Hi everyone, this is my first time as a blogger and I am not sure what I'm going to tell you all about......I am still unsure whether I will enjoy the experience of blogging but I hope someone will read my musings and I might make some on-line friends.
I am sitting in my office looking out the window on a very warm bright sunshiny day in country Victoria. It is always such a pleasure to have lovely weather - a bit of a rarity actually. I wonder what the weather is like where you are?

I hope you all had a lovely time celebrating or ignoring Christmas. I certainly enjoyed the celebrations I was part of...with my wonderful extended family...but our celebrations were tinged with sadness as we lost a family member on 22nd December.

I wonder why our society doesn't seem to know how to deal with death...it seems that we ignore the fact that death comes to all of us, and in so doing, it becomes almost embarrassing for the grieving to grieve. The boy who died was my second cousin, and he was just starting to become a man and take responsibility for his life. When I first met him, he was on an adventure with himself - trying to make his Dad take notice of him - trying to be tough - trying to be strong...but he was none of those things, just a gentle boy whose life was a constant battle. I didn't see too much of him, only heard stories of his exploits and his cock ups...Then he met and fell in love with a good strong girl, he became a loving father and husband. Their fourth child is due in January and now he's gone and that little baby will never know its father. So sad....

I didn't start this blog with the intention of writing about Rafik, but I guess I needed to.