Oh, the irritation of it all.

Settling down with the moggie last night to watch my favourite stud muffin, Mat Bomer in White Collar and what do I get, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum promising me the world on a plate. Promise me Mat and I'll vote several times over for you. That ruined my entire night. Tonight isn't much better, instead of Grimm being on at a reasonable hour, say 9.30, it's on at 11 because 'Please marry my son' and 'Prom Wars' are so much more to the taste of moronic viewers. And when did footballers become more important than cake? The great bake off finale got booted for updates on Essendon's drug buys. All this in one week, now that's irritating.

Mother has a new roomie, no, not that one from last week, she's gone, nor the other from the week before, she's gone. I haven't seen the new lady but mum says she's quiet and only a little demented not like the other roomies who are ramping up dementia to new levels.  Mum puts on her headphones and pretends she can't hear them even if she doesn't have the dvd viewer on. I ordered another load of dvds last night from this ebay site in Melbourne. They are made in Taiwan with Chinese subtitles but with the original movie soundtrack in english, just turn off the subtitles. 
I found that she had trouble comprehending modern movies but the old movies from the 30s and 40s which she was familiar with are fine. The Midsomer Murder and Agatha Christie series she knows off by heart.  She's already sobbed her way through 'Mrs Miniver' and 'Random Harvest' and laughed through 'Arsenic and old Lace'. I bring home the movies she'll re-watch later but she keeps those she really likes. I did find a movie last night called 'A portrait of Jennie', comes under the heading of romantic thriller and stars Jennifer Jones. I'll say this about the psychological thrillers of the 40s, they didn't need blood and masks to keep you riveted to the seat and chewing the fingernails. Another good thriller was 'The Spiral Staircase' with George Brent and Dorothy Maguire and a neat twist at the end.
She's not fussed about musicals because they put those on after lunch in the dayroom and they go round in a perpetual loop. If she never hears Sound of Music again she'll be happy. We decided on 'Meet me in St Louis' for the costumes and 'Easter Parade' for the great songs. She doesn't really like Fred Astaire, not fussed about Gene Kelly but loves Tyrone Power and Cary Grant and will tolerate Errol Flynn if he's playing a pirate. June Allyson whines and Joan Fontaine is whimpy but Katherine Hepburn is a winner.
It's amazing really that she can hardly remember last week but give her a small hint about a movie made in 1936 and she'll tell you the whole story. If she goes out watching her favourite dvd, it's a great way to go.

Nothing like a good meme.

PONDERISMS

I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.

Gardening Rule: When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.

The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.

Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead.

Life is sexually transmitted.

Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.

Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

Have you noticed since everyone has a phone camera these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to?



Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again...

All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.

How is it one careless match can start a bush fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, "I think I'll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?"

Who was the first person to say, "See that chicken there? I'm gonna eat the next thing that comes outta its bum.

Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?

If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?

Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?

Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him on a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?

Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
      
       

And why haven't any of these questions ever occurred to me before I received this meme email?

Hippo Birdy Miss O'Dyne.

From one graduate of the Elly Lukas School of Elegance to another, I give you a dress and the wish that we both looked like Christy Turlington back in the days instead of the Mod chicks we were.

 And a cake, black and white, forever elegant but never fattening especially on a birthday.

And the present. Choices, what choices but I decided on Lawrence Graff instead of Harry Winston.
Just in keeping with the black and white theme. I thought of the Widow and her Champagne but with those heels, you'd kill yourself so we'll stick to G&T, Bombay Sapphire naturally.

When tree huggers go bad.

