Pooh.

We have termites, or had termites. Our back deck was falling apart because those little suckers chewed their way through it. We found out the hard way - when the deck collapsed under foot (or in this case under palm tree removal)

We've gotten the whole lot pulled up and taken away.. but we had to replace it with something, because what was left behind was a stretch of boggy mud patch, (BTW I'm beginning to think that the whole block the house sits on is a boggy mud patch) peppered with beer bottles left over from some previous owner's party that we weren't invited to.

Not wanting to give another generation of termites a free meal, I vetoed more timber decking and called in a guy to do some extreme concrete paving for us. Now, after loads of de-construction and re-construction using tonnes of roadbase landfill, sand and concrete pavers, the former mud patch is looking pretty good and non-edible.

I've given out plenty of compliments ("oh, it's a work of art!") to our landscaper and his construction crew; which consists of two apprentices who look about 13 years old, but of course our paver saviour isn't going to agree to me paying him solely by way of flattery, and so we've had to dip into our savings yet again.

I'm really bummed about this because our 'savings' consists of our travel fund - the one we were going to use to go back to America and visit Deb's lot over there this year. And of course this would happen the first time in four years that Deb's ever told me she's homesick wants to visit her mother, who's not been doing very well.

Seriously sometimes I feel like I'm stuck in the middle of this giant cyclone. Around me I can see all these issues and problems spinning round and round.. and somehow I have to make sense of it all and fix things. I have no idea why I'm in the hub, standing right smack dab in the middle of the the eye of the cyclone and why I'm the designated fixer-upper, but there you go. I must've asked for it in the cosmic pre-reincarnation meeting.

Today is just one of those real bad rotten days where I'm sure that as soon as I show my face there's going to be audible boos and hisses from everyone because I've been cast as life's chief party-pooper and person in charge of bringing in a large dose of reality to life's situations. I guess that's why I always felt sorry for Rabbit in the Winnie the pooh stories. I sympathised with him having to be the one to say, "ahh guys, I know that we had all these travel plans but put down your suitcases because the Pooh-deck has just collapsed and it's going to need fixing..."

So I think I'll go and join Rabbit in his burrow in the boggy mud patch and find a dry beer bottle to suck on until I feel better..