Life at The Rock....

This blog is brought to you by Jake aka Baby Jake all the way from Ayers Rock, Australia!

Howdy how, peeps. Greetings from the hot, sandy, red centre of Australia.

Mumma D has been bugging me to write another guest blog from my new diggs here in Yulara. That’s Ayers Rock (I prefer Uluru, personally) not Alice Springs, which is 4-5 hours away, so it’s like mistaking Bundy for Brisvegas. It is an interesting town, with very diverse people. A lot of people only stay 3-6 months, some even less. But I have met people who have been here 10+ years and/or coming back for second and third times.

By a long way the residents are mostly Anglo Aussies/Kiwis, but we also have large Korean and Indo-Pak communities with a few other nationalities thrown in for good measure. There’s also a push for more indigenous employees with the new ownership. And for the most part everyone gets in together; I mean you’re always going to have cliques but the vast majority of people seem to get along okay.

What do I miss, living here in Yulara?? Well the obligatory answer has to be friends and family. And while I do indeed miss them, not as much as most would think. You see I’m not so much the social creature and I don’t see my family all that often. In fact I probably talk more to mum out here than when we were in the same house. She definitely doesn’t get to speak to me as much as she did back home, however, damn the telcos and their “fair go” policies.

I definitely miss the things I did with those people back in brissy. Like crazy arse drives with McGee at god-awful hours, or laying the smacketh down on Jimmy-Jam on Playstation. Definitely miss the ranga dog, I’ve got no one to eat the crap I drop on the floor. Though there are positives; nobody is drinking my alcohol, throwing chips at me in the spa, or chewing holes in my underwear. I’ll leave it to you, as to who’s guilty of what??

I definitely miss Foxtel, I honestly don’t know how people carry on with less than 100 channels. I’ve never liked channel nine and its retarded cousin Imparja isn’t much of an improvement. Though I have come to enjoy programs like The Mentalist & Harry’s Law in my squalor, never seen them before. Hopefully I’ll get Austar hooked up soon.

It is also incredibly hard to get my WWE fix, and it definitely chews into my 3G bandwidth. Unmetered ADSL2+ is a forgotten luxury, I never thought twice about downloading a season of Stargate overnight, yet now I have to question whether I really need to watch that College Humor clip. Sad panda.

Also really missing my couch, if it was even remotely practical to bring it out here it would be here in a flash. Nothing worse than a couch you can’t stretch out on and my couch is just superb for a siesta. It’s gotta be almost 10 years old but I’ve never found a more comfortable couch that isn’t strung between two trees; speaking of which, I’m also missing my hammock. Okay, not necessarily MY hammock as it was a cheapie I picked up on a whim from BCF. But I am an avid Hammocker (yes, that’s a thing) and missing my training sessions (hey, as long as golf, cricket and fishing are considered sports – it’s open to anything).

But the one thing I am missing most is the mighty Coug. Now not everybody understands the connection you can make with a car, but I assure you that it is real. I bought the Cougar in November of 2008 and fell in love with it instantly. She’s not the fastest beast on the road, but trying telling QPS that. There’s every reason in the world not to own her but they do say that true love is blind. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a car person; couldn’t fix anything on it to save my life. But I miss my Coug, opening it up on the Gateway, heel-toe downshifts around Mt Mee, even having a kip in the back down at Dohles Rocks with the tunes cranked up.

But nostalgia be damned, I’m still having a good time out here. Starting to assimilate into one of the locals. Haven’t struck up life long friendships just yet but hanging out with some cool people. Some play money would be nice but isn’t that always the case. Accommodation is bland, but I’ve got a single so it could be far worse. And I tell you I haven’t caught a bus this much since school, luckily it’s free. But when the bus isn’t running, it’s foot power all the way; lots and lots of walking.

Now the job is okay, not exactly what I had in mind when I accepted but we’ll just see how it all plays out. It is very different from Bunzl-land, sometimes in good ways, sometimes not so much. I’ve gone from dealing with $20,000 orders of foam cups over 8 weeks of sales to $200 orders of ‘roo tails over 3 days of sales. It’s a bit of a change of mindset to wrap my head around. And get this, good ol’ Bunzl Adelaide supplies its amenities, go figure.

Oh well, that should suffice for one entry. I’ll make a deal, I’ll write another one when I drive out here in the Coug.

Let me know if you’re out my way, I might just be able to score you a deal.

Adios mis amigos.

The Tree of Life...

So first of all I would like to thank you Groover's for your comments and private emails to me about last night's blog - Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.

Do you know what I love is that I have friends and readers that have opinions and are not afraid to voice them!

I know this website is dreadful for leaving comments and I am in the process of changing over to a much more user friendly version. But to those of you that took the time I really do appreciate it! :)

I can't wait to hear your opinions once the Documentary has aired!

And onto some other sad news. Today I heard from a very good friend of mine that his Mum had passed away. Of course, me being me I had a few tears for her.

