The Gift that keeps on Giving !!!

Burglary, the gift that keeps on giving.  I had my little lad come for a visit on Sunday and after watching a game of footie, lunch at Macca's, some gardening and a couple of dvd's he decided to play office with paper, pens, scissors etc and asked if he could use my old laptop, - no problem I said, you can have it unplugged to play with.  He asked how did you open the lap top and I said just press the button underneath which he did but could not get it open so brought it to me.  I pressed the button and it sort of opened so far and no further - odd I thought, the button had freed and there was a small gap so tried to prise it open with a gentle pressure, -  no luck, it would not budge, so I gave an almighty wrench which saw the lid part from the base along with several tops of letters off the key pad and as neurons bounced off synapses taking this all in, I sat there gobsmacked that the little shites had put glue all through the laptop keys and because I seldom crank the old one up, it had escaped my notice. Now I am even more relieved I had this trusty beast with me in hospital.  I just hope karma is working its way back to those involved and seven fold at that. Re the burglary, I have heard nothing back from the police, though I have not really expected to.  There were six other burglaries the weekend of mine, then another 7 the following weekend and 14 last weekend of some significance as those were in the industrial area, so it seems as though the police will have more than enough to keep them busy.

I mentioned that it might rain in my last post, well, it did.  It proceeded to rain for nearly two weeks which has probably saved the wheat crop for this region so I was not allowed to complain at all.  I was nearly at the go out and buy some new clothes stage as laundry was backing up when thankfully we got to  merely overcast and windy and finally last weekend  some perfect fine days (there may have been a few other fine days but have been immersed in work and weather makes little difference there).   It took me over two weeks to get all the washing done from the burglary and until last weekend to get all the ironing and folding up to date, so again,  the gift that kept on giving.  It seems strange to see the floor back  in my laundry. 

In between the big clean up I have been getting five years of information together for the tax people.  I had got four years of it together last year and was then told I had to have all the information on my house in NZ included.  I met with the accountant last week and she wanted all the interest in my bank statements listed on both the fixed and flexible loans, to go with written list of rent  I have been paid, so several more hours work involved and yay, finally dropped it all back . Am now keeping fingers crossed this all works and hopefully in my favour. 

Amongst my list of  "sorting of things out" to do, I have been back to the Dr for a new prescription and cancelled a follow up appointment with the specialist.  The Dr was a bit taken aback by my decision but as I wouldn't take a cat to the specialist (and I told the Dr that) there was no point in paying money to see someone I have no faith in.  I was emphatic that I would continue with the medications, hence my visit for a new prescription, and saw no point seeing another specialist at this point as surprise, surprise, the medications were working (as I knew they would).  I told him that all the tests in hospital did not show any heart damage however, if I got any more pains now I am on the meds again I will hie myself quick smart back to the hospital and do any tests they deem necessary.  I will have a fasting blood test at the end of the month to see how the levels of the meds, blood sugars, and cholesterol are doing and go from there.  The Dr has also offered to put me on a Care Plan - as I am now deemed to have a chronic condition - it links me with other health professionals and gets bulk billed back to medicare so I will meet with the appropriate nurse at my next appointment after the blood test - watch this space.  I have found myself not the only person less than satisfied with the performance of my specialist.  Last weekend I opened the newspaper to see an article about another Dr who is taking him to court for an operation that went wrong.....  so I feel quite vindicated by my decision.  The specialist's  family has also been all over the news, both tv and print, as his son badly injured a girl when driving a boat drunk and then refused to pay her court directed compensation,  so a charming bunch all round.

Mowing lawns moved to the top of the list last weekend and I  attacked the back garden as well.  I had got some plants from Bunnings the week before so after applying blood and bone to the freshly weeded patch, I planted out climbing beans, spinach and lettuce.  I sprayed the front paving with weed spray and got more round up today for the rest of the paving which will probably get done now next week. 

Tuesday a week later.

Sorry about that but work intervened. I am lying in bed as it is RAINING again, bucket loads, and as I have a bunged up nose thought it quite the best place to be on my day off.  Have just finished catching up with sister Kay, niece Laura, friend Vivienne (afternoon tea at Kay's), then Mum and Clive (afternoon tea there too, lol) by Skype so a good round up with them all.  I worked two 12 hour days over the weekend - sick kids, sick staff and short staffed and then did a 9hr day yesterday on four hours sleep as I just had to watch the end of the tennis at Wimbledon.  I had seen Serena Williams take out the Women's title the night before and really wanted to see Roger Federer play his final which he won for the 5th time.  It was nail biting stuff and gutsy play by all concerned. 

