Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Life . . . .

. . . goes on regardless of whether you blog about it or not.

And it's not like absolutely nothing has happened since my last visit here.  Maybe it's a bit more like too much has happened.

On Tuesday, 4 February, my son and daughter in law added a darling little girl to their family.




A five hour labour instead of five days like their first child.  Gotta be happy about that. Welcome, darling Elise.

She decided quite early on that sleeping wasn't her thing, and that yelling for long periods in the night was, but all is settling now.  Her doting parents are exhaustedly overjoyed and her big brother is more than pleased.




A new house guest arrived here in the middle of February.  Meet Jamie Oliver.




So named because he likes to be in the kitchen.  Jamie Oliver was rescued from a high-kill pound and is living here whilst he is advertised on the rescue organisation's website.  Somebody surely wants a little companion to sleep on their lounge!  Trouble is, he's getting so attached to the lounge here and the people who share the lounge here with him, that I'm beginning to see how people who foster dogs end up as crazy dog people.



Punk Jamie Oliver!


Mike has been unwell since Christmas when he had some sort of virus - I derogatorily called it 'Man-flu' and remarked sarcastically about his moans and groans - 'man up!' I said.  About a month ago, he started walking of an evening after he got home from another 14 hour day at the office.  He began to notice a really sharp pain in his belly which seemed to make him breathless.  Off to the doctor he went, blood tests were ordered which all came back okay except for liver function which was a bit off.  Off he went for a ultrasound which showed he had an enlarged liver.  Off he went for an appointment with a specialist who put him straight into hospital for investigation.  For about a day and a half, they treated him for a suspected infection or inflammation of the liver, but quickly after that changed to treating him for a heart issue which, after more tests, turned out to be cardiomyopathy.  And so he has remained in hospital being closely monitored and treated with various drugs to try to get his heart function to recover.  The doctors are hopeful that drug therapy will be enough, a pacemaker has been suggested but is deemed not essential at this point in time.

And so ends the chapter of how our life has been for the last 22 years.  No more 14 hour days stressing at the office.  Some direction-changing decisions are about to be made out of necessity and I will admit to being a trifle nervous of the next 6 months or so.

In the middle of Mike's stay in hospital, I had an appointment at a doctors as well.  There was a 'thing' on my back which irritated me badly, my clothes rubbing against it made it itch and when I went out into the garden, even fully covered, it would sting.  He took one look at it and declared 'a classic BCC'. Basal cell carcinoma - a (thankfully) benign skin cancer.  One of the joys of living under the Australian sun.

So this -




has become this -




and is as itchy as hell!

And so there, in a few paragraphs, is the story of the last month and a half!  So much for a blog about gardening - looks like everything but!  Although the weather is cooling down, thankfully, and the gardener has once again become the weeder.  That's just about all I do out there these days.

Time to go and pick Mike up after almost 2 weeks in hospital.  Let's end with a great example of Murphy's law!

A supermarket shopping bag - which are as weak as anything and getting weaker all the time.  Come on, Coles, give us decent bags!




A large (700g) can of dog food, bought from said supermarket.  Does it look like it matches the hole in the bag?




It sure did!!



Do excuse my gungy toenails!


Damn you, Murphy, whoever you are!