#2139 Monday 14th November

The other day when I dropped Kaylia off ar Workpower she was clearly very happy to be there.... she isn't usually very expressive and we mostly have to interpret a thumbs up.... or a thumbs down.... but this day she was beaming like a lighthouse. It was very good to see.

Today she's been doing her "Curve Style" business.  Over the weekend three sales were made! (Clothes are listed on Ebay)

I've been busy with the Land rover..... on Saturday I took it down to a welding business to have some welds strengthened. Today I've completed the hardware mounting for the electric winch.

The next stage is to connect the power and controls. 

There was a lot of work involved in making the mounting and a new bumper bar. 

#2138 Monday 7th November

 Phew ... I've been slack... no posts for a week. 

No particular reason ... Kaylia is cruising.  The medications are working well and she is happy and calm.  She has a fairly full week now.  Mondays and Thursdays she has her "Curve Style" online clothing business..... she has a support worker (Lee) comes in to assist her. The business has had its first sale.  On Tuesdays Kaylia has another support worker (Jenny) who takes her off for drives, shopping and general activities from 10 till 3.  On Wednesday and Friday Kaylia goes to "Workpower" from 9 till 3.  This is an employment training group that aims to improve her skills ready for work.

These activities give me a good break to tackle my own interests .... it makes me feel as if I am actually retired!   Much of this revolves around Bob the Beast.  This week I've been constructing the mounting frame to fit my new winch to the front of the vehicle.  I still don't have engineering approval to allow it to be licensed.  The delays just seem to keep coming ..... each time I jump one hurdle, another pops up to delay things further.  It's very frustrating.

#2137 Monday 31st October

Last day of the month...... so Kaylia wants the November calendar filled in with all the information about what she will be doing.  This is a ritual that she goes through every month.

Isn't this image amazing! ...... and then to try and comprehend the enormous distance that we're actually looking at.

#2136 Saturday 29th October

Happy 100th birthday Dad! He would be 100 today.

Kaylia's at the party..... 

..... and while she parties... Naomi and I have a night out.  We're at a Japanese restaurant in Midland.... Yummy.  We've had entrees at one restaurant, mains at another.... and desert at a third!  Midland is a very convenient place to live. Heaps of places within 200m and no traffic to fight. 

#2135 Friday 28th October

 Kaylia is quite excited ..... she's going to a Halloween party tomorrow night!  The party is being arranged by Workpower .... this is the group that are doing 2 days per week of training to improve her skills in the areas that are needed for employment.   Tomorrow night we will drop her off for the party and pick her up afterward.  (She will have a support worker to help her at the party.)  

An added benefit of this party is that Naomi and I will have a night out to ourselves!  This will be the first time in a number of years as it has been a long time since we've had support where we feel confident in leaving her.

I had a nice parcel today .... a winch for Bob

It's nearly 30 years since I last had a serious winch on a vehicle ...... it will be good.  

#2134 Thursday 27th October

 Tonight was another "UH OHHH!" ........ several stacks of her DVD collection came down ..... the floor was completely covered in coloured plastic.  So it was "Fill up the cartons .... we can take them back on Saturday.  I'm not sure that the op shops will thank us when we flood their stocks!

Tonight was a minor celebration ...... early this year when we were applying for Kaylia's disability pension, Centrelink approved her pension .... but suspended my age pension!  So it's been 6 months of very little income ...... and tonight they advised that my pension will resume (Yay!) and the date of resumption is the date it was suspended!  Even better as there should be a beaut bit of backpay.  It will clear the credit cards that I've had to live on.

The saga of Bob the Beast continues...... I took it to a different engineering shop yesterday to get a small job done.  But not only was the little job not done ... they informed me that in their opinion Bob would not be approved because the body was rigidly fixed to the chassis!  That then led to a day of heartache and research.  In my initial over-reaction I assumed that I might as well sell Bob.

My research then took me to the Dept of Transport Technical people who stated that they have no requirement for the body to be rubber mounted!  The Landrover Series 2a vehicle (as originally built) was always rigidly fixed ..... so according to DOT Bob is OK.  (They said that it's up to the opinion of the engineer.  So I have to "shop around" and find an engineer who agrees.

#2133 Sunday 23rd October

We had a bit of a fright yesterday...... Kaylia seemed to be having the "anger attacks" again. (These attacks meant that she had to finish school.... and drove us to despair ..... this sounds dramatic but it's literally true.) Once we realized that it was happening, we could  adjust the medication and it seems to have done the trick.  It only needs a tiny change and it works.

The changes that the govt is forcing on the disability employment sector a very sad for people like Kaylia...... she needs a lot of support to be able to function in a work place and the govt is saying that there's no place for people in this category.  It seems hard.   

Perhaps we could just drive all day?