So I’m here.

On the Gold Coast.

By myself.

I was by myself for three hours in the car, and then again when I arrived here, and all of the long, ripe Gold Coast night, and now again this morning. And it is very interesting.  So even though I will be amongst a massive gaggle of bloggers all weekend, and my beautiful mate from Melbourne, who I don’t see nearly enough, will be coming up to join me this afternoon, I’m still alone.

In that the things that will be required of me will be whatever I want.

Just me.

I have a very easy life, and a family that indulge my desire to write these things here.  I have a job that I love, and I get to live in a beautiful place of warm open skies.  I have kids that are funny when they are awake and sleep like hibernation every night.  I have a husband who is a champion among men who is by my side every step of the way.  So you wouldn’t think that there would be anything missing from the landscape of my world.

So perhaps it isn’t something missing, instead, something to be added in.  Perhaps I could sketch in a little area down around the bottom right corner of the landscape, a little area of space that could have just me in it.  Nothing else.  No bells or whistles or sparkly widgets and link-ups.  Just a squiggle representing itself.

Last night I had a beer and ate some cashews and just sat in the thick silence.  I looked at Twitter to see what the other conference attendees were up to, and a few friends messaged me to see what I was doing, so there were spurious connections with the outside world, but mostly I just opened up the balcony doors and listened to the tumble of the waves and the echo of the cars below.

There’s something wonderful about just sitting isn’t there?

My mind wandered around, looked for things to latch onto, and then let them recede.  Just like the ebb of the waves.  Still there, still relentlessly swirling, but not requiring any input from me to maintain their impetus.  And there is something extremely comforting in that.  The world will turn and turn and turn, regardless of whether I’m plugged in, or checked out.

Disclaimer: It might be easy to say all of this when this is the view from my bed:

Problem: the sun is too, umm, sunny to get a view of the beach for a photo.

How about you, do you love your time alone?

Tell me your number one way to sketch out a space for yourself.

…From The Ashers xx

It’s been a busy week around here with me working FULL TIME (I know, unheard of!) as well as fitting in being a FRONT PAGE celebrity in the local paper…  By the time you read this I will be safely ensconced in the bath seminar room of the QT, enjoying a weekend at the ProBlogger seminar, getting pissed and going to karaoke bars with Nikki enriching my mind with ALL of the things a pretend professional blogger needs to know.

So here are the hits:

1.  YOU.  As you RRs would know I plagued the blog with posts about the ridiculously low blood stores this week, going on and on and on about it, until you were all so sick of hearing about it, you went and gave up the claret.  Well done.  Maroochydore Blood Bank rang me and said they had a bumper week, and even though it’s still not enough, it’s something.  So goodonya you lot.  Coco and the rest of The Ashers thank you from the bottom of our corpuscles.

2.  My big, almost ten year old boy, Liam.  As you might have figured out by some of my posts, he hates his sister and even once wrote a note plotting out his vengeance.  See exhibit A.

Exhibit A

Despite that, this week he started up a blog of his very own, and THIS was his post on Day 3.  Warms the cockles of me old heart, I tells ya.

Oh, and feel free to checkout the whole blog.  He’s at DJ Asher.  He would love to get some comments… Like the one he got from his Uncle Darren, who said, “I usually don’t read shit blogs like your Mum’s, but I’ll read yours.”  Liam thought that was hilarious.  Don’t worry, I banned him from the computer for a week for that. (I can’t have him being more successful than me you know.)

The dude even added his own little category of YouTube videos, unbeknownst to us.  How?  We don’t know.  And so the world turns….

3.  This yummy spread.  How good is it when you have older patients who bring you in awesome stuff they’ve made?  Bloody good, is how good.  I got this baby from a lady this week.  It’s delish, AND cute, with a sweet little love-heart topper.  Who even does that these days?  Grouse old chicks, that’s who.

Mmmmm, lemmmon

4.  And whilst I’m going on about food, how good are these?  Have you had one?  Of course you haven’t because you can’t have just one.  You have to eat the whole damn packet.  A perfect sweety-salty treat to keep me going on my long afternoon shift.  It’s just a shame they cost a bomb (considering my consumption rate).  They aren’t as expensive as printer ink, but they are close.  Get yourself some anyway.  Just tell the kids they are healthy and then you can eat the lot yourself.

