Recovering....

I am still recovering from the effect of my dental surgery though it is slowly but surely improving. I am no longer needing to be on painkillers. The pain does return at times but more of an annoyance than anything, and it doesn't last for long. The financial implications however will take much longer, and I will have to face the fact that I simply will not be able to afford to move out anytime this year, I will have to stay here for at least another year. I have another huge power bill stemming from my aircon usage, that will dip into my savings, immediately followed by a large water bill due to needing to water the garden. These two combined with the dentist will virtually wipe out my savings, so I will be starting from square one. There is hope during winter the expenses will be much less, I do not use heating during winter cos it is not cold enough, I can keep warm perfectly fine with the doona and my clothing. Sally was hypothermic so she needed heating, and our winter bills would be through the roof cos of this. But I am opposite, I often get too hot with heating even if it is cold outside, so I simply don't use it. And we have a winter water ban, we are not allowed to water our garden at all during the winter months, so that will cut the water bill way down. However our winter is short, it is cold for only about four months, and wet for even less. And winter hasn't started yet. The temps are going down, I hadn't needed my aircon since a couple of weeks ago. However still no rain, so I will have to water the garden, and so at least one more large water bill before the winter. The four months of winter will not be long enough to raise the funds necessary for me to move house by next spring, before the summer expenses kicks in, especially with the water. So while I cannot afford to stay at this house, I also cannot afford to move into an apartment where it will be cheaper to live, and no water bill at all, cos apartment rental tenants does not pay for water.

It will also mean that if the landlord forces the issue and I get evicted, I will be out on the streets..... or having to bunk in with a sympathetic family member. Pasco will probably allow me to stay with him, or even Debra. And I do have my storage space, it is big enough to fit in the rest of my possessions including the fridge and the bed as well as my tables, my washing machine and dryer, and the large TV.  And well once I am couch surfing with family, it won't take me long to raise the bond and advance rental for a new apartment, indeed I should hopefully get most of my bond back from my current rental, it be minus usually any pro rata water usage. There be the final payments of the power and gas bills, nevertheless, it will be easier for me to save my pennies. However I would prefer not to take this option, and just to bide my time here at this place even if it is going to be another year of staying here, meaning, another expensive summer.

One major difference now is that I spent much of last winter paying off Sally's medical debts, that really impacted on my ability to save my pennies. The only debt I have is a personal loan originally taken out to help pay for Sally's ongoing expenses, but the repayment is relatively small, and I can extend it every six months at the same repayment rate. The next opportunity will come at the end of May, if I calculated correctly. But it won't be by much, certainly not enough to cover moving expenses, it will only just give me breathing space, and help me a bit to reach my savings goal, but it will still take me longer that this year to do so.

It is amazing how one little toothie, or half a toothie as the case may be, can so impact on my plans. Without the dental expenses I could still raise enough money to be able to move house this spring, even with these power and water bills. But this effectively became the straw that broke the camel's back. It will send me back to square one, where I was this time last year when Sally died.

Anyway I am relishing my vacation even if it is rather boring. We are now into Passover week, and as such as per Jewish tradition I am now on a leaven-free diet, no yeast or foods containing baking soda or similar raising agents - so no breads, cookies, cakes, or other such foods. I have my meals with matza, what Jews eat during Passover. We do this for the 8 days of Passover, which ends after next Monday.

Now back into church, I am still not sure why I am back at church, but events and circumstances seems to be conspiring to keep me there. This particular church has meetings each Friday night but only two Sunday meetings per month, the 1st and 3rd Sunday. Two Sundays ago was the 1st Sunday, and so I went there. Then last Sunday there was a house church meeting with about 10 to 15 people meeting at someone's house, one of them being Lucinda, since it is 5 mins from her place and also not far from mine, so I was there too. The Dawes-Smith family is 2nd closest to me, with Debra being slightly closer to me. Everyone else is south of the river. But anyway, I was there last Sunday. And now with Easter weekend coming up, there are no meeting this Friday, but a special series of meetings on Saturday and Sunday - on each day a morning and evening meeting - with a visiting speaker from, of all places, Texas!!! Sally's home state!! It ought to be interesting. I am not sure if I be going to all four meetings, though I probably end up going to all four, but for the time being I am committing to just the first meeting this Saturday morning. I suppose it will give me something to do. But it will mean, if I go to both meetings on both days, I won't be going for any walks for those two days.

