looking back

Happy New Year!

10 Comments Posted on January 1, 2016December 31, 2015 by Snoskred

I would like to wish all my readers a fabulous, happy, productive, awesome and wonderful New Year. Thank you so much for reading, for commenting, for writing your own blogs which I greatly enjoy. I am so glad I met each and every one of you. :)

If you read this blog and you’re not sure if I read your blog, please leave a comment with a link – or contact me privately – because I want to read all the blogs of my readers

A Quick Apology

I usually reply to comments left here on the blog but the past couple of weeks I have been feeling Not Great. I think a combination of losing Red Comb, plus hay fever allergies have kicked in big time. I have also been absent from the comment sections of other blogs. It is not you, it is me.

I’m starting to get my go back and spent some time yesterday going back through the comments, leaving replies. I hope to get back to your comment sections more regularly in the new year. ;)

And now, a quick look back at 2015 here on my blog.

Where Do People Come From?

Here is the top ten list of countries people who view my blog originate from –

My Favourite Search Terms For 2015 –

millers old ladies cardigans – Leads you to this post – Millers Knits.

snoscred – Nope, you’re doing it wrong. And yet, you still end up here! Though I can’t seem to replicate this on search engines at all. Also found – snoksred – snoskret – sonskred – nosskred – onskreds.

females in thigh boots swordfighting with men videos – This will lead you to The Pirate Movie post.

oprah most comfortable shoes – This search leads you here – Shoe Sunday – Oprah Said So.

sheeps butt – sheep testicles – These searches will give you this post – Concrete Sheep

My Favourite Search Questions For 2015 –

can spiders live in your septic tank – Yes but why would they want to? There is not a lot of spider food to be found there. They prefer other kinds of environments, in general. Like my ceiling cornices!

what are the “regular movies” with the most graphic male frontal nudity in them? – And this search results in Abu Dhabi Doo – don’t worry, there are no nude images there. :)

what does morten harket really look like nude? – I’m going with almost identical to how he looks in his bathing suit, except with added dangly bits. Just a guess, but I think I’d be right..

how to entertain a lion – With great care, I would suggest.

how to bait and kill a red belly black snake – This search term always gets a lot of people arriving here on my blog. Don’t bait or kill a snake, read this instead. People get killed trying to kill snakes. If you value your life, don’t try it!

Ten Years Ago Today

10 Comments Posted on August 21, 2015June 15, 2015 by Snoskred

The TV show Six Feet Under aired their final episode.

Even ten years later, with a multitude of shows that have since ended, I still believe that Six Feet Under has one of the best ever endings to a show.

The show was uniquely placed to create an amazing ending because it was a show about a funeral home and it had a certain style, each episode began with a death and the show was essentially about the funeral of that person. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’m not sure we will ever see anything like it again.

You can read the oral history of the ending here – ‘Breathe Me’: The Oral History of the Six Feet Under Finale’s Death Montage

If you never saw it or you want to revisit it, here is a link to the youtube video. I do warn you, BYO tissues, even if you don’t know these characters.. it is so sad and yet beautiful at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNwARV9tPUw

looking back, television shows

Art Time Travel

10 Comments Posted on June 22, 2015June 15, 2015 by Snoskred

Back in 2008 I had an art project which did not work out – I had tried sticking sequins to a canvas with glue which dulled the sparkly sequins. Rather than lose the canvas, and because I had already drawn the stencil onto it, I used modelling paste to build up a texture of my Denkyem stencil.

I was not sure what I was going to do with this or whether it would work out in the end. I thought maybe I would paint it one colour and then dry brush in some gold or silver over the top.

The last thing I posted about it, that is how the canvas looked. And then I got distracted by other things and/or forgot to post any further updates. I wasn’t sure myself what had happened with it, until I was cleaning up my art room and found the completed work in a box.

Now, it looks like this –

I think it turned out pretty well in the end. :) You certainly cannot tell there are sequins under there, and the texture is really nice. The silver metallic paint helps it to jump out of the canvas. If I were to do it again, I might do a matt black underneath the silver and allow some of the black to show through in the lower areas, just to make the texture pop a little more.

You can read the original posts here – Work In Progress – and here – Short Update plus you can see another work I did with the Denkyem stencil here – Opinions Needed

About Snoskred, family, looking back, Snoskred Art, yay

Adult Colouring In & Art

13 Comments Posted on June 8, 2015June 7, 2015 by Snoskred

This post was inspired by this post – Free Write Friday: Doodling is taking me places… – written by Trudie over at My Vintage Childhood – The photos are of art that I have done myself, and also of the current state of my art room.

