lynz.odyssey

The cost of living (or not dying lol)

2012-01-13T13:02:00.000+08:00

Nearly another week done and dusted and while I am in "heart" mode, it seems my bank account has been on clexane this week (hemorrhaging money , lol). I am thankful for having good employment so that whilst the money has been galloping out of my account, at least it was there in the first place.

It began on Monday with a trip to the Dr - a follow up visit with the GP post hospital discharge. I think I was there approx 10 mins, no more than 15 and $67 thank you very much. Now while that seems excessive, apparently I can claim $35 back on medicare so not tooo bad. Trip to the chiropractor on Tuesday for some tweaking $47 for another 15 mins - a fee increase of $2 since Jan 1st. Whilst I am not in yet in the 6 million dollar woman bracket, I could have flown to NZ for the cost of getting it right. Still, I am not complaining at that either as whilst I am not quite cavorting about the place like a spring lamb, am moving more like a two toother rather than an old ewe. (I am learning to be exceedingly grateful for the small things in life, lol). It was good news at the Drs - my blood pressure was normal and my heart rate was good - not much else was said.

I was given prescriptions by the Dr for the meds I am now on (for an indeterminate period of time) and so went to the chemist promptly after my appointment. I asked for them to be blister packed (welcome to the world of the aging) as I had already missed one (I thought) and I needed meds for dummies 101 to travel and for work. I can see at a glance which day of the week it is each morning and any missed will be easily noted. No problem she said' it costs $3.50 to blister pack - pfft, piffling amount I thought and said go right ahead. She asked if I had my tablets on me as she would incorporate them into the packs she was making up so as not to waste them. I didn't but home is only 5 mins away so dashed back and got them whereupon she gave me enough to take home for that night and next morning as it would take until the next day to get things all sorted - no problem.

While I was on a roll when I got home I decided to finalise my travel arrangements as I had only booked my trip home at that point. Two hours later of comparing costs, airlines, Uncle Tom Cobbly and all, I had tickets booked to and from Wellington to visit No 1 son and family, and my return ticket from Auckland - Sydney for a weekend then Sydney-Perth-Geraldton. I have booked Air New Zealand and Qantas (hopefully Qantas are flying again with no hiccups) - could have shaved off $5 - $20 here and there but want comfort and food and the ability to have my luggage sorted easily. (the cheaper ones are carry on luggage only!!). In round figures I think that was close to $800 with travel insurances included so felt OK about that. I was too late for grabaseat.com for the NZ flights but used lastminute.com for the international and Australian domestic flights.

I was basking in how clever I was to get bargains with my flights still the next day as I ventured forth to go and pick up my prescriptions and nearly passed out on the spot when I was given 6 weeks worth and told $103 thank you very much!!!!!!!!! I think I gasped or let out a strangled sound and the chemist queried my response. I told her the last time I got a prescription, I think it was $3.00 and omg is this going to happen every 6 weeks (yes) !!!!!!!, NOT impressed. This was with a cheaper version of aspirin than the hospital had sent me home with too boot. So, another flight home's worth roughly a year to factor in - flipping heck. Will have words with cardiologist in March to see how long this is all going to take to be ok again. Had to go to Bronwyn and Gerard's for a sympathetic cup of coffee on the way home, lol. It was their eldest son's 15th birthday and with Bronwyn and two siblings away in Melbourne for her Dad's 80th, it was decided that the rest of us would go out to dinner at favourite "Camel Bar" restaurant. I zoomed home to change to go out and flicked into my emails, and last shock of the day was reading email from bro in law to say the power pole on my property in NZ had given up the ghost and the quote was a few dollars short of $1900 to replace.

Was nearly at smelling salts stage by then, lol, however you cannot manage without power so there was little choice other than to say go ahead whilst sending a small vote of thanks upstairs for the great exchange rate from Australia to NZ dollar in recent months which went a long way to fund the replacement pole. Needless to say, I have hardly stepped out the door for the rest of the week and am looking up recipes for gruel, lol. Speaking of power, I got my bill here two days ago and was VERY surprised to find it was $111.35 for 60 days, so by my reckoning roughly $56 per month for the last two months which is unbelievable. It says on the bill my daily consumption is $1.89 though since this week with the air con on daily as temperatures soar, I guess the next one will be a little higher. I have solar panels on the roof here for hot water and gas for cooking so that all helps too. Anyway, I will take the win with this account - it will help balance the other expenditures, lol.

Have had a mammoth effort going on with spring cleaning and getting the outside gardens into shape. After finally finishing ridding myself of all weeds in the surrounding paving blocks on Sunday I have been concentrating on watering most days to keep everything alive. Inside, I have put away all Christmas decorations except Christmas cards that make my mantelpiece above the fire look very cheerful, have cleaned all the windows and sliding doors in the kitchen/games room and mopped all bar my bedroom floor and the laundry. Even with the air con on, the humidity is full on and I find myself wet through just sitting at the laptop or reading a book, never mind working. Am changing clothes twice a day but as they dry in an hour so no problems there. Have got one lot of Christmas pressies left to wrap and then all paper and trimmings can go away for another year - it has been a laborious task this year with all the health issues.

Had a lovely interlude Wednesday with a visit from Jude and Janet who arrived at morning tea and stayed for a bite of lunch. We had a great catch up - Jude had had her mother (94yrs) up for Christmas, and Janet had been to Perth with her husband and had a wonderful time. Jude and I are making a list of the things/places we want to see this year which we will start to tackle when I get back from NZ. We have several local places we want to see and a few places further afield so will set dates so it actually happens instead of just talking about it this time.

I got home on the Tuesday from the chemist et al, to find a bunch of flowers on my doorstep - and a note from the woman who has been taking me to Rotary. She also followed up with a visit the next day so that was lovely. She had not been well herself and had tried twice the week before to catch up before taking to her bed for a couple of days. I have also had Donna around checking on me - the good news is that she did not have a spider bite on her hand after all (I had nearly given up gardening after her initial news) as a very fine black thorn popped out of the wound a week later - not nice. She has about three weeks to go before she moves to Perth so the countdown is on for her too.

Am still having moments with bugs. I found one legs upwards but still moving in the games area on Tuesday so left it for another day to die properly and flipping heck, nearly stepped on one that was inside my bedroom door yesterday. I didn't have my glasses on as I was heading to the bathroom but did notice a darker smudge on the floor - I went back to get my glasses to make sure as there was little light in the room and eeeeeek a flipping cockroach. Luckily I could reach for one of the fly sprays I have dotted about the place and stood in the bathroom across the corridor giving it a good blast of spray. It shot further into my room at first and then galloped towards me before turning right into the lounge - more spray as it headed there and after several nervous mins and with shoes on I ventured forth - no sight not sign off but kept my feet off the floor on the couch, just in case. I did hear noises of something flipping about in death throes but could not pick where it was coming from and did not pursue it as it was not in my immediate space.

Health wise I have had an ok week. I have had two very small bouts of chest pain and figure I need to take my pills between 7 - 7.30am as both times I felt the pain, it was after 8.30am when I had taken them which may be a bit late. I seem to have oodles more energy in fits and starts though I am maintaining energy levels longer most days - the exception being yesterday when I slept a good amount through the morning but think it may have been the heat that made me dopey. Was better after I put the air con on and the fan.

It is the cyclone season and bush fire season over in WA and further north has experienced both this week. It is a year since the floods in Queensland, though to look at many of the housing areas, you would be hard pressed to see where, a year later. We are not likely to get rain this week as it is going inland before Geraldton. We had a stiff breeze with the sea very choppy on Tuesday but it has resumed being hot has Hades the last two days not far off the 40's, though today a mild 34o.

Had better go hang out the second load of washing and go get some lunch. Lost 2.2k last week at WW which was most of what I had put on while unwell - so all good. Hard to believe I will be back in NZ in 12 days time, woohoo. :)

One week down the track :)

2012-01-08T01:28:00.000+08:00

It is now just over a week since I left hospital, one week since new years and 51 weeks until 2013 - daunting thought, lol.

After my leisurely day last Saturday at Shelley's the decision was made to attend New Years's Eve on the beach at Rockingham. Accordingly, at 11pm we left for the beachfront. It was a very festive scene as we arrived - stalls set up and several rides like dodgems, ferris wheel etc. There was also music being played from a speaker system. We set ourselves up on the beach with a blanket to wait for midnight. The water was dead calm, with lots of boats anchored to enjoy the stars. At midnight the fireworks display began over the water which was great - lots of colour and bang. We stayed a little longer, enjoying the extremely mild (and insect free) night watching some idiot women walk into the tide, fully clothed, smoking a cigarette,and then keep walking out further in the tide. Two boats one small, one large just missed her as she made it out to a pontoon where she floundered about for awhile then finally climbed onto the pontoon. She had caught the attention of a lot of people on the beach - someone must have alerted the police as the next thing we saw was some bloke wade out into the water demanding she come back, then a youngish child, followed by the police who yelled at her from the beach. She finally got back into the water and came back to shore and as we left the police were having a few well chosen words with her. Other than that the evening had been very laid back, lots of families out and about, no hoons obvious, so a nice night to see the new year in.

Got up to go to the loo early the following morning and am not sure why but felt the (by now) familiar pain in my chest. It was about medium strength so I hastened to swallow my morning pills with the slow release GTN and asprin and thankfully in about 10 mins they kicked in and the pain receeded.   Was in two minds whether to go back to hospital but as the pills kicked in decided to wait and see how I travelled for the rest of the day before facing another admission. Luckily there was no more pain and after a bite of lunch out, we left for the domestic airport where I caught a plane back to Geraldton. Was met by Gerard and taken back to his place for general debrief, catch up and dinner. The family wanted me to stay the night but I just wanted to get into my own bed, and into some fresh clothes so eventually headed home with the promise to ring if I felt any pains at all.

Woke up gingerly the next morning and sat up a bit before moving, no pain, so breakfast and pills, all good. I did not do a lot that day - Hayden came round and mowed my lawns and sprayed weed killer on the last lot of weeds to be dealt to. I had to get petrol for the mower and some basic food items, and made it until about 1.30pm when I could not keep awake any longer and fell asleep on the couch. Two hours later woke up and took Hayden and Emily home (she had walked to mine from work), then after getting back home, fell promptly asleep again until 9.30pm when I managed to wake long enough to have something to eat and then slept the rest of the night.

Tuesday had a little more energy which was lucky as Donna rang at 8am to see if I could go mind her lad while she went into hospital to get what might be a spider bite on her hand looked at. She arrived back with a leur in her arm and they had administered antibiotics with more to follow that evening, and twice a day for the next couple of days. Got home later that afternoon for a nana nap and then weigh in at Weight Watchers to find I had put weight on while I had been in hospital which I totally had expected but a buggar all the same.

Wednesday was another slow day, more sleeping in the afternoon to evening and was starting to feel pretty useless. Although I had no more pain, I was experiencing the odd tightness now and then but no pattern so figured it was just adjusting to post hospital meds etc. I had managed to get some washing done and that was about it.

Thursday I got stuck into the garden, dead headed all the daisy bushes, rearranged hoses and watered - trying to revive what plants were surviving. A week without water and temps in the 30's had laid waste to a lot of the daisy bushes, peppers, tomatoes, and some of the herbs. The beans are all dead as are the lettuces I had planted but can't be helped.

Friday being the 6th of Jan and the 12th day of Christmas, it was time for the Christmas lights to come down. As there were sucker type attachments for the lights on the windows I decided to clean the windows, the surrounds and then do the floor. I got to late afternoon and was doing the dishes when just had to go lie down, and promptly fell asleep for over an hour. I think I may have overdone things a bit, but am only going to find that out by trial and error I guess. Felt much better for the nap and and good nights sleep later in the evening.

I realised that I had been experiencing a bit of mush brain yesterday when I decided to close the side door on the garage after gardening only to realise the house / car keys were in the door and had been there for two days and a night!!!! So much for locking the house at night, lol and big ooops.   Retrieved keys and am happy to report, all doors are shut and locked tonight and my keys are inside.

Am now on the countdown for coming home on the 25th January. I checked before I left hospital and there seems to be no problem for me flying . I have made an appointment to see a GP on Monday. It was going to take 2 weeks until I said I had just got out of CCU in Freemantle and was told I needed follow up. I do not know how you manage if you are sick and need to see someone in a hurry - I guess that is why people go straight to A & E. Lots of Drs in town are not taking any new patients at the moment so have stayed with the practice I went to for my medical certificate for my licence, even though the Dr I saw has moved on. This will be a whole new world for me with GP's so am just crossing my fingers that I end up with someone who knows what they are doing. Heaven help me, I can remember the days when Dr's still made house calls, lol.

I have one more week off on sick leave so am continuing with steady spring cleaning as I will have another house inspection this month. Had another dead mouse turn up on the lounge floor earlier in the week so that is number two. Hopefully the word is out to any other family left behind and they all decide to move elsewhere.    Heard that my Christmas parcel arrived at Mum's - Kay has taken it out camping with her to open and to distribute gifts so ho ho and Merry Christmas and hope you all survive the wet weather I believe you are having. I have barely seen any news in the last week but have heard Christchurch continues to experience earthquakes between 4 and 5 on the richter scale. My heart goes out to all hanging in there. It must be so nerve wracking not to know when or what strength the next shake is going to be.

It is past the witching hour so will head for bed. Going to the farmers market for fresh fruit and veg tomorrow with Donna while she is having an Open Home. She has her house on the market with her move to Perth at the end of the month coming closer and closer. Night all. :):)

Post Op and Release woohoo

2011-12-31T11:48:00.000+08:00

Once again folks thanks for all the messages via emails, txts and skype - it has been a great support :):):).
I meant to get a post out yesterday re the op the afternoon before but what with feeling woozy after the op not to say a little feral as well which is my preferred reaction to pain or the thought of it, lol, yesterday was busy with post op stuff plus discharge.

THE orderly who had offered perk coffee and biscuits earlier came back later to show me what she had taped on tv and wall for the bloke opposite me - two A4 pictures from a glossy magazine of a champagne magnum and a chocolate cake filled with cream, and then four pictures from same magazine of a gourmet sausage roll, chicken pie, cheese cake with passion fruit sauce drizzled over it and another pastry - was laughing too much to remember what it was. Not long after the bloke opposite me got wheeled off for surgery and his wife came over and offered me the magazine she was reading which was a lovely gesture. I was given a tablet to help relax me (Right!) and then it was my turn.

As brother Brett said, it was very Pink Floyd - Momentary Lapse of Reason, being wheeled through the corridors, through doors until I was parked in the pre-op waiting room (you would need to see the video of this to understand but I got it and had thought the same myself, lol). I was ok up until the time I left the ward, and then uncontrollably my eyes (firmly shut) started leaking which continued throughout the procedure. I got asked if I was ok, - yes - leak, leak. Just so you know, this happens when I have xrays on my teeth, lol before I even open my mouth for the dentist to look in, so I figure it is my body's way of coping with whatever - slight nerves to full blown, lol.

Now a small note by way of explanation that will make sense as you read further. When Mum first started doing homecare and had a young bloke with broken arms and legs to shower, their conversation about how to manage it went something like this. Mum told the bloke she would wash him down as far as possible and would do up as far as possible and he could manage possible - if you get my drift......

Back to the op. The wheeled me into where the op was going to happen - it is a little hazy but my impressions are of lying on a table, night gown lifted with "possible" well exposed and then something that sounded like black polythene sheeting put over me and some " possible" sized cloth being placed into the appropriate position. There was then some warm liquid gushed over both groins - interesting feeling to say the least and then they said the procedure was beginning - that I would feel a little prick (eyes leaking too much to laugh and respond, heh, heh) and ouch then I jumped as I felt something like an electric shock go down my right leg - great. Trying to lie still and feeling an unusual sensation as I guessed the dye was being pumped through, when bam another pain, me yelling for oxygen, the world slowing down (it seemed, nobody jumped quickly so had to ask again) as the pain intensified, someone finally put a mask on and sprayed some GTN under my tongue and SLOWLY it felt though probably about a minute all up, the pain started to recede. Much more eye leakage and was told that my heart had just gone into spasm  but everything else looked good and it was all over. I was taken back to the preop room for an hour I think and pretty much dozed, weird jumble of thoughts and then I was taken back to my room. I either had underneath me or was somehow put on some thin mattress thing that was then blown up around me like a hovercraft underpinnings and was somehow lifted onto my own bed and told I could not move my right leg for 3 hours - and there was some sandbag contraption placed on my upper thigh, groin area to make sure plus my leg felt like a concrete block anyway from the local anesthetic I supposed. Once again dozed, got a message out that I had survived and was in recovery by txt and dozed again. Now while I am cast like a ewe in bed, the chap before me is up, dressed and ready to go home. Flipping heck, an older bloke, plus had previous heart history and though shaking like a leaf was mobile, which I could not even fathom doing. Bless, he tottered over and offered me his newspaper and some grapes. His son owns a fruit shop and the old digger helps out at the markets etc and said I was welcome to them and to say good bye to THE orderly when I saw her next. Was blown away by the kindness of him and his wife.

They bought me my dinner - one slice of roast pork - I had already told the orderly, even if I wasn't up to it, they were to save it for me regardless and could give me double if they liked, lol, so was pleased that I was awake enough to manage it, single lice, salt less helping that it was, lol.   The next thing I knew friend Shelly had arrived for another visit which cheered me up no end and helped to snap me out of the feral place that I was in. Some nurse had come to tell me earlier that my angiogram was all good, and it may have been the tablets they had put me that had induced the spasms, Told the stupid bint (feral mode), I was having the pains before they put me on tablets and though they had increased since I had been in hospital, what was causing them in the first place and how did I know they would not come back again, grrrrr. She told me she would get the Dr to explain.....

Before Shelly had arrived, I had thought I wanted to go to the loo and because I wasn't allowed to move they said I had to use a bed pan - no worries. Along the nurse came and with a bit of a juggle, managed to eventually land on the pan and ........ nothing. Brain said I wanted to go, bladder thought it wanted to go, but as much as I tried to get there, everything was snapped shut and just could not go. Drank more water, whistled, tried sheer will power but the lower end was ignoring all efforts. The nurse said I could wait till I could move to the bathroom myself and removed the bed pan. She also checked my groin area at the same time - said it was nice and soft, no bleeding - great - like I could have cared at that point.

After Shelly left, more drinking and a cup of coffee - with biscuits, lol they took the sandbag thing of my leg and I gingerly got up to go to the loo. More fiddling as they had to catch this one, so with the bed pan now in the loo, away I went, eyes receding back into sockets and thinking there were horses I have known I could have put to shame - obviously all parts still working after the procedure, another tick on the post op list and back into bed. I skyped Kay around 2am NZ time to let her know I had survived and pretty much went to sleep. I felt a bit of tightness in my chest but nothing that rated, though was a leeetle anxious when they took the oxygen away from me and the peg on my finger as my pattern was to drop oxygen stats a bit during the nights. I hoped the telemetry would work enough if I did get another blast of pain - not entirely trusting that I would be totally ok.

All went well, woke up to meds and had to ask nurse over again what was going on with me after yesterdays procedure - it was going in one ear and out the other it seemed, not a lot was sticking when a woman turned up to take an ekg. She was extremely chatty, came from the Isle of Man, had been teaching but changed to this job and was loving it, loved nz and was heading over for a month at the end of Jan. Snap I said. She is going down the SI then staying at a B&B owned by friends in Ponsonby and said we should catch up for coffee, so came back with all her details after finishing the ward round. She also offered me to stay at her place if I needed somewhere before heading back to Geraldton!!!!!! Talk about friendly.

No sooner she was done than a bloke turned up (Irish) with a fancy machine who said he was doing an ecocardiogram (I think that is what it was) - an ultra sound of my heart from the outside after the angiogram had done the inside. There had been a shadow on the angiogram which might suggest a leaky valve (thoughts of pig valve replacement flashed through my mind - might not be able to look at pork in the same way again). I had to lie on my left side, left arm above my head and be still for 20 mins - fully topless again - I tell you St Tropez here I come, wouldn't bat an eyelid anymore, (laughing fit to kill myself at that picture, heh, heh), while he gelled the end of the microphone/camera thing and off he went. Very interesting experience hearing the beating of one's own heart and seeing it pulsating away on screen which was what I was able to observe once I had to lie on my back for different view. Same technology as ultra sound for babies but not as ooh er gasp of excitement unless I guess your heart is more likely to be stopping than going, lol. He spent some time and went over me with the proverbial fine tooth comb as everything looked normal first sweep over and he needed to make sure. All good I said.

A small pause for morning tea by then and along came the Drs. The gist of what they said was that my inside heart was little cause for concern that there was some slight build up of cholesterol on one of the arteries, my outside heart was good and what had happened was that one of my arteries was clamping shut which was causing the pains - then drew a picture on one of my serviettes to show me what he was talking about. He said I had coronary artery spasm (google it if you like) which was perfectly able to be managed by meds, no surgery required, and I could be discharged, hey ho and all good.

Got some messages out to family that all was good, then it was lunch and a shower after the nurse had changed the dressing on my groin.  I mean I hadn't been near naked for at least an hour by now, lol.  I remembered the nurse said the night before that I should check it to make sure the INCISION site was still soft, - I also remember looking back at her thinking she was crazy to expect me to be doing anything like going near a wound and what was she talking about INCISION site, I thought they had merely used a needle thingie to put the wire and dye into my groin and FAR too much information. This nurse said everything was fine and she would give me two bandages to cover site on discharge - great there is no escape...... if I wanted to do stuff like this, I would have become a nurse myself.

At long last, I finally was given a pair of pyjamas to wear, hellaflippinglujah, and where were they when I had wires everywhere that necessitated full frontal nudity or "possible" being shown to the world, lol. Mind you, they were blokes pyjamas so had them well hoisted so as not to be gaping at the world as I trotted to backwards and fwds to the bathroom. I had to wait a little longer and eventually the leur was removed from my hand, the telemetry came off, I was able to go get dressed in my own clothes and I was wheeled down to the reception waiting area. The Dr's wanted me to stay in Perth for at least 24 hours in case anything went wrong (hmmmm) so I had sent txt to Shelly and rung Mo to see if I could stay with them which was fine except Shelly was at work and Mo did not know how to find the place. With the open sesame I had forgotten about hospital access to people and places, by the time I had got down stairs they had found Shelly at Rockingham hospital and they were sending me by taxi to save her the trip up, with me arriving at the same time as Shelly was coming out of the door at the end of her shift. They had bunged another woman in the taxi who was going further down than me so maximising their resources. All was paid for by the hospital.

I had arrived at the hospital with my voluminous handbag and laptop and left with two extra bags and flowers. I took the orchids out my my NZ bunch and added them to Shelly's bunch and left the lillies which had opened (and one had dropped its petals), with the woman opposite from me who was very sick and didn't appear to have many folk come to see her- in the spirit of having had things given to me. It was nice to get to Shelly's and sit, felt a bit light headed but ok and after a couple of cold drinks felt much better. She decided she didn't want to cook so she and I with her youngest son went to the local Dome for dinner - had salt and pepper squid and a lamb salad and then home again. We were talking and I said I just had to put my head down and woke up at 5.30am this morning. Had slight tightness in chest but started my pill regime - am taking 4 a day - and am all good since. Shelly has gone to work, have got Mo all hooked up on skype after he saw me talking to Kay and Viv,(waves), then Mum (waves again) and am about to go have a shower. Am having to borrow some of Shells clothes as only have the one pair of spare knickers and what I was admitted in.

I am here in Rockingham until tomorrow - my flight is booked from Perth to Geraldton at 4pm and Bronwyn or Gerard will get me at the other end. Tonight is New Year's eve which feels a bit surreal and the plan is to go down to the beach to watch the fireworks and a barbeque tea. I was all set to go find me a GP on Monday on my return to Geraldton but forgot it is public holidays until Wednesday. I have off work until the 14th of January and have to have a medical clearance to go back which shouldn't be a problem. This will give me time for the tablets to bed in so to speak as I believe some of their affects are cumulative until body is adjusted to them. I will also be referred to a travelling cardiologist who comes to Geraldton once a month I think they said, to monitor progress or the lack thereof.

Will sign off now, go delete the half post that happened when I pressed the wrong button and leave the fuller unexpurgated version behind.

Update from CCU :)

2011-12-29T09:01:00.000+08:00

Thanks for the comments on previous postings.
J & J : please thank Margaret for the prayer circle - doesn't hurt to have people with friends in high places covering my back
Kay, Viv and Mum: Yup, not for the faint hearted and I was on the receiving end (literally, lol) of all this attention and Viv loved your "mowhawk" comment on skype.

I have been skypeless today as have overused my allowance and the hamster in the wheel has gone on strike. Once I had trawled through info to find my user name and password I was able to increase allowance but not until midnight tonight - pfffft to telstra who cannot do it immediately!

Well, after the trauma of my "close shave" this morning, drip in arm, and fasting, (for two whole hours, lol) one of the nurses came to tell me I was off today's list, on tomorrows list and I could now eat. Whoop, whoop. Got given roast turkey with fruit crumble and custard for lunch and some sandwiches and coffee with 2 biscuits for afternoon tea so am not starving. The orderly (not sure she recognises my face lol) went and told the chap opposite what I was having as he was still on fasting for this afternoon's list so she has a sense of humour at least. Have been wheeled through the bowels of the hospital again to have a chest xray = felt very possum in the headlights or in the cross hairs down the barrel of a gun as they fiddled and pointed the xray machine for side and front shots of my chest. I was wheeled down by a different orderly and accompanied by my nurse from the ward. I was hitched up to a portable machine to read my heart rate and it wasn't till later I realised the other bag on the bed was like a portable crash cart (in case of a heart attack on the way down I guess) It all feels a bit over kill as my read outs continue to be normal. No more chest pain , no more blood noses, no more injections, so on a win this afternoon. I do not have to have oxygen or the peg on my finger and the monitor seems to be wireless so I can move about freely on the ward here - I guess they have everything to hand and do constant updates.

The office lady turned up a short while ago with a beautiful bouquet of flowers done up in a box. It is made up of orange lillies, two red gerbra (large), some purple rose looking flowers I want to say winter rose or some such thing but they are not (hellebore comes to mind) and six stalks of reddy coloured slipper orchids - thank you so much and please thank all who were involved in the sending - totally unexpected so all the nicer for the receiving.

Pause for snooze: Back again and I am to be on the move to a cardio-thoracic ward as I seem to be fairly stable (no rocket science there) and they no doubt need this space for someone sicker than me. I guess that will mean portable machines to transfer me unless around the corner.

Later:

Well that was all a bit optimistic - I had been to the loo, had packed my laptop away and got handbag (voluminous) out of locker and got back on my bed for dinner and had a bout of chest pain - was given oxygen and my new best friend - half a GTN tablet - which makes the pain go away. It was all over in mins and only got to about 2 on the pain scale. It was enough though to stop me being transferred out of the ward. The nurse asked me was it because I was anxious about moving out of CCU - said it was hardly that as I had been good most of the day so no I was not anxious. Not sure they entirely believed me but as I have hardly been sick apart from the odd pain, compared to others in the ward, I have felt almost a fraud at times as I have said before.

Had a lovely visit from friend Shells and her two boys last night. I recounted her my mornings exploits and it was good to have a laugh with her. Bless her, she came with survival package of toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner, Pringles, chocolate cappucino chocolates, pkt of roasted candy cashew nuts and a tin of biscuits for Christmas. Talk about spoiled :):). More supplies for my illicit contraband but at the rate of one thing a day I have enough to last some weeks. No sooner had she left when I got another pain or not so much of a pain, more and indigestion feeling so was definitely here for the night.

Had a lovely txt from Donna at work earlier in the evening after I missed a call from her - the two little boys - 2 yrs and nearly 3 yrs wanted to talk to me - the 3 yr old telling her "hello, Lynn ( said Lean, which is Aussi for Lynn) and thr 2yr old saying "Lean, hello goodnight". Bless their little hearts. Its those moments that really make the job worthwhile. Also received a lovely email from No1 grandson telling me of his trip to Picton with Mum and Dad, feeding Blue cod and seeing eels. He did some canoeing where they went and told me he was very good at it as was his Mum. Great to see him enjoy the great outdoors and lots of lovely memories to grow up with. He also played "petonk" (his spelling) with Dad so it sounded a great few days away.

Thursday:

Just as well they didn't do a mini mental on me this morning (what is the day, what is the year, who is Prime Minister, count backwards from blah blah blah) as I could have sworn it was Friday today!!! oops. So this morning have had a bit of drama. Was woken up for early breakfast pre fasting for the day - very condemmed person ate a hearty meal stuff as you can have as much as you like lol or seconds at least. I went from lying to sitting up and started to feel pain coming on. Got to be about 3-4 before the oxygen and GTN kicked in and then faded to nothing almost instantaneously. So now it would seem two mornings in a row waking and sitting up have been enough to set things off - total pain in the pixie. Once it was all over - they wanted to give me morphine but I refused it as there was no pain once they had got organised and one less injection to cope with, fired up the trusty lap top and yay, skype is back on and managed to touch base with brother Brett who can skype with his phone, and of course Kay to give the latest updates. Had a good catch up and was just going to start posting this when along came another flipping pain. I pressed the buzzer, and again and again but couldn't hear it go off so yelled for a nurse and they came flying from everywhere. This one was a doozy, about 8 so I have someone giving me oxygen, another putting tablet under tongue and then while that started to work, blood pressure was being taken, the travel pack telemetry whipped off and the leads from the main machine replaced - and they did give me morphine this time, through the canular in my hand woohoo, so no injection after all. The nurse referred to me having unstable angina after the first bout this morning as I am getting pain at rest - have told them at the moment I am soooo rested, any movement qualifies as exercise, lol. I had been off oxygen for about 45 mins when I got the second bout as I was heading to the loo but skyped instead. I had my laptop on my knees when the second pain started so shoved it down the foot of the bed for safety and bless when I opened my eyes, the nurse had moved it to a chair - first question - is my laptop ok, probably not what they were expecting.

THE orderly has been about this morning, went past and told the other bloke fasting with me that the coffee was perked today and she had chocolate biscuits on the trolly - I burst out laughing at that and then she dropped by bringing an empty cup, placing it on the bedside table to rub it in. There are probably despotic regiemes out there that could use her for refined toture, lol. I suppose it helps to have a sense of humour in her job. Had a visit from the blood bitch this morning who actually drew blood without pain. As soon as she said she wanted some, I said, I hoped it would be better than yesterday, showing her the bruised site she had left - she had the nerve to say it was difficult to find a good place like it was my fault. Not impressed with her bedside manner at all. . There are Dr's about so will sign off for now. Hopefully the next post will be,- "Post Op".

I

Woohoo Flying Doctors here we go.

2011-12-28T11:23:00.001+08:00

This post is coming from my new bed, (bed 12) in the Cardiac Care Unit (ccu) in Fremantle hospital. Mid morning yesterday after a shower, another injection in the stomach and a change into another fetching grey (this time) hospital pyjamas, I had caught up with various txts, finished my first book and was having a visit from friend Donna - debrief on work - all the usual stuff, lol when lunch was served. Had finished lunch and listening to stories of Donna's Christmas when the nursing staff came in and said I was on my way to Perth, that the ambo's would be there at around 1am and I would be off to Perth with the Flying Doctors!!! Right then. Quick scurry into the cupboard to get handbag and laptop sorted and packed - stuff given to Donna to drop up to Gerard and not long after two paramedics arrived to load me up on their transportable stretcher. This is not an elegant way to travel. The stretcher is about as wide as a coffin so built for practicality not comfort, lol. I had to lie down and was then promptly trussed like a turkey for Christmas with shoulder and waist safety harness/belt, and lifted in two stages to a comfortable walking level for the guys to push me. Meanwhile Donna is taking photos of my plight, lol.

I have now seen yards of hospital ceilings as I have been wheeled to and from E.D to the ward, ward back to E.D and out into the waiting ambulance. A few jolts over the entrance doorway frame, a blast of hot air from the great out doors and I was shoved into the ambulance, oxygen, blood pressure etc taken and off we went. Kingsley - the paramedic who sat in the back with me, was full of wisecracks and kept a good patter up on the way to the the Flying Doctor base near the airport. We drove into what resembled a huge haybarn and parked beside an old helicopter that didnt look as though it had seen the light of day for some time and I met the crew who were taking me to Perth or Jandicot to be more precise. I was transferred from one stretcher to the next, base boards shoved under me then four blokes lifting the sheet I was on, and on the count of 3, they hefted me from one to the other (of similar width to the first one ). Again, lots more banter between the paramedics, and them all chipping me. It was like they had all read Keep the Patient distracted: 101 - build good rapport to allieviate nervousness etc(which I wasn't). There was some wait for the plane to be ready or some other details to be sorted and then I was wheeled out on the tarmac and loaded onto the plane. Do not ask me what sort it was - small, white, with wings is about all I remember from my prone position. Once I was locked into place on the right side of the plane (three windows worth, lol), once again hooked up to bells and whistles, we were off. Had another paramedic sit by me the whole way down with a learner Dr on board (he was doing a work placement with RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service to give the whole correct name, for those playing at home). I kept trying to remember what the plane looked like in the TV programme "The Flying Doctors" which we used to watch avidly and knew Mum would be thinking about the programme when she heard I would be travelling with them - sure enough - mentioned in her email and I laughed out loud at that - great minds thinking alike. No Rebecca Gibney though but the guys were ok - and of course in uniform, which is never a bad thing, - and young enough to be my sons with the exception of the pilot and a couple of paramedics at Jandicot. lol.

The flight seemed to go for ages instead of the hour that it was. Having so much oxygen in my system meant I wasn't overly sleepy but after being asked frequently if I was ok and YES, I was, I closed my eyes and semi-dozed a good amount of the way. There was several bouts of turbulence and a good drop before coming into land. Again, lots of concern but I told them I was used to landing in crosswinds at Wellington airport and was all good. The chief concern seemed to be that my blood pressure was low and this seemed to bother them. I said what did you expect when I had done nothing but lie about for the last few days, any more rested and I would be dead (not sure whether you are meant to joke about the d word with paramedics, lol). The paramedic who I think was called Andy, chatted about his recent trip to NZ as we were landing. He had spent a month in the SI during the world cup and raved about the scenery, the friendliness of everyone (even though it was in the middle of the rugby WORLD CUP, lol), the devastation of Christchurch with the earthquakes, the scenery at Tekapo, Wanaka and Queenstown and Speights (beer, for those who do not recognise the name ). Unusually for a WAustralian, he loves rugby (most over here follow Aussi football madly and would not know rugby if it bit them). I liked his comment that it was something to watch two teams go head to head, looking each other in the eye.

I had wanted to go to the loo when I got to the RDFS base, in Geraldton - must have been the fresh fruit salad I bolted down before I left, but did not see anything resmembling conveniences in the barn/hanger so decided could last an hour, but by the time we had landed I was marginally uncomfortable and asked if I could go before being transferred to the hospital. I was transferred from stretcher to stretcher with barge boards and hefting lift again ( I was perfectly ok to have hopped on and off myself so was very weird being treated like an invalid, hem hem). One of the blokes said yes I could go, then there was some conferring and I was asked if I could wait till Freo and very assertively I said NO, after ascertaining that it was a 30 min trip to the hospital (and who knew how many bumps on the way, lol). Immediate consternation to the four blokes present as by now they had hooked me up with another cannister of oyxgen AND a drip - still blathering on about my low blood pressure. I was WHEELED on the stretcher to the door of the toilet/shower within the base building, helped off the stretcher and like a bridesmaid, one of the blokes came in with me carrying aforementioned paraphenalia, this is while he is telling me I should have been catheterized before the trip - arrrrgh, glad I missed that one, lol. He asked me if I needed any help (I had leurs in both hands that were bandaged up for travel but said I thought I could manage, so after him lying the oxygen on the ground etc I waited for him to leave, not quite cross eyed but warming to that end, when he moved behind the curtain of the shower area adjacent to the toilet and said he would sit there to give me privacy. OMG talk about performance anxiety, lol, but there was not much else to do but go as he was not budging in case I pegged out, I guess. Flipping heck, its up there with giving birth (but wait, it gets better, heh heh ....).

Comfortable (at least on the inside)again, I was popped back on the stretcher, and loaded into my second ambulance for the day. Up until that point the paramedic who had flown down with me was going to come on with me to the hospital but finally hearing from me that I was STILL ok, he handed me over and off to Freo hospital I went. I have been to Freemantle - home of the famous Jail, where the America's cup was held and the Docker's football stadium resides, and the hospital is at the back of the old prison. Could see lots of old buildings (the tops of them anyway) as I lay flat on my back yet again in the ambulance. Checked in through E.D and then what felt like miles of corridoors and a trip through the bowels of the hospital before arriving at "room" 12 in the cardiac care unit. It is not a room but a curtained off space, though I do have the corner spot opposite the loo and nurses station yet again. Dinner was served when I arrived - very cardiac care here - served on a small plate, no salt OR pepper this time and no coffee and biscuit for supper afterwards. A piece of hard (Italian) kiwi fruit for dessert was on the tray, so I left that and ate an apple I had bought with me, which had been in my handbag prior inital admit back in Geraldton. (Then I had two mini whittikers choc bars for supper that they knew nothing about later in the evening which was just enough to fill a gap).

No sooner than I had dinner, skyped home, than I had another blood nose, bleeding on my forehead where I must have knocked myself or scratched at some stage by my eyebrow and then later in the evening, the bandaged area where they had given a clexane injection yesterday, sprouted a leak and had blood seeping down my pyjama bottoms. Go blood thinners - am feeling very princess and the pea or is that sleeping beauty, one prick and instead of sleep, gushing like an oil well ( slight exageration, but you get my drift). Got an icepack and did the pressure thing for the nose, and had bandage replaced on stomach with new pressure bandage which seemed to do the trick. The eyebrow bleed was sorted with a tissue and pressure applied. It was a tiny bit disconcerting a little later in the evening to cough up a large clot of blood that must have gone down the back of my throat from my nose (I know ick, but I was there, lol). Also disconcerting was the woman next door who was coughing, throwing up, moaning in pain who had several episodes during the night but hey I am in hospital where there are sick people, lol.

As I had my snooze on the plane I was still wide awake at midnight but after nurses coming in a couple of times, thought I should try and get some sleep and managed despite everything to drop off.
Earlier in the evening had a Dr come in and explain procedure today which I pretty much knew already from my previous life as social worker on the cardiac care ward at Waikato Hospital. They have to go through all the risks and I had to sign a consent for the angiogram, for stents or balloons if I need them, for open heart surgery if I have a heart attack and something goes wrong and for a blood transfusion, again, self explanatory. I said I preferred option one to the latter options please and she laughed. I could suffer bruising around entry site in the groin, they could nick lungs or other organs, could instigate a heart attack, lalalalalalala and of course worst scenario is the D word. Have had to put this conversation from consultants to patients many a time so was pretty aufait with what she had to say. Part of the procedure is fasting - so after being given breakfast this morning about an hour ago, AND being offered seconds - had an extra wholemeal roll slathered in margerine (gotta grab the fats fix where I can now, lol, - and it was heart tick margerine at that) after porridge, peaches and a drink of oj followed by a coffe, that is me done for the day until dinner tonight. They have promised me a drip to keep my hydrated. (Pause for shower)

Before breakfast, just to keep the by now illusions of all modesty shattered -( given gown last night pretty much open to the four winds which necessitated the wearing of underware to provide a smidgen of decency), a nurse came in brandishing a razor - yup a close shave of the nether regions was requried for the groin entry of the angiogram. GREAT - haven't had this much fun in 38 yrs since No 1 son was born. Was tempted to ask for a heart shape, (laughing to myself here) but thought better off it so have a mohawk now as they did left groin for good measure in case the right groin was no good for angiogram. And wouldn't you just know it, it the ultimate comedy routine that my life seems to be, whilst lying on my back, razor buzzing, me lying still, heh he, everything displayed to the four winds again (lots of it about on this ward, lol) whoosh goes the curtain as one of the women orderlies (thankfully, I suppose)vmade her entrance, realised in a nano second what was happening, did a John Cleese spin and about face, before whooshing the curtain behind her again. Hmmm and all the nurse could say was "it happens"!!!!!! All dignity by now out the window. (Knew it would make a good story though, lol).

