3 April 2010
It is April already, where did March go…..this year is flying ………
After a week of feeling unwell, I am off to the gym tomorrow. I need to get back into my fitness mode and start looking after myself again. I also need to find another doctor. I am fed up with the non committal attitude of the one I am seeing . One thinks that if a patient has dangerously high cholesterol levels (a high chance of heart attack or stroke ) she would make sure I had follow up tests…….I have an underactive thyroid as well and in the 2 years I have seen her it has been up to me to ask for my levels tested…….interestingly every other doctor I have seen have always sent me a reminder letter ……….hmmmmmm
The weather has been weird, lots of wind , clouds and no rain, I had to turn the reticulation on , my plants are still needing plenty of moisture. I have also cleaned up after the storm, the amount of shredded leaves was amazing, three packing boxes full…….I took the opportunity to re-pot my birds nest ferns and my Abraham Derby rose (the pot it was in was so old and was crumbling) and prune back a few plants, I can see myself going to the nursery and buying some more to add to my collection. My tomato plants are no more, finished for the season, not sure if I should have any winter vegetables growing, I might wait until the end of winter and plant some more tomatoes.
30th March 2010
After a bout of gastro through the night, one has been thinking about one’s health, I have decided for the next few weeks to concentrate going to the gym, getting the extra kilograms off and getting fit..night shift really takes a toll on my body….age doesn’t help either, so I need to really be tough and recover from this. I have 4 months to really make a difference , so when I have that CT scan I will be able to fight what or if there is anything left of those nodes on my lungs……I am feeling very positive !!!
a little video of surfing dolphins…………sublime
Hail and more hail ……..
After weeks of wishing for rain……we got it…………first 170km wind gusts and then hail……my garden was shredded, neighbour’s car windscreen smashed……the size of the hail was as big as golf balls.
Rain everywhere but
After a few days of beautiful weather we had been promised storms and hopefully rain, however where I live, we missed out.This evening is a very sultry evening……just how I love it. On the local weather radar one can see the storms circling north of Perth……lots of lightning , I just hope there aren’t any strikes as the bush is tinder dry and fire is the last thing we need here.
speaking of fire………..Earlier on this evening, the sky was glowing , I captured some shots…….
That sign of winter
Today at 6.30 I opened the front door and was greeted by a cool and fresh morning hopefully it is only a brief interval and Perth weather will live up to its reputation of being a warm and temperate city…….we are very lucky here , quite often we endure a beautiful Indian summer and winter takes it’s time arriving.
This weekend I am looking forward to one of resting and not having to rush to work. I enjoyed working the overtime, however the taxman seemed to like it too and took a huge amount of my salary……one often wonders if it is all worth it..
Alice is still out of work, poor kid she is trying ever so hard to look for work, came home from work yesterday and there she was sitting filling envelopes with her CV , her latest ploy is to cold canvas the ‘old fashioned ‘ way, her reasoning is HR departments can just delete emails, however they have to open and read her letter, lets hope she is right (:
http://www.perthnow.com.au/business/news/wa-worst-in-economic-report/story-e6frg2qu-1225842806556
On the gardening front, my tomatoes have had their day..my cucumbers are still growing and so is the new batch of spinach. I haven’t had much luck this year with my flame lilies……until yesterday , I spied a bud, am I happy ? yes I am , they are a special flower all the way from Zambia……a much loved one at that. The frangipanis are still blooming which is amazing considering for the past 3 years I haven’t had one flower. I have to get in and do some re-potting and pruning etc before the cold weather arrives.
My road to good health
Today I did some thinking and realised that I am getting healthier and happier, I have that spring in my step.
Since the cold weather is coming and the tragic attack on an elderly couple in their own home not too far from where I live my darling daughters have told me they don’t really like me walking after dark, so tomorrow I am re-starting my gym membership, I really can’t afford this but what the heck, I value my life a little more ….I will be including the pool entrance too, nothing better than relaxing in the spa and the sauna after a workout (:
Endogenous opioid polypeptide compounds
First I tackled the 4km hills……and then the 5km circuit, the sky above was the most amazing pinkpurple colour…….and I got a huge buzz from wonderful endogenous opioid polypeptide compounds – am I happy ? …you bet I am !!!
I am getting closer to my target (:
11 March 2010
Went to the gym and had a workout with my Personal trainer, I am amazed that in a short time I have started to regain my strength, something a few months ago I was getting quite worried about, I am now in a more positive frame of mind.
