Hair - what hair?

Well, it's finally happened.  My hair is now a distant memory and I've taken to wearing a wig.  At this point, I'm not sure what to do with my eye brows though.  Unfortunately, the left one is disappearing way faster than the right and I suspect I have one ear just slightly higher than the other.  Perhaps this is just to take the focus off being completely bald - just for the record, it's not working.  I'm now walking around with my head slightly tilted.

On the bright side though - there's always a silver lining.  It feels fantastic having a shower and feeling the warm water running over your head.  It feels all tingly and relaxing and I'm loathe to get out of the shower.  The other good thing is my underarm hair is all but gone but my leg hair is hanging on for all its worth - it is putting up a mighty fight so I have to admire them for that.  I need to remember to take a leaf out of their book and keep on fighting. 

In my quest for inner peace and health I have finally gone along to my first yoga class - one of the many things I've been 'gunnado' for years and something I promised I would pursue once I moved to Bundaberg.  I really enjoyed it, although it was difficult for me to do some of the exercises because of my two dodgy arms but the relaxation and meditation sections were fantastic and I am now sorry I didn't learn to do this years ago.  I could have saved a fortune by not watching shopping TV throughout the night!

At first it was hard for me to focus on relaxing and my mind kept skipping to other crucial things like, what am I going to have for lunch?  has my turban twisted around?  does my bum look big in these trackie dacks ..... etc etc.  But, the final relaxation/meditation session just fell into place and I was sorry when we had to come back to life.  I wanted to yell, "NO, LEAVE ME HERE TO SLEEP - DON'T YOU KNOW I HAVEN'T SLEPT SOUNDLY IN YEARS!"

Unfortunately, when I tried the technique on my own at home to try to get to sleep I had no luck.  I suspect I need the background music, soothing voice and tinkling Tibetan bells.  Needless to say, I'll be back there next week if all goes to plan.  Even if it just to have a good 30 minute power nap.

A friend of mine from New Zealand sent me a message which is "Kia Kaha" which means 'stay strong'.  I love the way it sounds and am trying to live the message as well (just like my leg hairs).

Vintage Cars - definitely worth recycling!

Windscreen Wipers – why bother?

Who’d have thought that there are whole clubs dedicated to old cars?  Heaven help you though if you call it an old car ... from now on I shall refer to them as hot rods or classic cars.

As far as I can tell, the one thing they all have in common seems to be their windscreen wipers – or lack thereof.  They either don’t have them, have only one, or they just don’t work at all.

Here I was thinking that the owners didn’t take their cars out in the rain so as not to spoil the duco. Now I know the real reason.  Bloody windscreen wipers don’t work!

I had my first ride in a hot rod just recently so I was quite excited.  I watched a couple of old Happy Days episodes for a refresher course on being ‘cool’.    I’m not sure I could tell you what type of car it was but it was beautifully painted in orange and had luxurious cream leather upholstery.    

Everything was going well until it started to rain so, to overcome the lack of adequate windscreen wipers, the driver sped up.  I am guessing the theory behind this mad stunt was that speed would deflect the water off the windscreen.  Yeah, right!  That might have worked with a modern-day, sloping, aerodynamically designed windscreen but not your straight up and down vertical model. 

Owners of these cars are able to replace entire motors but can’t get the windscreen wipers to work!  Do they not think that’s an important safety feature?  I notice that they put in seat-belts and I’m sure they didn’t come standard in the original versions. 

The windscreen wiper was invented circa 1903 and, just for the record, was invented by a woman, Mary Anderson.   I’m sure the idea came to her when she was travelling with a male partner who, way back then, also thought it was a good idea to speed up to deflect the water.  As the saying goes, “necessity is the mother of invention”.

On the other hand, maybe she invented it one rainy evening  stuck at home, bored to tears baking scones, making cups of tea for her husband and playing parlour games.  She possibly thought, “if only we could go for a drive on this rainy night and I could pay somebody to make me tea and scones and I don’t have to keep pretending to enjoy  playing bridge and charades”.  Next thing you know, cars are fitted with windscreen wipers.   As they say, the rest is history.  We now have coffee shops on every corner, Devonshire teas served in the country and all of this because of Mary Anderson.  I really don’t think she gets as much credit as she deserves. 

Anyway, back to my story.  On arrival at our destination on that fateful rainy night it was all I could do not to fall to my knees and kiss the ground in true Papal style.   If I had my own door, I probably would have but, being a two-door meant I had to wait for the people in front to get out and then I had to manoeuvre my sizeable butt out of the back seat making sure not to trip over the running-board.  This probably looked ‘uncool’ enough without falling to my knees and kissing the bitumen.  Also, never once did I see any of Richie Cunningham’s girls do that.  Mind you, they didn’t go out in the rain either.

It’s a shame that the beautiful cream leather upholstery now has my fingerprints permanently embedded into the back doors. 

Asked would I go again – hell yes!  I will, however, be sure to check the weather forecast.

When does Second-Hand become "Vintage"

Maybe I'm the only person who doesn't quite get "Vintage".  Is it just second-hand stuff and, if so, why not just rummage through the local op shops instead of paying top-dollar for old stuff?  At least if you go to the op shops you are helping out the needy in our society so not only are you getting something new (or old) you can easily justify the expenditure because it's actually donating to charity.  In fact, I wonder if you buy your stuff at op shops you can claim it on your tax?

I was looking in a "Vintage" shop today and yes, it did bring back some memories of clothes my sisters and I were wearing in the 60s and 70s and I'm telling you, they didn't look that great back then and, in my eyes, they still don't look that great now.  Maybe your "Vintage Dior" or "Vintage Versace" may be worth the big bucks because I think they stand the test of time.  They genuinely are works of art with hours of labour going into creating the lace and beading but I think they are really pushing the "Vintage" tag to the extreme on a lime green cotton shift dress with machine-embroidered flowers or a multi-coloured crocheted poncho!

In the famous words of Darryl Kerrigan in "The Castle" - 'Tell 'em they're dreamin'.

It's not that I don't appreciate retro and vintage things.  There are many things that you have to love and admire from this era.  For example, old cars look fantastic and bring back memories of a less complicated lifestyle.  It conjurs up colourful images of Elvis and rock & roll, the drive-in movies, malted milks and sock-hops, pony-tails and cheer leaders.  Hang on - I have got to stop watching Happy Days!

Don't forget  the VW combi camper - how cool were they?  These were probably the original motor-home and shouldn't be thrown on the trash heap and I would encourage recycling of these. 

With "Vintage" clothes though - who decides when clothes become "Vintage"?  Are thereVintage police out there somewhere going through the big pile saying "Yes", "No", "Are they kidding?, "What the xxxx" , "What were they thinking!"