This was followed by a blood test that hurt this morning. Am bruised black and blue on inside right elbow, right hand is puffy from leur that was turning red when it was taken out last night, so the blood bitch (resuming term from Waikato Hosp days for this nurse) JABBED me on the left side of my right wrist - enough to bring tears to my eyes - not happy. Had also had mild chest pain this morning so probably some reaction from that too - the nurse thought I might be anxious about procedure but I said it was just the pain from blood test. Will not be happy if the some one comes again for anything as everyone else taking bloods, giving injections have been great.

The Dr has now been and after all that prep, I am to have a dye put in my arm!!!! to see if there is any blockages and then maybe the groin if they find something to put a stent or balloon in - so the new trim may not be wasted yet, lol - except that would mean two procedures instead of one. Hey, ho. Am on the roller coaster now and will just have to take what comes. Have had some tightening of the chest a couple of times this morning - on the 1 - 3 scale and dissipated with a tablet and oxygen so all good.

Just a quick message here to all those who have txted, emailed, rung, skyped - thank you for all your well wishes, they are much appreciated. Bless sister Kay who asked if I needed someone to come over - there are people about here and would rather have folks over to visit when I am hale and hearty to make it worthwhile but again, it is the thought that counts. Bronwyn and Gerard rang from my place yesterday - were doing my dishes, and finishing the job of cleaning my fridge I was halfway through and were going to take the worm farm home with them so they do not die while I am away (if they haven't perished already). My friend Shelly from Rotorua days, who went to university with me when we moved to Hamilton 16 yrs ago, is now nursing and living in Rockingham which is further down from Freo again by about 30 mins from memory or maybe closer - she is coming to visit this evening so we will have a good catch up. Jude is circling in Perth too as she is bringing her Mum home from spending Christmas with her and will stay the night resettling her back into the resthome she lives in. My phone is going red hot from txts and Donna is keeping me in the loop workwise so am feeling very supported.

Am going to see if I can catch someone on skype now so will give you the unexpurgated update of the procedure/s next post. :):):):)

Christmas 2011 and Boxing Day

2011-12-26T23:41:00.000+08:00

Yo, ho, ho, despite all the odds, I had a good Christmas day. I had to fast from 10pm the night before for a fasting cholesterol blood test which they did first thing in the morning and then I was given scrambled eggs, bacon and grilled tomatoes for breakfast with toast and orange juice. NO salt! but pepper at least. Bronwyn, Gerard and kids had been to my place to pick up presents from home (NZ)which were under my tree and bought them up to me to open which was wonderful. Bronwyn took photos - me very fetching in my salmon pink hospital nightgown and wiring, opening my NZ gifts and the pottery chook and two chickens that they had given me. I loved the NZ theme in my parcels and will savour them all when I get home again as I sent them away except photos, comic strip booklet and diary from the two grandchildren and their families, and the bag of mini Whittiker's chocolate nut bars from the parcel that sister Kay organised. I am allowing myself to eat one a day and figure that is ok. Bronwyn also bought me up three books to read as I finished my emrgency one - the other lifesavers apart from having my laptop. Against all the odds, I have been able use it and my cell phone, whoop whoop. I was meant to have the laptop checked before I used it but that would not happen until Wednesday at the earliest so I think the staff took pity on me being Christmas and all.

Working out the time difference, I thought I would chance skyping Kay as she was having various family members there for Christmas day and bonus, managed to connect and say a quick hello to most who were there. My phone was going flat out with txts and emails so was kept busy replying to them.   Had a nice lunch, slice of roast turkey, cranberry sauce, roast potato, beans and carrots, followed by mini Christmas pudding and brandy custard. Not long after lunch, a nurse turned up with a trolley and offered me a Christmas drink - I had the choice of beer (must be in Australia, lol) wine, sherry or soft drink and received a Coke Zero at my request. Not only a drink but she said she had a gift for me too -" get out of here, you're joking me" - but no she wasn't and I was given a face cloth with body lotion and liquid soap which was perfect. I had just had a shower before and realised although the hospital gave me towels and there was soap in the shower, I had no face cloth so was rapt with my good fortune. I was also given a change of attire and am now wearing purple shortie pyjamas in a large sizing. Full tummy, more obs taken and I was ready for a snooze and slept like a baby for the next few hours. Woke up in time for dinner - roast veal except I think it was older than that and distinctly more beef like, but who is to quibble when it comes with more gravy and veg. Was given fat free ice cream and an individual little apple pie for dessert - (can you tell how easy it is to slip into institutional living again - meals being the highlights and gloriously on schedule each day, lol). Managed to touch base with Kay again for a debrief of the day and evening and more emails, txts and calls to answer and another good night's sleep.

Woke up this morning just before breakfast and zoomed the bed up so I was sitting upright. Had eaten my wheatbix and was halfway through some youghurt (skim and low fat ) when pow I was in the middle of a decent chest pain. I called the nurses who gave me some GTN spray and when that didn't seem to work got given some milky white medicine, followed by tablets which seemed to take some time to work. Got to chat briefly with Mum, Kay and friend Vivienne (waves) and her family in my intermission phase as I got more pains after going to the loo. The one in the ward was being used so had to walk out of the ward and down the corridoor and by the time I got back, I was feeling tightness in my chest and arm again, and as luck would have it, the Dr was on the ward at the same time. Got given more GTN spray, tablets and lucky me, scored another injection of Clexane into the stomach. The nurse was laughing out at the desk at my going ouch, ouch afterwards, so I told her karma would get her, lol. The Dr rang Perth while he was here and is organising for me to have an angiogram so will have to be flown down - most likely by the Flying Doctors, lol. Never expected that in a million years. I guess I will know more tomorrow.

Have spent most of the day reading, poodling on the computer in between skyping, and a short snooze. Was sitting mid email this afternoon when I felt wet on my face which turned out to be a gusher of a blood nose.  Yelled out to the nurses who came running with tissues and left me to sort it while I got them to fetch me a cold pack. It stopped after about 8 tissues worth and a period of time without the oxygen prongs in my nose. The oxygen has been turned down to force 1 instead of the force 3 it was on so hopefully that should be it and I will not get another one.

Gerard called in after work tonight with some homemade Christmas pudding, brandy custard and some cherries which I ate before anyone said I couldn't have it, lol. It's 11.30pm so I suppose I should wind up for the night. Will keep you all posted as I can. Not sure whether I will be allowed the laptop in Perth but will keep fingers crossed :)

Twas the night before Christmas .......and I am in hospital.

2011-12-25T22:37:00.050+08:00

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, Nothing was stirring, not even a mouse (or cockroach, because I have killed them all, heh heh). The other reason the house is quiet as, is because I am not there, - I am reposing in HDU at our Regional Hospital where I am writing this post. But to go back a bit.

It was a busy week last week as is any week leading up to Christmas. I had worked the weekend and held up really well. I had Monday off to get some last minute shopping done and have an anti-hag treatment at the hairdressers. I had a belting chest pain in the morning and was debating whether to go to the hospital again but had made the hair apt and had lots to do plus work the next day, so sucked it up, took some asprin and carried on once the pain subsided. Got everything done and started to try and sort out gifts to be wrapped but got sidetracked into finally putting up my Christmas lights in the front windows and some outside around the front side porch.

Late in the night i realised I was working a morning shift instead of the afternoon shift that I had got fixed in my mind, which stopped me in my (by then), wrapping tracks. Finished work Tuesday and then returned to work to help one of our toddlers celebrate his 2nd birthday. He was soooo funny. Nothing would do but he had to sit on my lap at the table while he fed me off his plate - managed some fruit and carrot sticks before thankfully he was distracted by his presents as I was none to sure about the cleanliness of his hands ...... All he wanted was a ball and he was thrilled with the one he got plus a new trike (one of those plastic ones with basket and tray on the back) and lucky me, I was allowed to push him hither and yon round thr back yard. Then it was time to blow out the candles on his cupcake cake which he did with aplomb. I think it helped that two of his brothers and two of the others had recently celebrated their birthdays as well so he knew what to expect. I put some snacks and a piece of pavlova on a plate and then had to zoom to Weight Watcher's to weigh in. Whoop, whoop, lost 1.6k so 9.2 altogether now :):).

Worked Wednesday and Thursday morning and Thursday decided I HAD to get the family parcels done and posted the next day no matter what. I was uncommonly tired and ended up in bed by 8.30pm, woke up at 11.30pm and turned off Christmas lights and went back to sleep again. Luckily, woke at 5.30am following day, and got cracking with parcels again. I was wrapping them on the table in the sunporch when movement caught my eye over the opposite side of the table, and there was yet another flopping cockroach waving its feelers just sitting between the table and the side door. I continued wrapping for about three parcels and then the damn thing moved. I ran out into the lounge and grabbed a can of flyspray and gave it a blast. It then went nuts running all over the place and I thought it was going to make a dash for me in the lounge so poured in another amount of spray. It then ran under my lap top which was sitting on the floor so I gave it another blast as would not have coped if I had picked the laptop up later and have the damn thing run at me again. It then ran towards the door but stopped just before it and somehow ended flipped on its back legs in the air. Hugging the far wall, I snuck into the room and on the opposite side of the table gathered gifts, paper and tags and hightailed it into the kitchen/ games room to finish things off. Yay, finally it was all done, then after getting everything posted, I headed for thr Camel Bar for Bronwyn's birthday lunch.

Bronwyn was very excited as Gerard and the kids had clubbed together and have bought her a series of diving lessons in which she will earn her diving ticket. Her boss and owner of Maccas, gave her a tandem sky dive so she was utterly wrapped with her day. I had work at 2pm till midnight so left them there still at the restaurant. All was good until about 10.30pm when I got up off a couch after feeding one of the babies and putting him to bed and zap - a chest pain out of the blue. It was a decent one but soon over so finished the shift and home did trot. Up the next day to tidy up, clean out fridge, wrap last min parcels and then decided I needed some things from down the road when I started to get another pain. I grabbed my laptop (priorities) in which I had packed a toothbrush and a pair of nickers the night before and zoomed up to the hospital where I was admitted straight away. It was almost like old home week as the same nurse that looked after me the last two times greeted me. I was put onto "my bed" in same corner as last two times and the usual procedures took place. I knew I was up for and 8 hour stay between blood tests but somewhere mid afternoon I was told there were some minor changes to my ekg and I was being admitted to HDU. Seemed a bit overly dramatic as I thought I would go to a normal ward and I got a room to myself off the ward so was all good. I am directly in eyesight of the nurses station and am wired up to telemetry machine, oxygen and bloodpressure cuff. I have had enough blood tests to qualify for a frequent flyers card and my arms are resembling a pincushion.

I rang the workmates family as I was to have Christmas with them and Bronwyn called in on her way home from work to get my car keys and with Brianna got my car from the carpark and back home. Despite having leads and bits and pieces hanging off me, I managed to have a reasonable night's sleep. Pt 2 coming :)

Ups and downs and pests, lol

2011-12-16T15:21:00.000+08:00

Am sitting in my sun porch area with side window open to catch some of the brisk southerly that is keeping things cool as we are a mere 32o Celsius today. There are white caps on the waves though the sky is clear and the sea is greeny blue. The drive to and from work this week was amazing, ships lined up on the horizon - I think the most I counted was 10 at one stage. Apparrently the tide was not right for some of them to come in hence the back up but most days there are 5 - 7 waiting as I drive to and fro. For such a small place the port does a roaring trade. There will be tonnes of wheat being loaded and canola from the harvesting that has been happening around the district. I have just seen a two trailered road train loaded with wheat as I type this, head to the port on the artierial road from the eastern acces to the city - again from my window.

Time is fleeting as Christmas draws ever closer and I am nowhere prepared for it yet. Am surrounded by xmas lights that need putting in my window. The house two doors down must be plugged into the national grid - a full sleigh and reindeer on the roof and an amazing hodge podge of xmas lights stuffed into the front windows and around the house. My stumbling block is that I have not been struck by the creative muse yet as to how I want my display to look. Hopefully once this is written and I have had some lunch, I will feel more motivated. I have got parcels away to both grandsons which was my top priority and after the lights its time for wrapping and tagging for the next lot to be got away.

My life with insects and vermin issues continues. When I had my special little lad (from work, now fostered after his first placement broke down) help me put my Christmas tree up (mentioned last post) the lights didn't go once I had switched them on, so I took them off the tree and left them in a pile on the floor (as you do) as by then my back had had enough. After the lad had left and later that night, I walked to the sideboard adjacent to the tree when I caught movement out of one eye just as a flipping cockroach scuttled from somewhere near the sideboard, ran across the floor and hid in the lights. After a girlie squeal and leap backwards, I dashed to the laundry to get my "you beaut" can of spray, and stood well back and let at least a minute blast of spray off at the lights till I could almost see the mist settling in a blanket over them. In a pleasing move, said bug crawled out of the lights and flipped about on the floorboards with its legs pointing upwards. Just as I was composing an effusive letter of thanks in my head to the flyspray people that it finally worked at ONE spray, like the can says, the damn thing flipped about some more and ran across the floor to a corner by the front door and seemed to scuttle up behind the curtains over two small windows. RIGHT (again think John Cleese when you read that), go to second can of spray. This time, still standing well away I blasted the area from the ceiling down as I believe these insects now try to get above the spray line to fresher air .... No insect body fell to the floor but I lived in hope as by now I had to leave the room to breathe. I could do no more, so as the spray settled I moved to a different room with laptop for the rest of the night.

Had work the next afternoon, so at 11pm when I got home, came through the front door, kicked shoes off, walked to the kitchen through one door, heading back into the lounge through the second door and nearly leapt into the air when I realised I had almost stepped on the by now dead cockroach! Gave it a wide berth and did not use that door again that evening sweeping it up the next day. The next morning I had a fit of spring cleaning in my bedroom, changed the sheets and took the duvet inner out of its cover as it was finally hot enough to have just the cover on the bed. Went to stuff the inner in my wardrobe but a bit like cinderella's ugly sisters trying on shoes, it would not fit. What to do. I remembered the spare wardrobe in "Jude's" room so walked into the room (bare feet again) with the duvet squished in my arms, shoved it into the cupboard, turned around to walk out of the room and there in the doorway was another flipping coackroach. (I forgot to say these are not your snivelling little things seen at home but at around 3" long, - you can just about throw a saddle on and ride them!!). This time it was more than a girlie squeal, more like a banshee shriek and a leap onto the bed as I contemplated what to do next as its feelers waved in the air and the rest of it was not budging. I decided to lift the beside cabinet to thump it on the floor so hopefully the dratted thing would at least run out of the room so I could get out, at the same time wondering how long I would be stuck there if it didn't. Lifted and dropped the cupboard and it didn't move so just as I was contemplating what I could throw at it, the doorbell went and I heard friend Donna's voice call out. Naturally I yelled back to come in (by some luck the door was actually unlocked which is very unusual as I am usually hemetically sealed in and all greeblies hopefully sealed out). She came inside and yelled again, following my voice, a bit nervous not sure if I was karked out on the floor somewhere in the house (re chest pains - also previous post). As I called her down the hallway she got to me just as I was telling her about the cockroach and she bent over double in fits of laughter at my predicament!!! Luckily she is not scared of bugs, went and got the broom and shovel and dealt with the beast and disposed of it. Thus I was able to make my escape for a recouperative cup of coffee while I had to listen to Donna laughing again wondering how long I would have stayed in the room - as long as it took was my reply. The worst part of it all is I have no idea how they are getting into the house, so have now got the outside spray to cover all doorways and new cans of the perpetual spray in place.

You would have thought that was enough excitement for one week but no, last but not least I had one more surprise in store. Once again home from work, into the lounge and about to venture into the kitchen when flipping heck, a dead MOUSE lying in the middle of the doorway. What is it with vermin having to die in doorways!!!!!!!! or is it just in my house, lol. Luckily mice do not worry me. I used the other door and after I got whatever I needed, went to bed for a sleep, thinking if the beast was not truely dead, another few hours would be the test. Sure enough, it had not moved, so into the rubbish bin it went and then out to the main rubbish bin. I reckon that mouse had cost me between $40 - $50 to kill after the various baits I had left about the place, trying to find a flavour that worked. Have found one more dead cockroach in the sunporch since and again after a day of leaving it to make sure it was well and truely dead, that too has gone to the tip via the rubbish. I had to make sure about that one as it looked like its feelers were moving when I first saw it but on retrespect I think it was movement from the breeze coming through the (screened) windows. All of this has caused much mirth at work and I have been told repeatedly the cockroaches are harmless, - well and good, but I cannot stand them, could not get close enough to hit them and kill them - so am left to my multitudinous cans of spray instead.

In between all this I have continued to go to the chiropractor and finally last Friday I almost felt back to normal. I worked two 12 hour days on the weekend and was sensible mostly about lifting babies and toddlers, using a cold pack when I sat down so all good. Yesterday I was told that my upper and middle spine were in alighnment and have one apt next week and probably one more in Jan before I come home to NZ for my holiday to keep adjusting the lower back which is taking longer to retrain. I have had oodles more energy this week and had not realised how much dragged down I had felt with the constant ache in my lower back. The whole exercise has made me more sensible about the weight that I carry so now take the trolley to the car with bags of groceries and have had other folk pass me babies from the floor or lift heavy objects at work. I am able to mop the floors again and this afternoon hope to mow the back lawn and will see how that goes - it is totally flat. Will wait another week before I tackle the front which is all slope.

Re the chest pains. After thinking it was maybe connected to my spine I have had several more episodes since my initial one. Everyone has been nagging me skinny to do something about it - I had the cholesterol test done but could not do the treadmill or bike stress test when I could barely walk. I rang the GP I visited earlier in the year for a medical test to update the F endorsement on my licence (means I can drive a certain axle weight van) only to find he has moved from the practice and they had no xrays or blood test results in my name arrive in the past two weeks. I followed up by ringing the new practice my Dr was at only to be told, I couldn't get an appointment for over a week (how do sick people manage I wonder) and to go to the hospital next time I had chest pains. I have been taking an asprin when I feel the heaviness coming on in the meantime and the pain goes in about 10 mins mostly. Anyway long story short, I had been out and about yesterday, got home and had a nana nap on the couch whilst reading a library book (fell asleep while reading lol not able to do both at once :) and got up to have dinner, remembered clothes on the line so changed direction got them in and got pains in the chest again while I was taking things off the line. I got back inside, turned lights off, switched fan off and drove up to the hospital only to walk into a shut down as they were dealing with some bloke who was drunk in the emergency area. Another woman and I were taken into side rooms and not long after a nurse came to get our info. By then the pains had gone pretty much but I was taken and wired up for another ekg, blood test and blood pressure was taken. All were normal. I was then seen by a Dr who came and asked more questions followed by a nurse who bought me asprin, then some about 6 pink tablets which she said were like asprin and said I needed to have an injection in my stomach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ye gods and little fishes, I said you have to be joking and did I have to have it. She she no and no, but if I had a clot near my heart or anywhere else, that and what I had taken would dissolve it. A woman in the next cubicle (once again having real angina but different woman to last time) yelled over the curtain to take it, so couldn't really argue with that. I must say, the nurses here are excellent at taking blood and injections, felt nothing either time but OMG as she was walking away whatever she injected started spreading to wherever and did it smart. Once initial obs had been done and a couple of other patients dealt with, I was moved into the side room for the night. I had put my library book in my bag on the way out (priorities, lol) so at least had something to while the time away until was tired enough to sleep again. Had to sleep flat on my back as had a leur in one arm and was hooked up to automatic blood pressure sleeve and ekg machine with the other. I went to sleep with the tv remote/sound thing on my chest so woke up to the World News at 5.30am, and then switched to a local channel to find that Molly Meldrum was in a critical condition in hospital in Melbourne after falling three metres while putting up Christmas decorations at his home. He has head injuries, broken ribs, pierced lung and though he made it through the night, and is in an induced coma, it could go either way. For anyone who doesn't know who he is, Molly Meldrum is an Australian icon in the music industry, has interviewed all the biggest stars, been in several tv music shows over the years etc.

Had a new Dr call round this morning to say the morning bloods were all fine and I really need to do the stress test now so they can see how my heart works under exercise, that if I get any pain then, they put me on an ekg straight away and I would be looking at having an angieogram to rule out angina. In the meantime it is all a mystery but I have done what I was told to do, does not appear to be heart so unless there is massive pain involved, I will take an asprin next time until it passes and get onto the stress test. Hopefully I can book it in for next week.

Have just seen sister Kay on skype (waves) briefly, and now need to go have lunch and get some sleep for night shift tonight. Am thinking I will take some Christmas cards to get started at work once all the jobs are down as today has eked away with phonecalls as I try get this written. Am going to have my own homegrown tomatoes for lunch - I have not bought any for nearly three weeks now as the cheery tomatoes have been prolific, with the Italian ones just ripening beautifully now and the beefsteak ones slowly coming on. I just remembered too I need to go water the worm farm lol - it is so hot over here the paper on top dries out very quickly and then the soil starts to as well. Also eating lots of mangos $1.98 this week and nectarines $3.20k so cannot complain at that. Bananas are down to $3.45k so can start buying them again rather than one or two to go on with. Catch you all later.

Back to back.

2011-12-16T12:15:00.000+08:00

Found this photo taken across the city from my front door patio of the yachts racing in the clipper ship race.

Am sitting in my lounge slightly sweltering - the temp must have been in the mid 30's today so I resorted to having the air con on for a period of time. I just realised I could move the fan from the corner of the lounge where it has spent the winter and bring it forth to cast a breeze, but at the moment, that would mean moving which could just possibly break my train of thought, as my brain is in wilt mode, lol.

Another week has passed in an almost blur and now Christmas is officially just round the corner, 23 days and counting. Last Friday whilst I was in bed lurking with a book, I got a ring from the person who now looks after the little lad I was particularly fond of to ask if I would like to have him for a visit Sunday. It came out of the blue and as I had not seen him for over 2 months I immediately said yes. We decided after lunch would be good and so it came about. The lad himself was not 100% well but found the toys he had played with last time and we got the playstation 2 out having a go at sing star and another game I had in between playing pirates and putting up my Christmas tree. I had started the morning by going to the Farmers market looking for some fruit and veg but didn't fancy much there and bought a lavender rock salt heat/cold pack for my back instead. I then shot into town to find there were stalls all up the main street with about three other shops open and I decided to buy myself a Christmas tree. Oh the decisions, as the size goes by how many tips to the end of the branches each tree has - the higher the amount of tips, the denser the tree. I cut to the chase and said I would have the $20 one which suited my budget and just happened to be mid tip range. I had the box in the lounge so the lad asked what was in it and when I said a Christmas tree, he asked if he could help put it up - no problems. I found some tinsel and ornaments from the tree we had in the boarding house at Tardun, and had bought some little candy canes to go on the tree and away we went. I did the top bits and the lad did the bottom bits more with enthusiasm than talent I have to say. On one branch I have 5 ornaments hanging down the bottom and there are empty spaces in other areas but what the heck, a bit of juidicious placing of tinsel and hey ho, good to go.

On Saturday evening after grocery shopping, I had decided with some trepidation to fire up my barbeque to see if it still worked. I say with trepidation as there have been programs on tv re explosions after barbeques being left over winter and leaking when first started again. I moved the barbeque away from the house a bit, turned on the gas and then the switches - they had been left switched on so it started automatically with a bit of a whoosh, and then had to watch as this moth (large) that had camped under the grill over winter tried to fly out, failing to do so and then being cremated on the spot - not nice. On Sunday, with food in the house, and the house splendidly clean and tidy I decided to invited the workmate and family to barbeque dinner - only to realise half way through the day, it was a year ago on the Friday that I moved into this house. Threw a lettuce salad together, made a tabouleh salad, home made hummus and home made parsley pesto to go with a raw vegie platter and did baby potatoes with fresh mint from the garden with chops, sausages and steak that the boys cooked for me while I finished the salads off. It was all very tasty and well received. Bronwyn's mum and dad came too as they were heading back to Philip Island on Tuesday so it was a bit of a farewell for them too.

I had been to the chiropractor on Thursday last but my back continued to ache with a nagging, dragging ache that was only mildly dissipated with pain relief. I had my next appointment on Monday morning and told the chir practor I was not impressed, that I had not seemed to be getting any improvement. He said the only thing that would help would be to take time off work completely until it got better which was all fine and good but a tad unrealistic. I had three afternoon shifts starting that day then two days off so we agreed to taking the three days off to see if that would work and I was to do next to nothing, lying down rather than sitting otherwise moving about as best as I could. I have used cool packs on my lower back area and at last ( a very quiet yay), yesterday I felt better than I had in weeks (after another treatment too) and today I am the best I have been yet. I have two 12 hour days this weekend so if it all goes to custard, not sure what next. The chap I have been seeing is a locum so get the main guy back from holiday next week and a review at the same time.

Friday 16th
Have just realised I never posted this one so will do so now and write an update to follow :)

What a difference a week makes :)

2011-11-23T16:07:00.000+08:00

Just to let you know I AM still alive and slightly kicking after my "heart" episode which on some further investigation has uncovered a non-life threatening but progressive pain in the anatomy none the less. I worked the previous Monday night without incident though with my back still aching from the weekend/week before. By Wednesday (which I thought was Tuesday, due to sleeping a good amount after Monday's night shift, and duh) I had a pain in the chest again, took asprin and breathed through it and decided to make an appointment at the chiropractor to sort my back which was not improving. I have to say, this experience could not have been more different to the last torture chamber episode (written up in earlier post during the year) although I was a touch apprehensive at the start of the procedure. I had to get down to nickers and don one of those gorgeous gowns all things medical seem to have a preponderance of. (Knickers were on the right way this time so off to a good start, lol). A young bloke (slightly older than Doogie Howser as most people are these days, lol) appeared and started by introducing himself with a firm handshake (scored points right there!!) and then proceeded to get me to answer a range of questions about various parts of anatomy and their workings. He asked if I had had many falls - yes I said, from horses as a child, and lots of trips and falls over the past few years which I put down to clumsiness and multi-lens glasses. He then asked if I had ever had a car accident - I haven't I said (he was most surprised at that) and then got me stand in front of a mirror facing him while I had to do some balancing tricks with my eyes shut, before turning me to face the mirror while he explained how out of wack (my words, not his medical term, lol) my spine was. He said my pelvis was twisted (like the Brunhilda of my last experience had told me) and my left leg was about 2" different to my right which was throwing my whole posture out, most likely causing pinching of nerves. Good oh. He got me to get on the purpose built table in the office and placed a pad of something under my right knee and something under my left lower thigh and left me like that for a few mins before using the staple gun thing a couple of times on my upper spine. In the short space of time it all took, my pelvis had straightened somewhat and I was sent off to get xrays of my spine and a further appointment booked the next morning.

I hied myself off to St John of God hospital and within about 10 mins was once again getting into another hospital gown before being led into the xray room where the woman asked if it was possible I was pregnant (before she took my xrays). Bless, after laughing out loud and thanking her for the compliment I had to stand still, breath out, breath in and snap after snap was taken. Front, back and side views all loaded onto a CD which when I was dressed again, I took back to the chiropractor so he could read them before the next morning's appointment. It was around 11.30am and I had had nothing to eat at that point since about 10pm the previous night so decided to head to the Geraldton Regional Hospital to get my fasting blood test done but damn, the fates were against me. After circling all the car parks twice and starting to feel light headed with hunger I gave it a miss and delivered the CD instead, before heading home for some sustenance.

The short version is basically my spine is in poor shape. The chiropractor has seen worse but it would seem time is of the essence. I have mild spondylotic changes in the lumbar, thoracic and cervical vertebrae (curvature of the spine). He drew a line on my xrays where my spine should be, and I could definitely see the curve well below the line. The front on view of my spine looked a little zig-zagged to my eye, and the tilt of my pelvis was again obvious to the untrained eye. It would seem I have degenerative disc disease, mild osteoarthritic changes in both hip joints, and shading on my spine in several places would indicate arthritis happening in neck, middle and lumbar regions of my spine - who knew!! So, after all this, because of my tilt and right leg compensating for the left leg, he could pretty much put all my symptoms of the previous Sunday (my imagined heart attack/angina all down to skeletal issues. The plan is to have two sessions a week for four weeks which hopefully will put me in better shape and then a review. The first two sessions did not make much of a difference to the by now chronic back ache but am feeling much better after yesterdays session. Rather than the brutal crack, thump and wallop mode that I previously experienced, this practice follows a much more holistic and gentle approach by letting the body right itself as much as possible. I am also on light duties at work for the next two weeks and he suggested mowing the lawns on my hill was probably not the wisest as I am trying to get spine functioning how it should. So for the first time I am pleased that my back has given me enough gyp to see someone about it instead of taking pain killers until it went away. I would never have had an xray to say the least or thought that I was so out of wack except once again, it was obvious when I was stood in front of the mirror with my shoulders on a complete tilt. When the chiro told me that this was all part of the aging process for me now my response was, that I had had a good time getting to this place, lol and forewarned is now forearmed. Thoughts of do I want a long time or a good time sprang to mind but I think with some minor changes I can do both, heh heh. I had my first night back at work after a day off on Sunday and managed ok. I had babies changed and delivered to me to feed, then picked up from me and put to bed, was able to sweep the floors but did not have to mop, and did folding and surface cleaning that did not involve bending or lifting and felt good at the end of the shift this morning so will see how we go.

Because of my confusedness with the Tues/Wed timing, I missed going to Rotary last week and did not go this week because of my shifts at work but have received an invitation to join so will organise having a coffee with the membership director later in the week. I had a chuckle because the person who invited me along referred me to the chiropractor I am now going to, and would you know it, another woman from Rotary is one of the receptionists there. The small world of Geraldton!

Last Sunday one of the women from work came over for a scrap booking day which was fun. She has done heaps and I have lots of resources, have just needed the prompts to get going. It was a perfect day, nice and sunny even if blowing a southerly wind most of the day and we sat in the sun room overlooking 180o of the Indian Ocean whilst working at our respective projects. I have No 1 grandson's 2nd birthday just about sorted, lol.

I had a laugh earlier when reading niece Laura's blog, http://www.hungryandfrozen.com describing costumes various members of the family wore to a dress up 21st last weekend midst her food blog. I had a moment when reading that her mother went as the ugly sister when the thought - she needed a costume for that, flashed through my mind lol. It was a fleeting thought and a comment I am sure Kay would appreciate with the wit in which it is said, heh heh - ahhh the days of sibling rivalry that make such good stories now at family gatherings.

Have just looked at the time and I need to get some sleep before tonight's shift so will stop and hope to finish this off at work early next morning.

Later:
Have just fed one of the babies and he is back in bed, all the chores are done except some school lunches so have snuck on here while we have a movie on the telly to pass the time away before the next baby awakes. Its 4am and have to say I am feeling a tad weary. I am thinking of having something to eat or maybe a coffee and that should ping me awake again. I weighed in earlier tonight and have officially lost 7.2k woohoo which is timely re my back, so all good. I need to move before I doze off so will post this now. Looking forward to another warm day today, it was 36o yesterday and too hot to walk outside in bare feet.

What it takes to have a night off work, lol and minor car blip :)

2011-11-16T13:09:00.000+08:00

Posting is top of my to do list today, so here goes. Have just got to remember I have the sprinklers on outside watering the garden so that hopefully my new lettuce plants survive.

Speaking of survival, both the car and myself have had near misses so to speak, this last week. I was driving back from work just after midnight last Thursday night, admiring all the twinkling lights at the port, thinking how great it was to see lights on all through the night, much like the steel mill at home (kind of pyschological support when you live on your own and yes it was a long thought, lol) when glancing down, I noticed a light that said "engine", was on. Eeek!!!! Thinking that I was about to cook the engine, the dilemma was to keep going or stop, but as I was still aways from home and not wanting to walk at that time of night I decided to put a few words upstairs and crept home - about a mile. I was going so slow it took me three goes to get up the hill which is my driveway, and when I stopped the car, ?smoke/steam was pouring out from under the bonnet with that horrible rancid metal smell that indicates something is extremely hot. I stood contemplating the car for a moment once I was out, pulled all my things out in case it was smoke not steam in case it was going to burst into flame any moment, then when it didn't immediately do that, left it over night to cool down. The next morning I checked the oil and water - the radiator was nigh on empty and the oil was ok so topped up the radiator, nothing appeared to leak out anywhere and with a certain amount of trepidation, turned the engine on. No light appeared, the car kicked over and woohoo it gets to live another day. I need to get it to the garage for a service I guess as the last thing I need is for the engine to go bang on the way home from another night shift.

Had a nice evening on Saturday as I was invited to the exworkmates' place for dinner to celebrate their eldest daughter leaving school - where did the time go!!! ( and she has her full licence now). Barbeque dinner and a fierce game of scrabble afterwards with Nana (as the grandparents are visiting for several weeks) Gerard and family friend. The tiles were reasonably kind to me, I haven't played scrabble for ages and it was fun with all the banter around the table. I was moving gingerly as after spraying weeds with roundup earlier in the week, then sitting for two days at a work conference, my back had gone out. I was coming right but unthinkingly had lugged several heavy bags of groceries into the car prior to dinner and by the time I was ready to go home I could barely move. Decided to have an earlyish night, took voltarin, and woke up bright and early the next morning so thought I would check out the state of the nation on the computer for awhile, whilst the rest of the world woke up. I remembered I had washing to hang out so at 7am went out to the line and while I was (slowly) hanging out various items I started getting a pain in my chest. It started as a sort of pressure and then seemed to get more and more somewhat back labour pains (for those playing at home) or an elephant with its foot on your chest .... Great I thought, I am standing here outside on the lawn with just a dressing gown on (was about to have a shower as well), and I am going to drop down dead on the lawn in all my glory, lol - charming indeed. (I figure if you go to the worst scenario and work backwards, it is never so bad, lol). I got back inside (phew) and not only was the pressure getting heavier, I started getting pains in my jaw and pressure/pain in my left arm and for good measure felt like I wanted to throw up. Went to go to the loo in case of being sick and decided I needed to sit instead. Great, now I am in another position where I could die in extremis as have heard tales that a lot of people die on the loo with a heart attack ( it is getting better and better by the moment). I have also heard that if you think you are having a heart attack you should cough, so there I was sitting and coughing and when able to move again, hied myself out of there. OK, now I was getting a little more concerned and as I was thinking - drive or ambulance to the hospital to get this checked out, friend Donna rang. She was being smart on the phone at the start thinking she had woken me up until I groaned and as soon as I told her how I felt, she dropped everything and zoomed over to take me to the hospital. I opened the front door (again in case I karked it on the spot, lol) and went to throw some clothes on and not long after Donna arrived. Fortunately I had piles of laundry on the bed, grabbed knickers, threw a sleeveless dress/long top and a pair of jeans on. Got to the hospital which is not far away and after explaining symptoms, was whisked straight into A&E and into a bed. They put an oxygen mask on me (nearly made me gag and felt very claustrophobic at first), then put my finger in something like a peg (I think that reads oxygen stats) and a blood pressure gizmo on my arm that continued to take my blood pressure automatically every 15 mins or so for the rest of the day. Someone came and took blood and was so good at it, I didn't realise till later that she had put a leur in as well. While that was happening, another nurse started placing these round plastic dots with what looked like a dome in the middle about my person and then was hooked up by a variety of plastic wires to the heart monitor. The good news is that the results were pleasingly dull and boring, all was well. The nurse came to explain what they were doing by taking bloods and apologised for using technical terms to start with. I said I knew exactly what she was talking about as I had worked on the heart ward at home (albeit as a social worker but I learned the lingo, just not how to read the heart monitors which is no bad thing for a social worker, lol) and to fire away. I knew that if I had had a heart attack it would show in the troponim levels in my blood - an amazing diagnostic tool that can tell when and if an attack has occurred - something to do with enzymes in the blood. Mine were negative but the hospital protocol is you have to stay there for 8 hrs for another blood test to make sure before you are sent home. Somewhere around 10.30am I asked if I could pay a visit to the loo as my eyes were about crossing and after being unhooked, got there and had to laugh - a whole new meaning to not getting your knickers in a twist when I found that in my daze, I had mine on back to front. I thought they felt a little unusual but on a scale of 1 - 10, at the time, that was not the end I was most concerned about.

I have to say, the staff were amazing and I felt I was in very good hands. I was moved to a side room as time went on with another woman who was having angina for real and who was later sent by air with the Flying Doctors to Perth for more specialised treatment ( she had been having angina for three days and was diabetic to boot !!!). I was given asprin early in the piece to take and by 11am was feeling a little peckish. Was given sandwiches and then must have dozed and missed lunch so was given more sandwiches with apologies late afternoon. Got to experience watching tv in hospital - the screen fixed from the ceiling above the foot of the bed, hand controls much the same as the controls to move the bed and the speaker/volume of the tv is in the hand control so several people can watch different channels and nothing can be heard much further than the bed you are in - brilliant, can I take one of them home, lol. Dozed in and out of watching a V8 race - part of the series which finishes this coming weekend, and then the beginning of the "Return of the Pink Panther", which looks so dated now. As my 8 hrs were coming to an end, another blood test was taken, all normal and was allowed to go. They took the blood from the leur and unfortunately the protocol for doing that is the first 5ml is thrown away and the next amount drawn up can be tested (in case of impurities), so that was a bit of a challenge to lie still while needles were about my person. This week I have to have a cholesterol blood test done and have to do a stress test. I have to say I felt a complete fraud after the first hour with nothing further happening, not even a twinge of anything but was reassured I had done the right thing at the time. They gave me a medical certificate for work for that night and then it was time to go home again.

The workmate had said the night before, why didn't I ring them when the car was on the blink the previous night, they would have come and got me, so I had promised if I needed help again I would ring,- so rang her phone - no answer, rang Gerard - no answer, rang eldest daughter- no answer and last but not least rang the home and this time got Nana who said everyone was at work but Grandad was out and about picking one of the boys up and he would come and get me. I found a seat outside the hospital and was happy to sit in the afternoon sun which warmed up my bones without being unpleasant and was just day dreaming away when popped up one of my ex Tardun neighbours beside me. She had been driving along the highway, past the workmates car which had broken down just after picking up the others from work and even though she was on the way to a birthday party with her two young boys, she deviated to come and pick me up to drop me home. Bless. Am happy to report all is well since. Had an early night Sunday, slow day Monday with an afternoon sleep then worked night shift and then slept again yesterday afternoon and am now back in sync again. One of the nurses at the time said there could be a variety of reasons for the pain/pressure I experienced, reflux, gall stones etc etc so will just have to see how things go. The other thing I am thinking is that my whole system is out of whack with my back out, so it could be something to do with that. Watch this space. The good thing is if I get a similar pain again, I will take an asprin and if not gone in half an hour, will have to do the whole process again. Forgot to mention they took an xray as well so not sure when I will hear about what that indicated if anything.

