#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?

#2132 Friday 14th October

Kaylia has just arrived home from her day at Workpower....... I guess her behavior is part teenage and part autism ..... she walked in without any acknowledgement or greeting. It gets very tiresome  to have to teach even the most basic of social skills.

I'm gradually setting Bob up for the desert trip I plan to do in the future.  Two tools arrived today....

A bead breaker

....this is to help remove the tyre from the wheel rim.

And a snatch block....

This is used on the winch cable to double the pulling force of the winch.

Both these items are things I would have bought 30 years ago when I had other land rovers...... at the time I would have considered the current price to be very good value. So in today's values they're very cheap..... and the quality is very good.

#2131 Thursday 13th October

We've been home for a week now. Our little holiday in Albany was very good.  It was good to see the Forests again.  (So many good memories of times past in Manjimup and Northcliffe)

The drive home from Albany was pleasant...... I'm always struck by the way that Kaylia is such a good traveller. She is always quietly attentive to the passing scenery..... she's never bored or demanding.  I'd be very happy to take her on a really long trip.

Today I've been pondering the relationship between memory and imagination.  I'm very sure that Kaylia lacks any ability to visualize in her mind..... yet she quite clearly can remember past events and places. She frequently wants to cycle through the photos of past trips and places.... I think this is her tool to use instead of visualizing her memories.  I sometimes prompt her to verbalize her memories.... so far it hasn't worked. She much rather have me tell her the story.   .... and every night we go through the story of the next trip in store for her.

The saga of the Range rover continues..... still no certificate from the engineer.... so no registration yet. Today I've been constructing another built-in storage. 

This one is accessed from the outside and it houses the air compressor and tyre tools.

i saw this picture.... and was impressed. It shows a V8 engine with just the moving parts!

.....and I couldn't leave this next one out!

2130 Tuesday 4th October

More op shops.  Ten op shops so far and I'm sure we haven't found all of them.  

Then a bit of sight seeing..... first up to the Mt Melville lookout that looks over the harbor and the city centre.

.....and then a drive out toward Denmark.  We stopped at a beach at Mutton Bird island..... Gorgeous

We stopped at the Elleker Tavern for lunch ..... and sat outside at a picnic table - which promptly tipped over! It gave Kaylia quite a fright.

Later..... a drive round and we saw another memorial....