I was surprised on a quick search of my blog that I have never told the full story of my getting kicked out of art class in year 9. To tell the story I have to go back a little bit further, to primary school.

When I was little, my parents quickly learned not to give me colouring books with things on the pages, because I would get deeply upset when I could not keep my colouring within the lines on the page. As I got older, I discovered that while I could imagine amazing things in my head, they could not be transmitted via my brain, down my arm, through my hand and fingers onto the paper. I could not draw.

Oh sure, I could make a stick figure, and some rudimentary shapes, but to draw what was in my head was totally impossible for me. This was incredibly frustrating. And yet, we had to do art as a subject in school. There was no choice. I loved paint, I loved colour, I was really good at collage and things like making jewellery, glitter balls, sequin art, gluing things to canvas, things like that. I just could not draw, not at all. Much of the time I was allowed to do my own thing rather than trying to draw things, once the teachers learned how frustrated and angry I would get.

Until year 9 in high school, that is. I had a teacher who believed that everyone could draw to a very high standard, if they tried hard enough. She pushed me to draw. And she pushed me. And she just kept on pushing until I snapped.

I forget what actually ended up happening. I forget what the exact breaking point was, or what I did – I’m guessing I tore up my paper, and possibly any other paper I could get my hands on, out of sheer frustration. I’m guessing there was crying, screaming and yelling.. I think I’ve buried what happened so deep inside that it will never be unburied even if I wanted it to be.

What I do remember is the teacher snapped. She told me I was hopeless at art. That was the one thing she said nobody could be! She’d stood there in front of the class at the start of the year and told us, we all have an artist inside, some people just have to work harder than others to let them out. This fact was not news to me – I knew I couldn’t draw, and I’d told her that from the get-go.

Over the years in my art classes, I had found that art did not have to = drawing. I could do some amazing things with paint. It just did not resemble anything else. I said I would prefer not to draw and I would like to be allowed to do my own thing as in past years with other teachers. She said drawing was an important part of the course and because I would not do it, she told me that she was sending me to T2.

Funny, how t2 is now a store most people would love to be sent to. Back in those days, it meant detention. Every time I was supposed to go to art class, I would have to go to t2 detention instead. You had to work on something from your class there, but not painting or gluing or any of the cool things. I was limited to drawing. Yeah, right, like I was going to do that!

What I would do, each lesson, I would get all my colour pencils out of my pencil case. I would sort them into order – they each had a name and a number. I would sharpen them all. Then I would draw small boxes, colour them in, write the name of the pencil and the number next to the box. I did this for nearly 6 months of year 9. Finally art was over, and another class took the place of art on my schedule. THANK GOD. I was so bored, and there wasn’t much left of those pencils.

Of course if someone tells you that you are no good at something, you really don’t want to be involved with that thing anymore. Year 9 was the last year art was a “forced” subject, and in year 10 I did not choose to do art as a subject. I also put away my colour pencils for good. I completely stopped any form of art for over 10 years, until I was a bit older and wiser, and I tried a ceramics class, which led back to painting.

As the years have gone by, I have found ways to be an artist without needing to be able to draw. There are loads of stencils you can print out. You can use stamps. Dot art is another great way to make art without needing to be able to draw. Things like ceramics and pottery can be hugely therapeutic without having to be able to draw. And if you want to do your own thing on a canvas, you can just play with colour until you like what you see.

With Adult Colouring In becoming a thing, I have finally got my coloured pencils back out again. Adult colouring in books can be pretty expensive but never fear here are some great free printables to get you started – Color pages for Mom – Free colouring pages for adults. I am now able to keep my colouring within the lines, which makes it a relaxing and fun activity for me.

One of the first things I needed to do was to make a colour chart. That is something I have had a lot of experience with, lol. :) Though it has been a while and I made a mistake, so I’ll probably end up making another one. Sadly though these colour pencils do not have names on them, so I improvised and made some sticky labels, and my own names.

