Menagerie

I had to shoot back home to New Zealand recently for some sad times.

While at the airport waiting for my return flight back to Aussie, I checked my CCTV and saw Dilan digging a garden.

I asked what he was up to and he said something about a fruit garden or some shit.

When I got home, I tapped into my finely tuned, fading eyes and ears and concluded that a fruit garden was a pair of ducks.

I’m like, “What the fuck, man?”.

Dilan’s like, “They’re Indian Running Ducks, or one is anyway. Crystal and Shaniqua. Cool aye.”

“No, not even a little bit cool, man.”

Knowing we don’t really have a duck pen or pond, or whatever it is that ducks live in, I shake my head in wonder.

Crystal and Shaniqua
A proud dad

Around the same time we got our first duck egg, we also took in Harry the Huntsman. He roamed our house and grounds freely, taking down cockroaches, mice, rats, and the odd weak wallaby. Talk about feeling safe, man.

I buggered off on a cool little overseas trip and was again ambushed upon return.

Fuck me, I now had a chicken in my backyard.

I’m like, “Nah seriously Dilan, ya cunt! What the fuck, man? This ain’t even a little bit cool.”

“Hey, nah Dad, don’t be like that. Bad Betty’s cool and she’ll be laying eggs soon.”

A few days later Bad Betty had Skanky Sally join her.

I go to work and whinge to my mate.

That didn’t do shit, because I woke up the following morning and glimpsed what I initially thought was a goat on my patio.

Lucky I took another look though, because I then realised it wasn’t a goat at all. It was two goats!

Billy and Tyrone

Two goats pissing and shitting all over my patio area, looking up at me with cute as ‘come cuddle me eyes’.

Dilan had already left for work and I’m about to myself but I’ve got goats bleating, ducks quacking and chickens bock-fucken-bocking.

Ol’ Bad Betty had escaped her piss-weak prison and was out front showing me chickens can cross the road, no matter what the answer to the age old joke.

So I hunt chook for a bit and throw her back into the backyard, where she doesn’t yet know she even belongs.

Four of the bastards

I’ve also got our dog Bella that now wants in on the action. But she doesn’t know if she wants to eat them, protect them, shepherd them or what, but she’s whining and running around like a spastic.

And lets not forget the first of them all, our cat Pudding. Her scorning look of absolute disgust, as she looks on, following the recent farm annexation.

Pudding trying to prove to me that age isn’t a barrier to being flexible

On a positive though, now that the trauma of the goat invasion has somewhat subsided, one of the ducks has started laying eggs again.

Ouch

Yesterday I thought one of our chooks was being raped but apparently she gave birth to her first ever egg.

Dilan, full of pride, watched on from his room.

Bella loves eggs but prefers meat, including poultry

As for the goats, I’m pretty sure, I won’t be getting any eggs from them. The fact that they’re both males – without nuts has something to do with it.

So without even goats milk to make cheese, they’re kind of useless, except for maybe cooking or cuddling.

I actually started this blog hoping someone would want the goats, maybe on a loan basis, or buy back situation, but I’m going to change the theme a little.

Shall I let Dilan keep the animals, does somebody else want them, or shall we eat them for Christmas?

I’ll try work out how y’all can vote for a few options at the end.

Oh, and they’re some sort of midget goats by the way. You know, like the equivalent of our human dwarfs or midgets… and, like some of those cunts, these goats also try to root each other.

Now there’s a sales pitch if ever ya heard one right aye. Miniature gay goat porn. Bit of a niche there, I’m thinking.

Or maybe you’re a midget and love riding horses but always need a leg up. No longer a problem. You can own your own goat. Man’s new best friend.

In hindsight, maybe I would’ve been better off letting Dilan get a dog. For the record though, I did not say yes to a menagerie, ark, zoo etc.

I now have a backyard that, should I wish to access, I have to study architecture and train as a ninja warrior to get through the obstacle course Dilan created in an ad-hoc solution to animal containment.

I’m not sure Dilan realised, that none of these animals, are actually rocks that do not move.

Maybe a pet rock next time, Dilan

Their current living arrangement is a cross between a shanty town shack in South East Asia and bivouac style camping.

There may come a day when I build a mountainous Himalayas themed backyard to accommodate these animals but until then, anyone interested in them is asked to sing out very loud, or even whisper. Fuck it, just a hint will suffice.

The goats are like petting zoo level of friendly, cuddly and far too cute and cheeky for me to want to spend heaps of time with.