Pumpkin = Healthy

5.  The QT.  It’s very colourful, and a bit too crazy for my eyes to take it all in at once, but I think this extremely comfortable bed is going to suit me just fine.

So soft

The only drawback so far is that the minibar stinks of cantaloup.  I don’t know how or why, but it’s doing my head in (as Smelling All Of The Smells is my superpower.)   My $9 Corona has a distinctly unsavoury odour.  But I’m soldiering on.

Well that’s it from me…  Have a great weekend.  I suspect I will.

Send me your Hits if you have the time.  I’d love to hear what you’re up to.

…From The Ashers xx

As you RRs can tell, I’ve devoted this week to posts about transfusions and all things bloody.

The reason of course is that blood stores are at critically low levels this week, and as a mother of a vampire who drains these stores every three months, I have found myself in a strange situation where I am, by proxy, an advocate for the Blood Bank.  Of course Nath and I give blood ourselves every three months, so we give back the amount that Coco withdraws.  But still, not everyone has the luxury of being able to do that.  And so there is a deficit.

We do what we can to spread the word: we give talks at Thank You functions, we appear in the Blood Bank magazine, we go in the paper whenever they ask us, acting as part of the propaganda machine that runs these kinds of things.  And hopefully, now and again, we touch your hearts in such a way that you will be motivated enough to take an hour or so out of your day to donate 300mls of your most precious of fluids.

So here is another post from the vault, a more recent one, about Adaptation.

And remember, blood stores are critically low at present.  If you can donate, please do.

This week.  

Call 131495 to save three lives.

…From The Ashers xx

The blog today is one from the vault: A story about blood and transfusions and little enzymes.

Click here for Just a Little Thing.

And by the way, Coco isn’t getting her transfusion for a few more weeks, but given the critically low levels of blood stores this week, I thought it was worth remembering how a little thing like a giving blood can mean so much to a little person.  Coco might not like getting transfusions, but she definitely loves how she feels afterwards.

If you are able to donate, please consider doing so this week. 

…From The Ashers xx

Some things are more important than a blog.  (I know, who knew?)

Here is a real news story that I’d love you to read, and perhaps share, and most importantly do.

A story in our local paper, The Sunshine Coast Daily  please have a squiz.

Thanks

…From The Ashers xx

Image: Wikipedia

Blood.

It is our life force.  It is a clever fluid that carries oxygen to our cells.  It takes our every breath, to every part of our bodies.  And then it lets us breathe out again.  In.  And out.  In.  And out.   And repeat.

Without it our cells would be gasping, asphyxiated.

And we would die.

Blood.

It looks alarming when we see it outside the precious tubes of our arterial network.  It is so bright, so vivid, and so shiny that it almost seems to have a life all of its own.  If you look at a drop of blood closely it seems somehow thick with vibrancy and hope.  A crimson lustre, full of promise and potential.

It scarlet-shouts at us: lookatme lookatme lookatme.  Full of its own importance, for it knows: without it, we would die.

Blood.

Most of us don’t think much about it.

From time to time some of it may leak out of us, in scratches and cuts and scrapes, and we wipe it efficiently away- red blots on white tissues- and discard it without a mind, for we know our clever bodies will make more and more and more.  And repeat as required.

For without it, we would die.

But sometimes people can lose more than they can make.

And sometimes, some bodies have diseases that break down the blood too quickly.

And some other people, through no fault nor folly of their own, make thousands and thousands of the ruby red discs, but those bloody little frisbees are left wanting: wrong shape, fuzzy edges or missing some parts, so the intelligence of the body sends them to the liver.  For termination.

And yet, without these biconcave saucers: they will die.

This child is one of those.

Thankfully, she doesn’t need your blood this week, but one day soon, she will.

Please, roll up your sleeve, and share some of your carmine elixir of life.  You’ll make some more, I promise.  In fact, you’ll do it without even knowing.

She, however, simply can not.

Blood stores are at a critically low level at present, so you will be hearing me parp on about this all week.

Please call 139596 to make an appointment, or visit the Red Cross Website to find a location, check your eligibility, or share this information with your friends.  

Not everyone CAN donate, so those of us who are able to, have the ability to SAVE A LIFE… I think that’s a super-power.

…Thanks and Love, From The Ashers xx