Over to You –

Are you into the new Adult Colouring In trend? What kind of art do you like to do yourself?

looking back, Snoskred Art

Unpacking The Past

9 Comments Posted on May 25, 2015June 1, 2015 by Snoskred

I’m working with my psychologist to try and unpack some of my bad work experiences – this incident came up in our last session. I’ve written it down in an effort to get the events clear in my head, and also so I can easily refer to it in the future. My memory is not as good as it once was. ;)

One of the best managers I ever had was once totally undermined by a team leader underneath her. Because it was a 24/7 call centre, my manager saw this team leader for a maximum of 2 hours a day and for those two hours, this team leader was on her super best behaviour. It was a total accident that what this Team Leader was up to behind her back was discovered..

My manager called me into her office and told me that she was getting feedback that I was “dismissive”. I said I wasn’t really sure what that meant. Could she please provide me with a specific example. She said she could not, because then I would know who gave the feedback and asked me just to keep it in mind. I said ok, but I can’t fix this without more info, so please ask the person giving you this feedback to speak up and let me know when it happens, and/or ask them if they are ok with you relating a specific example.

A month or so later when we had another catch-up, she said she was still receiving feedback that I was “dismissive”. She had asked the feedback provider re relating an example and the answer was no. As no specific example could be provided, I said, “Sorry, I can’t fix this without knowing more. Plus, now I am starting to feel concerned that the person giving this feedback isn’t adult enough to put their name to it. Maybe there is a reason they will not put their name to it”.

Probably three weeks later, I was walking past the managers office and I heard my name and that word. Her office was glass, so I could see who was in there with her. It was one of the team leaders. The manager and I locked eyes and she knew I had heard it. After that person left, she called me in. I apologised. I did not mean to overhear but I was walking past. Then I said – now I know who is giving you this feedback, I actually know what the problem is – and I am not being dismissive, I am simply too busy to “debrief” with her.

This person was a team leader and if I had a question about how to handle something I would ask her. She would tell me to do X. I’d accept her answer on face value and do exactly what she said to do. Once I’d done what she said, I moved on to the next task.

Two or three hours later she would come to me when it was quiet and try to have another discussion about the question I’d asked. I’d be like.. I did what you said, it is handled, and I’ve moved on to other things. And she’d be like “No, we need to debrief”. And I’d be like, I’m sorry, I don’t have time to debrief. I have 6 other tasks in my queue that need to be completed. The situation was solved and I’ve closed it off, so we don’t need to debrief.

When I explained this, my manager said I was doing exactly the right thing. She actually felt that how I was handling this issue was too polite and she told me in future to be a lot more “dismissive” about these debriefs and just to give a simple no, and she would talk to the team leader directly about this.

My manager then asked me why I had not mentioned this situation to her. I explained that this team leader had told me to always go directly to her if I had an issue with her and she would do the same with me.

I had spoken directly to the team leader about it, and she told me the debriefing was her way of doing things and I should debrief whenever she wanted me to debrief. I said lets do a compromise – if I say that I have work I need to do, let it go. If I’m not busy, we can debrief. In that job, it was rare for me not to be busy, so 99% of the time I’d say I had work to do.

The manager was very unhappy about this “feedback deal”, and on further investigation she found out this team leader had made the same “feedback deal” with every single staff member. She sent out an email making it very clear that any issues with team leaders were to be raised directly with her, and no “feedback deals” were allowed.

I was also very unhappy that this team leader was saying to my face if she had any issues with me she would raise them with me, and from then on, I did not trust her.

All of a sudden, all the issues with people had with this team leader were going to the manager. It turned out this team leader was doing a lot of not great things and the spotlight was well and truly on her. The long cigarette breaks, the disappearances, her refusal to answer her phone when it rang, the non completion of tasks, some bullying of staff members, the times she would leave early and have someone else cover for her, the inappropriate flirting with clients on her calls, all of this came to light.

Because my Best Manager was truly that – an excellent manager – she kept a very tight leash on this team leader once all of this came to light.. but when my Best Manager left, this team leader had free rein to act inappropriately. That was not a fun time for me, but I knew to keep a very close eye on her, and to call her out on her bullshit.

She did not appreciate my calling her out, and she used a new staff member to try and oust me by having them make false complaints about me. Unfortunately for her, I was already in the process of complaining about her behaviour with management and when I pointed out that there were witnesses to the event this staff member complained about and that management should ask them for their version of events, it was discovered my version of events was the correct one.

After that situation, I stated to management that I no longer wanted to work with that team leader, and we adjusted my schedule accordingly, until I eventually left the company, mostly because the new manager was not a patch on Best Manager, and I no longer enjoyed the job.

