I take Gutsy9 outside as often as I can but I can’t leave him alone because he’s nervous of the bigger birds.
This is King and Princess 1 wondering if Gutsy9 is theirs, but not willing to get too close.
Gutsy9 scurries back to me all the time!
Malay
Malay: Thank you for finally featuring me in one of your posts, Julie. I have been waiting rather a long time.
Malay: Next time, get the hose out of the way and please get your light settings right!
Malay: Newkid was okay but I am a survivor, Julie.
Malay: I would prefer it if you would refrain from photographing me with Prince from now on.
Prince the peacock and Prince Ming
These two guys have a lot in common.
They both like to show off.
They both like to dance on the roof.
They are both gorgeous.
However, the second prince, despite all appearances to the contrary, is much more interesting!
Stalker
Prince, our only male white peacock, is now stalking the gang nonstop. At first he was just picking on poor little Daffy, but now he seems to have it in for Zaruma too. And yesterday he attacked Godfrey!
Prince: Where are they?
Me: Why are you doing this, Prince? Leave the gang alone!
Prince: But Zaruma is such fun!
Me: Leave him alone!
Zaruma: Julie, HELP!
Me: Prince, if you don’t stop this harrassment immediately I will send you off to the neighbours’ roof where you will be hosed, yelled at and get a taste of your own medicine.
Prince: Okay, sorry, Julie – just having a bit of fun while Princess 1 is sitting on those egg things.
Me: Those egg things are your children, silly.
Prince: Oh!
Zaruma: Thanks, Julie. Tapper was getting worried about my mental health.
Godfrey: Julie, I know you and I haven’t always agreed on things but this time I am absolutely on your side. That Prince has become far to arrogant and I am going to wingpunch him next time.
Me: Thanks for your support, Godrey!
It’s complicated!
Princess 2: Thor, how about a little kiss?
Thor: Not now P2.
Princess 2: Get lost, Rabbit!
Princess 2: Oh, there is never any privacy here!
Princess 2: Why do you have a name like ‘Thor’ when you can’t even scare a rabbit away?
Thor: Well actually, P2, I quite like Mr Rabbit. In fact he’s been giving me a few tips.
Princess 2: On what?
Princess 2: Oh I can’t take any more of this nonsense!
Princess 2 begins to sing ‘Where is love?’ (from ‘Oliver’, the musical).
Thor: P2 will you calm down – Mr Rabbit has been giving me some tips about breeding!
Princess 2: Oh! Oh, darling, I had no idea!
Rabbit 675: What a complicated couple!
The excursion
This morning, the nursing lodge bus came out at 10am with ‘the men’s group’. It was a great success!
Staff, residents and volunteers
Morning tea
Godfrey’s gang did their contortionist act but were outshone by an impromptu perfomance by the turkeys
Anthony and me
Paranoia
King: Julie hasn’t been as attentive to us as usual. Have you noticed?
Prince: Yes I have noticed!
Frosta: Yes, I’ve noticed it too, guys, and I’m a bit hurt too, but from a female perspective, I understand that she is simply going through a blue wren phase.
Prince: What’s a blue wren?
King: Those stupid little birds that flit around our heads all day.
Parkinson’s disease, in its final stages, can lead to confusion, depression, hallucinations, delusions, moodiness, dementia, and paranoia. Ironically, some Parkinson’s medications can also have these kinds of side effects which is why it is such a difficult disease to treat. Until recently, it was Anthony’s physical debilitation that was the primary concern. Yes, hallucinations were a big problem but that was eventually improved by some changes in medication.
So the nursing lodge decision was made on the basis of his physical disabilities – immobility and incontinence (and other factors). But lately, there have been some signs of psychological problems. His confusion in the evenings has become a constant and his depression too, and last week I blogged about his uncharacteristic anger with me. Today, when Ming and I visited, he was different again. He had a strange, suspicious expression in eyes (eyes which are so difficult to read now) and he began a mumbled diatribe about the nurse who had showered him this morning, saying that she had kicked his foot and hurt him. He even used a few insulting expletives so I left Ming with him out in the sunshine and went in to talk to the head nurse.
This is only the second time I have raised an issue. The first was last week when I told her that his anger with me was a new thing, and today, without going into exactly what he had said, I mentioned that he seemed to have something against the nurse who showered him this morning. I admitted that I didn’t know if he was delusional or if she had actually been a bit ungentle with him and emphasized that his complaining was, like this new anger, uncharacteristic. She said she would look into things tactfully and we both agreed that it may be a new symptom of his PDD. I said I would see his doctor asap to see if his meds. could be altered (for the millionth time) to address this new out-of-character behaviour.
