That's not why I haven't got her a present though. I just haven't got my act together (again). But I will. And in the meantime...
Due to my new-found addiction to blogging and from spending my time reading blog after blog (instead of doing housework... or shopping for birthday presents), I know what you do when you celebrate in cyberspace. You make a list.
Here then are 10 things about the Birthday Girl:
1. She is horse mad. Since she was quite young, like less than 10. Every year since she caught the horse-loving disease, the top item on every birthday and Christmas list was "A Horse". Took several years of nagging and badgering and staying true to her cause but she finally got one. She also loves horse-racing and once got a very good trifecta, but she is emotional rather than clinical in her race tipping so she can't retire on her winnings yet. Bummer. Her past obsessions include Phar Lap, Kingston Town and Sunline to name but three. She is now a part-time racehorse photographer and some of her photos have been on the covers of racing magazines. (PS. I now know far more about horse-racing than I ever wanted to because of her obsession. She likes to share the love.)
2. She has a diabetic child.
He was diagnosed when he was still 20 months old, and lucky for him she stayed tenacious in the face of imcompetent GPs maintaining the poor kid had a virus, and insisted on more tests. She now knows the G.I. on everything. She has been amazing about the whole thing, and most amazingly of all, it didn't stop her from having another baby.
3. She has a smile shaped scar on her knee from somersaulting off the end of her bed through the window and into the garden bed. Both of us were too surprised to cry for a minute.
4. She can reverse an enormous F100 Ford Ute with a trailer and a boat on it to the water's edge like a pro.
5. She owns more make-up than she can ever hope to wear.
6. She read Watership Down, Gone With the Wind and Lord of the Rings about a million times each in her teens. She also really liked Trixie Belden.
7. Unlike a lot of chicks, she is not afraid to ask. Her motto is "if ya don't ask, ya don't git". Hey, it worked with the horse...
8. She is incredibly loyal. She is still friends with people from primary school. She hates anyone who has ever done her family wrong even if she's never met them. She refused to get involved with a guy she really quite liked & fancied because he was my ex-boyfriend, even though we'd broken up ages ago and there was never going to be a reconciliation.
9. She is kinda short and a little bit sensitive about that but in a good-humoured way.
10. She mangles the toast when she spreads the butter. Every time.
So happy birthday, little sister. I think you are brave and funny and fabulous. And improving with age. Love you lots. xxxxx
Hey big sis.
ReplyDeleteWas lovely, lovely, birthday blog. A bright part of an otherwise slightly crappy day! We did at least have a nice dinner (all bought by me), but at least the other half (certainly NOT better half) picked his act late late in the day, and prepared and cooked the dinner, including taking the lovely fresh crayfish I bought for myself in the morning at the shed markets, when I was feeling down and out about state of the birthday thus far and about having been so late to the markets that the banana man had sold out. Bananas are a VERY serious business since I had the now famous (having made it onto the blog on more than one occasion) second baby Jessica. She's been a tricky eater, and turns out seems to have a distinct aversion to dairy products (dang and blast, I HATE not being able to rely on the humble - and yes, low GI - yogurt), because she vomited and had the runs in the morning, making me LATE for the markets, and made me miss the banana man, who sells his lovely bananas at least $4 a kg cheaper than anywhere else, and at $12 plus a kg, that is important stuff.
LOVE the hair, swishy flicky is v. v. v. good.
love
Bron
Hey sis. I've been meaning to do a "10 things about my sis", after your lovely one, and keep getting sidetracked. So these comments are really nothing to do with the nursing home story, but here goes!