Have just rung for an apt at the chiropractors and realised it is Wednesday, not Tuesday like I thought and I have missed the Rotary meeting this morning - buggar. (small pause while I go and turn the hose off). Donna and I both weighed in at weight watchers last night and despite all odds I have lost 1.2k over the past two weeks. I was extremely surprised at that as last week I was at conference for two days (previously mentioned) and the food there was rubbish. All scones with cream, pastries, and very unappetising dinner of buttered chicken and horrible braised steak, lots of bread and pasta and bowls and bowls of lollies on the tables during the day. The venue was sited right on the coast on the main highway to Perth with beautiful views of ocean, port and sand dunes. Inside think 1970's budget hotel as to decor etc. The conference itself ranged from tedious to slightly interesting though the murder mystery dinner the first night was a lot of fun. We all got dressed up, most were Hollywood stars or other famous musicians and you had to ask one and all who they were and what was their clue to piece it all together. It was great to see all the costumes and watch people get into character. My CSI training came in handy, lol, I guessed the who but not exactly how. It was reasonably obscure and I thought it had to be from exactly the clues we were given which it wasn't. All good fun though and a great way of mixing people up.

Big news of the day today is the visit by Barrack Obama to Australia. He will be in Canberra today which is pretty much in lock down mode by all reports on the tv, and is flying to Darwin tomorrow where he and Julia Guillard are announcing closer military ties of some sort - again according to the reports I am listening to with half an ear - have just heard next report and marines are going to have a base in Darwin -- hmmm wonder if any jobs are going up that way, lol. He has bought his Presidential limo with him, all bullet proofed etc but egg on the faces of the men in black, who left info in a rental car with most of the President's movements today. Big oooooops. It was noted he comes with more security people than the Queen did when she was here earlier in the month ....

Am about to go out into the garden to peruse and clip dead heads of some plants. Am eating cherry tomatoes daily off my plants and I see a couple of beans are ready. Have planted new bean plants and am hoping the locusts have all moved on as about three plants only survived from the last batch. I want to mow the lawns but not sure how sensible that is with my back being the way it is. A pox on feeble body parts!!!! I did carefully, spray the weeds out front yesterday morning as it must have been the only windless morning in weeks. Did not lift the container of spray this time but moved it about on the ground slightly bending to spray - all good with no ill effects afterwards that I noticed. The weeds out the back are dead or suitably dying so have been picking them out of the path which is beginning to look great again. Have forgotten whether I mentioned the purchase of a worm farm in my last post and am happy to report the worms appear to be growing and multiplying and I have fed them the first lot of vegetable scraps. Am disposing of all poisoned weeds at the tip so none of those going in the compost or to the worms.

Am feeling peckish and it is time for lunch. Will go harvest some more tomatoes and work from there - have some ham in the fridge so may make a mini pizza, hmmmm choices. Air Force 1 has landed, 20 mins early as he arrived with a tail wind. Non-stop reporting on telly for the afternoon such is the newsworthiness of it all.

And just in case anyone is concerned about my dramatics above: I AM ALL GOOD :):):)

T'is me again :)

2011-11-10T11:38:00.000+08:00

Good grief, another month has passed, so this may need a cuppa tea and a sit down to read :):). When I checked in to write a post today, the format has completely changed which has thrown me a bit but hey ho, will see if this is the new and improved, lol. The last time I wrote I was in the midst of a lurgy - well it took four days to come right and had the energy of a wet noodle. Back to work for two 12 hour days on the weekend after having used two of my days off being sick, grr , and was ok but still not feeling 100%. I worked Monday as well and came home, and had cold corned beef ready to go with a new salad I was creating with courgettes and hazelnuts, followed by FRESH mango for dessert. I ate my dinner but it felt heavy on my stomach, nothing to worry about, just did not feel yippity skip like I thought I would after having such a healthy repast. Can't remember now what time I went to bed, but remember still feeling a bit meh so read for a bit and tried to get comfortable. I believe I did doze off but woke around 3.30am having gone from feeling meh to distinctly queasy. While the neurons and synapses of my sluggish brain were trying to do a check through 1000 diseases I could have been suffering from, I had the distinct urge at 3.45am to propel myself henceforth from my place of repose, in a lightening dash to the loo whereupon I was sick. Ok, I thought to myself heading back to bed, hopefully that was it, but oh no...... for the next four hours I alternated at each end spending very close acquaintance with the porcelain bowl by which time I stopped throwing up but for most of the next day, kept the seat warm with my various trips back and forth. There are 25 steps from my bed to the loo, (for those playing at home, lol) - that is what I was reduced to as there was not much else I was comprehending at the time apart from muttering imprecations and a pox on those staff members who had bought the gastric bug to work. So, twice in two weeks I had two days off sick - the shock of that was nearly enough to carry me off. I spent the next 24 hours, apart from trips hither and yon to aforementioned porcelain, flat on my back in bed. I think I may have had a couple of sips of water - before friend Donna, bless her, delivered a bottle of lemonade to my door step (I was asleep at the time I think but she would not have been allowed in regardless, lol, all very prevent the plague behaviour at the time). The next day, I also lay in bed again, this time sipping lemonade and nibbling on some plain biscuits I found in the cupboard. I dropped 2.7k during this time !!!! and even now am not feeling like a whole lot of food at any given time, sticking mainly to fresh if possible. If I thought I was unwell at the last time of writing, this time I thought I was dying.

Several things have happened over the past weeks that now give me regular dates to affix to my calender. I am not sure whether I mentioned going to a psychic fair some two months ago now. Friend Donna turned up one afternoon and on a whim, we decided to shoot out to have a look around at the fair. After looking at several stalls, I decided to have a reading from one of the clairvoyants sprinkled around the main room and having fixed my eye on someone who seemed to be doing a roaring business, I wandered round the room and ended up in front of someone completely different. The reading was interesting, I was told I was lacking in energy (ya think) that if I had a list of things to do, I may get the first one done but maybe not. After a few more observations from the woman concerned I asked if she was living in my head as she was accurate in all that she said. She did a brief healing on me as I was leaving and I decided to go back the next day and went to a different person who did used crystals for another healing re-energizing blast. I was so tired that day by the time I got home I did nothing but sleep but OMG the next week went like a dervish about the place. It transpired that the first woman I saw (Judith) was in fact a Kiwi and in the old six degrees of separation, had attended Waikato University, doing an art therapy course with a woman I had worked with at the then Presbyterian Support group (during my social work training). It also happened that Judith was going to run a weekend course on alternative healing which coincided with one of my weekends off, so I attended that and had a ball. The very short version is that she holds a group once a week so that folk can continue building on their skills which I have been able to attend in and around different shifts (doing the course was where we made the Waikato connecton). Through that course I met another woman who in idle chat said she was going to attend a Rotary breakfast meeting (a couple of weeks ago now) and lo and behold, has presented me with the opportunity to attend her group for the past three weeks.

I belonged to the Fairfield chapter of Rotary before I began the Aussie segment of my life and at the back of my mind over the past few months has been the thought to get involved with a community organisation again so was more than happy to be invited along. The meetings are held at the Geraldton club which is a big old building across the road from the waterfront so we begin the morning with a coffee on the balcony watching the town start the day. The meeting gathers at 6.45am finishing at 8am so its an early start, lol. I was introduced around to several people on the first morning and then as we gathered to start the meeting, I was struck by a horrible thought, OMG am I going to have to sing the Australian national anthem each week, and if so, can I do it....... At home we always finished our meeting standing singing God Defend New Zealand so there was my rather large dilemma the only words I know to the aussie national anthem are "girt by sea" and "advance Australia fair". Michelle, who took me laughed when I asked her and said no they didn't do that, (phew) I was more than relieved as we had just beaten the Wallabies the weekend before where I had loudly been singing our national anthem with the telly on full volume at work, with a baby in my arms, telling him to be very afraid when he heard that song when he grew up, lol. They do toast the flag to start off the meeting and I can drink to that without too much worry I think though it has been so quick I have almost missed it to date. I was made very welcome and had automatic friends at the next weeks meeting when three other members arrived wearing All Black colours to celebrate the World Cup win, woohoo. So now there are four kiwis infiltrating the ranks, heh heh.

Last meeting, we had a chap come and talk to us about being part of the yacht race following the path of the old clipper ships, navigating the world right now. All the yachts were docked in Geraldton for several days last week before leaving for Tauranga, NZ their next stop. Each yacht is built exactly the same, with a crew of 18. The captain of each yacht is a professional sailor and all the others are volunteers or people who want to experience either the whole race or segments of it. It costs forty English pounds to do the whole race so not for the economically challenged. Whilst the yachts were in port here, they were open at times for the public to visit and also took folk out on the ocean for short trips under sail to have an amazing experience. It was fascinating to hear how 18 folk managed their days and the minimal space, two people rotating sleep in the bunks provided as the other was on deck sailing. The chap who came to talk to us had lost 13 kilos in weight since leaving England, as meals were mostly rice or pasta and consumed quickly. The yachts had sailed through the roaring 40's to get here and he said it was so cold that he sais wore 9 layers of clothing to bed and was still cold while sailing through there.

In between all this, in a bid to try and manage a more healthy approach to life whilst being a shift worker, I have once again trekked back to Weight watchers. Donna (I know, she appears in most of these life changing moments, lol) wanted company to go along to meetings and again fortuitously, it was at the same time I was wanting to get things back on track. They have changed the program since I last was on it probably about 5 or 6 yrs ago now and while I love it that fruit is free points, have not got my head entirely around the new way of doing things. I must be doing reasonably ok as have managed to lose 4k along the way. It makes life much easier at work , having to eat three proper meals a day with any amount of fruit that I want in between if I am hungry instead of cramming food in on the run. I have picked up energy (a small amount, lol), and am eating more fresh food, without getting hungry in between and not even wanting rubbish food, not when you can have enough of it to fit in your eye instead of nearly your body weight in the foods that are good for you. Have been having fun with smoothies - 1/2 cup of plain yogurt, 1/2 cup skim milk, frozen banana with a variety of other fruit to hand (strawberries, peaches etc) drop of vanilla and have been putting dollops of ww jelly in and then blitzing with one of those hand held whizz things. Makes massive amounts to drink and it is like a meal all by itself. I was told the trick of peeling bananas and wrapping individually in glad wrap to freeze and it works a treat to thicken without having dollops of ice instead. The jelly gives colour and sweetness, and when blitzed and drunk immediately, you would never know it was in it. Things took a bit of a hiding this week as I have just been at conference for two days with work and all they offered was prepackaged, pasties and such like, but back on track this morning so all good.

Am back at work this afternoon after having a week off for annual leave which was when I had planned on going south with Jude which unfortunately did not come off in the end. She got offered two weeks work cooking for a shearing gang which she couldn't refuse and in the end it worked out well for me as I have been catching up on a heap of things off my to do list. I am in the process of getting four years of taxes sorted out - that involved four days going through receipts and papers going back to my arrival - two rubbish bin sacks full of rubbish and on the fourth day, found the last two papers I needed for my Aussi paper work. Got two new tyres on the car, the front right hand wheel had a slow leak so kept needing to get it pumped up, so decided it was a good time to get things checked out. It transpires that the other two back tyres need to be upgraded as well and that will be on next weeks list. They do not have Warrant of Fitness over here so no cause to get your car checked for safety any time unless the car is over a certain age. The chap at the tyre place said all the tyres were in a parlous state and if stopped by the cops for anything, my car would have been yellow stickered as unsafe so a lucky save there and should be set for another year at least after the upgrade.

Am looking at the time and need to make tracks to get ready for work, can't wait to catch up with the kids and see how much the babies have grown while I have been away. Was going to add some photos but will leave that until the weekend I think when I have more time. Will aim for another post by next Monday with photos :):)

Home, in bed.

2011-10-05T15:32:00.000+08:00

I have succumbed and for the second day, have spent most of the day in bed. I am not dying but have headache, running nose, sore throat, and cough and occassionally a temperature (I think) so am swallowing cold and flu tablets, berroca, menthol chews and drinking water while periodiacally slathering chest, what bits of my back I can reach, and feet with Vicks. I sit here muttering imprecations and a pox on fellow workers who have bought their lurgies to work so that I too may share ... not impressed. I believe I took a morning off last year with sinus streaming but I think it would be nearly five years since I have had a day off sick, let alone two - I am not a good sick person as anything that might seem interesting to do seeing I am not at work, I do not feel like doing. Can only manage reading a couple of pages of book at a time before wanting to snooze. Normally, I may not consider the above symptoms as being sick and would tend to ignore them but as we have two out of the three babies at work that easily get sick, I thought it best to keep my germs to myself, thus also feeling somewhat virtuous instead of spreading bugs at whim. I will be even further unimpressed if I continue to feel lousey through the next two days which are my days off. I can only think lots of night shifts combined with the change of season variable temps have maybe lowered my resistance. There were maybe warning signs last week like getting ready to go to work on days off and then getting afternoon shift mistaken for night shift plus working an extra one, that I should have taken heed of. I did think it odd I was making so many mistakes with my roster but could not pinpoint why my head was not clear thinking. I could have been swallowing preventative drugs last week but then again, maybe my body is saying it needs the rest. :):)

Anyhow, before you all suffer from shock from seeing two blogs in a row, I will bring to your attention the new gizmo I have installed on the left hand side of this epistle. I believe if you enter your mail address, future postings should automatically wing their way through the ether to your mailbox. If someone tries it out, please let me know if it works. :)

I have enclose two photos of what I am informed are Ospreys. I was driving home from work one morning when I spotted the two birds on top of the power pole looking to start building a nest. I parked over the road from them and grabbing my trusty camera got a few shots, though it was a miserable overcast day. With interest I watched for the next few mornings and then a day off and the nest fixings were gone, as were the birds. A few days later they were back on the opposite side of the road and they had built a around a street light which is now covered in a basket like woven circular nest. I managed to see the birds a couple more times but have not seen any movement over the past week. I am not sure of the gestation time for Ospreys but their babies may have already hatched and flown the the coop. I am told there are several similar nests a little further down the coast at Cape Birney which is like a suburb of Geraldton.

Today is the first fine, though windy day, that we have had for several days. I know this because I think It was last Friday when I was able to get clothes dry. We had a spectacular storm on Saturday night, lashing rain, wind and lightening, though I didn't hear any thunder. There was hail south of Perth that was still on the ground in places, the following day. There was so much that it looked like it had snowed. Lots of the vineyards in Bunbury were affected as I saw on the news last night.

One could not escape sport last weekend (though I kind of did by sleeping through most of it as on night shift). It was the grand final for the AFL (aussie football) and a veritable clash of the Titans with all the build up. Geelong won which made the workmates family very happy as they are staunch supporters. I called in on the way home from work to say hello at 8.30am and Hayden was already in his Geelong jumper and wearing his cap. The following day was the grand final for rugby league with the NZ Warriors against Manley - somewhere in the haze of sleep, I thought the Warriors had won so for 24 hrs until I saw the news the following night I was walking around in blissful ignorance that they had in fact lost to the Aussies. Damn. And through all this in the background is running the Rugby World Cup held in various venues in New Zealand. I will be watching this weekend to see the Wallabies go up against the Spring boks and will be backing the aussies naturally. Was good to see NZ beat France, always sweet when that happens and a win against Canada. I love the fact the New Zealand altered the whole education system, changing the school holidays to fit around the Cup. Is there anywhere else in the world that this would happen? I am on nights this weekend so hopefully the babies will want a feed around the time the games are televised, heh heh which will give me the perfect opportunity to watch. Of course day time this weekend is BATHURST for all the petrol heads out there. V8 racing is fully televised over here during the season much the same as home. There is something compulsive about watching the race, take your eyes off the screen and someone will crash or there will be an incident that changes the whole course of the race. Go Holdens! (would once have said Ford but not sure they have made a decent car since the Mk III, heh heh and Murf (Greg Murphy) drives Holdens (as did Dad, and always remember him this weekend also, with his Holden paraphenalia).
It is the Sunshine Festival in Geraldton this weekend which means a parade, floats and a host of activities down at the waterfront for young and old. With a bit of luck I will catch some of it between sleeps. I missed the replica of the Endeavour (Captain Cook's ship) being in town but have seen it and been on it some years back when it was in Auckland. There were two cruise ships in last week, I love driving to work and pow, there are these huge liners just out to sea, with other cargo ships coming and going in between. There is seldom less than 5 ships on the horizon and at the most I have counted 12 either coming or going.

I am ready for another snooze so will sign off. Surely if I sleep enough I should wake up cured in the next 12 hours, lol. Things to do, places to go on days off, my luck I will still be shaking this off but am cautiously optimistic.

Pests......

2011-10-03T13:10:00.000+08:00

Egad, where did September go. I am starting to feel somewhat like a mole, what with working so many night shifts lately, as in busy at nights, and sleeping during the day. That being said, there have been a few awake moments not devoted to work.

My garden continues to both frustrate and gladden me. The frustration has not been targeted at the garden but more at all things pestilential in my life. It is a sad state of affairs when rat bait, slug bait and multiple cans of flyspray outweigh anything else in the groceries. I digress but stay with me .... I am now on my third brand of one meal kills all rat and mice bait, not including the high pitched thingie that you plug in and is meant to rid the house of a variety of pests ( the only thing I haven't had a lot of lately is visitors, lol). I have been through mortein which they seemed not to eat much of (killed plenty at Tardun with this brand); Talon I think was the next brand, for those discerning mice/rodents that are resistant to products in other brands (ya think); and am now onto rat squeak or rat pak (can't remember which one) ...... will keep you posted, - and none have proved their advertising yet, as I have noticed a new calling card left on the window sill over night, - may it be the last one !!!!!

Back to the garden. The gladdening is from flowering plants and small shrubs which are bursting out all over and the fact I am eating lettuce nearly everyday and spinach a couple of times a week still. The frustration is .. wait for it .... PESTS. My beans are valiantly trying to bean away (two meals) however the vines seem to be disappearing before my eyes as locusts and snails take their toll - the broccoli have almost disappeared because of the same thing. Right I thought, ( read that with a John Cleese tone in your head), I will get the little baskets, and the universe responded by having slug bait on special .... so I bought a kilo of it, heh heh. Now, over here the snails are different. I believe I have seen one shell in the garden of the common brown snail we have in nz but over here, they are white and small, about the size of your thumbnail, so much so, at first when I saw them covering the lemon tree here, I thought they were blossom. Managed to knock most of them of the lemon tree (more of a shrub as it is only a baby one) whilst watering it but given 30 mins they were sliming their way up the trunk again. Right, again! Inside I came to get soapy water with a dollop of garlic for good measure in the bucket and once again I swooshed the lemon tree with it whilst knocking them off with a stick. Suck on those suds, I thought. I also left a liberal sprinkling of the bait I had bought. They must breed them tough here because not a day later, the snails have crawled back, though I am happy to report there are a layer of dead ones on the ground. I am very careful when bringing lettuce and spinach inside and do the whole salt water rinse before anything else as the odd tiny one escapes the naked eye as I beat them off whilst harvesting.

I have had another house inspection and passed with flying colours again which is nice. I had just come off a ten hour and two 12 hour night shifts the morning it was due. I rang the real estate agents who said it would cost $55 to reschedule inspection and when they tried to get hold of the agent to maybe try later in the day they could not reach her. What the heck, I left a large note on the kitchen bench, one at the front door and went to bed as after a quick zoom through the house with the vacuum cleaner, I was ready to fall over with tiredness. I did not hear a thing and as my room was the only one in the house not completely tidy, I guess I killed two birds with one stone so to speak.

In preparation for this house check, one of the tick list things is lawn care. Now I have never had to do anything like this in my life but off to Bunnings I went and bought a container of weed and feed, waited until 7 days after I mowed the lawns and applied it to the back lawn. It is meant to be an easy process.... the container comes with a lid that you have to put another plastic gizmo (attached to lid) in two holes so you can attach the hose to the lid and it is meant to spray out evenly and do the work for you in mixing it right. Not sure what I did, but could not seem to get which holes were meant to be filled and which one open, and then the hose attachment was too big so had to man handle it on so not quite the one handed with ease job I expected. I got thoroughly wet into the bargain, - jeans only clean on that morning and then I read at the end, you are not meant to get any of this stuff on your body .... arrrgh and a shower later, with jeans in the washing machine, and then another ten days to see if the stuff is working. I think it is, though most of the lawn seems to be dead looking. I must say - it would appear what I thought may have been ok grass was in fact weeds, who knows with aussi lawns, lol

One product I do love is those inside continuous bug sprays ( I have two on the go at anyone time). I have become so accustomed to them going now I no longer hear the little pfft they give out most of the time, so become blissfully unaware when they run out, and often only notice when an insect has the temerity to appear in the house. This happened a couple of weeks ago when a fly flew past me while I was sitting on the couch reading a book ..... and worse, when I lifted up the venetian blinds in my room to see a large spider on the window almost in front of my nose. Wearing glasses I sometimes have difficulty in perspective now so was not entirely sure whether the spider was inside or outside at first. LUCKILY for me, I decided to get fly spray just as my hand was reaching out to tap on the glass. Again I reached for a one spray kills all with one spray can under the sink and let a goodly blast off towards the window. Nothing happened for what seemed to be a millennium, and then the spider moved at speed across the window and up. I removed myself to the bedroom doorway, across the side of the room and continued to aim at the window with more blasts. The flaming thing shot higher up onto the ceiling. Hmmm I thought, it is going to where the air is clearer as the poison droplets were drifting to the floor. Right, now for the sucker punch, I moved ever so slightly inside the doorway, and sprayed the remainder of the can upwards at length as I emptied the can and my fingers got cramp (slight exaggeration but not by much, lol). I left the room as the spider was still moving across the ceiling and went back some time later to find it had flipping well dropped dead, with its legs curled, onto my bed, thus necessitating me having to sleep in the back room until the next day when I was very sure it was dead and able to be knocked by a long handled broom onto the floor, before being sucked up by the vacuum cleaner. While the dying process was occurring I had checked to find one of the continuous sprayers was empty, none in the house to replace so a quick trip to the shop to buy several more plus batteries for the nozzles to spray. I am happy to report I am insect free once again. :)

Just looked at the time and gotta go to work so will sign off for now :):)

Back to the Beginning

2011-08-30T13:00:00.000+08:00

First a word to folks who have been sending me queries of my possible demise, such has been the resounding silence of this blog. I am happy to report just the opposite in fact, having or reclaiming a life apart from just going work has been more like it.

Apart from the mundane such as housework, which I seemed to have upped the anti on after finding how much I enjoy this house in it's tidiest, minimal form, I have been gardening, cooking, dining out, visiting and revisiting places of note.

My garden is growing apace and I am loving it. I have been spending an hour if not more a day dealing to the outside of the house which has involved several cuttings of the lawn (our winter is the eqivalent of everyone else's spring), weeding and planting. I have eaten lettuce and spinach out of the garden already, and have tomatoes, capscicums, brocolli growing to go with the aforementioned beans and spinach. My herb garden has also been supplying basil, mint, rosemary, parsely, corriander and chives to various concoctions I have been cooking. The wildflowers mentioned a month ago are all flowering as are the transplanted lavenders, the gazanias, the self seeded daisies are multiplying and I am waging a war on weeds as they are growing too. I find myself channelling Nana Gert (paternal grandmother) as any hapless visitor has to do a round of the garden before entering the house, and there I am naming all that is planted before me. The only downside to my gardening efforts is that I can not find a scarlet runner bean for love nor money and so the beans I am growing, although runner beans, they resemble those found in frozen pkts which are second preferred to the scarlet runner in my opinion. I am wondering whether they are peculiar to NZ. I shall just have to hope there are folk growing them at home and there will still be some left at the end of January when I have my holiday.

Yes, great news, I have been granted my first offical annual holiday from Jan 26 - Feb 28, woohoo. I now have to research fares and flights. Exciting news this end is that Qantas are now doing flights in competiton with Sky West from here so from Nov 21 one will be able to fly from Geraldton to Perth for $99 instead of the $200+ it costs now, AND flights leave direct from Geraldton to Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne - not sure about Adelaide so that is beyond brilliant. It takes away the 5 hour road trip to Perth (or longer by bus) that you have to tack on to each trip which usually means an extra day each way.

I mentioned cooking before, as I have been venturing forth into trying new recipies and reacquainting myself with my store cupboard and its various interesting ingredients bought for such a possibility. I had some T Bone steaks the other week so decided to make a variety of salads to go with them. First up was good old fashioned tabbouleh, using bulgar wheat (cupboard) as I now have a garden full of the required herbs such as mint and parsely (in copious amounts) to make it and yum, all the remembered flavours bouncing off the tongue. I whipped up a Greek salad and lettuce (out of garden) and tried niece Laura's(http://hungryandfrozen.blogspot.com ) blue vein cheese dressing. I have also made Manhatten Prawn Chowder, Spanakopita (spinach and fetta pie), Tomato, mustard and brie tart, Courgette and polenta slice, tomato and mozarella salad, home made pesto (own basil, woohoo) and homemade hommus. Those who have been fortunate to share some of the above have been impressed, no less than myself who left to my own devices in the past was more likely to open a bag of chips or consider a pkt of chocolate mint biscuits a square meal on the run, lol. I had a chuckle to myself while making the spanakopita as the only recipe I could find was on line, so there I am in the kitchen, laptop perched on the cake tin on top of the bench with me hitting the space bar every so often when the screen went down, cooking my masterpiece as fast as I could read off the screen. A sign of the times indeed!

I so much enjoyed eating out at the Camel Bar of last post's mention that I have been twice again in the past month. Once for Donna's birthday lunch and once after footie finding myself not going past the calamari salad each time and not being disappointed. Two weeks ago now, those who could gathered from work for dinner at a place called the Boat Shed, one of the more salubrious eateries in town. It looks like it was an older type house which has been converted to a restaurant decked out in ship type decor in a pleasing to the eye kind of way. The food was spectacular - I had tempura, tiger prawns with wasabi mayonaise, then a lamb shank on mash, followed by a merangue and wildberry parfait. The first two courses were entree size, though I have to say, not sure what more they would have served for a main with the lamb shank dish, maybe an extra leg or two? We had lots of laughs and there are photos but as I have not shared my facebook address with anyone at work, they shall remain unpublished here, lol.

Now for my back to the beginning. Two Sunday's ago, Donna called round and we went to the local Sunday farmer's market and then on a whim, decided to go for a drive out to Mullewa and Tardun to see what wild flowers were out. It is the first time I had been back since Dec 2009 when I left for my Christmas hols which was also leaving for good. It felt great heading back there, the scenery is awesome at the moment with the canola fields in full bloom contrasting with the growing green wheat fields. With all the rain this year, I have never seen the place looking so green for so far. We did a little Tiki Tour round Mullewa as Donna grew up there, and then headed to Tardun. As we hit the gravel road, have to say I felt like an old war horse, sensing home and the urge to go faster to get there, lol. Had to have a compulsary stop by the duck pond outside McKenna's place to see what ducklings there were and to take a few photos for old time's sake. I was surprised that the pond was not as full as I expected, given that we had to drive through several sections of road that had water running across during our trip. A further few miles up the road with two corners to go, I was busy telling Donna that this very spot was where I had to stop for 7 kangaroos one evening when lo and behold, there were three Skippies in the paddock beside us. Donna immediately stopped the car as I was flapping around with the camera for photos and they were off, hop, hopping along the fence line and then spri'doing, spri'doing, they flew over the fence, across the road in front of us, over the next fence and off they went. It was great excitement as I felt I had almost called them up, lol. We drove up the road past where I used to live to find the whole place fenced off and the only access to the school is through the main gates now. We were on the hunt for a wreath flower and instead of the extra hour it would take to Howes road where they are most prolific, we went instead to the gravel pit just opposite the main gate of the school. Bonus, as we were driving through there, there were more kangaroos, or maybe the same ones, lol. We found one small wreath flower and a few other flowers out but it appeared too early for much else out there. The flowers alongside the road were underwhelming in numbers and I think it is another few weeks away from being spectacular out there. We decided to go to Pindar which is back on the main Mt Magnet-Yalgoo road but halfway there came to water across the road in two lots. I got out of the car and walked through the first bit that nearly came up to my ankles, but the next bit looked deeper and very boggy. We decided Donna's car might not make it through so we had no choice other than to turn back and head home the way we came. On the way back had another lo and behold moment when I spotted a fox trotting along the fence line inside a wheat field. I laughed at myself getting so excited seeing both the fox and the kangaroos as both are vermin but it was the surprise of seeing them I think that got to me.

The following week Donna was around for a coffee when we spied an ad for the annual Psychic Fair held at a place called Golden Ponds (instantly think of the movie and old folks homes, lol). Donna had work later that afternoon and I was still in my pjs a la Hugh Hefner, lol, when we made the decision to go have a look. Ten mins later we were out the door. Because the venue has been on the market for awhile - a function hall of sorts, out in the middle of nowhere - according to Donna, the amount of stalls etc was way down. We arrived in the first room to several tables set up with people doing various readings - cards, clairvoyent readings, etc. We walked through to the next room and there were stalls selling candles, jewellry, books etc and people doing Reiki and crystal healing. We had gone in such a rush, I only enough cash on me for a sausage in bread and a drink. We sat outside in the sunshine having our late lunch when a friend from Tardun days popped up and asked if we had had a reading yet and that we should go and get one done. The thought had crossed our minds so in the end I decided to get one done, Donna supplying the funds until later that evening. It happened that I walked past one place just as someone was finishing and though not the one I had initially intended on seeing, I asked if there was a space, there was, and away we went. This woman had several sets of cards and after holding my hands picked up three packs. The short version is, each deck said the same thing in the key comments that she made. She said when she held my hands she felt no energy at all. She asked if I started each day with good intentions with a list of things to do and maybe only get one thing done, or some days none at all? I asked her if she was living in my house as that is exactly what things have been like and in fact for the last three weeks I had been taking particular note of this very thing. She spoke about a change in work in the next 12 months and that I need to change some of my habits to reactivate my energy levels, that I had poured so much of myself out, there was nothing left for me. Hmmmmmm, survival is like that I thought. At the end of the reading she did some Reiki on me to give me an energy boost (or reboot in computer terminolgy). Time was getting on so we left soon after, however, I had been drawn to the crytal healing woman and decided to go back the next day for a bigger jump start in the energy stakes which I did. Again, it was late afternoon when I got there and lay under a set of chrystals set over the body's chakras which I guess did their thing while I lay there for 20 mins with tranquill music playing about me. I got up feeling a little mazed and was not sure what to expect, thinking if that was it, hard to tell any difference. Well, by the time I got home I felt so tired I had to have a nap. I woke up and moved to the couch only to fall asleep another two times before giving up and going to bed early (for me). The next day when I woke up, talk about feeling chrystal clear, lol. I got up, cleaned the house, mowed the lawns and did three lots of cooking, having two hours rest only before starting a 12 hour shift at work which I flew through coming home to do more outside in the garden before making myself stop to have 5 hours sleep before the next 12 hour shift. One thing the lady who read my cards said, was that I have to sit still without tv, radio or computer on for half an hour or so each day just to disconnect from everything and be still, - hmmm I have managed a few nana naps but not the easiest thing to accomplish cutting the cord to the tv and the laptop - scarey stuff, lol. I have to say, not sure whether it is mind over matter, but I do feel recharged, and have been getting through stuff like wildfire around here. I am not arguing either way. I also had my eye on a pair of earrings at the fair which I shouted myself, silver with a purple stone in the middle and a celtic design around the stone. I thought if they were there on the Saturday when I went out for the second time I would get them and they were so I did.

The best was yet to come however and that was this last Sunday. The ex WM rang me on Saturday to say she was going out to Tardun and Janette's place on Sunday after Hayden played footie and did I want to come - is the Pope Catholic!!!! She wanted to go out to Howes road and said we would go through the nature reserve out there beforehand. I asked if we could have a campfire for lunch and as the fire ban hasn't started yet, that is exactly what we did. When we got to the reserve, there was a huge pond of water filled by the rain and we parked just up from it, kicked a square of dirt out with our boots, gathered twigs and branches and with a page from a notebook I had and one match, we lit our fire. I found an appropriate stick and proceeded to put damper that Bronwyn made on one end of it and rotated it over the coals until cooked before slathering it with butter and golden syrup. We had also taken out sausages and a couple of chops, and I had found and old frying pan so we cooked that alongside the damper and had a feast fit for a king.

It was bliss, sitting in the sun, campfire going and the smell of cooking, woohoo. Of course there along with the excitement of going bush and having a campfire, how soon one forgets the down side, lol. I doubt we had parked longer than 10 mins, pulled the back of the 4WD down to put the food on, when every bush fly known to man and then some, arrived to share our meal with us. There were zillions- I had to beat one off my knife as I was trying to butter my damper. I then nearly buttered one into the damper ewwww ick but they were not getting in the way of me having my campfire lunch, heh heh. Once we had finished our lunch,we kicked dirt over the fire to extinguish it like we had never been there, and were off to see the wreath flowers. The two boys decided they wanted to stand on the running board of the 4WD so we drove several miles with them hanging on dodging bushes as we drove along the track through the reserve.

Once again although the wreath flowers were out I still think they are a couple of weeks away from being fantastic, but we took photos and enjoyed finding other old favourite wildflowers. Bronwyn had a friend from work with us as well and after the running board trip, they all decided they wanted to travel on the roof rack of the car and because we were in the middle of nowhere, with trepidation, Bronwyn let them do it. God knows what would have happened if anyone else had seen us. Again we went several miles like that, the boys loving it, until we joined the main road and they had to get down for the rest. We then drove (sensibly)along the back road of the school and off to Janette and Farmer Geoffs to look at all the wild orchids they had at their place. OMG we used to be lucky to see three in a clump at school and maybe two or three clumps in an area at the most. There were hundreds of spider orchids and a good amount of donkey orchids that were were just brilliant to see. We drove a fair way out on the farm to a valley and along with the orchads there was the best display of wildflowers I have seen this season. We took masses of photos before heading back for a cuppa and the return trip back to town. The serpent in the garden of eden this time was the midges - how could I have forgotten them. Too late I reached for the insect repellent that I had taken but had grown complacent with the beautiful day. Of course we were amongst the flowers as the sun was growing down and though they were not in thick clouds, there were obviously enough to do damage, and damage there is. My arms are covered in bites which I have not been able to resist scratching despite using soove, spit and antihistamine tablets. Thankfully I had jeans and boots on so its only my arms from the elbows down, one behind my ear and one on my cheek that is driving me crazy and I know this too will pass but arrrrgh until it does. I am about to resort to lavender essential oil which should also help. It was sunset as we left Janette's so we were on kangaroo spotting detail in case they decided to leap out in front of us, not something I have to contend with anymore living in town, lol. I have to say, I think I had a grin on my face from the time we left town until I went to sleep, it was soooo good going back out for our wild flower hunt and campfire.

I was so focussed on talking about Tardun, I forgot to mention Jude, Janet's and my trip out to the Coal Seam on Friday via Walkaway but as I am falling asleep after my night shift stint, I will sign off for now and hopefully get to that along with my promised mention of the Oakabella Homestead of last post next post. :):)

Ps tried to add more photos but taking sooooo long I could collect my pension first so will try more next time

Ship Ahoy! (with pictures)

2011-07-22T04:10:00.000+08:00

Am having a slow couple of days after three night shifts which always upsets my equilibrium, even though I make an attempt to get a good amount of sleep most afternoons - overcast weather and rain have not encouraged me to do much either. This would make up for the whirl last week was. I had afternoon shifts at the beginning of the week and then on Thursday, friend Jude and I were at the wharf opposite the Geraldton museum in part of the marina, to await one of the tenders that was delivering two family friends from NZ off a cruise ship parked further out. It was one of the Princess Line ships and after wet and windy weather, Thursday arrived like a summers day, with warm temps and blue sky all day.

Cruise ship taken from the memorial.
As we walked along the boardwalk to the wharf, there were people drifting in twos and threes past us who had already disembarked. There were 1600 people on board the ship and the first to arrive had met with tour buses to maximise their 8 hours in Geraldton. Nina and Violet duly arrived after a bit of a wait and after introductions all round we were off to see the HMAS Sydney Memorial on the hill above Geraldton as per our visitors request. While we were waiting at the wharf, Jude had struck up conversations with several folk from the local tourist board who were there to meet folk off the ship with handouts of maps and other info about Geraldton and getting people sorted for their tours.

Seagulls in the dome with the anchor and eternal lights.

We arrived at the memorial in time to attach ourselves to a group with a local guide who took us round the memorial telling the story of the worst naval disaster in Australia's history with 645 lives lost when the Sydney was sunk by a German warship during WWII. I knew a bit of the history from several visits during my time here, but learnt a few new things as we walked around. I knew the memorial dome with 645 seagulls cut out represented the 645 souls of the men who died. I did not know that each seagull touched another seagull to represent that no man died alone. The memorial was a Rotary project and is full of symbolism. The eternal lights are part of an anchor shape which drops down from the middle of the dome. The bollard on the path up to the memorial is one from the wharf where the HMAS Sydney would have tied up in Geraldton on its four trips to the town back in the day. The actual HMAS Sydney was discovered just over two years ago and there are photos of the dives and remains of the ship in the local museum. For all the families who lost loved ones, this has given a level of closure to know that the ship's final resting place was found and there have been ceremonies at the site with wreaths being tossed into the water to commerate the loss of life at the anniversary of the sinking of the ship after it was found. The hill where the memorial stands overlooks all of Geraldton and surrounds so we got a panoramic view of town and the coastline stretching north and south. Since the last time I visited, Rotary are completing the final phase of the monument which will involve a memorial water feature to go with the dome, the stele in shape of the bow of the ship and the sculpture of the woman, waiting for her loved one to come home. The symbolism even includes the plants along the path to the memorial with rosemary for rememberence and yellow lantana with green leaves for Australia's national colours.

We decided then to do a quick trip up to my place (cleaned again with an inch of its life, lol) so that Nina could report back to various family members that she had seen it. Both she and Violet were very impressed with not only the size of the place but of course the view. They could see the memorial where we had been, the cruise ship and then the Cathedral which was our next port of call at their request.

The Cathedral of St Francis Xavier is the Roman Catholic Cathedreal in Geraldton and not only is it a significant landmark, but is part of the legacy of Monsignor Hawes, who built it and numerous other churches and priest homes in the region. John Hawes was born in London in 1876 to a devout Anglican family. He trained as an architect and became a deacon in the Anglican church before converting to Catholicism and becoming a priest. The Bishop of Geraldton met with Hawes in Rome and invited him to build the Cathedral in Geraldton, Hawes arriving in 1915. The Cathedral was begun in 1916, opened for worship three years later and finally completed with its dome in place in 1938. Hawes influence in architecture were the churches of Rome at the time, so the Cathedral and subsequent buildings that he designed are very mediteranean in style.