The Tetrad moons that we all must have heard about unless you were in a hole away from the internet which mean you would not have been reading this blog. But to put it simply, the next four lunar eclipses coincides with the Jewish holidays Passover and Sukkot. And as you may have guessed, this is a rare event. I mean, it's not unusual to have four lunar eclipse in two years, indeed it happens probably all the time. But it just doesn't coincide with the Jewish holidays!! And as we speak, we had one already, a couple of nights ago coinciding with the start of Passover. But it turns out this has happened only three times in 500 years, and each time coincided with major events with the Jews.... as follows....

1493/94 - Jews expelled from Spain, Columbus discovers America.
1949/50 - The first two years after Israel became a nation.
1967/68 - The Six Day War

So what will happen with the Jews in 2014/15? Only time will tell, but almost certain something very significant will happen!! The two Solar Eclipses inbetween, coinciding with the start of the Jewish Sacred Year and the Civil New Year (Rosh HaShana) adds greater significance to this!! Could be something to do with Ukraine which has a large Jewish population, or Iran, or the Palestinian situation..... anything..... but it will involve Jews.

Now regarding Caroline..... Now we reach the stage where things are not expected to move much for the forseeable future, although anything can happen at any time. The major sticking point is her current marriage, and in spite of the physical abuses, she will not divorce him. Much of this is due to Christian laws against divorce, most Christians frowns upon it. This is ironic cos under Judaism, divorce is really easy to get and is not frowned upon quite so much. Indeed according to the Torah, all that one needs to do is to hand the spouse a piece of paper known as a "Get", and it only has to say something like "I am divorcing you" or whatever. You don't even have to give a reason for the divorce. Just handing the piece of paper to the spouse makes the divorce immediately effective. Indeed, divorce is so easy to get that through the years the Jews imposed some additional conditions to make it not quite so easy, nevertheless, it is still way easier for a Jew to effect a divorce than Christians.

Christian laws against divorce are all found in the New Testament, which was put together by the Nicene Council back in the 4th century. They had a large number of writings to choose from, but only a few were accepted, and many of them altered to fit in Constantine's beliefs, and one being that marriage is for the lifetime, no ifs, no buts. That is why Catholics cannot remarry after a divorce. Protestants are not quite so strict, most Protestant churches do allow remarriage after a divorce, however it is still very much frowned upon to divorce someone. Of course back in the 4th century, women didn't have much rights, they were viewed as property, and considered perfectly normal even mandatory to beat a woman. Indeed back in Victorian England, the husband was allowed by law to beat his wife with a stick, the only restrictions being the dimensions of the stick in question - this supposedly to guarantee that the wife doesn't suffer injuries too severe!!

Of course we now live in more enlightened times, but as usual, religion fails to keep up with the times, so women suffering abuses are still expected to remain in the marriage, though Australian churches are a bit more lenient on this issue. This cannot be said for Indian churches, a country where women has no protection by the laws against spousal abuses. Her husband is not a Christian, indeed he's an alcoholic and he always visiting hookers, so a way out would be if he initiates the divorce. However that seems unlikely, it would be in his vested interest to keep such a submissive wife who cooks for him, cleans house, and indeed does everything for him!

So yes a difficult, indeed seemingly impossible situation! But as I say, nothing lasts for ever, and as proved last year with Sally, things can turn on a coin!! Her hubby goes back to work for the month out at sea just after this Easter weekend...... The Universe brought us together for a reason, and the Universe always follows through with the reasons....... The Universe transcends all religions, traditions, indeed all situations.....

On the subject of domestic abuse...... here's a song from one of my fav musicians.... Alice Cooper.....