Long time ...

Although I have been sick, and spent much time in bed, I have also been doing things. Not alot, because the whole thing has left me weak and tired, mostly. I have finished of my "chatelaine" and will photograph it and load it onto Bilum in the next few days. I have also finally watched the video for my Embroidery Sewing Machine after having it for a few years now. I hope to sit down and do one little design this weekend. If it works I shall tell you.

I have begun sorting out things to keep and throw away for our "move". I am a junk collector. It isn't second hand junk, I just buy things and think I will use them one day, and end up never using them. Mostly my motivation peters out and I just forget about it. Now that I am on medication, I feel more motivated to do things, and finishing the blog, the "chatelaine" and stuff was really easy to do. I should live on this stuff! lol.

Her ladyship is loosing her hair for the warmer months ahead, and there is brown fur everywhere outside. I have been brushing her, rubbing her with a towel and whatever I can to ease the itching, but she has about 2 months to go of the worst of it. Poor thing. She just asks for a carrot now and then. Okay, she is somewhat spoilt, but being alone still she needs some sort of company.

The old person is getting grouchier and nastier and fatter. I suppose partly to do with his old age, but I think now more than before, he might be getting dementia. He refuses to see the doctor for a diagnosis. "There is nothing wrong with me. It's everyone who has a problem."

The daughter is blogging now. She bought a movie camera and is trying to load videos onto her blog, but has struck some technical complications we are going to have to get more information on. Once she has the videos uploaded I will let you all know.

Must go serve dinner. Nice chatting with you again ....

Nigh unto death's door ...

I hear ya knockin' but you can't come in ...

So I am a bit of a drama queen. What else is new. I have been sick. I have been feeling like the bottom of a dog's stomach and then some. It has been the dreaded lurgy, bitten me three times in seven weeks. It has left me feeling weak and tired. So I haven't been blogging or anything. Not even my sewing, cross stitch or horse have cheered me up. Although I have cheered my horse up, lol.

I also had a very nasty scare from my Doctor during this time and have had to sit down and rethink much of what I am doing and still want to do. I have been taking medication for the depression, and about the third day of taking it, my stomach, chest and throat felt funny. I went to the doctor's and he did an ECG test on me. He said that I had a small blockage in my heart.

Do you know what freaked out feels like?

He referred me to a cardiologist at the new Campbelltown Private Hospital. Swanky place. Not impressive when you could die there. Anyhow, the cardiologist had a newer machine and buttoned me up to it (yes, buttoned up. He put little disposable press buttons onto my vital points and hooked the machine up to them). After a few moments of reading on his computer, he assured me that I did not have a blockage, but that because of my weight and general health (I have high bloodpressure), I should do more tests. I have had to put these off because I got the dreaded lurgy again.

I am going to loose 40kg and get fitter than what I am. Nasty scare and not happy, Jan.

There is much more news, but let me get back into the swing of things again, and I shall catch you up.

adieu

The dreaded lurgy ...

I have been sick. I have had a head cold and have been feeling cold (or as my late Mother used to say "Death Warmed Up"). My head has been stuffy, my throat sore and my nose, well let's just say I wish I had a faucet handle with an off direction. Aaaarrrggghhh!

Anyhow, I am over that now and will be blogging on tomorrow with my late but not forgotten second part of my Tutorial on my craft blog.

I have been back to see the Doctor, after he did a blood check on me last week. It was all good, although he did say to watch my blood sugar. Since diabetes runs in the family (again, from my Mother, "like a wooden leg") I take this warning seriously. The old person doesn't, since it does not affect him. But I will be looking seriously at our/my diet and make a few adjustments. If he wants to claim we are starving him, well let him starve. The doctor said he has to loose about 20kg. He gained it all since he quit smoking last year. I will not even think about what he has been eating much less print it here, but it involves alot of sausage meat.

And frankly, if I never saw another potato it would be 20 minutes too soon.

I saw the Doctor about my depression and for the time being he has put me onto medication. This is okay, but it takes a few weeks for the body to adjust. He said to be aware of feeling euphoric, but mostly I have had even worse erratic sleep than normal and feeling anxious. He assured me it was just the medication and gave me this week off work. I have been trying to go to bed at normalish times and try and sleep all night, as I wake at sixish to feed the horse anyhow. Last night was not too bad, I went to bed about 10ish and woke just after six, but I had woken several times during the night, and probably had one wake time of about an hour. It was too cold to get out of bed, but I tossed and turned.

So I will keep up with this and should eventually get back to normal. The medication does not cause me distress, and I will settle down with it, but if I appear nutty or something, in the next week or so, you will know why. lol.

Now the daughter has the dreaded lurgy and is struggling to keep herself from drowning.

Adieu ...

Out on the town ...

The daughter has a friend who often makes plans with her, and then just before all these events are going to occur, has to cancel them. The daughter often has quite good plans of her own based around these events, and it is always a disappointment for her and the boys when this happens. The friend is well intentioned, but does it with consistency. I often think I should advise the daughter to drop this person as a friend, but the grandsons are very fond of her daughter and would miss her.

So the latest let down was a sushi party they were to attend on Friday next week. The friend has had to cancel it. So the boys, who she had told herself, were really disappointed about it. It was to be the highlight of their holidays. So I told the daughter I would take them to see Kung Fu Panda, a cartoon on a the cinemas. It is a really kids thing and loads of fun. However, when we got to the cinema, it was booked out, and there wasn't going to be another session of the movie for four hours.