Not sure why I feel so inclined but I am purchasing a decent chook pen. If I don’t use it for the chooks and ducks, I might move Dilan into it.

They say a Mum, can’t really be replaced.

Unless it’s with two ducks.

And two chickens.

And two goats.

And a huntsman spider.

Nah, she can’t be replaced but I do wonder what Marjana would’ve said.

I guess it’s all part of turning the page.

Five months…

Hey y’all,

A bunch of peeps been messaging me, so to save me replying to all, here’s a bit of an update.

Yes, I will blog again. In fact I probably need it more now than I did before. Just haven’t quite been able to bring myself to open up to the world like I did when Marjana was here to take joy from ’em. There’s more to it than just that and technically, I’m blogging now anyway so small steps I guess.

It’s just over five months since we lost my first wife and life has sucked like a back alley $2 whore but it’s also been good like the purest of virgins too. More on this when I open up and blog properly. The good and bad I mean, not virgins and whores.

A few months ago, I took our boys back to New Zealand where we reconnected with my family and mates and the boys really dug it. That trip was sad as fuck but personally, it was more therapeutic than I thought it’d be, so fuck yeah!

The recent ‘taking these boys for a ride on a big jet plane’ facebook post relates to a planned equivalent of our NZ trip but on a far bigger scale to Croatia, with a few stopovers along the way.

We’re gone for five weeks, most of which is in Croatia catching up with our family here.

As you’d imagine, there’s moments of joy and sorrow with Marjana’s family and friends but so far it’s been awesome.

Our family here are amazing. So pure! They’ve been crucial in plugging holes from wounds of sorrow, particularly with our kids and for that I’m forever grateful.

This is without doubt a medicinal trip of healing for the three of us travellers but also for our Croatian connection. On that note, I do appreciate the fact Dilan’s boss approved a five week holiday for him when I doubt he’s got anywhere near five weeks leave built up so cheers bro.

The reason we’re actually here right now is ‘cos our niece is getting married in a couple weeks. We always knew Marjana wasn’t gunna make it but she made me promise that I’d still come… and here we are.

On a bit of a downer though, our pet sitter advised me that one of our three pets is now dead too, fuck it. So that’s a little bit shit. Kind of a last on, first off scenario so sucks to be you Bird 😞 No more deaths though please 🙏

I will blog more but just give me a bit of time please as it’s taken me five months to put this post out there. Before you know it, I’ll be back writing shit for y’all.

This blog was brought to you by the letter C for the word cunt.

#44 Milestone reached

Milestones are nice aye. Well at least the good ones are.

But even fucked ones can be worth celebrating. You know, like being diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer but still being alive after one full cycle around the sun.

A whole year later and she ain’t even a little bit dead.

Fuck yeah!

Obviously it hasn’t all been what we’d call a shit hot time though. Marjana’s changed heaps but the key point being she’s still alive to actually change.

There’s been some extreme hairstyle makeovers, heaps of spews and gallons of diarrhoea to compliment the constipation along the way and fuck man, those snorts she now makes when she laughs would shame a wild boar.

This cancer life we now live has changed us all as none of us are the same people we were a year ago. Fact!

Although my first wife is still kinda growly (it’s a wife thing I believe), I have to admit she doesn’t sweat the small stuff like our pre cancer days. It’s really puts things into perspective and that’s actually a positive.

life hack #101 – when ya cat spews up a feed let ya dog eat the spew – two feeds for the price of one

But as I sit here typing away my first wife is laying beside me in pain. She’s got her chemo bottle attached and is crying in agony from stomach cramps thanks to chemo.

This particular blog has taken me fucking ages to write as I know for a fact some of you come here for a laugh as well as an update and no cunt reads these aspiring to get depressed. To be honest though, sometimes I do struggle to find the words to cover off both elements. By that I mean, giving a status update without leaving you, the reader feeling like that Mona Lisa sheila looks in that painting.

I’m trying to write this and wipe away my first wife’s tears at the same time. Being the considerate poor li’l wifey though, she helped me by grabbing a tissue to wipe tears from two pairs of eyes and then whispered how romantic it is to share tear tissues. Fuck man, I’m just happy we’re finally saving money on tissue usage but seriously though, that shit can not not change anyone.

Fuck you cancer! You’re a cunt and can fuck right off if ya don’t mind.

Ya haven’t killed us yet. Came pretty close; but close don’t count for shit.

