Friday 26 September 2008

Progress

Well, it has been an interesting week this week.

We decided that because my birthday was on bowling night, we would do the present thing Tuesday night instead. That was lovely, and I received some very nice gifts and money. Always good to get presents. Then on Wednesday, I got a video call from the family in Qld (you know who you are!), and text messages from my two best friends in Qld.

I also received emails from two friends wishing me happy birthday whom I wouldn't have expected to remember, so that was a bonus. Then, when I got to work Wednesday, my boss was in Sydney. He left me an email with directions to a small something in his office. He had bought me a $50 David Jones voucher! Plus both he and his wife phoned to wish me happy birthday.

At bowling I didn't escape either. Someone dobbed me into the staff and they put a birthday announcement over the PA. Nice!

Tonight is drinks with friends on the way home from work. Should be a good chance to catch up with people I don't see much of any more.

Yesterday I decided to actually do something with my Facebook page. I signed up months ago for a friend (one of whom left me the message) but never took it any further. The local radio station has a DJ who is very technically challenged. Two local businesses have decided that if he can get 3000 Facebook friends by today they will donate $3000 to Ronald McDonald House. So I revisited my page and added him as a friend. When I last looked he had over 4000! Excellent. Although, some yob thought that his vote was only worth 1c instead of $1. Stupid git.

So, that's my week at a glance. The same radio has been having a top 500 countdown thing going too. Good music. I voted for a couple of songs and the station phoned me today for a chat about my votes, which may find itself on air later in the day. If you are lucky enough to be listening at the right time, and phone up at the right time, and be the first caller through you can win $500. that would have been nice on Wednesday, wouldn't it? But I always get pipped at the post. Today (the last day) it's going to be between 4pm and 5pm. Knowing me I will be in the car....

Monday 22 September 2008

City to Bay

Well I have had requests to blog about my first venture into the wonderful world of the City to Bay Fun Run, held each year in Adelaide.

I convinced Him and Jr Her to come along with me, but decided the full 12km of the "run" would be too much, so we decided to enter the 6km "walk". As the main road across the middle of Adelaide would be closed, we opted to leave our cars early. We left one close to the finish line (so we thought anyway) and the other close to the start line at the local shopping centre.

We arrived bright and early, decked out in our electronic tags, comfy shoes, and comfy clothes (although for Jr Her that meant jeans and a jumper, silly chick). We loaded Him's pockets up with keys, and the eftpos card just in case and made our way through the throng to the start line, about 90 minutes early.

Luckily, amid the strange weather we have been having lately, we had lovely sun with a rather nippy breeze for the walk. We watched all the 12km runners jog past, then they started the 6km runners. Once they had left, we still had about half an hour before they unleashed us walkers onto the road.

We set off in a tightly packed field amid thousands of others (approx 28,000 people entered this year) and made our way down Anzac Highway. We had a pretty good pace going, but Him soon found himself in front of us. We kept him in our sights, but Jr Her and I kept our own pace going. She is hard to walk beside sometimes as she seems to have no concept of "personal space" and keeps bumping into/stepping on me.

We chatted about the people we saw, stuff, and the like, and she didn't complain (for once). I was very proud of her actually. For all her athleticism, she hates walking. Considering she used to walk an hour a day with me when she was six, she hates walking for ten minutes now.

Him kept stopping and waiting for us to catch up, but he was soon ahead again. We didn't mind. I didn't want to push her too much, she did mention once or twice that I was walking a bit fast for her.

It took us an hour and ten to walk 6km. Not a bad effort I thought. It is embarrassing however when you are overtaken by elderly folk. But we didn't mind. The weather was lovely and we just enjoyed the experience.

Well, when we got to Glenelg Him let us catch up to him, and we went through the last km together. We had decided we would all pass under the finish banner together, and we did. Then, we made our way out of the compound, and decided while we were walking we would continue back the way we came to KFC for a drink and bite to eat. After sitting for half an hour or so it was very difficult to get up again, but we had to walk another km or so back to where we had parked the car!

