Eeep, has it really been that long? People are going to think I've been kidnapped or something! [grins at Cat]

Actually, it has just been a dose of real life. Or several doses of it. I really must start blogging my trip before I forget it all. But in the mean time...

Chiropractor

I regularly visit a chiropractor. My lower back has been dodgy for about 10 years now and I have resigned myself to monthly tune-ups to keep myself upright. My current chiro is a delight. Her name is Katie and we have a fine old gossip each session. The fact that I have recommended more people to her practice than any other patient (and we are talking many patients) mitigates my constant forgetfulness regarding appointments.

Each session, I will wander in and she will ask where it hurts. I'll point out the ouchy bits and she makes like Rice Krispies (Snap! Crackle! Pop!) until it is all better. I know that I can point out the oddest symptom and she knows where to poke me. Everything from sleeplessness to period pain. It's fantastic.

The last session I had, I mentioned that my hip had been sore when I slept on my side. She poked, she prodded, she sat me up and laid me down. Eventually, she found a spot, poked it hard, waited until I stopped yowling and asked if it felt better. It felt incredible. I could walk more freely. I had a swing to my step. I asked her what was wrong. She frowned at me like she wasn’t sure how to tell me. "Your hip was out."

"No shit, Sherlock."

"No, really out. Out laterally."

"Laterally?"

"Yeah, like this..." and she tries to move her hip in a way God never intended.

"Remember, I belly dance. I can do astonishing things with my hips."

"No..." Delicate pause. "You would have needed a friend to do this."

"Huh... OH!"

Ooops.

Mother

I know, it's a cheap shot. Everyone bitches about their mothers. I don't bitch much about mine. We're actually pretty good friends. But she has pulled something that takes the cake.

As you all know, I had to move just before a three-week trip to the US. Moving is expensive and stressful. I had to borrow a substantial sum of money from my brother to pay for removalists. Then there was the trip, planned well before the move. It was also expensive, but in a good-but-I’ve-maxed-out-my-Visa-card-big-time-way. Then I had my boy come to stay with me for another three weeks. He has a passion for second hand books. So do I. An expensive passion... I had also promised, in conjunction with my brother, to pay for Mum to fly to Western Australia for a Naval Reunion in October. This was planned before the trip and well before the move.

So the period from July until October has been/is a gigantic financial drain for me.

Mum was an absolute wonder while I was in the US. She came into my new place and helped unpack and tidy the place up so that I wasn’t coming home to a box-strewn disaster area. When I spoke to her on the phone, she told me that she had been sprucing the place up a bit for me.

I love my mum.

When I came home, the windows facing the neighbouring building all had gauzy white curtains and my crappy old couch had been covered with a lovely yellow cotton rug. The place looked gorgeous. I was thrilled.

Right up until the point where she handed me $350 in receipts and told me I could pay her back.

Which was right AFTER the point her dog had come in and clawed the new rug to bits so that it couldn’t possibly be returned.

I was gobsmacked. To put it mildly.

My brother was horrified. He had gone shopping with Mum, helping pick things out for my place, presuming that she was giving them to me as a surprise housewarming present. A very big housewarming present, admittedly, but he had no idea she was going to ask for the money or he would have made her ask me first.

Two years ago, my grandfather (Mum’s father-in-law from her first marriage) passed away. Mum could not afford to go to the funeral so I paid for her ticket. I told her she could pay me back whenever she could get the money together.

It's time for me to call in my debts.