Cocka-Bloody-Toos

I enjoy watching and listening to the birds that flock around our house each morning. From the tiny wrens to Willie Wagtails to parrots of every imaginable colour to the noisy Indian minas. And of course the handsome cockatoos.
There has been one cockatoo in particular that has been hanging around for a week or two. He (or she) sits on the fence or in a tree and carries on a conversation with no one in particular. I have enjoyed immensely the bravado of this bird as nothing seemed to annoy it except me trying to get close to it.
That was until this morning ..............
I was reading the paper and the cockatoo, as usual, perched on the fence and began to sidle along, getting closer to me in the covered entertainment area. It reached the passionfruit vines and hopped onto the covering foliage and then, without any delay, ducked its head into the foliage and came back up with a very ripe passionfruit in its beak!!!!!
So much for my envisaged friendship with this bird!!!!
It is nothing but an opportunistic THIEF!!!!

OUT OF THE DOLDRUMS

At long last I can see clearly now. That seems like maybe a good name for a song!!!! I seem to have spent so long down in the dumps and very confused with myself because of this dreaded PTSD. I finally got jack of it and spent quite a session with my doctor. He proposed that I see a counsellor to see if that would help. And, lo and behold, after several sessions I feel as if a great load has been lifted from me.
I have had counselling before and that was when I was finally diagnosed with PTSD. I went to the VVCS or Vietnam Veterans' Counselling Service (now known as Veterans and Veterans' Family Counselling Service). The people there are absolutely wonderful. They have been trained specifically for dealing with veterans and their inherent problems rising from war service. This time I went back to them and the counsellor I am now seeing is ex-Army and ex-Police Force (or should I say Police Service???) so he knows where I'm coming from. He didn't see active service but dealt with a lot of bad stuff while in the Police.
He showed me how to control my temper and mood swings by breathing. This brought on another problem of sorts. When I was studying for my teaching papers, I developed a series of breathing exercises to allow instrumentalists and vocalists control their breathing, which seems to have been very successful as some of my ex-students still use the process. Anyhow, while doing the relaxation breathing, I found I was falling into my own exercises and that seemed to increase the value of what I was doing. The counsellor seemed quite pleased with that although I thought maybe it would be wrong.
He also encouraged me to get back into things I used to do, so, after a couple of sessions I got up the courage to go to the RSL and volunteer myself for anything that I could do to help them. It seems that at the moment they don't have much going on, so I will just wait until they need me. But at least I have made a start.
Another thing he encouraged me to do was to get interested in music again. I composed a march while I was studying in 1982 and I have barely looked at it since, until now. I am in the process of re-writing it and I have found that it is an enjoyable pastime. Of course I don't have the skills on hand as I had in 1982, but they are coming back bit by bit.
I have been lucky to find a music writing programme on-line for a reasonable price, so I can now write music and listen to the results, which sometimes are horrendous, but usually easily fixed. It seems that my ear for notes is still with me to a certain degree. One day I might even find a concert band to play it. The local RSL has a Youth Band, so maybe they might be approachable. I have spoken to the bandmaster and explained to him that I wanted to volunteer my services somewhere, and when he found out my musical history, he sort of hinted that maybe, just maybe, I could stand in for him as conductor when he wasn't available. Now that is something that I could do pretty well!!!!
I have also been told by my doc that physiotherapy is a must. So I have been for the first assessment visit and see him again tomorrow week for the first agony session. The physio was quite amazed that I hadn't been referred to a specialist of some kind like a neurologist or surgeon when I first injured my leg. Maybe that could be on the agenda too.
So much going on and so little space to write about it. I will keep you informed as to how I progress with everything as time goes on. So, until the next time, just please be glad for me and my little success in recovery.

Want More Trivia???

Some from around the world

Beer is made by fermentation cause by bacteria feeding on yeast cells and then defecating. In other words, it's a nice tall glass of bacteria doo-doo. (Well... I didn't know that. Maybe if I had known I wouldn't have got to like it so much!!!!)

There are more psycho-analysts per capita in Buenos Aires than any other place in the world.

Newfoundland's time zone is half an hour off of all the others. So are Iran's, bits of India's, Afghanistan's, Burma's, and Nauru's.(And some other islands. Like Australia.)

The first man to distill bourbon whiskey in the United States was a Baptist preacher, in 1789. 

The ancient Egyptians recommended mixing half an onion with beer foam as a way of warding off death. (That concoction would kill you anyhow)

The Chinese, in olden days, used marijuana only as a remedy for dysentery. (Almost give you the shits, wouldn't it??)

During his or her lifetime, the average human will grow 590 miles of hair. (And I'm struggling to keep my one and a half inches of what's left of my hair)

The average Human bladder can hold 13 ounces of liquid.

You lose enough dead skin cells in your lifetime to fill eight five-pound flour bags.

Your thumb is the same length as your nose.

The storage capacity of human brain exceeds 4 Terabytes

Now from Australia
The original fifty cent piece in Australian decimal currency had around $2.00 worth of silver in it before it was replaced with a less expensive twelve sided coin.
 

In 1940 the Fauldings pharmaceutical company developed Zinc Cream, the iconic white sun block made from zinc oxide. (Now authorities are warning Australians that by using sun block you have successfully blocked out the life-giving vitamin D from sunlight. Can't win can we??)

Bats always turn left when leaving a cave.

Uluru (Ayers Rock) is over 8 kilometres in circumference.

More than 85% of Australians live within 50 km of the coast.

In a lifetime the average Australian will consume half a tonne of cheese, eight tonnes of fruit and ten tonnes of vegetables. (The never mention beer in these HEALTHY stats)

The name "Australia" is derived from the Latin "australis" meaning "southern".

The hottest day in Australian history was in Oodnadatta, South Australia, on the 2nd of January 1960. It was 50.7 degrees Celsius.

Australia's coastline stretches almost 50,000 kilometres.

Australia has the greatest number of reptiles of any country, with 755 species.

Australia has an average of three people per square kilometre, making it one of the lowest population densities in the world.

The explorer ship, Endeavour, Captained by Captain James Cook, was originally designed to haul coal.

The 'dingo fence' in Australia is the longest fence in the world. It is about twice as long as the Great Wall of China.

The first telephone exchange opened in Melbourne with less than 45 customers.

The first radio station in Australia was known as 2SB, broadcasting out of Sydney in 1923.

Kalgoorlie in Western Australia embraces the world's largest political electorate, covering a mammoth 2.2 million square kilometres.

That's about it for your trivia fix this time. Keep watching for more to come. And don't forget to read my previous blog about Googie Withers.