Possums, Nibby and Worries About Bear

Reading about possums, it seems that the brushtail possum is the one who lives in roofs, and lives there all the time at night. To keep it out you can block up the entry points with chicken wire. Also mothballs put in the roofspace can keep it away, or putting household bleach at the entry points. However the possum will die as it is so territorial, unless you build a possum house outside. It needs to be six feet up to protect the possums. Quite a performance but worth it as otherwise it will eat through your wiring and cause fires, poo all over the ceiling etc etc. Not a great prospect. Shall have to tell Nibby.

Nibby is rather worried at the moment about her son, my nephew Bear. His wife wanted to leave him, so he left her in their rented house with their young child. The wife now has a well paid job and two lodgers paying the rent. He has his daughter at weekends and for a couple of nights a week so he is stuck living locally in a small bedsitter. He has some huge tax debts from the past and a job which pays very badly. He has huge difficulty in managing financially. He does have a super girl friend but he thinks she is getting fed up with him because he can't afford to buy her drinks, etc. Nibby tells me he is very depressed and can't see an end to his difficult situation. In addition, all the other work he used to do - painting and decorating etc - is being done incredibly cheaply by East Europeans with whom he cannot compete. I pointed out that we had all had very difficult times when the children were young, that at least he had had the same job for a couple of years and that his girl friend was still with him. Strange that his father has always been very wealthy, but never seems to have helped either of his children. Probably something to do with being remarried twice, though he had no more children.