We did, then took some videos back, and took that car back to the shopping centre to pick up the other car. Him left us at that point (chicken) and Jr her and I went shopping. She is going on a Girl Guides camp and needed track pants, so we found KMart had a buy one, get 60% off the next sale. We bought six items, and three of those were very cheap, like the boardies which were originally $16.99 and we paid $6.80, the top which had been reduced to $10 which we bought for $5.80, and the lovely white hoodie which scanned at $2, with the discount cost 80c! We still spent $100 but saved heaps more on top of that - the $10 top was originally $35 and the hoodie was originally $30. Gotta love a bargain!

Then we went home and vegged all afternoon. I spent the afternoon sitting outside reading, Jr Her watched videos and Him napped in the couch. What better way to wind down! We are really looking forward to next year now. See if we can beat our time. Oh, and apparently we can buy the photos from tomorrow. Might just have to do that...

Saturday 20 September 2008

Spoiled Rotten

It's really hard to type when your eyes are blurry and you are trying to preserve your fingernails...

See, I have had the most wonderful day today. First, earlier this week Him told me he was taking me to lunch Saturday. No worries says me. Always up for that. He said it was for my birthday next week, as both of us would be working.

So we all went to Brighton for lunch, to the Esplanade Hotel. Very nice spot, bit cool but lovely day anyway. We ate lunch, then drove up and down the esplanade for a while. Then he suddenly pulls over and tells Jr Her they had to buy something for mum's birthday.

So we all bail out again in the same street we had just left. He found a really expensive dress shop and got me took in there. Luckily for the bank account they only catered for "little" people and not elephants.

So we walked a little further down the street and he opened the door of a beauty spa. Hello, what's going on here? He says to the girl "I'm a little early"... oh dear, what's he done?

He had treated me to a massage, facial and manicure! What a lovely little treasure! I had a very relaxing afternoon, and it was my first full package, and certainly one of the loveliest things anyone has done for me. A friend had bought me a massage for my 40th, but that's all.

This was the full works, and I really enjoyed it. My eyes are watering from some of the stuff that go into my eyes I think, but that's okay. I feel terrific! And I have lovely pink nails. He was going to treat me to a set of false nails but as my nails are pretty good by themselves, the chick recommended just fixing up my own, which we did.

Then when we got home, because I had fresh nails, he even took the washing off the line and folded it for me.

Man, I am so lucky! Love that man!

Monday 15 September 2008

Say Cheese....

Well, what an interesting week it has been.

Last week all seemed back to normal on the health front. Jr Her perked up, had the week off school and managed to play netball on Saturday, as I said. Him got a little sick, but got over it pretty quick. Life goes on.

Then, because Jr Her's school was closed on Thursday, I had to take the day off (my boss must be really sore at all the time I have had off lately!). The weather was lovely and I made lunch plans with a couple of lovely little old ladies I am friends with, but whom I never see much of any more. And I made an appointment with the dental surgeon for Jr Her.

So, before we left home, Jr Her got a call that her new glasses she ordered the week before were in. See, I forgot to tell you, Him took himself and her to eye appointments while she was off school. Anyway, we decided to leave early and collect said glasses. She was happy, and they look great.

Lucky, the dental surgeon was across the road from the shopping centre where the optometrist was, so we didn't have far to go. So, big shock at the dentist. It would appear our little tyke is going to cost us a fortune in dental care over the next few years. Poor little lamb. She doesn't have enough teeth in her lower jaw, and the unexposed adult eye teeth in her upper jaw are almost horizontal instead of vertical.

This means that next week Him is taking her to have the two baby eye teeth she still has pulled, and in six months we have to have her xrayed again to check the progress of the adult eye teeth. If they have broken the surface of her gum it will be okay. However, if not, she will need a small procedure to expose the teeth. Then she will need braces fixed. They will be in place for about 3 years. Toward the last six months of that time she will have a lower set attached to move as many of her teeth toward the front as possible to close up as much of the gap as possible.