Inside Cathedral with orange arches

Once again, we were met by a guide as we arrived at the Cathedral and we sat down in a pew while given a potted history of Hawes and the Church. I have been to the Cathderal several times for various services and it was great to hear the background of the place. There are several large pillars down the side of the Cathedral inside, made of marble and on the back of each pillar is the name of various sheep/cattle stations that were owned by Catholic families who donated funds to build the Cathedral. At the time it was built, wool was selling for a pound (money) a pound (weight) and donations were substantial. There is a statue of St Peter along the right hand side wall inside the main door which was a replica of the statue in the Vatican in Rome. The most unusual feature of the Cathedral is the paintwork. Above each archway (and there are numerous) the stones featured inside the arch are painted alternatively white and orange giving the nickname the bumblebee church. As the guide said, originally the colour would have been terracotta but in an update in the days before test pots and the likes of Bunnings in town, paint was ordered and was more orange than expected. The highlight for me was the crypt, located to the right of the main alter and underneath the Cathedral, where the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows is situated, which is reminescent of the catacombs of Rome (Poem in Stone, pamphlet about the Cathedral). Housed downstairs in the crypt are relics of the Cathedral displayed in alcoves behind glass such as original communion vessels, Bishop's regalia, and accoutrements, statues, linen, and in one instance a scale sized diorama of Jesus in the tomb at Gesthemone.

Our Lady of Sorrows Chapel in the crypt.

Unfortunately for Monsignor Hawes, the Bishop who bought him to Australia died and the next Bishop did not share the same vision and in fact did not like Hawes at all, sending him out to Mullewa to work, where he built the Lady of Mount Carmel Church and priest's house, and closer to home (for me), St Mary's Convent and the Christian Brothers Agricultural School at Tardun, where I first began my time in WA, so for me there has been an affinity for his work from the start. There are many who say that the Lady of Mount Carmel Church was his finest work and closest to his heart from when he lived and worked there. There are 15 other buildings he undertook to design and build which are now part of the Monsignor Hawes heritage trail from Carnamah to Carnarvon and out to Yalgoo. Hawes left for the Bahamas in 1939 and lived as Franciscan hermit on Cat Island until he died in 1956.

By now we were all feeling a mite peckish, so decided to head to town for lunch. As we looked for somewhere to eat in the main street and along the waterfront, I realised that Geraldton has not been hit with the whole cafe society lifestyle and that most of the eateries here are licensed premises with the exception of maybe two or three small eateries. All appeared full as we drove and walked about the place so we decided to head to the Camel Bar, a favourite from Tardun days and we were not disappointed. It seemed that there were only locals there for lunch and there were plenty of spare tables. Jude and I both had calamari salad that was fresh and the calamari melted in your mouth coated lightly in a tempura batter. Nina and Violet had bruchetta as they were due to have dinner back on board with all the trimmings. We had enough time to head to the post office for stamps, the chemist for some vitamin D tablets for Violet and the Vistors Bureau for some local postcards before we dropped Nina and Violet back to the wharf to catch their ride back to the ship. As it happened, one of the ladies at the tourist bureau was one who Jude had met that morning and before we left, they had arranged that the woman would drop some plants of for Jude at my place the next morning at 8.15am!! I have now have wild flower - everlasting daisies - growing in my garden amongst the other recent plantings of lavender.

I have to say it felt like I had been on a bit of an adventure after all our touristing and Jude and I decided, that as it was so easy, we would plan to see further places near and around Geraldton on our days off that co-incide. There had been three options for tours when the ship came in that Nina and Violet did not do, - all places Jude and I both wanted to see so on Sunday as we had the time, we decided to head out to see one of them. As it happened, Janet had come round for a coffee so she came with us to, to go visit Oakabella Homestead, said to be WA's most haunted location. However, more about that in my next posting as I will try to do photos in that too.

On the Thursday evening after our day out, I had been invited to dinner where my favourite little lad from work was visiting for a sleepover with another ex resident now in foster care. It was a delightful evening with lots of laughs. My little lad asked if I would put him to bed like I had done at work which was one of those awwwww moments. We had this routine where I would say "night, night, sleep tight, sweet dreams and happy thoughts" and he would say it along with me. It became a bit of a mantra when he felt scared sometimes and couldn't sleep and I had to teach him what a happy thought was. He came up and gave me a big hug before hopping into his sleeping bag (the boys were camping on the floor on mattresses in the lounge) and whispered the words as I said them which bought tears to my friend's eyes. When my friend came round for coffee the next morning he came too and went from room to room in awe around the house. He wanted to play with the pup tent I used to take to work, so we set it up in one of my spare bedrooms, and found a sleeping bag and pillow for him so he could play camping.

I have continued in the garden, hacking away at plants that have spread too far, pulling old dead vines of wire trellis, nearly having a heart attack when two different locusts flew out of the leaves - loud squeals each time as I was taken by surprise especially as the first one was a brown locust looking similar to a weta (NZ insect) that I am terrified of. I came across some other insect yesterday that actually went to stand on its hind legs as I approached - some sort of beetle I think. I had a similar one in the house recently and was told it was harmless ........ I was thinking maybe I should carry a can of fly spray with me while outside as protection, lol. I have planted spinach, capscicums, runner beans and herbs in the past week and they are all growing, yay. Have added mulch to the sandy soil and with all the rain we are having it seems to be doing the trick in helping the seedlings take off.

Will now sort photos for next post about Oakabella Homestead. :):)

All in all, its just another Brick in the wall ....... 225 more sleeps :)

2011-07-10T10:49:00.001+08:00

Ok, so never say never! I swore after seeing Bob Dylan at Vectra Stadium in Auckland that I would never go there to see another show, ever. I thought it a loathsome venue and bemoaned the greenies or whoever else had worked to ban concerts from the outdoors Western Springs Stadium which in my opinion, is the icon venue for a serious rock concert in Auckland. There is something not right about being seated when you need to rock the night away, lol. The issue with the Bob Dylan concert was that although he remained brilliant, when you are seated the next city away up in the gods, it was a) difficult to pick him out on stage, and b) I go back to being seated - ick. Since that concert, other family members have seen Steely Dan, (great comments about that concert and I believe a return match for their next tour) and the Wiggles (yup, we start em young in our family, lol) - again with good comments. So, it is with trepidation that I am bypassing, Perth and Sydney, to go home in Jan/Feb to see Roger Waters doing "The Wall" Live. The reason I changed my mind about the venue is because I will not be going on my own (with a cast of thousands, lol) but will be going with No 1 and 2 sons, No 2 daughter in law, brother, brother in law and nephew, which will be a total buzz. My boys and I saw David Gilmore (Pink Floyd, for those playing at home) in the "Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour",   at Western Springs in 1988 and Roger Waters (also from Pink Floyd) on his "Shine on You Crazy Diamond Tour", with various family members at a stadium on the North Shore in Januaray 07, so this will be the hat trick. Nothing like a Pink Floyd moment to galvanise the family into action which started with a phone call from No 2 daughter in law last Thursday and after four hours on phones, skype and email, tickets were booked, woohoo.

The bonus from all this is that I will be in NZ for my birthday, No 2 son's birthday, and No 2 grandson's 3rd birthday which will be the first one I will have been able to attend of his. During the phone around the other day, I spoke to said grandson who can say, hello Nana, Australia, lol and then there was something about a tray as he went to the kitchen.   Oh, that I have lived long enough for No 2 son to have a son, (I think I have mentioned this before). Apparently in time out moments when sent to his room, No 2 grandson has pulled over a set of drawers onto himself, removed a lightbulb from his lamp and put his finger in the socket getting a shock, and got stuck under his bed instead of being in it asleep like his mother thought he was!   I recall a particular episode with No 2 son in bed with a soldering iron fixing a turntable (as you do). I was in the next room making my bed when there was a bang and a blue flash of light as he touched the wrong thing with the soldering iron and blew fuses - mine included, lol. Words were said, say no more. I also spoke to No 1 son and grandson. No1 grandson was taking photos with the digital camera I gave him, of his teddy and other toys as he was wanting to draw a cartoon of some super hero, and I think he was using the photos for inspiration. We had a great catch up. He is in the choir at school so we were both singing over the phone one of the songs he is doing, then a song from his Kapa Haka group. He tells me he is in a talent quest at school with some of his mates also. He is still swimming, (Karori has a warm swimming pool in the complex there) and doing well in that so all is good in his world.

It is truely winter. We are down to temperatures of single digits. I wore 5 layers to work the other morning and am sitting here at the moment with 4 layers, ug boots on plus the heater going at warp speed. I had a ring from friend Donna this morning who reminded me I was on afternoon shift today. Bugger, somewhere from yesterday to this morning it was firmly fixed in my mind I was doing night shift. I was midst playing bejewelled or some other such game on the laptop and instead of hours lying out before me, I had just 1 1/2 hrs to go to work. Was just about to leap into shower when got multi texts from the Gerard to see if I could go round to theirs and get some paper work for a colleague to pick up. No worries. A lightening shower and 3 layers later (the sun was out and it was almost warm) I shot round to theirs (the family is in Perth for the weekend) and tried to find the paperwork. It was not on the kitchen bench so ph calls ensued. After detailing every piece of paperwork on bench, on table, it was finally decided it might be on bedroom table and bingo. Leaving paperwork in power box (it was with a great deal of nervousness I did that in case somehow it caught fire) I shot back home again only to get in the door prior to heading off to work, when the phone rang to ask if I would mind changing to night shift as someone else was sick. Go, the universe!!! how good was that, lol.

As it was beautifully warm outside (by now), I decided to give the gardens a water. The plants transferred two weekends ago are starting to thrive so am spending some time in nurturing them. Have put extra mulch type materials around them as the dirt here is mostly sand if that makes sense. Even though we had enough rain to launch the ark last week, the ground is already dry again. I have more stuff to plant and hopefully will get it done this weekend if it stays warm and fine.

The ex workmate's family have gone to Perth to watch the Eagles (WA team) play Geelong (Victoria) who the family back. Geelong lost their first game in six weeks last week and lost again tonight by the narrowest of margins (8 pts). This is huge as last year the Eagles were bottom of the ladder or thereabouts, and young Hayden barely coped with his team losing last weekend. To go all the way to Perth to watch the game to see their team defeated will be killing them. Jude and I watched it from the warmth and comfort of our lounge and sent appropriate txts after the game. I said ouch, and Jude being a staunch WA Eagles backer sent - go the Eagles, lol. The game is a complete upset and will send shockwaves through the AFL world so will be interesting to read the weekend papers.

Work continues to be a rollercoaster. We peaked with 14 kids in house during the week and have dropped by three since then. The washing machine and dryer are going not quite 24 hours a day but not far behind as there is no one above 6 yrs at the moment and 3 babies. I signed my full time contract on Thursday so that is a great relief. I was in at the office and two different people told me I should go into there to work, one being the head honcho which took me by surprise. I declined saying I was more than happy where I was and felt I could make more of a difference there than from being a social worker in town. I am not sure that that was the response either expected.

Sunday
224 sleeps left to go :)

Was in the midst of waxing lyrical when I glanced at the time on my computer and realised I had 8 mins to get to work on time, oops and a thank goodness I could just pick up bag and run. Left in ug boots grabbing shoes on the way out and made it four mins late thanks to travelling behind a ute that was also speeding  in front of me, all the way to work. As it was 23.37 when I noticed the time I did not have too much worry about being nabbed by the cops but did keep a weather eye out just in case.

Speaking of weather, have woken up at the crack of 8. 48 to drizzle after an almost magnificent day yesterday. So much so, I forewent the heater mid-morning and went outside to hack about in the garden again, trimming back a succulent that has triffid forebears. I recall hacking it back three months ago and it grew back with a vengence and covers way too much of where I want to plant vegetables. It is always with caution I garden, just in case there may be a poisonous insect or two lurking about but so far so good. There was one spider web without spider higher up that look fairly innocuous and I knocked it away with a stick anyway so that spider is now homeless. Awhile ago now, in preparation for planting, I bought this instant garden coir mulch slab thingie. It is maybe 1.5 metre in length and a foot in width (notice how I move from metric to imperial measure with ease, lol) in width, with cup sized holes placed strategically in a plastic wrap. The idea is, that you water the coir mulch through the holes, then put your plants in the moistened mulch, water again and hey presto, instant garden that comes with its own nutrients. I will give it a go, as it cannot be worse than trying to grow vegetables in the mainly sand soil that I have to contend with. Am building up other gardens with blocks of similar mulch material so that the new plants I have put in have a better chance of surviving next summer.

Forgot to mention earlier that I was watching Master Chef on tv last Thursday, and got there after the show started to see the were doing a NZ segment. They had the NZ master chef judge over showing how to cook a venison dish, then they did a segment with two winners of a previous challenge on safari in Wellington in trying out different restaurants in Cuba Street (where niece of http://HungryandFrozen blog fame lives ). They went for Floraditas and then to Mothers Kitchen (have been there and had kumara chips with bluevein cheese dressing, to die for), then a stint at the Royal Yacht club from memory. Had a little oooooooh moment when I saw it all. Hello Wellington :).
Last night on an impulse moment I went to the movies. Friend Donna had her new foster lad doing a sleepover at a friends so rang to see if I wanted to go grab something to eat and go see "Bridesmaids". As my diary had a blank space, heh, heh, I said yes. We tried a local Thai restaurant just opposite the picture theatre and chose several entrees all served at once which was quick and light. I had seen interviews on "Ellen", "The View", "Letterman" and "Sunrise" over the past weeks with various actresses as part of the hype around the release of the movie and I am pleased to report, the movie is everything that has been said about it and did not disappoint. It was a laugh from start to finish and is possibly going to become the new must see in chick films, though the men (on tv) who have seen it also said they found it very funny too. Will not give too much away but the title says it all and it is the bridezilla of bridesmaids stories, mixed in with the lifelong friendship between bride and matron of honour. Go see it. Unfortunately Donna did not switch of her cell ph and not long after the movie began, just as she was going to turn it off, it rang in her hand. Said child was not settling. She moved out of the theatre, gave some instructions and returned but less than 20 mins later she got another call and had to go pick him up. I was able to remain to watch the movie as after picking up the child she returned just as movie ended and dropped me off back home. These things are sent to try us :).

Have just had a call from Jude and it is raining in Dongara as well so looks like a day of chilling back, catching up on some correspondence, maybe I will break out and do some baking, or sort some photos, or ......... too many choices, lol. It is the final of Dancing with the Stars tonight so will be glued to the telly to watch that. It has been an interesting season with a new judge and lots of controversial comments so anything could happen tonight. My nose is streaming and have an irritating cough so am going to dose up on cold and flu meds to ward off the dreaded lurgy. Lots of staff have colds at work which has not impressed me in the slightest as I will not be well pleased if I succumb from catching their bugs. At least with the rain, the temperature has risen so may get away with 4 instead of 5 layers today :):).

From my lips to Gods ears!

2011-07-08T08:51:00.000+08:00

Or beware what you wish for..... I drove home last night having a chuckle to myself after a crazy week at work. A fortnight ago when we had no kids and were knee deep in cleaning, several of us bemoaned the fact. I did mention that we should wait till the next full moon, and bingo, no sooner said than we had two on our doorstep. Then the two left and nine arrived, (mentioned in last posting ). I got to work yesterday to find four of the nine were moving on but before they left at 4.30pm we had two new little folk delivered. Talk about a one armed paper hanger, it was so crazy for one hour with so many comings and goings (staff changeover and after school) one lot were forgotten in the school pick up run (until phone call from school, -ooops, red faces). It was like army manouvers for the rest of the shift. Children delivered to new carer (the four), baths and showers run for seven, and dinner on the table with everyone in their pyjamas just before 6pm, and everyone in bed and mostly asleep by 7.30pm. My boarding school experience has not gone amiss, lol. I have cooked dinner the last two nights, good old cottage pie (mince with potatoe topping and lamb stew last night with mashed potatoe and pumpkin, carrots, onions and peas in the stew mix. I made a baked lemon pudding the night before but last night settled for ice cream cones (mostly one scoop) dipped in sprinkles and chocolate hail which was a little easier to manage.

Have had fun with my car over the past few weeks. As I went to leave work after several night shifts in a row, I noticed oil on the grill of my car and my heart just sunk completely as I mentally ticked off blown head gasket, maybe worse. With a deal of trepidation, I lifted the bonnet and was utterly gobsmacked to see the oil cap off the motor, wedged in on the top of the radiator. Also when I went to check the oil level, there was no dip stick!!!! What was worse, I had driven around for over a week since the last visit to the service station!!!!. I drove very slowly about 2 k up the road to the servo where I had got petrol and oil the week before and went to have a chat about getting more oil etc receiving a wonderful response from the owner. The woman apologised profusely and said I had to leave the car their to have the motor steam cleaned, new oil top up and get a new dip stick. As I was heading home from work, she offered me her car to drive home and then her mechanic would deliver mine once work was completed and conversely, pick hers up. She said in all the years she had worked in the service station she had never lent her car to anyone but I looked like a trustworthy person. I guess there are some compensations for reaching nana looks, lol. Anyhoo, that is what happened and at no extra cost to myself. By working back to my last visit, I remembered two people had been involved checking my oil and putting petrol in so somehow in that mix, the oil cap did not get put back on properly and heavens only knows what happened to the dip stick.

But wait, there is more. I zoomed over to work Wednesday early as we had a staff meeting before I started work proper. I parked the car and it wasn't until nearly 6 hours later when I went to get something out of the car, I realised I had knocked the lights on, and therefore had flattened the battery. Fortunately I had my trusty jumper leads in the car and got jump started from co-workers car at the end of shift. Now, you would think a 15 minute drive home would be enough to charge the battery, but when I went to go to work yesterday afternoon, the car made a feeble sound as it tried to turn over and no zoom zoom that I wanted to hear. Fortunately (again), this time Jude had just driven in from work so managed to get a jump start from her. This was however, after I had tried reversing down the one in one gradient that is my drive to jump start from in gear, except I misjudged where I was on the driveway and ended up too close to a wall to straigten up and with the rear wheel stopped by a couple of rocks on the side of the drive way. I had started off by leaving 5 mins early for work and ended up by being 10 mins late. I am happy to report that driving to work during the day, with no need for heater or air con, and no lights, this time the battery was charged once I reached work.

I have had two phone calls now from my special little lad who has moved on to other carers. I had rung the carer during the day to arrange a suitable time after playing phone tag a couple of times. He was very impressed with my tale of breaking down in friends care and being towed. He seems to have settled in ok and I hope to have a quick visit one afternoon next week. The carer got on the ph after the lad and I had spoken and said when she told him I was ringing that evening, he said "I know, I had a dream last night that Lynn was ringing today". One of those awwww moments. The second one was when there was a silence as we were saying goodbye and then he said, I am sending you a cuddle. Awww again, lol.

Due to extra children with a baby in the hospital now under our care, I got asked to come in for an extra shift tonight (11.45pm - 8am). I had just caught up with Jude as she got in the door from work when the phone rang from the ex workmates to say youngest son Hayden was getting confirmed at the Cathedral at 6pm and would Jude and I like to go. Help, there was my sleep time going out the window. I managed a doze between 2.30pm - 5pm and am still awake 12 hours later. It felt like a Tardun moment being in church on a Friday night and then back to the ex workmates for something to eat afterwards. In one of those, you are now in another generation moments, Jude and I both commented on what the young girls wore for their confirmation as they were mostly in black and clothes that wouldn't have gone amiss in a nightclub if only they were 10 years older. Only one girl was in white dress - a far cry when at a similar age (12 yrs old) you absolutely wore a white dress for confirmation and if I remember correctly, a blue type of veil over our hair. Hayden was very pleased we were there and Jude and I both got big hugs. After a snack type repast and a coffee we departed between two torrential downpours. We have had several more and had to drive to work in one. There was so much water on the road, I nearly aquaplaned coming along the water front. All I can say to that is rock on wild flower season.

Pinch yourselves :)

2011-06-22T12:09:00.001+08:00

Am just skiting as I am actually writing this without a six month gap from the last post. Some may need smelling salts to cope, lol. Have I said I love this time of the year in WA. Today is the shortest day of the year, so I am thinking its seriously winter time. However, I have just come in from gardening outside in 22 degrees sunshine. Towels are on the line moving in the breeze, what more could you want.

I'm feeling that I am due for another house inspection next month so have started on the outside to get things in shape. I have taken weeds out of back paved area, pruned the rosemary bush in the garden, and hacked back at a vine that has totally covered a hibiscus. I left it alone during summer as it was laden with flowers and honey bees (doing my bit for nature, lol)but as it also grew over vine that had died the year before, this is a serious trim. I have become enthused as there is an organic rubbish collection happening this week in our area. I have lugged the broken branches from the gum tree (mentioned earlier this year in a post re storm damage) down the hill so they can finally get taken away. I bought some veg plants last weekend and some small lavenders with a couple of native bushy things to replace some of the plants that died during the hottest summer for a gazillion years. At this stage I have some days off over the weekend so will get them planted then.

The news is on as I type this and mother nature is causing havoc again/still. The airways around Australia, Tasmania and NZ (I believe) are shut down due to volcanic ash from the volcano in Chile. It has been affecting flights for over two weeks now and is costing millions of $ a day. They are saying as of today Qantas have 50,000 people disrupted right now. There has not been one state over here that has not been affected. Makes me glad I had no trips planned at this time of the year.

Just when I thought things were settled with my new roster, hello, it got tipped upside down this week, (but if I had declined the changes it would not have happened). In the 'be careful what you wish for' mode, after languishing for over a week with no children, we got five on Friday from one family and another four (different family) yesterday. When I went in and saw 9 names on the board, I just stood and laughed shaking my head at the same time. Fortunately, both groups get on like a house on fire so it is looking good for the next week. Both groups are in on respite care to give their carers a break so although there has been some trauma in their lives, they are reasonably settled at the moment and are a dream to look after, after a couple of our other reprobates. The saddest case among them is a 6 yr old lad who repeatedly hits himself in the head, calling himself stupid and saying he wants to die. He has had a couple of melt downs and threw a massive hissy fit on me on Sunday night. He had another one yesterday at school and went to start when he got back to us, so just took him aside and held him, talking calmly until he relaxed and was ready to talk. He thinks he is fat, ugly and stupid - and I repeat again - this is a 6 yr old.

Went out to lunch yesterday and sat in the sun and nearly got too hot, lol. Several of the Tardun crew caught up to celebrate Janet's birthday at Dome. We sat inside one of the windows facing the harbour where the tugs were working non stop bringing in boats with about 5 more on the horizon in park mode. I cannot seem to get past salt and pepper squid salad when I go there and yesterday mine was delicious.

Back on the home front, and in preparation for the house inspection, I steam cleaned two floors the other day. I have succumbed to advertising on the tv and bought one of those steam mops that can be altered to a hand held cleaning tool in bathrooms etc. It came with free postage, and a vacuum cleaner as well so a veritable bargain, lol. I put it all together and gave it a road test on the sunporch vinyl floor and then the wooden floor in the lounge and kitchen. I am sitting here fairly dazzled by how clean and shiny the lounge floor looks. Both vacuum and steam cleaner were smaller than I expected, but on first go, both seem to do the job required. Both cleaners are bright lime green in colour but have no problems with any clash in colours with other equipment, lol. I have been looking at the ads on tv for ages and ages wondering how these things worked and what finally sold me was using a steam cleaner on floors at work. That steam cleaner was bigger and heavier and I think mine is much more user friendly, but I could not believe what a difference to cleaning the floor it made. I like the fact that germs cannot live where it has been steamed as it is extremely hot where it comes out. Am going to give the tiles in the "pool room" a go on the weekend. The hand held bit also cleans windows, and will steam clean furniture, bedding, and clothing so there are any amount of possibilities to work through.

Midst all this bliss of warm weather during the day, we have had two wet days, of course the second day was not long after I had put washing on the line. As I do not have a dryer, wet days are not my favourite but I have to remember that the farmers need it and are rubbing their hands as it falls just after seeding. All indicators are this will be a magic wildflower season, woohoo. Cannot wait and hopefully will get out to photograph heaps.

The other wet day was last Saturday. I had been to netball in the morning to take one of our young lasses to play, and then after some baking, and a small $400 shop for groceries (only two baskets and we usually have four), we decided to take the kids back into town to spend their pocket money and to go for a play along the foreshore. All went well but we had only been at the foreshore for about 45 mins when down the rain came in bucket loads. An executive decision was made and we headed to the the new Maccas to get the kids an ice cream and the chance to use the playground there (indoors). Naturally my co-worker and I had to have a coffee to while away the time, lol. Not only did it warm us up but it was a purely altruistic moment as $1 from every coffee sold on the Grand Opening day that it was, was going to the local rural fire brigade ( a regualar Tui's moment I hear the NZ mob say - yeah right, lol). Caught up with Gerard briefly and he said the opening had gone really well and they were flat out. They are doing beyond expectations and though he is exhausted, he is quietly rapt as well.

Just looking at the time, I have 20 mins to shower dress and get to work for a staff meeting and afternoon shift so will dash. Catch you again soon :) This is being posted in the first instance unedited so please excuse any glaring mistakes :):)

It's Been Awhile !!!

2011-06-13T02:56:00.002+08:00

Ok, this is about the sixth time I have started a post since the last time I wrote. Life has tended to get in the road somewhat, which is a bit of an exciting change from merely being busy at work, although there has been that too. Last post was written as I arrived in NZ and rather go back to day by day happenings I will cover it by saying I had the best time catching up with family and friends, the icing on the cake - spending time with No 1 and 2 grandsons. I realised it was not a year since I had been home but nearly 16 months so spending quite a bit of time with No 2 grandson now 2yrs old was especially important to me. After saying "Nana. car" numerous times when I arrived, he eyed me up for about half an hour before deciding we were going to be mates. After that it was Nana come, repeatedly, for a variety of requests. Everyone should live long enough to have grandchildren heh, heh. It is such delicious payback, lol as you see your own children manage mini them (if that makes sense). No 2 son was a child of definite likes and dislikes and could often not be budged when he decided he did not like something or someone. Stubborn was not strong enough to describe him - bloody minded is not quite right either but somewhere between maybe (and yes the irony is not lost on me either, lol). I remember bemoaning the fact one day to my mum and she responded with - what you see as stubborn now will mean he has backbone as an adult ...... I had to smile several times as No 2 grandson exhibited similar tendencies. In saying that, he is a dear little boy and we had lots of fun. Best day was going to the zoo, and I was very impressed as he knew most of the animals and the sounds they make but the highlight for the lad was seeing a front loader mini tractor scraping the mud out of the empty hippopotamus pool. He us such a boy!

Had a great day with the No 1 grandson when we went to the Auckland War Memorial Museum - a favourite place of mine since I first visited it at 5 yrs old on a school trip. It was a bit of a gob smack to be charged to get in although as a rate payer I did not have to pay for myself, just the Wellingtonians. I do not mind paying if there is a special exhibition being held in a museum such as the Pompeii exhibition I saw in Wellington 2 yrs ago, but on principal, I think museums should be accessible to all. Moving on from that though, there were many old friends to see - the Egyptian mummy that fascinated the grandson, and Rajah the elephant who has been there for at least 50 yrs. I too have always been drawn to things Egyptian and have to say thought Rajah must have had a bit of work done on him as he looked in reasonably good nick rather than the slightly moth eaten looking exhibit I remember. The museum appears to have gone all trendy and is now themed in different areas instead of rows of display cases which I liked in parts and not in others. The dinosaur area with huge moas was impressive another part which the grandson and I enjoyed together.

Driving on the Auckland motorway remained a nerve wracking experience, and just had to steel myself to do it. There are new on and off ramps all over the place and I guess the good thing about peak hour traffic was that driving between 20 - 40k in central Auckland motorway area, I could get myself in the right lane with only a couple of grey hairs sprouting each time. The price of petrol was the biggest shock - $2.18 from memory as to the $1.47 over here.

The time passed all too quickly and it was back to Geraldton again. Due to time constraints and family gatherings I did not catch up with as many friends as I would have liked to but could not fit everything in. I arrived back here on a Friday morning around 8.30am and did two 12 days at work Sat and Sun so it was like I had not been away, lol. I arrived back to lots of changes which I knew were coming before I left. One little lad left our care two days after I got back and since then another 3 have moved on, leaving us with no children in the house at present. The first week I was back at work I was offered a full time position which I have accepted which is a huge YAY. On a 12 week revolving roster I will average 75 hours a fortnight which is about 20 hours less than I am used to. My pay will drop somewhat due to the drop in hours and loss of penalty rates but on the upside, I get 7 weeks holidays (PAID) a year, will get sick pay and my hours are guaranteed whether there are children in or not. At the same time I have become the Health and Safety rep which will involve some training so another few lines on the CV. The first two weeks back I did several 12 hour days as I was asked to work with one particular lad supporting him through a medical procedure and his recuperation over the following week, then again during the week after that as we transitioned him into his new home. He and I had formed a bond over the past year which had been recognised and supported by work and I am pleased to say, he appears settled and happy with his new carers. We have had great feedback about the four who have moved on, that they have all settled well with their new carers/extended families so I feel a real sense of achievement in being part of their growth from when they arrived in care with us. I do have to say, it is weird being at work with no kids, however the place has been cleaned from top to toe and all those jobs that get saved for a rainy day have been tackled. New gardens have been put in, painters have come in to refresh rooms and all cupboards have been sorted.

Having started my new roster, even though I worked more hours the first fortnight, I have had several days off - woohoo and can now plan for future events with ease. I have visited friends, attended a day long scrap booking workshop, been to watch the ex-workmates youngest son play footie twice, been out to dinner twice, have 2 discs to go, to catch up on the entire "Glee" seasons 1 & 2, finally seen "The King's Speech" (twice, lol) , and kept the ex-workmates eldest daughter company last week post having her tonsils out. This is in between catching up on all my ironing and starting to organise ALL my photos, scrap booking and craft gear, and getting all my family history bits and pieces in order to update on my computer. I have been off the wires over the past two weeks as I have worked numerous night shifts therefore have been catching up on sleep during the day. I head into more afternoon and morning shifts this next fortnight so hopefully the drought of postings will now be a thing of the past.

Big excitement this last week for the ex-workmates family has been the opening of the second McDonald's in Geraldton as Gerard (husband of ex-workmate) is the manager of this new enterprise. They opened on Friday morning and have had the busiest weekend beyond all expectations and this is without a word of advertising - they just opened for business thinking the weekend would be a run through for the grand opening this coming weekend. Their first customers were a bus load (61) of children on a trip somewhere. This all happened a week after Gerard's 40th birthday so it has been an intense time for them.

Have had two vehicle incidents in the last two days, one of which I am grateful to be alive from. Had taken three of the ex workmates kids down to the new Maccas - one to work, two for supplies, and we were on our way back to their place when these two huge wide loads were coming towards us on the other side of the road, with a cop car in the lead. I believe what was being transported was the trays for those huge trucks that work in the mines. Anyhoo, there were two of them with a third of each of these loads hanging over both sides of the truck carrying them, taking up the entire two lanes on the opposite side of the road from us. We watched in almost morbid fascination as the first truck came towards us as it looked like the tray could easily tip off either side. As it came nearer I noticed the car in front of me move to the outer lane on our side of the road and it was only as the vehicles came that little bit closer that I realised the tray they carried was above car height in the front but if I stayed where I was, we would be opened like a can of sardines by the back of the tray which dropped down over the back of the truck. Fortunately the truck behind me in the outer lane must have understood the predicament earlier than me, and I was able to swerve my car into a gap in front of him just as the tray on the first vehicle started to pass over us. Hayden who was sitting behind me had just started to move to the other side of the car when I moved and we all just sat there dumbfounded as the second truck passed by us, at how lucky we were that I had moved the car in time. Heaven knows why on earth they were being moved in the middle of the day on a Saturday when there was heaps of other traffic on the road!!!! Not impressed.

The second vehicle incident occurred today. I went with the ex-workmate and boys to North Hampton to watch Hayden play footie. North Hampton is about 45 min north of Geraldton. Although Hayden's team lost, he got a choc bar for improved and consistent play for the match so it was a good game to watch. We expected to be back in Geraldton by lunchtime but about 5k out of town all the dashboard lights came on so we stopped on the side of the road and looked in the car manual to see what they all meant. The oil light, break light, air filter light came on so lifted the hood and had a look. I checked the oil and that was ok, the air filter was oily but couldn't get it out to check properly and was going to check the water level in the battery but there were two of then and neither had plugs that you could open to add water to. (Such is the advent of a more modern motor than I have ever owned, lol). Because the manual said re one particular light - if this comes on ring the Toyota manufacturer immediately Bronwyn did not think it wise to start the car again. Just to make sure we rang RAC (the equivalent of our automobile association) and they reiterated that we should not move. To that end, they sent out a tow truck from North Hampton and we were winched onto the back of the truck and then transported back to Geraldton so we entered back in style, lol. We got dropped off at the garage where they get their car serviced which fortunately was across the road from the new Maccas where we went to get lunch and borrow another friends car to get back to our respective homes. Not how I had planned to spend the day but it felt like an adventure and we had lots of laughs. I came back home to pick up my car and took chops and sausages back round to barbeque for tea.

Going to North Hampton made me realise how long it has been since I have been anywhere near familiar countryside with views of the hills that are on the way to Tardun. It made me feel homesick for Tarden and the drives about the place we used to do. With a good amount of rain we have had lately, the countryside has greened up and the crops are growing. I am thinking I need to do some more trips out into the countryside again especially as the wild flower season starts at the end of next month. I think we may have to organise a campfire before the winter is over too, as in talking with other ex Tardun mob, we all miss it still. Watch this space, lol.

Since coming back from NZ, the Royal Wedding has been and gone, Oprah has done her last show, the space shuttle has gone into space for the last time, and in keeping with the theme of 2011 there have been some more major disasters from tornado's, flooding, earthquakes and landslides around the world. I watched the wedding from beginning to end and loved the spectacle of it all. I never got to Westminster Abby when I was in London but have stood across the road from Buckingham Palace as throngs of people were arriving for one of the Queen's garden party's. It is always a buzz for me seeing places I have actually visited. I thought Oprah's last show was quite moving in places and what an impact she has had on people's lives over the past 25 yrs, the causes she has backed, the people she has introduced us to, the books, the movies etc etc. I have to say, I felt a sense of sadness when I heard that this was the last time the space shuttle was going to be launched. I remember sitting outside on the quadrangle at school (in Yr 10) listening to the moon landing being broadcast on speakers so we could all hear as history was being made.

Winter has begun with temperatures dropping as low as 5 degrees Celsius last week but have bounced back to 22 degrees today which is much more tolerable. I have not succumbed to putting the heater on yet (have to dig around to find it, lol) as on the coldest night I was working hence air con on full tilt there, but do resemble the Michelin man at home somewhat as I dress in multi layers to keep warm. I have taken to curling up on the couch on sunny afternoons out in the sun porch which is perfect place to read while soaking up any sun available.

It is well past the witching hour so will close for now as I need to get some sleep :)

It's good to be back home again :)

2011-04-11T19:11:00.006+08:00

Yay, I am home again. Touched down this morning about 5.45am after an uneventful flight which is always a relief. I had no complaints flying Air New Zealand. Not only a thickish blanket but a small pillow as well which was great for keeping warm and sleeping. The meal was more than adequate - lamb casserole with mashed potato, sliced carrots and peas, ceasar salad, crackers and cheese and a slice of chocolate brownie type cake for dessert. I passed on the alcohol (I can hear people fainting all around the world, lol) as I wanted to get back here with a clear head, heh heh. I thought I would sleep all the way back but wouldn't you know it, was wide awake for good amount of time - must have been the diet coke before I got on the plane. So, not feeling like watching a movie, listening to music or playing games, I decided to read for awhile until I did eventually manage a zzz- probably three hours worth. I would have had more but bing bong, and the captain was saying we had 35 mins to go before landing and to get ready for same. I don't know why they give people so long. After all, all you have to do is return your seat to an upright position and fill out your entry card!!!. I had already done mine before I fell asleep so all I had to do was sit upright ..... and wait. I had ticked all the right boxes declaring the bar of chocolate as food that Jude had given me as I went out the door of her place mindful of those customs shows on TV where you can languish in customs for ages, getting a fine or worse. I was leaving the plane when I nearly had a stroke as I remembered the chocolate was fruit and nut, and I had declared on my form NO nuts in my possession. Fortunately the first customs person I met said she was only concerned if I had drugs or guns - did I? and when I said no, just fruit and nut chocolate after declaring no nuts, she said to go to the next counter and they would deal with that. It would seem nuts in a sealed packet encased in chocolate are not a major bio security hazard, thank heavens. I had one more mission to go and that was to buy an amount of alcohol for number 1 son and daughter in law by way of his belated birthday present, as they are enjoying making different cocktails now and then. There were specials abounding so got a ltr of kahlua, galiano and frangelica at a very good deal. That should keep them going for some time I am thinking. I had received a txt from Mum the minute we had landed and we alowed our phones on again, so by the time I had got all my bags through the final xray machine, I only had time to buy postcards for the kids back at work and get outside to the pick up area and she appeared. The first things I noticed on my return - how nice it was to hear a familiar Kia Ora from an airport staff person as we came off the plane. Outside the sky was full of cloud, with a bit of blue instead of being all blue with a bit of cloud if you lucky and it reminded me that New Zealand is not called Aoteoroa - Land of the Long White Cloud for nothing, lol. The next thing was seeing Pukekos (mudhens that are a darkblue colour with red legs and beaks ) foraging in grass alongside the road. The differences a year makes - there is a new motorway, which Mum somehow missed so we ended up on the old way home which bought us closer to home anyway returning onto the motorway at Takanini which suited me fine. What hasn't changed is the maniac traffic on the motorway which I do not miss at all. The other thing is all the hills and ranges in the distance in shades of blues, purples and greys. Western Australia is flat by comparison where I have been. Mum and I called in to see friend Deni on the way home to pick up my car which Deni had been looking after for me. Naturally a cup of coffee and catch up ensued and then Viv arrived so another coffee all round which was a wonderful welcome back indeed. Had already had txts from sister Kay and No2 daughter in law so all good. I eventually got into my car - barely knew it as it was so clean and tidy, and had to adjust to different driving style with change from Aussi car which is smaller. No embarressing stalls or bunny hops and a few adjustments to the seat and all was good. The next thing I noticed back at Mum's was the sound of birds. They are everywhere and it was so good to hear them. I get the odd magpie in the gum trees and a mudlark or two around the house in Oz but it has nothing of the birdlife that we do here. Of course it goes without saying that the countryside is GREEN as opposed to red dirt, and dry vegetation if any and cows, lots of cows, sleek looking dairy cows, woohoo. There has been major changes in Waiuku over the last year. The old four bowser Shell petrol station that had started life looking like one of those old fashioned country garages selling petrol in the movies,( before being slightly modernised in the 80's), has closed. The Caltex garage of a similar size has been demolished and on that location a brand new 8 pump, modern layout service station has been built (at a cost of about 3 million dollars). I will miss the Caltex garage as they still fully served you petrol there and Shell is self serve. I don't know why, I never had a problem filling up the ute from the petrol pump out at Tardun but when I go into a service station, I like to be served and am lucky there is a Caltex one back in Oz on the way to work that I have begun to frequent for that very reason. The afternoon I spent at a funeral which was also by way of a reunion with all the next door neighbours who had been asked to sing. The funeral was for the widow of one of Dad's fishing mates from when I was a child and a close family friend of the next door neighbours so I attended it with Mum. It is always interesting to hear the background stories at funeral's (I think) as I only knew this woman as the wife of one of Dad's friends as a child and as her son spoke there was so much more to her life which was a long and interesting one. It was a nice celebration of her life. I ended up singing with the six sisters and with two run throughs before the service began, it went well. We sang as folk put flowers/petals on the coffin in the hearse before it left to the crematorium. I knew many of the faces of people at the service from my much younger days, , but had forgotten names - I had one young woman come up to me and ask if I remembered her only to find out she was one of my girls from Johnston House days (boarding school in Hamilton which is much more recent). Caught up on the goss about some of the other girls in her year which was great. We then went back to the next door neighbours as Mum had forgotten to give them their birthday presents, had another cup of coffee and more catch up before returning to Mums. Was somewhat drooping by this time I have to say. Am staying at sister Kay's for the night and have a shopping expedition planned for tomorrow - looking forwards to that.