Eventually, she ended up being demoted from her team leader position. Karma, it happens. :) Though sometimes it takes longer than we would like, and sometimes we are not there to witness it happen in person.

Angry Snoskred, life lessons, looking back, moving forward, work

Buying Pet Food Online

14 Comments Posted on May 22, 2015June 1, 2015 by Snoskred

Big Kitty

In early December 2013, we lost our oldest cat – Big Kitty. In mid-December 2013, we took our younger cat Grumpy in for her yearly vet visit and vaccinations. During the visit her ears were cleaned out, somewhat roughly both of us felt at the time. Unfortunately this rough treatment led to a punctured ear drum plus an ear infection. This led to antibiotics, and that led to complete kidney failure..

Grumpy spent 7 nights at the vets on a drip. You can see via the above photo, she was not very happy about this.. Neither were we! We were both very upset and for a while there, it seemed like she might not make it home. The Other Half went in twice daily to feed her as she was quite difficult with the vet nurses. At some point she turned a corner, and got better.

When she arrived home, she spent over 2 months being syringe fed two to three times daily by The Other Half, and I can categorically state that without his nursing care Grumpy would not have survived.

He has a lot of scars for his efforts, as well, because Grumpy was not a big fan of being syringe fed. She did not seem to have any appetite or drive to eat by herself for a while. Eventually, she did get hungry again and was willing and able to eat on her own.

We were told by the vets that she would need to be on a special diet and a kind of food called k/d Feline Renal Health by Hills Prescription Diet was recommended to us. That is a kind of food you can usually only source from vet clinics, and as a result it can be very pricey. We were paying over $90 for a bag of kibble.

Both of us were not happy with the vets we’d been going to after this experience – in fact we both felt that if the ear cleaning had been done more gently, none of this would have happened at all. I asked around to find out who was the best cat vet in our area, and that is who we see now.

We were already seeing a totally different vet for the chooks because I’d asked around to find out which was the best chook vet. It turns out the best cat vet works in the same practice, so we decided to buy the recommended cat food via that vet clinic and cut all ties with the previous vet. The new place stocked the kibble at a lower price of $72 per bag, so it was a win all round.

That clinic closed earlier this year, merging with a new vet practice. At that time they switched to a new brand of vet only food. We got a sample and Grumpy did not like that food at all. She LOVES the k/d kibble.

So, we had two options – find another local vet which stocked the k/d kibble, or try to find a place we could buy it online. I did some googling and we found a place that looked promising, so when the time came, we crossed our fingers and placed an order. We ordered Thursday night, the order shipped on Friday, and Monday Morning the box arrived. Below you see Happy inspecting it.

Shipping was free. The kibble was the cheapest price I have ever paid for it, coming in a huge $12 less per bag of kibble than what I had been paying. The website has a huge range of pet related items many of which are quite difficult to find in local pet stores.

Plus, they sent us a lolly bag and a welcome voucher for $10 off our next order. The kitties approved the food immediately!

We feed one tin of wet food a day shared between the two kitties, kibble is always available to them, and they have a water fountain. The vet said feeling k/d to the younger cat would be fine, and she likes it, so we’re sticking with that plan.

Having a browse around the website, they have the largest range of cat food that I have seen, ever. There are some cat foods there which our local supermarkets and pet stores stopped stocking – eg the Applaws range which our cats enjoyed – and they stock some foods which I had never heard of before. They stock some Fancy Feast flavours I have not seen in a while, too.

In case you were wondering, nobody paid me to write this post, nobody gave me anything for free.. I just felt this was a great experience and I wanted to share it with you. I know I have readers who have pets and who might find the My Pet Warehouse website useful.

With all that said, I would totally accept free samples of cat food if they were offered to me, but that is only because I don’t like paying for new cat foods and having them rejected with great prejudice by our kitties, who are the harshest critics of pet food. Understandable, seeing as they are the ones who have to eat it. :)

Grumpy performing a pose we like to call monorail cat.

We don’t know how much time Grumpy will have with us. The vet says that her life expectancy may be reduced as a result of her kidney issues. Anything we can do to extend her time with us, we will do it, even if it means we have to budget a little more for cat food by cutting back in other areas. In the meantime, we deeply value the moments we get to spend with her.

