Decided not to mention ze word work in this title, lol. After two extra shifts at the home last week and an 8pm -8am shift Saturday night/Sunday morning, I am choosing to have a couple of afternoons at home this week. I was rung this morning and offered extra work this afternoon, but actually said no! This was not too hard as I am working on about half a lung at the moment having picked up a cough last week - possibly from one of the kids, or perhaps being a bit run down. I have been regularly coughing the other half of my lungs up morning and evening with just a few bouts during the day. I do not often subscribe to illness (it is a waste of time when I could be doing other stuff, lol) so am treating this as a mere flesh wound so to speak. I have armed myself with a variety of potions to ward off things getting worse and am pleased to report, overall they seem to be working. First in the armoury of potions is good old Vicks or rather the Black Gold brand of Chest rub which is a generic brand over here. It has one less ingredient than Vicks but one does not have to take out a second mortgage to buy a pot of it either. Vicks sells for $12 a jar over here which seems rediculously expensive. Have been slathering the chest rub on my chest, bits of my back that I can reach and the bottoms of my feet (at bedtime), as I read somewhere that putting it on your feet does the best job. So far so good! As I felt like death slightly warmed up on Friday afternoon, I stopped at the chemist on the way to work, and asked for their 245D (lethal weed killer now banned in NZ lol) variety of cough mixture. After forking out $18 (you can tell I was not feeling that great on that day) I got to work and took a dose -15 mls. OMG, it was the most disgusting stuff bar none that I have tasted in ages, so much so, after smelling it I held my nose to get it down and have only had the one dose to date. Paint stripper with a nasty aftertaste comes to mind - what happened to the merry cherry flavours or that interesting orange alcohol flavoured ones of child hood?, lol. Yesterday a mild sore throat developed just before I did the grocery shopping so bought three packets of butter menthol cough drop thingies and they have been great. Although I sound like some two packet a day derro when coughing, I think I am winning.
The other reason I have chosen to have the next few days off is that the house is having an inspection on Thursday and there is still much to be done. Friend Jude, bless her, has stayed the last two nights while she has worked at the local rest home (in the kitchen) and has helped both days out in the garden. All lawns have been mowed, hedge trimmed, gardens weeded, edges trimmed at the front plus the roadside verge, and all the driveway has been weeded both sides down to the garage at the back of the section. I have some weeding between pavers out the back to complete tomorrow and then it will be the once over twice in the house on Wednesday. As the weeds were thigh high down the driveway, it was with a deal of satisfaction we stood back and surveyed the realm this afternoon when we decided to call it a day. In response to sister Kay's comments re wildlife - it is not hot enough for snakes and thankfully not a spider has been sighted. Everytime I go into the back shed, I do have to say I am on hyper alert for anything that might move - so far so good there too.
Being home for a period of time has its advantages - I have cooked two meals in two days. After getting back here yesterday at 8.30am I decided to garden first, then cook lunch (lamb chops, new potatoes and salad) and then when Jude went to work, I crawled onto the couch and slept for six and a half hours. I decided tonight we would have a roast and bought a piece of pork yesterday. It was cooked to perfection along with roast pumpkin, sweet potatoe, new potatoes, courgettes and cauliflower. What a treat! Jude had bought some Vienetta ice cream and I did baked apples stuffed with dates for dessert, so it was pure indulgence indeed.
Another advantage of being home this afternoon - I got to ring the No 1 grandson, and what a joy that was. He will be 8 next month and he was a delight to talk to. He has been studying silent movies at school and told me Charlie Chaplain walks like a penguin! He was in a group of six who made their own silent movie - Red Riding Hood! I got the names of all his group and their parts, lol. I asked him about choir and had three songs sung over the phone that he has been learning or should I say the edited highlights of them. We then discussed his upcoming birthday and he is having an Indiana Jones party this year - he has designed treasure map invitations and a map with footprints on to his place from school if I understood him correctly. Got the update on a new Wii game - he has Indiana Jones lego and a couple I have not heard of. He has also seen Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and in fact all the Harry Potter movies, lol. I asked him if he felt the earthquake in Christchurch and he said no but got told that they had talked about it at school, that there were still aftershocks and it was 7.4! Just as we were getting to the dog, cricket and swimming this summer, it was time for his dinner so he handed me over to the No 1 son whispering to him "it's your Mum on the phone". Had to have a chuckle at that. He (grandson) is still taking lots of photos with the camera I left him at Christmas so who knows, we may have another Peter Jackson in the making, lol. He told me his Mum had bought a video camera that is brilliant because you can twist the screen and see youself being taped as it is happening so doesn't need to borrow my one now!
Have put some photos here that I took a couple of weeks ago. The heron I spotted in the river/estuary over the road from the residential home. It felt a bit wierd taking photos of wildlife in the middle of town, lol.
The two above are of a lizard found in the garden - a gecko. I spotted it out of the corner of my eye when it moved as I was hanging washing out on the line. I managed to tear back into the house to grab the camera and get some shots before it disappeared and got some more the next day when it was out around the same time of the day again. These were taken from one side of the section to the other side so as not to spook it - thank heavens for 20 zoom, lol.