So, although she knew from an early age that she would need braces (the school dentist told her she may when she was in about year 2) I think the full extent of the poor kid's deformed dental region was quite a shock. But, you know, she wasn't at all perturbed about the whole thing. She hasn't said much, hasn't asked any questions, or doesn't appear to be worried at all. Course, that may change when we tell her she is off to the dentist to have teeth pulled! Hee hee.

Oh, and the lunch afterward with my buddies was lovely!

Monday 8 September 2008

Medical updates

So Jr Her is mostly over her wog. She ended up having the rest of the week off school. As I mentioned she jumped out of bed eager to go to school, but as the morning progressed she flagged. Eventually she decided not to go. Smart move. But man, was she annoying by the weekend! Him stayed on the couch with her till I got home after lunch, at which point he bailed and went to bed (again, smart move) and I took over. She started to get her appetite back so became a real pain cause she wanted junk food Thursday and Friday.

I hadn't been cooking much because no one was hungry so we had been having small meals. But she is still not eating much at meal time but pigging out between little snot. At least her appetite is back.

The netball game on Saturday was fun. She took along her puffer for good measure, and despite complaining of a painful tight chest, she managed to play 3 quarters. She would have played a 4th but the coach took her off. Probably just as well too. She had a ball and as the team is a new team, with a lot of beginners, they don't play well at all. But it is great when the opposition come over and tell us that the team was a pleasure to play and how much fun the girls all seem to be having, without being discouraged that the opposition are wiping the floor with them. They care, but they don't let it upset them. They just vow to do better next time. I seriously hope they all play again next year. And they all got a ribbon and a bag of lollies for participating!

So now Him is sick. Yep, lying on the couch all week with a sick kid had to have side effects. Poor baby is really sniffly and clogged up. Coughing too. Throat is not too bad now, but he can't seem to stop his nose running despite medicating himself to the hilt. I feel bad he has to go to work tonight, but he is definately not one to take sickies. I can remember only once in thirteen years he had two nights off with the flu, and that was about twelve years ago!

Well, I am in the office by myself as the boss still hasn't come in, and give the time I will assume he won't be in today. He did have appointments which took him out of the office till after lunch, then he had something else to do, and now it is well after three....

So, I had better get back to work and try to achieve something....

Thursday 4 September 2008

Achoo!

So why do you supposed Winter brings colds and flu? Is it because the air is heavier so air-borne germs find it harder to escape the atmosphere? I mean, the common cold is not actually something caused by getting wet, being cold, or anything like that. It is simply an airborne virus that we come into contact with somewhere and voila! A cold.

Anyway, Jr Her has one. Well, it's a virus of some sort. When I picked her up from OSHC on Monday she was almost asleep in front of the telly. The carers commented she was unusually quiet too. She complained of a headache, feeling dizzy, and an extremely sore throat.

Well, Tuesday she had lost her voice (Yay!). She was very poorly so I kept her home. Him napped in the couch until lunch time, when he took himself off to bed. Her friend Tiny's mum dropped in for a bit after lunch to check on her, and when I came home she was a bit brighter but still unwell.

On Wednesday, she crawled out of bed, made a nest in the lounge and went back to sleep. She napped most of the morning apparently. I finished work after lunch and Him toddled off to bed and I took over. I took her to the doctor later in the afternoon, and she was given a Ventolin puffer and a nasal spray. If she starts coughing up green stuff (her wog has gone into her chest so she is getting a nasty cough now) I have a script for antibiotics for her.

This morning she has said she wants to go back to school, but I feel her bravado is failing a bit, so I have left the decision up to her. I think if she does go she will end up coming home at lunch time anyway...see what happens I guess.

She has her netball final game on Saturday and is determined not to miss that. Fingers crossed, even if she only plays one quarter, she will be well enough to go. Well, she will go anyway, whether she plays or not remains to be seen...