jmgoyder

wings and things

Sibling rivalry

pea 011

Ming adored Gutsy9 to begin with but over the weeks I have noticed a subtle change in Ming’s attitude. He’s been saying things like this:

– Get RID of him, Mum!
– He’s making a mess!
– No, I don’t want to babysit him!
– How come you’re always cuddling him – what about me?
– Why do you have to take him everywhere with you?
– You’re turning him into a spoilt brat!
– You love him more than you love me!
– No, yes, oh okay I am a bit jealous – WHO WOULDN’T BE!

Tonight is Gutsy9’s third night camping outside with a couple of new friends and I am just as anxious as I was the first night. When I mentioned my concerns to Ming, he yelled, “Well, good riddance and I hope he stays out there forever!”

“Wait until you have a child and you’ll know what it feels like,” I muttered under my breath but, unfortunately, Ming heard me.

“Mum, please, seriously, who do you love most – me or him?”

I pretended to think for a bit … “You, Ming.”

“THANK GOD!” he said, giving me a hug.

[Note: For anyone who doesn’t realize, Ming is my 19-year-old son and Gutsy9 is my 4-month-old peacock.]

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Dreams inside dreams

For the last few weeks I have been having rather dramatic, block-buster-type dreams. Inside the dreams, I am always the hero who knows she is in a dream, but also knows that, in order to escape the dream, she has to either get away from, or else confront, the baddies.

The most recurrent dream is of something preventing Anthony and me from getting married. This barrier is usually a series of verbal and visual ‘stills’ of what really happened (Anthony’s younger brother’s protestations, my bewilderment, and Anthony’s heartbreak). These dreams are becoming so boringly predictable that I am usually able to clamber free.

But last night’s dream was really weird. Inside the dream, I was away at a conference and Ming rang me to say that Anthony’s old girlfriend had dropped in and wanted to stay the night. Then, the next morning, when I got home from the conference, Anthony admitted that he had slept with her.

Okay, so this was all a dream within a dream, but even when I escaped the inside dream, I found myself trying to climb the escalators the wrong way, in an empty airport somewhere in the desert.

I was glad to wake up!

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Phoenix 1 versus Phoenix 2

This picture is of my golden pheasant brothers launching into a fight that lasted a good 20 minutes. They were fighting over a female and it was both awful and awesome to watch. We had visitors that day and my niece, Jane, was taking cute, fluffy pictures of some cute, fluffy children interacting with some cute, fluffy goslings. Then, whammo, the pheasants, both named Phoenix, launched into a war and Phoenix 2 has now been banished by Phoenix 1. I was broken-hearted until my 80-year old neighbour rang up and said, “Are you missing a strange-looking bird?”

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