The ol’ girl has struggled a bit of late with her last few Chernobyl sessions affecting her quite badly. She’s been in heaps of pain and continually fatigued as fuck so even her good weeks ain’t like the good weeks of old.

We recently went to see our surgeon. You know the one… Peter the good cunt. Sounds a bit like one of Jesus’s disciples aye. The first wife even put on her nice perfume and a semi decent pair of undies… Nana undies can be semi decent if they are new and don’t have holes apparently.

We were trying to find out why she’s been in so much pain of late. Still not 100% sure but our oncologist who I’m not allowed to call a gnome, even though he looks like one, gave the ol’ girl an extra week off chemo which, along with a couple more blood transfusions helped our cause.

the power of touch

In fact the day after that decision she surprisingly woke up feeling pretty bloody good and stayed like that for almost a whole week… Sometimes we’ll take what we can get.

It’s fair to say though, we’ve probably been a tad dehydrated of late as too much eye sweat can leave one feeling not very flash at all.

For those who’ve followed these blogs since day one, you’ve no doubt shared a ride with bumps as big as an erect nipple on a lovely perky tit and lows almost as bad as food poisoning the All Blacks in rugby world cup finals. But I’d also like to think that along the way you’ve snuck in a few laughs… and maybe the odd bewildered comment along the lines of ‘Did he really just say that?’. That actually leads nicely into your our quote of the day…

Oncologist: (talking about chemo options) Hopefully we can get that all mopped up.

Me: Oooh yippeee, Marjana just loves mopping and she’s real good at it too.

we don’t always get a menu at hospital but when we do we try and get beer

Going back though to that milestone of surviving an entire year, there are actually a few significant dates we wont forget and we ain’t even sure which one/s to celebrate.

It was back on August 12, 2020 when Marjana woke up with swollen glands, called in sick to work and went to the doctor.

The next few days were an absolute cunt of a time to be honest with the worst being August 19, 2020 when she was officially diagnosed with cancer – stage four metastised bowel cancer to be precise. That’s one mean as memory scar right there.

A few days later came hospital admissions for chemo portal insertion, colonoscopy and ultimately the all important life saving ‘subtotal colectomy’ surgery, which for normal people translates to cutting her guts open, ripping out some cancer tumours followed by a little bit of realignment plumbing and sewing the guts back up.

None of the above were happy times but they are milestones that do deserve to be celebrated. Milestones (at least for me) usually involve drinking a bunch of piss so tend to end up as a good time. I’m sure I read somewhere that this month Virgos gunna luck upon some beer skulls and jager shots but in all honesty it could’ve just been my own fortune telling.

Ideally, I should compile a list of all the people who have helped us through this last year but I refuse because I’ll inevitably leave some cunt off, only to remember after posting the blog. Y’all know who ya are anyway.

People often ask how I’m going and to be honest it’s a cunt of a feeling seeing ya loved one in absolute agony and crying uncontrollably because of it.

It’s also a cunt of a feeling seeing the extreme physical change in ya first wife and not that I give a fuck if she’s getting fat or has fuck all hair or whatever but seeing how it’s affected her with a body aging many years in a single year is what’s sad. It’s not just the body but the emotion and mental state that’s affected her because of it.

To see, hear and experience that is quite simply just a cunt. But it ain’t nothing compared to her living it in the first person.

enjoying the sun

This particular blog wasn’t meant to read like an All Blacks Rugby World Cup loss but real life cancer stories more often than not are unfortunately not usually of the fluffy feel good genre.

Not sure if you’ve heard but there’s this little thing called COVID-19 that also came into the mix around cancer diagnoses time so there’s also that freaky element. Not that we’re the only ones affected by lockdowns and spastics stockpiling toilet paper but one can’t reflect upon the last year without at least mentioning Corona.

If ya are looking for a good time, I do recommend not getting cancer. If, for some reason you did fall victim to it then I personally recommend fighting that mongrel cunt of a thing like their ain’t no tomorrow because one day that may just be the case.

As this particular blog took a few weeks to write, it’s only right that I finish by adding that right now my first wife is actually feeling good this week. So good that we were even able to go on a dump run date together…

it’s Dump Girl

… and go to see this really cool band called Victor Bravo live.

Victor Bravo are (left to right) Ben Cutting (guitar/vocals), Jakeb Brown (drums/vocals), Jack Flack (lead vocals/guitar) and Kodi Winslow (bass/vocals)

Victor Bravo live at The Zoo