This pose I like to call morph ball with a half pike – great leg extension!

Grumpy is sleeping on Carters lap in that last shot, by the way. Carter is in the perfect position for winter, right in front of the gas heater. Plus, he does not move, unlike those humans!

kitties, looking back, moving forward

Millers Knits

7 Comments Posted on May 13, 2015April 28, 2018 by Snoskred

Carter modelling a Millers Knit.

Millers is a weird store. It has gorgeous maxi dresses and sparkly things, but mixed in with that, there are some Clothes Reserved For Older Ladies. It has quite a bit of what I can only call “Fluffy Wear”. Which is sometimes exactly what you want when you are looking for your one great knit.

At least three of my past winter knits have originated from Millers. This purple and black fluffy knit has been a lot of places with me and was my first ever “hunting season” knit, which I bought in the winter of 2007. I can still wear it now, but mostly I use it around the house and wear my most recent knit for going out. It is still going pretty well for an 8 year old knit.

I have already dropped into Millers this season and I can tell you two things – they have some gorgeous long line cardigans at incredibly reasonable prices. The one that caught my eye in store was this Taupe Stripe Cardigan – it is much better in person and it has a metallic gold stripe.

It is entirely possible I might also go back for this Textured Coatigan which seems very Duchess of Cambridge.

And they have plenty of fluffy wear, too. For example this gorgeous popcorn coatigan.

Carter, Carter The Model, Fashion, looking back

Carter The Knit Model

3 Comments Posted on April 22, 2015April 28, 2018 by Snoskred

Leah over at Just Me, Leah, posted this post – Pattern Mixing – a little while back. It inspired me somewhat, and I left a comment accordingly, because Autumn has just begun here and I’m on the lookout for that *one* great knit.

Every year in autumn, I declare Knit Hunting season open. I only want one knit for each winter, and sometimes it takes me all of Autumn to find it.

I thought perhaps Carter could model some of my past season knits and I could share the photos with you here on the blog. Carter is a little on the stick thin side whereas I most certainly am not..

I think the worst part of Carter is his bony shoulders. Sadly I do not have any 80’s shoulder pads handy in order to bulk them out a little. Also, it is super hard to put his arms into things. So we’ve gone for a cardigan draped over the shoulders look with these outfits.

This particular knit was found one Autumn in Canberra, just when I had almost given up looking for that years knit. It has a gold thread that runs through it which is difficult to see in the photos. It has been one of my favourite knits of all time, even after it lost the buttons. It drapes and sits beautifully on me – and also on Carter, as you see in the above photo.

Carter, Carter The Model, Fashion, looking back

Being That Person..

5 Comments Posted on April 20, 2015August 21, 2015 by Snoskred

Some of my stored cards.

Since my Aunt was diagnosed with cancer a while back, I’ve become that person.. you know, that person who suddenly realises that many things have been left unsaid, and now is the time to speak up and say them.

The realization that most of the important adults in my family are now over 60 and the reality that there will come a time when they are no longer able to hear those things I have always wanted to say to them.. it is time to get it together and say those things now.

They are all positive things but writing them down in a card gives me happy tears every time. I just did one this week for her partner, my uncle, and it contained the line “Even if I were to say thank you in every language on the planet, there would still not be enough thank yous in the world to say to you for everything that you have done for our family”.

I’m not saying the things to my Aunt yet because she has a lot to deal with right now, though I do plan to say them once her treatment is done. Though, she might have got a look at the card I sent to my other Aunt, which said many of the things I do want to say to her.

Because I’m 1500kms away, I’ve been sending her packages with chatty, hopefully funny cards, and little treats and goodies. She’s been enjoying them and sending me sms’s in return.

I’m so lucky to have these people in my life, and I am really thankful to be letting them know how I feel now rather than leaving it too late to say these things to them.

The details of doing this are pretty simple. When I am out and about in the world, I always keep an eye out for blank cards with beautiful drawings or photos. They must be blank on the inside, because I want to write my own things inside, not some random person making up words that do not relate to me or my people.

You can find a lot of card stands in shops with $1 blank inside cards now. My chemist has one, and two shops away from the chemist is Loot, which has a couple of different stands.

When I see them and I like them, I buy them and put them in a safe place. There’s a photo of some at the top of the post, and here are a few more. I keep them stashed away in a drawer..