The other reason I have chosen to have the next few days off is that the house is having an inspection on Thursday and there is still much to be done. Friend Jude, bless her, has stayed the last two nights while she has worked at the local rest home (in the kitchen) and has helped both days out in the garden. All lawns have been mowed, hedge trimmed, gardens weeded, edges trimmed at the front plus the roadside verge, and all the driveway has been weeded both sides down to the garage at the back of the section. I have some weeding between pavers out the back to complete tomorrow and then it will be the once over twice in the house on Wednesday. As the weeds were thigh high down the driveway, it was with a deal of satisfaction we stood back and surveyed the realm this afternoon when we decided to call it a day. In response to sister Kay's comments re wildlife - it is not hot enough for snakes and thankfully not a spider has been sighted. Everytime I go into the back shed, I do have to say I am on hyper alert for anything that might move - so far so good there too.
Being home for a period of time has its advantages - I have cooked two meals in two days. After getting back here yesterday at 8.30am I decided to garden first, then cook lunch (lamb chops, new potatoes and salad) and then when Jude went to work, I crawled onto the couch and slept for six and a half hours. I decided tonight we would have a roast and bought a piece of pork yesterday. It was cooked to perfection along with roast pumpkin, sweet potatoe, new potatoes, courgettes and cauliflower. What a treat! Jude had bought some Vienetta ice cream and I did baked apples stuffed with dates for dessert, so it was pure indulgence indeed.
Another advantage of being home this afternoon - I got to ring the No 1 grandson, and what a joy that was. He will be 8 next month and he was a delight to talk to. He has been studying silent movies at school and told me Charlie Chaplain walks like a penguin! He was in a group of six who made their own silent movie - Red Riding Hood! I got the names of all his group and their parts, lol. I asked him about choir and had three songs sung over the phone that he has been learning or should I say the edited highlights of them. We then discussed his upcoming birthday and he is having an Indiana Jones party this year - he has designed treasure map invitations and a map with footprints on to his place from school if I understood him correctly. Got the update on a new Wii game - he has Indiana Jones lego and a couple I have not heard of. He has also seen Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and in fact all the Harry Potter movies, lol. I asked him if he felt the earthquake in Christchurch and he said no but got told that they had talked about it at school, that there were still aftershocks and it was 7.4! Just as we were getting to the dog, cricket and swimming this summer, it was time for his dinner so he handed me over to the No 1 son whispering to him "it's your Mum on the phone". Had to have a chuckle at that. He (grandson) is still taking lots of photos with the camera I left him at Christmas so who knows, we may have another Peter Jackson in the making, lol. He told me his Mum had bought a video camera that is brilliant because you can twist the screen and see youself being taped as it is happening so doesn't need to borrow my one now!
Have put some photos here that I took a couple of weeks ago. The heron I spotted in the river/estuary over the road from the residential home. It felt a bit wierd taking photos of wildlife in the middle of town, lol.
The two above are of a lizard found in the garden - a gecko. I spotted it out of the corner of my eye when it moved as I was hanging washing out on the line. I managed to tear back into the house to grab the camera and get some shots before it disappeared and got some more the next day when it was out around the same time of the day again. These were taken from one side of the section to the other side so as not to spook it - thank heavens for 20 zoom, lol.It is the school holidays next week, woohoo. I have made no plans as am not too sure how I am fixed workwise - will not get paid for two weeks from school, so have to take that into account. It would be nice to think I could go out Tardun way for a drive at least to check out the wildflowers this year, but will have to see.
Big news on the TV here at the moment was the announcement by Oprah (at the opening of her final season last week), that she is bringing the entire audience that was at the show that day to Australia for 10 days in January next year. As the crowd was going wild, the back walls of the stage parted and a Qantas jet wheeled in and who should step out of the plane as pilot, but John Travolta, who is going to fly the 400 audience here. Oprah is going to do two shows from the Sydney Opera House which they have already nicknamed the Oprah House, lol so this is huge. The boost to tourism is likely to be a major spinoff from this and though the Govt has put up over a million dollars towards this event, it would be cheap at twice the price for the exposure that her program will give to audiences around the world.
And on that note, I shall sign off for the night and get some sleep. :)
2 comments:
are you getting better now? Pei Pa Koa (www.geocities.jp/ninjiom_hong_kong/index_e.htm ) is one of the few Chinese natural cough remedies that have been scientifically studied. it's something like herb plus honey, and it's sweet, thick and black in color. If you have a cough, look for it! It used to be one of my favourite natural cough remedies.
if your cough persists, seek professional help such as traditional Chinese medicine physicians - I have had very good experiences with them.
I reiterate.... any mention of body parts (yours) should come with a mandatory warning beforehand!
Hope you are feeling better soon. Laura has had something similar - in a transTasman family-solidarity kind of way.
Good to hear news of Wellingtonians
Post a Comment