Perth Airport

2011-04-10T15:08:00.003+08:00

My bags are packed (tightly I might add) and I'm ready to go, I'm sitting here behind the doors.... of Perth airport, woohoo. Mybattery is running low so this may be a quick one. Spent yesterday morning trying to upload negatives of slides and gathering information for the Kariaotahi school reunion. Trawling through my precious things I actually came across an exercise book of Dad's when he was in Std 4, (Yr 6) in 1943. It was an anthology book of obscure poetry, used mainly for writing practice I am thinking. Good to know me and mine are not the only ones that had occassion to put b's and d's back to front in mini dyslexic moments. I also came across my school reports from primmers to Std 3 (Yr 1 - Yr 5) and on reading them through, I found I was above average in oral english, reading, vocab and some maths, was logical and had common sense, (most of them said that) but the overwhelming thread through each report (two a year) was that I was talkative, LOL, did not see that one coming at all heh heh.

Between all the above I stripped my bed and remade it, laundered everything in the house except what I stood up in, emptied and cleaned the fridge ( a jar of sundried tomatoes, olives, and butter remain apart from a host of condiments that will last until the second coming - well almost lol) watered the garden and swept the floor before finally packing at 3 pm before my bags were picked up at 4pm by Bronwyn. At the last minute I decided to get someone in to house sit as Jude is off to Perth this week and just felt better about having someone there to keep an eye on the place and to keep the garden's watered. Becks, who is house sitting was blown away from the view and the size of the place and loved it on sight. I told her she could play Goldilocks and have her choice of three beds - a double, a Queen (fittingly mine, heh heh) or the King size one left until Janet gets to pick it up. Becks is one of the Macca's crew and has house sat for Bron and Gerard so was happy to jump at the offer of some time on her own as she still lives at home.

After handing over the keys I then drove Gerard home and parked my car there as they are having it as a second car while I am away. I then caught a lift with the family down to Dongara to Jude's 65th birthday and had a lovely time. She like me has had friends she has grown up with and it was great to meet some of the people she has talked about and more of her family. It was also a mini Tardun reunion with a full turnout of those who were about and Colin (Janet's husband) played and sang for the music for the night. It was after dinner when people finally got up for a wriggle round the dance floor and it was great to see a heap of oldies (heh heh) on the dance floor with the grandchildren all busting their moves. Those who travelled left around 10 and those of us who stayed started cleaning the hall around 11pm. With another of Jude's friends who had bussed all the way down from Exmouth, I stayed at Jude's. She has a tiny one bedroomed flat but we pushed the table and lazy boys back and managed to fit a mattress on the floor (me) and a camp bed (Rhonda). I was so tired by then I could have slept on a board and not known the difference. I was rudely woken at 5 am when my phone alarm went off - playing the theme song to "The Rafters" on full volumn. I leapt (as much as one could in a tight space) to the table to turn it off and grabbed it to put it under my pillow only to hear it go off again 10 mins later on the delayed alarm. It would seem in my comatose state I had pressed off on the alarm but missed save . I thought having the phone completely switched off would have been enough but it would seem not, as I found out. I dozed on and off hearing Jude's Mum ring up at 7.30am to wish her Happy Birthday but missed Jude leaving to open the hall for breakfast. Speedily ablutioned and was repacked to go down to the hall by 9am to a barbequed breakfast done on the barbeques just outside the hall. This was along side the harbour with the tide in so a great start to the day.

Jude had arranged with her brother and sister in law to give me a lift to Perth and we were on our way by 10am, down the Brand Highway which was virtually empty. It was noticably light with traffic with the Coastal Highway now open. It made for good travelling time with only a few places slowed down by trucks. We passed through the turnoff to Eneabba where there were bush fires last year. It burnt on both sides of the road, which was closed for four days at the time. It was fascinating to see all the clumps of green grasses that have grown since interspersed with blackend remains of gumtrees and scrub. We stopped at a road house half way down to get some drinks and ice creams (them) and peanut brittle (me). Had a conversation with the shop assistant who commented it was an old fashioned toffee and to watch my teeth. I laughed and said, what the few I have left - I will lick it if I have to, lol. Coming into Perth it looked extremely dry as since Christmas there has been over 60 days with temps 30 celcius and above - another record. Ray and Kay showed me where their grand daughters go to school, which was hit by the Perth fires earlier in the year. Lots of the trees are gone and though there was smoke and water damage, the school survived .

I am now writing from the free internet in the airport as I had typed up a post only to lose the whole thing off my computer when it dropped out of internet - rude words, rude words. I only have a thread of battery left so all good. I was way to early so after typing my now defunct post, I decided to eat the peanut brittle - for energy of course and also so as not to be arrested by taking food through customs with nuts in it. I had picked the more peanut less toffee slab of brittle and it was somewhere after the third mouthful I felt something hard in my mouth and wouldn't you know it, (no not a tooth) but a great lump of filling. Damn and double damn, that will teach me for being so flippant. I am pleased to report that I am experiencing no pain except the anticipated pain in my wallet when it will cost something like $150 -$200 to repair , spit, snarl. I may hold out til return to
Australia as with medicare and health ins it will be much cheaper. Am back to seriously thinking about having the few working teeth I have left ripped out to be replaced by a Hollywood type set on gnashers instead..... watch this space.

I am now checked through with luggage. Arrived to find I had only packed 17k so took out my external hard drive from laptop case and squeezed my camera into the bag, now stretched to the seams but still only weighing 20k with 3k to spare. My laptop is under the 7k allowance but handbag probably takes up the slack, heh heh. I am now going for a wander through the shops before going through customs. I have a bottle of water to drink as you cannot take water through customs but you can take an empty bottle to fill the other side - I ask you, what is the deal on that. My bottle is still unsealed and whilst I am all for bio security this is just plain dumb. Anyhoo, will post and away, and next post will be from NZ, woohoo. :)

Insects and technology

2011-04-07T18:40:00.006+08:00

Following my experience with the bush cockroach that would not die of my last post (well, not quick enough, lol), I was on a mission. I was grocery shopping later in the week and purchased a can of flyspray that said on the label, "kill with one spray" - a label that filled my heart with joy. I did not have long to wait to use it. I was no sooner ensconced for the night, affixed to the couch in front of tv and laptop, when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, and a cockroach scurrying across the lounge floor. Checking that I had at least 2m of clear space between myself and the insect, I dashed to the cupboard under the sink, grabbed the new can of spray and gave it a blast, expecting that the sodding insect would flip over on its back, feet pointing to heaven, lying extremely still. Wrong. The damn thing ran backwards and forwards across the floor, with me up on top of the couch, blasting enough spray to knock out an elephant. Finally it shot round the back of the couch and disappeared, which meant I walked gingerly about until I went to unplug the laptop from the powerpoint at the side of the couch, and leapt a foot into the air when I espied the dead cockroach on the floor just below the power socket where the laptop was plugged into. One to me, heh heh. A day or so later, and another near miss of a heart attack when I came across another flipping cockroach. Once again I was ensconced on the couch, and feeling a bit peckish, I thought I would saunter out to the kitchen and nibble on a cold pork finger, as you do. As the only doors inside the house are on bedrooms, I had not turned on the light in the kitchen as there was enough light for a raid on the fridge where the pork fingers were resting. I had got one out and had taken a few bites when the rindy, fatty bit came away from the pork finger and fell on the floor. Using the 3 second rule I bent down to scoop it off the floor and eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek, (and there was a scream), it was lying next to a dead COCKROACH on the floor. I was in bare feet - I could have stood on it - arrrrrrrrrgh again. My instant reaction was to leap backwards with the remaining pork piece in my hand. and to jump back onto the couch until my heart rate dropped to a normal rate again. Damn and double damn, as those of you who know me well, know that I would never usually give up the crackling rind end of a piece of pork without a struggle!!!!. But wait,there is more ......... I did not venture back to the kitchen until next morning when it was the full light of day and said insect had been dead for at least 12 hours. Armed with a long handled broom and long handled shovel thingie, I sidled into the kitchen, swept the creature up and dropped it at arms length into the rubbish bin. Feeling a sense of relief I made breakfast and only realised a while later that there was NO pork rind on the floor ............ so what or who had dragged that off in the night ........ OMG what next. This was now war. I had suspected I had a mouse in the house a couple of weeks ago - I hadn't seen it but had come across what I thought was droppings along a ledge in the "pool room" but no other signs so wasn.t sure whether it was a current dweller or a dweller from the past. It just so happened that I was in Bunnings the following day and came across some plug in high frequency thingies that are meant to keep insects and vermin out of the house. I bought two, plus two new continuous spraying insect sprays to go with my death at one spray hand held can and am happy to report, no sight nor sign of an insect or vermin since. Shattered nerves are almost calmed though am still a little wary of wearing bare feet in the house, and have the place fully flood lit as I move about the place at night now just in case, heh heh. Had my three monthly house inspection on Tuesday and got home to find a note from the agent to say the house looked beautiful - may just frame that one, lol. I had mopped all the floors, tidied a few things and at long last gone through the kitchen cupboards putting them to rights. The biggest job was getting all my ironing up to date, which took several goes in the 30Celcius plus heat, and finishing off the back lawns with my handmower, in the same heat. I tackled both in stages early morning and late evening until all was done. I cleaned the stove two days before the inspection so when Jude stayed the night before, we decided to have pizza to leave the kitchen in its pristine state, lol. That and the fact I was knackered from the heat. I got a bloke in to mow the front lawn with its one and one gradient and have to say the whole place did look fantastic, if I say so myself. It is now four sleeps until I am back in NZ, woohoo. This is the longest I have ever been away from home in one stretch I think, ever, so am actually quietly excited about seeing everyone. I get to see sister Kay, Mum and friend Viv on a semi-regular basis on skype so no surprises there but it is a year since I have seen No 1 and 2 sons, wives and No 1 and 2 grandsons. I cant wait to have some Nana time with them both. No 1 son and family are coming to Auckland so the two cousins will get to catch up as well. I am thinking we might get in a trip to the zoo, the museum and maybe a ride on the ferry, (and that is just for me, lol), but have no fixed plans apart from the fact the boys and I will all be in Auckland at the same time. The other event apart from catching up with family and friends, is attending my primary school reunion. I went to Kariaotahi School from 5 yrs until the end of my 9th year and loved it. It was a two room, one teacher school, with a potbelly type fire place in the corner of the front room (how the heck did we ever get away with that ????, would never happen in these occupational health and safety days, lol), and blackboards around two sides of the main room. The school went from primmers to Std 6 or Form 2 ( year 1 to yr 8) and I don't think we had more than 28 kids all up during my time there. There were four kids including me in my year, which gives you an idea of year group sizing. The families that attended came from a mile radius from the school. The school was very much the focal point of the community and has remained so as a community hall since it closed in the late sixties. In fact No 1 son had his 21st birthday there. The school had two locations in its lifetime, and Dad attended when it was in its original spot from memory, with most local families having two generations attend over that time. Work continues to be intense - we had four days training last week in Theraputic Care. The trainer was supberb and I know this because from 8am - 4pm for four days, my attention did not wander once during the training. I learnt heaps and although some basic human development info was a refresher it was great to gain a deeper understanding of how best to work with the kids that we have in care. It would seem I have been working instinctively in some areas the right way but with the training, I can now back up what I do with a more comprehensive approach. We have had an amount of unsettledness amongst our residents with lots of comings and goings through respite care for some and absconding with another. This has led to heightened levels of behaviours with some regressing with toileting, and their coping abilities. I have had to practice lots of patience with some of them ( I know, who knew I had it in me, lol), trying to keep routines going which gives some security to those who do not feel secure. It is not all grim and have had lots of laughs at the same time. I loved it when I told one of our lads to take his shoes off the kitchen bench as we do not put our shoes where we prepare food , when I heard "Look Lynn, I listened" as he stood beaming after complying with my request at first asking. I burst out laughing as not only did he do as he was asked, but he actually knew what he was doing and could tell me in correct context. This from a little boy who knew no emotions when I first started working with him, or had no vocabulary or context for anything that he did (at 7 yrs old). Working with him is like being in a "Mork and Mindy" series. Although he has just turned 8, developmentally, emotionally and cognitively he is probably functioning at a preschool level, though he is coming along in leaps and bounds at the same time. He has no concept of time and asks umpteen times a day, is it morning, is it afternoon, is it night, so have been doing lots of work around that. My response is to ask him back what time he thinks it is, what meal are we having, are we doing morning things, afternoon things or evening things so he learns the code for time. He knows the days of the week but still does not have a total grasp of how a week plays out. He knows Monday to Friday are school days but will ask, is it the weekend yet on a Tuesday for example. I loved it this week when he asked me if I was working today, tomorrow. Scarey thing is I knew exactly what he meant, lol. He is now trying to work out that if I am on a day shifts I will be at work at the same time tomorrow as I am today. We have done a calander with the days I am in NZ marked on it and I have drawn a plane for the day I return so he can keep checking how long I am away. We have had the atlas out and looked at the page that had Australia and NZ on it and looked where Geraldton and Auckland is as well. Our little lass (3 yrs) is mid toilet training and very excited with her successes. She amazes me at the speed she is soaking up knowledge. She has been focussed on shapes and colours this week. She knows circles, squares, rectangles, triangles and stars. We were driving back from dropping the boys at school on Tuesday and said "Lynn, circle", as we went round the round about, and then square at an empty section next to a house. She was pointing at her stripy top and telling me the colours one by one and is now writing her initial for her name and L's for Lynn (which she then turns into squares). I started showing her, her initial drawing in sand back in January, and she is now drawing in chalk on bricks outside, and with a pencil or felt tip on paper. Our 4 yr old lad has learnt songs that I learnt at school as I have sung him to sleep at night. After nursery rhymes, I went back to good old fashioned songs such as "You are my Sunshine","Mary Anne", "Sailor (stop your roaming, not the Rod Stewart version, lol), "This land is your land" (with NZ place names, oops, lol)," Pokarekare Ana" and "Hinemoa and Tutanekai" ( a song I learnt in year 5) to mention a few. It is likely he will have gone to extended family by the time I get back from NZ, and I will miss his "Mum, sing sunshine song", or" sing sailor song". The favourite song of them all is "the Mockingbird" song as in Hush little baby don't say a word, Mumma's going to buy you a Mockingbird", which happened to be in the nursery rhyme book I gave him at Christmas, followed by "Row, row,row your boat" and "Old McDonald has a farm". Over the past couple of weeks I have bumped into several kiwis living in Geraldton - completely unexpected and one you won't believe. I was in what was Dick Smith's (cannot think of it's new name) looking for a new computer mouse the other week when this bloke asked where I came from - I replied I was a kiwi and he asked where from so I told him. He and his wife had moved over last year from Gore (bottom of the south island for those who don't know where it is and only slightly warmer than antartica the last time I was there, lol). It was not long after the Christchurch earthquakes so we commiserated about that and he commented he was going back to NZ for Easter too. At training (and this is the one you wouldn't credit could happen) one of the women from the office was attending who also came from NZ. We ended up at the same table and I asked what bought her over and she said work. She had worked with CYFS in Auckland. When I had to introduce myself I said I had been involved in boarding in NZ in Hamilton and had come over here for work at Tardun. She then said, I have met you before - I had a client in Auckland who was placed at your school and I came down and visited with you both and bang, straight away I knew the girl she was talking about and indeed did remember her visits. It was a very surreal moment. Today I had a plumber turn up to fix a washer and a leaking pipe in the bath room. He asked where I was from and I said NZ, and he asked where from again so I said Waiuku plus have lived several other places. He said he was from Onehunga (where my grandmother was born). He has lived over here for three years and is going back for good at the end of the year. He said when his boss had talked to me on the ph he said she's a kiwi so I guess that means I still sound like me, lol. I am interested to see how prices compare for things on my return to NZ. I hear petrol is over $2 a litre there - here it has climbed to $1.47 though different service stations vary by a few cents up and down with coupon deals. I paid $268 for my last power bill which brings it to just under $400 all up since I moved in here at the end of November which is on a par with what I paid over 15 yrs ago in NZ. Friend Donna ended up with a $800 bill but she has had adult children home all summer and air con going all the time in several rooms. I had air con on when I was gasping but only have it in one room so am extremely thankful for that. There are supermarket wars going on between Coles and Woolworths at the moment so the cost of milk, bread, eggs and chicken have been slashed. You can get milk for $1 ltr, bread for the same a loaf, and chicken was around $4.95 a kilo. Bananas have gone through the roof and have seen them at $13 kilo, brocolli was $6.95kilo and onions $4.95 which are a few that I remember. I have not grocery shopped for myself for several weeks and have been eating out of my cupboards, freezer and fridge to whittle stuff down before heading away. Need to sign off now otherwise it will only be three sleeps lol. Have got Jude's 60th birthday on Saturday night so am staying with her at Dongara and hitching a ride to Perth with other guests who come up for her party. It could be her brother and sister in law or other friends - I am not fussed, as long as I catch the plane. Am leaving Perth around 7pm Sunday and flying Air New Zealand straight through to Auckland - yay. I plan on getting on board, eating dinner and sleeping the rest of the trip over all going well. Night night :)

Snakes Alive!!!

2011-03-16T20:21:00.007+08:00

I have touched a snake!!!! Yup, I finally screwed up the courage, albeit alongside someone who was holding it, and with the mantra "handbag, shoes, handbag, shoes", going through my head as I reached forwards with my fingers to touch it. I was surprised as it was not the icy cold, clammy sensation that I had always imagined it might feel like. It wasn't warm either, but hard to describe with mere nano seconds of touch. Now while some of you will be gasping "oo er", it was a python I touched and not one of the myriad of poisonous snakes that live over here. The controlled situation was that we took the kids to the local Wildlife Farm last Saturday and the python is one of the exhibits out there (and yes it was alive). We had fed the horse, the donkey and were onto the kangaroos, when one of the lads ran up to say come look at the crocodile as the keepers were going to try and get it to appear. The crocodile is a salty - which apparrently means its a man eater, even though this one is only young. The keepers were behind a barrier fence as they lobbed a large plastic water container into the crocs pool, whereupon said crocodile launched itself out of the green murk of the pool to snap at the container. Let me tell you, it launched itself with speed and snap as it tried to get the container. It was enough to make us gasp and step back and then forwards again with morbid fascination as it leapt for another snatch at the container.

Chloe the snake lives behind the crocodile so after the keeper had finished showing us the croc's paces, she went and got the snake, draped it about herself and walked through the park until she got to the shop and people could touch and hold it. We were told to wash our hands before touching it but as I had my hands filled with children, camera and food for the other animals, I did not get to actually hold it. (That is my excuse anyway, lol). What was really brilliant was our 10 yr old boy quietly waited and asked to hold it, and blew us all away when he actually managed it. The keeper draped it around his neck like a scarf and as he held both hands flat in front of him, the keeper placed the rest of the snake in his hands. He did really well until Chloe started to move with her head to climb towards his face and then the keeper took her back. So, that is the benchmark now and watch this space, I will have a go next time - maybe..... kinda fancy myself in a Medusa look lol. We were reliably informed that Chloe had never bitten anyone in the 8 yrs that she had been at the park and thankfully she didn't disappoint this time either. We had a great time at the park and how awesome it was to take out our 18 mth old and 3 yr old who have never seen most of the real live animals that we saw and to see them with their hands flat, feeding kangaroos, sheep, goats, ducks, chooks, with the horse and donkey. It has made the books and the nursery rhymes that we read most days come alive for them.

I am really enjoying work at the moment and am feeling a great deal of satisfaction of seeing my efforts bearing fruit with these kids. We had learnt the rhyme " the wheels of the bus go round and round" with actions and have at least five verses that we do. I found the rhyme in a library book last week with the verse "the doors on the bus go open and closed" and as I went to sing it on the way home, our 3 yr old indigenous lass sings the doors on the bus go " abrir " and closed (pronounced arbray as much as we can decipher which is spanish for open, learned from Dora the Explorer). Her language was minimal when she came to us - she now counts, knows most of the animals in the zoo, farm animals, counting to 8 in Spanish and twelve in English when counting along with Dora. We now have enough action songs that the other morning felt like a mini workout after I had hopped, skipped, jumped and crawled about the place.

We have been watching a bit of the news with all the disasters around the world and the boys are very fasicnated with the earthquakes and tsunamis. The lad who went for me awhile back with the cricket bat has now become my friend. One of the staff who he stays with occassionally for respite was asking in a subtle way the other day about this new attitude and response was - did you know she lives on a hill, if we get a tsunami we could go stay with her!!!!! Gotta love how their minds work, lol.

Two weeks ago now, I spent the night in the local hospital. Not for myself thankfully, but one of our wee lads was admitted with a serious eye infection. It was about 8.30pm on a Sunday night and we got through all the initial process under two hours. Once I was told he would be admitted we were taken through to A & E and had to sit in holding pattern there for some time. He was put on a bed in what I would say was the thorougfare into xrays etc and he had a leur put into his hand. After some time, we were put into a cubicle and he was hooked up to a drip of serious antibiotics and given some pain relief. It was near midnight by then, so got him to lie down, rubbed his back and quietly sang songs to him until he dropped to sleep. I was offered some sandwhiches by a nurse and once we were admitted to the ward around 1.30am, there was a pull out bed made for me beside his, I was told where I could make a cup of coffee, and how to work the buzzer and was checked on several times before I finally grabbed some shut eye around 3.30am. My only other experience of A & E is Waikato Hospital and have to say this was nowhere near as big or as busy. Based on previous experience at Waikato when I worked there, I was not expecting a bed or food as neither was provided for parents or carers back then. If you were lucky you might get a lazy boy chair to rest in, and no meals were provided for parents or visitors - you were expected to eat at the cafetaria. The nurses were lovely and were greatful to have someone stay the night as they had two very sick babies in the ward that took a lot of their time and that was just our room. I was surprised that I actually slept as the noise with things beeping, snuffling, crying, staff coming and going was continuous throughout what was left of the night. I waited until our lad woke up the next morning, explaining where he was, who was looking after him and how to get the nurse, and work the tv - the two most important, lol, before I left, getting back to work just after 8am. So far all my experiences with things medical over here have been positive.

I had to take another lad for a blood test last week and the staff there were wonderful with him. This is the lad I had to take once before who used to have two people have to hold him down. The deal with him and I is that he looks at me while they are taking blood, and we both shut our eyes and do not look at that, holding hands tightly and me burbling 90 to the dozen telling him how brave he is and both times it has been over before he felt anything. The part that upsets him the most is the band they put around his arm first to tighten before they take blood. He gets very upset at that but have managed to talk him through that and we came away with stickers aplenty for being brave. I continually think God has the most warped sense of humour as I keep being thrust into things medical when I do not do icky bits and blood!!!!! So here I am taking kids left right and centre where needles and blood are concerned, and am changing pooey nappies again, go figure.

In between all this, I have been taking giant steps forward on the technilogical front. When I moved into the house, I got a wireless thingie that works the phone that I use my laptop through. It was part of a deal with getting the phone on and a way of increasing my internet useage more cheaply. Of course, it is all through my favourite company Telstra so have had a few ferral moments with them again. First of all, my first two bills went to the workmates which was my old address, where I never had a phone account and despite the address of the phone location being my current residential address. Then, the idea of the wireless hub thingie was that you should be able to use the phone and internet at the same time. Wrong. It took me three months to get that sorted out, though I must say, more due to me being busy than their lack. Once I rang up and spent a day on the phone sorting it I have been right since. The next foray into technology was to update my mobile ph from prepaid to a plan linking it with the above. There was a special deal that has enabled me to get a phone that is linked to Windows 7 and with 1G of internet useage per month and $400 of calls and texts per month for the same price as I was spending on my prepaid. Well, you no longer get a booklet to work out how to use your phone - it is all on line. So far I have got all the internet stuff sort of sorted, ring tones finally set up, can tell the weather, check facebook, hotmail and bigpond email, check the time but I have yet to make a call, lol. Have not found out how to enter phone numbers and contacts - have all email contacts loaded - again go figure. I have three days off this weekend so am planning to work things out then. Of course, within three days I had lost the internet off the phone but with a trip to the telstra folk it was quickly rectified. Now, last but not least, I have a new lap top. My old one was starting to fall to bits, letters off the keyboard, over heating etc so I now have the trifecta. Of course the world has turned (3 yrs) since I bought the last one. I have double the G's of that one, more oomph all the way round, but this comes with Windows 7 which supercedes the Vista of the old one or was it XP, anyway, it means finding my way round a new set of obstacles. There is no longer outlook for email, new toolbars and graphics but so far so good. Somewhere in the midst of this I had to get a new bigpond address - I think it might have been when I got the hub thingie. It wasn't until I got the new cellphone, that I needed to change it to my main address and cancel the old one. Well, wasn't that a bundle of fun. That was another entire day on the phone to big pond and OMG what a hassle. In the end I cancelled the old address and managed to rejig the new one to my facebook account (crucial, lol) though I could not access facebook mail through the new address on my old laptop. Somehow the settings forbade that. (works ok on the new lap top woohoo). I had forgotten my new address and pin number so a frantic search through papers before I found it scribbled down and able to activate things. At the end of the day what does all this mean - effectively I should almost be contactable 24/7 lol. That is if I do not leave the ph home by mistake! and that I keep it charged and I am not asleep and miss the buzz of an email message coming through.

I have written this tonight against the backdrop of more news of the tsunami and earthquake in Japan. I have to say am feeling almost overloaded with disasters and after thinking Christchurch was bad, this one is almost incomprehensible. There has since been an earthquake off Cairns over here, and flooding continues in various places. There were pictures the other night of flooding in the Nulliboor and I saw last night that Warnham and Derby up in the Kimberlys have been completely flooded out. We had girls out at Tardun from those two places so am imagining they and there families are in the thick of it. Mother nature certainly is throwing a few curveballs at the moment. The day after my last post, I was talking to sister Kay on skype when she announced she was receiving a txt from her daughter Laura as we were speaking, who was txting from underneath her kitchen table as Wellington was hit by a 4. something earthquake. That was extremely surreal as the next thing Mum popped up on skype as well, so here were all were sharing in the immediacy of the experience, albeit from a safe distance. Have heard via facebook that the couple I know from Hamilton,, are safe and well in Japan, nowhere near the danger areas.

I was very impressed when I went into the local IGA last week to see buckets at the checkout for donations for the Christchurch earthquake with IGA going dollar for dollar up to $15,000 raised. Having worked lots of hours, I dropped $100 into the bucket hoping that will parlay into $200 by the time it gets there, in fact it may be more given the exchange rate at the moment. I see Prince William is visiting Christchurch and Queensland disaster areas as part of his trip down under this week. Will need to be watching the telly over the next few mornings to see how it all goes.

Last Sunday I had the day off so decided to go to the local market run by the Lions club here for a look. The Lions have their van parked in front of the visitors centre and sell drinks and donuts, while various folk have tables set out with there wares. I have to say, there was an amount of unmitigated rubbish and I am amazed at what some folk think is saleable. Friend Donna from work had come and picked me up so we had a good wander around all the tables and I did well to come away with only a jar of relish, some dukka and three bodice ripping novels for $2 each. It had been coolish when we started out but as the morning went on, the heat from the sun started to sting. As we were wandering a woman thrust a pamplet about a shop in the old jail which was adjacent to the car park, so Donna and I decided to go have a look. Several people have shops set up in old cells and I use the term shop adviseably. If you swung an average size cat, you would hit every wall no problem. Two of us in each cell was nearly too many. It made me realise that people were much smaller back when it was built and that it was certainly no soft berth for criminals back in the day. It was closed for business as a jail in 1982 after being open nearly 100 yrs. It is made of brick blocks, concrete floors and looks very sturdy. You enter via the old exercise yard which would be the size of a large lounge and had wire netting completely over the top, I guess to prevent escapes. The walls inside of the corridoor have framed letters sent by various bodies about the welfare of prisoners, outlining policies etc, again there was not much fun spelled out amongst them. After a look around there I was gasping so we hastened off to Dome where we had a nice leisurely lunch before heading home and a nana nap for the afternoon, lol. It was stinking hot by then so not much else for it.

It is now less than a month before I head home to NZ and though not counting the sleeps yet, it will not be long. I am getting quietly excited at the prospect of catching up with family and friends. We have entered autumn here with temps dropping down to the mid 20's some days and more so nights but then the last few days it has been back in the 30's. One of the effects from the rivers in flood has been the change in the colour of the ocean. At first it was a narrow strip of brown against the blue of the sea but over the past week it has spread to nearly two thirds of the ocean view with just a third blue. In Dongara there have been signs saying no swimming or taking fish due to the possible pollution in the water. Friend Donna is coming round for a coffee so will sign off and get this posted. I have some running around to do today - pay the power bill etc and buy several cans of napalm equivalent fly spray. I have been held to ransom one to many times by some large bush type cockroaches who somehow manage to get into my hermetically sealed environment lol. I was talking to someone the othernight on facebook and one raced across the floor, so legs up on the couch and the rest of a piddling fly can, it ran into the sun porch area, but then another one appeared. The spray did not appear to work so am over it. I want a spray that will kill it dead on the spot, not give it time to run about, eeeek, possibly towards me, or which is worse, possibly to fly at me. Would need a defibulator on standby for that. Again, watch this space :).

Last day of summer - yeah right.

2011-02-28T07:25:00.003+08:00

It's official, its the last day of summer. I laugh in the face of such nonsense (from the smugness of living in WA, of course). Poor Perth is snivelling because they have had 20 days with the temp over 30Celcius, and five days with the temps over 35C. I think they have had 20 nights with the temps over 20C as well, which has been the single hottest summer for Perth since records were taken (over 100 yrs). I laugh because when living at Tardun, 30C was a cool day, and a hot summer would have been 40+ temps for a similar amount of days with a few 50+ thrown in for good measure.

I feel like I am channelling Dad with so much talk about the weather, but it is the weather that has continued to remain in the headlines over the past few months with a dose of earthquake from NZ. After the massive floods in Queensland, they were hit by cyclone Yasi barely a week after the flooding was starting to ease. This morning on the telly, they said that 1/4 of Victoria was under flooding during the same time. The pictures that have come out of these disasters have been unprecedented and I have to say, the media, I think, have done a brilliant job reporting with sensitivity in capturing the magnitude of these natural disasters and the human toll they have taken.

Western Australia has not escaped as we had flooding in Carnarvon at much the same time Queensland was inundated, followed by Cyclones Diana, and Carlos in the last few weeks. Carnarvon has flooded twice more and the flow on effects reached this neck of the woods last weekend with the Irwin river (and another river I have forgotten the name of) flooding which meant that those out Tardun way were cut off for a period of time, with Mullewa flooded across the roads, and the main road to Dongara closed last Saturday night from 11pm until 10am the next day. I was told yesterday that the flood waters have washed out dirt etc under railway tracks at Mullewa and parts of the side of the road have also been washed away. In Geraldton two weeks ago, there was a huge dust storm/mini cyclone or the edge of one come through. I slept through it though those who saw it said it was pretty impressive. It blew fences down , threw tramplines across lawns, etc but did more damage further down where houses lost roofs, vehicles turned over and at York, it blew the 100 yr old plus grandstand down at the race course. There were tragic consequences in Geraldton when a 17 yr old girl, walking home from a party with friends stood on live power lines that had been blown down and was electrocuted to death. Two friends tried to help her, the girl receiving 60% burns and the young lad, who was an auto electrician, who took off his boots to knock the girls off the wires, received burns but was out of hospital a few days later. Jude's grandson who was staying with me had been to school with the boy concerned and the girl that died, so the ripples of the disaster touched home. I had heard a bit of a noise before I got up that day, and wandered out thinking I might see some storm over the ocean. Instead, when I looked out the window, there was a large branch of the gumtree next to the house which had come down, the noise probably when it glance off the roof of the porch.

Last Saturday we had more thunder and lightening and then more rain, the tail end of Carlos from up north I think. The clouds in the sky have been magnificent, whitest white big puffball clouds that slowly turn black and then lightening and thunder. One of the young boys at work was scared of the storms but I think we have turned that round. He kept asking me if I was scared and I said no, I love watching thunder and lightening and if you are inside you should be fine. We were outside and counted the time from lightening to thunder so the storm was initially 12 miles away, and later 6 miles away and then went sideways away from us. The boys ended up by playing out in the rain, turning on the hose for good measure. I did have them scuttling off the trampoline if we saw lightening (I knew it was far enough away but did not see the harm in getting them to realise they needed to be away from something that could conduct lightening if the storm was overhead) and taught them that you cannot stand under trees either so hopefully, that knowledge will stay with them should they ever get caught out in wild weather in later years.

In the midst of this there was the bush fire just out of Perth where 72 homes were lost. Jude's brother and sister in law were evacuated from their home but were lucky not to lose it. Houses that were lost were only about 5k away. The fire was started from a spark from an angle grinder as an off duty policeman was doing some work at home. He is beyond devasted and apparrently is to be charged for setting the fire. Though there was a fire ban, not many would have thought that using an angle grinder was out of bounds so to speak so there is huge sympathy for the bloke concerned. It will be interesting to see if the case gets off the ground as this was a genuine accidental start to the fire with all others to date having been lit on purpose. That is where the full force of the law needs to take place in my opinion with maybe more awareness made of what a fire ban includes for the future.

Just when I thought we were through the worst of it over here, I was rung by Jude to see if I was awake and watching tv last Monday morning as there had been an earthquake in Christchurch (NZ). I was awake, but had my nose in a book lying in bed in what felt like sheer luxury ( I had a day off, lol). As I had to get up to answer the phone, I was busy turning on the tv at the same time and sat down for the rest of the day on the couch, watching in disbelief and horror at what unfolded. I knew I was seeing things as they happened, after shocks while reporting took place, but it seemed incomprehensible at the same time. The first thing was doing a mental check list thinking about people I knew of who lived there, and have since found out all are safe though some have suffered damage to their homes. GWN - channel 7 here, stopped all programs and ran continuous reporting from Christchurch during the day and most of the night. They started at 3am here the following day until 8.30pm with only breaks for other news. The emotion from the people concerned with search and rescue, Mayor Bob Parker and the scenes of devastation brought tears to my eyes. The Anglican Cathedral, icon of Christchurch, to see that broken and to know people were amongst the rubble was extremely graphic, followed by the CCTV building and the Pine gould building where they actually managed to retrieve some people alive from the rubble the following day. I was so impressed by how the Aussies responded. Prime Minister Julia Gillard had a team of search and rescue folk on the next plane out of here as the news broke. Three hundred Police from Australia arrived later in the week and $5 million was sent for aid. It was only three weeks before when NZ had sent search and rescue and police over here for the flooding in Queensland, so the ANZAC spirit lives on. I think it is still safe to say that in sport, all bets are off, but in times of need the two countries have each other's backs. We have been called cousins and brothers and sisters in the Australian Parliament with both the Government and Opposition as one in support for the aid sent to Christchurch.

As I said, the reporting has been amazing. Koshie and Grant Denier from our morning show both were back in the thick of it reporting. Grant Denier had been in Christchurch in October after the previous earthquake when the tourist board invited him over as a way of promoting tourism for the area post the last quake. He reported from Lyttleton and was visibly shaken when he saw pictures of the Grand Chancellor hotel where he had stayed in October, able to pick out the room he stayed in even, as the building was now cracked and in danger of collapsing. There was huge interest with one of the women (Australian) was rescued from the Pine Gould building and of course other stories that directly involved any Australian. Mayor Bob Parker I thought was amazing and his press conferences hugely sensative and moving at the same time. A week later, we are now reduced to clips in the news but the quake is mentioned in all reports. News today of the first of the funerals to be held.

I still feel blown away that it is Christchurch that has copped the big one, or what we hope is now the definitive big one. Wellington has always been the predicted hotspot for the big one and having the No1 son and his family, the N01 neice and her partner , the next door neighbours' daughter and several friends living there, I always have a part of my mind concerned should something major happen there. The reality is that if you live in NZ and are not on the fault line, you probably have a volcano (albeit extinct except the three at Taupo), in near proximity, that given the right circumstances could always blow up. Cheerful thought I know, but at 18 I remember being terrified that nuclear war was imminent and if you were not lucky enough to be vaporised, an unpleasant future was the next best option. I could also have been run over by a bus, (should there have been bus transport in Waiuku, lol ) but you get my drift. I am not sure you can ever prepare for the disasters we have experienced in the past weeks with the magnitude they have occured. All have been the worst in over a hundred years or 80 yrs for the earthquake. These disasters will become difinitive markers in the lives of many individuals and for both countries as a whole. Both countries have taken severe hits but the pioneering spirit that they were founded on will be what will come to the fore again and this has been demonstrated time and time again over the past weeks with the response from ordinary people performing great acts of bravery, to opening homes to folk who have lost everything, to big businesses sending goods to the worst hit areas, to random people turning up to help with the clean ups, to providing support to all those who have worked hard in the search and resuce efforts, and to all the evacuees in the various shelters that were set up. I have been touched at the people who knowing I come from NZ, contacted me in the days following to see if I was all right, whether I had anyone involved in it.

In the midst of all this I have been working, I did 113 hours the previous fortnight and not far off last fortnight due to increase in children at the home and staff illness. The plus is a chunk of money in the bank as I have no time or inclination to spend at the moment. I have today and tomorrow off (so far) and hopefully this week I will not get rung up to do extra like the last two weeks on my days off. During the last fortnight I celebrated my birthday on the 14th and will mention that in a different post. Am going to get this posted and go get ready to do a few chores. I am seeing on the TV that it is the Oscars tonight, woohoo. Will be watching that and thinking how scarey it is that I can remember Bob Hope comparing the Oscars when I first watched them......... . Nuff said, lol.

All about Me!

2011-01-25T09:11:00.003+08:00

Am being extremely decadent, sitting here still in night attire, writing a post and watching tennis - today watching Petkovic a young German girl playing Li, who is from China. Anyone who likes sport, watch out for Petkovic - she is a breath of fresh air and I think a role model in the making for future generations of tennis players. She has a delightful sense of humour as well as playing a mean game of tennis.