I often buy more than one copy of the cards when I see them, because the same card might go to totally different states and households. Doubling up is not such a big deal, as long as I keep track of which cards I have sent to which person. These cards above are actually fifth copies of these cards. I really like the images.

The red card in the top corner actually has gold cherry blossoms on it. That one is a Loot card. Here is a closer shot, even so I could not get the gold to fire everywhere on the card at the same time. :)

Somewhere in this house, I have a ziploc bag with a multitude of cards in it, that I have stored in such a safe place that I can’t actually find it. Yay me, NOT!

So my challenge to you –

~~Drop by my place and find my missing ziploc bag~~ Nope, not that! :)

get a blank but beautiful card or even make one of your own if you are so inclined – write some positive things you have always wanted to say to a family member or friend – post it this week.

About Snoskred, challenges, family, Greeting Cards, life lessons, looking back

My Uncle

12 Comments Posted on April 10, 2015June 1, 2015 by Snoskred

I’ve sat down to write this post so many times, and I have deleted it without posting it. But this time I am going to push through, complete it, and post it.

When I was a kid, family gatherings were my happy place. Most other kids would have done almost anything to get out of them but I have such a huge respect for the people in my family that I would always go, even if it meant missing out on time with my friends.

My Uncle has always been a bit of an odd duck, but I’ve always adored him anyway. He has a lot of quirks, quite a bit of OCD, and he loves his alcohol – possibly a little too much.

He has always been an argumentative type of person. I recall many family gatherings where he started an argument with someone over something so trivial and mundane and the type of argument that cannot actually be won because there is no right and wrong.. sometimes these arguments lasted for hours.

While I never landed on his side of the argument, I had to deeply appreciate his willingness to stubbornly stick to his side of things despite many excellent arguments to the contrary. He rarely won these arguments and some of them could be raised again simply by mentioning them.

I do remember one very long family gathering where one of the cousins had $5,000 to spend, and there was a huge argument – should he buy a block of land, or a car? My Uncle was for the block of land. My cousin chose the car, which he later wrote off in an accident, and this is always mentioned when they see each other.

He split from his first wife fairly early on, and then was single for quite a long time until he found someone new, lets call her Amazing, because she had to be to put up with the things she did.

My Uncle ended up working with myself and my Dad in an electrical store for about 2 years, when I was young and just starting out in the working world. This was a time when I had many arguments with my Uncle. We are a family of salespeople, but some of us in the family refused to sell products we knew to be shoddily built. My Uncle would sell whatever got him the most commission.

One day we had a huge argument about his brand of washing machines – 99% of people would get less than 2 years out of his favoured brand, due to a built in electronics panel which always failed – in fact many of us in the industry believed it was deliberately designed to fail. He owned one himself, and the company routinely paid $20-50 per machine sold to the salesperson – they call it a “Spiv” or a “Spiff”.

My brand was built to last, had an old school mechanical dial which never failed, plus had a 10 year warranty. They did not pay spivs.

One day he arrived at work looking downcast – his washing machine electronics panel had failed. His machine was less than 18 months old and yet, out of warranty, at least for the electronics panel. The replacement panel would cost him around $300, and I said – don’t replace it, because it will just fail again! Buy my machine instead!

I could not tell you whether I finally won the argument – whether he did replace the part or not, or whether he spoke to the supplier and told them to replace it for free otherwise he would stop selling their machines. I’d guess it was the latter option if pushed, but I honestly cannot remember.

What I do remember was this electronic panel failure meant I finally won the argument with him. Though I’d always won that argument with myself all along – I knew the right thing to do was to sell the customer the most reliable product, even if it might not be the one they walked in the door asking for.

I can also tell you that at any opportunity, my Uncle does not fail to remind me of this argument we once had. Neither of us even owns those washing machines anymore! He just loves to argue the old arguments, even if he lost them a long time ago.

Things were going well with my Uncle and Amazing, they bought a house together, moved in, and my Uncle was working in real estate sales and doing really well in general. Then he had a health complication and things began to fall apart. He split up with Amazing and eventually..

..he decided to leave the country and go to China to find a new wife.

boggle

Yes, this was quite a shocking development to the entire family, this decision seemed to arrive out of nowhere and many of us were concerned as there is a tendency for Australian men in their older years to marry Women from Asia and then the ladies take off once they get Permanent Residency here.

Coming soon – the story of my Chinese Aunt.

family, looking back

Snoskred – Life in the Country

looking back