- "Such a Cairns girl, I just went outside and it was freezing! I came inside and checked the thermometer and it was only 23."
I know how Kirsten feels.
Looking at the weather page this morning - after prematurely awoken by neighbour lawn mowing expeditions, when the good Lord said.. thou shall rest on the seventh day. I mean, what's that about?
Maybe inside Kirsten's cave it's a toasty 23, but this morning's outside temp in Cairns is only 19. I dare say my Cairns Highland... no, I detest that term... my Atherton Tableland and Kuranda readers, would have enjoyed overnight temperatures around what mother is experiencing in Christchurch.
It's funny how we set new tolerances and boundaries on what we define as comfortable. It's easy to take for granted our year-round climate and discover a new type of cold.
Last evening when I VoIPed mum, she said this year's winter in the South Island has been so cold. This is her first winter at Kate Shephard Rest Home, after 46 years living in my birth home. This new abode is named in honour of famous Christchurch resident Kate Sheppard, for her impact on women's suffrage movements. New Zealand was the first country to introduce universal suffrage allowing woman the right to vote. We were also responsible for pavlova. Aussies can have underarm bowling. And Russell Crowe.
Although I have two brothers living close by mother's new residence, the transition she's going through, triggered by her last remaining sister's death from Pancreatic cancer just a few months ago, who refused to stop smoking - even on her death bed, has been emotionally and physically traumatic. It's so difficult to know how anyone prepares for such a massive life-changing event so late in life, when you've had everything just the way you like it. I know many reading this, will have helped their parents through such transitions.
I recall Mayor Val telling me last year, as her mother entered that last year of her life, she refused to be separated from her Tasmanian family cottage where she lived most of her life.
After a packed coffee-coated Saturday, with wall-to-wall visitors and phone calls from gossip queens of almost every political party, I look forward to a restful Sunday.
Amen.
3 comments:
Kia Ora from the depths of winter in the cool 'Te Waipounamu' (South Island of New Zealand). The Christhcurch City Marathon is on today, raining and around 5 degrees, with some snow forcast for the hills this evening.Mmm, just a temperature of double figures would be welcome.
Yep, the moving of oldies is a difficult thing for all.
Cheers
Mike - I don't often suggest Wikipedia, but it's probably accurate enough on a topic such as cricket.
Check out the entry on bowling and I think you'll find you've been conned, again, by Australians (or maybe you just wanted to see if anyone was awake?)
Underarm bowling was the original style; a sneaky Australian merely reinvented it more than a century after the practice had fallen into general disuse.
The credit for overarm bowling, apparently, goes to English women cricketers.
Not sure about Russell Crowe. One of NZ's bloated ground-dwelling birds, maybe? Or an Australian brag?
Other than that, a charming piece of writing. But why do swamp dwellers moan on and on about the cold, much worse than us lot in the hills? Why don't you grow beards?
Hi Mike
I understand completely where you are coming from. My father recently moved to a rest home in St Albans, Christchurch and having to leave his home was traumatic.
Fortunately he is still able to look after himself at almost 90 and owns a small apartment in the nursing home so still has his independence.
The reason I left the cooler climes of Chch was to seek a warmer environment and Cairns has not only provided that, but great friends and lifestyle as well.
We are lucky to be able to choose where we live and even though it was a really nippy 15oC this morning, and the floor boards were freezing, I am sometimes a little jealous of the heated floors my father has.
Good luck with your mothers move, she is lucky to have family close.
Josh O'Neill
Manunda
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