Family Tree

I got a call a while back from my cousin Janie (well my cousin's daughter actually). She's been putting together the Claber family tree and wondered if I'd like a look. Mary Claber was my Grandmother, Dad's Mum. The tree is interesting and Janie's gone back a long way.

It got me started on my family tree which branches into Bentley and Andrew and then goes back to Bradbury. Susan and I had worked on a lot of this when I was over there one winter (pre 1996) and I will always remember AC helping us and the phone calls to Harold Bradbury. The horror of discovering that an ancestor, Norris Bradbury, owned the land that became Tandle Hills and gave it to the people for a penny. "Tandle Hills is our land," AC told us. Lordy what it would be worth these days!!!!

That family tree ended up scribbled on the back of a flattened out Cornflakes box and I looked after it for many years until I gave it to Joanne when we went last year. Very different to the current tree which is on ancestry.com.

It's interesting to find out about people you didn't know. For example my great grandfather, Thomas Claber, was a self actor minder which meant he watched the self acting mule, a multi-threaded spinning machine. He was killed at Gallipoli in June 1915. On Mum's side, on of Grandad's brothers was Harry Andrew. There is not much information about him but searching the records, there is a Harry Andrew who was killed at Flanders Field who seems to match. I wonder if it is him. Part of me thinks no, because surely Mum would have told me. I wish she was here to ask.

Mr Magorium

Quite a few years ago now, I went on an end of year excursion with the 3/4's at SAPS. We took them to the Sun Theatre in Yarraville to see the movie "Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium". I wasn't that impressed at the time but these days it seems to come on the t.v. a fair bit and I've noticed it contains some quirky little quotes......

"Your life is an occasion. Rise to it." (Don't you love that one?)

"We must face tomorrow, whatever it may hold, with determination, joy and bravery."

They set all the clocks in a store to sound at exactly the same time...in 37 seconds. So they wait, except...." We breathe. We pulse. We regenerate. Our hearts beat. Our minds create. Our souls ingest. 37 seconds, well used, is a lifetime."

And of course there are some fabuolous shoe quotes....
"I fell so completely in love with these shoes, I bought enough pairs to last my whole lifetime. This is my last pair."

"Mr Magorium, toy impresario, wonder afficionado and avid shoe wearer."

Monopoly

Our Boxing Day tradition is board games. For some people this means bored games but I love them! And the one I love most is Monopoly. I enjoy the original game and I am always the canon to blow people out of the water. While it's great to have the prestige row of greens (Oxford, Bond, Regent) and navy blues (Mayfair, Park Lane), there's something to be said about owning the less popular streets and pumping them up to hotel status fairly quickly. I have won by owning only Old Kent Road and Whitechapel Road with hotels.

I have also been called a pirhana when playing the game!

Now, the original Monopoly is a great classic but my favourite Monopoly is the Wizard of Oz version. Where else can you try to buy a brain, heart, courage and the way home (instead of stations)? And "streets" include Munchkinland, Emerald City and The Rainbow. Awesome.

My Left Foot

I love shoes. That was said in my last post but this post is about shoes (and feet) too. I am so excited that I won the Style Tread competition and I will be getting a pair of shoes every month for the next year!!! (Providing I don't go over the $3000 limit before that)

Since I had my foot surgery my shoe addiction has become an obsession. I think that it's because I spent so long unable to wear nice shoes - first that giant lump restricted what I could wear and then it took ages to get my feet back into shape after the surgery to take out the giant lump.

Just remember that this is how my left foot looked right after the bandages were removed:

(With apologies to the squeamish).

Anyway I will enjoy "buying" shoes. Trust me on that. I may even get a pair of higher heels in the hope that one day my big toe will feel things again and I will be able to balance on something higher than a couple of inches.