The boys really wanted to see the new Will Smith movie, Hancock. My feeling was that it would have been better for the daughter to call that one. Will Smith is good with the one liners, but sometimes a bit over the top and the younger grandson is only nine. So I said, what about, Get Smart? Mumble, mumble, okay Granma, since you want to see it so badly. Say What?

So we waited about three quarters of an hour for the session, and saw Get Smart. Very good chuckle, a few rudy bits, but nothing that was even porno in it, just jokes. And these went right over the boys' heads thank goodness. Other than that it was a delightful movie, not stupid funny but much slapstick and good jokes. Some really hairy scenes that left you a bit on the edge of your seat. I heard the boys giggling at quite a bit of it. We all agreed, that while it was disappointing not to see Kung Fu Panda, Get Smart wasn't a bad movie at all.

So Granma has the brainwave that while we are downtown, we might as well do the grocery shopping. When Granma is tired, some of her brainwaves are more like high blood pressure and not very brainy at all. Grocery shopping with two bored little boys is not fun for Granma or them.

The old person has said, ring me when you are ready to come home and I will pick you up.

What I forgot about the old person is his great leaps of assumption. The phone has rung, therefore it must be me, he does not need to pick it up and answer it, but just to come and pick us up. Meanwhile we are a little concerned: has he finally died? (This is us, we don't get that lucky), Is he in the shower? (Not for half an hour he is not), Is he out mowing the last of the horse's grass - again? We go downstairs (this is with a loaded trolley) again and, lo and behold, there he is.

I've been looking for you, where have you been? Ringing you. You should have known I would just come.

Is any of this logical to you? Now you know why I have high bloodpressure. Even my doctor is concerned about this.

Let me know when it is okay for me to go insane ...

... Brass Monkeys ...

Whoa! Here I sit in the garage on my laptop freezing cold - well sort of. The parts of my body with bare skin are cold, but the rest of me is quite warm. I came out to clean up after the grandsons and I had a day making Artists Trading Cards. They had the best fun. Grandson2 got stuck into the punches and grandson1 got into the paint pens. Every box of stuff they opened and saw all the goodies evoked a response of "Oh, Sick!" which in kid talk means the best ever. They spent a good half hour going through the sticker sheets, and then I showed the the boxes of beads, brads and eyelets. One got a tiger eyelet for his card and the other got a zebra. They were easily pleased. Being in the garage means they can make a bit of a mess and as much noise as they like and not disturb the old person.

The sister came over with Sunnyboy. So they then got stuck into the mud. We have had some rain here, and as it is so cold the ground takes forever to dry. Anyhow one of the benefits of living in a first world country is running hot water, so the mud was no big deal. When you are 9 - 12 years old, mud is as much of a toy as anything else. These days will draw to a close all too soon.

We had hot pies for lunch, except the sister and I who had pasties. Have not had a pasty in absolutely years. The places that still sell hot pies, no longer have them. I bought these ones frozen from the supermarket and heated them in the oven as the sister had sms'ed me to let me know she was on the bus.

The other sister has e-mailed to let me expect a visit at the end of the month. She has been out and about with her job, and hasn't had time to scratch her butt. It will be good to catch up with her.

So that is all my news. Yeah, mind boggling I know. Deal with it.

ciao ...

Woohoo ...

Wow, I feel so very good, right now. Last weekend I stitched a panel for a Cathederal Window Quilt and photo documented sewing it. I have just finished uploading it as a tutorial on Bilum.
Well part one anyhow.

There are 20 photographs in all, so it will take an age to load on dial-up connections and takes a while on ADSL1 (broadband). On wireless, take pot luck, I'm afraid. If it is clear where you are it will download fairly quickly, but on a cloudy to overcast day - potluck.

Next weekend I will have Part Two ready.

Not alot has been happening with me. It was enrolment week at work last week, so very work intensive. I am still a bit tired from it all, but I will comment, the Boss ordered in Pizza for afterwards and there was much bon homme. Two more weeks till the gathering of the clans for semester two.

This week I am off work to help the daughter. She has to go to a training course while the boys are on school hols. I have them this week and a very kind girlfriend has said she would take them for the three days next week. We are going to see a movie, do some scrapbooking and bake some biscuits.

Till again ...

Meanderings ...

Well, the sister came over yesterday and we had a pleasant afternoon. I have moved things around in the garage so that I can do my sewing and crafts out there. We sat at the big table the daughter and I had moved from the house. We drank tea in her case, and coffee in mine, and chatted. The kids watched a movie the daughter had rented and then they played happily enough outside.

Today I got in and sorted the rest out, my boiler iron and ironing board, my sewing machine and started a small project. It gets very cold out there at night, or I would be out there now. When the weather warms up some, I will take the laptop out and spend evenings in there as well.

The old person is a bit miffed the car doesn't fit in, but he has better peace and quiet for watching the idiot box. There is less noise as the daughter has her computer in another room and I don't invade anymore. So in most ways it has worked out well.

I will be documenting the small project on my craft blog because I am doing it as a tutorial on a type of quilting not often seen anymore.

I have some news, and that is I am not going to finish my course this year. I have been suffering depression for a while now and it has got to the stage where it is zapping all my concentration. It is why I haven't been blogging as regularly as I had planned. I have not abandoned my studies, just delaying till I move - the course is offered in other states as well. I can finish there, as well as here, but hopefully a move will help put the black dog to sleep. What little focus I have has to go into my job and just generally living. The delay will also give me impetus to keep on and do the rest of the course as I am still determined to do the Diploma as well. I haven't failed any of my subjects, in fact I have a couple of credits and at least one distinction that I can think of at the top of my head.

So there it is, I have said it, make of it what you will ...