After finishing my last post which was more of a weather/sports report, I realised I had forgotten to mention my brushes with the medical fraternity over the past two weeks, hence the title of this post. Those who know me well, know that I am such an infrequent user of all things medical, I have not had a regular GP for nearly 30 yrs. Practising aromatherapy and going through the 70's cycles of yoga, aerobics (at home in front of the telly, lol), and various positive healthy eating binges, such as avoiding preservatives and additives where possible (in between cycles of total indulgence I might add) and a reasonably hearty constitution, not to mention a healthy fear of needles and pain has helped me avoid medical attention. I have from time to time used physiotherapy and the school nurse when back in NZ for the odd injury, but on the whole have been pretty good. Therefore, when I do have medical needs they are usually because of an acute situation. After saying all this, I have been troubled by an unidentified pain that has occurred intermittently over the past few years. I have almost self diagnosed this as possible gall stones due to the fact it always occurs after eating something that is fatty such as pork, or has cream, but there is no definitive thing that sets it off because I can eat both the above with impunity at another time. The other factors combined with the food, are an unusually high level of stress, which may involve working lots of hours, lack of sleep and or general worries. Most times chewing on a gavascon tablet relieves the pain and a good nights sleep puts me back on the right track. I had a couple of attacks at Tardun and that tactic worked - no other option when you are an hour and a half away from medical attention.

However, two weeks ago just as a shift was coming to an end after a couple of particularly trying days, and eating some hideous pastry (yes, I know I should have known better), I started feeling off. It is difficult to explain as it starts like a pressure feeling mid section just under my rib cage and builds to an unbelievable pain like back ache labour - except it is in yr middle (men reading this will have no idea what I am talking about, lol) It is like having an elephant standing on yr mid-section and without relief and in the past, I have toyed with the idea of ripping out my said intestines with my bare hands at the height of the pain - I am sure you are getting the picture. Anyhoo, I grabbed some gavascon but the pain had already gone past that, so as it was close to end of shift I decided to go home rather than moaning and groaning at work until the pain passed. Because when I am not experiencing this pain, it becomes like a dim memory, on the way home, I decided as the local hospital is virtually around the corner from where I live. I thought I may as well go and see if they could check me out, mid attack and maybe I would get some idea of what is going on. (Also the ex workmate and husband have nagged me for ever to do just this).

I was seen right away by a nurse, then directed to a clerk type person to take details. During this time, I am standing there, breathing through the pain like in labour, hands gripping the front of the counter, with the odd moan for good effect. "Yes, thank you for the details, please take a seat" . Good oh. There was only about four other people in the waiting room as it was only 3pm. By now the pain was building to a crescendo. I closed my eyes, slumped in the chair, thinking - go to your happy place, go to your happy place, doind short panting breaths and emitting several moans until finally the gavascon kicked in. All of a sudden I could hear the tv (flood reports), feel the air conditioning and become aware of others around me. I waited about 10 mins, and then looked up to see that average waiting times to be seen was four hours!!!! If my oscar winning performance of someone in pain was not going to work immediately, I was thinking I may as well go home and curl up for a snooze, was just going to leave, when my name was called out. I was seen by a Dr not of Australian extraction for about 5 mins - asked a few questions, heard the words oesophageal reflux, was given two pills and thank you very much, here is a prescription goodbye. OK, then.

Have not had a twinge since, have eaten cream and pork in the meantime but no nasty pie things, am not stressed so all is good again. Have yet to get the prescription filled but will attend to that this week. Almost forgot to mention it the following day, such was the rapidity of feeling back to normal once the pain had passed. Have seen ads on the telly for GORD ( gastro -osophogeal reflux disorder ) so am now self diagnosing maybe that rather than gall stones, watch this space, lol.

My next brush with medical attention could not have been more different. During the course of two twelve hour shifts on the weekend at work, I noticed that my hip and right ankle was aching which is not something I am used to experiencing. Was this the start of old age I wondered, is this what arthritic pain is like, will I be able to tell the change in weather patterns (I think this was exacerbated by my trying to sort out the lad who went for me with the cricket bat of several posts ago) ......... As it happened the pain worsened and spread to my back and by Tuesday I could hardly move. Any time I sat down, I had to lurch myself forwards off the couch/chair, rise at a 90 degree angle, push hands down on thighs and ratchet myself upwards until I could stand like I had a carrot up my *rse (so to speak) and then walk gingerly about.

One of the woman at work had mentioned Bowen therapy and I had thought that as Mum had had great relief on her knee and leg in the past with Bowen therapy I would have a go envisioning some gentle massage to aforementioned areas. Told my friend to ring up and book me an appointment as she wanted to go as well. The appointment was for the Thursday so struggled with little sleep and actually succumbed to taking a couple of ibuprofen for the aggravation and to keep moving. Got to the apt to find out I was seeing a chiropractor - (still do not know what happened to the Bowen therapy) and OMG!!!

A woman came to the reception area who would not have been out of place of the prow of a Viking longboat and beckoned me into her "surgery" or should I say, place of infinite torture masked as a surgery. By this point I was bent double, could barely carry my handbag as my back hurt so much and once launched off the chair (which took at least a minute) I shuffled crab like into her den where she said " At the risk of sounding silly, how can I help you" - maybe I should have shuffled off then. I said I thought I was out of alignment (where would I be without Shortland St, All Saints, House and Grey's Anatomy, lol). "Come lie on my table" she said.

Now, the table resembled a massage table the width of a plank and was lower to the ground than the hip level I am used to. Dropping down onto it was extremely painful and then she wanted me to flip onto my stomach which involved flapping about like a beached whale as I tried to manoeuvre into said position from a bent up and pained state. I flattened out somewhat and she put some gel feeling like pad under my left hip and then dropped like an All Black prop onto the same area. There was a whoosh of air from my lungs, a crack of bones, and a tortured moan came from somewhere, then she did the same thing again under my right hip (repeat of sound effects). She had felt up and down my spine, and then pressed a bit round my sacral area, - more tortured sounds but wait there was more. The next thing, I feel something like a bullet shape something the size of my little finger being fired from something like one of those air pressure nail guns up either side of my spine, through my sacral area and up into my shoulders. Gasps and moans shot out of me after just about each firing. She then asked me to flip onto my side. I was like a cast ewe and for a moment thought are you mad, I can't move. By some dent of shuffling and flipping myself about I finally got onto my side whereupon she tucked me into her hip and jerk, she twisted me. Another ooof of sound. Repeat on the other side and onto back. She had worked on my shoulders with the nail gun thing and said she was just now going to align my head. She seized my jaw and shoulder and crack, jerked my head in one quick motion one way and then the other. She said my pelvis was twisted, and my muscles had gone into spasm (lockdown type reaction) to compensate or some such thing. I was obviously in a bad way, to ice neck and sacral areas, to take some voltarin and come back Monday.

Poor Donna in the waiting room had nearly gapped it, hearing all the sounds of torture coming from within, lol. The woman had told me that I needed to walk or lie down and not to sit through the healing process. Needless to say, I chose the lying option, spending the next day, on the couch, iced up like a hoar frost, swallowing the voltarin as prescribed, and did the same the following day as much as possible as I had work again. I got up on Sunday like a spring chicken, took no tablets, because I forgot, as there was not a twinge of pain and I moved so easily, I was half way through the day before I remembered I had been in such bad shape only two days before. Score one for the chiropractor Brunhilde who could have made me a paraplegic with one false crick only two days before. Such was the miracle cure, I went back for the 2nd apt, leapt on the couch, and only offered up a few oofs, and ouches when she hit the remaining tender spots, and I handled the nail gun weapon with hardly a noise. She only did the hip press this time with the nail gun up the spine and sent me on my way $50 lighter each time.

I am hoping that will be my first and last experience with a chiropractor and I am glad to have lived to tell the tail. I still have no idea what happened to the Bowen therapist, or how I came to the idea of that was who I was going to see, lol. I have come to notice my other senses such as hearing seem to diminish when I am in extreme pain (mild ache to most others, lol.) I got home to find I could smell the bar of gardenia soap that Jude had given me for Christmas which I had been unaware of smelling during the week, so go figure.

The last issue was a very minor one and this time involved my glasses. In the extreme heat and humidity, they had kept sliding down my face and the bridge over my nose and those little bits on the side which were metal had started to dig into me. I went back to the optometrist who said, I can replace the nose things with silicon pads which she did , and I have not looked back. My glasses remain on my face without sliding and I am able to see much better as the graduated lenses are now fixed where they should be woohoo.

Damn Petkovic lost but I am now watching Federer play Wawrinka - go Federer!!

So there you have it, I am now running on all cylinders, lol and have survived - yay.

And the rains kept falling.

2011-01-22T03:14:00.004+08:00

I am at work and it is 4am, so I may finish this later at home but will make a start. Being busy continues in 2011 but I am pleased to say, being down to one job, even though I worked 103 hours last fortnight, is a dream compared to working two jobs, both ends of the day. I have been able to work extra hours as we had two extra girls in over Christmas who went back to family this week and we get two new boys tomorrow for an undetermined time. We have had them in for respite twice in the last week, and first impressions are that it will make for interesting dynamics with the others already here. Watch this space, lol.

On the home front, I am still unpacking, sorting and sifting. Yesterday I wanted to use my external hard drive to take stuff off my laptop which led to my office and part of the garage being cleaned and straightened today. I have ended up with numerous cords, plugs,etc with each electrical purchase so part of the sort today was to try and match cords with appliances. I managed all the obvious ones and still have a small shop's worth left over. If I was feeling truely anal I would pull out all the booklets that came with said appliances to match what should go with them, but can safely say, that is not going to happen in the near future. I figure if I haven't used them in the last two years, how important are they. I am however, going to put them in various snap lock plastic bags so they are all sorted properly - just in case I should find out what they are for, lol. Out of all this, the cord I was actually looking for was not to be found - spit, snarl. I do however have my ipod charged, my nz ph charged, one small external hard drive sorted, (not the one I wanted though), the camera and the video camera sorted and all recharged woohoo.

Since the move and major unpack I was aware the tripod for my camera was missing. It has been percolating at the back of my mind for the past three weeks and as I have continued to clear boxes, it was nowhere to be found. I remembered I had packed it with my shoes in a bag, and of course, no shoes either. Procrastination and general inertia had prevented me from ringing up the removal folk and ripping their ears off for losing said articles. I had not got to the point of putting a word up to St Anthony (patron saint of lost things) as though he has come through on many occassions for me in the past, (and usually within the day I might add), he let me down when I misplaced the lens cover of my camera -( still nowhere to be found after several months now!). In the midst of the search for the lost cord, I took down the last two Christmas light decorations at the front door which necessitated a trip to the garage to retrieve the boxes that they came in to preserve them for another year. That necessitated building some shelving that had come apart (garage sort of shelving), lifting boxes of papers and books etc onto shelves, plus tent and small barbque, then moving a washing machine in front of another one, when lo and behold, I noticed a large cardboard box with a laundry bag, suitcase and plastic file holder in it. Eureka, as I opened the suitcase, there was my tripod, leather boots and shoes, woohoo again. A narrow save from becoming a harpy towards the removal people. St Anthony did get a thank you by the way for the save as a bonus as in one on credit, lol!

Between work and unpacking for the past two weeks, I have been caught up in the compulsive viewing of the floods in Queensland and now Victoria. It would seem it is Australia's turn to be the New Years disaster hotspot and no less compelling than the tsunami reporting or the bush fires of yesteryear. Western Australia has not remained untouched with Carnarvon being declared a national disaster zone the week before the Qld floods and an arson lit bush fire south of Perth which was devasting for families who were evacuated for days before they could return to their homes and farms that were reduced to ashes. There have been other reports of smaller fires here and there throughout the state that have been deliberately started and words fail at the horrendous toll these fires take on the communities where they have been lit.

With the floods in Qld, we are talking floods of biblical proportions - 75% of the state was under water last week and declared a national disaster. I woke up on the first Monday morning to watch "Sunrise" to the devastating news of the flash flood that has taken over 20 lives. It was very emotional watching when Grant Denier - the usually very bubbly weather presenter, broke down saying, they were meant to report the weather, and they couldn't warn them. I sat there with a lump in my throat as the unbelievable pictures of torrents of water wooshed through various towns. One of the first people lost in the floods was found 80k from where he was last seen. I tried to get my head around that one and thought that is like from Hamilton to Waiuku and it doesnt seem possible. Tragedy after tragedy unfolded - the parents who got their toddlers onto the roof but perished themselves, the four year old boy swept away as he was being put into the rescue boat and the 13 year old boy who insisted the rescue people take his 9 year old brother first, only then to be swept away with his mother before his rescued brother's eyes. Then there was the rescue folk - the helicopter pilot visibly emotional for the ones he could not save, and the chap who rescued the 9yr old - absolutely heart wrenching stuff. They say that there is over 160,000 homes that have been flood damaged and though the clean up has begun, there are still flood warnings in Brisbane as they wait for the king tide to come up the river. The dam built after the floods in '74 were working at 240% capacity at the height of the floods, - the week before it had been at 17% capacity.

The public response has been huge from the very beginning and the state has taken on a war time battling attitude as it copes with the blows to its infrastructure, communities, and its people. There has been responses from around the world - immediate aid with rescue people from NZ, messages from HRH, Prince Charles, President Obama to name a few. I have had people on one of my face book games comment that they have heard about it as far away as California. There will no doubt be huge enquiries as to why this event occurred is such a major way, some communities may never be rebuilt due to the low lying nature of where they are - cold comfort to those who have lost everything. Many were not covered by insurance after previous floods, and today they were talking about a disaster levy to cope with such things in the future. As we go into the third week, most people I talk to are disaster fatigued, and are over the continuing reports of the losses, but for those involved, the updates are crucial. When you see the amounts of rubbish as the houses are stripped of everything just about apart from framework, there is another story to be told. The mud left behind is phenominal, and they say the stench of rotting vegetation, mud, and rubbish, the removal of all the above and possible disease outbreaks is the next thing to tackle. Every building involved has to be recertified by an electrican before it can be inhabited again. The list goes on and on.

The gloom about the Aussies losing the Ashes in cricket to the Poms kinda got overtaken by the floods, but there is much national nashing of the teeth at the Aussi cricket team's failure - much like what the All Blacks went through a couple of years ago as they rebuilt their team. At the moment, the Australian Open in tennis has taken over TV and there has been some brilliant matches played. I watched Federer win his second match today - his first match against a French guy was so close, I had to go to bed, in case Federer didn't win, lol. Great news to wake up to that he had. Tonights big upset was Venus Williams walking off after her first game which she lost to her opponent with a leg injury. A young Australian player goes up against Nadal tomorrow so will be watching that - if I am awake.

On the homefront once again, I have a boarder - Jude's grandson who is a 17 yr old apprentice. He seems a nice lad though with my shift work, we do not touch base often. A couple of his mates have turned 18 in the past two weeks so he has been out a fair bit - so far so good, lol. Have restrained from making any comment except to ask if he was driving one night or staying the night (assuming there was drinking involved). Have said he can have his mates around but the same rules apply as they did for my boys - anyone drinks, they do not drive, anyone throws up, they clean up (I did say they would get their nose rubbed in it heh heh) and would not be welcome again. He seemed ok with that so we will see. Jude still comes and stays a couple of nights a week so is keeping a weather eye on him too.

I have taken the plunge and booked my tickets home!!!!!!! I am flying out of Perth on the 10th April and coming back on the 27th. I got an Air NZ flight straight through from Perth which is my favourite choice, but am coming back with Qantas doing a stop over in Sydney for a few hours. I did look at Virgin Blue who were slightly cheaper, but I like getting something to eat, and the movie if I want - in relative comfort. I am hoping to hitch a ride to Perth as Jude is having a 60th birthday on the 9th and have booked a flight back from Perth to Geraldton on my return. Great news this week has been that Qantas may be starting flights into and out of Geraldton which will give some competition to the monopoly that Sky West have at the moment. The costs are rediculous currently for an hour flight which is the same as Auckland or Hamilton to Wellington. The cheapest I think I have done Hn to Wtgn is $49 and I have seldom paid over $100 whereas the cheapest flight I can manage to Perth is just over $200 - rock on competition.

It's time to go and do some more work before the kids wake up as it is nearly 6am.
And oops, delayed posting but another one coming :):):)

Happy New Year 2011

2011-01-01T22:31:00.003+08:00

Well, here we are at the start of another year and who knows what this one will bring. I have had a day off work today and have another tomorrow so feel that I am starting off on a good note so to speak. I worked last night until 11.45pm, got in my car and with one eye out for police cars heh heh, managed to shave a few mins off usual travelling time to get inside the house by 2 mins to midnight, to flick the telly on and to watch the next 12 mins of fireworks off the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which was spectacular. One of my best New Year's Eves was spent in Sydney and on that very harbour bridge. There was a more modest display of fireworks back then (20 + yrs ago) from around the Opera House and a band played on a barge just below the bridge. The friend I was with and I shared some of our tequila and orange with a random person who was standing beside us just before midnight, as we were part of a huge crowd of people on the bridge that night. They said there was over a million crowd in Sydney for the display last night which is amazing. I heard today that there was 2 million dollars worth of fireworks used.

Donna, a friend from work left a little after me and made it here for the tail end of the firework display and I introduced her to Brandy Alexanders (brandy, kahlua and milk over ice) to welcome the New Year in. The first one was so good, we had to have another, lol. She came prepared to stay the night so we did not have to worry about her drinking and driving. (ah, the responsibility of old age, lol remembering back to the days before that was an issue - something you can only remember if you are a good age, I might add, heh heh). To aid the consumption of our New Year's drinks I opened up some of my Christmas parcel from home covering the vital food groups - cashew nuts, feta and olive chips (crisps) and pineapple lumps (pineapple flavoured marshmellow insides covered with chocolate). Donna had experienced pineapple lumps before having had a NZ colleague at a previous job and was very happy to try them again. She had an early night around 2.30am and I got to bed around 4.30am.

Had a slightly slow start to the day. Breakfast in the sunroom overlooking Geraldton before Donna left, and then I got on with unpacking and putting things away from the Tardun stored items. In between that I got washing out on the line to dry. We have been experiencing brisk winds over the past week and as I have been washing all my stored linen, I have had to use numerous pegs to keep sheets and duvet covers on the line. Between the heat and wind I have been able to get things off the line as the next cycle has been completed in the washing machine. I have a washing line situation that would be the envy of my sister and various Bulte family members in NZ (I think Lorne might still win with her washing line of over 50+ years out in the front paddock)!

I had just put on my last load and uploaded some photos from Christmas Day when the phone went today and it was Gerard telling me to get round to their place for lunch as Janette, Geoff and family were in from Tardun. Let me see, lunch and good company versus cleaning and unpacking - yep, lunch won, lol. I got back here at 9.30pm after playing cards in the afternoon and watching a couple of DVD's of an Australian comedian called Carl Barron. I had tears rolling down my face more than once as did Janette and Bronwyn. J & G left late afternoon and I stayed on to finish off playing cards and for a pizza dinner. Got back here just in time for an episode of "Midsummer Murders" and I am now watching Strauss waltzes being played in Vienna which is a feast for the eyes and ears. A great way to end the day indeed.

What of Christmas - well, it passed somewhat in a blur. I didn't get to bed before 3am Christmas eve with last min preparations as that afternoon was it for my Christmas shopping. I was up at 6am Christmas day and flicked on skype - did not see anyone on so decided I was going to open my parcels from home with Bronwyn, Gerard and family before I went to work. I loaded up the car with my small parcels for the family and got there at 7am as they were opening all their gifts. After the exchange of parcels I opened up my packages from home and laughed immensely at the creative thought that had gone into it. I have mentioned the items consumed on NY's eve - other items included a small bottle of Lindauer Cuvee, a pkt of Ernest Adams brandy snaps, a pkt of Griffins round wine biscuits, a pkt of Griffins toffee pops (choc covered biscuits filled with toffee filling), a Nutri-metics moisturising body satin,3x Whittikers peanut slabs, a pukeko (swamp hen) sort of ornament, soap, pkt of very nice serviettes, a small bottle of Kiwiherb Herbal insect repellent, a pkt of wine gums, 2 x Christmas crackers (from "Kids Can - fundraiser - I won a months membership to Fatso.co.NZ in one of them - tears, lol, a copy of Metro magazine, a copy of North and South magazine, and a December copy of the Listener - the serious radio and tv mag from NZ. There was much laughter and small squeals (well almost small, heh heh) as each item was unwrapped and the family especially loved the Listener being put in. I received a copy of the latest "Outrageous Fortune" series and a calander with photos on every page of the No 2 grandchild from No 2 son and family, and from No 1 son and family, a DVD of No 1 grandson in his choir at school, dancing to Pink Floyd being played by his Dad and friends in their band, and a short movie segment created by the No 1 grandson called Train Rampage, where he creates a train wreck with his toys. I also received a calander from him made at school and some paua and silver earrings. So, how spoilt was I and what a wonderful start to the day.

Work was mayhem when I got there - 8 children all with new toys opened, paper everywhere and toys being named as fast as possible as things were already getting mixed up. There had been great excitement and I believe some of them were awake by 5.30am to see what Santa had bought. I started work at 8am and by 9.30am we had completed somewhat of an army manouver loading all the kids, food, more gifts, extra clothing and towels into two vehicles and then driving to the venue where we spent the day. Friend Donna had booked herself and family into a place called 'The Mantra' which is a fairly upmarket motel type accommodations right on the waterfront. She had a three bedroom unit type setup but the best part was the spa pool and two swimming pools outside. The kids spent most of the day in the pools with a break for lunch and afternoon tea. They had all received blow up items for the pool as gifts so that added a lot of fun to their experience. As it was 45 Celcius it couldn't have been a better venue. The spa pool and small pool were semi enclosed and roofed, so no worry about sunburn or heat stroke, and about half the big pool was also under the enclosed part which was great. I stayed poolside and kept a watchful eye mainly on the little ones, thankful other staff were in the pools and that I did not have to rescue anyone - I took heaps of photos so the kids will have something to remember the day by. Lunch was probably the most un-Christmassy lunch I have ever had - cold corn beef sliced, turkey roll sliced, and several pasta salads and a tuna salad. The kids enjoyed the lot with ice cream, jelly and trifle for dessert. We had left overs for dinner and we got back to the home around 6.30pm with some very tired individuals. I finished work at 9pm, called round to B & G's to have a fizzy drink and dessert with them and was back here by about 10.30pm dead on my feet. I worked the same hours the following day, got called in for extra hours on Monday and then worked each day for the rest of the week. I am not sure I can remember anything specific as I felt like a zombie by the Monday. Luckily I did not have to work that day until late afternoon so slept until just before I had to get ready.

I have jokingly said, 2010 will be remembered by me as the year of exhaustionn most of the time, with an affinity for those hamsters who run interminably in those wheels, not appearing to get anywhere fast. With the aching feet from working at Maccas to serious forgetfulness over Christmas, I am hoping the worst is behind me. I knew I was tired Thurs a week before Christmas when I was meant to go to lunch. Firstly I was so engrossed in unpacking, I forgot the time. When I was rung by friends already at the restaurant, I gave them my order, showered, dressed and was out of the house in 15 mins. I went to get my car keys and couldn't find them. Not wanting to hold the friends up any more than necessary, I grabbed my spare car key, grabbed Jude's house key she had left behind, went and had lunch and came back to finish more unpacking. It was not until later that evening when I went to water the back lawn, I found my house and car keys (all the keys to the kingdom, lol) in the side garage door which was also wide open - duh. The following day, I got home from work to get the washing off the line to see washing still in the basket. I had obviously zoned off halfway through hanging it all out - how does anyone do that, lol.

All the shows on TV last week talking about NY resolutions said that most were unfulfilled and usually fallen by the way side by mid Jan. So as not to set myself up for failure this year, I have therefore resisted making any. I am resolved to continue to make the best of what I have and to keep following up opportunities as they present themselves. Having my own abode has been a step in the right direction. I am still loving it and though I never thought I would see the day, am thinking I kind of liked the minimal look of the place before I got all my extra and mostly unmissed things from Tardun. Mind you, have not touched my craft stuff yet, or my photos pre digital age, lol.

Hope you all have a safe, prosperous and Happy New Years. xoxoxoxo

Season's Greetings (and I am still alive :) )

2010-12-23T09:33:00.003+08:00

I have a list of a zillion things to do and this is one of them so am taking some time out to update on the crazy thing that is my life, over the past few weeks.

I read through my last post and I was waiting for Phil to decide what he was doing with the house and was also beginning to house hunt. I looked at several properties - there were five in the same street I was living in, so checked them all out. I looked at a couple of older houses that were reasonably cheap ($250 week) and although one had screens on all the windows to keep insects out, there were holes in the kitchen cupboards where I could see the ground so goodness only knows what could have crawled up that - eek. I was dispairing when I spotted this amazing house on line, rang up about it to find there was a look see in an hour. Dropped everything at school, zoomed over and WOW. It was a four bedroomed, lounge, games room, sunroom, office, laundry, two loos, one bathroom, two car garage, and back garden property, woohoo. A family pulled up at the same time as me so after walking through the place and making a snap decision I WANTED it, I spoke to the real estate person as to the next step. There was a for sale sign on the lawn which slowed me down a bit, but she said that they were taking it off the market for the period of the lease. The family had walked out when I was talking about the for sale sign (whew) so I went straight down to the real estate agency, got the application form and had it dropped in first thing the next morning. I then had to wait for the owners to decide if they liked the sound of me, to have the house cleaned and the last bits of their things removed. I was told there would be a decision mid the following week so kept fingers crossed.

Meanwhile Phil was still making up his mind so started packing my gear just in case. On the job front, my position at school was advertised so put my application in. I got a call from Phil to say he was not coming back and he was getting a quote to get his gear back to Sydney. When he got the quote, he decided he could not afford it and would I take his stuff when I moved - OK, and would I take his car as well - OK. He then rang back to say, the tenancy there was ending on the 2nd Dec which was a week away. No pressure!!!!!! I was still working both jobs and had in effect three days to pack and one window of opportunity to move which was the Friday before the 2nd Dec. I had my interview during this time, got told I had my new house, but couldn't get the key until 4.40pm the day I had to move. I hired a truck for $150 that had a lift on the back of it, and Bronwyn, Gerard, the two boys and Emily turned up and we moved Phil's entire house five houses up the road in the hottest day of the month in 40+ Celcius. We made up two beds for Jude and I in the new house, put a few bits of furniture in place and put all the rest in the 'games' room before I bought Noodle Box noodles for dinner for everyone. I think it took us about three hours non stop. There was one more trailer load from the garage the following day, and then two days of cleaning, lawn mowing and tidying up the section before closing the door on Phil's forever.

I spent the weekend unpacking and sorting and as I was heading out the door to work on the Monday got a call from the Honcho from school that I did not get the position for next year. They had decided to rejig what and who they wanted to accommodate a head of campus/ plus a teacher, social worker mix, and employed an indigenous youth worker instead. That was a blow as I was only three days into the new house which I had based on having the two incomes. It was a hard week working with the kids knowing I would not be back and had hugs from every single one of the boys who were there on the last day. I had let the DCP people know I was available for as much as work as possible from the 10th so have been lucky enough to pick up extra work there in the meantime, especially as we now have 9 children in care.

Meanwhile there were two more jobs advertised in the paper for a worker at the local Women's Refuge and a residential supervisors position at the Catholic boarding school which is on the same site as the Flexi Learning Centre. I got interviews for both positions, was declined for the Women's Refuge and have been offered weekend work at the boarding school until the end of the first term when they expect to offer me a full time position - woohoo. I could probably have had the part time job they had but I had asked for full time work and they appointed someone else for that but still want me for the rest in the meantime. I signed a roll over contract for another five months at DCP so it is looking as though I should be able to manage.

During the last two weeks, I have also had a friend here who rang me in crisis when her new accommodation of one week turned ugly over her cat. I was working shift and keeping odd hours so barely saw her but did notice she was not travelling too well, only to find out from Jude (who was also staying a few nights),that our friend had stopped taking her medication a couple of weeks before (she has been diagnosed as bi-polar) so I woke up one morning last week to find the mental health team on my door step (they tracked her down after a couple of ph calls), who then became daily visitors as they administered meds each day. The downside of this was that my friend bought her cat with her, and I am not allowed pets in the house. I had asked three times for it to go, but it took two days of meds being administered before it happened. In the meantime (she arrived with all her furniture and bits and pieces as well) I went to look for a table cloth for the Tardun Christmas we had here and could not find it. Jude in the meantime, had been told by our friend that she had got rid of all her stuff (it tells you how tired I have been that I did not even notice a couch and two chairs missing from the front porch area) asking the maintenance man to take it away when he fixed some lights here. It took me about four days to piece all this together amidst work, odd hours etc, and to track the guy down and yes, he had taken stuff of Phils as well which was also in the games room with all her stuff. Some things had already gone to the dump and I have managed to get one box of linen less three blankets back. Not sure if there is anything else I can do about the rest.

As of yesterday, our friend has left, address unknown as she does not believe she is unwell and does not want the mental health people in her life....... There wasn't much I could say when she handed me her key except good luck and keep in touch. I am left with a massive king sized sleigh bed that she bought the first week she was here, which she found after three nights sleeping in it, that it hurt her back, causing her to move into the spare bed I got from Phil's. Not sure how long that is here for as she said she has moved into a semi-furnished flat. You can see my life is not dull and I maybe need a sign, furniture and household possession storage r us, lol.

The week I moved in to my new house, it was decided the Tardun Christmas would be held here - so had fourteen people for a shared dinner which was a huge success. We all bought one present under $10 and were then given a number in order we were allowed to pick one out of the sack. You could either keep the gift or pick one off someone else that you might like better. It was hilarious as some things got swapped several times and as everyone left Jude and I sat outside on the front patio and watched the firework display from Christmas Carols at the Park in town. I did not mention at the beginning of the blog the this house is on a hill, and I have 180o view of the Geraldton coastline, ocean, port and the city, woohoo.

Bronwyn and Gerard had been nagging me for ages about getting all my stuff from Tardun out of storage, so in conversation on the Christmas night, everyone made the decision, it would happen last Friday as we all had the time off. No pressure again!!!!!. Another truck hire, $110 to the removal people, instead of the $1500 they wanted to deliver it, another 3 hours, and it was all moved. Yp, you guessed it, the games room copped it again. I had several days work in a row and now for the last four days have done nothing but unpack and sleep. I got hurt at work on Sunday when one of the boys kicked off. As I held him while he tried to bite,kick, scratch, punch and spit on me (after threatening to hit me with a cricket bat), it seems I put my bakc out. By the end of the shift I could hardly move. So, inbetween unpacking I have been walking about very gingerly and resting lots in between. Whilst not moving like a gazelle yet, I am able to get up and down and move about more freely today.

OMG, I did not realise how much stuff I had accumulated at Tardun. Also, they packed the entire house, regardless of whether it was mine or not so have ended up with tables, two couches, fridge, washing machine, plates, cutlery, pots etc inherited from Tardun. Clothing was the other surprise - I have much, much more than I remembered so am going to have a bit of a cull I think. As I have existed with two pairs of jeans and three pairs of 3/4 length pants all year, with about 6 shirts, I realise I can do with much less, though it is nice to see some of my more dressier bits for going out (should that happen, lol). Most of you would be shocked at how minimalist I have been this year, heh heh.

I am faced now with girding myself to go to town to do some Christmas shopping. I have not done any, sent Christams cards or done anything about food for the next week or so. I work tomorrow (Christmas Eve) 6.45am - 3.15pm, then Christmas and Boxing Day 8am - 8pm. I am not sure how or when I will be able to contact anyone given the time differences. The plus is, that I have more days off next week, so am hoping to retreive the threads of my life and get some sort of normalacy going or maybe I will just aim for some routine, lol. I have been blessed by receiving three parcels from home - from No 1 & 2 Son's (or should I say the daughter in law's and grandsons :)), and one with a heap of gifts in from sister Kay, Mum and the Bulte family. I am going to Bronwyn and Gerards on the way home from work around 8.30pm and will catch the tail end of a dinner they are hosting for several Macca's friends so that will be nice.

Next posting will hopefully have photos - I am working on getting them off the camera and need to wait till I have everything unpacked, (or near enough), rather than the mess it is in at the moment. To all of you patient readers, who have given me support during the year, and been part of this journey, thank you very much. The feedback is much appreciated, and also the emails that come my way. I wish each and everyone of you a blessed and happy festive season. Love Lynn

Ups and Downs

2010-11-03T23:42:00.003+08:00

It seems I exceeded my internet limit by over 1,700 whats its, so the hamster in the wheel has merely looked over from its reclined position to put an occasional paw to the wheel, lol. There has been no rhyme nor reason to my ability to get connection or what to what I have been able to access. I rang the providers over the weekend as I could not connect at all at one point and when they said I had gone over my limit I reminded them my contract says it will slow after 6g to 60% not stop completely so they rejigged something at their end but connection has remained intermittent. For some reason, I checked my account tonight after 20 mins attempting to connect and yes, the universe does sometimes gives one a win, as there was an option of 7g a for $20 cheaper a month than I have been paying - woohoo. I changed my options on the spot. I believe the new optionn kicks in a small amount of megabites after midnight tonight and then on the 7th should have the full 7g available - yippee.
I have made the odd foray into my email at work but have not had huge amounts of time to do that hence the hit and miss contact over the past ten days. Have looked for folk at times I think they may be about but not with a deal of success and not sure if skype would connect anyways.

Halloween has been and gone - I see on the news that it is becoming more and more popular in Australia causing a huge amount of retail spending. Neither work place took part in celebration of the day and I had no one visiting here so apart from an ecard from a friend, that was the sum total of the event for me. The other event that has been celebrated that stops Australia in its tracks on the day, was of course the Melbourne Cup. There were four days of horse racing that began on Saturday with interviews, fashion, info on the horses, jockey's, trainers, uncle Tom Cobbley and all, lol that led up to the big race on Tuesday. The morning tv show broadcast from there over the four days and it seemed anyone who was anyone was there. A big focus on the news was about Bart Cummings, who has trained 12 previous winners, who was hoping for his 13th win this year. He ended up in hospital over the weekend (he is in his 80's and had pneumonia) but made it out for the big day, unfortunately his horse came third. It was the most backed horse on the day and was touted to be another Phar Lap. I hear the horse was sold for $40,000,000 to an Irish Stable.

As part of our celebration classes at school were tailored to the big race. Everyone was in the draw for a horse in the sweepstake - the winner got a box of chocolates. They played bingo with horse names on the cards, and maths over the last two days has been calculating odds and payouts which has been a novel way of reinforcing times tables and addition. I made a stack of sandwhiches - all posh with the crusts cut off, lol, and we cooked a batch of scones eaten with cream and strawberry jam which seemed to go down well. Students got to design their own jockey silks as the jacket outline had been printed on A3 paper for them to colour in. We did not have a TV to watch the race live instead we watched a lot of previous races via "You Tube" on the WM's computer - listening to the race in the end on radio.

There was no outing in the longboat this week which was a shame and yesterday our trainer was not available at the gym, so damn, had another session on the pool table while a group of others were shooting hoops downstairs. I played doubles with one of the girls against two of the boys and we only lost by one ball so did not disgrace myself and oh my, giddy heights when I potted two balls in a row. My misspent youth was not spent around pool tables so it is by guess and by god that I connect with anything but my aim at the moment is to at least hit something so the others do not get two shots and to actually get a ball down, well that is the bonus, lol. This afternoon we took the troops to the local pool where we had hired this huge inflateable float thing that was like an adventure course in that you had to get over and around connected inflateable shapes from one end of the pool to the other to get to the end, climb up an inflateable wall and then down a slide. It certainly kept them all amused and provided lots of laughs as people fell off into the pool at any given moment. I was amazed that anyone completed the course at all.

Have just watched a clip on the news of this old digger who at 98 is still working full time - 5 days a week - in a news agents and who also is still playing badminton. He said he retired for three weeks when he was 65 from running a hardware store but after three weeks in the garden was planting weeds to dig them up, and found retirement too boring lol. Bless.

Went to the movies with one of my workmates from the residential home on Saturday afternoon. We went and saw "Eat, Pray, Love" with Julia Roberts. The highlight for me was seeing Rome on the big screen and revisiting some of the places I have got see when I was there (five years ago now!) - the story line was average - sort of travelogue meets the 70's path to enlightenment via India and Bali after JR decides her marriage is not what she wants after all. I would rate in OK for a DVD on a wet afternoon. I went out for lunch beforehand to a place called Skeeters which is located on the waterfront which was a nice treat. That was the high light of the weekend as I think the combination of the week before, the anniversary (6th) of Dad's passing, and the disappointment of not getting home for Christmas, led to a fit of the blues so was not fit for much else. Still they do say, if you do not have some downs, you cannot appreciate the ups, - I put that in the same basket of when one door closes another opens and being sick of standing in the draughts, lol. Ce la vie.

We are experiencing the obnoxious effluvia (saying of my grandmother lol) of dead rat/s at school at the moment. I am beginning to think I may have blood links to the Pied Piper of Hamlin in that vermin seem to be continually present in my life! It began with our alarm system throwing a fault and the fix it man told us that rats had chewed through the wiring , with a snide comment that they would of course, since we fed them so well??? We had been used to leaving a loaf of bread out on the table for breakfast toast and I guess had got a bit casual about putting things away. I had noticed two rats running along the wall in the entry way into the building but the piece de resistance was looking out to the passageway where the freezer, toaster and breakfast making table reposes, to see a flipping rat, sitting in the toaster and when I yelled at it, it just looked back!!!! (We have one of those industrial type toasters not the pop up variety) Also there was a whole the size of my fist in the loaf of bread that had been left there by mistake.... The WM had been meaning to get traps for ages but that was the last straw for me, off I went and got several boxes of rat bait from the shops - of mega death strength and that would kill even if they were resistant to the ingredients in usual rat bait (take that, lol!!!!). It was a Friday and by Monday the whole box was gone and I mean the whole box, cardboard and all. On Monday one of the boys found one of the ra ra's comatose in the boy's toilet and removed it with a shovel. Tuesday, we became aware that another one had died in the ceiling in our meeting room necessitating the room being sprayed with eucalyptus oil to mask the smell. Unfortunately, with the advent of summer weather it was extremely ripe today, and we gave up the unequal struggle and moved to another room to start the day. I am picking by next week the smell should all be gone as hopefully it will mummify with the heat - here's hoping. Today another demised rat was found behind the freezer so at the moment its rats O Lynn 3 so to speak!!! I know there are those who keep rats as pets who say they are loving pets, but these rats are the bubonic plague carrying variety so no mercy is shown.

While I am waiting for Phil to let me know what is happening about the house, I decided today to ring up two rental agencies to put my name down to look at other places just in case this one does not pan out. Over here renting is not as easy as it seems at home. Very few houses seem to be privately let so the process is that you ring an agency, they call back with a viewing apt where you get to see the place with whoever else maybe wanting to check it out, and then you take it from there. They are not open in the weekends so it will mean time out from work I am picking, to view said rentals. They do not seem hungry for business either as I rang this morning and have not had a call back yet. You can not make the apt at a time to suit you but have to fit in with the rental managers schedule hence the challenge.

Got a photo this week of the No 2 grandson and he is just gorgeous. Will try and upload photo once I have full hamster power again. He is so like his Dad at the same age and has mischief written all over him. At 18mths he is chattering already so maybe he takes after his nana as well heh heh.

