An Island Christmas...

Day 7: Boxing Day

The mood is calmer this morning! I chuck on a load of washing and notice the majority of micro families preparing to clear off – to explore the delights of Tasmania.

Mother packs up the camper van and step sister removes herself from the girl den, aka the garage – to hitch a lift with Mum and T to Hobart – I’ll see them down there in a few days.

Everyone takes off and I take the opportunity to clean. With 17 bodies in a four bed room home, as large as it is, it has still managed to become messy.

Cousin T and Cousin B pitch in. We’re good grandchildren – not letting Grandma get up today! She’s done so much and we are so grateful!

Avoiding the busy highway I set up my laptop on a chair in the garage and do some Zumba (think world dance turned into aerobics) – thank goodness no one has seen me in my booty-shaking madness! I just need to get a sweat up for an hour so that pavlova doesn’t take hold on my frontal region.

I put on some washing.

Me and the Couch

Now, couch time – me and the couch don’t meet often – I’m too hyperactive but the things on pay tv manage to hold me momentarily until, serendipitously I switch onto a travel program about Laos (pronounced correctly like, Ciao with an ‘L’). My chest becomes itchy with creativity as I reminisce mentally my visit – I wish I had the contacts back when I visited in 2001 so I could share its beauty - the French colonial influences, the affects of the war that never was (as depicted in Air America). I experience bubbles in my belly that want to come out through my chest – my creative heart!

The travel journo is American – I expect his tales to be superficial but they’re not – he has tracked down some profound people, those affected by the war 30 years on – limbs missing from munitions discovered the wrong way! But there is progress – the journalist tells of the work American volunteer groups are doing to remove the munitions from the land. He mentions that Americans bombed some areas of the country in-effect, every nine minutes for 10 years – so they have still only found and disarmed 1% off the explosives out there waiting to cause destruction.

I dream for a moment of dropping everything to go back to Laos, this time to donate my time to ensuring that children can play in the fields without fear and that farmers can grow crops safely.
If only!