I wish I had a Gary Larsen cartoon to go with that heading and I would have had a photograph if I had belted out of bed fast enough.
The saga of hernextdoor's footpath which was sloping towards the fence, not in line with the other footpaths and definitely not level. I should know, I took great delight in pointing it out to her after the bloody workmen had used my water again for the concrete. They never even turned off the hose between use, just let it run into the gutter.
That was a post last month. The follow up was yesterday when up comes the footpath breaker, the take it away truck and several council workers. I'm in bed with cat enjoying the winter sun coming in the window. The next noise was a chain saw, hmm, says I, lopping the branches from that overhanging stupid lemon scented gum that will cause havoc if it falls. No, they're not.
Let me go back some years. Hernextdoor was into all things eco, save the kangaroos, save the this, save the that then the vegetarian phase that went into the vegan militant phase. I think that's gone by the way.  We endured the lectures for politeness, the rest of the neighbours went along conspicuously spending, we didn't have enough money for spending and all the time hernextdoor was not exactly living in a cardboard box, all mod cons. and an Australian garden including the biggest flaming gumtree ever on our fence line. That's the thing about gums, they moult leaves all year, my trees only in autumn.  After the spa went in, the gum came out or it would have been heading for the stars by now.  Crocodile tears at the loss of an icon then hints about my leaves falling over the fence. 
So along with the gum went the Grandiflora Magnolia but only as far as the nature strip where she was sure it would just gently pass away but it flourished, boy did it flourish.  Beautiful tree, deep green leaves and I alway knew when it was going to be hot, the big cream flowers would bloom overnight.  Not any more, where was green is now a great big empty. Nothing, nada, not even a hole in the ground, just the dug up footpath ready to be fixed.
I'm waiting now for the complaint that my camelias are falling on to her brick paved front courtyard.  I've cut down 3 trees along that fence but the camelia stays although it does need a slight prunning.  I'll miss that Magnolia and so will she. It was so dense with leaves and blooms that it stopped a lot of the north wind dust in summer.  To walk past it was to walk into coolness but there'll be no shade anymore except for my trees.  
I'll get out there and take a photo of the big empty.  But I'd like to take a photo of the possums falling when they realize there's nothing to land in when they fly off the phone wire.

On another note, if you've seen the ads for the new Lipton's fruit, orange and lemon tripod teabags, before you buy, look for where they're made, in RUSSIA and shipped here.  Either buy Dilmah which is fresh from Sri Lanka or Madura fresh from Queensland. (I would but they don't quite have the right Earl Grey flavour)  I could hardly believe what I was seeing but then Woolworths Select 90 second microwave brown rice is made in India and shipped here, buy SunWhite instead. Shut up tree huggers, I know I should be cooking my own brown rice but it takes ages as against 90 seconds and it's a bit hard to nibble at something else in 90 seconds.  

Stating the obvious, it's bloodcurdling cold.

I had to sit at the fire this morning and warm up until I could get in the shower to warm up. The cat went outside and I swear he must have pee'd on the run, turned and was back on the bed before I put his food down.

Firefox updated and my little orange cats are not compatible with the new operating system. Damn, phooey.  I went through so many layouts until I found green leaves, daisies and ladybirds which didn't go with the blue I had with the cats.  So back into Windows themes and now the olive green suits.  Minor irritation but after the weekend, it was enough to bring on loud swearing at a defenceless computer.

Visit to the Home.  I'm glad I'm not there tonight. I don't know what was dished up for lunch but there is going to be a lot of changing of linen tonight if this afternoon's episodes are repeated. It was freezing walking there but the Home seemed to be sitting in the middle of a great ring of clouds and the sun was shining but not warming anything up.  It didn't warm me up but I was home before it rained on me. So the day finishes as it began, I'm freezing and the cat is fed and in front of the fire.

I think I broke something.

The new entertainment unit...with cat.  He likes it, he can lie full length on the top with his head out of the hole in the curtain resting on the window sill. The delivery blokes kindly put the tv on the cabinet but I got to move all the small (but heavy) cupboards out of the way and the dvd player and the video player and the cords and the speakers and the dvds and the side table and the coffee table.

He had fun walking from one thing to another until I managed to drag the damn thing into the hall. I swear the first thing I do when I win Tattslotto is put wheels on everything in this house. I know Pine plantations are unkind to little animals but better than chopping down old growth trees just to make an entertainment unit. I worried that I wouldn't like it, having bought it on line from Early Settler but I don't even notice it. That's the mark of a good buy, feels like it's been there forever.
The BOH came that night and hooked everything up even the video player but I haven't untangled the speakers yet and I don't really need surround sound so maybe just hook up the large speaker.

So now I have a remote, three remotes which are labelled which is terrific during a political campaign, annoy me and you're gone. I paid for half the tv, mum paid the other half for my birthday and the unit I'll pay for out of the fixed deposit at the end of August.

That was the plan but after reading through my 2006/07 journal, I think I will leave it as payment for services rendered.  I needed some legal stuff that I knew was somewhere in the big journals I keep, as distinct from the day to day diary, but that saying about never looking back, so true, so very true.
I am amazed that we did not shove a pillow over mother's head. What a bitch she was and given that in 2006 we still had three years of horror to go before she went into the nursing home, I amazed that we survived. My sister gambled and drank, I ate and the BOH banged the dents out of cars with a large hammer. We scratched for money.  I was pretty low last week and thought that even money wouldn't make me happy, wrong.  2006 I didn't have anything and I was miserable. I suppose I blogged the crazy funny bits and that kept me sane but she was outrageous. Most of it was pain affecting her mind, not having proper food although the freezer was always full and eventually we had Meals on Wheels delivered. I can't tell you everything, I've been trying to let it flow away all weekend but she rang last night and I almost threw the phone across the room.  The three of us stuck together through it all until she went to the Home.
I am not going to ever open the 2008/9 journals, not while she's still with us.