On the work front , things have been very busy, so far I have put in about 8 hours overtime, it has been very tiring as I am in the phone room and multitasking is the big ask in this particular part of my job. I find giving out some results to doctors etc can be very heart wrenching , especially when the patients are young and indigenous Australian ):
The weather here is still beautiful, in the morning sky I can see the slow move towards winter, the sun is rising later , I am not amused. !! I might try and get to my beach this weekend , I need to soak my muscles…..water is such a healer !
A week is a long time
A quick note to say I am back online - My internet server didn’t re-new my contract and decided to disconnect me, getting up and running took a week, typical of the wonderful laid back approach our country has (:
I have been very active on the fitness side of things and apart from the wonderful beach walk in 42C , I have also been walking on average of 5kms a day…however at the moment I am nursing three badly bruised toes courtesy of my shutting a door on them, so walking is out for a few days .
Hopefully I will have more to write about on the weekend.
An interview
An update to my earlier post, Alice has an interview tomorrow, it is with an Oil and Gas company……
Give me a Job
My beautiful eldest daughter Alice…I pray she gets a job soon……over the weekend she applied for 28 jobs, sadly here in WA there is a shortage of jobs…..Alice was made redundant almost a year ago with the economic downturn (she worked for a superannuation company – they lost about 9% in shares ,in haste, panicked and made about 30 staff redundant – they are advertising my daughter’s old position, however in small print on the redundancy letter, staff who are made redundant cannot be re-employed) – sadly we have a huge influx of overseas students who take up the unskilled jobs ( they are poorly paid ) so even those jobs are hard to get, she loves anything to do with finance, in her last job she bought and sold shares for the company, Alice also has a brilliant memory for figures…..I would love to see Alice independent again, she can’t afford to go out with her friends and spends most of her time at home , it is so sad to see as Alice is an intelligent, vibrant and beautiful girl who needs a break
Sleep
I am amazed by the human body when we become ill, for the past 3 days I have been in a lot of pain – all thanks to another tooth abscess, my face started to swell and I was miserable..well apart from a few hours on Saturday afternoon , Sunday and this morning , I have been sleeping and sleeping….and how do I feel ? so much better..I am even contemplating the 9km walk to wake myself up …..it is nice outside and not too warm…good walking weather.
I am on leave for a week and I intend to make the most of it, doing things in my garden, going to the beach , visit places with my camera and do some art…..it is a week for me .
That movie
I finally went and saw Avatar with a friend late this afternoon…and my opinion is that of a storyline too far-fetched , lots of Rambo inspired scenes………..and I didn’t seem to get “the message” lol…….my friend agreed, he added ’ Vietnam revisited’ The special effects were great, my first ever 3D experience and I quite enjoyed the change. out of 10 I give it 2+
Saturday 20th February – 4am
It is the last week of summer and I am thinking about the impending winter, even though here in Perth we never get under minus Celsius, it is the thought of cloudy skies and very little sun that makes me feel sad I am not a winter person at all.
I remember winter in New Zealand, as a child walking to school on cold frosty mornings , that unmistakable crunching on the grass, the clear blue skies and that chill in the air , the frozen hands and feet…………and chilblains……such a painful affliction right through winter, not helped by sitting close to the radiators in the classroom. At recess time we would get cardboard boxes, flatten them and use them as toboggans, or if brave enough take ones shoes off hold onto a friend’s jumper or jacket, the friend would run pulling you along…bare feet on icy grass ?? the best ice-skates invented , we were tough in those days….or plain stupid!!
Winter also brought rain……lots of it, cold and wet…….dripping raincoats , gumboots, puddles and that flood.1967..my first school camp, I was so excited to be going away, camp Adair was south of Auckland, located in the Hunua ranges, by the Wairoa river. We arrived in the afternoon,. and were allocated our cabins, I remember being so excited for scoring a top bunk…we spent the latter part of the afternoon in groups talking about what we would be doing on camp.
Later on we had dinner, then a singalong and one of the teachers produced a book called the Hobbit…he started reading to us, the teacher held us captivated, he was a good story teller. We all started to get sleepy so were told that we were to have an early night. we were guided to our cabins, more like a dash to the cabins as it had not stopped raining all day…. lights out and we lay there chattering about the next few days ahead soon all were silent….we had drifted off to sleep.
