When IS Halloween Anyway?

I thought it was yesterday and was glad we didn't get any grubby teenagers begging at the door like last year but on the radio someone said it was actually today, Sunday.

I think Halloween is a delightful American tradition, yes I know it's origins are Celtic, but the Americans have made it part of their culture and part of the growing up of their children.  We grew up watching it on television and being envious that we had nothing similar here, but it never occurred to us to emulate it ourselves.

Every year here though the shops carry more Halloween type merchandise, this year it was almost like Christmas.  Plastic pumpkin buckets, party ware, decorated mudcakes and Woolies was even selling beautiful whole pumpkins for $25, to hollow out and put candles in I guess.  Just another grab for the $$.  We have had kids, always teens, come to the door over the years and I basically tell them (nicely) to piss off and that Halloween is an American tradition, not Australian.  Knock on my door on Australia Day and I'll give you a piece of pavlova.  Come around on ANZAC Day and I'll tell you about what my dad did in the war and share our ANZAC biscuits and snags on bread with onions and tomato sauce.  Don't pretend to embrace another country's culture in the guise of getting free lollies.  Go out and get a job, or cook your mother dinner or something.  They don't even bother to dress up.  Little dickheads.

Stayed in bed reading till eleven, got up and took care of the animals' breakfasts and sorted out the dishwasher then had to shower and go down to the supermarket yet again to cater to my son's enormous milk habit.  I mostly get him the Farmers Best Omega 3 in the litre carton.  It's low fat and he drinks a whole one of those a day.  If I buy it in bulk or in the two litre container he will drink it all.  I am all for milk drinking but he is overweight already and really doesn't need so much of it.  Still it makes me get out of my pjs and shower and do my hair and face each day so that can't be a bad thing.

I'm doing homemade hamburgers tonight.  I got some really nice beef mince, Angus I think (on special of course) and I'll put pureed broccoli and cauli in it.  I got us a lovely crusty roll each and a jar of the lovely burger relish.  I'd love some real deep fried chips with mine, but I resisted buying oil for the deep fryer as I know I've stacked all the weight I lost back on, well some of it anyway and I need to cut back on fatty stuff, not that I eat a lot of it.  I can still get into my skinny jeans though so that's good.

Didn't do dessert last night, I'm still having trouble with my feet swelling, no idea why that's happening but it's annoying.  I might make an apple crumble tonight.  Josh won't touch it.  If he ate any fruit his brain would explode and his skin would melt off his body I think.  Emily will eat it thankfully.  I bought our first mango of the season the other day and she devoured it.  I had a bit and it tasted like Summer.

On our way up to Narrabri we saw a tortoise walking across the highway.  I stopped and Em got out and put it in a safer place near some water.  They wanted to take the bloody thing with us!  They stink.

I missed the turnoff to Forbes and we ended up 20km out of our way but if I hadn't we wouldn't have seen the tortoises.  The second one we saw Josh got out and helped relocate him.  If I don't take a wrong turn somewhere on a road trip it's just not a family road trip the kids reckon.

Here are the Ferals in the pool at the caravan park in Narrabri.  Later, I raced Emily and she beat me most times.  And I am the swimmer in the family!  I think I still have water in my ears.

We went out to Burren Junction to the hot bore.  This was one of the places Phill took me on our first trip up to Narrabri to meet his parents, when we were newly engaged. It's been done up since then and is very nice, a favourite camping spot for the grey nomads.  The sign tells us that the water is 2 million years old.  Only my Emily would mention dinosaur poo.

Emily has stopped wearing makeup and she looks like my gorgeous little girl again.  I hated her wearing eyeliner especially and I told her she didn't need anything at all at her age and to enjoy being beautiful naturally while she could!  But I am a believer in picking my battles and letting kids express themselves if it's not hurting anyone.  I started wearing makeup very young, and someone told me once it was a common thing for kids who'd been sexually abused.  Not sure why.  I just like wearing it and always have.  I will not leave the house without my mineral makeup, eye liner, mascara, blusher and lippy.  Especially now I'm on the other side of 50!  With all the other problems I have with my daughter, I am so glad she is in no hurry to grow up.  She has dabbled in boyfriends, but sensibly told me that they're wanting things she just isn't ready to give yet, and yes the makeup and hair thing, but mostly both of my youngest are happy to just do kid things still.  They are still mightily pissed off with me for nixing Santa.  But Kate was 11 (and surprised me by being surprised) when I told her the truth and I figured it was only fair. 

I'll say it again but I am SOOOO glad I got these kids out of Sydney.  The 16 year old boy who was stabbed to death over the weekend died right near where we lived when Emily was born, in St Andrews.  In fact the house in the background of the photo in the Sunday Telegraph (nothing to do with the murder) was one of the best Christmas lights houses in the neighbourhood and was actually in our street.  The suburb used to be a better part of what is a troubled area, Campbelltown, where I have lived many times and raised children.  And also in the paper I just read about the young man who murdered a girl he met on Facebook, writing a long rambling letter to said paper about his arrest and his childhood, schooling, family etc.  He is the brother of Emily's former best friend when we lived in Ambarvale, before we returned to Junee.  Emily had stayed overnight at their house while he was there, and Jade stayed with us many times and was at our house all the time.  I worked at the school canteen with a neighbour of theirs, before they moved, and she said the house was filthy and the mother was emotionally absent.  In fact I never met the mother.  Jade was allowed to come and stay with us without us meeting either parent.  The father was the one who would come to things at the school and I did meet him before reluctantly allowing Emily to stay over at their house on two occasions.  We don't allow sleepovers anymore.
They are clearly a dysfunctional family and I was surprised to read that the alleged killer raised issues about his father and not his mother, in the letter to the newspaper.  I shudder to think that we lived among these people and my precious child was in their home.  I am so glad we got out.  Although it would appear that the tiny little greasy people next door have a jailbird son of their own.  My bedroom window is right near their front gate and I just overheard a very interesting conversation.  We may be mere serial renters but at least none of my kids are in prison.  I hope.