#1835 Friday 29 June

Brrr ... it's midday but the temperature is only 13 degrees outside!  It's nice and sunny but .... cold!

Today is the last pay day for 2017-18 and this means that there's a lot of end-of-year processing for me.  Of course Kaylia is oblivious .... all she is concerned about is "Bali at Christmas!"  This morning I was reading the news on my phone ... and the article headline was "Bali's Mt Agung erupts again"  ..... Kaylia was looking over my shoulder and she says "Bali at Christmas!" .... so we had a little lesson about what a volcano is .... she watched the video of the clouds of ash and I explained how the planes can't fly when the ash clouds are in the air. 

I don't think she really understood 'cos at the end it was "Bali at Christmas!"

Last night Kaylia had a 'flashback' to DVDs.   She started going through her mound of DVDs and then wanted the DVD player ..... so we dug it out and it still works!  She spend the next couple of hours playing the "moldy oldies".

#1834 Thursday 28 June

Ggggood-good girl!  It's a very common sound in our lives now as Kaylia expresses her positive self-image.  Somewhere over the past 2 years she has internalised this praise action ....  and now she seeks every opportunity to generate more praise for herself.  she looks for small actions like taking a plate to the sink .... or rubbish to the bin.  I think the habit began at school but she now uses it everywhere.

This bit is for Andrew and Catriona ..... Andrew really got stuck into using the firewood splitting machine while they were here in October last year.  They split a mountain of wood and stacked it all neatly.  Now that winter is here we have been BURNING firewood big time.  I think the fire in the house has been burning for at least a month or more now.  At night the fire is loaded up and set to "slow burn" and then it springs back to life in the morning.  Today I took the three firewood bins down and used the splitter rather than taking from the stack.  It's a marvellous machine.  I would not even contemplate using an axe on the blocks of wood that surrender to the power of the splitter.

I have come across an amazingly bad bit bureaucratic legalise today.... yesterday we received a letter in the mail from the provider of an essential service ... water .... it was advising us that we were probably receiving this service at a much higher pressure than was desirable.  The letter included a list of frequently asked questions.  The first paragraph began with a description of the organisation's legal basis for operation .... that it had a license to provide a service that must be within defined parameters.  The next sentence then stated that if the organisation failed to meet that requirement, then "the customer was exempt" and the organisation did not have to meet the requirements!  In other words .... the government requires us to do a job ... but if we don't do it then it's the customers problem ... not ours!  Needless to say I was flabbergasted by this bit of "logic absence".  I rang the organisation and was pushed up the line because no-one could deal with the issue.  I finally had a phone call from a knowledgeable person today who agreed that I was quite correct!  They don't act on that strange idea ... but the person said "Yes ... that's how the rules are worded."   The idea that we can have a multi-billion dollar corporation providing the community with an essential service .... and that corporation is operating on a complete logic dis-connect!  Incredible!

#1833 Wednesday 27 June

It's 9am .... Kaylia has a holiday today as school is having a "pupil free day" to allow for parent-teacher interviews.  Kaylia has been in the bath since 7:30 ..... singing and splashing away.  I wonder if this is an activity which will stay with her through to adulthood?  If so we will need to do some forward planning!
In the back of our minds is a thought about her future .... where will she live when we are gone?  Who will look after her?  Part of our thinking is to work toward a group home for several adults on the spectrum .... something designed for their specific needs ..... with space for a live-in carer.  There would need to be an overall business structure to allow for group members to join and leave ..... it's a big topic.

On the good news front .....  we had an email last night from Anne-marie .... who was Kaylia's second aupair after Kaylia was diagnosed as being on the spectrum in June 2006.  Anni came to stay with us from July to December 2007.  Anni went on to study accounting and became a uni lecturer in the field.  She now has a position at a uni in Melbourne and she will be moving to Australia again in the near future.  So we will see some more of her!

Over the 12 years since Kaylia was diagnosed, there have been 30 aupair changes .... 42 people  .... most single but many couples.  Many of the people have a lasting place in our affections and overall it has been a very good experience to have had the extra household members.

4pm  We've been to the meeting ... we are fortunate that the meetings are always good.  This is the comments section at the end of her report.......

I really don't think that we could ask for a better report than that!

Evening:
I'm playing with a new toy .... a Chromebook!  It's a laptop that uses the browser as the operating system ..... and so far it's very impressive.  I don't think it's a total replacement for a Windows based computer ..... but it has some big pros to balance the cons.  Among the pros is the instant startup.  The whole package is sort of a cross between a tablet and a laptop..... interesting.

#1832 Tuesday 26 June

Kaylia woke at 4am this morning .... I think she was cold because the blankets had slipped off the bed.  I noticed that she has changed her habits for this process.  In the old days she would come CLOMPING up the stairs .... wanting to hop into our bed.  Now there's no more clomping .... she walks quietly up the stairs and stops half-way ..... once she has heard me stirring she then returns to her room and waits.

She was cold this morning and she didn't settle back to sleep till 5:30am .... I know this because I stay with her and I have to keep reminding her to stop talking .... it's sleep time!

Yesterday I was searching for an old photo and I came across the videos of early therapy sessions when we were teaching her  to name objects and to use sentences ..... she has come a long way since those days ... but she still has a long way to go to reach an ability to match her age.

#1831 Monday 25 June

While preparing breakfasts this morning I noticed a picture on the side of a cereal packet.










 It looked familiar so I took a closer look .... it's an Allis Chalmers Model B!  These were built in the early 1950's and were supposed to be the first American tractor to be made with rubber tyres standard.  It was a 20hp "single plow" tractor.


The reason for my interest?  I had one from 1984 to 1996.

It was given to me when we had the Northcliffe farm ..... as usual it was a basket case that hadn't run for many years.  I got it going again and it was a useful machine on the farm.  When we moved to Busselton in 1989 I took it with me as it was light enough to be carried in the trailer behind the car.  It eventually became a restoration project and ended up with new paint and decals.  It went to many local shows.








This is a photo of a similar machine that Anne saw in a museum in  Tasmania.

This is the "Allis" before restoration .... driving in the front yard of the farm at Northcliffe.  Donna is driving with David on the back.








Kaylia is on her way to school as I write..... she is going to the movies today ..... to see "Incredibles 2".   The other day she came home from school and as soon as she came down the stairs she rushed over to my computer ..... I always have a photo of Kaylia as my desktop and I had changed the photo!  She noticed and she had to come over to check it out.

Evening

Kaylia is really fixated on Bali at the moment.  If we mention the name in any conversation her ears prick up and she asks "Bali at Christmas?"