between the worlds has been an introspective process for me...helping me to realise that I have nothing to lose by working out what it is that I want for myself and by just doing it now!!!!!
People who know me would regard me as kind of well.....conservative....often in a very boring way. But I do have my moments. Today I had one of those moments.
I talked my hubby into something totally outrageous yet terribly wonderful and its was such fun. Somewhat of a legacy I can leave to my children and a moment in time that will help me remember my mum when she has long gone to a better place.
Life is full of little opportunities.. use them well.
Sunday 16 January 2011
Hard start to the year for many
It has been a hard start for so many ....only a heartbeat into the new year and hundreds of Queenslanders have lost everything that they own, then we heard of a horrific accident near Raymond Terrace where two beautiful young girls lost their lives and on a personal note, I know that my mum will not see the year out. Her time is coming to an end and she has given up the fight.
No matter what I may have thought that she did or did not do for me as I was growing up - I always remember her as a fighter and this aspect of her in now gone.
She is tired and weary of it all - her body no longer functions and she has an enormous sadness in her eyes.
Every visit I take to the nursing home I watch all of the patients of the nursing home wing slowly deteriorate more and more...a year ago there were only two in beds and now there are six. The poor lady doing the exercises will be doing them by herself shortly as only three or four of the elderly have the muscles left to catch the ball that she throws to them.
So I leave, yet again, thinking how can I live more of my life?
What can I do more fully?
I magine the heartache of going through a sodden smelly house looking for lost treasures that have been squirreled away for years ( as we all do ) and think what it would be like to have one's identity simply washed away.
I am so grateful for all of those wonderful people who have given of themselves top help thie victims of the floods - and to those who feel it is their right to steal, thieve and destroy and cause more heartache for their own benefit should let the "mob" deal with them.....sometimes the legal justice system is a "pussy"......
I wish them all strength and hope and I wish my mum a swift journey home....
No matter what I may have thought that she did or did not do for me as I was growing up - I always remember her as a fighter and this aspect of her in now gone.
She is tired and weary of it all - her body no longer functions and she has an enormous sadness in her eyes.
Every visit I take to the nursing home I watch all of the patients of the nursing home wing slowly deteriorate more and more...a year ago there were only two in beds and now there are six. The poor lady doing the exercises will be doing them by herself shortly as only three or four of the elderly have the muscles left to catch the ball that she throws to them.
So I leave, yet again, thinking how can I live more of my life?
What can I do more fully?
I magine the heartache of going through a sodden smelly house looking for lost treasures that have been squirreled away for years ( as we all do ) and think what it would be like to have one's identity simply washed away.
I am so grateful for all of those wonderful people who have given of themselves top help thie victims of the floods - and to those who feel it is their right to steal, thieve and destroy and cause more heartache for their own benefit should let the "mob" deal with them.....sometimes the legal justice system is a "pussy"......
I wish them all strength and hope and I wish my mum a swift journey home....
Tuesday 4 January 2011
Happy Happy Joy Joy!
So the new year has started and we are being bombarded with how we are all fat and stupid.
How we should stop smoking, overeating, overspending and not trust the banks, or the retailers or your next door neighbour.
Makes you want to sing from the mountain tops doesnt it!
We have seen how half our Queensland is covered in water from floods, how we are losing young people in stupid car accidents and how innocent bystanders are being bashed and robbed while waiting for a train.
Ah yes...and we are the smart ones on the evolutionary highway arent we!
Japan has started whaling and someone is going to start a war, just because thay have all of these fun toys and are dying to try them out.
China is making every single item that we can think of to buy and all of our food is being pumped with shit that is going to make us eventually die in a very disgusting way.
Ah but wait..WE are the smart ones in the evolutionary chain...
We are more interested in who slept with who and if they look fatter now then they did a year ago or whether they have had botox or who has a fat pimple on their arse........ and why is that young blonde girl marrying Hugh Heffner anyway...
We die and take our vital organs with us to a coffin in the ground when we no longer are in need of them while others lie in wait ..and their family sits and watches.
We throw out really good useful stuff because we dont like the colour anymore or there is a newer model out this year and we then spend our entire healthy lives working very hard to pay for all the junk we have collected.
Then we get told at about 50 that we are old and stupid and that we are a bother and should be put into a home where we can go die quietly and not bother our families...
So lets just stop for a moment and think whether all of this is right.
Crazy?
yes...when did we stop noticing what was happening around us?
How we should stop smoking, overeating, overspending and not trust the banks, or the retailers or your next door neighbour.
Makes you want to sing from the mountain tops doesnt it!
We have seen how half our Queensland is covered in water from floods, how we are losing young people in stupid car accidents and how innocent bystanders are being bashed and robbed while waiting for a train.
Ah yes...and we are the smart ones on the evolutionary highway arent we!
Japan has started whaling and someone is going to start a war, just because thay have all of these fun toys and are dying to try them out.
China is making every single item that we can think of to buy and all of our food is being pumped with shit that is going to make us eventually die in a very disgusting way.
Ah but wait..WE are the smart ones in the evolutionary chain...
We are more interested in who slept with who and if they look fatter now then they did a year ago or whether they have had botox or who has a fat pimple on their arse........ and why is that young blonde girl marrying Hugh Heffner anyway...
We die and take our vital organs with us to a coffin in the ground when we no longer are in need of them while others lie in wait ..and their family sits and watches.
We throw out really good useful stuff because we dont like the colour anymore or there is a newer model out this year and we then spend our entire healthy lives working very hard to pay for all the junk we have collected.
Then we get told at about 50 that we are old and stupid and that we are a bother and should be put into a home where we can go die quietly and not bother our families...
So lets just stop for a moment and think whether all of this is right.
Crazy?
yes...when did we stop noticing what was happening around us?
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