She said that he was occasionally a bit rude and nasty to staff, especially if their ethnicity didn’t match his and I was a bit shocked and reassured her that this, too, was completely out of character. She patted me on the back and Ming and I came home a little stunned by this rather rapid change in Anthony’s personality. The other thing that has been happening lately is that he has begun accusing me of having a boyfriend (which, of course, I don’t!) and previously he was never the jealous type.
I hope we can do something about this because it is very worrying. I mean if he is nasty to the staff they are hardly going to love him are they. So this is a real dilemma in terms of his care.
The first word
This word is often the first you utter as a toddler, but it is also the first word you become fearful of. It can be said to you, but you cannot say it back. You can’t say it back when you are a little child because you are a little child. You can’t say it back when you begin school because you are a schoolchild. You can’t say it back to your parents, your teachers, your coaches, your relatives, your friends … because you are not allowed to, no matter how many times it is said to you. So you grow up and you get your first job and the situation repeats itself until you think that maybe you will never, ever be able to say your first word again. And then, 20, 30, 40 or 50 years into your life, you suddenly realize that it would be rather a handy word to use in some circumstances. So you try it out, very gently, and it works- it works! Then you try it out, less gently, and that works too and this surprises you because you have always been too fearful of using this first word. It is a beautiful word.
No.
Last week I said ‘no’ to Ming and today I said ‘no’ to Ants and, instead of being catapulted off the earth into nowhere, the three of us are still here and my two men have survived my ‘no’ with incredible ease. Of course there is more to this, as my previous blogposts imply, however it is the end result that really matters. I have learned to say no, Ming has learned that I am the boss and Anthony has begun to accept that he is in a nursing lodge permanently.
To celebrate my newfound love of the first word, I went out this afternoon and took some pictures (something I haven’t done for ages) of our beautiful white peacock who seems to think he is the first word bird!
I asked him if I could take just one more photo. He looked at me, turned around, flew high up into the wattle tree and cawed his answer down to me.
No.
First crush
It was mid-semester break at the local university where I worked so I took Ming in with me. He was nearly four. I’d only done this once before and it’d been a disaster because there was nothing for him to do except run up and down the hallway, vrooming, which wasn’t really appropriate at exam time.
This time I had a drawer full of paper, textas, finger puppets, matchbox cars and chocolate frogs ready, and for awhile this worked really well. I closed my office door and started preparing for the following semester while Ming played and drew pictures happily on the floor.
Inevitably, Ming got bored, so finally I opened my office door and told him he could go up and down the hallway quietly. He raced out.
After a few minutes I realised it was just a bit too quiet and, worried he’d wandered outside, I darted into the hallway just in time to see him dragging a chair from one of empty lecture rooms into the hallway and across to another lecture room. This was a big job for a little guy and I retreated to my doorway and watched, unnoticed, while, grunting with exertion, he finally propped the chair up against the closed door.
I knew there was some sort of community seminar going on in that room and earlier I’d bumped into the woman conducting it and said a quick hello. She’d seen Ming and crouched down at his eye-level and ruffled his hair, saying, “You’re a handsome devil aren’t you!” But it wasn’t until I saw him clambering onto the chair to look through the small window into the room where she was giving some sort of presentation that I realised how much impact she’d had on him.
I tip-toed up behind him to watch this woman through Ming’s ‘little-boy’ eyes. She was certainly beautiful; she was young, slim, olive-skinned and her black hair fell to her waist. Ming was so transfixed that he had no idea I was there until she suddenly noticed us peering in. She was so startled that I whisked Ming off the chair and back into my office, embarrassed.
But, much to my surprise, he ran straight back and picked up the chair, which had fallen over, and clambered onto it again to have another look. I quietly left him to it.
A few minutes later, I heard voices in the hallway, indicating that the seminar had finished. Ming toddled back into my office, an ecstatic smile on his face.
“Come an’ look, Mummy,” he said, pulling me away from my desk and into the hallway. The woman was walking away but, for some reason, she turned back and saw us watching her. She waved, and Ming waved back. Then she was gone. He sighed.
“That’s a bootiful womin, isint it, Mummy,” he said, looking up at me, his eyes full of light. I was flabbergasted. Was he in love?
It took weeks to wear off!
…..
Now that Ming is 18 he has experienced a few more crushes and been crushed by them as we all are at that age. It is strange to think that I was, at his age, falling in love with Anthony. I wonder who Ming will end up forming a relationship with and I hope she will be kind to him like the woman in the story above. If she isn’t, I will bop her!
jmgoyder 