Now for real Sprites.

I blogged about Sprite lightning recently which was a fluke photo taken from ground level during a thunderstorm, now here's the real deal taken from the National Centre for Atmospheric Research's Gulfstream-V plane.
Jason Ahrns got up close and personal with these red sprites over Red Willow County in Nebraska and told a reporter:

"I've seen sprites with my naked eye for the first time, and they're really tall! I've seen pictures and watched them in video monitors during the research campaigns, and in my mind I knew they were on the order of 50km from top to bottom, but knowing it and seeing it for yourself are two different things," he told us via email. "When we're flying 120 miles away from the storm and the sprite is still tall enough to fill my vision from top to bottom, that leaves an impression!"

Sprites can reach 50 to 60 miles into space and penetrate downward into the middle of the stratosphere (25-20 miles high) with jellyfish-like tendrils and they last only seconds so good for Jason Ahrns who not only photographed these sprites but managed to videotape them as well.

He also has a blog called Leaflitter with photographs if you're interested.

An irritating week.

I can't believe I'm 11 days older than that last cake.  No wonder I'm irritable.
My life seems to have been turned upside down, I'm not sleeping until late, that is 1 a.m. late and not getting up early. Three days visiting the Home and I had to go out on Friday of the pouring rain and freezing cold wind that was so strong I could barely close my big gate. Mother did appreciate the two new nightdresses and the hot party pies with sauce.  Friday lunches are never the best down there.

Politics are irritating me no end. Please let's get it done and then on with the revolution. I refuse the watch the debate going on tonight. Irritation levels would rival Chernobyl melt down especially since favourite programme will now be on late.  Another irritation, I love 'Grimm', the new season started with two episodes which then went back to one at 11 p.m.  And this after two stinkers of reality shows that should be dumped in the nearest bin.  Also another irritation, shows running over and football shows are the masters of this. Any show I want to see which comes after football, add anything from a half to an hour later. And then to add injury to the already infected irritation, put on an encore of the revolting show you refused to watch the first time.

My sister is irritating me and has done for quite some time.  Her taste in men hasn't improved since the ghastly drug addled twit she brought home at 17. She was going to save him from himself. And so on from there. Irritation is the reason I buy her birthday presents in January for the September date because by then I'm ready to plant her one right between the eyes. I fixed that irritation by buying Mother another 6 dvds.

Cold callers on my phone are irritating.  Three times in the past 5 weeks I've had the Telstra call that tries to scam my pension number out of me. Unfortunately for them I learned my lesson from last year.  Same old scam about how much I'm going to save on phone calls and they'll just hand me over to their supervisor and that's when I let loose with the abuse.  Another pizza parlor has opened nearby with close to my phone number. A call for a pizza late at night has me dribbling with desire, damn phone numbers.  Another new one is for funeral plans. Now I'm used to that during the day or late at night on tv but phone calls?  I tell them I'm not having one, if I'm not going to be there to eat cake, no-one else is.  Then there's the solar heating mob, charities asking for money and the one I love most, wanting to speak to the head of the house for an outstanding opportunity to increase the wealth of the family.   Yes, I should renew the stop on these calls but it's so much fun to abuse the call centre especially when they take the trouble to announce that they are calling from Melbourne.

Another very minor irritation which really isn't an irritation since families remember birthdays and happy days but death days fade away with time.  I thought maybe one would remember my boy died 18 years ago yesterday but perhaps it's better they didn't.  A new baby in the family makes for looking forward and not looking back.  And the cat hugged me when I cried anyway.

The last cake.