Had another cockroach incident earlier in the week - I had just put on my slippers after wandering about the house in bare feet , and was delivering some summer wardrobe to the back room drawers, when I turned to go out the door and yup, there was a multi legged, multi feelered beastie lurking in the middle of the door way.  I know not from whence it came - they just seem to materialise on me.  After a arrrghhh of surprise, I leapt onto the bed to watch the aforementioned creature to figure out how I was going to liberate myself from the bedroom before fading away to a shadow.  Luckily, I have a can of flyspray on standby in several rooms and this was one of them, so grabbed that off the drawers and from about four foot away gave a liberal blast in the beasties direction.  I noticed that it seemed to be having difficulty moving and think I may have inadvertently stepped on it partially when I entered the room or maybe even opening the door, eeeeewwww either way so watched as it sort of sat and moved slightly sideways and gave it several more blasts hoping it would move further into the hallway trying to escape the spray.  At the same time I was looking at the leap I would have to make from a standstill to get out the door, left into the hallway which would also include a small step up as the hallway is in two levels.  The cockroach slowly moved out of the door way in the right direction but as soon as I got off the bed onto the floor it sort of slewed around to come back my way - eek, so another leap back onto bed followed by another almighty blast of spray and then one giant leap forwards for woman kind as I jumped just over a metre sideways and ran down the hall as soon as the insect moved further away from me - I tell you, all those years of long jump at school sports have not gone amiss, lol.  I am happy to report within the next 24 hours the creature was found to be stone dead.

While it was fine yesterday afternoon after work, I decided to seize the moment and weed the side garden near my bedroom at the front of the house and I checked on the weeds sprayed the previous weekend which are not dying soon enough for me.  I also read the instructions for some solar lamps I had put in last weekend that had not appeared to work, (had my little lad put them together for me and did not follow up) only to find I had to unscrew the top of the lamp to turn the battery switch on - duh.  Lo and behold, later that evening, there was light.  Most of my plants have survived the very dry summer and have started to bloom.  The arctotis are thriving as are the gazanias and the lavender bush smells terrific.

I am in the midst of getting my passport renewed as when I checked last month, it had three days before it expired.  Have got the mandatory photos done and do not look too much like a criminal - I wore a red jumper which lifted my complexion, lol and luckily you are not allowed to smile, so no crooked/missing teeth and tooth to be seen.  I am all done except I have to find another New Zealander who knows their passport number to sign one of my photos and give their name, rank and serial number so to speak and then I can send it to Sydney where a new passport will be issued to me within 10 days.  I think I will be getting one of the new micro-chip ones which should streamline even further, air port travel between Australia and NZ. It is around $160 Au to get it done and couriered back to me.

Speaking of things postal, I am not well pleased to find a parcel I posted to a friend in NZ  back in May did not get to her.  I have been back to the post office here and had to ring a number to try and trace it. Because it did not have trace and track it is a bit of a challenge (no one offered that facility and I did not think of it ) and the blurb I got was, check with the person again who you sent it to, and given the dates, if it could not be delivered in NZ,  mid August would be the earliest it should be delivered back to me as my return address was fully written on the back.  You virtually have to offer DNA here to post a parcel - they copy your licence, get address and phone number, so am not impressed.  The woman I spoke to also made comments like, New Zealand has been having problems with its mail  in places recently.......   Not something I am likely to be able to prove or disprove.  So I will now wait and put in a formal written complaint around August sometime.  It was lucky I had kept the receipt for proof.

I had planned to drive down to Dongara this afternoon with Gerard to have dinner with Jude as the rest of Gerard's family are out Tardun way camping for a few days over the school holidays.  We had left over broccoli and bacon soup he had made last night with crusty bread followed by left over schnitzel rolls while we watched the American version of "the Voice" on tv.  This is another singing contest where people get picked by judges who have to turn around in their chairs to see them able to judge on their voices and sound alone before making their choice to mentor the singer.  The x factor is starting again soon and we seem to be suckers for these reality talent shows.  I am constantly amazed at how many talented people are out there and such a diverse bunch too.

I noticed with some sadness during the week, the passing of Andy Griffiths and Eric Sykes and Mum tells me today that Ernest Borgnine  died yesterday.  All three of them were legends of the silver screen and caused many an hour of laughter in our home as we were growing up.  All the programs they were in were running when my paternal grandmother was still alive and she has been gone 38 yrs so we are talking real yesteryear stuff.  It bought lots of memories back of watching tv as a whole family and we knew Mayberry  (Andy Griffiths) and its folks as well as we knew our own home town.  We all watched Ron Howard grow up from a little boy, to go onto Happy Day's which I watched with my own children and then go onto being an amazing film director. Eric Sykes with his brilliant slaptstick comedy - who will ever forget "the Plank" which had us in tears the first time we watched it - and his unique, very British comedy along with such other greats as Hattie Jacques, Harry Secomb, Sid James etc.  McHales Navy (Ernest B) was a regular in our household too and I remember going to the  movie "McHales Navy joins the Air Force" which was hilarious in its day.  RIP to three great entertainers.

The day has slid into afternoon so am going to sign off and go forage in the fridge for something to eat.  I am thinking of putting a pot of soup on as I bought a pig ankle a week ago to make ham based soup and it needs to be cooked.  I have Donna coming up from Perth Friday morning to stay the weekend as part of the school holidays for her lad.  I am hoping for fine weather as it is likely we will get the other lad over for a sleepover and they want to tent on my back lawn again.  It will be alright as long as it doesn't rain. So cherrio and will talk again soon. :)