The wind has finally dropped over the last two days and yay the heat has arrived to the point I have the ceiling fan going and am sleeping with open windows to let some breeze in (the windows are all screened so am safe from insects and anything else). Am also using aircon in the car to cool down the inside but find I take it of iceberg chill once the desert heat has dissipated as the inside of the car can become too cold for continued use. It is definitely hat wearing, sunscreen weather if one plans on being outside for any length of time. I notice I am drinking a lot more water so guess summer is finally on the way.

It is past the witching hour once again so will sign off for the night :):)

You gotta take the rough with the smooth!

2010-10-27T21:20:00.004+08:00

At this point I am wondering what smooth may look like, as once again life is throwing some curve balls at me. I have had to make the decision that I will not be going back to NZ for Christmas which has been a hard decision to make. I was searching the net last week for airfares that wouldn't break the bank, when I got the bill for a new water heater in the house at home (NZ) which also involved something to do with taps or pipes which had to be done. I had thought around $1000 -$1500 but have been flattened by the $2550 bill which in effect has taken care of the air fare.

I was wondering whether I could still swing it but today got news that Phil is staying with family in Sydney and not coming back to WA. He has finally made the decision that he will need to wind up his lease on the house that I have been house sitting for him. Phil is ringing the landlord tomorrow to see what his situation with the lease is, whether I can take it over and how long for, whether there will be an increase in rental, and then I have to work out how to manage. At the current rent, I would have to get someone else in, if it goes up, it would be a stretch I think. He is also working with the removal people to get his household packed up to go before Christmas, so if I do stay on, would not have a skerrick in the house until I can get my stuff out of storage. I had thought of going home for a month which would be a month of outgoings with no income so just a step too far at the moment.

When I left Tardun I was under the impression my moving was taken care of by the school and because I had no job before I left, it was agreed that it could go into storage in town with the moving company until I knew where I was going to be. When I went to get it moved once I finally got the jobs at school and DCP so knew I was finally staying in Geraldton, I rang the movers only to be told it would cost $1500 to be delivered!!!!! When I managed to get hold of the money bloke concerned, I said if I had thought that there was going to be a charge to deliver to the final destination, I would have had them ship the whole lot back to NZ and be done with it which would have cost them a fortune - silly me for thinking I would be saving them money. I told the bloke it would be next Christmas before I could manage that on top of everything else, so at this stage it continues to sit in storage, which they are paying for until I can work out the next step. I can go pick it up myself for a release fee of $110 but there are challenges there too.

I had borrowed a trailer from Janette from out at the farm about four weeks ago as this particular Friday the WMH had a day off, I had a day off and the WM's boys were on school hols. I rang the movers to see if I could maybe pick some of the gear up but was told that they would need several days notice as there was no one there to drive the forklift to move anything.- Could I get it on the Saturday - they do not work Saturdays. They do not work after 4pm, and they do not move stuff after 3pm therefore I cannot go get it after school, nor can I get it on the weekends - so back to square one. At this stage, I am thinking I am going to have to take a day off work and see what I can do. Unfortunately when they packed up my stuff, they packed the whole house which involved a good amount of Tardun property so have no idea what I am to do about that. More sleepless nights as I try to work all this out.

Last week while working at the home, two of the boys decided to go off with some neighbouring boys technically absconding from the home, so the police had to be notified. They finally came back around 9pm very sheepish after having been missing for four hours. Have to say, only having the two younger boys to manage was a piece of cake. To even things out, we had a new boy start at school last week who got squirted with a water pistol on his first day. When he nudged the boy who squirted him, he ended up getting a torn teeshirt, scratched chest and he walked out after a mere two hours. Needless to say the boy who thought it was just a joke to begin with, cooled his heels at home for the rest of the day after getting the Lynn lecture before he went - and on his return, which is an eye glazing experience at best. He has been trying very hard to be on his best behaviour since. Meanwhile the new boy has returned.

Got to go out on the long boat again on Monday which was awesome. It was a very windy day in contrast to the almost calm outing of the week before. (I tried to upload photos but the hamsters are not working at full potential tonight so could not get the photos to attach). The swell was about a metre high and there were times the front of the boat was airborn and then would crash into the waves. The boys tacked up the harbour and we doing about 30 knots which is a fair speed indeed. Believe it or not, in the wind that we had, two boys climbed up the mast while we were zooming over the waves - have no idea what it would have looked like if they had fallen, and me thinking health and safety nearly had a conniption but apparently they had done it before and the guy who took us out seem unperturbed by the whole deal. Then what was also a little disconcerting was that one of the boys threw a water bottle over board as a man overboard practice, so the others had to tack and try to come around - the bottle completely disappeared and when finally spotted was some distance away and even though we did turn about, we were not able to "rescue it" - note to self - do not fall overboard with this lot sailing lol.

Tuesday was back to the gym so our students could continue with their fitness training. I had a go on one of the bikes during Friday session and had hoped that seeing most of the students had their programs already organised, I might get one set up, but no such luck. On arrival, we were told that one of our boys who had only just come back after time out, had been banned from the place for abusing one of the staff after he and his mates had tried to nick some pool balls the previous week. I was delegated to take him home for the afternoon but as this was being discussed, he kicked off and said he didn't want to come to the poxy place anyway, and he would burn the place down (or words to that effect). To give him a wake up call, the gym called the Police, who turned up and made him realise what a foolish thing he had done. Ah, all in a days work, lol.

Just as I have been trying to work out the issue of Christmas, I have been inundated with mention of NZ on the telly. I was semi-dozing late the other night when the sound of a haka bought me to my senses - woohoo, it was a particularly vigorous one with the NZ team going up against the English team playing rugby league in Wellington. I actually ended up by watching the game the the poms being beaten, heh heh. On Sunday I was watching the V8 racing on the Gold Coast and there blazing home in second place, the commentators were raving about the NZ driver who nearly took out the winner in the last lap by some brilliant driving (even though he was driving a Ford). Then on Monday - up pops Grant Denier (not sure if that is how you spell his surname) who does the weather from some amazing places all over Australia for GWN morning tv program, popped up in Christchurch, and then at Lake Tekapo today ??? Yesterday afternoon while drifting through the channels avoiding hideous children's programs (lots of noise and colour) there was Paul Mecurio of "Ballroom Dancing" fame, (who now does cooking programs amongst other things), - you guessed it - he was in NZ, doing "New Zealand on Plate". He was teamed up with a Maori woman who does a cooking program of her own, showing him through Moana Fisheries in Auckland where they got fish for several different dishes, and she also featured *Rush Munro Ice Cream (which is to die for)as part of a dessert that she made. And last but not least, on the World News this afternoon (again avoiding children's programs) there was mention of a list of the least corrupt countries in the world - New Zealand was second after Denmark!!!!!! lol It has been a little like having salt rubbed into a wound and kind of surreal to see the haka, to hear a karanga and to see people hongi on an Australian tv channel but is also wonderful in its familiarity.

Last week was the Number one Grandson's 8th birthday - another tug at the heartstrings. I rang on the day but there was a small gathering of mates playing treasure hunts and army so said a brief hello and rang back on the weekend. He had some friends around after school and the treasure hunt ended with a chest with a skull in it (not a real one Nana just a pretend one) with Halloween type lollies such as lips, fingers,etc. I am waiting on photos to be emailed of the event. I had posted a Harry Potter card (owl post) and sent him two Ben 10 teeshirts and the next two Harry Potter movies that he did not have which he was very pleased with.

Since not being able to go home for Christmas, the next decision I have made,is that I will be home for Easter instead. Sister Kay and friend Viv (wave) are organising a school reunion for Kariaotahi School - the primary school I attended from 5yrs until the end of my 9th yr. Definitely something to look forwards to.

*Rush Munro Ice cream is 100% natural product - no additives or preservatives and has the best flavours. It is made in the Hawkes Bay but goodgle them for an outlet near you :). My particular favourites were licorice - which I see they no longer make, feijoa which is devine as is their rum and raisin. After checking out their current list, I want to try their Lemon gin, Lemon Honey, Manuka Honey and Mocaccino.

Had better go get some shut eye so night night all.

Life on the Ocean Wave

2010-10-20T23:56:00.005+08:00

Just thought I would let you all know how hard life is at the moment lol. Once again have been busy, somewhere over 65hrs last week but things are slowing down somewhat over the next two weeks. After my last post, I actually had the luxury of several days off - unfortunately it was too late notice for me to have planned anything so was a little disappointed at first, but then, oh the joy, time to stand still and catch up with some of the little things in life such as finishing a book I had on the go for weeks, some shopping for summer clothes, and actually catching up on some long overdue emails to friends and family. I had several days work at the home during the second week of the holidays and then a meeting with the Principal of the school who made a lightening visit from Queensland.

The upshot of that visit, is I am now employed until 10 Dec for 30 hrs week and have changed from being a casual to part time. That means I am entitled to sick pay if I get sick etc. So, just a little bit more security woohoo. The job that I am currently doing which is a mixture of youth worker, teacher aid and social worker is to be advertised as a full time position for next year which I am able to apply for so watch this space.

I am still working at the home though am adjusting hours there and will probably do one afternoon shift and some weekend work as required. I got two twelve hour shifts last weekend and two afternoons which just pushed things a bit so was feeling less than my usual tranquill self (lol) by Monday afternoon when I got home from school, reached the couch and slept like a log for a couple of hours. Jude bless her heart was staying a couple of nights and I woke up to a roast chicken dinner on the go.

On Saturday (at the home) we went down to Dongara for the day and took the kids fishing. Well, I watched one who wanted to spend most of his time in the water, and my co-worker watched the three who wanted to fish, thus saving me from the icky bits of handling bait etc. One of the boys caught one small fish but threw it back into the sea before I could get photographic evidence and surprisingly, they kept at fishing and hunting for crabs for several hours.

We went to Port Dennison at Dongara and were at the harbour when the tide was going out so it was a very safe place for the boys to swim. There was even some sandcastle building with a castle wall and a moat with water so lots of fun for all. All this plus a playground beside the public barbeque area/toilets/showers. We had gone prepared, so after the two youngest had done with all their swimming we got them into the showers and into fresh clothes so skipped that job on our return to the home. We had taken a picnic lunch with us, snacks and drinks and got an ice cream as a treat later in the afternoon and apart from some arguing over who was going to sit where in the van before we left, we had a pretty good day out and some very tired boys on our return.

Keeping in theme with all things tidal, the next day at school, the afternoon activity was going out on the Batavia long boat replica around the harbour. The original Batavia longboat was used by Fransisco Pelsaert in 1629 to sail to Batavia (present day Jakarta) in order to get help after his ship (the Batavia) struck a reef at the Abrolhos Islands and sank on its maiden voyage. The Batavia longboat replica was launched in March 2003, the result of a shared vision between the WA Museum Geraldton and the central West College of TAFE.

This boat is used as a training boat to teach kids how to sail - Suffice to say - when I first saw it, I thought, they had to be joking that we would all fit on it, followed by, how the heck will I get in and out of it without disgracing myself, (does this longboat make my bum look big,) lol.

This is two views of the boat. To get into it, the chap who took us out pulled it up to the side of the wharf with one of the long ropes that attached it to the wharf. Then you had to crawl through the rail at the edge of the wharf and basically manage to get yourself from hands on the rails, feet on the wharf to dropping down into the front of the boat hands on a rope and feet feeling their way down a piece of wood that ran down the middle of the front of the boat before the boat pulled away from the wharf as water lapped around the boat. As I said I made it without incident. (On return, I had to pull the boat close to the wharf with a rope, get one of the students to hold that then haul myself up by another rope, feet walking up the side of the boat and then had to launch myself to grab the rails before sliding between them back onto the wharf!!!!!) Then where to sit - there were a few planks at strategic places on the boat that one could sit on, keeping an eye out for sails etc being moved about the place once we had got under way. It felt we were very close to the water, maybe only a foot or two once underway which was a little disconcerting when the swell was about the same. We motored out of the dock area into more open water before the sails went up - and what a buzz it was to be out on the water. Very like being on a bucking horse to start off with when there was more of a swell I must say but then it was like being on one of those rocking loungers - very relaxing I must say.

Splice the main brace, lol
As we sailed about the harbour, we had marvellous views of Geraldton and the port where several ships were docked. There was also a couple of pens fenced off in the middle of all this which is a fish farm run by the local polytech. It is quite bizarre to see it as it is in the main thoroughfare where all the ships come and go. Then not far along from the fish farm, is a pile of rocks known as seal rock where there were about nine different seals were basking in the sun. It was amazing to see them and at first I only noticed two because they blended so well with the rocks and then as we got closer, they became more noticable. I have to say, there was a particular odour about the place, so am not sure whether it was the seals who smelt rank or droppings from cormorants etc but on reflection I think it must have been the seals.
With a bit of luck, this will not be my last outing as the chap who runs the boat is keen to run a course for some of our students that will result in a certificate for them. Depending on how many go out next time, I may have a go at getting the sails up myself and who knows, maybe even a turn at the tiller. All good practice to be a pirate, heh, heh.

Each week our students attend a sporting complex that is run by the police. They have been doing a program of various things such as boxercise, stunt work, gym exercises, trapeze work and rock climbing. Last week there was nothing specific planned so while some of the kids shot hoops, I played several games of pool with some of the others .. again, life is tough, lol. What was very exciting was by sheer fluke I actually hit some balls into the pockets and again did not disgrace myself totally. Today they did rock climbing - I did not have a go at that and took photos instead. The thought of being trussed like a fowl in the harness they had to wear put me off to say nothing of the lack of strength in my arm that is still twinging with tendonitis.

Summer is finally on its way with temps some days around 37o. It means that during the heat of the day, I am now down to one layer, though evenings and mornings I still keep a jumper handy. Have switched to summer night attire and down to one duvet and had one night last week with just a sheet but again, there are still some cool temps at night so keep the second duvet handy. Jude got the hose out and watered the lawn on Sunday night and last night I worked out the tap and hose system so we were able to just switch it on rather than hand hold the hose. I need to find out the days we are allowed to water and what all the gen is around watering as on the news tonight, people are going to be fined if they water when they should not be doing so.

Got very caught up in watching the Commonwealth Games while they were on. Of course Australia won a trillion medals it seemed, - there was not much coverage on anything else that did not have an Aussi competing. How good was it though that NZ got the gold for the rugby 7's and for the netball. Both nailbiting efforts I have to say. Nearly had to turn the telly off at one stage and had to google to see how we did so I could keep watching the rugby. When the Silver Ferns won the netball, it was such a buzz. It was nice to be able to rub those two efforts in lol.

Have just seen on the late news that another Hollywood identity has passed away - Tom Bosely who I remember best as Mr C in Happy Days which was a must see in the seventies with the Fonz and Ron Howard as Richie Cunningham.

Have just noticed the time and it is way past the witching hour. I am working from 8.30 till 11pm today so had better go get some sleep. Catch you later

Days of My Life.

2010-10-02T23:12:00.003+08:00

I should be heading to bed but just as I was about to go, after watching a detective programme, before I got to move, up came the next programme - which is a documentary about Pink Floyd - how good is the universe to serve that up completely unexpected - woohoo. It is one I have not seen before, so even better. If I sound a bit random through this its because I am writing and watching at the same time. The other challenge I am coping with as I type this is that the letter "n" has bounced off the keyboard of my laptop and I am having to press a soft plastic thingie instead.

So, since I last wrote - the house inspection has been and gone and for 10 days gardening and tidying up outside, plus a zoom through inside, all I got was a note on real estate paper left on the kitchen table saying "inspection completed"!!!! That and the satisfaction that the place looked mint, if I say so myself. I didn't use the kitchen for another two days just to have it remain spotless lol. It was the last two days of school and I had work at the home so had all of my meals taken care of which worked out well.

I am happy to report, my lurgy seems to have pretty much disappeared. I still get a sore throat early morning and in the evening plus the odd cough here and there so hope I have not ended up with the 100 day cough or whatever it is called.

We finished school last Friday with a day at the local swimming pool and a barbque lunch which everyone seemed to enjoy. I have a meeting this Wednesday morning with the Principal of the school who is coming from Queensland to talk about next term. I then worked on the Saturday at the home which ended up being from 7.45am until 9pm. One of the staff had resigned on the Thursday and there were three off sick imcluding the person I was meant to be working with that day. I ended up having three different people from the main office come and help me during instead, ending up with the boss , his wife and adult daughter late afternoon and evening. The day was interrupted by the big clash in AFL between Collingwood and St Kilda - two Melbourne teams fighting for the Premiership which is the eqivalent of the Bledisloe Cup in Rugby if not bigger. I watched the last quarter and got totally caught up in it when buggar me, the score at the final whistle was 68/68. The woman who was helping me seemed gobsmacked and I said, its alright, there will be a kick off and one will win and one will lose. No, that is not how it works in footie over here. There had to be a rematch. It was the weirdest thing to watch. The players lay on the ground, utterly spent, the crowd was in shock and unusually quiet and the disbelief on their faces was like witnessing a death occurring. People had arranged weddings, holidays etc around the final so this threw the country into a turmoil immediately. To really complicate things, Virgin Blue - the airline that hundreds had been booked on to and from Melbourne had rolled out a new computer system which crashed on the day the game was played that ended up taking over two days to sort. Happening the first weekend of the school holidays, it compounded the chaos. So, after the final footie shows for the year the previous week, programs were rescheduled and there was another round of final programmes for the year again which lead up to the rematch. I can report that today Collingwood absolutely vanquished St Kilda by over 50 points and it was a great game to watch, although I still have difficulty accepting forward passes, lol. I had Jude here at the beginning of the game before she went to work and we were discussing the differences between AFL and rugby - great armchair critics that we were, lol.

Last Monday was a public holiday - I think it was Aussie's Queen's birthday but worked so was oblivious to anything but that. It also happened to be the Sunshine Festival in Geraldton and there was a parade that we took the boys to see. I tell you, the Waiuku Christmas Parade would have put this one into the shade but the boys enjoyed all the hoopla of the trucks, floats and people walking about dressed up - especially the ones handing out lolly pops, lol. The 7 yr old wanted to know if the parade was a party, and made a comment on the army music when the Scottish Pipe band marched past playing some uplifting skirrling type song. I was fascinated in how he put the pipe band and the army together. There was a firefighting koala on the back of a fire engine - that is when I realised it was not another NZ parade lol, and there was a float with a kangaroo, to say nothing of the decorated Holden cars being driven in the line up.

Since then, I have been on holiday - unfortunately, I did not find out until Wednesday I was going to have so much time off so was ill prepared to make plans for anything grand. Probably just as well, as I feel I have recouped some energy and it has been nice poodling about the house, doing a few errands and shopping in town, watching tv etc. I did go to Jude's son's farm on the Tuesday for a run. It is about 10 mins before Dongara. Jude was babysitting her grandchildren so it was kind of a busman's holiday for me, lol. This is the family that were at the camp draft last year so I had met the children before though I think only the two older girls remembered me. They were halfway through watching High School Musical on DVD so Jude and I had a cuppa then after that we went for a walk outside to view the chooks, ducks, rabbit, lamb, and the horses. The shetland pony was caught and the eldest girl brushed him and cleaned out his hooves before letting him go again. She is 11 years old and it took me back to when I was the same age riding, the preparation before you could ride and the lack of fear you have at that age dealing with animals that potentially could do you serious damage if they chose. Their farm runs right to the sea as it is on the coast line so we decided to go down for a look. The kids ran up and down the beach exploring and jumped in and out of the water before we headed into Dongara for an ice cream to round of the afternoon.

I have been utilising my DIY skills over the last week. I have been up a ladder rescrewing the downlight into the ceiling that I had tried to change the light bulb in some weeks ago. I had left it hanging in the ceiling as at that time my arm was aching post working at Maccas and I could not hold the thing in place. The inspection and I guess gaining some strength back in my arm sorted that out, lol. Also had the step ladder out changing the outside light bulb again. Not impressed that the two year guarantee barely lasted two months. The other hiccup was the shower rose dropped onto the shower base and split last week. This meant that as one tried to shower there was this whole other spray of water shooting over the top of the shower box hitting the wall beyond while dripping on ones head at the same time. I found some tape and tried that first but not luck so off to Bunnings I went armed with rose and hose I managed to unscrew from the fixture after finding a pair of pliers in the kitchen cupboards. It was a bit like trying on Cinderella's glass slipper trying to find the right one. This one was too small, that one was too big, that one was too expensive, until after much consideration I made my choice. I asked at the desk if the fittings were the same as the one I took in and was told they were pretty much stock standard and I could return it if it didn't fit. So, armed with pliers and thread tape I attached the new rose and hose to the fixture in the shower and hey presto, it all works and no drips - woohoo. So, I now add plumber to my list of things I can do, heh heh.

Pink Floyd has now finished and am watching something called "rage" which is also brilliant - it is a music programme with heaps of clips of band includind the Travelling Wilberries, the Kinks, John Lennon, David Bowie, Kate Bush, Doors, Dylan (woohoo )to name a few which has been a bonus indeed.

Had the compliment of the centuary paid to me two weeks ago (this when still under the weather and not at my best). We were discussing ages in general when one of my co-workers said she thought I was only in my forties - (and no Kay, she was neither p......d nor was it a dark night, lol). She has become one of my new favourite people, heh heh.

Midst all the sport, I see that Eddie Fisher erstwhile husband of Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor, and Tony Curtis who was married to his sixth wife, have both passed away this week. Not much was said about Eddie Fisher but there were tributes all day re Tony Curtis with clips of "Some Like it Hot" with Marilyn Monroe featured as the movie that was his most famous one. .... Am watching Jim Morrison and the Doors as I write this - what a waste his death was. I got to go to the cemetary in Paris where he is buried, which was something I had set my mind on seeing while I was there.

Speaking of work, I really had better go get some sleep. I think I can leave James Brown wearing a orange jumpsuit and jacket, lol. Catch you all later.

OMG, I said No!

2010-09-21T00:12:00.004+08:00

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.

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. :)

And just for a change - more work!

2010-09-15T02:14:00.006+08:00

Have been feeling like a hamster on a wheel somewhat over the past few weeks. Thanks to all of those who have sent emails and have skyped me recently, who have been concerned at my absence on the wires. Work has continued to keep me in its thrall doing 50 hrs a week most weeks over the last month if not more. I actually threw caution to the wind today and took the morning off school, as I had no work at the home this evening. I think this makes it my first complete day off in maybe two months. I did sleep until 8am before making it to the couch to watch morning tv, and dozed again. Around mid day decided to have a shower, thinking I would luxuriate under a good hot spray without haste. Wrong! Had barely covered myself with soap (ok,a job in itself, lol) when I noticed the temp wasn't that hot. Cranked up the hot tap which would usually have the skin scalding off me and the water kept getting cooler. Turned the cold tap off completely and still the temp was dropping, so just as it was about to go hypothermically cold, I turned the tap off, sluiced remaining water draining out of the shower to rinse the last of the soap off, turned the hot by now cold water off and hurriedly got dry and into warm clothes. I wasn't sure what the cause was but thought oh well, maybe if I leave it a couple of hours, it will heat up again. Wrong, lol. Poor Jude came home from work, jumped in the shower to refresh and it was still cold. Not sure if it was on gas or what (only house sitting so have taken no notice of the finer details of the inner workings of the house) we walked around outside, finding a ?gas or water heater outside. Jude made a comment about electricity and I had one of those Eureka moments and zoomed inside to the water heater switch, and yes, (thank heavens as I was imagining dollars flying out the window) it was switched off. Jude had turned it off thinking it was a light switch early that morning. Go figure, the light switches are actually in the door frame of the front door and the hot water is just inside where you would put your hand to turn a light switch on, and in the wee hours of the morning, poor Jude had mistaken it for just that. I am happy to report, the water is now hot enough to scald the bristles of a hog again, lol.

After lunch, I decided to tackle the back lawn, as in mowing it. I had given it a trim two weeks ago without the catcher so put the mower down two notches and remowed again without the catcher. The lawn is kikuia grass so doesn't grow much, but is very springy and therefore a pain to mow. I miss good NZ grass on a lawn I have to say, though do not miss the speed that it grows, lol. When Jude arrived back from I stopped and caught up with her before she headed home and thought I would check the letter box as she left. There was a letter from the real estate agent and next Thursday I have a house inspection. There is a list as long as your arm of how they expect to find the place - right down to cupboards wiped out and cleaned, to say nothing of the stove, floors, shower etc etc. The added kicker is that the place has to be weeded outside, gardens maintained and lawns done. Mild panic attack ensued. I have done some gardening out front but the back has been neglected somewhat, grass has grown down the drive way and it is a bit of wilderness at the back of the garage. Nothing like an incentive to get things done. I ended up by spending several hours outside and have weeded the gardens down both sides of the property, one in front of the patio and have trimmed nearly 3/4 round one side of the lawn, pulling weeds out of the path as I have trimmed. Midges were starting to come out and I needed to stop to ring sister Kay in NZ for her birthday.

Last Friday spoke on Skype to the Principle of the Learning Centre (school) and my contract is to be rolled over for next term, and it is likely I can continue next year as well. The big news is that the Workmates Husband has resigned as of the end of term to take up managing the brand new Maccas that is to be built and opened in town by Dec 8. It was one of those offers too good to refuse. Ads have gone into several papers and on line to replace him so it will be interesting to see what eventuates there. The big boss is flying in on the 6th Oct for a meeting so may know more then.

It has been full on at school - should have checked if it was a full moon, lol, as we have had more than one pupil cooling their heels at home over the past week. We have had a challenging two weeks with several things impacting on our students. Two weeks ago a boy in yr 11 from Nagle (Catholic school that the workmates three eldest go to) went home from school and hung himself. As per the usual in todays world, the eldest daughter heard it by txt as she was home sick. She rang here to tell her Mum who then rang the DP at the school to check if it was true, which unfortunately it was. The lad had been to the spring dance two nights before, and had appeared happy and was also laughing and in good spirits (outwardly) on the Monday at school, but something seems to have gone wrong that afternoon so the school was in deep shock as the news started to ripple through on Tuesday. We were just mentioning it at morning meeting at our school the next day as one of our students had known the lad, when news came in that a family friend of one of our girls had gassed himself - mid thirties with small children left behind. Without knowing anyone concerned, I felt the impact myself seeing how others were affected. It gave cause to some discussion during of our morning meeting to say the least.

As all of the students at school have been at odds with mainstream schooling - for one reason or another, so we have some interesting dynamics. One of the boys told one of the girls not to touch his jumper as they were cleaning up the classroom and when she picked it up and threw it at him, he shoved her and she went for him. This all happened in front of me and as I am standing there yelling at them to leave each other alone, they moved apart, he shoved her again and she went for him again, this time with her hands around his throat. I am now watching a fight happening in front of the projector and yelling at both of them to get out when the lad moved to go outside, picking up a chair throwing it across the room in anger, nearly taking out our brand new stove, then kicked the door open before heading outside. Got them separated and calmed the girl down as the WMH took care of the lad which led to him having a few days off. The girl apologised to the rest of the group (something she had never done before) I left for work at the home, and she finished the afternoon off at a sporting activity with the rest of the kids. The following day, amongst the girls there was talk of a party they were going to have in the weekend. This resulted in a conversation in another morning meeting as they had spoken about drinking (they are underage) and had to be told, they cannot talk about stuff like that in front of us as we have to do something about that information eg tell parents etc. The short version is, two of the girl's lied point blank on the Friday to the WM and I re permission to be dropped at the one girl's home and one of them lied point blank again when challenged on the Monday morning which resulted on said girl marching out plus the WM copped a mouthful of swearing for good measure. The one girl we had dropped off at home, had gone to the party and never went home so we had her parents looking for her as she also took off on the Monday, being picked up by the Police later in the week for being in a car with a drunk driver who was unlicensed to boot. That is to say nothing of the boy who abused another boy's girlfriend on facebook and nearly got thumped before I headed that off at the pass. Forget being a youth worker (which is my job title) - I am now thinking of bedcomming referee for serious boxing/wrestling matches instead of soccer, lol.

And for light relief ..., there has been work at the home. Again, not without challenges. Two weeks ago, one of the boys decided to have a meltdown after I stopped him riding a scooter at speed where two toddlers were playing. After two warnings I went to take the scooter off him which resulted in a total explosion where he tried to punch, kick and bite me (9 yrs old). He also threw stones hitting a staff member and then threw plastic furniture about the back lawn at the glass sliding door and the staff member who went out to talk to him before he calmed down and came back inside again. It is a pattern of behaviour he has learned, to lash out when he cannot get his own way, or is thwarted in some way, so as you can imagine, we have had some interesting interactions. He has thrown furniture about inside, yells and swears, and has broken two CD players's in the last few weeks. On the plus side, he hates being ignored, which is what he gets from me when he kicks off. After making sure everyone is safe, including him, I pay lots of attention to the others and take no notice of him until he makes good choices and behaves appropriately. He has begun to manage his temper much better during the shifts I have worked with him over the past two weeks and go figure, the last three shifts, I have been his favourite person!!!! - his other modus operandi is to play staff off against each other if he can. As I do not work like that, he is having no joy there either and slowly he is working out, if he wants something, he has to come halfway to get it. The two little ones that I mentioned last time have left and we had another two littlies come and go since. The coming and going is hard on the three who remain especially the 9 yr old who has been at the home since last year. (The other two arrived just before I started work four months ago).

I was rung by the home yesterday and have been offered a permanent part time position, but it would mean doing mornings and working nights which would mean I could not manage to do the school job as well. As it is only 37hrs a fortnight, I can not manage on that so will stay a casual which gives me more flexibility and will think about amybe looking at a full time position if one comes up there instead.

Midst all of this, I am happy to inform you that I do not have bowel cancer!!! Not that it has been an issue before anyone gets concerned on my behalf. Over here there is a program of 55yrs and over being tested so a testing kit arrived in the mail some weeks ago. Will not go into the details but the samples sent away were all clear. I guess this will happen from time to time which is very proactive in my opinion.

Since I last wrote, the election has been done and after a torturous 10 days, two independent MP's and one of the Greens decided to throw their lot in with the Labour Party headed now by Julia Guillard and the new govt was sworn in yesterday. I think she has 76 to 74 MP's so cannot afford a single bi-election in the next three years as it will mean going back to the polls for another general election.

I have caught snippets of news about the earthquake in Christchurch, NZ and could not believe the damage I saw. It was great news that there was not a single death in the 7.1 quake and I have to say, Christchurch!! who would of thought. It is always Wellington or Rotorua that I thought the big one would hit as in Rotorua (where I lived for some years) there were frequent tremors. I was in Christchurch four years ago at a boarding school conference and got to see a bit of the city on the tram ride that I took and it is difficult to comprehend how much damage there has been.

It is now two days since I began this - got called back to work at the home twice extra this week and have a twelve hour shift on Sat night to Sunday morning and am off again shortly. Apart from the staff member who left yesterday, another one has pneumonia and another fell badly and hurt her leg so things are a bit stretched to say the least. Am going to post this as is and hope to surface again some time next week. :):):)

Pinch and a Punch for the 1st of the Month

2010-09-01T17:16:00.003+08:00

(This was begun, well, on the 1st of the month, lol, but has languished in the drafts section for want of time to finish it , so will post it retrospectively).

OMG it is September, the ninth month, three and a bit months to Christmas!!!!! and the first official day of Spring. I know this because one of the comprehensions we have been doing at school used the months of the year and the seasons. Remembering that the kids we have range from 12 yrs to 16, there were some who did not know how many days each month has, nor when the seasons fell, or even the entire list of the months in the correct order. This is all stuff I knew by the time I was 7 yrs old. We had lots of information printed on the back of our exercise books, - the times tables, weights, 30 days hath September, measures eg 22 chain makes a furlong how many feet to a mile etc etc. It is scarey the deficits these kids have in general knowledge but rewarding at how much they are learning and how their world is expanding. All are aware now that a federal election has occurred, and are even asking has the government been picked yet? The answer to that one is no - Julia Guillard and the Labour party are still in office and she picked up the representative from the Greens party today, but there are three independent representatives who have yet to agree to either party. Watch this space, lol.

Have continued to be extremely busy with no complete day off, though this week I have had three half days at school with free afternoons. The first two I pretty much slept through catching up on working all weekend and have finally come up for air today. We have two new students at school - a boy who has hardly attended for the last five years but has been a reader of books at home, and a girl who has been in bother at her last school and looking for a fresh start. Both seem to be settling in well and have altered the dynamics in a positive for a way. Several boys chose to have time out for not managing to be working under the four principles of the school, being honesty, safe and legal, respect and participation, and had various amounts of time off ranging from overnight to several days. Each time time out happens, it requires a re-entry interview with parents or guardians in attendance so it was a very busy week in that respect. Our lad who holds the record for attendance is up to his 32nd day of continuous attendance which is awesome. The next closest is 28 days with one of the girls holding that position. We started reading a class novel today and it was so good to hear the lad mentioned above read out loud the first twelve pages and laugh at some of the funny bits, thereby reading for meaning and comprehending what he was reading as well. He put himself up a level in spelling some weeks ago, so his vocab has grown and the best part is, he has no shame in asking what a word means now. Shame is a very indigenous thing, close to whakama in Maori I think but conveniently used by all over here. Can't do that Miss, its shame, though said shaaaamme, lol.

It was a busy week at the residential home last week with the two mentioned last time leaving and two new little ones arriving. Our lad with the broken arm also had an operation at the hospital to remove two more teeth at the back so he was not in a good place over the weekend. After mainly dealing with boys, it was a nice change to have a little girl about the place. It took me back to when I used to look after my niece Laura, doing hair in pony tails and plaits and working out which outfit suited the day. Two of the older boys had sports days at their respective schools and both returned with ribbons that they had won in various events so there was much excitement over that.

I have had friend Jude stay again for a couple of nights. On Monday we had both worked in the morning and had both worked the weekend so after having an afternoon tea visit with the workmate and her family, we looked at each other and thought, blow it, we would have take aways for dinner. The Noodle Box was suggested - I didn't even know there was one in Geraldton, and we had a feast. Jude chose Nasi Goreng, I had garlic prawn noodles and decided we would get lemon chicken noodles as well. We both had two bowls of every thing and there was still enough for me to eat last night for dinner and it was delicious. I have a sneaking suspicion I will go back again, lol. I had tried Noodle Box food in Hamilton (NZ) and remembered it was excellent value for money then too. Am sleepy so hope to finish this tomorrow.

Work and work

2010-08-16T00:11:00.002+08:00

It cannot possibly be 10 days already since I last wrote a post - maybe I am in a parallel universe, lol - or it could it be because I am still working both ends of most days. Have not a day off since I last wrote though have had two only half days, woohoo.

I have just got in the door - not long after midnight, the second night in a row from the residential job. Tonight I had to negotiate round unfamiliar roads back here as there was some sort of drama at the second roundabout on the way home, with water flooding the road and I was diverted. Don't you just love driving around streets you have know idea where you are. I decided to head straight down to the waterfront knowing I would connect up to the main road a little further along sooner or later - whew. Although I miss the great outdoors at Tardun, there is a certain magic driving home along the waterfront on a clear night (which is most of them, lol) with all the lights of the port and the shipping lanes, combined with the lights of Geraldton at night - the colours are amazing and it looks like fairyland. The boys at school told me last week there was to be a special moon on Friday night - it was overcast so never saw it - and driving back tonight, I wasn't sure whether I saw a huge moon with a reddish light on the horizon like an upside down sickle shape but much bigger, or, was it was something to do with a ship maybe - it looked amazing whatever it was.

Last week did not start well, I think maybe tiredness had me at low ebb and missing contact with nearest and dearest due to my crazy work schedule at the moment. It also rained, lol and it seemed that the mood infiltrated both jobs. We had a new boy start at school and two less than compliant ones return so that completely changed the dynamics of the group. We had had a great week the week before so was quite a stark contrast. Kids that have been doing ok turned somewhat feral and the rest of the staff also struggled. We have strategised and debriefed at our Friday meeting so hopefully have come up with some positive ideas to better manage new enrolees and the comings and goings of others. The good news continues re attendance with our best lad reaching his 20th day in a row tomorrow and nearly 10 "ten day in a row" movie tickets have been given out.

I worked all bar Thursday and Friday evening at the residential home last week and that has been interesting too. We had two children arrive for a respite care situation - aged 1 and 4yrs old. It was full on as that meant there was three under four in the house. The 1 year old took her first steps at the beginning of the week she arrived and was doing up to 30 steps in a row by the time she left. I got heaps of work as it was decided to increase staff to three for morning and evening shifts and they had an extra person on nights sleeping over as well. Having the two new kids altered the dynamics in the home as well so reckon I could referee for FIFA by now, lol. I spent most of my time with the two older children so concentrated on homework, stories, and kept them amused with games outside in the afternoon.

We have had a game about snakes and rabbits going for about a week now - which began when I was trying to direct the boys in play without doing too much damage to each other. The round trampoline is on the ground at the moment as the netting needed replacing so that has become a burrow that a snake lives down. One boy was the snake, and the other two were rabbits who hopped near to the snake's lair, who could possibly be caught and eaten. We started with the snake asleep, in hibernation for winter (I have played with artistic licence here as not totally sure of snake facts, lol), then it would be spring, the snake would wake up, and pretend to be asleep so the rabbits would hop nearer and onto the trampoline where the snake would feel the vibrations as they were coming, wake up and with hissing and arm up in the air to be the head and teeth, and would try to leap onto the rabbits and be venomous (the boys word, lol although it was more like vemonous heh heh).

The following day, one of the boys had to go off site so they were a snake short and you guessed it, after one of the other staff had to go do another job, yours truly did not only have to continue to direct the game,(yelling out warnings to snake and rabbits,), I had to BE the snake. I was good at hibernation - ie lying and resting on the trampoline and waiting. One of the rabbits decided to gang up on me with the other and try and get me from behind. Managed to grab one and sink my fangs (fingers) into his leg whereupon he wanted to become a snake too. I was now a snake who got bitten by the other snake and hope you will be impressed to know I died brilliantly - arms and legs in the air,hissing and writhing in death throes to great appreciation from my audience. I thanked the almighty fervently that there were no cameras about, nor any other adult witnesses.

The following day it was decided to play pirates and superheroes again using dress ups. There was only one cape so improvised with a black wrap around skirt that I found and two pillowcases tied round the necks of the two smallest boys. The playground was used to good advantage and there happened to be foam swords in the toy cupboard so there was lots of slashing and sword fighting involved which went down a treat. One of the boys has a very interesting imagination and threads all sorts of stories into his play. Q Lynn, are pirates good guys? Hmmmm, thinking the only pirate that comes to mind of late is Capn Jack aka Johnny Depp so maybe I am biased but isn't he a good guy??? So, we decided sometimes they are good and if they are on the other side, sometimes they might be bad. Note to self - need to read some pirate books pronto. The sword play gave pause to the continuous noise of gunfire that emits from these lads as they spend hours shooting each other and laying waste to the planet. What ever happened to cowboys and indians???? Today the two older boys were being firemen and I had to have my cat rescued from up a tree and then to call them as my house was on fire. It is great to see these boys use their imaginations to play outside - it certainly keeps me on my mettle coming up with new ideas to keep one step ahead.