Very appropriate.  Today, officially I am old, the body acknowledges this, the mind is 20 years behind.  I'm still having strange dreams. Last night it was watching my six foot brick fence fall down. This means that I have to break out of my fenced in life or I stop watching Renovation Man.
The cat celebrated by waking up and wanting the fire on and door open at 7 a.m. I celebrated by going back to bed and waking up at 10 a.m. I'm still not showered and dressed, I'm aiming to be by late this afternoon.
BOH rang and wanted to know what I'd like for a present. Refrained from saying "your crap out of the house." and went for a Magnum ice-cream when he comes to play with the car and the cat.
Mother rang and very happy with her new earphones. 4 years ago she was having trouble getting the hang of opening a can of cat food and now, she's playing a movie or CD on the portable viewer and reading books on her iPad. The earphones are to cut down the manic noise of her roomies. The new one only last two weeks, she went up the stairway to heaven at 5 this morning.  Her granddaughter told me yesterday that she'd loved the Home and was having the best time in ages. Now that's the way to go out, having a good time.
My sister rang, that's it.
My granddaughters will catch up around September, maybe.
And after buying mother a cake, earphones, dvds and spending the afternoon with her, I forgot to buy a cake for me. Old. Memory loss.

And a bouquet of cupcakes to Ann O'Dyne for my birthday post at which I still can't comment at. Stupid blogger.

Hearts from the Queen.

 I must say I haven't enjoyed a birthday countdown as much as I have this year. Now we're getting to the end, I'm going for broke.  A four tier fondant iced, with hearts and spots, I love it all. How about my favourite fruit cake for the bottom layer, then a nice tart flourless orange layer, chocolate and cherries for the next and the top, coffee and mousse layers.

Or just three layers but white chocolate coated strawberries.  This is actually supposed to be a Valentine's Day cake, shame I don't have a Valentine.  Don't do what I did and make this desktop wallpaper, it looks even better when big. I swear I didn't stop drooling for an hour.  I bet it's chocolate mud cake again. I don't understand the appeal of chocolate mud cake but the top could be white chocolate mud cake which is slightly less objectionable. White chocolate mud cake with a top layer of strawberry mousse and sponge? Any takers?

You know this is what I'm going to end up with, one lousy cupcake.

Now about that ice-cream cake.

I should not have mentioned ice-cream cake or gone looking for images of ice-cream cake. I liked the one up there so much I looked up the recipe. That's vanilla cake on the bottom and chocolate cherry ice-cream on top. The frosting is frosting, the American kind, very sweet. It was kind of them to give the calories and carbs in a single slice, 51 grams of carbohydrate. It must be the frosting. I would rather have marshmallow over the whole, more ice-cream and not so much cake and I'm sure that would take down the carbs.

I couldn't find a recipe for this but I think it looks like a trifle ice-cream cake.  So a custard and fruit type ice-cream set in a layer of jam sponge, make that thick jam sponge soaked in plonk. It would be nice done in individual dishes, decorated with swirls of whipped cream but that's just me, not being a sharer I could have it all.

But for the Princess in me, aaaww, a pink ice-cream Cinderella carriage with sugar mice. I love it.

Seven cakes to go.

You all knew I'd put one in somewhere. Nothing better than a 3 tier Harry Potter cake unless it's a 4 tier Harry Potter cake. Still love Harry? In the words of dear Snape, always.

I'm not going out for my birthday dinner. I fiddled the finances a smidgeon and I'm having lovely lady come in to vac the entire house at 9 a.m. Friday morning.  All the junk on the floor that I haven't put away will go on chairs, lounge, bed or the sewing room which is the only room I've vac'd, that and the hallway when I moved his things there and my things back here.

It's a birthday present much more practical than food and I didn't think twice about doing it. I might have paused a second if ice-cream cake had been involved but only for a second. I have a big Hoover and it's been doing sterling service since 1989 and it's still sucking up cement dust from the slab underneath the carpet and it was a wonder with cat fur and dog fur and the ex's ability to walk across white marble and still pick up mud. She's only doing the vac, I can do the rest but the old hands and shoulders just wont co-operate in the shifting and moving. It took me 15 minutes to put the extension hose on it yesterday and my fingers hurt all day. Doc Marvin tells me that some cholesterol medication can irritate the muscles and make them sore. I'll go along with that.

By the time I turned the corner to the Home yesterday, I was frozen. The wind hit me dead centre in the chest and I swear I could have drilled out an ice core. I even took Ma's blankie off her and put it on me until I thawed out.  I knew we'd pay for those warm days we had.

Now I have to shift the sewing machine out of the study and put it in the sewing room because there's a monster load of shifting and moving to even see the floor in here. At least I remembered to put the bins out tonight and the neighbours won't be sneaking anything in either bin.

Chocolate is, genius creates.

