It’s been a shocker of a week.

One of my nephews died in his sleep. We’re still waiting for the autopsy report, so we’re in the dark as to why. On getting the news, his mother, my sister, ended up in hospital with a suspected heart attack. You see, she’d only buried his father a few weeks before. Thankfully she’s okay and back home now, waiting for the coroner to finish his/her work so she can bury her son. There isn’t much I can do to help her. Saying, ‘I love you’, doesn’t seem enough.

Then, a friend told me the doc has said she’s running out of time, now. She has been fighting cancer for a number of years, so in one way it’s not a surprise. But, when someone like her seems to be on top of it, you get used to the situation and you forget that there’s going to be an end. Of course, (spoiler alert!) that’s true for every body, but having this sort of illness brings that fact into sharp focus.  Saying, ‘I’m so sorry.  Sometimes life sucks’, doesn’t seem enough.

Our new government has managed to install an all-male cabinet, bar one token female, and a ministry of 32 men and 6 females; upset the Indonesians with a high-handed approach to foreign affairs and a draconian approach to asylum seekers; get rid of the portfolios for science (not been done since the 1930s), climate change, aged care, disability care, youth and families, and is threatening to make it illegal to boycott companies, and to encourage others to do the same, even when said company is a threat to the welfare of the environment, communities and individuals. And they’ve only been in government a couple of weeks! We’re living the dream, or a nightmare, depending on which side of politics you lean. Saying, ‘Don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for them’, doesn’t seem enough.

A bunch of terrorists/freedom fighters thought it would aid their cause if they took ‘the war’ into a neighbouring country and, specifically, to a shopping mall. After all, that’s where all the soldiers hang out, right? Yes; shopping malls are the modern day battle fields. They had to withstand the resistance of unarmed families – including pregnant women and small children – but still managed to gain a glorious defeat, with maximum loss of life. It certainly gained them lots of attention that’ll last for a few days, but I’m not sure what else. Still, they wiped out lots of civilians, and that’s what warfare is all about. I’m sorry but saying, ‘Allahu akbar’ isn’t enough. It’s never enough.

And, finally, to the person who continually sends me very long comments that consist of lines and lines of question marks: Dude, what’s your problem?