Author: LT

It’s Mum’s birthday this Saturday, the 8 October. Yesterday the family had a combined birthday and housewarming party with a dash of birthday for Dad’s brother, Russell, as well. In the Ensor tradition, this is known as a not-birthday – a celebration that’s not on the day of. Mum (and Russell) had a riotous not-birthday…

My Aunt called me a few weeks ago. She said she’d been watching 60 Minutes and had heard about an ‘amazing new drug’ that could ‘reverse stroke’. I was immediately skeptical. I’m no medical expert by any measure but I have spent a lot of time reading, writing and thinking about stroke over the last…

The funny thing is, when I joined Twitter about six years ago I never intended for my gender to be ambiguous. However, as a public servant, I did feel that I needed to be anonymous. I already had a name – Lee Tennant. It was an androgynous name I used online and that I planned…

Is that a trick question? Yesterday was R U OK day and for Mum it had somewhat of a different impact than intended. As far as I can gather, the television kept asking her if she was OK and since the answer was ‘no’, she got extremely depressed. The ‘black dog’ has been stalking Mum…

Mum had a lovely day at the hairdresser on Saturday and wanted everyone to see her new ‘do’. The stylists at Shear Art at Victoria Point were truly lovely to her, giving her a hand and arm massage and doing her makeup as well. I’m not sure why it was Mum that needed a makeover…

Mum had a doctor’s appointment at Victoria Point Lakeside this morning so I decided to log into work a bit later and go down with her and Dad to have breakfast at the local Harvest cafe. Between the hospital visits and the operations, it’s been a while since Mum was able to do something normal…

Apart from #womanforaweek and the odd bit of fiction, this blog rarely ventures out of the confines of climate science. But, after years of trying, I was finally forced to sit down and watch the show, Glee. I make no apologies for missing what was apparently a cultural tour de force that seems to have…

The hardest thing sometimes is to ask for help; especially in our culture of self-sufficiency. But sometimes the bravest thing to do is to admit you can’t do everything alone. And despite our best efforts, that is the situation we find ourselves in. So today I’m going to broach the uncomfortable topic of money. It’s…

“This is delicious.” Mum always loved her food. She loved the experience of going out to dinner. She loved wearing her best clothes, putting on her makeup, doing her hair. She loved quality restaurants and good wine. And she loved the food; the sociability of it, the way it brought people together. Mum’s favourite things…

In the December of our lives When future plans are made Most of us sit in our chairs And feel rather afraid Fear of physio, I’m afraid of the pain Fear of therapy, afraid I’ll make no gain I’m afraid that time won’t heal this stroke brain I’m afraid I’ll never walk again I’m afraid…