Thank you to Helen for this link  to Gerhard Petzl, a chocolate artist who does things like this:

Decorated chocolate shoes.  What genius.

And glorious sugar creations like this gingerbread mansion.

I will never look at a dodgy gingerbread house without seeing this

wonderful piece.

Hit his website and see what he does with chocolate painting on lovely bodies.

Lord Rochester plays.

Rochester, nothing but the best for you and your musical digits.  I think a bit of Rachmaninoff for my birthday instead of the usual tarty honky-tonk.  
I hope that's Black Forest Cake under that chocolate ganache and not mud cake. I'm not fond of mud cake, boozed up black cherries and cream with chocolate sponge get a blue ribbon from me.

And one for HighRiser.

Good gracious me, the images that come up if one types in that search engine "bloke and birthday cake".  I'm not that kind of cake eater.  Anyway this was acceptable because he's not too hairy and I hate hair in my icing. I wonder just how big that cake is and what it's hiding?  Nah, I'm too old to even bother looking any more. And the cake is small if you check it against the manboobs.

I knew we'd pay for that warm day.

I was saving this cake for the actual day but my feet are still thawing out from this morning's walk for the papers. It makes me warm just looking at it and yes, I will need that many candles, damn it.
8.15 a.m., first whine of the cat and I was out of bed, fill the food dish, open the back door, turn on the fire, take BGL (very low)grab something to eat and back to bed by 8.30 a.m.  I think I woke up at 10 and it was still blowing a chill wind. 

The new TV is up and running, no problems with the old antenna and now I have 25 channels of repeat rubbish to watch. I only have one little thing to sort out, fixing widescreen dvds to fill the tv window.  There's a simple button hiding in the fifty or so buttons on the remote control and I will find it eventually. There is an instruction book for the tv, for using it as a computer, for watching movies and one page for the remote. Trying to record anything seems to require a doctorate in electronics so I'll just give that a miss for the moment.  I find it better to leave it alone for a week then give the instructions another try, repeat constantly until madness sets in or I understand that I will never understand it and give up.

Mother has a new bunkmate. A 96 year old Greek lady with 2 thousand relatives. Now I have to buy the old girl a set of earphones for the Dvd viewer so she can watch a movie in peace. So much for sister telling me not to overload her with too many dvds to watch, she's enjoying them all 2nd time around and wants more. That's the beauty of documentaries instead of movies, she watches them over again.  Lovely, I've just bought the National Trust Houses of Great Britain and the lives of Beethoven and Mozart. Keeping her happy keeps her off my back.

Overall a miserable week and according to my stars, another miserable one to come. Perhaps it's just the dreams I've been having. These are vivid like movies and not fleeting, I can wake up and write it all down. I can still see the beautiful white house with the conservatory full of ferns and sunlight streaming in and my ex turning up and wanting to sell it for his share. I was so worried about where I could get a loan to pay him out, I rang banks and mortgage brokers, all for nothing until I remembered that I already owned the house. I then threw him out the front door.  Not much explaining about that dream, obstacles all the way until I broke through and won.  Now if I could just translate that into real life.

And just when I thought my dodgy knee couldn't get much worse after the bus driver crunched the brakes and I bashed it against the back of the seat in front, very ouch.  I get an absent minded taxi driver who drove off with the door still open and my leg not yet in the car. My foot whacked against the curb and I said a few words very loudly. FFS, the idiot is sitting in front of a panel with lights telling him that the door was open and a seatbelt not fastened.  To make things worse, worse than the shooting pain up the leg, was having to tell him every inch of the way to Mentone. I should have complained but I was caught up in a drama down at the Home and didn't remember his number when I finally staggered home that night.  I'm so used to my regular drivers, who put the seat back for me, hold my bag while I belt up and shut the door that I'm unprepared for idiots like this.

I can't believe that this year I am determined to go out for my birthday, at night, in a taxi, to a restaurant. Broken leg or food poisoning, it's a toss up.

Not one but two cakes.

,

Now this looks too nice to cut into but I'll be brave, hand me the large knife.

Regards of the very pink roses, I want a lemon chiffon sponge layered with some

kind of boozy cream.

 

Now Elephant's Child is having a not so good time so a nice cake will
fix that.  What better than a happy Penguin playground cake?
Absolutely nothing.

A Civil War grave.

Shenandoah at Williamstown, Melbourne, February, 1865.