ReplyDelete1. She actually CAN cook, and quite well. For instance, she cooks a MEAN roast pork, and does it now without me even having to ask (or beg - seeing as alas and woe I don't get to eat it at home, as the other half has shot too many wild feral pigs and cannot bear the smell of it!). She CANNOT cook gravy though. I have taken over that job when visiting, as I am the gravy queen! Anyway, I have sampled many ace dinners (like the chicken snitzels), and some excellent cakes and biscuits (lucky thing not to have a diabetic child, oh how nice it would be not to be watching every lick of the scrap from the beaters without thinking 'what is this doing to your sugars!!!!'. I've heard her say she's been the baking queen on many a visit, and there has always been all these yummy things to eat, so DON'T BELIEVE her when she says she's is crap in the kitchen, because I actually reckon she's pretty bloody good. Perhaps she's just distracted.....
2) She doesn't like talking much in the morning, and you get twouble if you talk too much too early. She just needs a good hour to gradually wake up, a but like a lizard lying on a rock in the sun on a cold morning.
3) She picked out the 100/1 shot who ran third in the 2004 Melbourne Cup. Although I won us about $100 from the meagre place bet I put on him (it is my job to put the bets on for the Cup at the track before my working day begins in earnest), and although I put 5 different trifectas on that day, with our various selections, her 100/1 pick Zazzman was the only one I didn't put into my Makybe/Vinnie Roe trifectas. Curse it all. We had 1st, 2nd, 4th; 1st, 2nd, 5th, 1st 2nd, 6th, but not bloody 1st, 2nd, 3rd! It was all my fault! I will never leave any of her lucky vibe horses out again. Ever! She consistently wins money in the lottery too!
4) She's a creative whiz, and makes cards and wrapping paper that puts me to shame. The latest birthday card she did was particularly impressive. She also really thinks about what you like and buys such ace presents, even when she's on a shoe-string budget. She just bought me a Phar Lap t-shirt, which is so ace. And the things she buys always fit! I also got a lovely big soft-toy Phar Lap from her that both my kids fight over!
5) She is great fun to go shopping with, and has always been a pretty funky and hip sort of chick, so the v. lovely looking new swishy flicky hair is great too see! She once turned up to help me photograph at the Melbourne Cup wearing some funky looking pants, I'm pretty sure her big stompy Dr. Martin boots, and I think it was a stripy top that was not so much a mid-riff top but one that basically just covered the boozies and not much more. She looked v. funky and lovely, and made all the stewards do big double takes. I sort of stopped and stared, then thought lucky I don't need her in the mounting yard enclosure where there are fancy dress standards. My stupid spare camera picked that very moment to pack it in completely though, somethign I have never quite forgiven it for, so she didn't get to take many pics that day after all.
6) She is GREAT at crosswords, and I think she can do Sudoko. I can do neither.
7) Despite all of her tap talents, she has still not given me a single tap lesson. So i still can't tap dance. She is v. good though! I have pics of her in shiny red hot pants that gave Kylie a REAL run for her money!
8) Although she rode a bit when we were kids, she doesn't ride ride horses, alas and woe, probably never will. So she is the dancer, and I am the rider, and we can both live with that. Her kids are learning to tap dance, and my kids sit playing my mare's feed, and running all over the paddock together and make mud pies (and my son collects stones that are really dirt and brings them into my car....), and are learning to ride in their own little saddle. My diabetic son wants to canter like the 6yo boy he saw riding in the arena and can trot beautifully! I'm not sure that my sis will want to teach him to tapdance, he will probably throw his chin in the air and scream too much! But my baby girl is a little dancer, and perhaps she will get some tap lessons off her auntie. She's doing a cute little hip wiggle dance, and waves to my horse and says bye bye baby like I do when we leave. Cute.
9) She has picked me up off the ground on more occasions than I can remember, and has come and helped me cope with both newborn babies. I haven't been nearly as much help to her. She has given me sanity on more than one occasion, and specially when there was a very bad boy-toddler poo moment when the new baby arrived, and she managed to convince me that it wasn't all a huge mistake! She also minds my kids when I drag them to Melbourne with me whilst working at the races, and of course amongst the many other things I love about her, I love her for that too.
10) She NEVER mangles her toast. Ever!