About midnight we heard yelling and banging on doors, we all woke to get out of bed and as we stepped onto the floor of the cabin we were woken even further, cold water was lapping at our feet….each cabin was evacuated one at a time, the teachers piggy backing the smaller children, (me (; ) to the main hall….we spent the night altogether with hot drinks being served all night, the most vivid memory of that night was the dancing and singing….If I had a hammer, The gypsy rover, and puff the magic dragon amongst some of the songs…daylight came and the extent of the flooding became more evident , there was no way we could stay at the camp and we were told that the army was to come and evacuate us, it was the highlight of the camp for the boys ” the Army was going to save us , real soldiers etc ” . It took all day for the Army to arrive as roads were washed away etc I remember getting a lift up into the back of the army truck , thinking wow saved at last…the trucks took us to Papakura army camp….there we were treated like royalty each of us were given a blanket to wrap around us as we were still in our pyjamas…given dinner and more hot drinks.. we all thought the soldiers were the best people ever…(little did I know I would end up being posted to Papakura army camp as a reserve soldier many years later)
eventually our buses came to take us back home…our adventure over..
The one positive thing about winter in Perth is the days are mild and we rarely have temperatures that are below freezing….the negative is we do have the southerly winds……and they are cold and miserable….we are lucky that we don’t get snow…and that our winter is very brief…..even so I dread winter……….
Street walker..urrrrm street jumper
Just had to share this photo – at the end of a friend’s driveway (:
Last day of the working week, thank goodness, I am off for the next week, woohooo, I hope to spend my time painting and creating …..
Balancing the books
It is times like these I get angry and realise what a so and so my ex is……Just paid the rent - “dead money” I call it and I have nothing left of my wages apart from a little money to feed my 2 daughters $100.00 +……10+ years ago the banks foreclosed on my house…my ex husband was to have payed the mortgage but in his selfishness to get back at me for complaining about him leaving his daughters to live in another state…(children need both parents even when not together anymore)..it wasn’t me he did this to , but his daughters…….taking the roof from under their heads, ever since then I have had to go out and study so I could get a good job, which I did….ever since then I have rented and found it hard to survive at times, I have always been able to hold my head up above water…..not this time…..my car is about to run out of registration, deeming me car-less. I don’t know how I am going to get to work …..I have my daughter home now and she needs to be fed etc…my other daughter is out of work, I have been supporting her for the past 8 months……I can’t afford to anymore………I need to buy medications……they are so expensive…….. I need to get them today……I can’t afford to pay for them …….and I have been working myself to the bone………and what for to line my landlord’s pockets…..I am not complaing just worried I have other pressing bills and I honestly don’t know how to pay them………….a friend said there is no such thing as luck……..how very true……..
Where is that bullet ?
Achieving what I set out to do
This morning I woke about 4am, which was good considering I worked the previous night, feeling rather energetic I decided to go for my 9km walk.
As I set out there was a hint of daylight, the skies were clear and a slight breeze from the south….I got to the halfway point and thought “I don’t really want to walk the full 9kms today……I crossed the road then carried on…..the hills were a little tough today but I did make it and I actually feel rather fantastic, I am glad that I kept walking.
Whilst I was walking I started thinking about that CTscan I have to have in July…….I need to keep up my fitness regimen so I can be healthy if I need to have surgery……I have this inner feeling that the nodes on my lungs will have disappeared…….I am hoping for a better year than last year, suffering from bursitis in my shoulder for 6 months was not conducive to my love of exercising, I was in constant pain..more fool me for not seeking medical help though……once I had the steroid injection I was a different person….now I have this other to fight – my cholesterol levels to lower……getting older is not fun………..
musically this morning I had a mixed genre…including Gilbert and Sullivan, Pavarotti , Rolling Stones and Queen….
two songs that really gave me that extra push were …….
Climbing those hills…..I really thought I was ruling the world…..
Good music
Yesterday morning I received a phone call from my work supervisor asking me to work night-shift as one of my colleagues was ill, at first I thought ” this is my day off” I then quickly said “yes” so after a day of running around enrolling Leah at her old school I found myself having to have a sleep in the afternoon.
Last night came too quickly , I arrived at work expecting a long night with very slow co-workers ( a regular occurrence on night-shift) how wrong was I , the work flowed, not too many phone calls from doctors asking me for advice (yes they do (; ) . Usually on night-shift we have a radio going , the music can be absolutely frightful as some of the younger workers like rap and more rap ( one can only cope with a little rap ) last night the theme of the night was a great mix of old and new , rock and pop……
I am hoping I can have my day off today, I will ring my supervisor to see if I am needed to work night-shift again tonight – I hope not as I need to shake this nocturnal mode…….and get back to normality
one of my favourites that played last night
1.30am in the morning…..
I should be sleeping……but my body-clock says otherwise….