The Shenandoah was launched from the yard of A Stephen & Sons on August 17, 1863, destined as a British troop transport, the Sea King.   A Confederate agent, James Bulloch noticed the new ship and decided it would make an excellent commerce raider.  For the other side, US agent Thomas Dudley was watching Bulloch and reported to Ambassador Charles Francis Adams about the plan.
US Secretary of State William Seward had warned the British government about allowing the Confederates to purchase ships and weapons but Bulloch knew what he was doing and not only purchased the Sea King but a tender, Laurel. The two ships rendezvoused at Funchal, Madeira Islands, the Laurel carrying guns and military stores.

The Confederate sailors converted the vessel into a warship and commissioned her as CSS Shenandoah, commanded by Lieutenant James Waddell.  The mission was to attack shipping in the sea lanes between the Cape of Good Hope and Australia and they captured six prizes en route to the Cape.
She sailed into Melbourne for repairs in January 1865. The US Consul, William Blanchard, tried to convince the Victorian governor to impound the ship and charge the crew with piracy. But with the Eureka Stockade a recent memory and the gold rush still in full swing, they were treated more like heroes. Blanchard then indicated he would protect any crew member from the Confederate ship who had joined from a captured American vessel, 8 deserted, followed by another 6 later.

When the Shenandoah left she had 42 stowaways who were signed on as crew as soon as the ship reached International waters. They all claimed to be natives of the Southern Confederacy.
The Shenandoah then turned north to find the American whaling fleet in the North Pacific, moving through the Carolines, Waddell burned four whalers and captured a fifth in the Kuriles.
Waddell learned on June 23, 1865, that General Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Court House but believing that the war was still ongoing and he continued to raid the whaling fleet.  The Shenandoah took 21 more prizes then turned south to attack commerce sailing from the West Coast to the Far East and Latin America. Waddell disrupted the whaling industry to the point where Whale oil doubled in price.

Waddell encountered a British barque on August 2nd and learned that the war had ended in April and fearing that if they were caught they'd all be hung as pirates, he ordered the guns dismantled, altered the ship to look like a trading vessel and evading American warships, sailed into Liverpool on November 6, 1865 where he surrendered the ship to British authorities. The end of the War also ended his grand plan to sail into San Francisco and hold the city to ransom.

During the year and 17 days that the Shenandoah was a commissioned warship it travelled 44,000 miles, carrying the Confederate flag around the globe and sank or captured 38 ships - all merchant vessels. She never engaged a Union Navy vessel and consequently its crew never suffered a war casualty.

As for the Australian crew, the story of their service was hushed up. After the war ended they feared prosecution for piracy for joining the Confederate sailors now regarded as  rebels.  Some never returned, some changed their names and some were buried in unmarked public graves and very few have been identified. 

This is the Walkling grave where John Henry Smith is buried, one of just five known African-American veterans of the US Civil War (1861-65) in Australia.  The grave also includes a bronze plaque supplied by the US Veterans' Department that formally recognises Smith's military service.  The restoration was due to the support of W. D. Rose Funerals, Cheltenham as well as the generosity of the Walkling family descendants, The Shenandoahs Crew Australia Inc and the Civil War Rountable Australia. 

For more information on the Shenandoah's visit to Melbourne, go here

For the mad cat lady driving the country ute.

I really could not decide, the first was so sweet and the second looked so much like Kitty.
Then I thought it might be really hard cutting and eating Kitty.
Of course you know I'm blogging cakes because I'm too lazy to do a half way decent post about something important.
One nice thing happened.  I had a very helpful lady at Medicare fixing up an account for Mum. She needed photo ID so out comes the old passport and she checks it and I explain that I am allowed to use that as I don't drive and I refuse to carry the expensive new one around.  She said that was fine, she just thought how much younger I looked now compared to then. Well, another plus for 13 years of divorce.  There is a rumour that the Mad Monk wants to make divorce harder to get. Too Late, Too Late, she cried as she danced naked under the moon in celebration.  Apologies for all those who are happily married to a lovely man that didn't crawl out from under a rock and take on the appearance of something resembling human.
And a snippet for the history buffs.  Cheltenham cemetary has discovered that there is an American Civil War Veteran buried there and pretty rare for those times, he was an African-American Vet. They are doing more research and putting up an information board near the grave. Now there's a story for "Who Do You Think You Are?"

River wanted a cake all for herself.

 So here it is, River in all her glory on three tiers of cake.

And here's my cake of the day, a tiara, naturally.

I'm a bit behind with the cake of the day but I keep drooling while I'm searching.

I hope this is a lovely fruit cake inside and the fondant icing is thick.