Life is such a fragile thing isn't it. And when it ends, no matter the age or reason it's sad. But death I'm afraid is part of life. And you only need to hear other people's stories, stories of little babies not living long, or some that don't even get a chance to live to sometimes put it all into perspective.

I know I did this with my Grandad as a friend of mine lost a baby just before it was due and I thought to myself here I am feeling sorry for myself for losing my Grandad but he got to live this long amazing life until he was nearly 92!

But we all need to grieve, for the young, the old, the sick, the healthy and we all grieve differently. I sometimes like to refer to my Grandad or back to when I first lost him to explain my own take on things sometimes.

And I think until you have gone through something like this you don't truly get it. And please do not get me wrong here. Of course you are sad and you feel your friend's/partner's pain but until you yourself have experienced this loss yourself it's really hard to describe the emptiness that you feel.

And just like the books say, it takes time to heal, time to smile again and we are all so different with how this will all come about.

As we get older I'm afraid this loss is something that we will all have to endure at some stage of our life, whether we want to or not. But with this pain, comes growth and we become stronger for having survived and come out the other end.

So to my two friends tonight that have lost their Mum, I send you my love and a HUGE MORLEY HUG! Of course I could do a tap dance for you both but somehow I don't that right now is appropriate. Let me know when you are up to it and I'll bring round them dancing shoes :)

And speaking of Dancing Shoes.... I spoke to Baby Jake last night. We had a grand chat and I have to say that when I got off the phone I was a little sad and realised that I was missing him a bit. But then I remembered my Blog:

The Baby Jake Reminder List

Of course I didn't need to read too many to lift myself back up again hehehe. Thanks Barb for suggesting I write such a blog!!

Butttttttt I love our chats and this time around we were talking about me visiting him later in the year. I was only thinking today to myself, as you do.... can you EVEN imagine me on that plane flying out there to Ayers Rock! OMG I am going to be beside myself with excitement :) Poor Baby Jake hehehe.

Ahhh Life! It moves on no matter who or what happens but sometimes we just need to sit back and say to ourselves, you know what? How lucky am I to have this wonderful life that I lead, with amazing friends, family and little Embee Louise and my Dove family!

On that note tonight, take some time out to sit back

and appreciate the wonderful things that you yourself have in your own life and we'll chat again tomorrow night!

Me xxx

Baby Jake fly’s the coop!

A couple of weeks back I mentioned that I felt like there were big changes in the wind and well in Morley Manor it’s been kinda like a Hurricane...

First of all Ashlee has decided to move back to Sydney and leaves next Wednesday night.

But on much bigger news (well for me anyway) Baby Jake this week has accepted a job to work at Ayers Rock Resort in the Northern Territory here in Australia.

I knowwwwwwwwww ☹

He leaves on Tuesday 3rd January so that means at least we have Christmas together, even if Mr Morley is all Bah Humbug on me when it comes to Christmas time!

Now Jake did ask me tonight to make it known that right now at this point, he hasn't bought the one way fare yet anddddddd has yet to receive the employment contract to sign. So this is the point where I would like add the *** MORLEY DISCLAIMER *** just incase anything changes.... or as I like to say "to cover Jake's Arse!".

And I guess as parents we all know that this day will come but it is still sad when it finally does arrives.

I like to describe it a bit like this:

You know when you have an animal and when they are very old or very sick and the vet says to you "you will know when the right time is to put them down". I think it’s a bit like that, I mean you don’t want to do it but in your heart you just know that the time has come, as sad as it is.

I think this is how I am feeling about Jake leaving. It's a great opportunity but sad (for me) at the same time.

And how exciting is it to be Jake!! Ahhh to be 21 and have this adventure in life all ahead of you. I always said that when we bought our house together it was a shame because I really thought he needed the experience of living out of home and now well he will get this chance.

And this is the link to where Jake is going to be living and working:

Ayers Rock Resort

It has never been on my agenda to travel there, not really sure why, but just hasn’t. Buttttt of course this has all changed so sometime next year I’ll take a small break and go visit Baby Jake and see Ayers Rock.

You know not long after my Nana passed away my Grandad actually went with his great granddaughter Brooke to visit my Uncle who at the time was living out in Alice Springs. And I know he loved it out there and really enjoyed that whole experience. He hadn’t been on a plane since the war so it was a Big Adventure for him, just as it will be for Jake. And I know Grandad would be proud of Jake for making this big move in his life.

Here is a picture of Grandad with Brooke with Ayers Rock in the background!

So be prepared for a bit of a Sooky La La Morley at the start of January as I come to terms with my baby flying the nest... You will have to be gentle with me Groover’s ok.

And for me well I always try to find the positive in things and my positive take on this one Groover’s is that I guess it might mean it’s my time, time to reclaim me and my life back! So whilst the nest might be empty, this Mumma Bird is gonna spread her wings WIDEEEEEE, so watch out world, Mumma is a comin! ☺

Well so there you go; my news doesn’t get much bigger than that. Wellllllll the only thing that could top that is mmmm maybe Embee getting a new bone! LOL

Love ya Baby Jake and soooo proud of you!

Love

Mumma xxx