Last night unfortunately their play came to an abrupt halt as while I was in the kitchen getting the roast pork on for dinner (I know, and I am being paid as well, lol), the boys were playing swimming in the sea and jumping off the playground equipmentinto the sand below when the 3yr old jumped after the two bigger boys and broke his arm on landing. They were being watched by another staff member who immediately gave aid and took him to hospital where by some miracle he was seen straight away. He came back later that night with his arm in plaster happy enough to have been given an ice block by the Dr for being so good when his arm was set. Meanwhile, the two others decided they did not want to come inside for dinner and were going to camp out for the night. I finished cooking the dinner, served up mine and started eating and then decided to check where they were at - they were under the net on the trampoline so fished the younger of the two out, got him inside and when he saw my dinner, he immediately wanted his and the other one followed him so all was well.

The bonus of the week was having Jude come stay a couple of nights. She has a part time job cooking for a rest home just around the corner and coming up from Dongara each day did not make sense. We passed like ships in the night for most of the week until Thursday when she finished by 7pm and I had the night off. She had 6am starts so needless to say, I never heard her go in the mornings and got her to leave the tv on at night so she did not wake up when I got home. She will be back tomorrow I think and this week so far, I do not have any work in the evenings so hope to catch up with her a bit better.

Everywhere you look at the moment, there is news of the federal elections coming up next weekend. I am unable to vote as I am not a citizen and do not really understand the convoluted politics over here. There is federal government and then state government. There seems to be news coverage of Julia Guillard doing the rounds kissing babies, cracking jokes with blokes at work, mooching about schools and not much different with Tony Abott, the main opposition. Not sure either would be my choice if I could vote. Other news of note is that it is 30 years since Azaria Chamberlain was taken by a dingo and her mother Lindy Chamberlain was jailed for her alleged murder. I missed a documentary last week where she and her family returned together for the first time collectively since then to Ayers Rock where they were camping when the baby was taken. It is a case that has always fascinated me coming after the case that divided NZ not long before with Arthur Allen Thomas being incorrectly jailed for the alleged murder of his neighbours. What a toll it has taken on Lindy Chamberlain and her family.

I did catch up with Mum briefly during the week. I snuck on to msn in the morning when I woke up to check if I had any msgs and up she popped so went to skype but was busted as I was still in my pjs while it was after midday in NZ, lol. It was good to catch up on all her news. It is well beyond the witching hour so will sign off. I am working at school in the morning and have set up an anti-hag treatment at the hairdressers in the afternoon. Am really looking forwards to that.

Two in two days, lol

2010-08-06T21:51:00.003+08:00

I know, two posts in two days, what is the world coming to. It is Friday night and I do not have to work, though I am working Sat and Sunday at the residential home on the morning/afternoon shift. Like school, working at the home means no two days are the same. Last Wednesday I got called in to work at the home so went straight from school - the last time I will go unprepared anywhere lol...

While one of the boys had a supervised visit in town with family, the other two wanted to go to the beach for a walk. No problem I thought. The boys initially wanted to run along the top of the large bank above the beach so ok, even though I was in jeans and knee high boots it looked fairly ok. Of course, it was not long before the boys wanted to go down on the beach - still ok as I was happy to sit and watch, until the water beckoned. So now I am up a large bank, they are on the beach lobbing sand in the water, then wanting to drag driftwood into the tide, which by my calculations was coming in. Boys being boys, they chose to ignore requests, demands and subtle threats to come back up the bank, until I noticed someone trying to take off with one of their scooters which they had dropped at the beginning of the walk along the bank. They then shot up the beach and I retraced my steps which was fortunate as when I had stumbled over a bush on the way in, the work phone must have fallen out of my bra where I thought I had stashed it! There it was, slightly sandy but lying in the vegetation - phew, grabbed that and caught up with the other staff member who was by now waiting at the beginning of the walk. The older boy decided to give the other staff member (who had turned up in time to rescue the scooter from the family who were trying to nick it), a mouthful of language and stormed off up the path beside a river/estuary that runs into the tide, with the younger boy following him.

Great. Deciding not to follow them along the path in case they would run further away, I took off up the beach, soft sand, puff, pant, lol until I could come up behind them which I did just as the older boy was walking into the estuary with the younger one behind him. There was nothing for it but to go in after them, so there I am, literally boots in all, in swampy water, fishing out smallest child before walking him briskly back to the other waiting staff member. I had to spend the rest of the shift with damp jeans rolled up, in damp socks, while my boots started to dry out. The older boy followed us back to the house thankfully, so it was showers all round once we got them inside.

On Monday when I got to work at the home, the boys had decided they wanted to go for a walk to the beach again (had worn sneakers this time to be prepared) and then to a park. We had the three boys this time and another staff member with me, so off we set up the beach alongside the estuary which eventually became a walking track which led to St Georges beach and a playground - a good 2k walk which took us an hour. The two renegades from the last outing almost ran the whole way, needless to say, I came up the rear with the other boy who dawdled by comparison. Again, another excellent council park with playground, toilets, seats, and a gas barbecue right on the water front. To the left of the beach is Geraldton and north of the beach is the coastline that heads up to Horrocks Beach and Kalbarri. We did not even attempt to walk back but called back to the house and another staff member came and picked us up in the van, as by now we had three very tired boys.

Meanwhile back at school, we have started a project on pollution and recycling. On Tuesday morning after spelling it was decided to research four areas around town to see what rubbish was lying about and what if anything could have been recycled. We went to St Georges beach again so after not knowing that beach even existed, I have now been there twice in the one week. We also went to a council car park opposite Woolworths that backs onto a reserve, some vacant land and the council skate board park. The kids were disgusted with the amount of rubbish we found and could not get over some of the things they found dumped such as fast food wrappings, empty alcohol bottles and cans, cigarette butts, a used condom, plastic etc etc etc. We got back to do a quick debrief before they headed off to a local gym to do boxercise and I headed off to the home for another shift.

Wednesday I got to school to find we were off to Ellendale pool for a barbecue lunch as soon as we had got spelling out of the way. Ellendale is about 3/4hr south east of town. We drove out into the countryside and again through wheat and canola and shrubs just starting to come into flower along the roadsides. Ellendale pool apparently has never dried up, and is fed by a river when it runs and from springs. It is not so much a round pool as more of a very slow moving stream/river surrounded by vegetation on both sides, bull rushes and gum trees amongst other scrub type bushes. It is the first time I have been aware of birds being about, there were bird calls continuously the whole time we were there. I saw a white heron type bird fly off as we drove in and there were ducks on the water - I imagine in another month or two, there would be ducklings as well. The area at the pool is open to campers and there were several tents, camper vans and caravans from people who were camping. There are toilets and gas barbecue there, though we took our own barbecue out with us on the back of the ute. The kids had taken out some footballs so while some of them threw them about, a couple braved the very cold water and jumped in for a swim before eating lunch. We may get out again before the flies start being a major pest so will keep fingers crossed as I did not have my camera with me that day.

Yesterday we had another outing at school - this time we went to the TAFFE careers expo which was a little underwhelming this time. Last time I went, we had a very thorough tour around the campus and got to speak to people in each area. This time we had a lightening tour through four areas and then it was up to folk to go and look at what they might want to themselves. The mining industry was well represented and did an excellent pitch through a video session that we were taken to. Everyone got a sausage in bread for lunch and they had the brother and sister illusionists who were finalists in "Australia you've got Talent" do a show after lunch. I got back to school in time to turn around to pick up my new glasses and go to the Dr's apt for my F endorsement before yet another shift at the home - an extra one as we have two new kiddies in for a week on a respite care set up. And then the flat battery jinx struck AGAIN.

Jumped in my car to head off and nothing - I think I must have knocked the lights on when I got out of the car!!!. NOT a happy camper at all but no time to dwell so raced and got the ute keys,went and picked up my glasses from the optometrists,then to the Drs, so far still on time. Met with the nurse first who did an eye test - (have perfect vision with my glasses on), took my height, weight and my blood pressure. I think it was 112 over 72 which she said was excellent - good oh, round one done. I then met the Dr who turned up wearing jeans, sneakers and a shirt with his sleeves rolled up. What happened to Drs looking like Drs,lol!!! First impressions are that he is ok - he has a sense of humour at least. He did a range of neurological tests, reflexes, peripheral vision, heart and lungs and ticked all the boxes so all good for my licence. He made a comment that I did not see a Dr often and I said I hadn't had a GP for over 20 yrs but along with the licence I thought it was time to do a medical warrant of fitness given my age and stage. He has given me a form to get a fasting blood test which I am to do when I have the time and then make another apt. I told him about my arm which has been painful at times and then he asked what had I diagnosed - I told him tendonitis and he said it was exactly that. Woohoo, all that "Shortland Street" and "All Saints" medical training has paid off lol. (hospital soapies for those not familiar with either of those TV programs). It would seem it does not mend in a hurry, not what I wanted to hear - so have to be careful when using it and I need to get an arm bandage if I am going to do physical work. I went to pay and was told it was $118!!!!! She said something about a cost for the licence but he had made it into a consultation because I had talked about a few other things. Just as well I didn't have my blood pressure taken at that point. I get around $60 back on medicare apparently but was still in shock. I asked how much is it to see a Dr normally and the receptionist said $65 - another gasp. I am surprised they are in business. I think there maybe a medicare component to that as well so have no idea how you would manage if you had a chronic situation. I think the last time I went to Dr in NZ I paid something like $25.00. Note to self - keep well.

I was already meant to be at work by the time I finished with the Dr but also needed to return the ute as the WM needed it later. Neither of them were at home so made a lightening dash to Auto 1, bought a set of jumper leads and headed back to school to get my car going. Good oh, the bonnet lifter switch thing in the ute was broken and obviously not working but there was a wire coming out from behind it. Great, now needed to pull with both hands, (sore arm) and was terrified in case I pulled the whole thing out. Needn't have worried but it did take some force to get the bonnet to pop. Of course the battery was not on the right side for ease of connecting it to mine, so had to manoeuvre about the car park to park at right angles to my car, lift my bonnet up, connect jumper leads to the ute, connect leads to mine, start the ute, out of gear with handbrake on, leap into my car start my car and hey presto it worked. Then had to take the leads of my car, off the ute, move the ute as Nagle boarding school bus was trying to get into where the ute was, re park the ute, then zoom down the road to the WM to drop off the keys before heading to work. Luckily she was home by then, the WMH was in a meeting in town hence having to do all this on my own. For all that, I was only an hour later than I thought I would be getting to the home. At least I now have jumper leads, so I will laugh in the teeth of any future flat batteries (as long as there is someone else around with a car that goes, lol). I probably will not get another flat battery now for years but can live with that kind of Murphy's Law.

Today was another good day - Friday school only goes till 11.30am so after our morning meeting and weekly spelling test, the kids wanted to go sandboarding again so off we went out to the sand dunes. I was wearing my new glasses so getting used to the new graduated lenses so chose not to hurtle down the one in one gradient cliffs of sand but was happy to sit and watch the rest having various successes at getting up and down the dunes. I had worn sandshoes again today, even so it was quite a hall walking sideways up HUGE dunes of sand to get where the kids were. The coastline looked magnificent from where I sat and it was great soaking up the warmth of the sun as we are now in the mid 20's for temp. Am down to two layers of clothing lol.

It almost seems sinful to be paid for having so much fun at work, at either job. We threw out a challenge two weeks ago at school and said we would give out movie tickets for anyone who made it to school 10 days in a row and this morning we gave out four. If they miss a day other than being legitimately sick, their score goes back to zero. We have another four who will get their tickets on Monday and by the following Monday all going well some will be receiving their second ticket. Call it incentive or bribery, lol, the pay off has been an amazing change to how much they have achieved because of the continuous attendance. People who get two or three right on a Monday for spelling are now getting 8 -10 right on a Friday. Two boys have asked to go onto harder words and the participation and the confidence they have gained has been awesome to see unfold. We have taken on two new students this last week and likely to have two more new ones next week so the official role is up to 21 I think. We have gone from having five or six a day turn up to I think it was fourteen today and we have not had under 10 all week. This may not sound like much, but these are kids who have been completely disengaged from the school system from a term to a year in some cases.

Will have two very busy days over the weekend at the home but have Jude coming to stay on Sunday night so will look fwds to that.

Still more

2010-08-05T00:48:00.005+08:00

I spent some considerable time writing a post last week, saving it so Icould proof read it the next day before publishing it, and somewhere between save and publish, the whole thing has disappeared into the ether...... not impressed.

The epic continues: Last week was another hectic week. I worked two night shifts at the residential home - 10.30pm to 7am, getting back here to crash on the couch to try and sleep enough to get through the next round. I managed a ph call on the Saturday 24th July to NZ to Mum for her birthday and the following day to Clive for his between shifts. On the Sunday night, I had my last shift at the ff place for awhile and am more than happy about that. Monday it was back at school but had nothing that afternoon - felt like I had a get out of jail free card woohoo. I decided to sieze the moment and went to the optometrist to get my new pair of glasses underway. I do not think the woman working there was very impressed with me - she told me to browse the frames and I said I didnt need to, I just wanted a very basic, no 1 CHEAP pair. She directed me towards some name brands regardless and I had to repeat myself and she still did not seem to get it. In the end with lips like she had sucked a lemon, she managed to come up with a couple of frames and though I liked one pair more than the other, I picked the cheaper pair, telling her I wanted to see, and was not overly concerned what they looked like. As it happens they are pretty much like what I already have so no drama. It would seem I should have two pair of glasses ideally - one for reading and such like and one for all else. I said I had hard enough time of keeping one pair organised and two would be a recipie for disaster - hence me getting graduated lenses in the first place. Arrrrrgh. The good news was however, when she zip zapped my hbf card ( health ins) I received $160 off the price of the glasses which I was very impressed with. Am starting to like this health ins business.

I had thought I might do a quick bit of shopping but as I drove past the university medical practice, I drove round the block and pulled in to see if I could sign up for a Dr as I was in personal warrent of fitness mode. I need to get a medical certificate to update the F endorsement (just try saying that in a hurry, lol) on my licence which will enable me to drive the school mini van. It would seem I was in luck as they have two new Drs taking on patients, so have an apt for tomorrow to start the ball rolling there. The receptionist told me I had the choice of an English or South African Dr, I replied I didn't care as long as they knew their stuff. I have been given to the South African guy so will see how it all goes.

While I was on a roll, I then drove to a dentist I had been recommended. Took a deep breath and entered the building, and met with a very nice receptionist. Filled out paper work and then was told I could have an apt in half an hour as they had just had a cancellation. Immediate panic. More deep breaths and I decided, what the heck, would only be putting off the evil hour so may as well take the apt. I did mention I was not good at dentists, but the receptionist kind of brushed that off with a laugh. Ok. Half a magazine later, a young thing came out to get me, seated me in the chair and then the dentist came in. I said I needed a check up to find out what needed doing, showed him the gap from my lost tooth and then closed my eyes and lay back in the chair after warning him to I was not so good with dentists. So of course, the first part is to open your mouth while the dentist tacker tacks round your teeth with one of those probe things, apart from the sound of a drill, that's that part that I hate most. (Oh, this looks like it needs a filling, gouge, gouge, pain, pain). I am always jumpy in anticipation that as they are tapping, scraping and hooking, they will strike a nerve or what ever. This dentist did not take kindly to my nervous apprehension, and told me he wanted me to open my eyes as he did not like people being jumpy - hmmmmm like I am going to be more relaxed seeing it coming. Too late, my body had started shaking, tears streaming out of my eyes - total involuntary reaction, so shallow breathing like labour lol, tried to get under control, while he stopped and decided to take xrays instead. Xrays I can cope with. Xrays taken, he then asked what I wanted done - it would seem I have to have another tooth out, next to the gap in the bottom front, and then on the right bottom lot, I have to have a stainless steel pin put in where a tooth has fallen half away, cos he can rebuild, and something else to the tooth next door. I was too stressed to take it all in. He has given me a quote for $1500 for the lot that will include a plate to replace the missing teeth. He asked whether I wanted a metal or plastic plate, like I had any idea. I have chosen to go with a plastic one as a metal one would mean a trip to Perth, and a plastic one can be altered should I lose any more teeth. The next decision was whether to wait for gum shrinkage or to put plate in immediately after tooth extraction. It will be put in immediately - I told him I could cope for any amount of time with one tooth missing but two was a step too far as he suggested six months was the time it would take for the gums to shrink properly. He also gave me a script to get some sedatives from the Dr before the next apt. Am not sure when the next step will be taken as I told him it will be finance driven. I can still eat, lol. Still not entirely sure I will not look for another dentist, as if he insists on me being in the chair with my eyes open while he is doing work, it isn't going to happen. Got the apt paid for by hbf though I had to pay $79 for the xrays so I now have had more benefits than what I have paid to date.

On top of this, the saga with the cars has continued. After the new battery in Phil's car, all was good for nearly a week, then went to go to work at school one morning, and the flipping new battery was flat. I have diagnosed that the alternator has packed it in but have yet to get the car to a garage to find out. As my car was still being fixed, the WM picked me up that morning on the bus run for the kids and leant me their car to get to work for the next few days. Got my car back on the Friday afternoon so all was good again. After the traumatic experience at the dentist, I went to the WM's for a restorative cup of coffee, and ended up playing a hand of canaster with the WMH. I noticed the clutch on the car went straight to the floor boards but thought I was just getting used to changing cars again. Tuesday not only was the clutch to the floor but also on the way home from school, it was quite hard to change gear. I rang the garage when I got home and asked did the clutch have clutch fluid and would it cause the gears to stick if it had run out. The answer was yes and yes. I remembered when I had left work at the ff place on the Sunday evening, there was a damp patch beside the car - in CSI mode, I had picked up some gravel to smell to see if petrol had been leaking or oil but there was no particular smell so had thought no more about it buy now wondered if maybe it had been clutch fluid?. I arranged to drop it back to the garage the next morning, the WM picked me up again, and that afternoon I borrowed the work ute as I had picked up a shift at the home that night. It transpired that the the slave and master cylanders on the car had packed it in and the mechanic also replaced a gaskit and spark plugs, so another $344 later, and now am good to go.

On Thursday last week, we had the Principal of the learning centre (school) come over from Queensland where he is based. Two other staff came with him, so Thursday was at school from 9am - 6pm as we had a long meeting after school- then we all got taken out to dinner which made a very nice change indeed. I ended up having the first weekend off work in weeks last weekend which came not a moment too soon. Slept a good amount, did housework, washing, floors etc and started weeding the front garden. I had another round of changing light bulbs - I dragged up a ladder from the back shed as I could not reach the lounge lights with the step ladder. Changed the first bulb, switched it on and nothing. Ok, maybe the two of them have to be replaced at once. Went to put the second bulb in only to find that the bakerlight holder had broken away at some stage so had nothing to screw it into. Made sense why there was no bulb in there already. Not ready to give up yet - there was one more large enclosed down light to go, I clambered up the ladder and unscrewed the light only to find it was in a sealed unit and I could not get into it without possibly breaking it. Then, could not manage to hold the light and rescrew it in so after a few well chosen words, have left the sealed unit resting on the edge of the hole it came from, until I can find someone taller than me or with more strength in their arms than I have to put it back. Fortunately, the new bulbs I bought both fitted into the hall sconces, so I now have two that go there and that is all the light I have in the lounge as the hall is open into the room.

In the midst of this I ended up by having Janet and Jude visit at different times which broke up the afternoon and on the Sunday, Janet and I drove down to Dongara to have lunch with Jude. It was great to see wheat growing on the way down, and the canola has burst into flower so there are swathes of dark green with the wheat and bright yellow with the canola. Shrubs are starting to flower so the wild flower season is not far away. It made me realise how much I miss living out at Tardun, as being in town and working so much, I have been oblivious to the changes in the seasons.

Need to get some shut eye so will close for now.

Its been a hard days night plus plus.

2010-07-23T00:54:00.009+08:00

Just when I thought I had got my life organised, hello, the universe struck back and said no, you need a few more challenges in your life yet, lol. Balancing jobs has continued since I last wrote. After a massive week I got to Monday (ten days ago now) and as I worked late the night before at the ff place I thought bliss, I have a day off tomorrow, I will sleep in,catch up on some stuff, and surface to catch up with folk. Well, the alarm went off early as I had forgotten to turn it off, but I did go back to sleep. I got up later in the morning, did some tidying up and washing, curled up on the couch to watch some morning telly, made it to lunch time and crawled back into bed and slept the afternoon away. This was all good as I thought I had two days off in a row. Wrong!!!! at 11.30pm that night as I was putting some things away, I picked up my calander and nearly stroked out when I saw I was working at the residential home at 6.45am until 3pm the next day, in fact the calander said I should have been there that day. OMG, but surely they would have rung me. Well, try to sleep when you have already had more than your usual quota for the day, not made any easier by waking on the hour so I didn't sleep in again like the week before. I made it to work ok, to find out we were going on an outing to the Greenhough Wild Life Farm south of Geraldton. The boys were in high spirits so we nearly didn't get there until they settled, had seat belts on and were getting on together. The wild life farm was a bit of a misnomer as there were a few domestic animals as well but there were dingos, emus, kangaroos, a crocodile and some cockatoos, along with the donkey, horse, goats, sheep, steer - (there were lizards and snakes too but didnt get to see them up close). We were given bags of food to feed some of the animals, strict instructions on not feeding others and everyone seemed to have a good time. Just as I walked up to one of the enclosures, there was a male peacock with his tail up which was awesome. I think the last time I saw that happen was a zoo visit when I was around 5 yrs old, lol. Unfortunately, the battery in the camera died so missed getting photographic evidence.

I found I was to be working the following day too, so another early morning start - this time a trip to Horrocks Beach had been organised. Horrocks Beach is about an hour up the coast line north of Geraldton. Horrocks Beach looks like a picture from the 1950's - fibrolite baches across the road from the beach, one general type store, and a motor camp. Where we parked, there was a covered area with tables and a kitchen sink at one end where you could sit and eat, there was a barbeque outside and a play area beside that. Down on the beach, a grader was working to fix the shore line from the storms of the week before. There was a jetty going out into the tide and as we had gone with another group of kids, some had a go at fishing off that, while others played in the sand or got into the water. It was a beautiful day, so I sat up on a bank, surveying where the kids were all at soaking up the sun - woohoo. The water is relatively shallow for quite a way out, so had already worked out the likelihood of my having to leap down the bank to rescue someone lol, which was extremely minimal. After a picnic lunch we headed back to the home. I finished at work there with 20 mins to spare to get back into town, get dressed to head out the door to the ff place for my evening job. Luckily is was not a late night so was back here by around 9pm.

grader working on the beach

looking out from beside the play area

baches

I had noticed the car smelt hot when I got home that night, but didn't think much more of it. I had the next day off until 3pm, had made my list of things I wanted to get down in town but first, I wanted to get the inside light in the car sorted. After replacing a missing fuse the week before I hunted out a small screwdriver to pop the cover off to check the light bulb and as I jiggled the bulb, hey presto , the light came on. Eureka, I thought, and was feeling pretty pleased with my mechanical prowess. Oh, how pride goeth before a fall, and the following was the Grand Canyon of falling, lol. Remembering the hot smell, I thought I would check the oil and water, imagining the oil may need a top up. If only. I found a jug, filled it with water and watched somewhat disconcertedly as it poured in one end of the radiator and whooshed out somewhere near the right front tyre. Just in case it was an abberation, I poured another jug into said radiator, and lo and behold, it whooshed through again. All was not lost, as I had just opened the mail that morning to find my new RAC card. In NZ it would be the Automoblie Association - I am thinking it may stand for roadside assistance something but if I am wrong you get my drift. I mentioned some time ago joining the RAC when I bought my car and how I had decided to take out the one (large) fee option that covered everything and I am VERY pleased that I did. I had work that afternoon at the ff place so I was not too worried as I thought - no problems - I will use Phil's car, give it a run and that will work. WRONG!!!!. Hopped into Phil's car and flipping flat battery - not a jumper lead in sight. Had about an hours wait when the RAC man turned up, said my car's water pump was in its death throes and he would organise a tow truck to get it to a garage - and bless, he got Phil's car going, said to leave it running in the garage for half an hour and all should be good. I had just enough time to grab a shower, get dressed and get to work at the ff place for a 3pm - 10.30pm shift.

Worked like a cut cat as we were busy with staff down through sickness, and with stocks run out of several items. A fun night! Never mind, I thought, car is primed, will zoom home catch some telly, wind down and get a good nights sleep. Again, if only. Got into the car, and buggary bollocks, it was flipping flat AGAIN. No one at work had jumper leads so once again, I was on to the phone to the RAC with a somewhat terse conversation seeing a mere recharge had not fixed the sodding thing. Another near hour wait, car going again and zoomed home before anything else went wrong. This bloke said the battery was obviously dead so best thing was to try and get one the next day. Good oh. The WM and family were still away on school holidays so waited patiently until 9am and decent time to ring, rang Janet and she said she could take me to get a new battery - brilliant. Went to Repco and $180 later, new battery all good to go. Had no spanners to hand but found a pair of pliers that did the job, took the old battery out, lugged the new one in and woohoo, the car started first pop. We had already had a well deserved cup of coffee at Dome so Janet headed home and I zoomed to the library to return books for the WM's children. Pressed the door lock/opener on the car keys shut, shot into the library, dropped the books off and back to the car, pressed the automatic door opener and nothing. Pressed the button again, then the other button, still nothing. It was about 1pm, my phone, and wallet were locked in car, and I was due at work again at the ff place at 3.30pm from memory. Began to think I had been born under a bad sign by now, two cars down and now the sodding lock. Crossed the road to a service station and wouldn't you know it, they did not stock this particular battery. ARRRRRGGGGHHHHH. I took a deep breath and thought the key has to open a door, surely cars have not bypassed being able to use a key altogether. Tried the drivers door but no luck - do not know why. Boot wouldn't work either, and just as I was ready to kick in a window (thinking dark thoughts indeed), for some reason, I tried the passenger door and had a pavement kissing moment, when the door opened. Needless to say, I leapt into the car, shot off back to Repco and got a battery for door lock. Was so stressed, rang work and said I would be an hour late has had got nothing achieved that I had planned for the day.

Friday worked at the ff again until 10.30pm then onto the home to shadow another night shift until 3am. Was wide awake by the time I got home so poodled about until 7am then slept for a chunk of the day before heading back to the ff place for work that evening again. I did a dash round to the WM's place to use the drier to get uniform dry and as they were getting back from holiday that day, zoomed round the house and put pile of washing left on and hung it out, got in washing left on line, cleaned fridge out of a few things as there had been a power cut at some stage and got a bottle of fresh milk so they had something to come home to. Worked until midnight and got to bed around 3am and then woke up next day to a call from the WMH to say they were back. Paid a flying visit that afternoon before heading back to work once again at the ff place - an early night 4pm until 9.30pm and a reasonably early night because, in the blur the past two weeks had been, it was back to school the next day for teacher only day and on the Tuesday we had all the kids back - well the ones that turned up after the holidays, lol. I have one more week on the roster at the ff place and will then drop back to being on call, only picking up a shift if I have nothing else on. Whew.

Beware what you ask for!

2010-07-11T23:25:00.003+08:00

Down to one job, I think I said in my last post - famous last words. Last week I was rung by the folks from Child Protection on Monday and started on the Wednesday (I think) with them6.45am till 1pm, then a quick change then to the fast food job until midnight, then back to CP 10am - 7pm Thursday, Friday back for a staff meeting midday until 2pm, then again 10.30pm - 3.30am Saturday and then later in the day, 4pm - 10.30m at the ff job and tonight 3pm - 8pm. That is a snapshot of what my weeks look like. LUCKILY, I have taken leave from the ff job at the end of this week so will be down to the job at school 9am - 12.30pm Mon -Thurs with a shorter time on Friday and the CP job will fit around that, mainly afternoon shifts and weekend work.

Last week Wednesday at the CP job it was mainly about paperwork, and induction to the residential home where I am now in the process of becoming a residential care officer (I think that is my correct title). The children being looked after are there by order of the court having been removed from their family situations for a variety of reasons. Most of the children who need this residential situation have some significant traumatic incident or incidents in their backgrounds, hence their removal to an environment that helps support them until they are ready for placement back into family with supports, or into foster care. Most are emotionally younger than their chronological age and many basics have to be taught as well as such things as anger management and appropriate ways of behaving. Having worked late at the ffood place the night before, I set the alarm on my phone for 5.30am which would have given me 5 hours sleep and horror of horrors woke bolt out of a dream at 7.10am. Thank God for a boarding school background and casual clothes for the job, lol. I was showered, dressed and heading out the door by 20 past seven (and yes water did touch my body, lol) only to drive nearly a mile before I realised I was not wearing my glasses!!!!!!! Eeeek, knew I was doing paper work and am now blind as a bat without glasses for reading, so there was nothing for it but to turn back, at warp speed and then return at a very fast pace reaching the home by about 7.45am totally embarrassed - luckily they all thought it was hilarious, whew.

Thursday, I went along on an outing with the three boys in care at the moment, which involved a trip to the playground on the waterfront which was a huge success. It was an outing where family members of the boys were able to join us too. We went out under threat of an impending storm - warnings had been out for 24 hours that a storm was coming and we watched the black clouds come in from the sea. We had a very quick picnic meal at the playground then loaded up and headed back to the home. There was much talk about the coming storm and the boys decided to build a cubby outside with chairs and blankets in the afternoon until everything was cleared away and the rain started. I was doing some more induction reading when I was called to come and look at what fun the boys were having, and could I take photos. By now it was bucketing down with rain and there they were running about and jumping in puddles having a whale of a time. We let them get rid of all their energy and once they said they were cold, it was hot showers and pj's, with a bit of telly before an early roast dinner. I stayed until they boys were in bed or heading there calling into the WM's on the way home. They were all bundled up, the WMH not well with flu so as it was pouring down, I waited for a lift in the weather and hied my way back here.

While at work earlier in the evening, one of the staff had been rung by her son to say the power line from the pole to the house had exploded and he sent a picture by phone of a scorch mark down the side of her house. Luckily, it did not catch fire and she had to go home to find out if it had caused any damage to electrical goods inside. Driving along the roads back to mine, there was flooding so had to go slow as I thought I was going to aqua plane at one stage (before I slowed down, lol). Got back and the front door light had blown so fumbling in the dark trying to find the key hole in the pouring rain was not fun. By the time I went to bed, the wind was phenomenal - I believe it was 90k and more. There was massive lightening and thunder so felt very cosy wrapped up in all my duvets and quilts tucked up in bed. It was a little disconcerting to have the banana palm bashing against the window but it did not keep me awake. When I got up the next morning, it was to find that the ceiling in the bathroom had leaked enough for the bath mat to be wet through, and there was a small puddle in the hallway from a leak I could not identify. I think the skylight in the bathroom was the cause of the leak there. Perth got badly hit again, - one bloke having a tree trap him in his bed when it crashed through his house and luckily to be alive to tell the tale.

Friday, I was on a mission in between going to work twice to get light bulbs for the house as at least five have blown by now. Now, since I last had cause to buy a light bulb, they have changed the whole lot to these long life safe the planet type bulbs - which I loathe with a passion. First of all, the bulbs in the hallway - I took one to Bunnings to try and find a replacement, then the one at the front door that is in a carriage lamp type fixture. Of course to change the bulbs, I needed a step ladder so chose to buy one of those too. What a hassle it was to get the bulb out of the carriage lamp fixture. The screw things holding the top on had semi rusted but managed to get one undone with some pliers and after much checking of screw type bulbs (who on earth puts screw bulbs into things instead of batten type bulbs!) in the local IGA, managed to get the going again. The packet says these bulbs are good for five years - and they would want to at the cost of them. What I dislike most is the dullness of the light in these bulbs and the fact they seem to have to be on for awhile before getting to full light. I had work again with CP at 10.30pm and once again, had a duh moment. Every door at the home is lockable and you enter via the garage and two locked doors before gaining entry. So, in the dark I arrive, my keys are on a black key ring thingie that goes round your neck, I have no light on the inside of my car, and I cannot find them in my bag in the dark!!!!!! There was nothing for it but to knock on the door - not being sure anyone would actually open it but luckily - again - staff heard me, and let me in the front door - I tell you, I am rapidly using up my 9 lives in this job, lol. I was to shadow the night person to get an idea of what is expected which is a complete handover and bed checks on the hour, with some cleaning, laundry and in between cups of coffee and a fair bit of chat which was great. I stayed until about 3.30am and finally got to bed around 7am so that was a long day but good.

Pinch Me

2010-07-05T09:30:00.003+08:00

Pinch me indeed, I am having a completely work free day from both jobs - woohoo. Have got a load of washing on and sheer luxury, am watching a bit of morning tv - (hollywood gossip) while sitting on the couch with the heater on. Winter is here and whilst it is a realatively rain free winter, it is FREEZING, or close to. Wouldn't you know it, there have been lowest temps recorded in the last few weeks, since Adam was a cowboy, lol. I think the temp over night in Geraldton last week was 1Celsius. Luckily the days are correspondingly warm when out of the wind so it is a case of dressing in layers morning and night.

"School" finished last Thursday followed by a quick clean up and staff meeting on Friday so at the moment I am down to one job. In a true case of Murphy's law, this is the week my hours finally drop at the fast food establishment so I have gone from 50 - 60 hours a week to just over 20 hours this week - gotta love the employment roller coaster that I am on, lol. I am picking however that the fast food establishment may give me extra hours seeing it is school holidays and I already picked up two extra hours yesterday.

On my list of getting things sorted, last week, I got my eyes tested. During the packing from the WM's house to house sitting, I found my old pair of glasses, put them on and wow, could see like I didn't have glasses on if that makes sense to anyone. They were a bit bent out of shape, so took them to the optometrist (who regularly will put glasses back into shape or fit for no cost), got them straightened as best as possible and have been wearing them since. So, made an appointment for an eye test at the same time as it is 2 1/2 yrs since they were last done. It would seem my eyes are more in sync with my old glasses than the new ones, though there is some drop in one eye for close up sight. OMG, they took a photo of the back of my eyeballs - how is that even possible????? Anyway, I can truely say, I have seen the back of mine now, pink, round, with veins tracking across the back of them - should have asked for a copy, lol. It would seem that graduated lenses are maybe not the best for what I need and the optometrist suggested two pairs of glasses instead which I have no interest in. That is why I got graduated lenses in the first place cos I was always putting my glasses down and forgetting where etc. Once again, how can we get man on the moon and not get things sorted better to see!!!!. Am taking time to think about the next step.

The car is going well but I think I underestimated the effort to get it started. OMG, have built up inner thigh muscles that you wouldn't believe. The first time I got to start it easily must have been down to the wind being in the right quarter, lol. After that time, for the next few weeks, I had to start it in neutral, push the clutch sideways with my right foot, then quickly change feet before putting it in gear and driving off. That got old real quick so have persisted, (nearly getting groin strain in the early stages I might add) and now most times, I can get it started with my left foot, woohoo. I am averaging spending $10 week on petrol except for when I have done a trip out of town, so am very happy with that.

The joys of house sitting, technology and using unfamiliar remotes. Had a fit of housework the other weekend, during which I came across the remote for the heatpump/airconditioning sort of thing, lol. We had these in the boarding school in NZ but the staff and girls mainly used them, (I managed if I had the written, how to, piece of paper in front of me or others telling me what to do), and Dad had one, (but of course, the remote seldom left his hand, lol) but in a fit of how hard could it be to turn it on and warm the place up, I pressed the on button. I imagine the last time it was used, was in the height of summer, so cold air came swooshing out, and out, and out, and out, as after trying to change it to warm, going through a variety of options on the remote, it appeared that the batteries had died, and could not even get the damn thing turned off. I sat through a coffee with a friend who dropped round before giving up and we both shot down the road to buy more batteries and eureka, got it stopped, started and stopped again, and through experimentation, got warm air coming out.

If that was not enough, my next sorte was with the TV remote. I can count on the fingers of one hand nearly, how much tv I have watched over the past weeks, however, being on my own and getting home from work around 8pm instead of midnight, I thought I would check out what was on. What happened to turning the on button on a remote and the tv instantly coming on, on channel. This tv comes on with a blue screen and the brand name of the tv - great. I found the channel up down bit and pressed it and hey presto got a channel and thought this is easy, I will check the channels out. Not sure what I pressed next but ended up with info on picture, teletext, and a blank screen that when I pressed the channel piece, kept going through radio stations. I switched the damn thing off thinking if I did that, I could turn it back on and sneak up on a preset start - no such luck, and was back to the radio stations again - who has radio stations on tv for god's sake. I cannot remember how I got back onto the tv channels but it involved much switching on and off of the tv ( I am a slow learner, lol and hope springs eternal) when somehow I got back to tv, but joy of joys, the news in chinese, then japenese on some obscure channel and an sbs channel from memory. I think I might have got to the swearing stage by then and after going through every button on the remote, somehow I FINALLY found a channel I recognised, only to find there was nothing worth watching!!!!. I am now very careful when I turn the tv on and watch where my fingers are pressing everytime rather than guessing lol. What I have found during the past week as I got home late most nights, was the tennis at Wimbledon. Was gutted to see Federer lose in the quarter finals, but pleased to see Nadal win for the second time.

Washing machines - when did they get so complicated - what happened to small, medium and large washes and a basic cycle. The washing machine here does not have an agitator, so ok, can fit more in, but HOW does it clean, lol. There is a board that lights up like a flight deck and I have to negotiate about four different moves, AND if you get them done in the wrong sequence it cancels the lot out and you have to start again. This was complicated by trying to work it in the dark at midnight or thereabouts as I washed my uniform to get it out on the line (no dryer in the house, gasp) so it would be dry in the morning. It took me two weeks to find the light switch, lol, as it is on the left hand side of the door way, being an add on to the house at some point. Yay there is a dishwasher (pavement kissing moment, lol) but have only used it once as that is as much time as I have been here to get it filled. Again far too many switches but I seem to have an innate ability to use that piece of equipment, laughing lots. Thankfully, the stove is electric, though the elements are the old fashioned solid kind and I mean 1950's old fashioned where you could make pikelets on the top of them or cook griddle scones (my grandmother used to use them for making those). Have had little cause to use that piece of equipment more than cooking some bacon and eggs during the week so no dramas there.

Interesting point of difference in Aussi houses to NZ houses - I have mentioned this before when I first got to Tardun but it has come to notice again. Over here, a lot of houses have most of the rooms with curtains drawn or blinds shut - to keep the heat out and while that is great, at times it can feel like you are living in a tomb so to speak. On arrival here, every blind was drawn and curtain closed, and seeing heat is not an issue, I have tended to throw curtains open during the day, and have all blinds in the kitchen open so that any warmth from the sun, and actual light gets in. In my room the curtains are open 24 hours. I am fortunate (or the neighbours are fortunate, lol) that there is a banana tree right outside my window, with a double garage down the back of the section, a head high fence to the left of my room and to the back, so have complete privacy to do so. My bed is right against the main window which is bad Feng Shui but the only place it can fit. It is interesting with having no curtains as at night, have no insulation from the cold, but at least can see the stars. I just dress like the Michellen man to compensate, lol, and in fact the other night, wore a scarf to bed, gambling on the fact I would not strangle during the night!.

Have just looked at the time, and am going to help the WM's lads deliver pamplets again for a walk and some fresh air - I know, I am on my feet all week at work and am going to go walking on my day off!!!